Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 2

by Samantha Price

  Ettie said, “We’ll stay in here to be certain not to be seen. After dinner, just put the men in the living room and then go out to the barn and call us a taxi. Have the taxi pick us up down the road on the corner outside the old red barn. We’ll start walking as soon as you go outside.”

  “Okay.” Ava nodded before she closed the door.

  “The food smells delicious, and I’m getting quite hungry. I’ll just go and get a little of something. Do you want some too?” Ettie asked.

  “I’m hungry as well; we should get something to eat. Stay here; I’ll go and get us something.” Elsa-May opened the door as she went to walk past Ettie, and then Snowy raced through their legs.

  They followed him trying to grab him, but he scampered through the door.

  Ettie raced back into the utility room with Elsa-May not far behind her. By this time, the door of the kitchen had been pushed wide open.

  “How did you let that happen, Ettie?”

  “Me? You shouldn’t have brought him. He’s going to ruin everything.”

  “What do we do now?”

  “Just wait here and be quiet,” Ettie said.

  “And what’s this?” they heard Jeremiah say.

  Then Ava said, “I forgot to tell you we’re looking after Elsa-May’s dog tonight.”

  “We are? Where has he been?”

  “He’s been sleeping in the utility room.”

  “Is Elsa-May all right?”

  “She’s quite all right. Well, the thing is, she asked me if I wanted to take the dog because it’s too much work for her. I thought we could take him for a day or two to see how he fits in with us.”

  “When were you going to let me know about this?”

  “I just forgot to mention it.”

  “He’s very cute,” Josh said.

  “Jah. He is cute,” Jeremiah admitted, “but we’ve already got two dogs, Ava. I definitely don’t need another.”

  Chapter 16

  When Josh went home later that evening, Ava carried the dishes to the sink while Jeremiah flung open the door to the utility room.

  He stood looking at them with his arms folded. “I thought as much when I saw the pup. What are you two doing in here?”

  “We didn’t want to let Josh know that we were here.”

  He shook his head. “He’s well and truly gone now. I’ll take you both home, and the dog. I can only guess what you’re doing in here.” Jeremiah walked away.

  “I think I’ve just been reprimanded by my grandson.”

  “I think you were.” Ettie laughed quietly. “At least we have a way of getting home now.”

  They stepped into the kitchen not expecting to see Jeremiah, but there he was in front of them looking none too pleased.

  He folded his arms. “I suppose you had Ava ask questions for you so you could hear the answers?”

  “We only had the very best intentions. He’s fallen under suspicion of being guilty of something. That’s what the detective told us.”

  “We were only trying to protect him,” Ettie said.

  “He was keeping something from us, and thanks to Ava, we’ve now found out about the fraud that Norman Cartwright was trying to commit. A million dollars worth.”

  “That’s a lot of money,” Ettie added.

  “It’s not right what happened here tonight. We’ve betrayed Josh’s trust,” Jeremiah said.

  “Nee, not you—we have,” Ettie said.

  “Now we can tell the detective about the way the man wanted to defraud the insurance company. The detective wouldn’t have stopped until he found out what Josh was hiding.”

  “We talked Ava into doing this for us. It’s not her fault. She didn’t want to do it,” Ettie said.

  “But she did want to help Josh, and that’s the only reason she did this.”

  “I was going to tell you about it afterward, Jeremiah,” Ava said.

  “That would’ve been too late.” His eye was caught by something on the floor. “What is that puddle on the floor over there?”

  Elsa-May walked a few steps to have a closer look at what he was pointing at. “Ach nee. I’m sorry. I should’ve taken Snowy outside before now.”

  Ettie remained silent while trying not to laugh. She was tempted to say that it might have been better not to bring the dog, but there was no point in repeating what she’d already said. Elsa-May was already upset with her.

  “I’m sorry, Ava and Jeremiah. I’ll take him outside. Where’s that leash?”

  “It’s in the utility room,” Ettie said.

  “You allowed the dog in the utility room where we store our food?” Jeremiah looked at Ava.

  “The dog’s only small, Jeremiah, and he was nowhere near the food,” Ava said while she patted Jeremiah’s arm.

  “We should go now, Elsa-May.”

  “I’ll clean the mess up before we go.”

  “I’ll go hitch the buggy,” Jeremiah said.

  “Nee, we’ll get a taxi. We don’t want to cause you any trouble, Jeremiah. We’ve already been enough trouble for one evening,” Ettie said.

  ”You have, there’s no doubt about that. Nevertheless, I’ll take you home anyway. No arguments; I’ll go and hitch the buggy now.” Jeremiah strode out of the room.

  ”I’m sorry, Ava, we didn’t mean to put you in an awkward position like that,” Ettie said.

  “Well, that’s what I was afraid of. He’ll calm down but it might take him a bit of time. I’ll get a mop and clean that.”

  “Nee, Ava, I’ll do it,” Elsa-May said.

  “I will,” said Ettie. “You hold the culprit, Elsa-May, and I’ll get the mop.”

  Once Ettie had cleaned up the mess, she sat in the kitchen. The night had been problematic, but at least they had information, which would put Josh in a better light with the police. She only wished that they could have done this without involving Jeremiah and Ava.

