Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 6 Page 24

  “I'm not saying.”

  “Something about your grandfather?”

  She remained tight-lipped. If she told him she’d lose him anyway.

  “This is not good enough. We’re not married yet and you’re already defying me.”

  “Defying you? I'm simply refusing for you to have a look at my paperwork. I didn't realize you wanted a Stepford wife, to obey your commands.”

  “This conversation is over.”

  “No, I’ll say when it’s over. My grandfather admitted to causing someone’s death and ended up dying in jail. I’ve been trying to prove his innocence all this time.” When his mouth fell open in shock, she was pretty sure it was all over.

  “Your grandfather?”

  “Yes, the one who left me the house.”

  He sat on the only chair in the room. “Tell me about him.”

  She sat on the bed and told him everything she knew, leaving out the part about who her father really was. “Do you think you could help?”

  “That’s what I do, Selena. I can’t believe you didn’t come to me with this.”

  “I thought you wouldn’t want to marry me if you knew.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” He gave a low chuckle. “Now, what associations did your grandfather have with the man who was killed?”

  “Just what I told you, Wayne worked for him now and again when something needed doing around the place.”

  “I’ll tell you what. How about I stick around for a couple of days and help you with this?”

  “Can you actually do that?”

  He nodded.

  “What about your cases?”

  “I’ll figure it out. This is important.” He looked at his wristwatch. “I’ll go to my appointment and then drive back, I’ll send Elga back home in a rental car after our meeting’s over.”

  “You’d really do that?”

  He stood and walked to her. “Of course; we’re getting married.”

  She stood and collapsed with relief into his open arms.

  After a brief hug, he walked out the door. Her legs gave way beneath her and she sat on the bed drained of all energy.

  Remembering Elga, she raced to the window and looked out. The woman she’d been so jealous of was not at all what she’d imagined. Elga was an elderly lady with her hair pulled back tightly and coiled into a bun. She’d imagined everything wrong about her and had been jealous over nothing. Then Eugene got into the car and the car zoomed away.

  Selena waited until they had driven away and then got in her car and headed to Ettie and Elsa-May’s house. This time, she was certain she knew the way.

  Chapter 24

  “Elsa-May, it’s Selena come to visit us and she’s by herself.”

  “Well, open the door. I’m knitting.”

  Ettie was knitting too, but she was glad to have a break from it. She left off in the middle of the row and jabbed the needles into the boring brown wool, and headed to open the door. “Hello, Selena.”

  “Hi, Ettie. I hope you two don’t mind a visitor.”

  “We’re delighted. We were just about to have a break. Care for a cup of hot tea?”

  “I’d love one.”

  A few minutes later, they were sitting in the living room drinking tea. Snowy had been closed in Elsa-May’s room as he got too excited with visitors until he got to know them better.

  “I have good news,” Selena announced.

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I’m engaged to a lawyer, and he’s here. He can help us. He knows all the legal ins and outs. He might be able to prove my grandfather was innocent.”

  Elsa-May looked over the top of her knitting glasses. “You say he’s here?”

  “He’s in town. He had some work to do, but he’s coming back this afternoon.”

  “First of all,” Ettie began, “congratulations.”

  Selena giggled. “Thank you. I never thought I’d marry someone like him. He’s successful and he’s got big career goals. He loaned me his car. He’s very generous. I find that attractive in a man.”

  “Where did you meet him?”

  “At a coffee shop I used to go to when I was off duty. Then we dated and we'd been dating for only three months when he proposed. It really was quite sudden, but I think things like that are romantic.”

  “I suppose when you know, you just know,” Elsa-May said. “And did I remember you telling me you were only a police officer for a year?”

  Selena smiled at her. “That’s right. I was so upset about this whole family thing and my mother lying to me, but now, as soon as I saw Eugene, I wasn’t quite so upset. Oh, and Gabriel and I took DNA tests and we aren’t related. We don’t have the same father.”

  “Oh, that is good,” Elsa-May said.

