Accused (Amish Romance Mystery) (Amish Secret Widows' Society #3) Read online

  Wil turned his body toward her a little more. “I always thought that we’d live here in my haus. It’s plenty big enough and I’ll change it to whatever suits you. I can make the kitchen bigger and better. Did you have other ideas?”

  Emma shook her head slowly. “Nee, I guess it’s either my haus or your haus.”

  “I wouldn’t feel right living in another mann’s house even though Levi was like my own bruder.” Wil picked up Emma’s hand. “Emma, if it means that much to you I’ll be happy living anywhere as long as I’m with you. It doesn’t matter.”

  “Denke, Wil. We don’t have to decide now, do we?”

  “Nee, don’t upset yourself. We’ve got time to decide, a few months anyway.”

  Emma smiled and was pleased that she could bring up the subject of the haus even though she knew it would remind Wil that she was once married to another mann.

  She left Wil sitting on his porch and drove her buggy the short distance to her haus. Emma knew she should be sewing for her wedding and planning things as she had with her first wedding. With her first wedding, she took pleasure in every stitch she sewed in her special linen dress. Now her second wedding was approaching, she knew that the marriage was the important part and not just the wedding day. Besides, she knew she could get all the sewing and organizing done in a very short space of time; she’d only need weeks before the wedding.

  Angela was sweeping the porch when Emma pulled the buggy up. “Denke, Angela. You’re my guest you don’t have to do anything.”

  “Idle hands and minds are the devil’s playground, my mudder always said.” Angela smiled as she leaned on the broom. “I prefer to stay busy.”

  “I’ll fix the horse up and then I’ll come inside and tell you what I found out from Detective Crowley.”

  Since it was nearing the middle of the day, they sat out on the porch to eat the midday meal. They ate chicken and coleslaw while Emma told Angela all the information that the detective gave her.

  “Denke for all you’ve done, Emma.”

  “I always get nervous speaking to the detective. He did tell me all he could which surprised me. He said he’s coming straight here once he talks to the witness. I hope she still lives around these parts.”

  “Jah, I hope so too.”

  “I suppose you could take the buggy rather than have me drive you to Robert’s haus. I didn’t think of that earlier. I don’t have to go anywhere else today, so you’re welcome to use it.” Emma said.

  “Denke, Emma that’s kind of you.”

  They both looked up the road when they heard the car coming toward them. It was a police car and Detective Crowley was being driven by a uniformed police officer.

  “I don’t know why he never drives himself,” Emma whispered to Angela. “He always has someone drive him in a police car.”

  “Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of wearing plain clothes?” Angela said.

  Both girls giggled, but quickly regained their composure when the detective leaped out of the car and headed toward them.

  “Good afternoon, ladies.”

  Both ladies rose to their feet and Emma said, “Afternoon, Detective. This is Angela Bontreger.”

  The detective nodded his head to Angela.

  “Angela was the one who told me of the… the whole thing that I spoke to you about this morning. Come inside.”

  Once the three of them were seated around the table the detective said, “It’s highly unusual to discuss these things with civilians. I’m only doing it because Elsa-May sent you, Emma. Elsa-May’s helped me in the past.”

  “I appreciate that. What did you find out? Does the witness still live at the same place?” Emma asked.

  The two girls leaned slightly forward to hear what the detective had to say.

  “Yes she’s living at the same place. What’s more, she’s sticking to her story. She went for a walk that night and saw the Amish man hit the deceased in the head several times with a rock. Then she watched from a distance as he tied him to a wooden cross.”

  Emma glanced at Angela and noticed that her face had turned pale. She patted Angela on the arm. At least Emma had heard these kinds of things before, but Angela was new to them.

  “Detective, if it was dark how could she see or properly identify the person who did it?” Angela asked.

  “She picked him out of a lineup. She is still sure that Ross Geiger is the man she saw commit the crime.”

  “Is there any new information at all?” Emma asked.

  The detective shook his head. “What I can do is run the DNA again and see if any new matches are available; a lot can change in two or more years.”

