Ruth shook her head. “Nee. I talk to so many people every day I can’t say. It was in the last few months. I can tell you that much.” Ruth stared at the two sisters. “What are you trying to find out? I can do some asking around for you.”
“Nee, we don’t want to endanger you in any way. A murderer is still on the loose, and it might be dangerous to ask questions.”
“I would just bring things up casually in conversation. Don’t worry about me. I’m old enough to look after myself. Just tell me what you want me to find out,” Ruth said.
“We really came here to find out what you know about Brandy and her relationships,” Ettie asked.
“Jah. And particularly if she had once had a relationship with Norman Cartwright.”
“I’ll keep my ears open and let you know if I hear anything that I think might be helpful. What does your detective think about all this?
Ettie pushed her lips out. “He’s not really sharing much with us.”
“There is some talk about Norman’s daughter not being happy about not having a full inheritance if her father were to remarry, so if you hear anything about her that might be helpful,” Elsa-May said.
“I’ve heard about her, but I’ve never met her,” Ruth said.
Ettie raised her eyebrows. “What have you heard?”
“Nothing really; I’ve just heard that she exists—that Norman has a daughter. Apart from that, I know nothing about her.”
“Denke, Ruth, we won’t hold you up anymore today. We’ll just buy some bread and we’ll be on our way.”
“Jah, denke for your help,” Elsa-May added. They made their way outside, and once they’d stepped onto the pavement, Elsa-May said, “That was a complete waste of time.”
“We weren’t to know that.”
“We’re getting nowhere with this whole thing. What we need to do is find out more about Paisley. Right now, though, we need to buy some food.”
The sisters were surprised when they got out of the taxi at their house to find Ruth waiting for them in her buggy. She climbed down as they walked over to her.
“We didn’t expect to see you here so soon,” Ettie said.
“I thought it might be important to tell you that I heard Norman Cartwright was going out of the country.”
“That is interesting. How did you hear that?” Elsa-May asked.
“I have a good friend, Ted; he has a candy and video rental store. Norman called Ted directly and told him to hold onto his loan repayments for a while until someone gets in contact with him. Ted has a loan with Norman. Anyway, Norman told Ted he was going overseas.”
“I think we need to tell the detective that, don’t you, Elsa-May?”
“Jah, quick,” Elsa-May said.
“I’ll call him now.” Ettie walked as quickly as she could to the shanty at the end of the road, where they were able to make their phone calls. She got straight through to Detective Kelly and told him that she’d just heard Cartwright was planning a trip out of the country.
Ettie walked back to Elsa-May and Ruth. “I got through to him. We’ll just have to see what happens now.”
“I’m glad I was able to help out. I hope they find Margaret’s killer. They don’t think it’s Norman Cartwright himself do they?” Ruth asked.
“I’m not certain, but from the sounds of it he hadn’t told Kelly he was leaving the country. Kelly didn’t sound happy.”
“You’d think a bereaved man would want to stay put while the murder investigation of his fiancée was underway.” Elsa-May slowly shook her head.
“Will you come inside, Ruth? Stay for dinner with us.”
“Nee, denke. I’m tired, and I should get home. Another time perhaps?”
“I hope so; we don’t see enough of you,” Ettie said.
The two sisters walked inside after Ruth drove away.
Elsa-May said, “Cartwright leaving the country makes him look guilty.”
“It certainly does. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next.”
Chapter 20
The next day, Ettie and Elsa-May planned to go into the police station to find out what happened with Norman Cartwright, but their plans changed when Detective Kelly knocked on the door early in the day.
“Good morning, ladies,” he said, as he walked through their front door.
“Good morning, Detective Kelly. Come in and take a seat.”
“Did you manage to catch Norman before he flew out of the country?” Elsa-May asked.
“Thanks to the information you gave us, he was apprehended just before he boarded the plane. He was searched by the airport authorities, and the diamond that was allegedly stolen was located on his person.”
“So he was committing insurance fraud?” Ettie asked.
“Yes and not only that, we enacted the warrants we had for his house, and we’ve taken dozens of boxes of documents back to the station. With the information that Margaret already gave us, we’ve got enough to send him away for tax evasion and now for fraud. At this stage, however, there’s no evidence to suggest that he killed Margaret.”
The detective’s phone sounded from his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at it. “It’s the station.”
“Go ahead and answer it,” Elsa-May said.
The ladies listened in.
“Yes, Steve? He’s there now? What’s he saying exactly?” The detective smiled and raised his eyebrows. “Did you tape his confession? Keep him right there in the interview room. I’ll be there in fifteen.” He ended his call.
“Good news, Detective?”
“Very good news. It seems that when the news of Norman Cartwright’s arrest got out, it prompted someone to come forward with a confession.”
“Who?” The elderly sisters asked at the same time.