  “Yes.” Ettie nodded. “Before Eugene gets back this afternoon, let’s go through what we know so far.”

  “Okay.”

  Ettie said, “The case was unsolved and then when the detectives were re-investigating they came snooping around Abner’s house because he had known the man. That’s when he confessed.”

  “Why do you think he didn’t do it?” Selena asked.

  “We know him. He would’ve stopped to help the man if he’d accidently hit him, and he wouldn’t have been driving a car in the first instance. He told the detectives he’d borrowed a friend’s car, but wouldn’t say which friend, why, or where he was going.”

  Elsa-May added, “We were looking into it and asking him a whole lot of questions, and then he died.”

  “Do you think he was killed?” Selena asked.

  “No. He had a heart problem for the last few years of his life.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know.”

  Ettie nodded. “When we visited him, he wouldn’t talk to us about it. He always wanted to talk about other things.”

  “Ettie and I always thought he was protecting someone.”

  When Ettie saw Elsa-May give her a nod, she knew Elsa-May thought Selena should know about the other information they learned from the visit to the bar.

  “There’s something you don’t know, Selena. We only just found out ourselves.”

  They told her what the man from the bar had said, and that they had confirmed it from what they learned at the library.

  “Selena, why don’t you bring your fiancé here for dinner tonight and we’ll hash the whole thing out?”

  “I’d love that. Thanks.”

  “And one more thing,” Ettie said.

  “Yes?”

  “Does your fiancé know the whole truth about everything? Because I want tonight to be a night where the truth of everything is revealed. I’ve got other people I’ll invite too.”

  “He doesn’t know my father is Wayne, but I’ll tell him before tonight.”

  When Selena left, Ettie and Elsa-May realized they’d have to go to the markets as they didn’t have much in the larder, certainly not enough to feed all the other people Ettie wanted to invite. On the way there, they stopped by Ava’s house to see the new baby boy, asking the driver to wait there for them. They had intended to wait longer to see him, but they couldn’t.

  As soon as Jeremiah opened the door of his house, Elsa-May pushed past him. “Where are Ava and the boppli?” she asked, already making her way toward their bedroom.

  “In the bedroom,” he called after them with a chuckle.

  Ettie thought Elsa-May was being a little rude, but still she stayed close on her heels.

  “Knock, knock,” Elsa-May said when she reached the closed bedroom door.

  “Come in,” Ava called out.

  Elsa-May pushed the door open. “How are you?”

  “I’m fine. There he is in the crib, sleeping.”

  Ettie knew he wouldn’t be sleeping long with Elsa-May and her booming voice in the room. Elsa-May walked over, leaned down and stared at the baby while Ettie sat on the edge of Ava’s bed.

  “He’s a darling little bu,” Elsa-May said leaning
over him.

  “You’ll give him a fright if he wakes up and sees you,” Ettie said, which made Ava giggle. “And how was the birth?”

  Ava sighed. “Good and bad. In a way, it wasn’t as bad as some people said and in a way it was worse. I can’t explain, but at least I know what to expect next time.”

  When Ava’s mouth dropped open as she stared across to the other side of the room, Ettie turned to see Elsa-May holding the baby. “Elsa-May, he was sleeping!” Ettie said.

  “He’s still sleeping. I know what I’m doing, Ettie. I’ve had more kinner, and therefore more grosskinner and great grosskinner than you.”

  Ettie shook her head. “It’s not a competition.”

  “If it were, I’d be the winner.” Elsa-May cackled at her own words.

  “It’ll be my turn in a minute.” Ettie turned back to Ava. “I’m sorry about her. At least he didn’t wake.”

  Ava smiled. “I’m glad you’ve stopped by. What’s happening with everything?”

  “We don’t want to worry you about anything just now. There is one point I want to clarify with Detective Kelly, and that’s in regard to Frederick Lehman.”

  Ava shook her head. “If you told me about him it's left my head completely. Since I’ve been pregnant my mind hasn’t been working properly.”

