When he came in, he sat before her and said, “What were you doing at Mrs. Settler’s house?”
She opened her mouth to speak when he raised his hand to stop her. “I know exactly what you were doing. You were asking her questions. And if it weren’t for you, she would’ve spoken to us when we got there.”
“No, I’m sure –”
“Mrs. Smith, I could have you arrested for obstructing justice.”
“But I –”
“There have been some developments.”
Ettie raised her eyebrows. Had they found out some things from Bill Settler?
“Since you insist on sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong, have you found out anything?”
Ettie scratched her neck, not sure what she should reveal. “I know a great many things about a lot of people, but I’m not sure which of it would be of interest to you.”
“I’ll tell you something and then you might see how vital it is that you stay out of my way. After we got a warrant for Mrs. Settler’s bank accounts, we found that exactly a week after the box in Sadie’s name was accessed, over three hundred thousand dollars was deposited into her account.”
Ettie raised her eyebrows. “Really?”
“Yes, really. We’ll also be charging Bill Settler. He admitted to sending someone to your house with a gun to get a key from you.”
“How would he have known?” Ettie asked.
The detective ignored Ettie’s question. “A warrant for Mrs. Settler’s arrest has just come through – that is, if she hasn’t already been spooked by your visit and disappeared. Our plan was to visit her and talk to her about what her son had said, hoping the warrant would come through while we were with her. But you ruined that for us. We’ll have to hope that she’s still at the house.”
“You could’ve had her watched.”
“Manpower, Mrs. Smith, manpower – it’s not an unlimited resource.”
“I’m sorry, Detective. I didn’t mean to get in the way. I’m just trying to clear my friend’s name. She’d do the same for me.”
The detective stared at her blankly as though he wanted to admonish her some more.
“I should go, I suppose. I’ve looked at the photos and I’ve made that report.”
“Very well. Please stay out of this whole thing, Mrs. Smith. I know you’re trying to help your friend and I can understand that, but you are getting in our way.”
Ettie rose to her feet and gave him a nod. She left the detective sitting and hurried out to meet Ava in the waiting area.
Chapter 18
“It doesn’t add up, Ettie. There are too many things that just don’t make sense,” Ava whispered to Ettie behind a cupped hand so the taxi driver wouldn’t overhear.
“I’ve been thinking that myself. Sadie’s been lying, so what else has she lied about?”
“Do you think she was the one who went to the box?”
“Nee. Why would she come looking for the key, then? And then there’s all that money that appeared in Mrs. Settler’s account.” Ettie scratched the side of the cheek. “Let’s talk to Sadie some more, shall we? I’m going to pretend we have some information about her. Just follow my lead.”
Ava leaned over and gave the driver Sadie’s address.
The taxi stopped in front of the house and as Ava paid the driver, Sadie came outside and walked toward them.
“Can we talk, Sadie?” Ettie asked.
“Mamm’s asleep. She’s been very upset about everything. Mind if we sit on the porch so we don’t wake her?”
Ettie and Ava followed Sadie to the porch. When they were seated, Ettie began by saying, “Sadie, it’s been found out that it was you who went back to the safe deposit box.”
Sadie looked down at her hands in her lap and remained silent. Just as Ettie was about to continue speaking, Sadie said, “I did it for my baby. It was my last chance. I thought if the Settlers could see all those diamonds and everything they could have, then they would give me back my baby.”
“You got everything out and took it to them?” Ava asked.
Sadie nodded. “Mr. Settler wasn’t home. Mrs. Settler said she wouldn’t give the baby back for all the money in the world. I tried to make her see that he was my baby and I loved him more than she would ever be able to imagine. I said I’d go to the police, and then she said I’d go to jail for stealing.” She looked at Ettie with tears brimming in her eyes. “What use would I be to my son if I was in jail? It was Horace’s fault; he’d made another mistake involving me in robbery.”
“What happened to the gems you took out?”
