Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 7

by Samantha Price

“You’re right about that, but it can’t be easy for her to have moved to a new place with a child. And, to lose her husband at such a young age would be awful.” Ettie put her fist to her mouth and bit into her knuckle as she thought about how awful life must be for Kate trying to make a home in a new place.

  “Greta must’ve had an enemy,” Elsa-May said suddenly.

  “Really? You should’ve been a detective,” said Ettie with a wink.

  Elsa-May chuckled as she leaned down to fetch her knitting out of the bag that permanently waited by her chair. “It’s surprising to me. A woman who lives by herself, minds her own business, and has a store where she sells quilts. Who could possibly be upset with her? Everyone seemed to love her. No one has a bad thing to say about her.” Elsa-May popped her knitting glasses on.

  “That’s something for Kelly to figure out.”

  As Elsa-May clicked her knitting needles together, she said, “I read something the other day, I’m not sure where, but apparently everyone’s keeping thirteen secrets. Perhaps one of those secrets got her killed.”

  “Do you really believe everything you read? Come on now, thirteen secrets? Not twelve, sometimes, or fourteen? Exactly thirteen?”

  Elsa-May looked over the top of her glasses. “How many secrets are you keeping, Ettie?”

  “None.”

  “I don’t believe it. In all your years you must’ve gathered some. If most people have thirteen, you must have twenty or maybe even thirty?”

  While Elsa-May cackled at her own words, Ettie rubbed her chin wondering if she did have a secret she hadn’t told anyone...

  There was that time when Snowy was a puppy and she accidentally left the door open and he ran down the road and they couldn’t find him for hours. Elsa-May had assumed the wind blew the door open and Ettie didn’t tell her any different.

  And then she recalled the time she had been doing the ironing and got to daydreaming. She had burned a hole in one of Elsa-May’s older aprons, and tossed it out without ever confessing what she’d done.

  “How many have you come up with so far?”

  Frowning, Ettie said, “Nothing to get me killed over, I hope.”

  “A secret that she had, and maybe she shared it with someone. No wait, what if she knew someone else’s secret?”

  “We’d never guess what it is, so there’s no use talking about it.”

  “Why don’t you heat us up some of that soup we had last night?” suggested Elsa-May.

  Ettie pushed herself to her feet and headed to the kitchen. “As you said, it’s Kelly’s problem, not ours.”

  When she was nearly at the kitchen, Elsa-May yelled out. “By the time you get there Monday morning, he might already have the killer in custody.”

  “I hope so, but somehow I do hope it’s not that young man. He looked too young to spend his life in prison. I’m hoping he isn’t guilty.”

  “It’s okay if it’s someone older?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Jah.”

  After Ettie put the pot on the stove and while she was waiting for it to get warm, she stood and looked through the kitchen window at the house next door. What did they know about Kate and why she’d moved? And, how did Kate’s husband die? And, why hadn’t the gossipmongers who normally supplied Ettie with information, told her anything about Kate?

  Chapter 6

  On Monday morning, Elsa-May and Ettie sat side-by-side in front of Detective Kelly in a small interview room with only a table between him and them. Ettie tapped the toe of her black lace-up boot on the tiled floor.

  Kelly looked under the table. “Please don’t.”

  “Sorry,” Ettie said. “I do that when I’m nervous.”

  “There’s nothing to be nervous about. You’re just here to tell me exactly what happened on Saturday morning.”

  Elsa-May asked, “What have you found out? Have you arrested anyone yet?”

  He stared at her and cocked his head to one side. “We have detained a suspect. A young man with a criminal record. One of our officers spotted him in the crowd at the fair. We've interviewed him extensively. Until we have solid evidence that he’s our man, we’re still following other leads.”

  “Such as?” Elsa-May asked.

