Bethany didn’t care what he left her in his will or whether it was big or small—it was the fact that he remembered her that impressed her most.
The unexpected sound of hoofbeats sent her rushing to the window. She hoped it was Jabez. When she saw Jabez’s tall black horse, excitement sent her heart racing. At once, she replaced the lid on the candies and hid the jar behind the only throw-pillow on the couch.
Bethany walked outside and waited for him to secure his horse. When he jumped out of the buggy, she saw he was smiling widely.
As he walked toward her, he called out, “How did everything go?”
“It went well, and I’ve got so much to tell you. Can I fix you something to eat?”
“Nee, I got take-out and ate it on the way here. I can’t stay long; it’s only my lunch-break. If I’d known you’d be home already, I would’ve bought you some take-out too.”
“I’ve eaten already. Sit down and I’ll tell you all about it.” They sat on the wooden porch while Bethany told him all the details of what had happened during the funeral.
“It’s sad to hear about your vadder dying before you got to meet him. And it must be a relief that the dead man was your uncle, and he meant you no harm.”
“Jah, it is.”
“And still you look sad.”
“I don’t know what I was expecting, but I wasn’t exactly welcomed into the family with open arms; it was all a hush-hush kind of thing. Cheryl was the only one who knew who I was, or who admitted it to me. My half brother was there, and I couldn’t talk to him because it wasn’t really the place to say who I was.”
“Nee, I see your point. Things like that will probably take a little time. When the lawyers contact you and all that kind of stuff, you can get to know the family—meet the family properly.”
Bethany nodded. “You’re right. My mudder always said I always look at the downside of things.”
Jabez laughed. “Why don’t I take you out somewhere tonight to celebrate? Celebrate you finding the identity that you always wanted to find.”
Bethany appreciated the gesture. Jabez knew how important finding her family was to her. “Denke, but I’m a little tired.”
“I understand. Another time perhaps.”
Bethany nodded, feeling very alone even with her good friend next to her. Her father was dead, and she’d never know him, and her mother was also gone. The only blood relatives she had in the world had kept their distance. Would they ever want to know her? Maybe Ian had a big fight with the whole family because he was the sole person who wanted to continue the search for her. Even Cheryl, who seemed nice, hadn’t welcomed her as part of the family. She’d welcomed her in a distant kind of way as her brother’s illegitimate daughter.
“What’s wrong? I know something’s wrong.”
Right now the only thing Bethany wanted was to be on her own and wallow in self-pity. Even though she knew she should snap out of it and stop feeling blue, she couldn’t. Neither did she want someone to be chirpy and tell her she should be looking on the bright side. No one who’d come from a large, close-knit family would ever know how she felt. She sprang to her feet. “I’m sorry, Jabez, I’m just tired. There’s nothing wrong. It’s been a long couple of days.”
He bounded to his feet and looked down at her. “You know where I am if you need to talk. I’ll leave you be.” Without waiting for her to say goodbye, he walked to his buggy. Seconds later, he was gone.
Bethany leaned on one of the wooden porch posts and watched his buggy until it was a speck in the distance. Jabez was one of the few people who cared for her, and she’d just sent him on his way. Now she was fairly sure that Jabez liked her more than as a friend. Perhaps she should’ve been kinder and suggested they leave their date for another time? Would he ever ask her out again?
The caramel creams were calling out to her. Sugar was what she needed. Bethany sat back down on the couch, filled her mouth with caramels and closed her eyes.
The next morning she was to meet Ettie at the police station at eight, before she opened the store. Ettie had insisted they tell the detective everything they’d found out about her connection to the Whitmores.
Chapter 14
“And they told you this themselves?” Detective Kelly stared at Ettie and Bethany from behind his desk.
Ettie spoke up, “This is what Cheryl told us: there was a family argument that night and Ian drove off in his car. From what Cheryl said they’d been trying to find Bethany for the past weeks since Randall died.”
“Did Cheryl mention who the lawyers are? Did she give you their phone number?”
Ettie and Bethany exchanged glances and Ettie said, “No.”
“I’m waiting for the family to pass the lawyers’ details on to me. For some reason, they’re being tardy about giving that. The other thing that concerns me is that I don’t have a record of a Cheryl. I’ll track her down and see if she can give me the contact details of the lawyers.”
Ettie asked, “Did they say what the family argument was about?”
“The argument was about Bethany here.”
“So they did tell you that?”
The detective nodded. “Some of the family weren’t happy about someone they don’t know being a beneficiary of Randall Whitmore’s will. He got very ill and in his last days he told Ian about Bethany and said he wanted her to have an equal share with his son. There was an old will, but Randall had insisted on having a new one drawn up.”
“So he only told them about me when he knew he was dying?”
“I don’t know those details, Ms. Parker. Ian’s son, Greg, told me that there was a new will signed, but since Randall insisted on not giving the will back to his lawyers, Ian had hung onto the new will. Greg has been going through his father’s paperwork for days trying to locate the new will of his uncle’s but to no avail. If it’s not found, the old will must be enacted. Going by the huge argument that exploded at the mention of Bethany, it seemed Ian was the only member of the family who wanted to follow his brother’s wishes.”
