Old Promises

by Samantha Price

  “Even if they did, I don’t know when that poison would’ve been placed there. It was found in the back of one of my cupboards. It could have been there for years, or months. I can’t ask the neighbors to look at a year’s worth of their footage. Besides that, even if they have security cameras they might not have picked up any areas of my house.”

  “We need to find out where someone would have got that poison from,” Ettie said.

  “I’ll try to find out.”

  “Haven’t the police said anything?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Not to me. Wait a minute.” Myra pulled out a cell phone before the sisters could ask her to use it outside the house. She tapped on it a couple of times and then looked up at them. “It’s for sale on the Internet. Anyone could’ve bought it, but they would’ve had to know what they were doing. It’s highly toxic, even just the fumes, and it can eat through gloves.”

  Elsa-May sighed. “I was hoping it would be difficult to obtain.”

  Myra put the phone away. “Can someone make me a cup of coffee?”

  Elsa-May pushed herself up off the chair. Once Ettie was alone with her daughter, she said, “I’m so sorry this is all happening to you.”

  “Why are you sorry?”

  Ettie was taken aback. “I hate to see anything bad happening to you.”

  “Do you?”

  Ettie stared at her daughter, seeing the pain and hurt in her eyes. “Why are you so hostile with me all the time? Don’t you know I love you? You’re my child forever.”

  “I’m sorry. I love you too, Mother. I’m just stressed and it’s not as though we’ve ever gotten along.”

  “We could if we both try.”

  “No, I don’t think we ever could. We never did and we’re just too different.”

  Ettie was still pleased that Myra had come to her in times of trouble. There must’ve been some kind of a bond there somewhere. “I hope we’ll be able to get along better one day.”

  “Me too.” Myra smiled. “The two of us are just so different. Like black and white, up and down.”

  “Fat and thin,” Ettie said with a laugh.

  Myra stared at her, and then jumped to her feet. “That’s it!”

  “What’s it?” Elsa-May asked, having just walked back into the living room with a mug of coffee.

  “Ian kept a list of everything he ate. Because of his heart condition his doctor told him he had to be under a certain weight. He was exercising as well and he just couldn’t possibly still have been as overweight as he was. I think she was deliberately slipping fat into his food somewhere to keep him overweight.”

  “Maybe she was. That would be hard to prove, though,” Ettie said.

  Myra sat back down. “I guess you’re right. It would be practically impossible to prove. And if somehow, they were able to prove that he did eat fatty foods, who’s to say that he didn’t cheat and eat them himself?”

  Ettie said, “Jah, he could’ve had a burger or two on the quiet. It's very difficult to be so restricted all of the time.”

  Myra accepted the mug of coffee from Elsa-May, who then sat back down.

  “Where do we go from here? If Tiffany is guilty how do we go about proving it?” Elsa-May asked.

  “And was she the same person who put that bottle in your house?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that. I had people from the crystal society to my house, and my clients come to the house for treatment. I suppose any one of them could’ve slipped the poison into the cupboard. Tiffany could’ve paid someone to do it.”

  “Someone you know?”

  Myra nodded. “Quite possibly. Well, I think I’ll go home and wallow in my misery there.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stay awhile?”

  “No, I’ll be fine. I think better when I’m alone and Ronald will soon be there.”

  When Myra left, Ettie had an idea. “We all think Tiffany’s guilty, so we need to pay a visit to her boutique.”

  Elsa-May giggled. “Us at a boutique?”

  “Why not?”

  “Why would we say we were there?” She picked up the end of her dress. “We won’t find anything like this there and we’ll stick out like two sore thumbs.” Elsa-May dropped her dress.

  “We can be just passing by and then if she’s there, we’ll recognize her from the funeral and then we’ll go in and speak with her,” Ettie said.

  “She might not remember us. We didn’t speak with Ian’s wives, only his sons.”

  “No matter.”

  Elsa-May sighed. “Doing things like this is so awkward.”

