Murder in the Amish Bakery (Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Book 3)

by Samantha Price

  “I can’t find anything here about Georgina Avery’s death,” Ettie said.

  “She could’ve gone by her maiden name. Or her first married name. She might have still gone by Melissa’s father’s name.”

  “That wouldn’t be likely if Melissa’s name was changed to Avery, and her mother hadn’t changed her name.”

  “Don’t worry about that if you can’t find it. See what you can find out about Rupert Bird,” Elsa-May said.

  Ettie did as her sister suggested and concentrated on finding out about Rupert. A few minutes later, she found something and gasped. “Listen to this Elsa-May! You won’t believe it. This is a news report from the eighties. A man by the name of Marvin Montgomery was hiking when he fell down an embankment, hit his head and was knocked unconscious. With him were his two foster children, Alan Avery and Rupert Bird!”

  “Really?”

  “Look; there’s a photo of them on the screen. It’s definitely the same Alan Avery and Rupert Bird. They’re young but you can still tell it’s them.” Ettie moved away so Elsa-May could get a better look at the screen.

  “It’s no use, I didn’t bring my glasses with me.”

  “Hang on, then. There’s more; I’ll keep reading it and then I’ll tell you what it says.” Ettie read for a few moments. “Marvin couldn’t be reached due to the rocky terrain, and one of the boys went for help and one stayed close. The rescuers finally reached Marvin, and he later recovered in a local hospital.” Ettie hit Elsa-May in the arm. “They’re referring to Marvin as a local man. I thought Rupert grew up around these parts. Didn’t I say that?”

  “Ow.” Elsa-May rubbed her arm where Ettie had hit it. “When did you say that?”

  “That’s right. You weren’t there at the time.”

  “So Rupert did live in the area and he grew up in a foster home with Alan.”

  Ettie nodded. “Seems as though they both had tasted Ruth’s bread as children. And they were most likely competitive with one another seeing that they both wanted to buy Ruth’s bread secrets.”

  “Rupert already has a bakery, is that what made Alan want one?”

  “Could be, if they were that competitive.”

  “Do you think Melissa would know Rupert Bird? Would Rupert and Alan have kept in contact?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Well, we can’t very well go and ask her,” Ettie said. “I’ve only met her once at her stepfather’s funeral.”

  “We can’t go ask her, but Ruth could.”

  “Have you forgotten already that Ruth’s having some kind of breakdown? I had to force her to have time off. I don’t want to go to her with this kind of news.”

  Elsa-May scratched her neck. “Then what shall we do?”

  “One of us can call Melissa on the phone and ask to speak to Rupert Bird. When she says that he’s not there, you can say that this is the number you were given for him. Then, she might say that Rupert Bird is her uncle, or friend, or some such thing.”

  Elsa-May frowned at her sister. “What if she asks you who you are, and what you want with him?”

  Ettie grinned. “It’s worth a try.”

  “Well, it might be, but you’ll have to be the one to make the call.”

  “Go on, Elsa-May. You’re speaking voice is so much better than mine. You’re forthright and you sound official.”

  Elsa-May shook her head, and grunted. “All right, but only on the condition that if we have to do anything else horrible after this, it’ll be your turn.”

  “Okay,” Ettie agreed.

  “Now find her phone number and I’ll give her a call.”

  Ettie looked up Melissa’s number and found her cell phone number attached to her café’s listing. She scribbled the number on a piece of paper and handed it to Elsa-May. “There you go. I wrote it nice and big since you don’t have your glasses. Call her from the phone over there.” Ettie nodded her head to a public phone at the entrance of the library.

  Elsa-May snatched the paper from Ettie, and then stared at it. “You’d better write that man’s name down in case I get nervous and forget it.”

  Ettie took the paper back and wrote ‘Rupert Bird’ in large letters. Ettie heaved a sigh of relief as she watched her sister head to the phone. While she waited, she turned back to the computer to see if she could find any other information about Rupert, or Alan.

  “Well, that was a complete waste of time.”

