Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 7

by Samantha Price

  “I’m pleased you approve,” said Ettie with only a tiny trace of sarcasm in her voice.

  “Wonderful. Are you decided on that design? Or can I show you some other options?” Ann Maree asked.

  “Yes, Jacob’s Ladder.” Ettie gave a sharp nod. “Pinks and blues.”

  “I’ll give you a closer look at some fabric choices that I think will do wonderfully with your design.” Ann Maree proceeded to pull down more fabric rolls and placed them on the counter. Together they worked out which fabric was best to go where, and how much of each would be needed for the size Ettie wanted. When they were done, Ann Maree said, “I do suggest a rotary cutter and a cutting base. You didn’t get those the other day.”

  She picked up the cutting base to show them and Elsa-May said, “Looks like a mere bit of plastic.”

  Ann Maree wasn’t concerned about Elsa-May’s disapproval. “It’ll make life so much easier.”

  “No thank you,” said Ettie. “I have the fabric scissors I bought from you and I’ll work directly on the kitchen table. That’ll work just fine.”

  “Well, see how you do with it and you can always come back and get them.”

  “If we come back it won’t be to get those two things. When I was young, we made quilts just fine without all of the fancy gadgets that are here today.” Elsa-May’s face soured.

  “That’s true, you can do without, but it makes life so much easier.”

  Ettie stood there and watched Ann Maree fold the fabric and place it into a bag. “This lot will be enough to get you started. Anything else?” Ann Maree asked.

  “That’ll do for today, thank you.” Once the prices were rung up, Ettie handed over the money.

  Elsa-May folded her arms across her chest. “Have you heard what’s happening with Greta’s quilt store?”

  “As far as I know it’s closing down. There seems to be a breakdown in communication with Greta’s nieces. One wants to keep the store and the other wants it shut down.” She leaned forward. “Don’t say I said.”

  “We won’t say a thing. Come along, Ettie.”

  “I’m coming.” Ettie smiled at Ann Maree as she collected the heavy bag. “Thank you.”

  “It was a pleasure. I’ll look forward to seeing you again.”

  Together, Ettie and Elsa-May walked out of the store. “I didn’t know it’d be so heavy.”

  “Well, you’re carrying nearly half a quilt. What did you expect?”

  “I didn’t think. Now we’ll have to carry it to the library. We’ll have to take it in turns.”

  Elsa-May looked down at the bag. “You carry one handle and I’ll carry the other.”

  “Good idea.”

  They walked like that all the way to the library.

  Chapter 28

  When they got to the library, the first person they saw was Carol behind the counter.

  “Too late, she’s seen us,” Elsa-May whispered to Ettie.

  Ettie looked around hoping to see a phonebook somewhere so they wouldn’t have to ask. Of course there wasn't one. “Where would we look to find a phone book?”

  “You’ll have to ask her.” They lowered the bag to the floor.

  “Why is it always me who has to do these things?”

  “It was your idea to look for Mondo’s relatives.”

  Ettie pressed her lips together and couldn’t think of a reply. “Okay, but I’m not happy about it.” Ettie walked forward and Carol stared at her as she approached.

  “What can I do for you?” Carol asked when Ettie reached the counter.

  “We’re looking for a local phone book. Where might I be able to find one?”

  Without saying a word, Carol reached under the counter and produced a phone book. With a hesitant hand, she placed it on top of the counter and pushed it toward Ettie.

  “Ah, thank you and can I just take it over to a table?”

  “Yes, but it must stay in the library.”

  “Of course.” Ettie took hold of it and walked to the nearest spare table. Elsa-May sat down with her and took the phone book from her. Then she proceeded to unfold her glasses that had been hooked over the top of her dress. When she had popped them on her nose, she flipped through the book.

  “I hope we can find a relative of Mondo’s,” Ettie whispered.

  “We shall soon see. Hmmm. Here we are. The same last name.” Elsa-May tapped on the book.