  On the way home, Ettie waited for Elsa-May to say something to calm Jeremiah.

  Elsa-May finally spoke, “Please don’t blame Ava for anything that happened tonight. She didn’t even want to do it. It was all my idea.”

  “And mine too,” Ettie said. “She was against the idea, and we talked her into it.”

  “I know this was not her doing. I must say I’m quite surprised that Ava hid it all from me.”

  “Ava was going to tell you when the night was over. She said she’d only do it if she could tell you about it, so she wasn’t keeping anything from you.”

  “She is a very good honest girl.”

  He sighed deeply. “I know she is, but I just don’t like things going on in my house that I have no idea of. You can’t do anything like this again. I know you feel involved because this happened at your haus Ettie, but can you leave Ava out of things?”

  “We will.”

  “Yes, we will. And we shouldn’t have done it. If we knew that things would’ve turned out like this, I wouldn’t have done it. Will you accept our apology?”

  “Jah. Let’s just pretend this whole thing never happened.”

  When they finally reached their home, Elsa-May put Snowy down on the floor, and he walked out the dog door.

  “I’ll get us something to eat, Ettie. We’ve got some cold cuts, and I’ll put something together quickly.”

  “Denke, sounds good.” Ettie followed Elsa-May into the kitchen. “What a dreadful, dreadful night we’ve had.”

  “We reached our goal. We found out what we wanted, but at what cost?”

  “We’ve caused trouble between two of our favorite people. And they’re only newly married.”

  “I feel awful about it,” Elsa-May said.

  “Why does good come with bad sometimes?”

  Elsa-May sighed. “Don’t ask difficult things so late at night. Ava and Jeremiah are in love; nothing will affect that.”

  “I suppose so. It was a shock about the insurance and Cartwright trying to make her commit insurance fraud.”

  “Jah, that was a big
shock.”

  “I didn’t expect to find anything out like that.”

  “When should we tell the detective? I think that we should inform him as soon as possible,” Elsa-May said.

  “Jah, in the morning first thing.”

  Chapter 17

  “You’ve got something to tell me?” Detective Kelly asked them the next morning when they were sitting across from him in his office.

  “Yes, we do. We overheard Josh, the man that Margaret was once going to marry, telling someone that Norman Cartwright wanted her to pretend her ring was either lost or stolen so he could collect an insurance payout.”

  “Really? Margaret told someone that?”

  “Yes, she did. Margaret was so upset she called Josh to talk about it. She didn’t want to do it and told Norman she wouldn’t. I think she had second thoughts about the marriage.”

  “Yes, that’s the way it sounded. The way he told it,” Elsa-May said.

  “That is interesting. Fascinating,” Detective Kelly said.

  “Josh doesn’t know we overheard what he said. He told Ava and Jeremiah that in confidence.”

  The detective frowned. “How did you happen to overhear it?”

  “Does that matter?”

  The detective looked shocked at Ettie’s reply.

  Elsa-May butted in by saying, “We overheard it while Josh was having dinner at Ava and Jeremiah’s place.”

  “You weren’t also having dinner there?”

  “We were at their house, but Josh didn’t know we were there.”

  “Sounds like that’s all I need to know.” The detective had smirked before he leaned back in his chair. “I think I’ll have to take a little more interest in the motives of Norman Cartwright in all this. Did you hear if she shared anything else with Josh?”

  “No. That’s all. Do you think there’s more?”

  He folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t know.”

  “What about Norman’s daughter?” Ettie asked.

  “That’s another matter entirely. We have DNA that was found at the scene of the crime.”

  “How so?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Where?” Ettie asked.

  “We found her DNA under Margaret’s fingernails, but Paisley has a solid alibi. So we’re still looking into that.”

  “Detective, you led us to believe you thought Josh was guilty of something.”

  “I’m sorry, I know I did, but it was important that you get the information for me to find out how much Josh knows. He could be in danger.”

  “How can we believe that? If you keep hiding the truth about things from us?” Elsa-May clasped her hands in her lap.

  “I’ll get to that later. Paisley had a reasonable explanation why her DNA was found under Margaret’s fingernails. She told us that she and Margaret had a physical altercation wherein Margaret scratched her on the arm. She even showed us the marks left by Margaret.”

  “That’s hard to believe. I’d say Margaret was defending herself.”

  “Is there any way to tell if the scratches happened the day Margaret was murdered or the day before?”

  “I don’t think so. The scratches didn’t draw blood; they were more like scrapes really. Just enough for DNA to be found under her fingernails the next day.”

  “Could Paisley have slipped away from the place where she had the alibi?” Elsa-May asked.

  He shook his head. “It was too far away for that. She wouldn’t have been able to get out and get back. There were too many witnesses at the function where she was. Paisley was quite cooperative and even offered to undergo a lie detector test.”

  “I would have thought that DNA under a victim’s fingernails would be proof enough but on the other hand, you say her alibi is solid.”

  “What she told us checks out. The other thing was there didn’t seem to be signs of a struggle at the scene; everything was quite orderly except the book that was dropped.”