  “Let’s hope you don’t stay like that, like a certain other person.” She nodded her head back toward Elsa-May.

  “I heard that!”

  “Don’t wake him,” Ettie said as she stood up to get a better look at the newborn. “He looks just like Jeremiah did as a boppli.”

  “I was going to say that, but I knew you’d make a sarcastic remark if I had.”

  “Who me?” Ettie said.

  “Jah.”

  “Put him back in the crib, Elsa-May. Let him sleep. I’ll hold him another time.”

  Elsa-May gave him a soft kiss on his bald head and carefully placed him back in the crib. Then she walked over and hugged Ava. “Denke, for a beautiful great grosskinner.”

  Ava chuckled. “You're very welcome.”

  “Jah, they had him just for you,” Ettie said.

  Elsa-May turned toward Ettie and shook her head at her.

  Jeremiah walked in. “What do you think about my bu?”

  “He’s the most beautiful boppli we’ve ever seen,” Ettie said.

  Jeremiah chuckled. “We think so.”

  “We thought we’d be childless there for a while, but he showed up eventually. And, hopefully we’ll have a few more,” Ava said.

  Ettie walked a few steps and kissed Ava on her forehead. “Of course, you will because Elsa-May wants more.”

  “He’s lovely,” Elsa-May said to Jeremiah ignoring her sister. “He looks just like you when you were that age.”

  Jeremiah smiled proudly.

  “Jeremiah, would you fix us some hot tea and some of that cake Mrs. Langer brought over?” Ava asked.

  “Nee, denke, we must keep going,” Elsa-May said.

  “We’ll come back for a longer stay in a day or two.”

  Ettie and Elsa-May went back out to their taxi and continued on their way to speak with Detective Kelly.

  “We have to be quick here. We’ve got so much to do before tonight.” Ettie said to Elsa-May as they walked up the front steps of the police station.

  “One thing I have to do quickly is use the bathroom.”

  Ettie giggled. They went their separate ways and Ettie spoke to Kelly once more.

  “It’s funny you should come here now because I’ve just learned an interesting fact. There were two Frederick Lehmans. One was employed in the government job, the other was unemployed and of no fixed address.”

  “Is that right? So, that means that you had the wrong facts when you were speaking to Selena about Frederick not being her father, but he wasn’t. Hmm, that was a strange coincidence. What else have you learned?”

  Ettie listened some more and then told him of her plans for that evening. Then Elsa-May appeared at the door of Kelly’s office.

  “We have to go, Ettie. We’ve got so much to do.”

  Ettie pushed herself to her feet. “I’m coming.”

  “You’re coming tonight?” Elsa-May asked Kelly.

  “Of course he is,” Ettie answered for him. “We can’t chit chat all day, Elsa-May. Let’s go.” Ettie grabbed Elsa-May’s arm and together they left the police station.

  Chapter 25

  It was a rare that Ettie and Elsa-May had many people for dinner as their house was really too small for that sort of entertaining, but they’d managed to squeeze them in.

  Even Jill James had agreed to come, and so had her brother, Terrence.

  For the latter half of the day, Ettie and Elsa-May had been cooking together, but all along, Ettie had been thinking.

  As people arrived, Ettie seated them in the living room until everyone was there. Several minutes later, their tiny home was full. Ettie had made sure to ask Selena if she minded Ettie revealing to everyone that she was Wayne’s daughter, and she confirmed she didn’t mind. The truth has been hidden for long enough, she’d said. Ettie was just about to announce that everyone could collect a plate and help themselves to the food when there was another knock on the door. She opened it to see Stacey. “Hello, Stacey.” She was glad her neighbor was alone.

  “I smelled something amazing coming from your house. I often smell your cooking at dinnertime and I’m so envious. Would I be rude if I invited myself to your dinner party?” She moved herself so she could better look around Ettie. Then she stared back at Ettie and fluttered her lashes while tilting her head to one side.

