Runaway! — Nancy Means Wright

Her cows gone, Ruth Willmarth takes on goats and foster children, including sixteen-year-old Chance. But birth mother Dahlia kidnaps Chance; Dahlia's former lover is stabbed, her current boyfriend shot -- and thinking she herself did it, Chance is on the run. And Ruth, whom Publishers Weekly has called “a courageous and resilient amateur sleuth,” is in hot pursuit of Chance -- and the bad guys. 6th Ruth Willmarth Mystery by Nancy Means Wright; original publication of Belgrave House