  Ettie looked up to see Elsa-May back already. “Didn’t she answer?”

  “She answered all right. When I asked if I could speak to Rupert Bird, she told me flatly that I had the wrong number with no hesitation in the slightest.”

  “There was nothing else said?”

  Elsa-May shook her head.

  “Did you get the feeling she was being cagey, or that she just had never heard the man’s name?”

  “I couldn’t tell. Now what?” Elsa-May asked.

  Ettie turned back to the screen. “I’m looking for anything else on Rupert or Alan.”

  “I wonder what Detective Kelly has found out on his visit to Rupert.”

  “We should stop in on him on the way home. See if he knows that the boys were raised in the same foster home.”

  “What about the old man?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Marvin Montgomery?”

  “Jah. I wonder if he’s still alive. He might be able to shed some light on things.”

  Ettie nodded. “I’ll see if I can find anything out about Marvin Montgomery. Can’t be too many people with that name. While I’m looking, you go and call the station and find out if Detective Kelly’s going to be in later today.”

  “That’s a call I don’t mind making.”

  While Elsa-May called the station, Ettie found a phone number and an address for Marvin Montgomery. He lived around fifteen minutes away. Ettie wrote down his contact details while wondering the best way to approach him.

  “He’s not going to be back until around five,” Elsa-May announced before she sat back down next to Ettie.

  “I’ve just found a phone number and an address for Marvin. Shall we call or just go and knock on his door?”

  “Going by my call to Melissa, I think it would be better to see him in person. Where does he live?”

  “Close by. It’ll only take us fifteen minutes by taxi.”

  Chapter 19.

  Ettie and Elsa-May stood at the front path and looked at the house of Marvin Montgomery, the man who once had fostered Rupert Bird and the late Alan Avery.

  “There it is, Ettie.”

  “What reason are we going to give him for asking questions? He’ll want to know.”

  Elsa-May said, “We should’ve brought Ava. She would’ve thought of something.”

  “We could say we’re interested in foster children and how they cope.”

  “True, and that wouldn’t be a lie. Because we are interested in the boys he fostered.” Elsa-May pulled on Ettie’s sleeve. “Now, you knock on the door and I’ll stand behind you.”

  Ettie winced. “Me?”

  “It’s your turn, remember?”

  Ettie pouted, and then walked forward and knocked on the door. She looked over her shoulder at Elsa-May, and hissed, “Stand closer.” Elsa-May inched forward.

  When the door opened, they saw a man in his late sixties to early seventies.

  “Hello, Mr. Montgomery?” Ettie asked.

  He said nothing while he looked Ettie up and down. “You after donations?”

  “No we’re not after anything like that at all. I’m here about foster children. I heard from one of your neighbors that you fostered some children years ago. We were wondering if you might spare a few moments to tell us about your fostering experiences?”

  The man took a step forward and peered down the street, first left, and then right. “Which neighbor told you that?”

  “I don’t quite recall exactly who told me.”

  “It was probably that old bat next door. I wish she’d mind her own business. She’s alway
s watching what I do.” He pointed to the house next door. “There she is now!”

  Ettie turned to look where he pointed and saw a curtain move. “I can’t say for certain, I’m sorry, but can you spare us a few moments of your time?”

  He clenched his jaw and looked from Ettie to Elsa-May.

  “I’m Ettie, and this is my sister, Elsa-May.”

  “I suppose you can come in. It’ll give that old bat next door something to talk about.”

  Relief washed over Ettie as they followed the man into his living room.

  “I don’t get many visitors anymore.” He pointed to an armchair, and said to Ettie. “You can sit there.” He pointed to the one next to it, and said to Elsa-May, “You can sit there.” Then he sat at the end of a three-seater couch. “I always sit here, so I can see the TV better.”

  “Do the boys you fostered ever visit you?”

  He shook his head. “It was my wife’s idea. She’s dead now. We couldn’t have children for one reason or another. They never found out why, but back then it was just accepted. There weren’t any of these newfangled tests they have today.”

