Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 6 Page 20

“It's mainly geared toward tourists. We sell quilts and other Amish handicrafts. “

  “That sounds nice.”

  “Does it?”

  “Yes.” She was just trying to be polite. She didn’t really care either way what he did; she was curious about how he was always available. “Can we please go in my car today?”

  “Okay.” He nodded.

  “It's perfectly safe. I'm a good driver.”

  He stood and took his plate over to the sink and ran water over it. “How are we doing for time?”

  “A lot better now that we can drive rather than take the buggy.”

  “Good. I’ll just wash these dishes.”

  She rose to her feet. “I’ll dry.”

  “No, sit down. It won’t take a moment.”

  “I don’t mind at all.” She saw a tea towel on one side of the counter and took hold of it.

  “I think that frying pan needs to be soaked for a few days.” He picked it up and looked in it.

  “I’d say so. Soak it with loads of detergent, and then you might need to scrape the black off it.” Selena wondered why he’d never married, but wasn’t in the mood to hear any sad stories. She was certain he’d have a few. He probably scared women off with his enthusiasm.

  Once they’d done the small amount of washing up, they headed out to her car.

  “I’m not worried about going in the car.”

  She smiled at him as she clipped her seatbelt. “Put your seatbelt on.”

  He did what he was told. “I'm sure you're a good driver. I'm sure you’re good at everything you do, like cooking.”

  “I try to be.” She started the engine.

  “I hope your fiancé appreciates you.”

  “He does.”

  “He’d be a foolish man if he didn't.”

  As she fixed her eyes on the road ahead, she wondered if Eugene did appreciate her as much as he could. “You have to direct me.”

  “Soon, you’ll need to take a right turn.”

  Chapter 16

  Ettie and Elsa-May had just settled down with their knitting for the day.

  “I do hope we see Selena again today.”

  “We might not. She was dreadfully upset over her mother’s actions.”

  Ettie nodded. “That’s in the past.”

  “Not to her. She only just found out about it.”

  Ettie jumped when there was a knock on their front door. She’d gone back to sitting on the more comfortable couch rather than the chair where she could see out the window.

  “Who could that be?” Elsa-May asked looking at Ettie.

  Ettie smiled. That was her sister’s way of asking her if she would answer the door. “It could be a lot of people.” Ettie left her knitting on the couch, pushed herself to her feet and walked to the door. She hoped it would be Selena and Gabriel, although she hadn’t heard the clip-clopping of horse’s hooves on the road. “Oh, Detective Kelly. Come right in.”

  “Hello, Mrs. Smith. Since your visit, I checked into some things and came up with some interesting scenarios. I hope you don’t mind, but I have Selena Lehman coming here at eleven. I just wasn’t sure what she knows and doesn’t know.”

  “It didn't seem right to keep things from her. She figured out her mother was having a relationship with Wayne.” Snowy ran at Kelly, and Ettie scooped him up just in time. “Take a seat. I’ll put Snowy outside.”

  Kelly had only just sat down when Ettie looked out the window to see a black car stopping outside her house with Gabriel in the passenger seat.

  Soon, everyone was seated, and Kelly began, “Selena, I may be barking up the wrong tree here and I hope I don’t offend you or your mother, but ...”

  “What is it?”

  “Mrs. Smith tells me you’re aware of the relationship your mother was having with Wayne Robinson. Now if you look at the timeline of events, you were born six months after your mother relocated to New York and from the evidence I found, it doesn’t seem like they met beforehand, but I suppose it’s possible. If I had to take a guess, I’d say she married Mr. Lehman because she knew she was pregnant.”

  It was as Ettie feared. She’d sneaked a look at Selena’s driver’s license that time when the young woman had taken her phone to call her mother, leaving everyone else—and her bag—in the buggy. Her date of birth fit into things just as Kelly had said.

  “No. I know what you’re thinking and you’ve got it all wrong. My father was Frederick Lehman.”

  Kelly raised his hands. “Okay, I’m very sorry. Forgive me for what I said.”

  “That’s what I was told. I know my mother married him after I was born. I was a few weeks old, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t my real father.”

  Kelly nodded.

  Selena’s hand flew to her mouth. “Do you have any evidence other than the dates?”

  “Frederick Lehman worked for a government firm and was there every day. He took his vacation days the day before your mother arrived in New York, so it seems he met her while he was on vacation and they must’ve quickly hit it off.” He shook his head. “From the evidence of the timeline, it seems unlikely he was your biological father.”

  “I can’t believe it.”

  “I’m not saying it’s true. It might be true and it might not be, but I'm pretty certain that might be why she left the community when she did. Maybe Wayne didn't come to the party, so to speak, regarding his paternal responsibility and, in a rage, she ran him down.”

  “No!” Selena snapped. “There’s no proof of that.”

  Kelly shook his head. “No, but you asked me to look into things and this is what I found.”

  Selena put her hand to her forehead, feeling an instant migraine coming.

  “We didn't hear rumors of any kind at the time, did we, Elsa-May?”

  Elsa-May shook her head vigorously. “I didn't hear a word about it. Although, I don't think that would be something she’d have gone around telling people and if she was about to leave the community, she certainly wouldn't have confided in anyone in the community.”

