"Do you have news for us?” Elsa-May asked when she sat down.
"Me? I'm here to see if you have news for me."
"We found the woman who made that call."
"Ah, good. That's what I was hoping. What’s her name?”
“Gertie Fisher.”
“Is she willing to talk?"
Ettie shook her head. "Her husband witnessed a man being murdered and then her husband turned up dead. This was around ten years ago. She doesn't want to have the same thing happen to herself."
"He witnessed a murder, you say?"
“Yes. That’s what she was saying on the phone call. A man who once lived next door to her and Simon, her husband, killed a man outside the house. Simon saw it and came back and told her that he’d witnessed a murder."
"That's what she believed to be true," Elsa-May added.
“Her husband died not long after. The killer must’ve known he saw something.”
"And what was the name of her husband? Fisher, too?"
"Yes, Simon Fisher."
"And no one was charged for his murder?"
"The police said it was a hit-and-run.”
“But she never believed that,” Ettie said.
“She told us Simon had no reason to be in the area where he was found."
"And she believes that it was the murderer who killed him?” Kelly asked.
“Yes.”
“That’ll be hard to prove with so much time having passed.”
"Have you found out the name of the man whose bones we found?"
"Yes, the dental records came through before the DNA testing. His name was Earl Quinn."
Ettie coughed, choking on a mouthful of food. Elsa-May jumped to her feet and got Ettie a glass of water and stood behind her slapping her on the back. Earl Quinn was the exact name that Gertie had given them, but they couldn't let Detective Kelly know that.
Ettie took a large mouthful of water, which was hard to do with Elsa-May still patting her on the back. "Thanks, Elsa-May, that's quite enough."
Kelly frowned at Ettie. "Are you okay?"
“I am now. Something just went down the wrong way, that's all."
"For a moment there I thought you were reacting to hearing the name Earl Quinn."
"I don't remember ever knowing of anybody called Earl Quinn. Do you, Elsa-May?"
Elsa-May sat back down. "No, I don't. It's certainly not an Amish name."
Kelly put a portion of food carefully onto his fork. "He was the one I thought it might have been. He went missing. He wasn't supposed to be anywhere around here, but he last used his credit card at a gas station near here, and his car was found not far from that same gas station. Then he was never heard from or seen again."
"If he wasn't supposed to be in this area, where was he supposed to be?"
Ettie was pleased that her sister was thinking straight because she was too uncomfortable keeping information from Detective Kelly and she couldn't help but wonder if he knew they had more information and he was simply playing along with them and hoping to trip them up.
"Pittsburgh. He came from here, lived just five miles from this gas station. He was supposed to be in Pittsburgh for work, but it seems he never got there."
"What sort of work did he do?"
"He was a traveling salesman, something to do with windows I believe. And I'm not talking about the software program." Kelly gave a chuckle, amusing only himself.
"That seems a long way for him to travel if he was selling windows. Wouldn't he have enough people to sell windows to around here?"
"His firm was working with an inventor who was experimenting with different minerals to block out visibility through the glass, to make it see-through at times and then make it block out visibility at other times. At least that's what I gather from the notes in the file."
"And did he have a family?"
"Yes. He was married with two young children at the time. That was a good ten years ago."
"How did his family take the news? Have you told them yet?"
“Yes, of course. That was the very first thing I did this morning right after his identity was confirmed.”
Elsa-May shook her head. “Very sad.”
"His wife was both pleased and relieved that she could finally give him a proper funeral. It’s quite distressing for people if family go missing. They accept the fact that their loved one is most likely dead, but there's nothing worse than that question — that lingering question of what really happened to them."
"Yes, it must be an awful feeling."
Kelly nodded. "It would be. First thing tomorrow, I’ll have a look into this Simon Fisher you told me about, and I’ll see if I can find anything in his file that doesn’t add up.”
“His wife was positive it wasn’t just a hit-and-run.”
“If I’m not satisfied with what I see in the file, I’ll have to talk with her.”
“Um, that might not be a good idea,” Ettie said, knowing that Gertie would think that Ettie had divulged her secret if she saw a detective coming to her house.
“No,” Elsa-May said. “She’s got a thing about talking to the police.”
“I’m sure she’ll talk to me if it’s about her husband. Doesn’t she want justice? You just said she thinks he was murdered.”
“It’s God who judges,” Ettie said.
“Ah, yes. I forget that. If everyone thought that way, the world wouldn’t be a safe place.”
“We’ve got our views and you’ve got yours,” Ettie said.
“And never the twain shall meet.” Kelly chuckled at himself again.
“Would you like more to eat?” Elsa-May asked Kelly as he mopped up the last of his gravy with some bread.
“No, thank you. That was delicious. I don’t remember when I’ve had a better meal.”
Elsa-May smiled. “You will have dessert, won’t you?”
“I won’t say no.”
“Elsa-May made apple and rhubarb pie.”
“I don’t believe I’ve ever had that.”