Sadie shrugged. “I knew I couldn’t get my baby back. Horace was useless and I couldn’t go to the police, and I had no money for a lawyer.”
“Why didn’t you go to the bishop?” Ava asked.
“What? Then I’d be shunned and where would I go? I don’t think the community would’ve been able to help me.” Sadie looked into her palms. “I left the gems with the woman whom my son would grow up to call his mother. They were no good to me if they weren’t going to get my son back. I wondered if I should sell them to pay for a lawyer to get him back, but they were stolen goods and I might have gone to jail if I was caught.”
“You gave Mrs. Settler the gems?”
“I made her promise that she would always take care of William. She promised me that, and they kept his name – his first name. She said she would open an account with the money the gems brought in and the money would be for William. She said she wouldn’t tell a soul of it. Not her husband, not William –no one. She asked me to stay away from them and I agreed.”
“Then you left and forgot about him – or tried to forget?” Ava asked.
“I could never forget my boppli, never. He was everything to me.”
“Don’t say another word, Sadie.”
All heads turned to see Mrs. Doris Hostetler at the front door. Sadie flew to her feet. “Mamm, go back to bed.”
“Nee, don’t say another word.”
“It’s too late for that. It’ll all come out now.”
Ettie leaned closer.
“Ettie and Ava, please leave my property.”
Ettie looked at Sadie. “Why did you pretend to be shocked when the police found nothing at the bank?”
“Don’t say anything, Sadie,” Doris ordered.
Sadie turned away from them.
“I’ve asked you both to go.”
Ava and Ettie stood up, walked down the steps and headed to the main road. Ettie looked back to see Sadie’s head hanging low as her mother spoke crossly to her.
“What do you make of that?” Ava asked Ettie.
“It explains a few things.”
“But not who killed Horace.”
Once they got off the Hostetler property and onto the main road, they saw a buggy heading toward them.
“I wonder who this’ll be,” Ettie said.
“I think it’s Jeremiah.”
Ettie’s face lit up.
“Don’t you dare say anything, Ettie. Don’t invite him anywhere or anything like that. Ettie?”
Ettie nodded.
“What are you doing out this way?” Jeremiah said as he stopped the buggy.
“We were visiting Sadie,” Ava said.
“And you’re going to walk five miles home?”
Ava and Ettie looked at each other. They couldn’t tell him they were just ordered off the property and didn’t have a chance to ask to call a taxi from the phone in the barn.
“Are you going our way?” Ettie asked.
“Looks like I am now.”
They got into Jeremiah’s buggy.
“Aunt Ettie, do you like the floorboards as they are? I could put a varnish on them and have them shiny.”
“They’re good as they are. You must let me know what I owe you for doing all that work.”
“Nee, I’ll not charge one of my own.”
“It took you too long to do and I want to pay you for your time, the same
as you’d charge anyone else. That’s fair.”
“Nee, aunty. I’ll not do it.”
“You must come to dinner then, at my old house with Elsa-May. We’ll cook up a wunderbaar meal.”
“That I’ll say yes to.” Jeremiah turned to Ettie and Ava in the back seat and smiled.
“You come too, Ava.”
Ava dug Ettie in the ribs. “I’ve been fairly busy these days, helping Mamm get things ready for the markets.”
“Come on, Ava. You can spare just one night, can’t you? I’ll fetch you and bring you home,” said Jeremiah.
Ettie looked at Ava with a huge grin and nodded.
While frowning at Ettie, Ava said, “Well, I’ll see if I can.”
Chapter 19
It was the next day that Crowley knocked on the front door of Agatha’s old house.
“Come in,” Ettie said. “Tea?”
“Always.” He followed Ettie to the kitchen. “The floor looks much better.”
“It does, thanks to my great nephew.” As she put the pot on the stove and lighted the gas, she asked, “Have you been following what’s happened?”