  “I just thought it was something you should know. I’ll leave that information with you.”

  Selena leaped to her feet. “Why would you drop a bombshell like this on me?” Tears streamed down her face and she ran outside, crying.

  Kelly’s mouth dropped open. “I didn’t mean to upset her.”

  Elsa-May shook her head so much her bottom lip wobbled. Then she set her gaze on Kelly. “How did you think she would take news like that?”

  “I do think you should only tell her something like that if you know it’s a certainty,” said Ettie.

  “It would be hard news for anyone to hear,” Elsa-May said.

  “The worst of it is …” Gabriel jumped to his feet. “You can’t tell her one way or the other whether she’s Wayne’s daughter. You’ve thrown her whole life into doubt. I’ll go after her.”

  “I’m sorry,” Kelly said. “Tact has never been my strong point. I saw the dates and …”

  “The damage is done now.” Elsa-May shook her head once more.

  “I just wanted to lay everything out on the table. If her mother was carrying Wayne’s child, that establishes a motive for her mother.”

  Ettie nodded. “True, but all Selena was doing was trying to clear her grandfather’s name. It’s just a lot for her to take in. She knew her mother was in a relationship with him, but didn’t think about the possibility of being a product of that relationship.”

  Elsa-May said, “We thought all along Abner was protecting someone. It makes sense that what you just said is true, Detective Kelly.”

  He finally looked up and rubbed his forehead. “I agree. And Ms. Lehman could request DNA testing from Wayne's brother if she wants to know the truth.”

  Ettie could see that Kelly was genuinely upset from the reaction he'd gotten from Selena.

  Selena had walked down as far as the corner of the road.

  “Wait up, Selena.”

  She wiped her
eyes and then stopped and waited for Gabriel.

  “I’m sorry you had to hear that news like that,” he said.

  “It can’t be true.”

  “It might not be.”

  “My father was Frederick.” Her whole world was ordered by who her parents were. If what the detective said was true and her father was Wayne, she wouldn’t know who she was. All she knew about Wayne was that he did odd jobs for people, possibly stole alpacas, and was a ladies’ man. That would mean he didn’t care about her mother, or her. She searched her mind for any clue to Frederick not being her real father and couldn’t come up with a thing. Then there was the evidence Kelly had just presented, and it had to be considered, but her mother and Frederick could’ve met each other before she moved to New York.

  She sobbed, and he put his arm around her shoulders. “It’ll be okay. It’s all a shock. Why don’t you call your mother and ask her?”

  “I couldn’t. I couldn’t ask her something like that.” She was grateful that Gabriel had come out of the house to see if she was okay. Blinking back tears, she looked back at the house. “We should go back.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “No.”

  “Take a couple of deep breaths. You came to learn the truth, right?”

  “No, I only came here to look at the house and have some time to myself. I didn’t come for this nightmare.”

  “Another thing we should tell you is that we found out that Wayne was blackmailing someone,” Ettie told Kelly.

  Elsa-May added, “It might not be true, but that’s what we heard.”

  “Who was he blackmailing?”

  “All we know is that it was a man. And some man was angry with him, and they could’ve been one and the same. Or maybe not.”

  “Hmm. That doesn’t really give me much to go on.”

  When Selena and Gabriel walked back into the house, Kelly bounded to his feet. “I’m so sorry to blurt out what I did.”

  “It’s okay. I said I wanted to find out the truth, and I’m probably getting closer to it.” Selena sat back down next to Ettie, and Gabriel sat on the chair closest to Selena.

  “Is there anything else you need to tell me, Detective Kelly?” Selena asked.

  “What did Frederick Lehman and Wayne Robinson have in common?” Kelly asked.

  “My mother, I guess.”

  “In that case, is it possible that Wayne was blackmailing your father about something? Something to do with your mother?”

  “Wayne was blackmailing someone?” Selena asked.

  “Yes, we believe he was,” Elsa-May said. “Remember when we spoke with Jill, she told us she'd heard talk about it.”

  “I wasn’t aware they knew each other. I suppose we could guess a thousand different scenarios, but how would we know which one was the right one?” Selena shook her head. “I’m going to call my mother and ask her for the truth.”

  Kelly slowly nodded. She took her cell phone and walked out of the house and leaned against their fence. Her mother answered quickly. “Mom, I’ve been looking into things as you know and I have a question and I need the complete truth.”

  “I always tell you the truth.”

  Selena took a deep breath. “Who is my real father? My birth father?” When there was silence from the other end of the line, she knew. “Mother?”

  “You know who he was.”

  “He was Wayne Robinson?”

  Again, there was silence until a croaky voice said, “It’s true.”

  Selena was lost for words, and couldn’t speak. Her whole life had been a lie, a sham. She made the mental effort to hold herself together. “Was Wayne blackmailing Frederick?”

  “What for?”

  “Answer please, Mother.”

  “This whole thing is making me upset. I’ll have to go.”

  Selena’s birth certificate had named Frederick as her father. Feeling sick to her stomach she walked back inside. “My mother confirmed what you said. It is true,” she said to Kelly before she sat down. “My father … the man I thought was my father has passed away, and Wayne Robinson is dead too.”

