Accused (Amish Romance Mystery) (Amish Secret Widows' Society #3) Page 7

  “Why hasn’t this come out before? Why don’t the police know about it?” Silvie asked.

  “She told the police that she was alone, but she wasn’t. The police wouldn’t have known to ask the bar staff because they wouldn’t have known she was there in the first place,” Ettie said.

  “You think that the man murdered was the same man taken home by Juliana that night?” Emma asked.

  Ettie nodded. “He fits the description and no one knew him; he wasn’t from around here, from what the bar staff told me.”

  Silvie said, “How do they remember something from so long ago?”

  Ettie said, “Marg, one of the staff, was concerned when she heard of the murder. She even asked Juliana about it. Marg asked Juliana if she’d seen the man alive after that time. Juliana told her that the man she’d taken home couldn’t have been the same man who was murdered because he was at her house when she’d gone for that walk. The walk where she said she saw Ross hit that man over the head.”

  Ettie took a deep breath and continued. “Marg asked Juliana why the man wasn’t around any longer and Juliana said she’d sent him on his way because he’d gotten violent with her. She even showed Marg bruises on her arm, two days after the murder.”

  “Did Marg ever think to go to the police? Or were the police aware that Juliana had someone staying at her haus the night of the murder?”

  “The detective didn’t mention a thing about it.” Ettie turned to Elsa-May. “Did he mention anything to you?”

  “Nee he didn’t. I’ve spoken to him twice about that murder and he never once mentioned that she had some strange man at her house that night,” Elsa-May said. “Silvie, why don’t you knock on Juliana’s door and pretend you’re from the college doing a paper on witnesses and ask her if she wouldn’t mind answering some questions?”

  Silvie’s face went pale. “Why me? I can’t do things like that. I wouldn’t know what to ask. I can’t fool someone like that. She’d never believe me. Amish don’t go to college, so how do I explain that?”

  “Jah she will believe you, I’ll write the questions for you and you’ll have to get yourself some clothes that will pass as Englisch. All you say when she answers the door is, Good morning. Are you Juliana Redcliffe? I’m Silvie Brown and I’m doing a paper on the effect that witnessing a crime has on people. Do you mind if I ask you some questions? She’ll either say no and slam the door on you or invite you in. If she invites you in, you’ll produce my list of questions and write down her answers. It’s simple, Silvie,” Elsa-May said.

  Silvie nodded, “Jah, I suppose I can do that, but I’m a little frightened. What if she killed that man and blamed it on Ross? That means I’ll be alone with a murderer.”

  Elsa-May tapped her chin. “I’ll have Maureen go with you.”

  Maureen pulled a sour face. “All right, I’ll go with you, Silvie. As long as you do all the talking; you’re better at that kind of thing than me.”

  “You need to do that today. There’s no time to waste. You have to speak to Juliana and make sure you don’t bump into Crowley; he wouldn’t be too happy to see you anywhere near Juliana,” Elsa-May said.

  * * *

  An hour later, Silvie and Maureen, both wearing Englisch clothes, pulled up in a taxi up the road from Juliana’s house.

  When the taxi drove away, Silvie said, “I hope she’s home. Remember, I’ll do all the talking and you help me take notes on what she says.”

  Half an hour before, when they were at Silvie’s haus dressing in Englisch clothes, it occurred to Silvie and Maureen to go against Elsa-May’s advice. They hoped they would not get into terrible trouble with her. They decided rather than say that they were doing a paper on witnessing crime they would say that they were doing a survey for the Department of Health on violence against women. Maybe that would have her open up about the man who was violent with her.

  They had the taxi drop them a little up the road so it would appear as though they were doing a door-to-door survey.

  They knocked on Juliana’s door, hoping that she would be home.

  Seconds later a woman who answered Juliana’s description answered the door.

  Maureen spoke first. “Hello, we’re doing a survey.”

  “We’re from the health department,” Silvie added.

  The woman looked from one to the other. “What’s it about?”

  “It’s about violence against women. We’re trying to find how wide spread it actually is and we’re going door to door in the whole neighborhood,” Silvie said, hoping that Gott would forgive her for telling a fib if it was to help someone.

  “Do you have five minutes to answer some quick questions?” Maureen asked.

  Juliana looked at her watch. “As long as it will only be five minutes.”

  “That’s all it will take,” Maureen said.

  “Come in then.” Juliana stepped back so both women could enter the haus. “This way.” She took them through to a small room with two small couches. “Have a seat.”

  Once they were seated, Silvie shuffled some papers in readiness to make it look as though she was reading questions out.

  “I forgot to ask for your ID,” Juliana said.

  “We don’t have any yet,” Maureen said.

  “There was a mix-up with the new model of ID and they’ll be ready tomorrow. We can call back and show you tomorrow if you wish,” Silvie said.

  Juliana shook her head, “Don’t worry about it. Will this survey help other women?”

  “That’s the purpose of it,” Silvie said. Without written questions from Elsa-May and with no time to write any of her own, Silvie had to pull some quick questions from her head. “Have you ever been the victim of abuse?”

  “Yes, I have. I’ve been physically abused many times in my life.”