Ettie and Bethany stared at each other.
“What about the sister, Cheryl?” Ettie asked.
“I wouldn’t know. No one mentioned a Cheryl when I was there. I wasn’t even aware that there was another sibling.”
“She was the one who told Bethany about getting half the money or something along those lines. She said Creighton wasn’t happy about it, but she didn’t say anything about anyone else being unhappy about it.”
“I don’t care about money or anything like that,” Bethany said.
“You can always pass it along to me,” Detective Kelly said with a grin. “I fancy myself on a yacht somewhere in the middle of the Bahamas with a cocktail in hand.” He stared off into the distance, only to look back at Ettie when she spoke.
“I can’t think why Cheryl wasn’t mentioned. Perhaps she wasn’t at the dinner that night. Surely she would’ve been on Ian and Randall’s side. She said she was there for the big family argument.”
Bethany tilted her head to one side. “Did she say she was, Ettie? Or did she tell us about it from someone who’d told her?”
Ettie inhaled deeply. “I can’t say now.”
The detective made some notes in his book. “I’ll have to check on this Cheryl woman and see if she was indeed there that night.”
“Now they’ll all hate me over the will,” Bethany said.
“Ms. Parker, sometimes families can be overrated. You’ll have to hope the will shows up otherwise you won’t get what he wanted you to get.”
“Good! I don’t want any of it.”
“Ian wanted you to have the money for some reason, and he died trying to contact you for his brother’s sake. It seems rather foolhardy and maybe a little selfish that you turn your back on it like a spoiled brat!”
Ettie’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Detective!”
“I’m sorry; forgive me. The words slipped out.”
“Bethany is anything but a spo
iled brat. She’s grown up with only a mother and no other family. She never knew who her father was, and now when she finds him, he’s just weeks dead, and she’s involved in a family who might not be pleased about her existence.” Ettie wasn’t sure if she was making any sense in what she was saying to the detective; she was too shocked at his outburst to think her words through. Again, she wished that Detective Crowley had never retired. Ettie glanced over at poor Bethany, who sat there in stunned silence.
“Pardon me, Ms. Parker; I’ve been working long hours. The man was desperate to contact you. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that you can push aside what he died trying to give you.”
“We set no store by earthly things, Detective,” Ettie said. “We have no control, and no say in what Ian was trying to do, otherwise Bethany would’ve told him it’s not necessary.”
The detective nodded. “I see where you’re coming from even though I don’t agree. Live and let live. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion I suppose, however flawed it might appear to me.” He looked at Bethany. “Legally, I can’t recommend a lawyer to you, but I can give you a few names for you to choose from. If you find out the missing will named you then you might have a chance of winning in court.”
“I can’t go to court. It’s not our way,” Bethany said. “And even if I wanted to, lawyers are expensive, and I just don’t have the money.”
“Detective, do you think it might be possible that Ian Whitmore was going to give Bethany cash to go to court? Maybe that’s why he went inside her store—because he was going to leave her the cash. He could’ve intended to write her a note explaining what it was for.”
“I’m one step ahead of you, Mrs. Smith. I was just thinking that exact same thing. Maybe he was killed because someone knew he’d taken cash out of his safe at home to give to Bethany and he was robbed in the process. He could’ve had plans to break into the store, but as luck would have it, the door leading from the alleyway was unlocked, enabling him to walk right in.”
“And possibly the killer behind him,” Ettie added. “So with that line of thinking, it stands to reason that the person who killed Ian Whitmore was one of those people at the dinner that night. So someone would’ve had to have disappeared from the house shortly after Ian Whitmore disappeared.”
“Someone followed him?” Bethany asked.
“Either they followed him or they knew where he was going. They’d discussed seeing Bethany’s name in the paper,” the detective said.
“It was only in a local paper,” Bethany said.
“Online newspapers pick up many stories, and it’s possible they had people looking out for you, Ms. Parker.”
“So what you have to do is go back to the Whitmores and find out who left right after Ian drove away?” Ettie asked the detective.
“Correct, and I’ll leave as soon as I finish up a little paperwork here.I’ll be back in touch with both of you.”
Chapter 15
Bethany and Ettie left the detective to organize going back to talk to the Whitmores.
“Ettie, I’m so disappointed that Cheryl might have lied to us. She can’t have been pleased about me getting any money from my father, just like the rest of them.”
“We don’t know that because she wasn’t at the dinner, according to Kelly. If she were at the dinner, the detective would’ve interviewed her. She did seem nice but in the back of my mind, something didn’t sit right with me.”
“Me too, but then again I had in my mind a different outcome. I thought that was all it was.”
“At least we know the truth now, and we just have to wait until the detective gets back to find out who disappeared after Ian that night.”
“I’m glad I know that Ian was on my side; that means a lot. At least one relative besides my father respected and cared about me.”
“Come along. I’ll walk you back to your store. Did you arrange for someone to look after it this morning?”