  “In what way?” Angela asked.

  “More and more DNA samples are being done and recorded on the FBI database. There’s a chance we may find a match. With no more evidence and the witness sticking to her story, that’s the only avenue we can go down at this stage.”

  Emma rubbed her chin. “Does the witness have any link to the man who was murdered, or any link at all to Ross?”

  “She says no, but I’ll see what I can find out.” The detective looked at his watch. “I’d better get going.”

  “Thank you, Detective. I appreciate you following up on the matter,” Emma said.

  The detective smiled and said goodbye to the two ladies before he got back in the police car.

  “Doesn’t seem like we’ve got much to go on,” Emma said.

  “Seems odd that the witness was able to say without a doubt that Ross was the man she saw,” Angela said.

  Emma caught herself before she put fingers to her mouth. “Jah, and that was enough to have him arrested. And how would she be able to know for sure in the dark? Elsa-May and Ettie will be here soon. They might have uncovered something from all the people they’ve spoken with this morning.”

  Angela smiled and nodded. “I’m having an exciting change here in Lancaster County. At home I’d be doing the same old thing that I do day after day. Is it always like this?”

  Emma giggled. “It never was like this until I became friends with the other widows. Something exciting is always happening now. Maureen was a gut friend of mine and when Levi died, she brought me into her little group of widows with Silvie and the others.”

  An hour later, Elsa-May and Ettie arrived at Emma’s haus. Elsa-May nearly ran into Emma’s haus, leaving Ettie to tie up the horse.

  Elsa-May threw herself down on Emma’s couch. “Well, we’ve found something out. We spoke to Bob Pluver’s mudder; she knew Ross and Linda Geiger quite well it seems. Before they died, she was visiting them and they told her that the woman who told the police that Ross was guilty was living with the man who died.

  “How did they know?” Emma asked.

  “Rumors and talk, the man had been living with the woman for weeks. That’s what’s rumored anyway,” Elsa-May said.

  “How can that be? The police don’t even know that. Wouldn’t that have come up in their investigations?” Emma asked.

  Ettie came through the door at that moment. “Did Elsa-May tell you that the witness knew the man who was killed?”

  Emma turned to Ettie. “Jah, she did. Wouldn’t that information alone be enough to clear Ross’s name?”

  “It should be, if it’s true. Let’s see what else we can piece together. You got any of those chocolate chip cookies, Emma?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Jah, I’ve always got chocolate chip cookies.” Emma went to the kitchen to get the cookies and called out from the kitchen, “I’ll brew some tea. Don’t talk about anything important ‘til I come back.”

  Ettie came into the kitchen to help Emma. They fixed a large tray with tea, cookies and cakes to take into the living room.

  As Emma set the tray down on a small table in the living room, she said, “Ach, have you two had lunch yet? I could fix you something.”

  “Nee, this will be fine for us,” Ettie said.

  Elsa-May said, “Jah, I was getting a little weak. This will pick me up.
”

  Elsa-May was a larger lady, but Emma wasn’t too worried about them going without food because she knew that everywhere they had visited that morning would have offered them food. Amish folk never like to see anyone go hungry and there’s always plenty of food, if not on the stove then in the cold box.

  “Wait a minute, the police don’t know the identity of the man who was murdered. Did you speak to someone who knew who he was?” Emma asked.

  “It seems as though he was, according to Mrs. Pluver, living with the woman who gave testimony against Ross Geiger for the murder, but no one seems to know his name or anything about him at all.”

  “What does this all mean in plain English?” Angela asked.

  “It means, what I said before,” Elsa-May’s tone was slightly annoyed with Angela not being able to keep up with the information. “The man who was murdered was living with the witness and she said that she saw Ross kill the man and spoke nothing to the police of knowing the man personally.”

  Ettie said, “Seems pretty sketchy to me.”

  “I have to go and tell Robert what I’ve found out this afternoon,” Angela said.