  “Can you say that there were no signs of a struggle? What signs would there be out in the open? It wasn’t as though they were in a house where furniture would’ve been knocked over.”

  “No, Elsa-May, but the medical examiner didn’t find bruises consistent with a struggle.”

  “So from her altercation where Paisley was scratched there must’ve been no bruises from that?”

  “No; none. The coroner is suggesting she might have been under the influence of a drug when she was killed, which is why there were no signs of a struggle. What normally happens during strangulation is that the victim’s clothing will get caught in whatever the victim is being strangled with and provide marks, or the victim will try to scratch the assailant. None of the usual signs were present.”

  “That’s interesting.”

  “I’m probably not doing a good job explaining all this.”

  “You are. It’s just that all this is new to us.”

  “Since there were none of the usual signs there is every possibility that the woman was given some kind of drug beforehand. The other thing was, the angle of the marks on her neck suggest that she was strangled by someone tall.”

  “Or could she have been on her knees at the time? I noticed her knees were red,” Ettie said.

  “Yes, there was mention of that in the autopsy, which might fall in line with her being drugged beforehand as well. She could have fallen to her knees feeling unwell, and then her assailant took the opportunity to step in and strangle her.”

  “Why does it take so long for the toxicology report to come back? It’s frustrating waiting so long,” Ettie said.

  “There’s every possibility that several laboratories are involved. If there are two or more toxins found in her body that also slows things up beyond the time that I estimated.”

  Elsa-May shook her head.

  “I know this is frustrating, but sometimes we just have to be patient and wait. There’s quite a lot of waiting in my job. It would help if I could find out more from Josh Tomson about Norman Cartwright’s insurance fraud plans. I need to know exactly how much Josh Tomson knows.”

  “You could try to talk to him again yourself. Tell him you heard rumors that he met with Margaret,” Ettie suggested to the detective. “I think he needs the right motivation. He wouldn’t want there to be a cloud hanging over Margaret’s reputation. So if he thought by giving you the information he was clearing Margaret’s name, then he just might tell you what you want to know.”

  “Good thinking, Ettie. I agree.” Elsa-May looked over at Kelly. “I do believe Ettie’s right. He’ll talk to you if you put that line of thinking across to him.”

  “I’ve not got anything to lose by trying. Thanks for the hot tip, Ettie. Are you sure that Josh didn’t mention anything else?”

  “Like what?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Anything at all?”

  Ettie and Elsa-May looked at each other and then looked back at the detective. “No, nothing.” It was then that Ettie noticed something different about his office. It was a different color. “Have you redecorated?”

  “I have. What do you think of it?”

  “I think that it looks more inviting. The cream looks softer than the steely gray. And you’ve got new filing cabinets. I don’t know why I didn’t notice it when I first came in.”

  “Couldn’t you smell the new paint?” he asked.

  Ettie shook her head. “Not with my sinuses the way they are at the moment.”

  “I can smell the paint just slightly now that you’ve mentioned it,” Elsa-May said. “Are you keeping this old desk?” Elsa-May patted the heavily scratched teakwood desk.

  “It has history, and it’s a good size. I was going to update it, but I decided to keep it.”

  “Getting back to this whole thing with Margaret. You said, or you hinted at, there being something more you were going to tell us after we spoke with Josh the second time around,” Ettie said.

  “I might as well tell you, but you have to swear you’ll keep it strictly between the two of you. If
it gets out, it’s going to ruin our whole investigation, threaten my job here, and possibly endanger Josh, and Margaret’s Amish family.”

  “Now you have to tell us,” Elsa-May said.

  “We’ll be sure to keep it to ourselves, whatever it is.”

  The detective let out a deep breath. “Margaret Yoder was one of our own.”

  “One of your own? What does that mean?” Elsa-May asked.

  “She was a police officer.”

  Ettie gasped. “No!”

  “Yes! She was. As soon as she went through the academy, she went straight into special operations.”

  “You mean undercover work?” Elsa-May asked.

  “That’s correct.”

  Ettie and Elsa-May stared at one another.

  The detective went on to say, “If Josh knows she was working undercover it might ruin everything. That’s why I’ve been trying to have you find out whether Josh knows, without letting you two know, that Margaret was undercover. Hopefully, she hasn’t told him that she was working for us.”

  Ettie and Elsa-May looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

  “No one in the community knew she was in the police force. It would be a surprise to everybody.”

  “She was a da … I mean she was a very good one, too,” the detective stated. “Unless she’s told someone she was working undercover.”

  “So she wasn’t really genuinely engaged to Norman, she was investigating him?” Ettie asked.

  “That’s right. We’ve been after him for some time. She was gathering information about him. She’s already gathered enough information to put him away for years, but we’re always after more. We were hoping to cast a wide net to see who else we could nab.”

  “You think someone found out she was a detective, and that’s why she was killed?” Elsa-May asked.

  “That’s exactly what I’m trying to find out. She could’ve been killed for the diamond she was wearing. Alternatively, Norman might have killed two birds with the one stone, so to speak. He could have done away with her, and been able to report the diamond stolen at the same time.”