"Well, from the way Roy told it, they were friendly. And nothing’s ever been said to the contrary. They went to the market together on the day Thomas died.”
"Nee. It's just not possible. What are we thinking? Roy wouldn't have killed his brother just because they were in the same line of work," Ettie said.
"All the same, Ettie, it’s odd that no one knows Roy owns this business," Elsa-May added.
"He probably left the name as Spreed Roofing because he wanted to keep the customer base that William Spreed had. Otherwise, people might think he only did Amish houses," Ava suggested.
Ettie nodded. “Let's go up to the main road and see if we can get a taxi from there."
"Did you hear anything at the funeral about a falling out between the brothers, Ava?"
"Nee, not at all.”
Ettie said, “At the beginning of the funeral, Roy did seem kind of odd. Remember he ran out of the room and then we followed him and asked him questions, Elsa-May?"
"Jah, I remember. What you said is right, Ettie. It's a different thing to have a falling out and it's another thing to kill someone. Even if the brothers weren’t getting along, it’s a big stretch of the imagination to think that Roy would've killed his own bruder, or anyone else for that matter."
"Should we visit Roy and Thomas’ parents again?" Elsa-May suggested.
Ava said, "Is that before or after we go to see the girl who was in love with Thomas?"
"I've got a better idea," Elsa-May said.
"What is it?"
"A bite to eat.”
“That's the best idea I've heard for awhile," Ettie said.
Chapter 15
Elsa-May, Ettie, and Ava, went to the market to have lunch at one of the little cafés inside the farmers market.
“Why don’t we visit Doris?” Ava asked before she finished the last bite of her egg and lettuce sandwich.
Ettie agreed, “Jah! She seems to know a lot. And she doesn’t live too far from here.”
“Let’s not waste any time,” Ava said.
“We’ll take her a pie,” Ettie said.
Elsa-May dabbed at the corners of her mouth with a paper napkin. "We must come here again. That was lovely."
Ava and Elsa-May waited while Ettie went to get Doris a pie. She never liked to go to anyone’s house empty-handed.
"It's so nice to see you here. I get so few visitors these days. It’s not like it was years ago,” Doris said when she opened her door to see the three of them standing there.
“We brought you a pie,” Ettie said. “It’s a blueberry pie.”
“Wunderbaar.” Doris took the pie from Ettie and opened the door fully. “While I put the pot on, show Ava the way to the living room. She hasn’t been here before.”
When Doris joined them on the couch, Ettie spoke first, bringing up the reason they were there. "We have some questions to ask you."
"Of course, go right head. Is it about Thomas?"
“Jah. Do you know how well Thomas and his bruder, Roy, got along?"
"They had a big falling out months ago. No one is supposed to know this, but Roy is working—was working—for an Englischer and then he bought the company. He was supposed to be going halves with Thomas, so they would be fifty-fifty owners of the business, and then all of a sudden Thomas found the papers were signed and Roy had cut him right out of it."
"That's terrible," Ava said.
Ettie clicked her tongue. "I can imagine that Thomas would've been very upset about that."
"He was. That's when he started his own business."
Elsa-May leaned forward. "In opposition to him—his brother?"
"He had no choice but to work for himself. He didn't want to, but he found it hard to get employment and now he couldn't go into business with his bruder. It wasn't as though he was trying to outdo his brother because the business Roy bought was quite large and successful. I once heard Thomas say he didn't know where Roy got all his money from. You see, since Roy bought the business, it went downhill, but Roy still seemed to have a lot of money. That’s one thing I thought odd."
Ettie gave Elsa-May a side-long glance. Elsa-May sat upright slightly, still leaning forward, and spoke in a quiet voice, "That day at the market, the last day Thomas was alive, he had an argument with Austin."
Doris nodded. "Yes, that's right."
"Do you know if Roy drove Thomas to the market?"
"That would be very unlikely. As far as I knew, they still weren’t talking to one another."
"That's strange," Ava said.
"What do you mean?" Doris asked.
Ettie said, "The thing is, Doris, that Roy says he drove his bruder to the market that day."
"What exactly did he say?" Doris squinted.
"We heard this: Thomas was visiting with Roy at his haus and then Roy’s wife, Olive, wanted some meat so Roy said he would go to the market and Thomas said he would go with him. Roy drove Thomas home after the market and he said Thomas wanted to tell him something that had been bothering him."
Elsa-May continued with the story, "And so, Roy dropped Thomas at their parents’ house while Roy took the meat back to Olive to cook for dinner, then Roy went back to hear what was troubling Thomas. And that's when he found Thomas in the barn."
On hearing the story back from Elsa-May’s mouth, the whole thing seemed implausible to Ettie.
"Perhaps the brothers were trying to sort out their differences," Ava suggested. “You know the familye better than we do, Doris; do you think that’s what happened?”
Doris shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know. I had heard that Roy found Thomas in the barn. But I had no idea that they were now speaking to one another. Now, how about a cup of hot tea and some of that pie?" Doris asked.
Chapter 16
“Do you have something to tell me?” Detective Kelly asked the next day when Ettie and Elsa-May sat before him in his office.
