Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 3 Page 30
“Why?” She looked around wishing she had someone with her. Austin was gone and her father had long since gone after bringing her to the market early in the morning. “I haven’t done anything,” she added for good measure.
The customers she had at the stall had quickly dispersed with the appearance of the police.
“Come with us,” he repeated.
“I can’t leave my stall.”
“Can you call someone to watch it while you’re gone.”
A lady from a nearby stall stepped closer and called out, “Are you okay, Thea?”
“Yeah, I’m okay, Beth-Ann. I’m going to have to close my stall for a few hours. Can you keep an eye on it, so nothing goes missing?”
“Sure. I’ll do my best.”
“Thank you.” Thea looked at the police. “I’ll just need to put a cover over.” She reached behind her and got a large covering and flipped it across the stall. It was the same covering she used when she needed a bathroom break during the day. That had to be better than having her father come back into town and look after the stall for her. Then there was a chance he’d make a scene and refuse to allow her to answer any questions.
Once Thea arrived at the station, she was shown into a room where the detective sat behind a table. A large flat screen television was on the wall.
“Good morning, Thea.”
“Good morning, Detective. What is this all about? Didn’t I answer all your questions before?”
“Why don’t we talk after I play this?”
When Thea sat down, the two policemen who had driven her there left the room.
Thea watched the bank tape and saw herself deposit the money into the bank.
Kelly stopped the tape with the remote control and then placed the remote on the table in front of him and stared at Thea.
After a long silence, the detective finally spoke. “Well?”
“What is the question?”
He breathed out heavily, obviously annoyed. “Why did you deposit that large sum of money into Austin’s account?”
“It was Austin’s account?”
The detective nodded.
“I didn’t know whose account it was. All I knew were the numbers. There was no name on the paper.”
“What were you doing with that money? Where did you get it?”
“Thomas said if anything ever happened to him I was to put the money into that account. He made me promise.”
“Did you have the money in your possession?”
“I got it out of the barn. Thomas told me where it was hidden.”
“Don’t say any more.” He flipped a couple of switches on a camera on the wall until a red light came on. “I’m going to be recording you now.”
“Okay.”
“Would you like anyone to be present with you? Or would you like a lawyer?”
“No. It’s okay.”
“I have Ettie and Elsa-May here.”
“No. It’s all right. I’ll speak with you.”
Once the recording was underway, Kelly went over the same questions, and then he asked, “When did you get the cash from the barn?”
“The day of the funeral. I slipped into the barn when everyone was viewing Thomas’ body in the house.”
“Did Thomas say why he wanted you to put the money in that particular account?”
“No, and I didn’t ask why. I had no idea it was Austin’s account. All I had on the piece of paper were numbers of the account and no name.”
“But you knew you were doing wrong, didn’t you?”
“I knew Thomas was into some bad stuff, but I didn’t know exactly what.”
“When you knew Thomas had that amount of cash you must’ve realized that it came from some kind of crime.”
“Not really, no. How would I know that? I didn’t. He could’ve saved it from working hard. He had just started his own business and was doing really well.”
“Mostly people leave a will. They don’t have people promise to put the money in someone’s account.”
Thea shrugged. “That’s all I know. I don’t know where the money came from, or where it was going to. He was my friend and he asked me for a favor, and I said yes. When I agreed to do it, I never even dreamed I’d have to actually do anything. I thought he was being silly. Do you think he knew someone was going to kill him?”
“I’m the one asking the questions here, Thea.”
“Okay.” Thea glanced at the camera on the wall wondering who would end up watching her recording.
“Why did you keep this from me when you were questioned last?”
“I didn’t want to get into trouble. I couldn’t see how it would help you find who killed him.”
“Do you have any idea why Thomas would want the money put into Austin’s account?”
Thea shook her head. The only thing she could think of was that Austin might have agreed to hold it for Bart, but now Bart was dead, leaving Austin with the money. She bit the inside of her lip, not wanting to think Austin had done anything wrong. The involvement with drugs was too much already.
“Can I go back to my stall now? I really don’t want my father to know I was questioned and if I don’t make enough money today, he’ll know something’s wrong.”
Kelly breathed out heavily. “Okay. Interview’s over, but I might need to speak with you again. I’ll have your statement typed out and as soon as you sign it, I’ll have someone drive you back to the market.”