  Maureen leaned forward. “Have you? That’s awful.” After an intense stare from Silvie, Maureen straightened up.

  “Thank you and yes, it was awful. First my step-father beat me on more than one occasion and I had two boyfriends who used to hit me when they got angry.”

  Juliana cast her tear filled eyes downward and Silvie looked at Maureen. Had they bitten off more than they could chew?

  “When was the last time you experienced abuse? Could you tell us about it? If you feel you can talk about it,” Maureen said.

  Juliana sniffed and looked at the two ladies in front of her. “It was a while ago now. I made sure that he could never hurt anyone again.”

  “That’s good and how did you see to that?” Silvie asked.

  Juliana shook her head. “I don’t want to speak about it. In fact, I’d prefer not to talk at all. It’s too upsetting for me to speak about.” Juliana looked at Silvie and then looked at Maureen. “I appreciate what you ladies are doing. There’s too much violence towards women. I hope you can make a change, but I can’t help you.” Juliana rose to her feet. “I’ll show you out.”

  Maureen stayed seated. “Before we leave can you tell me just how does one go about making sure that a man will never hit a woman again?”

  Juliana shrugged her shoulders. “How should I know?”

  Maureen locked eyes with Juliana. “You just said that you made sure that the last man who hurt you would never hurt anyone again.”

  “I’ve had enough questions for today. I’m done.” Juliana stared at Maureen until she stood up.

  “Okay, thank you,” Maureen said.

  Maureen and Silvie left Juliana’s house and hurried to the main road. Maureen reached into the pocket of her long black Englisch looking skirt and took out Elsa-May’s borrowed cell phone to call a taxi.

  Once the call was made, Silvie asked, “What do you think of all that?”

  Maureen placed the cell carefully back in her pocket. “Did you hear what she said? She said she made sure the last man who hurt her would never hurt anyone again. Do you think she was referring to the man who was murdered two years ago?”

  “Could have been.”

&nbs
p; * * *

  That afternoon the five widows waited for the detective at Elsa-May and Ettie’s haus. He had phoned ahead and told them that he had a significant development in the case of Ross Geiger.

  “What news do you have for us, Detective?” Elsa-May asked once the detective sat on one of their hard, wooden chairs.

  “Juliana Redcliffe admitted to killing the man and said that it was self-defense. She claimed that she witnessed Ross kill the man because she wanted him in jail so she could get her child back. She said that it was after she killed the man and was back in her house that she got the idea to make it look as though Ross had done it. She’d seen some sticks at the scene of the crime so she took some twine back to the body, made a cross and tied him to it. She figured it would be believable that an Amish man did it if there was a religious element there somewhere.”

  “But the dead man was found about 500 meters away from her house. How could she get him that far away?” Emma asked.

  “He chased her out there. She claims he knocked her to the ground after chasing her from the house. She saw a rock and when he turned his head that’s when she hit him. The first knock stunned him and he fell to the ground and she beat him with the rock a couple more times to make sure he would not get back up.”

  Emma winced as she imagined the scene.

  “She kept the dead man’s wallet, so now we know who he was and can try and contact his relatives.” The detective yawned. “Excuse me.”

  “How did you get her to confess it all, after all this time?” Ettie asked.

  “She thought we knew already. She said something about other people being there that morning to question her – two ladies.” The detective looked at each lady in turn. He did not question any of them about the matter and neither did they comment.

  “Will she go to jail?” Emma asked.

  “Seems it was self defense so things would have gone better for her if she had admitted to it immediately. Now she’s perverted the course of justice by her false accusation. The courts don’t take things like that lightly.”

  “Do you think the buggy crash that killed Ross and Linda was purely an accident?” Ettie asked the detective.

  “As I mentioned before, we found nothing suspicious to do with the buggy accident. It seemed to be just that – an accident,” Detective Crowley said.

  “I’ve got a haus guest so I better get going now. Thank you for helping us again, Detective.” Emma said goodbye to everyone and hurried to her buggy. She was glad that Robert’s bruder, Ross, would finally have his name cleared. Emma could hardly wait to go home and tell Angela the news.

  Once Emma arrived back home, Angela was in her room and did not come out the whole night. It was the very next morning that Emma told Angela what the detective found out about Juliana and the murder.

  “What should I do, Emma? Will I visit Robert, or should I wait for him to come here? What if he doesn’t come here?” Angela asked over breakfast the next morning.

  “Give it ‘til after the midday meal and if he hasn’t come here by then, take my buggy and go and visit him.”

  “Denke, Emma.” Angela took a deep breath. “I hope the detective or someone lets him know what’s going on.”

  “Jah, they would’ve told him. The detective knows how important it is for Robert to clear his bruder’s name. That’s what spurred this whole investigation. He has Robert’s address and everything,” Emma said.

  Chapter 13.

  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

  Colossians 3:16

  Bailey had already delivered the bad news to Silvie through Elsa-May and Ettie. He could not stay two days at the nearby B&B as he had hoped, but he would drive to see her. They only could have a few small hours together before he would have to leave.