Ettie cleared the dinner plates while Elsa-May got the pie out of the oven where it had been keeping warm.
“Do you eat like this all the time?” Kelly asked.
“Yes. It’s far from the pizzas and fast food you eat every night.”
Kelly rubbed his neck. “It’s a hazard of the job, I’m afraid. I have to grab something on the go most days.”
“Will you have cream or ice-cream with that?” Elsa-May asked.
“Not for me. Just a small piece of pie. Ettie’s made me feel guilty.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to do that.”
“I should be watching my weight.”
“Ettie?”
“Just the pie for me too, denke.”
When Elsa-May had placed a plate of pie in front of everyone, she sat down and watched Kelly have a taste.
His face brightened as soon as he tasted it. When he swallowed, he turned to Elsa-May. “That’s just delicious.”
“Thank you. It’s a recipe that’s been handed down to us.”
“Does it have secret ingredients?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Did this Gertie friend of yours say why she was so sure her husband was murdered?”
“Only that it made sense. I think that’s all.”
“No one threatened her or anything? Or had her husband been threatened?”
Ettie looked at Elsa-May, then she said, “I don’t think so. She didn’t say, and if that had happened, I’m sure she would’ve said so.”
“I’d like you to go back and visit her. Drill down and see if you can come up with some details.” He spooned a large portion of pie into his mouth.
Ettie squirmed in her chair. She’d feel uncomfortable going back again and asking the same kind of questions. Besides that, they were still keeping some very important information from Kelly in an effort to keep Gertie safe.
“Well, Ettie?”
“If that’s what you want.”
“Well, don’t you want to help your friend find out what happened to her husband, and find out why the man you stumbled across in the woods was murdered?”
“Yes, I do.”
“I still wonder at what a coincidence it was for Gertie to call the station after all those years and then you stumble over the body a couple of days later. Now, if you don’t get the information I need, I’ll have to go there myself.”
“No.”
“What do you mean ‘no’?”
“It’ll scare her. It’s taken all these years for her to call the police, and that was because she was scared over what her husband witnessed and then he ended up dead. There’s a reason she didn’t give her name when she called in.”
“Yes, shouldn’t you respect that? If it weren’t for you thinking she sounded like Ettie, you wouldn’t have found out who it was.”
“Hmm. She called the police station not an anonymous hotline,” Kelly said.
“Surely the principle’s the same?”
“I can see what you’re getting at. Let’s just leave things as they are, shall we? If there’s a possibility the man was murdered next to her house, I’ll need to get a forensic team over there. What’s the address?” he pulled out a notebook and pen from his inner coat pocket.”
Elsa-May gave him the address.
When he finished writing, he pushed the book back into his pocket. “I hope what you’re telling me isn’t a waste of time.”
“She seemed to know what she was talking about.”
“I’ll start with going through Simon Fisher’s file to see if there’s anything that doesn’t add up.”
“You mean, see if you think he was murdered?”
“Yes.”
When Kelly left, Ettie and Elsa-May busied themselves with putting away the leftovers, and washing and drying the dishes.
“We’re going to have to get over there first thing in the morning and warn her about the forensic team.”
“Oh dear. I hope she doesn’t think we betrayed her trust.”
“We didn’t say she’d seen the murder.”
“I know, but I’m sure she doesn’t want the police crawling all over her property.”
“They might find something, and catch the killer.”
“That’s true.”
Chapter Six
The next morning, Ettie and Elsa-May got ready early and headed to Gertie’s house, hoping to get there before the police arrived to comb all over her property. They got out of the taxi and walked up the long drive to Gertie's house.
"We can’t really urge her to go to the police, Elsa-May. She's seen the murder, and she might get killed. I didn't like telling Kelly as much as we did but we had to. Now we have to tell her what we told him.”
"Yes, I know. We'll just find out if she knows anything else or if she's left anything out."
“Like the name of the man leasing the house?”
“Exactly. She’s keeping that very much to herself.”
"And she was understandably scared. I was surprised she told us as much as she did."
"She would've felt better telling us rather than holding it all in after all those years."
"Be quiet. Here comes Amos."
A disheveled Amos shuffled toward them adjusting his hat. One pant leg was caught up in his sock and only one side of his shirt was tucked into his trousers. "She's gone," he called out.
Knowing he must be talking about Gertie, Ettie asked, "Where did she go?" Ettie and Elsa-May stopped still and waited for Amos to speak.
"I don't know. I didn't see her leave, but she's not here now."
"How do you know that?" Elsa-May asked. “She could be asleep still.”
"She never sleeps in. She's always having breakfast in her kitchen by seven. And this morning she wasn't there."
Ettie and Elsa-May looked at each other. "I hope she's all right."
"We should check in the haus."
Amos said, "I've already looked, just in case something had happened to her. She's not there."
Ettie gulped and put her hand to her throat, suddenly feeling uneasy. It was all too convenient that an eyewitness to a murder would disappear right after the body had been found.
"She didn't tell you where she was going?" Amos asked.