  “I didn’t say it would be fun, but we need to do something.”

  “Why? It’s not as though she’s going to confess to us.”

  “We’ll find out more by trying to do something than we will by sitting here in the haus on our backsides.”

  Elsa-May nodded. “I guess you’re right.”

  “Pardon?” Ettie leaned forward and held her hand up to her ear.

  “I said, I guess you might be right, but it remains to be seen. The proof will be in the pudding.”

  “Pudding. Mmm that makes me hungry.”

  “We’ve only just had breakfast.”

  “I’d still like some pudding.”

  Elsa-May shook her head and started knitting. “It baffles me how you never gain weight.”

  “I’m naturally thin. I can eat anything—”

  “All right, all right. Enough said.”

  “Why are you knitting?”

  Elsa-May stopped and looked up at Ettie. “I can’t sit here and do nothing all day.”

  “The boutique. We just decided to go.”

  “Oh, you were talking about today?”

  “Jah. Never put off today what you can do tomorrow. Wait, maybe that’s—”

  “The other way around.” Elsa-May chuckled and added, “And a little scrambled, but I get the point. I’ll just finish this row if you can wait that long.”

  “Okay, I’ll feed Snowy and take him with me when I call for the taxi. I hope he doesn’t bark again.”

  “He’ll be okay.”

  “She said it was the Winston hotel. I believe that’s the posh one that opened last year.”

  “Jah, that was the one.”

  Chapter 19

  Ettie and Elsa-May had the taxi take them to the Winston hotel. When they stepped onto the pavement across the road, Ettie looked up at it. “It’s some hotel.”

  “It looks quite grand.”

  “It does, and so do the shops underneath it. I can’t see a dress shop, though.”

  “It might be actually inside the hotel, like inside the doors. That’s the impression I got,” Elsa-May said. “After you.”

  Ettie raised her eyebrows at her sister, but since it had been her idea she had to be the one to go first. When no cars were in sight, she walked across the road followed closely by Elsa-May. When they approached the doors of the hotel, they were opened by a doorman, who gave them a big smile. They thanked him and walked through the doors into a huge lobby. To their left was a large brightly-lit reception desk, and to their right was a large seating area with potted palms beside groupings of armchairs and low tables. Large columns going right to the ceiling were a feature. Straight ahead was a walkway that led to small shops.

  “What did I say?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Okay.” Ettie inhaled deeply and she took another step. Part of her didn’t want Tiffany to be at her store today because she had no idea what to say. Another part of her was hoping she would be there so they might find more information.

  They looked in the window of the first dress shop they came to. There was a small blonde-haired woman with her hair pulled back into a short ponytail at the nape of her neck.

  “That’s her,” Elsa-May whispered.

  “I know.” Ettie gulped, and sent up a quick prayer and walked in the door.

  Tiffany spun around and continued to adjust a dress on a hanger. She stared at them, looking quit
e surprised.

  “Hello. You’re Mrs. Carter, aren’t you?”

  She smiled without letting it reach her eyes and looked from Ettie to Elsa-May. “You were at my husband’s funeral.”

  “That’s right.”

  Her perfectly shaped pencil-thin eyebrows lowered slightly. “You were sitting with Sparkle.”

  “Yes. I’m Ettie and this is my sister, Elsa-May. I’m Sparkle’s mother.”

  “Oh.” Her jaw dropped open. “Then you’ll need to leave.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “You’re not welcome here.”

  Elsa-May said, “We were just saying hello.” Ettie nodded and then there was an awkward silence, before Elsa-May spoke again. “We were walking by and I said to Ettie, isn’t that Mrs. Carter?”

  Ettie added, “And I said, you’re right it is.”

  “We’re dreadfully sorry about your husband,” Elsa-May said.

  “Under the circumstances, I don’t think I should speak to you and I still can’t believe that Sparkle dared to show up at my husband’s funeral.”

  “What makes you think my daughter had something to do with Ian’s death?”