  Ettie stared where Elsa-May placed her finger. There was only one name. “Do you think that’s one of Raymond’s relatives?”

  “Either call him Raymond or Mondo.”

  Ettie didn’t know why Elsa-May was choosing to be so precise at this time. She took the easiest course of action. “I’ll call him Mondo. Ask Carol for a pen and paper so we can write down the name and phone number.”

  “Ach nee, Ettie. We can’t call someone about something like this. Since there’s only one person in the phone book by that name, we should stop by. I’ve seen Edgeworth Street somewhere and I don’t think it’s far from here. We’ll get a taxi, and have it take us there.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Jah.”

  “Let’s go.” They both stood and Ettie closed the phone book in readiness to take it back.

  Elsa-May stood and took hold of one corner of Ettie’s shopping. “Come on. I can’t do this by myself.”

  Ettie grabbed the other handle, while she pushed her sister’s chair back under the table with her foot. “I hope we can find out about Mondo.”

  “Who?” Elsa-May frowned at her as they walked to the door.

  “I said I’d call him Mondo and not his other name.”

  “Nee, Ettie, you said you’d call him Raymond.”

  Ettie sighed. She knew precisely what she had said.

  “Wait a moment,” a lady called out.

  Ettie and Elsa-May had just walked out the double doors of the library when they heard the voice. They turned to see Carol running after them.

  “I’ll need that phone book back.” She held out her hands.

  Ettie looked down to see she still had it tucked under her arm. “Oh, I didn’t see it there. I’m so sorry.” She placed it into Carol’s outstretched hands.

  Carol grabbed the phone book, held it to herself and walked back into the library. Ettie walked after her. “Carol, I was bringing it back, but then I forgot. Maybe, in the back of my head, I thought it was part of my quilt supplies.”

  Carol just kept walking, ignoring her.

  “Oh dear. You’ve upset someone else, Ettie.”

  “Looks like we’re taking it in turns.”

  The sisters had a taxi drive them to the address that Elsa-May had memorized. The house was a modest cottage and the gardens were neatly kept.

  “Don’t stop directly outside,” Elsa-May said to the driver. “Move forward a couple of houses.”

  He slowly moved the car forward.

  “I hope we get some answers.”

  “Can you wait for us?” Elsa-May asked the driver.

  “I’ll wait all day, but I’ll have to keep the meter running.”

  “Of course, we realize that.” Elsa-May opened the door and had one leg out when Ettie spied a familiar car. She pulled her sister back inside the taxi.

  “What are you doing, Ettie? Are you trying to break my leg?”

  Elsa-May rubbed her leg where it had banged on the door.

  “Quick close the door and stay low.”

  Elsa-May did as she was told. “What is it?” she hissed.

  “It’s Kelly!”

  They both peeped over the top of the back seat. His car had just pulled up a few houses behind them. They watched as Kelly got out of the driver’s side of the car and a plain clothed officer got out of the passenger side. They walked toward the house.

  “One minute quicker and we would’ve run into him,” Elsa-May said. “Just as well you were lagging behind, Ettie.”

  “That’s ruined our plans now."

  "Should we wait and knock on the
door when they leave?”

  Ettie shook her head. “Kelly will notice that the taxi’s still here when he comes out. Let’s just go. We must’ve been on the right track. It must be Mondo’s relatives in that house or Mondo could live there himself.”

  Elsa-May sat up straight. “Drive on please,” she said to the driver.

  Ettie sat upright and fastened her seat belt.

  “Where to?” asked the driver.

  Elsa-May gave him their home address.

  Chapter 29

  Ettie spread out her fabric on their small kitchen table—the only table in their house. Elsa-May sat down in the corner watching her. “Don’t forget how important cutting out is. Measure twice cut once. Maybe you should’ve got one of those cutting bases and a rotary cutter.”

  “Scissors will do just fine and I don’t see why I need a cutting base. The table’s old, it won’t matter if it gets a couple more scratches. It’ll just give it more character.”