  Elsa-May put her hand up. “Nee, tell him nothing. Not ‘til we’ve figured it out. We don’t want him to jump to conclusions and get in the way of things.”

  “What am I to say to him then?” Angela said with her fingers to her mouth.

  “Tell him that we haven’t been able to find anything out yet, then flirt with him,” Ettie said, which caused Angela to giggle.

  “I’ll hitch the buggy for you now, Angela. That way you can have more time with him before it gets dark.” Emma headed to the barn to hitch the buggy then led the horse to the front of the haus.

  Angela climbed in the buggy. “Denke, Emma. Are you sure you don’t need the buggy for the rest of the day?”

  “Nee, you go on and enjoy yourself. Do you remember which way to go?”

  “Jah,” Angela said.

  The three widows watched Angela drive the buggy down the dirt packed driveway.

  Chapter 8.

  I have come as a light into the world,

  that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.

  John 12:46

  As Angela approached Robert’s haus, her heart began to pound. She hoped that he felt the attraction for her that she felt for him. She stopped her horse just past the haus in front of the barn.

  “You looking for Onkel Robert?”

  Angela looked to the direction of the voice and saw Jacob in a nearby field. “Jah. Hello, Jacob.”

  “He said to tell you he’d be back soon. He wasn’t sure what time you’d be coming and he had to go into town for some supplies.”

  When Angela got down from the buggy, Jacob said, “I’ll fix your horse.”

  “Denke, Jacob.”

  Angela watched Jacob as he unhitched the horse, rubbed him down and set him into the paddock adjacent to the barn. “That’s very kind of you.”

  “There’s fresh water in there for him. I just filled the trough. I can make you tea if you’d like some?”

  Angela nodded. “That’ll be lovely. I wouldn’t mind a cup of meadow tea.”

  “Follow me.”

  “Do you want me to help you with the tea?” Angela asked.

  “Nee, I make tea for Onkel all the time. Sit down here.” Jacob pulled out a chair from the kitchen table.

  As Angela sat, she wondered what she should say to Jacob. She was nearly going to ask him how long he’d lived with his onkel, but considered that might bring back memories of his parents’ accident. “So, you like skul?”

  “Jah, I like it gut enough.”

  “What do you think you’d like to do when you grow up?”

  Jacob poured the hot water into two cups. “I’d like to be a pilot like my daed.”

  “What? You mean, fly planes and such?”

  “Jah, someone said that’s what my real daed did.”

  “Your real daed?” Angela put her head to the side. “Wasn’t Ross Geiger your real daed?”

  Jacob shook his head. “I was adopted.”

  Angela was a little shocked, but tried not to show it. “You were? I didn’t know. Do many people know that you were adopted?”

  He set a cup of tea in front of Angela. “Just my onkel I guess, maybe the bishop, I s’pose. And my real daed’s schweschder, my ant. She’s an Englischer too.”

  “To be a pilot means your real, I mean, your biological daed was an Englisher?” Angela hoped that she wasn’t crossing the line talking to Jacob about his birth parents without Robert there. It seemed that Jacob was quite open with the information about his adoption.

  “Jah, and I’m going to leave the community as soon as I’m old enough and I’m going to get my pilot’s license and Onkel Robert won’t be able to stop me.”

  “Do you know much about your daed, the pilot?”

  “His schweschder told me that he died, some time ago.”

  “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

  Jacob pulled a plate of cookies out of the cupboard and placed them on the table. “Onkel says that death and life are just a cycle and we shouldn’t be sad about something that Gott has set into place.”

  “What about your biological mamm?”

  “I don’t know about her; my ant wouldn’t tell me about her. She said that the least said, soonest mended.” Jacob sat next to her. “I’m sorry that I wrote to you pretending to be Onkel Robert.”

  “I accepted your apology yesterday, Jacob. Don’t concern yourself, all is forgiven from my part.”

  “I know it was wrong and I felt bad about doing it. I just wanted Onkel to be happy.” Jacob smiled at Angela. “I think you’d make him a gut fraa.”

