Ettie remembered their original plan for the day. “Elsa-May, we planned to go to Helga's place and ask her why she lied about things.”
Elsa-May shook her head. “Not today. I can’t face asking any more questions. We’ll do it tomorrow.”
Chapter 16
On Friday morning, Ettie sat with Elsa-May at the kitchen table nibbling on toast spread with honey. All night she hadn’t been able to sleep because she was thinking about Ebenezer’s neighbors. Now it was morning, and she was bothered again by the nurse and not looking forward to facing Helga.
“What are you thinking about, Ettie? I can see the gears of your mind slowly turning like the cogs on a wheel.”
Ettie clicked her tongue. “I think we should go back to Ebenezer’s haus.”
“What for?”
“Because I think we should have a look at whatever’s there.”
“A clue or something?”
“Hopefully, a clue. We might find what the nurse was looking for that day she came when we were there. The morning after Ebenezer was found.”
“Maybe she went back and found it, whatever it was.”
“Anything’s possible.” Ettie shrugged. “Ebenezer, a man who had no apparent history shows up in the community lying about where he was from. He must’ve been hiding amongst us, but from what? The question is, was he ever one of us at all?”
Elsa-May’s eyes popped open. “Now that's a thought.”
“He wasn’t a member of Divine Creek according to the original bishop, so maybe everything he said about himself was a lie.”.
“Was Ebenezer Fuller even his real name?” Elsa-May asked.
“Kelly would hopefully find that out, if possible. I’ll feel better if I can go back to his haus and take another look around. Undisturbed by visitors, this time.”
“Okay. At least it doesn't look like we're going to get caught in a blizzard yet today.”
“Doesn't it?” Ettie asked looking at the gray sky.
“Nee.”
“So you've had a good look outside, have you?”
“I can see it from here. I don’t need to sit staring out the window like you do.”
“Speaking of looking out the window, I wonder if the place next door will sit there empty forever.”
“It's going to be hard to sell.”
“It's a shame. It's a nice house.”
“And it’s got good neighbors.”
Both sisters chuckled.
“We could even bake them a pie every now and again,” Elsa-May said.
“I'd be happy to do that if anyone ever moves in.”
Elsa-May nodded to Ettie’s half-eaten toast. “Finish your breakfast and then we can start our day.”
“Okay.”
Elsa-May hung on to the table and stood up. “I feel bad leaving Snowy again today. He much prefers having us stay home.”
“He sleeps all day. He won’t even notice we’re gone.”
“Do you really think we should go to Ebenezer’s?”
“I do.”
Elsa-May sighed. “All right. I’ll go with you, but only to keep you out of trouble.”
When they got to Ebenezer’s house, Ettie pushed open the creaky door, walked in, and sniffed the air. “It’s musty in here.”
Elsa-May moved in behind her and closed the door. “It's been closed up for days. Do you really think we’ll find something the police missed?”
“Jah, I do. Maybe they didn't know what they were looking for.”
“Well, what are we looking for?”
Ettie looked around the living room. “I don't know yet. You start poking around in the kitchen and I'll go through the cupboards in here and try to find some personal papers.”
Elsa-May headed to the kitchen while Ettie opened the cupboard that was built into the wall of the living room. Seeing a stack of Amish newspapers, she lowered herself onto the floor and pulled them out.
Coming out of the kitchen, Elsa-May said, “There’s nothing in there. Just a few pots and pans.”
“Look in the bedrooms.”
When Elsa-May left the room, Ettie noticed there were some letters in between two of the papers. She took hold of them, and got up from the hard floorboards and headed over to the couch to read them. Ettie was disappointed when she saw the letters weren't addressed to Ebenezer. “Elsa-May, I just found a couple of letters.”
Elsa-May came hurrying toward her and sat down with her. “What do they say?”
“They’re not his. They’re for the people next door. They must have been mistakenly delivered to him and he never passed them along.”
“That's dreadful.”
“What that’s telling me is that he didn’t like them.”
Ettie placed the letters on the couch beside her. “Let’s keep looking.”
Elsa-May went back to the bedroom and just as Ettie was back to fishing through the newspapers hoping to find something else, she looked up and noticed there was a top shelf within the cupboard. She stood up and that’s when she noticed a white box pushed back on the shelf. Standing on her tiptoes and stretching up, she still couldn’t reach it.
Looking around, she saw nothing to stand on, so she carried a chair from the kitchen. Nervously, she stood on it hoping it wouldn’t topple, and then she put both hands on the box. It was light—it almost felt like there was nothing in it. Now she couldn’t get down and hold the box at the same time. “Elsa-May, help me.”
Elsa-May came out of the bedroom. “Careful!”
“Take the box from me so I can get down.”
Elsa-May did so, and when Ettie was safely on the floor, she took the box from Elsa-May and headed to the couch. Slowly, she opened the box to see one solitary piece of paper. With Elsa-May still watching, Ettie picked it up and unfolded it.
“What is it this time? More inaccurately addressed letters?”
“No, look at this.” She handed the note to Elsa-May, who read it out.