Elsa-May shook her head. "Nee."
"Do you have a key to her haus?" Ettie asked, assuming he must’ve.
He shook his head. "Nee, but I don’t need one. She always keeps her back door unlocked."
"Perhaps we should have a look then, and see if we can get some idea of where she's gone."
Ettie added, "I hope she's all right."
Elsa-May led the way around the back of the house, opened the back door and pushed her way through. She spun around and looked directly into Amos' face. "Has she ever left without telling you?"
He shook his head. "She always tells me when she's going away so I can water her plants. And she's got vegetable seedlings she just planted last week, and they'll need to be watered." He shook his head.
As Elsa-May moved into the kitchen, Ettie asked Amos, "Where do you think she would've likely gone?"
He shook his head. "She could've gone to visit her schweschder but she only just visited her at Christmas time. And she said once a year is more than enough to visit her schweschder."
Ettie could relate to that.
"You didn't hear any cars or anything?" Elsa-May asked.
He shook his head. "But I'm a sound sleeper. My head hits the pillow, and I don't open my eyes again until morning. I wake early, around five thirty to six, so if a car did come to collect her, it would've been before that. She goes everywhere by taxi. That is, if I don’t drive her, and she didn’t ask me to take her anywhere in my buggy."
Ettie’s stomach churned, thinking about what might've happened to her. Looking around, there was no sign of a struggle so wherever she had gone or whomever she had gone with, she hadn't put up a fight. Ettie didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing as images of threatening people ran through her mind.
The reality was that someone could have taken Gertie away at gunpoint. Ettie got lightheaded and Elsa-May could see she had to sit down.
Elsa-May took her by the arm and glanced up at Amos. “We’ll find out where she’s gone.”
“This isn’t like her.”
“I know.”
Elsa-May guided Ettie to a chair in the living room. Then she went and picked up an address book that was lying on top of a bureau in the corner of the living room. Elsa-May took the book to her sister.
“We could always call people, Ettie, and see if anyone knows anything. She could be visiting or gone to stay with someone until all the fuss about finding Earl Quinn dies down."
"We don't want to set people off in a panic. Best we get Ava to ask around. She won't set off any alarm bells."
"Very good," Elsa-May said, placing the address book down.
"Do you think I should be worried, Ettie?" Amos suddenly poked his head through the door.
"Nee, I don't. Elsa-May and I were thinking of calling everyone in her address book, but we didn’t want to worry people if they hadn’t seen her.”
Amos stared at her for a moment. "I just want to know where she is."
“Do you want to sit down for a moment?" He looked like he was going to fall down at any moment.
He came inside, staggered into the living room, and sat on the couch. “I don't know what I'd do without her."
Ettie and Elsa-May glanced at one another without Amos noticing. He wasn't exactly with her now, he was only her next-door neighbor.
He took his hat off, rubbed his forehead and then placed his hat back on his head. "I've always loved Gertie. I thought I might have a chance with her when Aaron died, but she turned to his bruder for comfort and then married him."
Elsa-May sat opposite Amos. "Never mind," Elsa-May said. "I'm sure she'll be back soon."
"Simon’s gone home to be with Gott, and Gertie sa
id she won't marry a third time."
"A third time?" Ettie asked.
"She was never married to Aaron," Elsa-May said. “She only married Simon.”
"You don't know?"
Ettie loosened her prayer kapp strings at the bottom of her chin. She felt like they were strangling her. "She was married before she married Simon?"
Elsa-May leaned forward, “Or, perhaps after?”
"Forget I said anything."
"It might be important," Elsa-May said.
"Do you think that's got something to do with her running off?"
"Tell us what you know, Amos. We're only here to help Gertie, and you too."
He pushed himself further back into the couch. "It was after Aaron died, she married a man briefly and he was killed."
Ettie froze in place not believing her ears.
"I don't remember that," Elsa-May said.
"He wasn't one of us. She was so upset over Aaron and she was lost for a few months. She wandered off the narrow path and strayed. And she became unequally yoked with an unbeliever."
"Gertie can’t have been out of the community for very long because Ettie and I don't remember it, do we Ettie?"
Ettie looked at her sister and shook her head. "Nee, I never knew. I never heard she’d left." Ettie looked over at Amos and it upset her to see him looking so sad. "Do you know anything about this man she was married to?"
"Nee."
Somehow Ettie didn't believe him. He seemed to know everything about Gertie. "Where did she meet him?" Ettie asked
"He might've been a friend of Aaron's. I'm not sure."
Elsa-May said, "You said you liked her back then?”
"Always did," he said.
"Then you would have been observing her movements much like you are now?" Ettie asked.
He remained silent and the corners of his mouth drooped further.
"Isn't that why you moved next door to her?" Ettie asked.
"I wanted to be close to her in case she needed anything. She's too independent sometimes."
Elsa-May leaned forward. "And you've got no idea at all where she might be?"
He slowly shook his head. "No idea. As I said, she always tells me when she goes away."
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