  “I can’t tell you right at this moment. My men are working hard questioning people as we speak, and of course, the forensic testing of the evidence is underway.” His tongue traveled across his lips and he picked up a cup of take-out coffee and took a mouthful. He made a face. “Eww, cold.” He placed it back down on the table. “We’ll be recording this soon, Mrs. Smith. Tell me again what you were doing in the quilting tent.”

  “It was the wrong tent. It was not the cookie tent.”

  “Judging the cookies, that was what she was meant to be doing. She went into the wrong tent,” Elsa-May added. “They had to choose me instead. Ettie wasn’t happy about that.”

  He stared at Elsa-May and his face took on a glazed expression. “Choose you for what?”

  “To judge the cookies of course.”

  He shook his head. “We’re here to talk about the woman who was murdered, not the cookies.”

  “I’m just giving you the overall mood of what was going on at the time. We arrived with Kate and her daughter, who are temporarily living next-door. The now-deceased came running over and told Ettie she was needed in the cookie tent.”

  An officer came into the room and flicked a switch on the video camera, which was set on a tripod in the corner of the room.

  “Mrs. Smith, I do have to tell you that everything you say will be recorded. This is Detective Kelly, chief investigator for this case. Do you consent to this recording, Ettie Smith?”

  Ettie nodded.

  “I’ll need you to speak so it’ll be recorded.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Yes.”

  The officer gave a nod to say that it was recording.

  When the officer left the room, Detective Kelly again asked Mrs. Smith what she was doing at the quilting tent.

  She repeated everything that Elsa-May had just said.

  Then he asked, “How could you have got the tents confused? The quilting tent was the largest one there and the cookie tent was the smallest. I went into all the tents before I left.”

  “I don’t know, but there was a beautiful quilt and I was going to take a closer look. It was blue and pink and it featured a house, a river and a garden. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “I would’ve liked to have seen it,” Elsa-May said.

  “You would’ve liked it.”

  Kelly said, “Mrs. Lutz, we’re hearing from Mrs. Smith at the moment, if you don’t mind.”

  “No, I don’t mind at all.”

  He raised his eyebrows and then looked back at Ettie. “Continue please.”

  “The sky was blue, different shades of blue and—”

  His lips turned down at the corners. “Are we still talking about the quilt here?”

  “Yes. You told me to carry on.”

  “Only tell me about the quilt if it directly relates to anything we need to know about the deceased and who might have killed her.”

  “Anyway, if you don’t want me to keep telling you about the quilt, I won’t.”

  “Wait a minute.” He eyed her skeptically. “I don’t recall a quilt such as the one you’re describing. I was there when the forensic team packed each of the quilts.”

  Ettie gave Elsa-May a sideways glance, wondering what to say.

  “I told you, you should’ve told him,” Elsa-May whispered.

  He leaned across the table with a stern look on his face. “Told me what?”

  Ettie took a deep breath, knowing Kelly would be more than a little annoyed. “I wasn’t going to tell you this because I didn’t think it would matter. I know she wouldn’t have killed Greta. She’s not a killer.”

  “Who?”

  “Leonora. She wins all the quilting competitions.” Then Ettie said, quickly, “She took her quilt away.”

>   “You’re telling me that someone took a quilt out of the tent?”

  “That’s what she’s telling you,” Elsa-May said.

  “Exactly when did she take it away?”

  Ettie sputtered, nervously, “The quilt, her quilt. The one that she’d entered into the competition. It would’ve won first prize for sure.”

  “When did she do this?” he asked, more loudly this time.

  “The councilor was still on the phone to 911. She must’ve heard what happened and she came to the tent and took it away. I told her to leave it, but she wouldn’t listen to me.”

  Elsa-May nodded. “It’s true, she did. Ettie did say that. I know because she told me.”

  Kelly frowned at Elsa-May. “Were you there too?”

  “You know I wasn’t there, but Ettie told me about it.”

  “You should’ve stopped her any way you could’ve, Mrs. Smith.”