“We found out that Roy, Thomas’ brother, owns Spreed Roofing and Thomas had just outbid him on a job. A very lucrative job from what we found out.”
Detective Kelly put his head to one side. “So, you think that Roy might have killed his own brother?”
Ettie gulped when she remembered they had agreed not to mention that to the detective and that was also why she could feel Elsa-May glaring at her. Ettie scratched her chin and looked over at Elsa-May, hoping she’d say something to get her out of the hole she'd dug.
“We were wondering if you’d found out anything about the girl who was stalking Thomas,” Elsa-May said.
“She seems to have vanished. We ran her through the system and found she has an arrest record as long as my arm.”
“Drugs?” Ettie asked.
“Drugs and petty theft. We found out Spreed was dead, but we didn’t know that Roy owned his firm. According to our records, the firm is now owned by…” he picked up a sheet of paper lying on his desk. “A company known as ‘Blue Fish.’”
Ettie cleared her throat. “So, you’re saying that Blue Fish is Roy Strongberg’s company? According to the woman at…”
Kelly leaned forward. “What woman?”
Elsa-May took over. “Ettie and I went to William Spreed’s place of business simply to ask him a couple of questions.”
Kelly shook his head and he propped his chin on his knuckles with his elbows on the desk. “What were you thinking? Were you going to ask him if he killed Thomas for outbidding him on a job?”
“You knew?”
“We didn’t know Blue Fish was Roy’s company—no. I’ve got someone looking into it now and we would’ve found that out today." Kelly continued, “I told both of you simply to keep your ears open and nothing more. I don’t want you to go snooping around. It could be dangerous.”
“We didn’t know,” Ettie said because she couldn’t think of anything else to say.
Kelly reached into a drawer and pulled out a small pill bottle. He shook one of the pills into his palm and tossed it into his mouth, fo
llowing it by a mouthful of water. When he looked up to see Ettie and Elsa-May staring at him, he said, “Just a small Xanax.”
Ettie and Elsa-May exchanged glances. They recognized that name, and knew what the medication was used for.
“Okay,” Ettie said, nodding, not wanting to upset him further.
“You really should try some deep breathing and perhaps a hot peppermint tea,” Elsa-May suggested to the detective.
He stared at Elsa-May with his lips turned down at the corners.
Ettie cleared her throat again. “So, Detective, where are you up to with the investigation? Do you now think Thomas was murdered?”
“And what have you found out about the death of the young man—what was his name—Bart?” Elsa-May added.
Kelly took a deep breath. “He was hit over the head with a piece of two-by-four. We found it in the corner of the barn. It had both Bart’s blood on it and Thomas.’ So we know Thomas didn't die accidentally. Bart was also stabbed.”
Ettie gasped. “That’s terrible!”
“And it was missed the first time by your team?” Elsa-May asked.
Ettie and Kelly stared at Elsa-May.
Ettie said, “Missed what? He just said that Bart was stabbed as well as hit over the head.”
“Oh, stabbed, was he? That’s not nice. I didn’t hear that part. I was talking about the two-by-four that your team only just found in the corner of the barn, Detective.”
“I don’t know that it was ‘missed.’ Maybe it wasn’t there after Thomas’ death. The killer could’ve taken it with him. Anyway, it looks like there are hundreds of bits and pieces of wood floating around in that barn. I’ve got the team still out there pulling the barn to pieces. Not literally, of course, but they’re combing the barn for evidence as we speak. That’s something we couldn’t do before because Thomas’ death wasn’t ruled as a murder.”
“I see,” Elsa-May said.
“Did the wood have any other DNA on it? From the killer perhaps—a third person?” Ettie asked.
“No. There were no other significant amounts of DNA found on the wood in question. Otherwise, the conversation we’d be having right now would be quite different.”
Chapter 17
When Ettie and Elsa-May left the police station, Ettie insisted on visiting the Strongberg’s.
“They would be feeling so awful. Imagine finding another person in their barn like they found their son. And imagine their shock at finding Thea in their barn.”
“You’re right, Ettie. We should go and see how they’re coping with everything.”
When Ettie and Elsa-May arrived at Wilma and Samuel’s house, they saw two white vans parked outside the barn with men in white suits going in and out of the barn door.
“They’ve still got the evidence technicians here.”
“They look like beekeepers with that get-up on.”
Elsa-May chuckled.
“What’s going on here?” the taxi driver asked as he pulled up close to the house. “Is this where that man was found killed?”
“That’s right.” Ettie paid the driver, realizing that it must have been on the news. They never read the news and had no radio or television. They only read the Amish newspapers to keep up with local Amish events, mostly The Bulletin.
“I wonder if they’ve found anything yet,” Elsa-May said, looking toward the barn.
“They mightn’t know until they take things back for processing.”
The front door of the Strongberg house was flung open before they’d even knocked.
“Come in. It’s nice to see a friendly face,” Wilma said.
Ettie stepped inside, directly behind Elsa-May.
Elsa-May spoke first. “We heard what happened and we came to see how you are.”
“I’m shocked; that’s how I am. Let’s sit on the couch.”