  “Um, well, there are so many people here and you wouldn’t know any of them.”

  “Are they all Amish?”

  “No, only a couple of people are Amish. There is a girl whose mother used to be Amish and her fiancé, and then we have the detective, so I suppose you could join us if you’d like.”

  “A detective?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why would you have a detective at your house?” Before Ettie could even start to answer, Stacey went on, “Greville said there was a detective at your house once and the detective was rude to him. I can’t stay if it’s the same one. I don’t want anyone to be rude to me.”

  “It would be the same one.”

  She shook her head. “I won’t be staying. You and Elsa-May should stop by maybe tomorrow. It would be good if you could do that before Greville is released from the hospital. You know how he doesn’t like me having people to the house.”

  “How is he?”

  “Better.”

  “Good.”

  Stacey turned and walked away. Ettie stared after her, wondering if she’d given the real reason for not wanting to be in close contact with a detective. She couldn’t think about that now, she had too many other things on her mind. After closing the door, she turned and faced her guests. “Dinner is ready in the kitchen. Plates and cutlery are on the side. You can help yourselves and there are plenty of seats in the living room.” She hoped the dinner wasn’t too cold since Stacey had delayed her.

  After everyone had eaten, Ettie cleared her throat. “Can I have everyone’s attention?”

  A hush fell over the gathering. “I’ve asked everyone here tonight so we can get to the bottom of what really happened to Wayne Robinson.” She noticed Patricia looked annoyed. Perhaps she didn’t care who had killed her cousin. “Selena, as you know by now, all the dates fit and we know that when Wayne was killed your mother would’ve been three months pregnant with you. She didn’t meet the man who raised you until she was five months pregnant and married him a few weeks after you were born. Now, did she kill Wayne because he wouldn’t take responsibility for his child?”

  “She wouldn’t have,” Selena said.

  “Or, Gabriel, did you read the letter you gave to your sister, Ruth, in that box with the other family papers? Did you do some research, or perhaps listened to Abner’s stories, and think Wayn
e was your father?”

  “I wasn’t even born. I wouldn’t have done it,” Gabriel said.

  “No, you didn’t, but could someone close to your mother have taken vengeance on Wayne thinking your mother was having a relationship with him? He was known to be seeing two Amish women.”

  Gabriel shook his head. “No. It’s not possible.”

  Ettie continued, “Patricia Langerfield.” Ettie looked over at Patricia, who squirmed in her seat. “Not only did you think Wayne was stealing your alpacas, you were terrified of him. He cut the brake lines to your truck, causing a nasty accident—and he freely admitted to people he had done it. Something you didn’t mention was that your father and Wayne’s were brothers—making you first cousins.”

  “I was ashamed he was kinfolk,” Patricia called out.

  Jill James called out, “Well, he was ashamed of you.” The two cousins glared at one another.

  Ettie raised her hands, glad Patricia and Jill were on opposite sides of the small room. “Please, no arguments. The feud between you cousins goes way back to Wayne’s side of the family being left out of the grandfather’s will. Did Patricia do away with him to save her own life, thinking it was either her or him?”

  “No, I didn’t, but I probably should’ve.” Patricia pouted her lips.

  “Let’s not forget someone who’s so obvious, we’ve overlooked him, and that’s Abner himself. What if he was guilty? He admitted to it, so perhaps he did it? Maybe he found out that Wayne was no friend and he’d gotten his daughter pregnant. Could Abner have borrowed a car like he’d said and gone to find Wayne simply to talk with him? Perhaps Wayne stepped onto the road and, filled with rage, Abner forgot everything else in his heart and mind and one thing was left—revenge. Or did Abner simply confess because he believed his daughter was the guilty party?” Ettie cleared her throat.

  Elsa-May passed her a glass of water. “Have a sip.”

  “Thank you.” Ettie took a mouthful and passed the glass back. “Selena, Frederick Lehman, the man who raised you as his own was being blackmailing by Wayne.”