“Thank you.”
Chapter 24
While waiting for the statement to be typed, Thea was directed to the waiting area where she saw Ettie and Elsa-May.
“What are you two doing here?”
“Kelly wanted us to come in and see who deposited money into Austin’s account. We had no idea it was going to be you.”
Thea nodded and told them everything she knew. She was then called to an interview room where she read through her statement and signed it before she was driven back to the market.
“Why did Kelly want us to wait here?”
“More questions, I guess,” Ettie said. "And he asked about us listening to the phone call recording."
“It’s pointing to Austin, I’m afraid. They must’ve been in it together, the three of them.”
“Maybe Bart was the leader. He told Thomas if anything happened to him he was to put the money in Austin’s account.”
“Jah, Ettie, but why put it into an account, why not just pass the cash on to Austin?”
“Good point, Elsa-May. That would make more sense. It’s almost as though someone wanted Austin to look guilty. If there was money laundering going on, they wouldn’t want to have to explain a large amount of money going into an account.”
“Exactly.”
“Excuse me, ladies.”
They both looked up to see Simkiss.
“Detective Kelly said he’d speak to you both later today. He had to go out on urgent business. I’ll take you home.”
“Thank you,” Ettie said while Elsa-May grunted. Apparently, Detective Kelly had forgotten about the recorded phone call.
At four o’clock that afternoon, Kelly walked through their open door. “Knock, knock,” he called out.
“Come in,” Ettie said coming out of the kitchen. “Elsa-May’s just out taking Snowy for a walk.” Seeing the smugness on his face, Ettie said, “Have you solved the case? You know who murdered Thomas and Bart?”
“I do.”
“Have a seat. Don’t say anything until Elsa-May gets back.”
He chuckled.
“Would you like a cup of coffee and a slice of cake?”
“That goes without saying.”
“Take a seat in the living room. I’ll be right back.”
Ten minutes later, Elsa-May walked in the door with a panting Snowy. Snowy perked up when he saw Detective Kelly.
“Hello, Detective,” Elsa-May said.
“Afternoon.”
“He’s solved the case, Elsa-May.”
“We have. I don’t know anything yet. I’m waiting for you to sit down to hear it.”
“Oh goodie. I’ll just put Snowy outside.”
“Yes, that would be a good idea,” Kelly said before he took another mouthful of coffee.
When Elsa-May had Snowy safely outside, she sat down and folded her arms. “Okay, I’m ready.”
Kelly looked at Elsa-May and then looked at Ettie.
“What do you think happened, Ettie?”
“I don’t know.”
“If you had to give it your best guess what would you say?”
Ettie pulled a face. “Well, let’s see now.”
Elsa-May chuckled.
“Quiet, Elsa-May! I need to concentrate.”
“Sorry.”
“My best guess would be Austin is the killer. Roy found out his brother, Thomas, was involved in things he shouldn’t have been involved in and that’s why he didn’t want to go into business with him. So Roy cut Thomas out of the deal after giving him some kind of ultimatum. Possibly Roy found out that Thomas’ friends were using the family barn for things they shouldn’t have been and Roy told Thomas to make them stop. Thomas didn’t.” Ettie looked at the detective.
“Go on,” he said.
“Austin gave Thomas instructions to have someone put money into his account if something happened to him. You see, Austin would’ve only given that instruction because he knew he was going to kill Thomas.”
“But why kill him at all?” Elsa-May asked.
“Maybe he thought Thomas was going to talk. He was getting pressure from his brother.”
“Go on,” Kelly said once more.
“And the money went into an account because if someone had handed Austin cash, they’d know he was involved. Putting money into an account would keep Austin anonymous.”
“But not to the police when they checked his bank account,” Elsa-May added. “It doesn’t make sense that Austin would want money in his account if he were guilty, Ettie.”
Ettie scratched her chin. She couldn’t work out why Austin would have a large sum of money placed in his account. “I’ve got it!” Ettie shouted. “Thomas wasn’t instructed to put the money into Austin’s account at all. That was Thomas’ idea so the police would know Austin had killed him. Thomas asked Thea if anything ever happened to him, to put the money into Austin’s account thereby pointing the finger directly at Austin.”
“Good work, Mrs. Smith.” Detective Kelly clapped his hands.
“Am I right?” Ettie stared at Kelly.
