Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 3 Page 15
"We used to live on farms with our families,” Ettie responded.
"But not a lot of Amish people live on farms any longer. A fair number still do, but they’re being forced out due to the high price of the land,” Elsa-May said.
He nodded. “Yes, the land prices keep going up and up.”
"Come inside. Would you like a cup of tea?"
"Yes, good, thank you. Do you have any coffee?"
"Yes, we do. How do you have it?"
“Just black, no sugar.” He looked at the chair he was just about to sit on. “I’ve been looking for chairs like these. You don’t want to sell them, do you?”
"You like them?" Elsa-May asked.
"I do, very much so. They have such craftsmanship." He ran his fingertips lightly over the carved backs.
“They’re very old.”
Ettie smiled. Now was the chance to get rid of the old chairs and buy some decent ones. “Well over one hundred years,” Ettie added with enthusiasm. “We could probably part with them to a good home–to someone who appreciated them.”
“We couldn’t possibly part with them. They’ve been handed down in the family.”
“That’s a shame,” he said before he sat down. “A shame for me.” He laughed.
Elsa-May stared at him for a moment before she disappeared into the kitchen to get him some coffee.
"How are things going with Dustin's case?" Florence asked.
"I'm still working on the case bit by bit. Do you have any other information?"
“No, we don’t,” Florence said looking grim.
Ettie wasn’t listening. She was thinking of a way to get Elsa-May to agree to him taking the chairs away with him.
“Are you okay, Ettie?” Florence asked.
“Oh, I was just lost in thought. What were you saying?”
“Mr. Cartwright was just asking for the letters. You put them in a safe place?”
“Yes, I’ll get them.” As she pushed herself to her feet, she said to the lawyer, “Detective Kelly has asked if you’d fax the letters to him.”
“I can do that.”
“Good.” Ettie made her way to the kitchen.
“Are you here to help with the coffee?”
“Nee! I’m looking for those letters. I hid them in the cookie jar.” Ettie unscrewed the jar. “Don’t you think we should get rid of those old chairs and update the place? You’ve got to admit they’re not comfortable.”
“Nee, I like them. We don’t sit on them.”
“They aren’t comfortable for our guests.”
“I like to look at them. It reminds me of happy times when we used to go to Grossmammi’s haus.”
“Jah, they were in the dining room, not in the living room.”
“What’s the difference? Chairs are still chairs.”
Ettie shook her head. She had to think fast while they had someone under their roof who liked the dreadful chairs. “Well, he mentioned buying them. We should at least ask how much he’d be willing to pay. Don’t you think?”
Elsa-May turned and stared at Ettie with her mouth open. “You want to sell my memories.”
“I do. Depending on how much.”
“You’re dreadful, Ettie.”
“You are.”
“Nee, you are! I’m not selling those lovely chairs. I don’t see why you don’t like them.”
“You’re so stubborn.” Ettie knew she was going about this all wrong, but couldn’t think of any other approach that might work.
“You’re the stubborn one!”
“They’ll collapse on someone and then you’ll feel bad.” Ettie pulled the letters out of the cookie jar and stomped out of the room leaving the lid off the jar.
“Here are both of the letters.” Ettie handed the letters to the lawyer.
“Thank you.” He put them in his inner coat pocket.
“Aren’t you going to look at them?”
“No, not right away. I’ll do that tomorrow. I try to switch off when I leave work. If I look at them now, my mind will race and I’ll have trouble sleeping tonight. It takes me some time to wind down after a day’s work.”
Ettie nodded, wondering how he could resist looking at them. What if they’d given him the wrong letters? Wouldn’t he want to check on that, at least?
Chapter 12
As Ettie drifted off to sleep that night, she kept rethinking everything she’d learned over the past days.
It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Morrie’s brother and his wife had visited Florence on the exact two days of those shootings. It sounded like Reginald had taken the gun and then placed it back under her bed. And with Linda there to distract Florence, it wouldn’t have been a hard thing to do.
It was a good thing that Ava found out about that library book that Allissa had borrowed directly after Dustin, but the DNA was found under her fingernails. Would that have been possible just by touching the same book? It seemed unlikely to Ettie.
The police had dropped suspicion of Allissa’s violent boyfriend as soon as Dustin’s DNA had been found. Another trip to the computer library to use the Internet was necessary to find out exactly where and when Allissa’s body was found. No one had mentioned alibis. She knew Allissa’s body was found on campus somewhere, but where? What was Allissa’s boyfriend’s alibi—did he have one? And what about Dustin?
It seemed like the police had targeted Dustin from the start, so they must’ve had a tip-off to ask for his DNA and search his car. From the way the police had acted, it certainly seemed like Dustin had been framed.
Ettie didn’t want to get her sisters involved and decided she would slip away, and with Ava’s help, gather more information.
The next morning, Ettie staggered out of the bedroom only half awake.
“Did you have a good sleep, Ettie?”
“Jah, I did, denke. How was yours?”
“Not too bad. The couch is quite passable, but of course, the bed is better.”