  “Sorry to hear about your wife,” Ettie said while Elsa-May nodded. “How many children did you and your wife foster?”

  “Five all together.” He turned his head to look at the clock on the wall. “My show’s coming on in eight minutes. Can we make this quick?”

  “Yes, we can. You had five foster children, and did you have a mix of boys and girls?”

  “All boys.”

  “And did they get along together?”

  “The first two we had for two years before they turned eighteen and they weren’t a problem. Then we took in three younger ones the same age. My wife took a liking to one of them, and when his mother died, he became available for adoption; she wanted to adopt him. I told her it wasn’t a good idea because I knew the other two would get their noses out of joint. You know how women can get; she nagged and nagged me until I gave in. And you know what I got for it?”

  “What?” Ettie asked.

  “I don’t know which one of them it was, but one of the other two boys pushed me off a cliff and nearly killed me.”

  Elsa-May gasped. “Pushed you?”

  “As sure as you’re sitting here right now. I didn’t know which one it was. Hugh stayed at home that day because he was sick; he was a sickly boy.”

  “Hugh?” Ettie asked trying not to choke. Could that be Hugh Dwyer? Ettie felt she couldn’t ask him what Hugh’s last name was.

  “Hugh was the one we adopted.”

  Elsa-May took a turn at asking questions. “So you were looking after three boys all roughly the same age?”

  “That’s right.” He glanced up at the clock again. “Is there anything else you’d like to know? You can come back tomorrow and I can tell you more, but not around this time. If I had my time over I can’t say I’d foster again. Not boys, they were too much of a handful, but I’ve heard girls are worse.” He shrugged his shoulders and smiled before he reached for his remote control and flicked the TV on. “Do you ladies mind showing yourselves out?”

  Ettie looked at Elsa-May, who said, “Thank you for talking with us.”

  Ettie and Elsa-May stood up and made their way out of the house.

  Once they were on the street, Ettie was the first to speak. “Elsa-May, he said one of the boys pushed him. That means Alan, or Rupert tried to kill him.”

  Elsa-May nodded. “I know. And do you think the boy he adopted was Hugh Dwyer? Isn’t Hugh Dwyer the third man who was after Ruth’s bread recipe?”

  “Jah, he’s the one who has the Amish small goods store and attached cafe.”

  “The three of them all wanted Ruth’s bread. I wish we’d had more time to ask him more questions,” Elsa-May said.

  “I think we did well finding out as much as we did. I was fearful the whole time he’d ask us why we wanted to know all that.”

  “Me too. My heart was pumping so fast. Now, we have to go tell Kelly what we found out.”

  Chapter 20.

  “What is it this time, Mrs. Smith?” Detective Kelly asked looking across his desk at Ettie.

  “We found a newspaper article that mentioned Rupert Bird and Alan Avery.”

  “I’m one step ahead of you, Mrs. Smith, we had that information days ago. We know that the two men were, at one point, fostered in the same home.”

  Ettie and Elsa-May looked at each other.

  Ettie said, “Do you also know that the same man who fostered them also fostered Hugh Dwyer?”

  The detective opened his mouth and leaned back. “No, I didn’t know that. How did you find that out?”

  “We visited the man who fostered them today.”

  “Yes, Ettie and I went and visited the man who fostered all three boys.”

  When the detective scowled at them, Ettie added, “One of the boys tried to kill him. It was either Alan or Rupert.”

  “When?”

  “Years ago. He was pushed off a cliff. Didn’t you find that same article?”

  “Yes, we did.” The detective nodded.

  “Marvin Montgomery told us that he and his wife adopted Hugh Dwyer, and the other two boys were jealous. Well, he said the name ‘Hugh’ but we’re certain it must be Hugh Dwyer.”

  Elsa-May dug Ettie in the ribs. “Tell him what else you found out.”

  Ettie said, “We heard that Melissa had a grudge against her stepfather and we also found out that Melissa’s mother died a few years ago – was murdered.”

  “Yes, we’ve got her possible murder on record. They never found out who did it. In fact, they never proved positively that she was murdered.”