  “Cutting the shapes seems like a simple thing, but it's not that easy. It is the first step in creating a good quilt because if the shapes don’t match up, you’ll be in all kinds of trouble.”

  "You’re not telling me anything I don’t know. And, I think we bought enough tools from Ann Maree. We’ve contributed nicely to her retirement fund.”

  Elsa-May giggled. “You did want to take up quilting.”

  "I'm very nervous about cutting this, Elsa-May.”

  “Careful. Stop waving the scissors about in the air. They’re very sharp.”

  “One wrong cut and I'll be wasting the fabric and it wasn't cheap."

  "Just do it, Ettie. It’ll be fine."

  Ettie traced the shape with her marking pen. Now all she had to do was cut straight lines. With her scissors poised to make the first cut, her fingers began to tremble. She looked across at her sister. "You do it."

  "Nee. You said you were going to do it, so you will start it and you will finish it."

  "I thought we were doing this together. And then we’ll do your quilt together."

  Elsa-May grunted. "I know why you want me to do it. Because if I make an error you can blame me, but if you make a mistake who can you blame? You won't like to have to blame yourself because you never admit to your mistakes."

  "That's right I don't. I’m a dreadful person like that sometimes, so could you?"

  Elsa-May rose to her feet. "I suppose I could do some of the cutting out for you."

  "Thank you, Elsa-May, and I’ll watch you."

  "I thought you might. Just don't make me nervous and don’t breathe on me. Sit over there so you’re not breathing down my neck."

  "I'll try not to, but I have to stand to see what you’re doing." Ettie handed her the scissors.

  Once everything was cut out, Ettie cleared everything off the table and placed it at the side of the room. It wasn’t ideal to keep the fabric near food, but in their small house there wasn’t anywhere else.

  “It’s still early. How about I make you a hot cup of tea?” Ettie suggested to her sister.

  “Denke. That’d be nice.”

  While Ettie was making the tea, she thought about Leonora and the councilor. They both had something to hide, she was sure of it.

  She handed Elsa-May her cup of tea and went back to the kitchen to get her own. Then she sat down on the couch and sipped it.

  “We got a lot done tonight. Are you going to keep working on it tomorrow?”

  “I was thinking we should talk to Leonora again.”

  “She’s not happy with us either.”

  “Maybe the people who aren’t happy with us are the ones who are hiding things?”

  Elsa-May sipped her tea. “What are you going to ask her?”

  “I’m simply going to tell her that I know for a fact she was hiding something in her quilt, and she should tell us before we take our information to the police.”

  “Do you still think Martin Cruise is involved?”

  “I do. He has to be because—”

  “I know. Because you saw him put something in his pocket?”

  “That’s right. Exactly, and he did look guilty about it.”

  Chapter 30

  When Leonora opened her door, Ettie spoke fast while Elsa-May stood behind her. “Before you throw us out again. I need to know the truth. I’ve been doing something wrong, and I feel bad.”

  “What’s that, Ettie?”

  “I’ve been withholding information from the police. It’s time I told them what I know about your quilt and the pocket you’d sewn into it.”

  Leonora looked down. “You’re right. I did have something hidden in the quilt, but I was too embarrassed to say. Please don’t tell anyone.”

  “What was it?” Ettie asked.

  Leonora slipped her hands into her apron. “You will keep this to yourself, won’t you?”

  “Yes. I will.”

  “It was a note to Mr. Cruise.”

  “A note about what?” asked Elsa-May as she stepped out from behind Ettie.

  “A note because we have no other way of communicating. After each note I tell him where I’ll leave the next one and so it goes. He’s been collecting my notes all over town for years.”

  For once Ettie was speechless. It sounded so odd that it had to be the truth.

  “Can we sit?” asked Elsa-May fanning herself with her hand. “The heat’s getting to me.”

  “Sure.” She showed them to her living room. Leonora sat on a chair while the sisters sat in a couch opposite her.

  Elsa-May rearranged the cushions behind her. “And that’s why he was near the tent, because he knew about the note? Did he?”

