Amish Scarecrow Murders Read online

  Amish Scarecrow Murders

  Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Book 20

  Samantha Price

  Copyright © 2019 by Samantha Price

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  ETTIE SMITH AMISH MYSTERIES

  Also by Samantha Price:

  About Samantha Price

  Chapter 1

  Sunday afternoon dragged slowly for Ettie as she rested in bed with Snowy by her side waiting for Elsa-May to come home from the bi-monthly meeting. It was rare that Ettie didn’t attend one of the gatherings, but in her rush to open Snowy’s dog door to let him out that morning, she’d hurt her back. Now she lay in bed waiting for news of what was happening in the community.

  If there was one thing Ettie disliked it was staying home. But she’d been forced to do just that and, unlike most things that happened, she couldn’t blame it on anyone else.

  She knew Elsa-May had arrived when she heard the front door open and then close at the same time as Snowy scampered away from her bedside.

  “Is that you, Elsa-May?”

  Elsa-May stuck her head around the bedroom doorway. “Who else would it be?”

  It was typical of Elsa-May to answer a question with a question. “Come, sit down and tell me everything. Don’t leave anything out.”

  “Ettie, you’re such a lover of gossip.”

  Ettie chuckled. “You call it that, but I call it finding out what’s going on. You know how I love to be kept up-to-date.”

  Elsa-May smiled and sat down on her bed, and then bent down to lift Snowy onto her lap.

  There was something wrong. Even though her sister’s lips held a smile, Ettie noticed her shoulders were stooped and her eyes were more hooded than normal, as though she was carrying the burden of sad news. “What is it?” Had another of their good friends gone home to God? With both of them over eighty, it was inevitable they’d continue to say goodbye to their friends.

  “I didn’t want to tell you until you felt better, but—”

  Ettie tried to sit up straighter, but yelped instead and held her side covering the pain with her hands.

  “What is it? Your back again?”

  “Yes, forget about that. But what?”

  “Scarecrows. What does that mean to you?”

  Ettie pushed her head into the pillow behind her and then brushed away some silvery strands of hair from her face. “Scarecrows, like the ones in the fields?”

  Elsa-May nodded. “They were the talk of the meeting.”

  “Whatever for?”

  “Cast your mind back several years to the scarecrow murders.”

  “The so-called scarecrow murders were a spate of murders, five of them. The victims were stabbed and stolen scarecrows were placed in their front yards.”

  “Exactly,” Elsa-May said as she stroked Snowy’s white ears. “All the victims had left the Amish, too.”

  “It was never solved. They never found who dunnit.”

  “Who did it.” Elsa-May frowned at her.

  Ettie was used to her sister correcting her in an exacting and superior manner. Of course she knew the proper words, but her way sounded better. Sitting there in pain, she didn’t have the energy to argue. Besides that, she was aching for Elsa-May to get to the point. “That was decades ago. Why are they talking about it now?” Ettie held her breath hoping someone hadn’t been killed. Surely not. “What’s happened?”

  Elsa-May’s thin lips turned down at the corners. “They thought it was someone with a grudge.”

  “Tell me what you know. Why are you nattering on about it?” Ettie tried to push herself higher in the bed again, but the pain shot through her like a knife.

  Elsa-May frowned at her. “You’ll have to go to the hospital.”

  “Nee I won’t, but you might have to if you don’t tell me what’s happened!”

  Elsa-May stared at her with her big blue eyes and blinked a couple of times. “Eli Schaeffer has been killed and a scarecrow was left in his yard.”

  Ettie gasped and held her throat while an image of Eli formed in her mind. “He left us right after he married Kate.”

  “I know.” Elsa-May nodded. “Another man who left the Amish was also killed two weeks ago.”

  “What? You mean to say there are two who’ve been killed?”

  “That’s right.”

  “That’s awful.”

  Elsa-May leaned forward and placed Snowy on the ground. “Two people have been killed in the last two weeks.”

  Ettie clutched the edge of the sheet. “Two in two weeks?”

  “That’s right.” Elsa-May gave a sharp nod.

  Ettie bit her lip. “That’s dreadful.”

  “I know.”

  “Why are we only just learning about this now?”

  “Because we didn’t know the first man who was killed.”

  Ettie cupped her hand under her chin. “He wasn’t once Amish like the others?”

  “He was, but not from around these parts. Two in two weeks.”

  Ettie sighed.

  “I’m taking you to the doctor tomorrow first thing.”

  “Nee. We should go see Detective Kelly.”

  “How, if you can't get out of bed?”

  “I’ll be okay by tomorrow.” If she wasn’t better, she’d do her best act of pretending to have recovered.

  Elsa-May jabbed a finger at Ettie, stopping just short of contact. “If you’re not better tomorrow, I’m taking you to the doctor. You make me go when I’m ill.”