  There was a noise coming from the back and then a man walked out with an armful of clothing. It was Angelo, Ettie was certain. But he was the son from the first marriage. He looked up at them, shocked.

  “I really think you should go,” Tiffany said.

  “Yes, we’re going.”

  “Were you spying on us?” Tiffany asked, taking a small step toward them.

  “No.”

  “Come on, Ettie.” Elsa-May put her hand lightly on Ettie’s shoulder and they both walked out of the shop.

  “Well, that was about the most embarrassing moment of my life,” Ettie said.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that the son from the first marriage? The one who met Myra first?”

  Ettie nodded. “That’s what I thought. How odd that he’d be in the store with Tiffany as though he were helping her out.”

  “Does he work for her?”

  “No one said anything. From all accounts I thought their relationship, or the relationships between the two wives and each other's sons, was strained. That explains what I saw at the funeral, though. I saw them smiling at each other as though they were friendly. But I'm pretty sure someone told us that Angelo and his half-brother both work at the business Ian had owned and then sold.”

  “Well, Ettie, we could well have found the clue we were looking for. We might have, we just have to figure out what it means. Let’s visit Alice. Isn’t it Thursday? The day her employer goes away to play cards?”

  Ettie shook her head. “It’s not Thursday, but we should go anyway. She might be able to enlighten us about what we just saw and her employer might spare her for a moment or two to talk with us.”

  Elsa-May pulled a face. “We’re not going to tell her, are we?”

  “No, but we can ask her some general questions.”

  “Jah, good idea.”

  As they approached the hotel entrance, the doorman opened the doors and they stepped through. They found a bus seat a little ways down the sidewalk, and sat down to talk.

  “Could the two of them be in it together, Ettie?”

  “The second wife and the stepson?”

  “Jah.”

  Ettie thought for a moment. “You would think they wouldn't risk being seen together if they’d conspired to kill Ian and frame Myra.”

  “Still, it was unexpected that we came across them. Maybe they figured no one with any connection to the case would come into the shop.”

  Ettie shook her head. “You’re wrong. Detective Kelly could’ve stopped by to ask her questions, or to give her an update.”

  “Hmm. You might be right. Did Myra think they were friendly with one another—Tiffany and Angelo?”

  “Myra didn’t think they were. I’m certain that’s what she said.”

  Elsa-May rubbed her chin. “Jah, but let's not mention this outing to Myra. We'd have to tell her where we saw them together. She won’t be too happy with us if she hears we were at the boutique.”

  “Why don’t we talk with our friend again? I think that's our best next move.”

  “Alice?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Jah, and if we don’t get the information from her, we’ll have to ask Myra how close the two of them were. And, if Angelo had ever been in her house and had an opportunity to plant the poison.”

  “Good thinking.”

  Ettie smiled, pleased to get a compliment from her sister, but she couldn’t enjoy it for long because Elsa-May was already on her feet.

  “Are we going to Alice’s now?”

  “Jah. Like we discussed earlier.”

  Less than an hour later they were across town, and Ettie and Elsa-May stood outside the house where Alice worked. Elsa-May had her hand out ready to knock on the door when it was flung open. Ettie and Elsa-May were relieved to see Alice standing there rather than her employer.

  “What a nice surprise. I saw the two of you get out of the taxi from my bedroom window.”

  “I hope you don’t mind us stopping by, but Ettie and I just have a couple of questions.”

  “Mrs. Marlborough is out for a time and she won’t be home until about five. It’s safe enough to come in.” Alice stepped back and opened the door wider.

  As Ettie stepped through, she asked, “There’s no Mr. Marlborough?”

  “Yes. He’s sick upstairs. He’s bedridden. Nurses come in and out to tend to him. He’s had his medication and he’ll be asleep for hours. Don’t worry, he’s as deaf as a post and he wouldn’t hear us anyway.” Alice showed Ettie and Elsa-May into the sitting room. She sat herself down and said, “What is it you want to ask me?”