“A man has come forward claiming that Cartwright paid him to hold Margaret up at gunpoint and steal her ring. He said he did as Cartwright told him, but the woman was very much alive when he left.” He bounded to his feet. “Excuse me, ladies. I’ve got questions I’d like to ask him.”
“Yes, of course, go,” Ettie said.
When the detective left, Elsa-May and Ettie sat back down.
“What do you think about that? He paid someone to hold Margaret up at gunpoint. What a horrible thing to do to poor Margaret.”
“Jah. That’s a dreadful thing that he did.”
“The man who has come forward must’ve been worried that Norman would pin the murder on him.”
“The police were getting too close. If he hadn’t made his confession now, it would’ve been worse for him when they caught up with him.”
“It doesn’t sound as though Norman killed her or wanted her dead because he could have had someone kill her and take the diamond at the same time.”
“I hope the detective’s suspicions don’t fall back onto Josh.”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”
“You know, Elsa-May, I have a feeling that Sarah might know more about things than she’s letting on. Something made her go to the funeral in spite of her parents' decision. What if Margaret confided in her older schweschder?”
“You could be right, Ettie, and she was the only one from her entire familye to go to her funeral, so there was a bond there.”
“Shall we visit her tomorrow to see what we can find out?”
“Sounds like the best thing to do.”
After Elsa-May and Ettie had knocked on Sarah’s door, one of Sarah’s young children answered.
“Hi, is your mudder home?” Elsa-May asked.
As the little girl nodded, Sarah appeared behind her daughter. “Elsa-May, Ettie, come inside; it’s nice to see you.”
“Denke, Sarah. We’ve come here to talk to you about Margaret.” After she spoke, Ettie looked over to the living room and saw Sarah’s other two children sitting down and playing.
“Okay; we can talk in the kitchen. You go in there and sit down, and I’ll be in as soon as I make sure we won’
t be interrupted.”
Ettie and Elsa-May sat in the kitchen and waited for Sarah to get her children organized.
“They’ll be quiet for a while now. Can I get you tea or kaffe?”
“Nee, just sit and talk to us.”
When Sarah sat, Ettie began by saying, “Did Margaret tell you anything about her life?”
“What do you mean?”
“We might as well tell you that the man she was engaged to has been arrested under fraud and tax evasion charges. He was trying to commit insurance fraud with the ring he gave Margaret.”
“Mr. Cartwright has been arrested?”
The sisters nodded.
“He seemed a nice man when I was speaking to him at her funeral. Have they found out who killed her yet?”
“Nee, they haven’t. So, did Margaret tell you anything at all about Cartwright or why she was really with him?”
“I guess you know?”
“We might. Tell us what you know about her. What she told you about her life.”
She sucked in her lips. “She told me things that I was to never tell anyone.”
“About being undercover?”
“You do know!” Sarah gasped.
“Jah, but we weren’t sure that you knew.”
“She needed to talk to someone. She was under a great deal of stress. We met every couple of weeks down by the old mill house. She’d call me the day before from a pay phone, and I’d meet her there at a time she’d tell me. It was always a different time of day but always at the same place.”
“Did she say she was in danger?”
“I think she always felt unsafe when she was with that man. It was hard to talk to Mr. Cartwright at Margaret’s funeral, but I guessed that he was still under investigation, so I had to act as though I knew nothing—that’s what she would’ve wanted.”
“He’s still under investigation, and no one else knows she was undercover so please still keep it quiet,” Ettie said.
“I will. That’s the life she chose. She didn’t have to do it. I told her to leave the job. I didn’t see that it was worth all the stress. I think she was considering it,” Sarah said.
“The latest we heard from the detective was that someone came forward and admitted to taking the diamond from her outside my haus, but he said she was alive when he left her.”
Elsa-May explained further, “We were there when the call came through to the detective. The man had given himself up when he heard that Norman Cartwright had been arrested.”
“Margaret told me she’d been giving the police information on him. He was hiding money in overseas accounts and doing other illegal things. When she told me many of the things, I didn’t really understand them. She only told me what she was doing because she knew that I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
“It was risky for her to meet with you.”
“She said if Norman had her followed it was just her meeting up with her sister. The secrecy could be explained easily because our parents wouldn't have wanted me to be seeing her after she'd left the community.”
“I suppose that’s a point,” Ettie said. “Is there anything else she said that might help us find who the killer is?”
“Shouldn’t you leave that to the police?”
“Probably, but we feel involved—and responsible almost—because it happened on Ettie’s property.”
“Margaret was doing an open house for me,” Ettie explained.
“I know that.”
Elsa-May asked Sarah, “Does your mother know about the work Margaret was doing?”
“Only I knew. I haven't told Mamm anything, and my husband only knows that I met with her to keep in touch. He didn't like it, but he allowed me to do it.”
“That’s most likely best. Your sister was taking a big risk talking to you.”
“Margaret didn’t have many friends. She told me most of the other police are friends with each other, but she always felt she was an outsider; she never fitted in with them. It’s a shame she had to die in the way she did, living a fake life with a fake name; living a life that should’ve belonged to someone else.”