“Nee. I thought it wouldn’t matter if I opened it a little later than normal. As it is, I’m still opening it at nine. All the surrounding stores don’t open until ten. I didn’t think I’d be at the police station very late.”
“Will you be there all day by yourself?”
“Jah, I will. Why wasn’t Cheryl at the dinner? Wasn’t it a family dinner?”
“I think someone said that it was.”
“How could they dislike me so much without ever meeting me?”
“It’s not personal; it’s about money. It’s got nothing to do with you. To many people money is the most important thing in the world—even more important than their very souls.”
“I know, but I’m family.”
“That means nothing to some. You’re in the family of Gott. I told you before, you have sisters and brothers in the Lord who love you.”
“Denke for reminding me of that, Ettie.” Why couldn’t I have had both, the same as everyone else?
Her thoughts turned to Jabez and the way she’d brushed him off the night before. She had to find him and apologize. Maybe in some small way she could let him know that she liked him too, but what if her assumptions were wrong and he didn’t like her in that way? Perhaps he’d only meant them to have dinner as friends, but if it were so he would’ve mentioned that David would join them too.
“Do you want me to come in with you just until you get settled?” Ettie asked when they reached the quilting store.
“Jah, I’d like that. I always get nervous about opening the store by myself now, after what happened.”
Right after they arrived at the shop, Bethany checked the takings from the last two days of trading. “Looks like I’m not needed here to run the store.” Bethany giggled.
“You’ve sold lots, then?”
“More than I expected for a new business like this.”
“I’m happy things are working out for you.”
Bethany smiled and nodded at Ettie. Were things working out for her? The business so far looked like it would be okay, but life was so uncertain. Things were complicated now with the money issue. She didn’t want any money from her father, but as the detective had said, it was quite possible that Ian Whitmore had died over it.
Ettie and Bethany jumped when they heard loud pounding on the glass front door and the jangling of someone turning the handle, trying to get in.
“How rude!” Ettie said. “Don’t they know you’re not open yet?”
“Ettie, I think it’s Creighton Whitmore!”
Ettie grabbed Bethany’s arm. He wasn’t going to stop knocking on the door until they let him in.
“I’ll have to open the door, Ettie. You stay by the phone in case you have to call 911.”
When Ettie agreed and hurried to the back of the store, Bethany unlocked the door. When she opened the door Creighton walked through it.
“I finally figured it out when I saw you at the funeral,” he said to Bethany while glancing over at Ettie. “At first, I didn’t mind sharing my father’s estate with you, but then my mother told me that you weren’t really his child. Are you the child of Randall Whitmore?”
Bethany took a step back. “I don’t want anything! His name was on my birth certificate, and that’s all I know. How would your mother even know about me?”
He huffed. “He never sent you money all this time, or came to see you?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
Creighton placed his hands on his hips.
Ettie became annoyed and stepped toward the man. “What is it that you want, barging in and scaring people like this? All Bethany knows is that Ian Whitmore was found on her floor here, dead. We learned that the dead man had the same last name as the man on her birth certificate. We went to his funeral, and someone there approached us and said her father, Randall, wanted her to have money. Bethany never went looking for any money. She had hoped to learn more about her father, but she learned that her father had only just died weeks before.” Ettie felt she would pass out. She’d barely drawn a breath.
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He pulled his eyes away from Ettie after looking her up and down, and then looked at Bethany. “Is what this senior citizen is saying correct? You never met Randall?”
“I have a vague idea he came to my mother’s house once when I was a young girl, and that’s why I found that Ian looked a little familiar. But maybe I dreamed all of it since it was so long ago. I’m not sure of anything.”
Creighton took a deep breath and seemed to relax. “I’m sorry to barge in on you like this. I totally forgot my manners. I do need to talk to you about things, but maybe this isn’t the time or the place.”
“You could talk to me after I close the store. I’ve had people fill in for me for the last two days, so I couldn’t impose on anyone again so soon.”
“I’ll meet you back here at closing time.”
“Okay. That’s five o’clock.”
“I’ll be here.” He nodded goodbye to Ettie and promptly left the store.
Bethany swung around to look at Ettie. “What do you make of all that?”
“That was a surprise, but you can’t meet him alone.”
“Ettie, do you think you could be here with me? I have no one else to ask.”
“Jah. I’ll go home, have a rest and come back just before closing.”
“Would you?”
“I don’t mind in the slightest.”
“Detective Kelly said he was going to visit the family later today. What if Creighton disappeared right after Ian? He could be the killer.”
“I’ll go to the station and let him know that you’re meeting with Creighton—that we’re meeting with Creighton—at five. He should know by then if he’s a suspect or not.”
“Would he be back by then? It’s a long drive.”
“If he’s not, I’ll speak to one of the officers. They should be able to reach him by phone.”
“Denke, Ettie. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“I’m sure you’d manage somehow. Maybe then you would let Jabez become a little closer?”
Bethany opened her mouth in shock. “What do you know about me and Jabez?”
Amish Quilt Shop Mystery Page 7