  Elsa-May cleared her throat and then looked at Ettie who was sitting next to her.

  Ettie said, “We were just wondering, what is the relationship between Ian Carter’s ex-wives and the sons?”

  Alice blinked rapidly. “Oh! Since I’ve been away from that house I haven’t had any contact with them.”

  Elsa-May said, “Plenty of windows overlook the street, so you would see the comings and goings of the Carter household.”

  “I can tell you they’ve had Angelo and Maria to the house on a few occasions in the last couple of years. Then for a while, Angelo was often at the house, but not lately. He hasn’t been to the house for months. Well, not the house here, but next door.”

  Elsa-May nodded. “Yes, we know what you mean.”

  “That annoyed Maria.”

  “Oh?” Ettie said.

  “That would’ve upset her. She would’ve been all right about it on the surface, but inside it would have been eating away at her. When Maria first got divorced she was okay about Angelo going over to the house. He was only a boy back then and Maria had her social life, and needed a babysitter I’d dare say. I was working there at that time. He formed a bond with his stepmother, but then his mother, Maria, pulled him away when she saw them getting close.”

  “Are we talking many years ago?”

  “Yes. He was only a boy.”

  Ettie knew that the bond must still be there.

  “We heard you were left stamps,” Elsa-May said.

  “Yes, and I don’t mind saying I was mightily disappointed. After all the time that I spent with that family would expect a little more even though the second wife never liked me.

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  Alice shrugged her bony shoulders. “It doesn’t matter. Not really.”

  Ettie said, “My daughter and Ian were good friends, as I mentioned before, but what I didn’t know last time I saw you, was that he left her a valuable diamond. It was in its crystal formation, and she had no idea it was in his collection until after she’d been given it in his will. She was pleased that he left her his crystal collection, but it was so much more than that.”

  “That would’ve been a lovely surprise for her.”

  Et
tie licked her lips. “I wouldn’t be surprised if one of those stamps he gave you might be very valuable.”

  Alice’s face brightened and she straightened up. “Do you think so?”

  Elsa-May gasped. “Oh, Ettie. You shouldn’t get her hopes up like that.”

  “I was completely ignored, Elsa-May, when I went to the reading of the will. Sparkle smiled at me and I hadn’t even met her before that. Neither of the wives or the sons acknowledged me. It hurt me to be treated like that.” Alice grinned. “I’d like the stamps to be valuable and that’d show ‘em. Do you really think they might be of some value, Ettie?”

  Bearing in mind what Elsa-May said, she downplayed it slightly. “You never know. It doesn’t hurt to find out.”

  “Very well. If you say so. I will take them to a stamp appraiser. I know a man in town who knows about stamps. He sells them.”

  “That sounds like a good place to start,” Ettie said.

  “I don’t know a thing about stamps except you need to put one on a letter before you put it in the mailbox.” Alice giggled.

  “Don’t get your hopes up too much because the detective was the one who found out about the valuable diamond in the crystal collection. Surely if one of those stamps was of great value the lawyer would’ve known about it and would’ve informed the detective.”

  “Don’t worry, Elsa-May, I won’t get my hopes up. It doesn’t hurt to check though, does it?”

  Elsa-May shook her head.

  “I’m going to take a whole day off tomorrow and have my stamps looked at.”

  “I hope you find it’s good news,” Ettie said. “Thanks for telling us what you know about the Carters.”

  “We wouldn’t mind talking to Maria. Do you know how we can do that?” Elsa-May asked. “Does she work?”

  "She doesn’t have a paid job. She’s a volunteer at the local hospital down the road."

  “Really?”

  “I told you she was a nice woman. She wouldn’t have made up a story about me stealing like Ian’s second wife did.”

  “What exactly were you accused of stealing?” Ettie asked.

  “Some of the silverware. Pieces of a solid silver tea set went missing and it wasn’t me. I didn’t even know it was solid silver until they had to put in the insurance claim.”