“You can have it tonight,” Ettie said. “Would you like some scrambled eggs?”
“Jah, I would.”
“Me too please, Ettie.”
Ettie turned to see Elsa-May walk into the kitchen.
“Have you already been for a walk?”
“Nee, we’ll go after breakfast.”
“I thought I might head into town today to run some errands.”
“What kind of errands?” Elsa-May asked.
“Just go to the post office to buy some stamps, and things like that.”
“Okay, that sounds gut. Florence and I will stay here in case the detective gets an update on anything.”
“Oh, do you think he will?” Florence asked excitedly.
“He very often calls in on us when he has news,” Ettie added.
“I hope he does, and soon. I can’t believe those people were visiting me to use my gun.” Florence shuddered. “It gives me shivers all over.”
“It seems that’s exactly what they did. What did they talk about while they were there?”
“They talked about the old days. Reginald helped out with sound equipment. He came on tour with us. He was our—I forget the word for it now—the person who carries and sets up all the equipment. Anyway, that’s what he was.”
Ettie cracked eggs and then whisked them while listening to Florence talk about the old days when she was in love with Morrie. It was interesting to hear what they got up to since Ettie had always been in the community. She wondered if Florence’s life was similar to the two of her daughters who had left the community.
After breakfast when Elsa-May came back from her walk, Ettie made her excuses to leave.
With Florence still in the kitchen, Elsa-May took hold of Ettie’s sleeve just as she was heading out the door. “I know what you’re doing.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re seeing what else you can find out.”
“I didn’t want Florence to be involved.”
Elsa-May chuckled. “It’ll be easi
er for you to do things alone. I’ll keep her occupied, but only if you tell me what you find out when you get back.”
“Of course I will. Denke for the help.”
Ettie headed out the door, pleased that Elsa-May would keep Florence out of the way.
Once Ettie was down the road, she called Ava from the shanty and arranged to meet her at the library.
“Where are Elsa-May and Florence?"
"I thought it would be better if they stayed at home."
"Why?"
"Detective Kelly wasn't very nice when he knew you went to Dustin’s college and asked questions."
“I suppose he wouldn't be."
"It's not his case. He said he’s helping. Florence is convinced that her old boyfriend went to jail for a murder he didn't do."
"That would be dreadful if that’s true."
Ettie told Ava about the letters and about the people who visited Florence on the same days the murders took place.
"Firstly, I need you to find out about Allissa’s murder. Where it happened and if Dustin had an alibi. Then there was the jealous boyfriend—did he have an alibi?”
Ava asked, “What about Dustin’s brother?”
“I forgot about him. Kelly said he disappeared, or maybe it was the lawyer who told me that. At any rate, the brother has gone and no one knows where he is.”
“That seems odd.”
“It does, especially when his brother’s in jail—his twin brother. Surely he’d want to stick around and help.”
“You’d think so. I’ll write out a list. You want me to find out exactly where she was murdered and you want me to see what I can learn about Dustin’s brother. What else?”
“Alibis. Did Dustin or Allissa’s boyfriend have alibis?”
Ava said, “I don’t know if I could find that out. Wouldn’t that be in the police records?”
“Jah, but Kelly is being all funny about us being involved. He was very upset when he found out you’d been asking questions at the college. So I’d think he wouldn’t want to tell us anything.”
“I’ll do what I can, Ettie, but there’s only so much I can do.”
“You can only do what you can do. Come over to the house later and let me know what you’ve found out.”
“Okay, I will.”
“Denke, Ava.”
Chapter 13
Later that day, there was a knock on the door and Ettie opened it to see Ava. She stepped back to let her inside. "Ava, come in, come in. What did you find out?"
Elsa-May came out of the kitchen. "It's nice to see you, Ava. Come through to the kitchen. We’re just having a cup of tea."
Ava followed them into the kitchen.
Once they were all seated, Ettie spoke to her two sisters. “I asked Ava to see what else she could find out for me."
Florence’s eyes opened wide. “And did you find out anything, Ava?"
"Not much. I heard that Allissa’s boyfriend paid someone to say that he was with him at the time of the murder, but that could be just a rumor."
"It could be," Ettie agreed.
“Did you get a name, Ava?” Elsa-May asked.
"Jah, I wrote the name down. Oh, I left my notebook in the buggy. Do you want me to get it?"
“Nee, it won’t mean anything to us. We’ll have to find out if the police know what you’ve just told us.”
“Did you find anything else out?" Ettie asked.
"That's all."
"I don't know what else we can do. I suppose we have to leave it up to the police.
At least he's got a good lawyer," Elsa-May said placing a cup of tea in front of Ava.
"Denke, Elsa-May."
Florence stared into the hot coffee before her.
"What if we think about what we know so far?" Ava suggested.
"Jah. Well, what do we know?" Florence asked.
"We know for certain that your friends visited each time the gun was used, Florence."
"But we don't know for certain that that's the same gun," Elsa-May said.
“Oh, Elsa-May, I know for certain that it’s the same gun." Florence scoffed.