“We heard that Samuel found someone dead in the barn,” Ettie said once she'd sat down.
“Jah, it was dreadful. He was shocked and didn’t know what was going on.”
“Did he see anyone else beside Thea and her Englischer friend?”
“Nee and there must’ve been someone else because I saw lights in the barn earlier, and when the police came after we called them, there was nothing in the barn that would’ve created the light. There was no lamp, no light of any kind, not even a flashlight.”
“That is odd.”
“While we were waiting for the police, the young man told Samuel that he didn’t turn his flashlight on at all, and Thea confirmed that. Now I wish that Samuel never called the police because they seem to think that Thea and her friend killed that man.”
“Jah, they do,” Elsa-May commented.
“I don’t know what they were doing in the barn. They didn’t say. Well, they didn’t say anything that made sense.”
“When did the lights start in the barn?”
“There were lights on in the barn for weeks before Thomas died. I kept telling Samuel I saw lights, but he didn’t get out of bed to look. Samuel’s like that at night. He’s just so tired by the time he gets to bed. I have a nap in the afternoon, so I don’t sleep as solidly as he does.”
“What did the lights look like?”
“Like there was someone looking around inside the barn.”
“A flashlight?” Elsa-May asked.
“Jah, a flashlight. Not a lantern, more like a flashlight. Now I know I was right. There must have been people or a person looking around the barn. What do you suppose they were looking for?”
“I couldn’t think what it might be,” said Ettie.
“On a different subject, Wilma, did you ever meet any of Thomas’ Englischer friends from when he was on rumspringa?”
“Do you think it might have been one of them?”
Elsa-May scrunched her shoulders up to her ears. “I don’t know.”
“Nee, I didn’t meet any of them. There was a girl who came here looking for him once.”
“What was her name?”
“She didn’t give me her name and neither did I think to ask. I didn’t like the look of her, so I didn’t ask her to stay and wait for him to return. I didn’t know where Thomas was that day and that’s what I told her.”
“Was that when he first came back from rumspringa?”
“Jah, it was, because I remember thinking I hope he hadn’t been involved with that girl. There seemed to be something wrong with her. She was affected in some way.”
Ettie knew that Wilma most likely detected that the girl might have been affected by drugs.
“What did she look like?”
“She was small and thin with dark long hair. It looked like she’d drawn on her eyebrows with a felt-tipped pen and her hair was so dark it was almost black and it was thin and greasy looking. She looked like she needed a good bath and I’m not saying that to be nasty. I mean she really looked unclean.”
“Did she say anything else, like why she wanted to find Thomas?”
“Nothing. Now, I must get you some tea. I won’t be long.”
Once Wilma was out of the room, Ettie leaned over and whispered to Elsa-May, “When she comes back, ask if Roy and Thomas ever had an argument. Find out if they were friendly right before Thomas died.”
Elsa-May nodded. “I’ll try to work it into the conversation.”
“Good. It would be a sensitive subject if they weren’t getting along.”
“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”
Wilma came back with a tray of tea and cookies. When she'd poured their tea, she offered them the plate of cookies. After each lady had taken one, Wilma sat down.
Elsa-May placed her cookie on the saucer and had a small sip of tea and then placed her cup back down on the saucer. “Wilma, how was it for you when Roy and Thomas had that big argument?”
Ettie froze in her chair and didn’t know where to look. Didn’t Elsa-May just say that she knew what she was doing?
“What do you mean?” Wilma asked.
Elsa-May frowned. “When Thomas and Roy were going to buy that business and then Roy cut Thomas out, prompting Thomas to open his own firm?”
“You don’t know what you’re saying, Elsa-May. It wasn’t like that at all.”
Elsa-May tipped her head on the side as though she were confused. “Nee?”
“Nee!”
“Then what was it like?”
“Thomas changed his mind about going halves in that business, and then by the time he changed it back, the deal had already been done. Because Roy was in business with others, he could do nothing about it.”
“I see, but what would that matter? Couldn’t Thomas have still bought a share of the business? That would have saved their big falling out.”
“They didn’t have a falling out. What are you implying, Elsa-May?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all. I’m just wondering how it was that they weren’t getting along and on the day he died, they were doing things together as though they were.”
“Well, they were still talking to each other. They weren't going to let business come between them. ”
Ettie thought it time to intervene. “It’s hard to ask you things, Wilma. Forgive us. We just heard some things and we don’t know if they were true. And now Thea is involved with being found in the barn, and…”
“There are always rumors and talk going around and most of these things aren’t true. Go on, tell me what you heard, Ettie. I’m guessing it was about Thomas and Roy being enemies and having some kind of feud? Is that what you heard?”
Elsa-May took over again, “That’s about it. If you really want to know, this is what we heard. They had an agreement to buy the business when William Spreed died. Roy bought it and cut Thomas out of the deal. Thomas opened a firm on his own and recently won a large contract over Roy.”
“The last part was true. Thomas was quite pleased with himself for winning that contract. Not in a prideful way, but he was delighted that his workers would have continual work for quite some time. They were soon to run out of work, you see.”
Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 3 Page 26