  Angela smiled back at Jacob. “Denke.”

  They both lifted their heads to the sound of hoof beats.

  “Sounds like it might be your onkel home,” Angela said.

  Jacob ran to the front door and Angela stood behind him.

  “I’ll fix the horse, Onkel.” Jacob ran to take the reins from Robert.

  Robert walked past Jacob and playfully messed his hair with his large hand. “Denke, Jacob.” Robert looked up at Angela, who was standing just inside the front door. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you arrived. We didn’t arrange a firm time so I took the opportunity to go and buy something nice for us to eat.” He looked over at Jacob. “He’s been taking care of you by the looks?” Robert asked.

  “Jah, he looked after the horse, then he fixed me a cup of tea.”

  “Come along. A cup of tea sounds gut.” Robert led the way back into the kitchen and made himself a cup of tea. “He’s a gut boy most of the time.” Robert placed a package on the table then sat down. “I bought some cupcakes for us.”

  “Ach, I love cupcakes.”

  “Who doesn’t love cupcakes? I know Jacob does. We have them on special occasions.” Robert looked out the kitchen window. “He’s still fooling around with the horses.”

  “He must be a gut help to you.”

  Robert took the lid off the package of cupcakes. “Jah, he is. He loves the horses. I didn’t punish him. I gave him a stern talking to and he saw the error of his ways. As you said, his heart was in the right place.”

  “I’m glad. He seems a kind and caring boy.” Angela’s eyes ran over the rainbow array of cupcakes. She chose a cup cake with pink icing, topped with a dark pink flower topped with small silver balls.

  “I’ll have a chocolate cup cake.”

  “Jacob’s been telling me his plans of becoming a pilot.”

  “Jah, I’ve heard those plans too. I used to have fancy plans when I was his age, before I knew better.”

  “Robert, I didn’t know that Jacob was adopted.”

  Robert put his head to the side. “He told you?”

  Angela nodded. “Not that’s it’s any of my business, but from what he’s said, his biological daed died and now both his adoptive parents have died. Must be hard on him.”r />
  Robert nodded. “He doesn’t have things so bad. He’s got me and he’s got a home here.”

  Of course, he’d have to think of the positive side of things, Angela thought. “He talks of his biological daed’s schweschder. Does she live close by?”

  Robert lowered his head and was silent for a moment. “I don’t allow her around him.”

  Angela remained silent, waiting for him to continue.

  “It disturbs me to speak of her or even think of Jacob’s daed’s schweschder, Juliana Redcliffe. She was the one who was the witness against Ross. It seems as though because Ross told her to stay away from Jacob that she was out to get him in whatever way she could.”

  “Juliana Redcliffe was the one who said she saw Ross hit the man on the head, Jacob’s ant?”

  Robert nodded.

  “How do you know this?” Angela asked.

  “Ross told me about her. It was common knowledge at the time; everyone knew. Made it all up, of course. Seems she wanted to get back at Ross for some reason.”

  “Why?”

  “She wanted to visit Jacob, and Ross wouldn’t have it. Ross wanted Jacob to be brought up Amish and not have the influence of the outside world. That woman would have brought the outside world into his life. She already filled his head with pilot nonsense.”

  “He spoke to me of her, so he must have met her at some point,” Angela said.

  “Jah, he did meet her. She went against my bruder’s wishes and spoke to him several times when he walked home from skul. It went on for a while before someone told Ross that they saw an Englisch woman speaking to Jacob. Ross knew who it would be straight away.”

  Angela broke off a piece of cupcake and popped it in her mouth.

  “That woman filled Jacob’s head with nonsense of his daed being a pilot.”

  “Was he a pilot?” Angela asked.

  “I’m not sure what he was. Ross would have known. All I knew is that Ross’ fraa, Linda, met Jacob’s biological mudder somewhere. She wasn’t interested in bringing up the child. She wanted to adopt him out and that’s all I know of his birth parents. That’s all I was told.”