  “I do not.” Ettie figured she should take full advantage of being bed-bound. “I’ve been lying here starving. I’d like some hot soup. Is there any chicken soup left?”

  “How can you be hungry? What happened to the three chicken sandwiches I left you?” Elsa-May’s gaze traveled to the empty plate on Ettie’s nightstand. “Snowy?”

  “Nee it wasn’t him. I ate them. I had them for breakfast, lunch, and also brunch. Now I’d like some dunch please.”

  “What’s dunch?”

  “It’s between dinner and lunch.”

  Elsa-May’s eyebrows pinched together.

  “Brunch is between breakfast and lunch, so dunch must be between lunch and dinner.”

  The two sisters looked at each other and burst into giggles.

  “Would you like that soup with a hot dinner roll for dunch?”

  “I certainly would.”

  “All right, but I don’t know how you can think of food after what I just told you.”

  “The living have to keep living, and I’m starving. Bread with—”

  “Lashings of butter, I know.”

  “That’s right.” When Elsa-May left the room, Ettie settled her head back in her pillow. It was nice to be made a fuss over for a change. Then the image of a scarecrow jumped into her mind. She’d forgotten all about those unsolved murders. What had prompted the killer
to recommence his evil deeds?

  * * *

  The next day, Ettie still hadn’t been able to convince her sister that she was better, so Ettie was dragged to the doctor’s office.

  As they waited, Ettie lifted up a two-day-old newspaper with an article about the scarecrow murders. “Look what’s in here.”

  Elsa-May grabbed the paper and looked at it. “This is it.”

  “Let me read it.” Elsa-May passed it back and Ettie read the article in full. “After we’re finished here, I can’t wait to see what Kelly knows.”

  “He won’t tell us anything. He hasn’t come to us this time.”

  “I don’t know why since it involves our community.” Ettie smiled. “Let’s save him the trip.”

  Slowly, Elsa-May nodded. “I suppose we could.”

  Ettie tilted her head to one side. “Do you think it’s the same killer?”

  Elsa-May shrugged her shoulders. “Who would know? These might be totally unconnected with the other ones. Hmm, with the old killings, people who left our community were killed. Perhaps that’s why we haven’t seen Kelly. Maybe he already knows who the killer is and he’s following him or collecting evidence ready for an arrest.”

  “Anything is possible.” Ettie placed the newspaper back on the table with all the others. “Kelly wouldn’t have been old enough to be working back then. What about our old friend Detective Crowley?”

  Elsa-May shook her head. “Not old enough either.”

  “I would’ve thought he would’ve been. Either way, it doesn’t matter. We’ll still visit Kelly. It’ll give us an excuse to ask him some things.”

  Elsa-May shook her head. “I’m sorry I ever mentioned it to you.”

  “Too late. Anyway, I would’ve found out when I got here.” Ettie took hold of the newspaper again and held it up. “It’s here in black and white.”

  “Mrs. Smith,” the doctor called out through a barely opened door.

  “Off you go. And make sure you tell him exactly what’s wrong with you,” Elsa-May hissed before she stood to help Ettie to her feet.

  * * *

  Ettie came out of the doctor’s office fifteen minutes later, walking with the aid of a walking stick. Elsa-May was fast asleep, her mouth open, with a glossy-paged women’s magazine spread open on her lap. Ettie walked closer and poked Elsa-May in her side with the end of her stick. Elsa-May jumped and looked about while the magazine toppled to the floor.

  When she saw Ettie, she frowned and looked down her nose at the offending walking stick, before she looked into Ettie’s face to give a stern glare. “What did he say?”

  “I’ve got a strained muscle, which will come good by itself if I don’t do anything silly.” Ettie rubbed her chin. “Not that I did anything silly in the first place. I was just bending down to let Snowy outside.”

  Elsa-May picked up the magazine and placed it on the table beside her. She curled her lip as she looked at the walking stick. “What’s that for?”

  “It’ll take the strain while I’m recovering. It’s come in handy already.” Ettie chuckled.

  “It’s not meant as a weapon, Ettie. Poke me again and I’ll snap it in half.”

  Ettie looked down at the stick wondering how strong it was.

  “What else did he say?”

  “Not much.” Ettie kept it to herself that he suggested she have physical therapy and that there was talk of having that therapy in a swimming pool. She’d told him she wouldn’t, so he gave her some exercises to do daily and advised her to use a walking aid at all times—another thing she wouldn’t do, although she was pleased at how beautifully the carver had exposed and highlighted the grain in this wooden stick. She found it ever so much more attractive than the canes one usually saw.

  “You won’t get better if you don’t—”

  “Of course I will. I’ll get better on my own. You watch.”

  Elsa-May rolled her eyes. “Let’s go home,” she said as she rose to her feet. “I was going to say, if you don’t rest.”