  “Jah. I told him I put the note in the left corner of my quilt knowing he’d look on the list and know which one was mine.”

  Ettie was troubled about that. If he had a list and knew whose quilt belonged to whom, he wasn’t an impartial judge. But that was the least of their problems.

  “Now all those are the reasons I told you for taking the quilt, they’re all true. I didn’t want anything to go wrong and I needed to sell that quilt.”

  Elsa-May leaned forward. “Are you having financial difficulties?”

  “The quilts are the only way that I get an income, and this one took me the same amount of time as three or four average quilts.”

  “So it would cost someone four times as much as the average quilt?”

  “I wouldn’t be able to get that much for it, but I might be able to get double what I would for my normal quilts.”

  “I can see why,” Elsa-May said. “It’s a work of art.”

  “Most quilts are works of art, Elsa-May.”

  “This one was outstanding, Ettie told me about it at length.”

  “It was special. Do you see why I was in such a hurry to take it away, Ettie?”

  “Yes, you have more than one reason. So, how did the councilor get the note? Did you take it out and leave it somewhere for him?”

  “He didn’t get the note. I had to take my quilt when I heard what happened to Greta. When I got home, the note was gone. It must’ve fallen out somewhere. I quickly stitched the opening of the pocket when I got home, so no one would ever know.”

  Ettie asked, “So, you didn’t have the opening stitched up when it was at the fair?”

  “I had one stitch holding it together.”

  Elsa-May stared disapprovingly at Leonora. “What is going on between you and the councilor?”

  “Nothing. We’ve passed notes back and forth for years. He leaves notes in places for me too. He’s single and I’m single, so what’s the harm?”

  Elsa-May’s mouth turned down at the corners. “That’s not nothing. You had a romantic entanglement with him.”

  “He’s not a member of our community,” Ettie said.

  “I know and I feel ashamed. I was lonely and Gott hasn’t looked on me with compassion. Writing notes to Martin added a pinch of spice to my life, if you know what I mean? An apple pie is nice, but with a little
pinch of cinnamon and a little nutmeg it does add an extra zing.”

  “You wanted 'zing'?” Elsa-May looked down her nose at her.

  “Jah. That’s what I was missing. Without that, my life would’ve been the same every day. This has given me something else to think about. I knew nothing was ever going to come of it, but it was nice to dream about what could be—what might’ve been and what could’ve been under different circumstances.”

  Ettie offered a sympathetic smile while Elsa-May sat there as stiff as a post. Her silence made the biggest statement of what she thought of Leonora’s words.

  “Ach, I’ve just made a big fool of myself. A giant fool of myself.”

  “Nee, you haven’t,” Ettie said. “It explains quite a lot. It explains why you were so quick to get the quilt away and also why Martin Cruise was so close to the tent. Close enough to hear me call out. There’s something I don’t understand.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Martin barely looked at you when the two of you were in the tent with me. He was calling 911 and you were stuffing the quilt into the bag.”

  “Oh, Ettie, I’ve left out one important piece of information.”

  “And what is that?”

  “You see, he never knew what I looked like, or who I was.”

  Elsa-May screwed up her face in puzzlement. “What do you mean?”

  “It was all by notes, and letters. I’m sure he thought I was some young attractive woman instead of the old woman that I am. I admitted that I was Amish, but that’s all he knew about me. I met him many years ago at one of these fairs and then I wrote to him. I might have given him the impression I was a lot younger than I was.” She closed her eyes tightly and pressed her lips together.

  “So you never met … ever?”

  “Only on the pages of our notes. The prizes for my winning quilts were always given to me by someone else—he was only the judge.”

  “So he had your address?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Oh no, it was more fun than that. I’d write a note and then tell him where to find the next note.”

  Ettie held her head trying to figure out how what she was saying could work. “It gives me a headache to think about. Why couldn’t he tell you the note was in a certain place and then hide somewhere and see who you were? Wait, he’d have to leave a note to tell you where he was leaving a note.”