“I'm sorry I can't do this anymore. Meet you at the boundary, and this has to be sorted once and for all.” Elsa-May looked at Ettie in shock. “This looks like … exactly like the letter Kelly found. Also, it’s got the same squiggle for a signature.”
“Exactly the same, but different. The same person wrote it about the same kind of thing.”
“I know and they both mention boundaries and if I’m not wrong they’re both in the same handwriting.”
Ettie narrowed her eyes at her sister. “I just said that.”
“Me too. Why didn’t Kelly’s people find it, though?”
“They probably didn't know what they were looking for.”
Elsa-May nodded. “You might be right. They would’ve been looking for fingerprints, blood spatter patterns and more murder weapons.” They both looked at each other when they heard a car. “Uh-oh. This can't be good.”
“Nee!”
“What should we do?”
Elsa-May pulled the curtains aside, and groaned, “It's Kelly.”
Chapter 17
“If only it was anybody but Kelly.” Ettie bit her lip knowing he was going to be upset with them. “Do you think we should hide?”
“Nee. He’d find us and then we’d look foolish.”
“What will we say? He’ll want to know why we’re here.”
Elsa-May flung her hands into the air. “We’ll just tell the truth.”
Ettie was amazed Elsa-May was calm, and pleased that her sister was walking to the door. Better that he saw her sister first. “The truth? Good idea! I know he’s going to look at us in disappointment, though.”
“Jah, but that will turn into joy when he sees what we’ve found.”
“We’ve both just put our fingerprints all over it. That will cancel everything out.” When Elsa-May hesitated at the door, Ettie urged her on, “Open the door for him.”
“You first.”
Ettie said a quick prayer that Kelly wouldn’t be mad, made sure Elsa-May was right behind her, and then flung open the
front door.
He didn’t look mad. He stepped back in shock staring at Ettie and then noticing Elsa-May. “What the devil are you two doing here?”
“She made me come,” Elsa-May said pointing at Ettie.
Ettie turned around and stared at her sister in shock.
Kelly placed his hands on his hips. “You can't just come into someone's house and start nosing around. This is wrong.”
“We thought it was all right since the police tape is down.”
“Yes, and we found something very interesting,” Elsa-May said.
“Is that right?”
They both nodded furiously.
“Come inside out of the cold,” Ettie said, even though it was nearly as cold within the house.
He walked past them and when they closed the door, he turned around to face them. “What was it you found?”
“Where is it, Ettie?”
“I gave it to you.”
“You didn't! You had it when you were on the chair.”
Kelly clamped his lips together in disapproval. “Mrs. Smith, you were on a chair?”
Ettie was so annoyed with Elsa-May losing the valuable evidence that she ignored Kelly completely. “I handed it to you so I could get down.”
“No, you handed me the box, Ettie.”
Kelly raised his hands in the air. “Stop! Tell me what it was and I’ll help you find it. If you just had it, whatever it was, it can’t have gone far. What was it?”
“It was a note talking about boundaries and in the same handwriting as the note you showed us at the station. The one you found in the kitchen after Ebenezer died.”
His eyebrows flew up. “Retrace your steps.”
They all went into the living room, and Elsa-May squealed, “Here it is!” She reached down to the floor and picked it up. It had fallen between two couches.
He glared at the note. “What are you doing, Mrs. Lutz?” He pulled a pair of tweezers and a plastic bag out of his pocket. Carefully, he took the note from Elsa-May’s fingers with the tweezer ends and popped it into the plastic bag before he held it up to the light to read it. “I think you're right. I think this is from the same person who wrote the letter we have in evidence.” He looked across at Ettie. “Where in the world did you find it?”
“Just in that cupboard.”
“Inside one of the newspapers?”
“No. It was in a box in the cupboard. It was white and the base of the box was white, so it is possible your team thought it was just an empty box.”
“I find it hard to believe they missed something like that. I’ll get them to come back and give the place a more thorough going over in case they’ve missed something else.”
“Glad to be of help,” Elsa-May said.
He frowned at her. “I could have you both charged, do you know that?”
Ettie gulped.
Kelly continued, “Tampering with evidence, trespassing, obstruction of justice, and that’s just off the top of my head.”
Elsa-May grimaced. “We’re helping.”
“That still doesn’t make it right that you’re here. I’ve got many people who help me, and they don’t contaminate evidence.”
“We didn't know it was evidence until we saw what it said. We’re just trying to find out who Ebenezer was.” Ettie said. “We were only looking for a clue to his identity. He might’ve been using a false name. We really don’t know who he was.”
“There are other ways for you to find that out. Talk to everyone like you normally do.”
Elsa-May asked, “Did you find out anything about him that you’re not telling us? It’ll save us time if you’d let us know.”
“We didn’t come up with a match for his prints in our system.”
“I suppose that's a good thing,” Elsa-May said smiling.
“His dental records don’t match any missing persons either.”
“Did you find out anything that was useful?” Ettie asked him.
“I suppose it won’t hurt to tell you. It’s possible there might be more than one perpetrator.”
Elsa-May gasped. “Two people stabbed him?”
“That's what it’s looking like so far. The lab informed me there are three different blood samples. Two on the victim and a third from here in the house. Keep that to yourselves.”