“We got a confession out of Austin today. I told him we were looking into Thea as the murderer, and then he caved and told us everything. He confessed to hitting Thomas over the head and making it look like an accident. Then he told us he knew Bart would come looking for his money, which Austin thought was still hidden in the barn. He killed Bart and then looked for the money. He couldn’t find it, and he went home planning to try again another night, and immediately Thea knocked on his door and wanted to go to Thomas’ barn looking for clues. To save Thea the trauma of finding a dead body, he had no choice but to go back to the barn with her.”
“It was Austin all along,” Elsa-May said.
“Yes, it was.”
“It was nice of him to go with Thea so she wouldn’t find the body alone.”
“A nice killer. You do think in a strange way, Mrs. Smith.”
Ettie raised her eyebrows. “He might be a killer, but he was also protective of Thea, which is a good trait.”
“Well, his one, and maybe only, ‘good trait’ is not going to save him from going to jail for double homicide.”
“Does Thea know?”
“I’ve just come from her house. She’s quite distressed, but she understands that Austin was guilty. I told her exactly what he told us and she said it all fitted in with what she knew.”
“We’ll go and see her tomorrow,” Elsa-May said.
“The poor girl. Thomas was a good friend and now he’s gone, and then she became friendly with Austin.”
“She can do without friends like Austin. If it weren’t for him, she’d still have Thomas.” Kelly reached for another slice of cake.
“What about Roy? Did you find out why he made up that story about him being at the market with Thomas on the day he died?” Elsa-May asked the detective. “And who made that anonymous phone call?”
“Roy was trying to protect his brother because he knew he was into some bad things. Roy had no involvement at all.” Detective Kelly continued, "Austin admitted he made the call after killing Thomas."
“Thank you for coming over and letting us know.”
He smiled at them. “You’re welcome. Our little arrangement is working out well. We’ve been able to help one another. You helped me and then you were able to help Thea keep out of any trouble and that led to Austin’s confession.”
“And what of Austin’s sister who was helping him at the market?”
“Austin has no siblings or any family. He grew up in foster homes. She was probably someone helping him sell the drugs. We can’t catch them all, I’m afraid, but at least we’ve got Austin who was a major player.”
“All’s well that ends well?” Elsa-May asked the detective.
“I hope your Amish folk don’t get themselves into any more trouble,” Detective Kelly said.
“Can you stay on for dinner?”
“Do I smell roasted chicken?”
Ettie smiled. “We have roasted chicken and roasted vegetables, but shouldn’t it be our company you stay for?”
With a twinkle of mischief in his eyes, he said, “Yes, I would love to stay. And you’re right; it is the company I’d like to stay for most of all, even though a roast is my favorite meal.”
Ettie and Elsa-May exchanged smiles while Snowy scratched at the locked dog door trying to get inside to Detective Kelly.
* * *
I hope you are enjoying Ettie’s adventures. To stay up to date with my new releases and special offers, add your email at my website in the newsletter section.
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Blessings,
Samantha Price
ETTIE SMITH AMISH MYSTERIES
Book 1 Secrets Come Home
Book 2 Amish Murder
Book 3 Murder in the Amish Bakery
Book 4 Amish Murder Too Close
Book 5 Amish Quilt Shop Mystery
Book 6 Amish Baby Mystery
Book 7 Betrayed
Book 8: Amish False Witness
Book 9: Amish Barn Murders
Book 10 Amish Christmas Mystery
Book 11 Who Killed Uncle Alfie?
Book 12 Lost: Amish Mystery
Book 13 Amish Cover-Up
Book 14 Amish Crossword Murder
Book 15 Old Promises
Book 16 Amish Mystery at Rose Cottage
Book 17 Amish Mystery: Plain Secrets
Book 18 Amish Mystery: Fear Thy Neighbor
Book 19 Amish Winter Murder Mystery
Book 20 Amish Scarecrow Murders
Book 21 Threadly Secret
About Samantha Price
USA Today Bestselling author, Samantha Price, wrote stories from a young age, but it wasn't until later in life that she took up writing full time. Formally an artist, she exchanged her paintbrush for the computer and, many best-selling book series later, has never looked back.
Samantha is happiest on her computer lost in the world of her characters. She is best known for the Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries series and the Expectant Amish Widows series.
www.SamanthaPriceAuthor.com
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Samantha Price, Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 3