  The detective pulled the same four photos out of his folder and placed them in front of Ettie. “Which one did you see with Melissa Avery?”

  Ettie peered at them and tapped her finger on one of the photos. “This one.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Smith, that makes my job a whole lot easier.”

  “What do you mean?” Ettie asked.

  “This man is Stuart Tonks and a partial print of his thumb was found in Ruth’s office. We’ve already got him here for questioning. One of my men is talking to him as we speak.” The detective stood up. “He’s denied everything up until this point, but he might change his tune when we let him know that you’ve made a positive ID as to him being close to Melissa Avery. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go and see if he’s said anything yet.”

  “Wait! You’re not going to mention Ettie’s name, are you?” Elsa-May asked.

  “No.” Detective Kelly hurried out of the room.

  Ettie and Elsa-May stood up.

  “Does that mean that Melissa might be involved?” Ettie asked.

  “We don’t know that yet. Can we wait and see what he says?” Elsa-May asked.

  “We could wait in his office here, but will he get mad when he comes back?”

  Elsa-May grinned. “I think we should wait. He never seems happy with us anyway.”

  Five minutes later a police officer stuck his head into the room. “Detective Kelly asked me to drive you ladies home.”

  Elsa-May smiled. “He did?”

  “Yes.”

  They followed the officer to one of the patrol cars.

  “This is service,” Elsa-May said.

  “What if one of our neighbors sees us being driven home in a police car?” Ettie whispered.

  “You’re sounding like Marvin Montgomery.”

  Ettie giggled.

  “If they say anything, we’ll tell them to mind their own business,” Elsa-May said.

  The officer opened the doors and the ladies got into the car.

  “Did you see who Kelly was questioning?” Ettie asked the officer on the way home.

  “Yes, I did. He’s often brought in for questioning over one thing or another.”

  “And what was it today?” Elsa-May asked.

  The officer glanced at Elsa-May in the rear view mirror. “He said a woman paid him
to do it.”

  “The murder?”

  “Yes. They had his prints at the scene, so he’s giving up the person who paid him in exchange for a lighter sentence. I’m glad to get out of the station with all that going on. Kelly gets crazy and starts yelling at people when he’s on to something like that.”

  “I’m glad we could be of help to you,” Ettie said.

  When Ettie and Elsa-May got out of the police car, they hurried into their house. Snowy was there to greet them at the door, dancing on his hind legs to be picked up. Elsa-May leaned down and scooped him up.

  “I’ll put the pot on for a cup of tea,” Ettie said.

  “Gut. I’ll take Snowy out to the backyard so we don’t have any accidents inside.”

  “He knows how to use the dog door.” It was too late; Elsa-May was already in their small yard.

  When the tea was ready, Elsa-May and Ettie sat at their kitchen table.

  “A woman paid him,” Ettie said.

  “So he says, and I suppose he’d tell the truth if he’s after a lighter sentence.”

  “That’s right.” Ettie took a sip of tea.

  “Who could it have been besides Melissa Avery?”

  “I don’t know, Elsa-May. Melissa’s mother back from the dead?”

  “I was thinking of Melissa’s mother, but she was found dead after she’d disappeared. It’s unlikely they got someone else’s body mixed up with Melissa’s mother.”

  “Mmm.” Ettie nodded. She waved a hand in the air. “Elsa-May, when I went to Harrisburg with Ruth to talk with Rupert, Ruth mentioned Alan Avery’s name and that he was found murdered in her office, and he didn’t flinch. It was as though he’d never heard the name. Now we find out that he’d lived with him.”

  “Okay, but it was a woman who paid that man to do it, so Rupert Bird must be innocent. He might have already heard about Alan’s death on the news or something.”

  “I suppose that could be true.”

  “Tomorrow, I think we should go and visit Ruth. I’m sure she’d like to know all that we’ve found out,” Elsa-May said.

  “I think you’re right.”

  * * *

  While they were on the way to Ruth’s house the very next day, Ettie leaned over and had the taxi driver take them to the library.