  Ettie leaned on her walking stick, her beady eyes fixed on her older sister. “Nee. You want me to go home, and I’m not going to.” She took a step closer and whispered, “I’ve got to find out more about these scarecrows. Don’t you want to know too, or did you forget where our next destination was? We agreed we’d see Detective Kelly.”

  Elsa-May sighed. “I meant, let’s go. I didn’t mean to say let’s go home. It’s a habit.”

  “Why didn’t you just say that?”

  “I’m not particularly looking forward to it and would rather not go. There, I’ve said it.”

  “I’m going to see Kelly whether you come with me or not. That was what we already decided.” Ettie headed to the door, her black boots and her stick clicking across the highly polished wooden floorboards of the waiting area.

  “Wait up. I’ll come.” Elsa-May moved more swiftly than Ettie to open the door for her. “The police station is only three blocks away. Can you walk that far? Or should I go back inside and ask them to call for a taxi?”

  “Nee. It’s too short a distance for a taxi. I can make it if we go slow.”

  They started walking and then Elsa-May looked down at the walking stick. “Did you buy that or did you rent it?”

  “I borrowed it.”

  “For free?”

  Ettie glanced at Elsa-May. “He said I needed a walking stick and then he pointed to the one by the door and said, 'like that one.'”

  “So, you just took it?”

  “Jah. On my way out.”

  “Ach, Ettie. You can’t just take something.”

  “I didn’t just take it. He said I needed it.” Ettie replayed the moment in her head. Had he meant her to take it, or not?

  “Jah, but there would’ve been some fee or something. They normally rent those things out.”

  “What?” Ettie frowned and looked down at the object. “It’s just a stick. I could’ve grabbed a tree branch and made my own.”

  “Jah, but you didn’t. Did he see you take it?”

  It was horrifying to Ettie to think she might’ve accidentally stolen something. “I don’t know. I think he was looking at his computer when I walked out.”

  “Walked out with his walking stick.” Elsa-May shook her head.

  “I didn’t know, Elsa-May.”

  Elsa-May sighed.

  “I’ll take it back next time I go and then I’ll pay for it.”

  Shaking her head, Elsa-May said, “That’s if they don’t file a police report about you by then. You’re a thief, a robber, a burglar. I only hope it wasn’t the doctor’s own personal property.”

  “He’s never used one before, but he did stay seated the whole time.”

  “Jah, and he didn’t walk out the door to call your name like he usually does. It wonders me how you just took it like that. That makes you a thief.”

  Ettie sighed. “It made sense at the time. Shall I—?”

  “Nee.” Elsa-May shook her head once more.

  “But …”

  “Let’s just put the incident behind us for now and continue on our way as we hope and pray the doctor has a spare.”

  Ettie was happy to do just that, for now, if it was possible for Elsa-May to stop talking about it and calling her accusatory names.

  Chapter 2

  Selena Lehman pressed a button to roll down her car window, and then she sat looking longingly at the house where her Amish grandfather once lived. Now, it belonged to her, thanks to the efforts of her ex-fiancé who had petitioned the court on her behalf. Her grandfather left it to Selena in his will. It was to be looked after by a caretaker until Selena was either thirty-years of age, or married. She was neither of those things just yet, but the house was legally hers thanks to that bit of legal wrangling.

  She’d only been through the house once since her grandfather died. Right after he died and without her knowledge, the caretaker had taken the liberty to lease the house to the Kings. They were a nice Amish couple with a
multitude of children.

  Knowing Selena wanted to move in, the Kings had tried hard to find alternate accommodation. They thought they’d been successful, but the prospective landlord had refused them when he’d learned about the one additional child that was soon to arrive.

  Selena shook her head in dismay figuring they’d never move out, and she’d never get to live in her grandfather’s house. She’d never ask them to move out knowing they had nowhere to go.

  The rental amount the Kings paid was modest, a mere token, but they looked after the place well and the expenses were covered.

  Thinking the house would be vacated by the time she arrived, Selena had sublet her city apartment. That left her homeless until Gabriel Yoder, the caretaker of her house, had come to her rescue with a place to stay—his place. He informed her it would be empty because he was moving to a house he’d bought next to Ettie and Elsa-May, the two elderly ladies she’d met on her last visit.

  It’s a temporary measure that’ll work out best for both of us, Gabriel had said, referring to her staying at his house. When the Kings move out, you can move in there. He made it sound like she’d be doing him a favor by living in his house.

  She was grateful, but doubted he had a good reason to move out. That was why she had to find something more permanent and find it quickly. There was no doubt in her mind that Gabriel was in love with her and had been since the moment they’d met. It was unnerving, but at the same time, she couldn’t deny that she liked him.

  The trouble was, she was only used to men who were different from Gabriel—more corporate types like her ex. Perhaps that was why her relationships had never lasted. Maybe God was behind her, pushing her to live here to rub shoulders with the Amish and learn more of her roots. She’d asked herself more than once if she might one day join the community.