  Elsa-May shook her head. “That makes things extremely difficult to find out the truth.”

  Ettie glared at Elsa-May for being so insensitive.

  “It does,” Elsa-May said to Ettie. “It makes it hard to find out the truth when everyone’s dead.”

  “Not everyone,” Kelly said. “I’ll be following up a few leads.”

  “Care to share them with us?” Selena asked.

  “Not at this time.”

  Selena frowned at him. “Yes, but you can’t be treating this as a high priority.”

  “That’s true. I have murders I’m following up, but still I’m doing what I can in the meantime. Again, I’m sorry to drop a bombshell on you, Selena.”

  She nodded. “I’d rather know the truth even if it hurts. Better that than to believe a lie, like the lies I’ve been living my whole life.”

  “Are you okay to drive, Selena?” Gabriel asked.

  “Yes, I’ll drive you home now.”

  Chapter 17

  Later that same day, Ettie and Elsa-May were talking about Selena and the hit-and-run that killed Wayne Robinson.

  “That answers the question about who one of those Amish women were.”

  “We already knew that.”

  “In Selena’s mind, I’m talking about.”

  “You're right but the other thing is someone mentioned two Amish women, so my question is …”

  “Who was the other Amish woman?”

  “Correct. This is new information and I think we should try to find out as much as we can for the poor young girl. She's obviously very upset.”

  “That's right. How will we find out? Have you got any bright ideas?” Elsa-May asked.

  “I do. We could visit Kelly and find out if he's got anything in his file about an Amish woman.”

  Elsa-may frowned. “Couldn’t you have asked him that while he was here?”

  “I didn’t think of it.”

  “I’m sure we’ve asked him already. Jah, I’m sure we have. He was here for a long time considering how busy he is. He’s not going to be happy about seeing us twice in two days especially if we're asking him the same thing twice.”

  “Aren’t we saving taxpayers' money by helping him find out who committed this crime?”

  “I doubt Kelly will see it that way. He’ll think we’re getting in his way and therefore wasting taxpayer’s money because we’re slowing him down.”

  Ettie chuckled. “You forgot something. He's not actually officially working on this case. They stopped working on it when Abner confessed and went to prison.”

  “That makes it worse, though.”

  Ettie scratched her ear. “Very true.”

  “When do you want to see him? Shall we wait until tomorrow?”

  “How about now?”

  “Okay.” Elsa-May stared at her knitting by her feet. “This isn’t getting any of my knitting done.”

  Ettie was pleased about that. “No one said it was, but we’re helping by what we're doing.”

  Elsa-May sighed. “Tell it to the hospital. I told them they were getting these teddies weeks ago.”

  “What we need are some more knitting ladies to help us.”

  “We could do with more. We can ask around at the next meeting.”

  “And why don't we also ask around if anybody knows anything about Abner and his confession? Perhaps the bishop can make an announcement about us that if anybody knows anything about it to come and talk to us?”

  “Brilliant, Ettie.”

  “Really? You think that's brilliant?”

  “I do. That will save us going around to everybody and asking questions and surely someone would come forward if they know anything.”

  Ettie nodded. “I hope so.”

  “Are we ready to go?”

  “We need to eat first.”

  Elsa-May said, “You call a taxi and I'll mee
t you down the end of the road with a snack.”

  “Okay. Make it a big one.” Ettie headed down the end of the road to call a taxi. She waited and then a few minutes later, she saw Elsa-May carrying a paper sack.

  “They’re peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

  “Sounds delightful.”

  Elsa-May’s mouth turned down at the corners. “You're joking, aren’t you?”

  “Anything sounds good right now, I'm so hungry. We didn’t have enough cake for the visitors and us to eat, but I noticed it didn’t stop you.”

  “Nonsense, there was plenty, and anyway, that’s why I cut small portions. We finished off the rest of the roast beef last night, or we could’ve had that on our sandwiches, with relish.”

  “Peanut butter and jelly is fine.”

  As they stood there munching on the sandwiches, a taxi came into view.

  “That'll be for us,” Elsa-May said.

  “Just one question, Elsa-May.”

  She peered at her younger sister. “What’s that?”

  “Where are we going?”

  Elsa-May frowned. “Don’t you know?”

  Ettie shook her head. They'd talked about the case from so many angles she'd forgotten what they had decided.

  “Me either. Why don’t we visit Ava?”

  Ettie smiled. “Okay. Let’s do that. After the boppli’s born, she’ll be too busy for us to visit at least for the first few weeks.”

  “She can give us a new perspective on everything that’s been going on.”

  Chapter 18

  Selena was back at the bed-and-breakfast and the rain was pouring down. She was still trying to get her head around how everyone in her life had lied to her. When her cell phone beeped, she was pleased to see from the caller ID that it was Eugene.

  She took a deep breath and told herself to sound cheerful, so he’d have no idea something was wrong. “Hi.”

  “Now tell me please, have you called the realtor yet?”

  She was going to explode. The realtor was the last thing on her mind. “There's been so many things going on here, and I've been talking to so many people...”

  “About what?”