He nodded as Ettie sat at the kitchen table opposite him. “Kelly’s interview with Mrs. Settler revealed some interesting things, which led to Sadie being brought in for questioning earlier today. She admitted to giving Mrs. Settler the goods from the deposit box, which means she’s also admitting to being the one to take the goods out of the box.”
“Yes, and she denied that up until now.” To avoid another lecture, Ettie did not tell Crowley that she’d been to see Sadie the day before.
Crowley said, “She lied about going to the box the second time and she lied about someone telling her that Terence Wheeler hid Horace’s body along with a key.”
“What did Mrs. Settler have to say, exactly?”
“She said Sadie gave her the money for her son and said that Horace was gone, which leads me to believe that Sadie knew who killed him, or at least knew he’d been killed.”
“She did say at one point that Horace told her he was heading north. She might just have meant ‘gone’ as in ‘never coming back’.”
“That’s true.”
“Anyway, can you believe what Mrs. Settler says? The woman stole Sadie’s baby.”
The retired detective heaved a sigh. “According to Sadie, she didn’t give the baby back after six months, but according to Mrs. Settler, that was never the arrangement. How do we know that Horace didn’t tell the Settlers one thing, and tell Sadie another?”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking, but if that had been the case then why would he have been blackmailing the Settlers to get him back?”
“He could’ve changed his mind once he saw how upset Sadie was. He might have realized he’d made a huge mistake and tried to right his wrong,” Crowley said.
Ettie tapped her fingers on the table. “That could very well be the case.” The sound of the water boiling drew Ettie’s attention. She rose to her feet to make the tea. “I can offer you fruit cake?”
“Just the tea will be fine, Ettie, thanks.”
“Elsa-May made the fruit cake.”
“Did she? I’ll just have a small piece, then.”
Ettie chuckled. The detective did like his food, and anything Elsa-May made was always a winner. Ettie cut two small slices of cake while the tea steeped. “There you go.” She sat again once she’d placed the tea and cake on the table. “It’s hard to know who’s lying and who’s telling the truth.”
“Each woman was convinced that the baby should've been with her. I don’t think we’ll ever know what Horace arranged.”
Ettie blew on her tea. “Poor Sadie. Horace left and she didn’t have him or her baby.”
Crowley took a small bite of cake.
“Something’s just occurred to me.” She stared into the distance.
He swallowed his cake and said, “What is it?”
“If Sadie admits to taking the goods out of the box, doesn’t that put her in the possession of the key? And the key was found with the body.”
“But not on the body. If it had been on the body, then that would have been incriminating, but it wasn’t.”
Ettie breathed out heavily and placed her teacup back into the saucer. Did Agatha leave me her house hoping I’d find Horace’s murderer? But that would’ve meant she knew he was under the house. How odd that, for all those years, she sat on the rocking chair in the middle of the floor, directly over him.
“What are you thinking, Ettie?”
He jolted her out of her daydreams. “Just thinking, and wondering, what became of the key after Sadie went to the bank. If she had it then, what became of it? She lied about Terence Wheeler hiding a key with Horace’s body. Did she give the key to Horace at some point after she took the gems out? She did say that Mrs. Settler agreed to keep the matter of the money to herself.”
“Ettie!”
“What?”
“You spoke to Sadie? You knew about this?”
Whoops! “Well, yes, I did speak to Sadie before she spoke to the police about it. I went to see her yesterday and she admitted some things, but then her mother came to the door and asked Ava and me to leave. I didn’t tell you when you first arrived because I knew you’d tell me to keep out of things.”
“Ettie.”
“I know, I know. I’ve already gotten into trouble from Detective Kelly about talking to people. Please don’t tell him.”
He shook his head. “I’ll have to think about that.” He took the last bite of cake.