  “Have you seen the size of Leonora?” Elsa-May asked. “Ettie wouldn’t have been able to stop her physically, and talking didn’t help, as she just told you.”

  Kelly picked up his pen. “I got her first name as Leonora. Last name?”

  “Leonora Shroder.”

  He scribbled the name down in his notepad. “And where can I find this Leonora Shroder?”

  Ettie crouched down in her seat wishing she could rewind back to yesterday. She would’ve gone into the right tent, she would have judged those cookies, and then ... someone else would be sitting where she was right now.

  “Well, Mrs. Smith?”

  “She’s one of our ladies. Did you know that?”

  “She’s Amish?” he asked.

  “That’s right.”

  Elsa-May said, “Surely you don’t think that someone from our community could be a killer, do you?”

  “My job is to find leads and follow them through. It’s the court that decides who the guilty parties are.”

  “Give him her address then, Ettie.”

  Ettie gave him Leonora’s address. “Now, from here you’d go to South Street and then take the first left. I don’t know the name of that street, but if you follow that until you get to the—”

  “No need for directions. We do have GPS these days. It wasn’t so hard, was it?” he asked, scowling down at his notes.

  Elsa-May let out a loud sigh. “It’ll probably be wasted time talking with her. I don’t think she would know anything about who killed Greta.”

  Kelly stared at Elsa-May, gave a firm nod, and then stood. “Come with me, Mrs. Lutz.”

  He walked to the door and Elsa-May followed. Then he opened the door and turned around. “Please wait in the waiting room until Mrs. Smith is finished.”

  “Oh, I won’t say any more if you want me to keep quiet. All you have to do is say the word.”

  “The only words I want to say are 'Waiting Room!'” He pointed out the door.

  Elsa-May did as she was told and walked out of the room looking down at the floor.

  Chapter 7

  Kelly returned to his chair with a deep sigh. “Is that all right with you, Mrs. Smith? I know you requested she be here. Shall I have her come back?”

  “It’s okay. I don’t need her here.” Now that she’d got the Leonora business off her chest, she was fine.

  “Good. We shall continue.”

  “I don’t think there’s anything else I can tell you. That’s all I know.”

  “Have you heard of anyone being upset with Greta O’Toole?”

  “All I know is that a lot of ladies in the community are upset because Greta increased the consignment percentage for the quilts she sells. Now she keeps thirty-five percent when it used to only be twenty-five. You see, she sells them and keeps a percentage.”

  “I am familiar with the concept of consigning goods, Mrs. Smith.”

  “Oh, of course you would be.”

  “Is there anything else you can think of?”

  “No. Except …”

  He leaned forward. “Except?”

  “There was one other thing that bothered me. Martin Cruise put something in his pocket. I saw him.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “When was this?”

  “When he came into the tent after I called out for help. While he called 9-1-1, I was seeing if Greta had a heartbeat, if she was still breathing, and when I told him she was murdered, I poked my head out from under the table and saw him placing something in his pocket.”

  Kelly drew his eyebrows together. “Small or large?”

  “Small enough to easily fit in his pants pocket.”

  “Why are you only telling me this now?”

  “When we were waiting to be interviewed, I asked him what he put in his pocket and he denied it. Said I could check his pockets if I didn’t believe him. Then he pulled his pockets out and there was nothing there.”

  He rubbed his chin. “You should’ve told me this on Saturday.”

  “He would’ve denied it. My words against his. I’m seen as just a silly old fool and he’s a respected member of the council.”

  “Are you sure of what you saw?”

  “Yes. My eyesight is perfect. I don’t even need glasses for needlework, and I can read newspaper print. I eat a lot of carrots.”

  “But you didn’t see what it was he placed in his pocket?”

  “No. It happened too quickly.”

  He breathed out heavily. “Anything else? Anything at all?”

  Ettie shook her head.

  “Please speak for the recording.”

  “No, there is nothing else. Nothing that I can think of.”