Ettie realized Sarah hadn’t answered her previous question from moments ago. “Is there anything else important that you think we should know?”
“She said if anything happens to her she was ready for it.”
“Sounds like she was half expecting something to happen to her.”
“More than half expecting it I’d say.”
“Sarah, if anything else comes to mind will you let us know?” Ettie asked.
“Jah, I will. I could think of something later. We had many talks.”
“Would you speak with the detective and let him know what you told us?”
She breathed out heavily. “I will. If it helps find who killed her, I will.”
“We’ll go to the station now and tell him what you’ve told us,” Ettie said, pushing herself up from the table.
“Denke, both of you. It’s comforting to know that you two still care about her even though she left the community.”
“We do care.” Elsa-May stood up. “Now we’ll leave you and your little ones alone.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
Chapter 21
“Margaret told her sister she was undercover?” Detective Kelly asked as though he didn’t want to believe it.
“Was she technically undercover if she was using her real personal identity—the one she was born with?”
The detective pulled a sour face. “No need to use semantics on me, Elsa-May. She was undercover and told people about the subjects under investigation. That’s unprofessional. I can’t say I’m happy about that.”
“Margaret’s dead so she wouldn’t be overjoyed about that either,” Elsa-May blurted out.
“Be that as it may, she wasn’t the agent I thought she was.”
“I don’t think you should pass judgment on someone who gave up their life in the course of doing their job,” Elsa-May stated.
“How much did she tell her sister?” he asked.
“Sarah said she’d speak to you. It’s best you hear it straight from her. I don’t think she knows that much,” Ettie said.
“I don’t know if it’ll be necessary to speak to Sarah, now that we’ve had a positive ID on the likely killer.”
“You have?” Ettie asked.
“Yes. Darren Broadfoot came forward and told us he was paid to steal the ring from Brandy’s finger. When he was driving away in the car he stole to use for the robbery, he passed a buggy. That’s when I had your Josh Tomson come in for a lineup and Broadfoot has positively identified Tomson as the man in the buggy.”
“So what does that mean? Do you think Josh killed Margaret because the man who robbed Margaret was …?”
The detective cut across Ettie, “We’ve apprehended Josh, and he’s already been questioned. He’s sticking to the story that he saw Margaret outside the house, wanted to talk to her and she told him to go because she was in the middle of working. He only left when she promised to meet him the next day. The next day, she never showed.”
“It sounds like he’s telling you the truth.”
“Even if he is telling the truth now, he’s withheld vital information which is an obstruction of justice,” the detective said.
“Is that why you’re still holding him?”
“I’m entitled to hold him for twenty four hours without charging him. I’m holding him for as long as I can to see what else comes to light. Perhaps his memory might become clearer the longer he’s here. I’ll let him go in the morning.”
“Can we see him?”
“He hasn’t been co-operative,” the detective said.
“Can we see him, then?” Ettie repeated.
“Very well I’ll have someone take you to him. He might suddenly remember something that he’ll tell you.” The detective picked up his phone, pressed some buttons, and requested that Officer Phillips take them to one of the holding cells.
Rather than talk to him in the cell itself like they’d expected, the officer sat the sisters in an interview room and brought Josh to them.
“Elsa-May, Ettie. Are they going to let me out of here?” Josh said as he sat at the table in front of them.
“I think so,” Elsa-May said.
“The detective told us that you saw Margaret directly after she’d been robbed.”
“Jah that’s right. Margaret told me to go away, and she’d meet me later where we usually met. She’d already told me everything she’d been doing—working for the police and everything. Did you know about that?”
“Jah. But the detective doesn’t want that to be common knowledge,” Ettie said.
“Well, I haven’t told anyone anything. I figured you two would have known by now. The detective seems to trust you. I think Margaret had a feeling her life was in danger.”
“Why’s that?”
“She told me she’d been working undercover on different cases for the past few years, but had never been as scared as she had working this case. Norman Cartwright is a dangerous man—that’s what she said. And she said everyone around him hated her and didn’t want them to be together.”
Elsa-May leaned forward. “Like who?”
“The daughter, his ex-wife, and even his staff. I was just glad that we were talking again even though she said she would never come back to the community. I was still hoping she’d change her mind.”
“Did she say she thought someone might be trying to kill her?”
“She told me about the insurance scam, and that she feared for her life when she was wearing the ring. That’s why she insisted on always wearing the fake ring and not the real one. As far as I see it, if someone thought the ring she was wearing was the real one, she would’ve been in just as much danger as if she was wearing the real one.”
Elsa-May nodded. “Jah, you’re quite right.”
“What did she say about Norman’s daughter, Paisley?”
“When her father wasn’t around she constantly called Margaret a gold digger, and other names that I can’t repeat. She told Margaret her father would wake up to her being after his money.”
Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 2 Page 12