  Silvie waited by the window for him. He told her that his car was dark gray in color and she fixed her eyes on the road looking for his car. A dark gray car turned off the road and into her driveway. She opened the door and waited for him in the doorway. Her heart pounded in her chest as she watched him walk toward her.

  He walked quickly and reached out and held her tightly in his arms. “Oh, Silvie, I’ve missed you so much. So much.”

  “Me too.” Silvie managed to say. He was holding her so tight she could barely speak. Silvie pulled him inside and shut the door.

  “I need to say all that’s on my mind. I’ve been giving things a lot of thought. In particular you and me, and joining the community,” Bailey said.

  Silvie raised her perfectly shaped eyebrows.

  “I do want to come and join the community if the bishop will allow me. I’m hoping Wil will have me back to stay at his haus. He’s easy to get on with and I’d feel awkward with a familye I didn’t know. I might be ready in a year. How does that sound to you?”

  “I would like it very much, but the bishop would tell you that you must join the community because that’s what Gott has put on your heart to do, not because of us.”

  Bailey nodded. “I know he would say that, but without you I wouldn’t be drawn here. Now that I’ve met you, I want to be with you forever.”

  Silvie was pleased by his words, but disappointed she would have to wait for him. “Why must you wait a whole year?”

  “My job.”

  “Your job is still so important to you?”

  “I feel a certain obligation toward the people who are depending on me. I’m so close to finding the stolen paintings I’ve been chasing.”

  Silvie raised her eyebrows again as she remembered him saying that he had been chasing those stolen paintings for a number of years.

  “Will you wait for me, Silvie? I want to marry you, when I learn all the Amish ways and get baptized.”

  Silvie knew that she should have said no for two reasons. The first reason was that he was putting his job before Gott and herself, the second reason was that he should want to join the Amish whether she was there or not. Her head was conflicted with rights and wrongs, but her heart knew what it wanted. She heard herself say, “Jah, I’ll wait for you, Bailey.” The way she felt about him she had absolutely no choice.

  “Thank you, Silvie. Thank you.” Bailey took hold of her wrist and pulled her body to himself. As he held her tightly again he said, “You are more beautiful than I remember.”

  Their time together passed far too quickly for Silvie’s liking. She watched with tears in her eyes as Bailey drove away from her.

  “So, that’s Bailey.”

  Silvie swung around to see her schweschder, Sabrina, walk out of the downstairs bedroom. “Sabrina, I didn’t know that you were home.”

  “That sounded all very lovely dovey.” Sabrina folded her arms as she walked towards Silvie.

  Sabrina reminded Silvie of her mudder. That was exactly how her mudder would speak to her since she disapproved of everything Silvie did. “I love him, that’s why,” Silvie said, annoyed that Sabrina had overheard their private conversation.

  “What would mamm think of you being in love with an Englischer? We’re not supposed to be entangled with the world.”

  “Sabrina, you were obviously listening in on us so you would have heard him say that he’s thinking of joining us.”

  Sabrina flung her arm in the air. “Jah, thinking not doing. There’s a big difference. You even said yourself that his job was too important to him. Just because a handsome Englischer shows you a small bit of attention you go weak at the knees and put him before Gott and the community. You sounded all wimpy and childish when you were speaking to him. It made me sick to my stomach.”

  Silvie tipped her chin high. “I’m old enough to do what I wish and make my own decisions. I’m older than you, a lot older than you. Besides, you shouldn’t have been listening to us.”

  Sabrina shook her head. “Older in years, but not in the head, it seems.”

  “You�
��re staying here as my guest. I’ve a gut idea to pack you back off to mamm and dat,” Silvie frowned and mirrored Sabrina by also crossing her arms firmly in front of her chest.

  A look of horror crossed Sabrina’s face. “You wouldn’t do that, would you? I’m only trying to protect you from getting hurt by an Englischer.”

  “While you’re under my roof, you will show me respect.”

  Sabrina pouted and stared at her schweschder. “All right, I won’t say anymore about him.”

  “Are you sure? Not one word?” Silvie asked.

  “I stayed away from Wil, didn’t I, even though I had so much in common with him? I can keep to my word.”

  “I suppose that’s true enough. You can stay then, but no telling mamm or anyone of any of my private information.”

  “All right, I won’t. Can I stay?”

  Silvie nodded and Sabrina turned around and hurried back into her room.

  Silvie sank into the couch hoping she finally had Sabrina under control. Otherwise she surely would send her packing.

  * * *

  Angela did not have to wait long for Robert to come to Emma’s haus. The detective had visited him and told him all that had happened. Robert was shocked to find out that the woman who had spoken against his bruder, Ross, was Jacob’s biological mudder and even more shocked that she admitted to killing the man and tying him to a cross so it would be more believable to blame an Amish man.

  While Robert was at Emma’s haus, he asked Angela to stay on in the community so they could see more of each other with a view to things becoming serious between them. Angela happily agreed. They drove away from Emma’s haus to have a little time to themselves.

  “You there, Emma?” Wil called out from Emma’s front door.

  Emma came to the door wiping her hands on a dishtowel. “Wil, come in.”

  “Robert and Angela just passed me in the buggy.”

  “Jah, they’re getting along fine. Come into the kitchen; I’m baking cookies.”