  “I’ll just get a transcript of your statement and I’ll have you read it through and sign it if you agree with it.”

  “Okay.” When Ettie nodded, he left the room. Ettie sat drumming her fingertips on the table. With the video camera in the corner of the room, she couldn’t even reach over and take a look at his notes he’d left in the folder.

  Fifteen minutes later, he came back into the room. “Sorry for keeping you so long. We had trouble with the printer.”

  “It’s quite all right.” He passed the statement over and she read through it. “Yes, it looks about right.”

  “About right?”

  “I’m sorry, I chose my words poorly. That’s right, it is right and true. That’s what happened and they are my own words.”

  “Good, then make your mark down at the bottom.”

  She scribbled her signature at the bottom of the page and then passed it over to him. “I do hope you can find who did this to her. Do you think it was a man or a woman?”

  “We haven’t got the full report back from the coroner yet, but from what I saw initially it’s obvious she was strangled. It takes quite a bit of strength to strangle someone. As I told you before, it’s not as easy as people think.”

  “There wasn’t a lot of time between the time I saw her and the time I found her under the table. She must’ve gone right to the tent after she’d talked to me and someone was waiting for her.”

  “Or followed her in,” Kelly added. “And we have to figure out why.”

  “And who,” Ettie added. “But who would tell us why, because the how is pretty well-established.” When she saw Kelly looking irritated, she asked, “Am I free to go now?”

  “Yes. Tell your sister I’m sorry, but she just wouldn’t keep quiet.”

  “I know, I have that problem at home quite a bit. Unfortunately, I don’t have a waiting room where I can send her.”

  Kelly stood, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a laugh. He reached the door and opened it for her. “I have been wanting to ask you something, Mrs. Smith.”

  She looked up at him holding her breath. What had she done now?

  “I want you to talk to all the Amish ladies who have their quilts on consignment at her store. Someone might know something, and I know from experience they’ll talk to you much easier than they’ll talk with me. It’s a long shot, so I’d rather you ask the initial questions and let me know if you t
hink anyone knows anything.”

  “How will I know who they are? Do you have a list?”

  He smiled at her. “I’m sure you have your ways of finding out. Just do what you would normally do to find things out.”

  “It would be much easier with a list.”

  “I’m working on it, but until then, just do things how you usually do.”

  “Did you contact the next of kin?”

  “I did. It’s only the two nieces like you said. One lives in town, the other lives in LA. The one who lives locally is opening her aunt’s store today, surprisingly. Perhaps that’s where you should start.”

  “Start with what?”

  “Start making your inquiries.”

  Ettie shook her head. “I don’t think it would be the right time. Not right after her aunt has died.”

  “Keep in mind, I am letting you off the tampering with evidence charge.”

  “But I had to see if she was still breathing.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not talking about that. I’m referring to you withholding information, impeding an investigation, and I’m sure I can think up a few other things that could see you winding up in jail. Wouldn’t look good for your Amish community, would it?”

  “Detective Kelly, I think you’ve known me long enough to know that I’ll help if you ask nicely. Besides, jail would be a nice break from my sister.”

  He chuckled. “You’re right, it would. Before you go, I have something to show you.” He left the door and went back to the table and opened a folder. Then he placed four photographs in front of her. “Do you recognize any of these men?”

  Ettie took a careful look at each one in turn. “No. I don’t think I’ve seen any of them before. Who are they?”

  “Take another look. Do you recognize any of them from the fair?”

  “No. I’ve never seen any of them before.”

  Kelly reached over and gathered them together, and placed them back in the folder.

  “Was one of them the young man you’re questioning?” Ettie asked.

  “Might be. Would you do some asking around within your community, Mrs. Smith?”

  “Yes, I will since you asked nicely, but only to prove to you that no one in my community had anything to do with Greta O’Toole’s murder.” She walked through the door without waiting for him to say anything else.