“Of course. We won’t tell anybody.”
“I didn't think you would.”
Ettie stepped closer to him. “Anything else you can tell us?”
“I can tell you we’re following up on a lead. Now, I better get this to the fingerprint team.” He looked down at the plastic covered note.
“What is the lead?” Ettie asked.
“I can’t tell you just yet. It won’t make a difference to what you’re doing.”
“Can’t you tell us? It might help us to help you better.”
Kelly sighed. “Keep this to yourselves. Ebenezer didn’t own this place and we’re tracking down the owner.” He judged their reactions to the news. “Please tell me you weren’t aware of that.”
Elsa-May said, “Everyone thought it was his. He’s lived here for years and years. Since he arrived here.”
A smile hinted around Kelly’s lips, the way it did when he knew he was onto something. That made Ettie wonder if Kelly knew a lot more about everything than he was letting on.
“Have you talked with Ebenezer’s nurse again?”
Kelly narrowed his eyes at Ettie. “Yes, why? Do you know something about her that I don’t? You’re always talking about her.”
“She just seems odd to me.”
Kelly stepped forward. “In what way, and what do you know about her?”
“Just tell him, Ettie and get it over with.”
Ettie frowned not wanting to tell Kelly that they’d been there in the house with the nurse that first day after Ebenezer was killed. “Helga didn’t ever see her here. So, how do we know she was?”
Kelly shook his head. “She only visited every few weeks.”
“We know for a fact that she came to this very house and disregarded the crime-tape all around it.”
His eyes bore through Ettie’s. “Who told you that?”
“No one told us. We saw her with our very own eyes.”
“All right!” Elsa-May spoke so loud that it made Ettie jump. “I’ll admit it. We came through the crime tape.”
Kelly’s eyes blazed with fury. “You what? That’s twice you’ve done a dreadful thing.” He shook his head. “I’m very disappointed in the both of you. I’ve put my trust in you and you’ve thrown it back in my face.”
Ettie stared at Elsa-May hoping she’d say something to help them get back into Kelly’s good graces. Instead, Elsa-May said, “I didn’t want to do it. Ettie talked me into it.”
Ettie’s mind went blank and her tongue started flapping. “Only because I knew your evidence collecting people had been and gone. We figured they’d made an error and forgotten to take the tape away. While we were inside, she comes in as bold as day and walks right on into the house. That’s what you should be troubled about, Detective Kelly. You know we didn’t kill him, but she very well might’ve.”
“That’s right,” Elsa-May agreed. “She didn’t even say why she was here. Had she come to remove evidence that she’d left behind? Hmm?”
Kelly sighed. “Tell me everything from start to finish. From the time you entered the house, when she came in and when she left.”
Ettie told Kelly everything, then added, “I didn’t think she was a nurse at all. She wears too much make-up, but she must be because when she drove us to town, she drove into the parking area of the doctors’ offices, and when we walked away, she walked inside.”
“I know she’s a nurse. I’ll look into it. I have questioned her, and you’re right, she doesn’t look like a nurse, but she is. You both need to promise me that you’ll respect the law.” He dipped his head and looked at them from under his bushy eyebrows.
“We do and we will,” Ettie sa
id.
“That goes for me too,” Elsa-May said.
“I’ll drive you ladies home.”
It wasn’t a question, it was an order and with the mood he was in, Ettie and Elsa-May weren’t about to argue with him.
Chapter 18
That evening, Ettie and Elsa-May were talking while cooking the evening meal. The subject of their conversations was still who might’ve killed Ebenezer.
“Who owned the land, Elsa-May? I wish there was some way we could find out.”
“We’ll find out in time.”
“I would rather know now. I’m switching from the nurse to the neighbors. He had his hand bandaged and I’m not sure if I believe his story.”
“If he did it, then why?”
Ettie looked over at Elsa-May. “Do you have to ask me that after what happened here?”
“Oh, that's right.” Elsa-May chuckled. “It’s always the neighbors?”
Smiling, Ettie said, “I suppose it’s not the neighbors in every case, though. We just happened to have odd ones.”
“Kelly always said that it's people closest to the victim who are the likely suspects.”
Elsa-May chuckled. “He didn't mean closest to the victim in proximity he meant —”
“I know what he meant. And since Ebenezer didn’t have a family, maybe he was closest with the neighbors, and they’re choosing to deny it. What about that?”
“They flatly deny they were close and Gabriel didn’t make mention of them. They said they only talked with him once in all those years.”
“Well, they would say that if they’d killed him, wouldn’t they? If they were guilty, they wouldn’t want people to know how well they knew him.”
“Helga said she hardly saw anyone at his place. I knew we should’ve gone back to talk to her and we would’ve if Kelly hadn’t come to the house yesterday.”
“Maybe Helga never saw the neighbors at his haus because they were inside the place when she drove her buggy past. Then their vehicles wouldn’t be seen from outside because they would’ve walked there.”
“True but, neither did she mention the nurse, or Gabriel, or the fruit boy. He acted weirdly too.”
Amish Winter Murder Mystery Page 8