“Gut!” Ava said.
Ettie said, “Let’s start there. It sounds to me like it was Reginald who used the gun and then put it back later in the day after he’d used it."
Elsa-May said, "All right. Is everyone in agreement with that?"
Everyone nodded.
Ettie continued, "And if that’s true, that means his wife was aware of what he was doing because she would've had to keep Florence busy while her husband used the gun."
Florence nodded. “That's true."
Elsa-May said, "I know what you're about to say next, Ettie. You're going to say why don't we pay them a visit?"
"We could, but Florence doesn't know where they live."
"I could get their address. If you know their names and the region they live my friend from DMV can get it,” Ava suggested.
"You don't have to do that. I have their address," Florence said.
Ettie and Elsa-May stared open mouthed at their sister.
"But you told us you didn't know where they lived.”
"I didn't want to tell the police because I didn't want to get them into trouble."
"I think they're in trouble right now. You’ve told the detective about them. They would’ve been tracked down and most likely already questioned,” Ettie said.
"When shall we go?" Florence asked.
"Where do they live?" Ava asked.
Florence told Ava the address.
Ettie leaned forward. “And how would we get there?”
"Either by train or by bus," Ava said.
"Do you think we should? That detective friend of yours got awfully angry with you two," Florence said.
"Do you want to help Dustin or not?" Elsa-May asked.
"Of course, I want to help him."
Ava said, “Are you sure you want to do this? If they've killed two people already, we can't go around and just simply ask them if they murdered people. How is this going to work—what’s the plan? I don't want to get killed?"
"If you're nervous about it, Ava, you don't have to come with us."
"I think I do. I have to keep an eye on you two."
Florence giggled. “That rhymes—I do, I’ll have to keep an eye on you two."
When everyone looked at her stony-faced, Florence stopped laughing and straightened up clearing her throat.
Then, Ava drummed her fingers on the kitchen table. “Wilmington! I’ll have to find the best way to get there.”
“Linda told me it’s a little over an hour by car.”
“Well, we don’t have a car,” Ettie said.
“We could have Detective Kelly drive us,” Elsa-May said.
Ettie scoffed. “He wouldn’t do that in a million years. And besides that, he’ll be angry that Florence lied to him.”
“Did I lie? I think it wasn’t a lie. I just didn’t offer up the address,” Florence said. “I don’t like to think that I lied about anything.”
“What about old Detective Crowley? Last time we needed a car, he drove us,” Elsa-May said.
“Nee, he offered to drive us. We can’t call him and ask him to drive us somewhere when we haven’t seen him lately. That’d be rude,” Ettie said.
Ava nodded. “That’s true.”
“Then what?” Elsa-May asked.
“I’ve got a friend who might drive us,” Ava said.
"Are you certain your friend would be willing to do that?" Ettie peered at Ava.
"I don't see why not. She's out of work at the moment and she was complaining about being bored."
"That might work. Of course we would pay for the gas," Elsa-May said.
"I can call her right now and ask." Ava looked around at all three sisters, who nodded. "When were you thinking of going?" Ava asked.
"How about tomorrow?" Florence suggested.
"The sooner, the better," Elsa-May said while Ettie nodded in agreement.
"Denke, Ava," Ettie said.
When Ava had left the house, Florence said, "I do hope we’re doing the right thing."
Ettie stared at her sister. Now wasn't the time to be doubtful. "What are you thinking?"
Florence nibbled on a fingernail. "What if they burned my house down and killed those two people in the holdups?"
“They’re your friends, Florence,” Elsa-May said. “Do you think they'd be capable of something like that?"
“I don't know them that well."
"But you knew them well enough for them to visit you over the years."
Florence slumped down further in her chair. "I feel I don't know much about anything any more.”
Elsa-May frowned at her sister and so did Ettie when she heard Florence's croaky voice.
Then tears formed in Florence’s eyes. “Do you know what an awful feeling it was to come back home and find I had no home left?"
"I imagine it would've been an awful feeling," Elsa-May said.
"It’s the worst feeling I've ever had in my life. The house was full of memories, full of all my clothes, and all my possessions. Everything I'd ever owned was destroyed. All I owned were the clothes I stood in—and the barn.”
Ettie felt bad now about being so prickly over giving up her bed every second night. She had a comfortable home and her sister had nothing.
"Did one of your daughters make you new clothes?" Elsa-May asked.
"Jah, and I had things given to me. But you know I've always been independent. I like to be the one doing the giving to others and not the other way around."
"You can stay here as long as you like," Ettie said.
Florence shook her head. "Denke for the offer, but I won’t stay here too long. Your house is far too tiny. I'll have mine rebuilt soon and then I'll be out from under your feet."
"You're not under our feet, Florence," Elsa-May insisted.
"I appreciate you both having me here. You two have always gotten along the best out of all of us sisters. I’ve often felt excluded by the both of you."
"I don't know about that," Ettie said.
"Nee," Elsa-May said to agree with Ettie. "It's just that our husbands died at roughly the same times and we sold our big farms at about the same time too."