Plain as Day

By Laura Bradford

Laura Bradford is the national bestselling author of the Amish Mysteries, the Jenkins & Burns Mysteries, the Emergency Dessert Squad Mysteries, the Tobi Tobias Mysteries, and the Southern Sewing Circle Mysteries (written as Elizabeth Lynn Casey). Portrait of a Sister, her new women’s fiction novel, will be available in June. Laura is a former Agatha nominee and the recipient of an RT Reviewer’s Choice Award in romance. In her free time, Laura enjoys making memories with her family, baking, and being an advocate for those living with multiple sclerosis. For more information and all the latest book news, visit her website.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beyond the Page Publishing
• Release date: Mar 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9781946069467

Laura Bradford

Laura Bradford has spent much of her life moving around. After stints in New Jersey, Connecticut, Ohio, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, and Missouri, she's finally settled in a quiet suburb of New York City with her daughters. A graduate of Xavier University in Cincinnati, Laura worked as a newspaper reporter and freelance business writer before delving head first into her first love--fiction. Today, Laura writes both romance and mysteries.

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Cover

Plain as Day

The national bestselling author of A Churn for the Worse returns to the Amish community of Heavenly, Pennsylvania, where shop owner Claire Weatherly must unravel the perplexing ties between a lost piece of jewelry and the disappearance of a cherished author.

When a mysterious rattling sound confounds the guests at Heavenly’s local inn, Detective Jakob Fisher steps in and cleverly deduces the noise’s source. But the necklace he discovers sparks an even larger mystery when Claire realizes it’s connected to the writing of a popular author who’s vanished and left her fans clamoring for a new book.

Determined to track down the necklace’s owner, Claire vows to follow the clues wherever they lead—even if it means finding someone who might not want to be found . . .

Title Page

Copyright

Plain as Day

Laura Bradford

Copyright © 2018 by Laura Bradford

Material excerpted from Portrait of a Sister copyright © 2018 by Laura Bradford

Cover design and illustration by Dar Albert, Wicked Smart Designs

Published by Beyond the Page at Smashwords

Beyond the Page Books

are published by

Beyond the Page Publishing

www.beyondthepagepub.com

ISBN: 978-1-946069-46-7

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Contents

Plain as Day

Excerpt from Portrait of a Sister

The Amish Mystery Series

Books by Laura Bradford

About the Author

Plain as Day

The whoosh of the cushion was a near-perfect match to the whoosh of her breath as Claire Weatherly sank onto the porch swing and fixed her gaze on the Amish countryside in the distance, the peace and tranquility she found there promptly working its magic across every fiber of her thoroughly exhausted being.

You look like you could use a cookie, dear.

Mustering every ounce of energy she had left, Claire turned and smiled at the sixty-two-year-old woman peering back at her through the screen door with a plate of cookies in one hand and a glass of what looked to be cold cider in the other. Any chance that cookie might come with a cot and a pillow?

No, but your bed isn’t much more than twenty steps past me. Diane hooked her thumb in the direction of the staircase. And I’d make sure to hand you a cookie as you went . . .

As tempting as the thought was, Claire instead waved her aunt Diane over to the empty spot beside her on the swing. No. Come sit. Having you here next to me while I eat one of those cookies will complete the image I’ve been using as my carrot since about ten o’clock this morning.

Diane pushed the door open and stepped onto the front porch, her thick-soled shoes making barely a sound as she closed the gap between them. Was there a problem at the shop today?

The best kind. Claire thrust her body forward, plucked a still-warm cookie from the plate her aunt held out, and happily bit into the chocolate goodness that was her aunt’s homemade recipe. In fact, with the exception of a bathroom break for Annie and a phone call that came in for me from Valerie Palermo, Annie and I were helping customers from the moment we opened until the moment we closed.

Oh, Claire, that’s wonderful! Diane lowered herself onto the cushion beside Claire and set the cookie plate atop her lap. I saw a few tour buses go by shortly after you left this morning and hoped that would translate to a good sales day.

"It translated to a fabulous sales day, she said, stretching her now-empty hands above her head before letting them fall back to her lap via a second stop at the cookie plate. But as fabulous as it was, I wasn’t kidding when I mentioned that cot a few minutes ago. I’m spent. Completely and utterly spent."

"Then take the night off. I know I’m going to."

Claire stopped chewing long enough to laugh. "As if that would ever happen . . ."

It is. Diane held the plate in front of Claire, and when the final cookie was removed, she set it down on the tiny table beside the swing. The Jergens in room three are going out to eat this evening, and the Thompsons in room four insisted they are full from lunch and are opting to go for a walk instead. Though now that I’m saying that, I don’t think they’ve left yet.

Toeing the swing to a stop, Claire stared at her aunt. "Wait. You’re serious? We don’t have to worry about dinner tonight?"

That’s right. Unless you count us. But even with that, I’ll take care of—

Soup. Let’s just have soup. Claire pulled her foot off the ground and let the swing resume its earlier, almost hypnotic pace. "The can opener is electric after all."

Diane’s answering laugh gave way to a kiss on Claire’s cheek. You’re not even quite half my age, dear. You’re supposed to have significantly more energy than I do.

Considering you have more energy than a freshly napped two-year-old, I say that’s an unfair comparison. Movement out of the corner of her eye sent her attention toward the road and the familiar black sedan making its way up the inn’s driveway. Like clockwork, she felt her lips spread into a smile as she accepted a napkin from Diane and used it to rid her hands of any residual cookie crumbs. I didn’t know Jakob was stopping by, did you?

Considering you’re here and the workday is over . . . Diane stopped the swing, plucked the empty cookie