Ettie put her teacup to her lips and took a small sip then lowered it to the table. “She can’t have been telling the truth about anything. She admits taking the money, so she would’ve had the key. If she did have it, then she knew about Horace being under the floor because the key was hidden close by him. Although she’d taken the gems out, so I suppose she didn’t want the key found because it was in her name and would possibly link her with stolen goods. Perhaps she thought it would make her look less guilty if someone else had gone and taken the gems out. She could’ve wanted the police to think someone posed as her.”
“What was Agatha’s involvement, then? This is her house.”
“That we’d only find out from Sadie’s lips.”
“You need to tell the police what you know, Ettie.”
“I don’t know anything that the police don’t know now.” Ettie pulled a face. She hadn’t exactly made best friends with the new detective.
“You know a lot, and if you tell Kelly everything there might be some tiny piece of evidence that you don’t know you have.”
Ettie gulped. “Will you come with me?”
“I’ll drive you.”
Ettie looked at the empty cups and the crumbs on the plates. “Will I have time to do the dishes and freshen up?”
Crowley stood. “I’ll take care of the dishes while you freshen up. Then I’ll call ahead and let him know we’re coming.”
Crowley and Ettie waited in an interview room for Detective Kelly.
“I need to warn you, he’s not happy with me,” Ettie said. “Don’t leave me alone with him.”
Crowley smiled. “He’ll be all right.”
Kelly came through the doorway with a large folder and kicked the door closed behind him with a backward flick of his foot. He nodded hello to both of them before he sat on the other side of the large table.
Kelly began by saying, “What we know so far, Mrs. Smith, is that Sadie has admitted to taking the stolen goods back out of the safe deposit box. She claims she lied about it in the beginning because she knew the goods were stolen and she thought she’d be charged.” He murmured, “Which is still to be decided.” He went on, “We have a confession from Mrs. Settler that she accepted the stolen goods from Sadie Hostetler, sold them, and then placed the money in an account for her son.”
Ettie closed her eyes. Did Sadie say that she sold the gems and gave the money to Mrs. Settler? She couldn’t be certain o
f that so she remained silent on the matter.
Crowley added, “That places the key in the possession of Sadie Hostetler.”
“Which was found near the body,” Kelly said. Crowley nodded as Kelly stood and said, “I’ll get a warrant prepared for her arrest.”
“What?” Ettie pushed herself to her feet. “Don’t you want to hear everything I know so you might be able to find a clue somewhere?”
Kelly exchanged glances with Crowley before he sat down. He scratched his head in an agitated manner, then said, “Look, Mrs. Smith, I’m grateful that you’re trying to be helpful, but I don’t have time to listen. Haven’t you told me everything you know already?”
Crowley said, “Since Ettie – Mrs. Smith – knows everyone involved, she could very well know something that could be vital to the case.”
Detective Kelly closed his eyes. “If you’ll wait here, I’ll be back in a moment. I’ll have someone else pick up Sadie Hostetler.”
When he was out of the room, Ettie asked Crowley, “Do they have enough information – I mean evidence – to arrest her?”
He nodded. “She was in possession of stolen goods and that can be proven when we find out where the goods were liquidated.”
“Don’t they have to find that out first?”
“Just trust the process, Ettie.”
Ettie couldn’t help scowling at Crowley. He’s the one who got her there to talk to Kelly and Kelly obviously had no interest in what she had to say. What could she tell them that they hadn’t already found out? Ettie stood up. “I’m old and I’m tired. I don’t think that man wants to listen to anything I have to say, and quite frankly, I’m annoyed by the whole thing.”
Crowley jumped to his feet. “Don’t be like that, Ettie.”
“Would you mind driving me home?”
He breathed out heavily. “You wait here, I’ll find Kelly and tell him we’re leaving.”
“He won’t be upset about that,” Ettie murmured under her breath. Once Crowley was out of the room, she sat back down and studied her surroundings. The large mirror on the wall reflected the sterile gray interior. Was that a two-way mirror? She wondered if someone on the other side was watching her. But who would want to listen to what she had to say, or look at an old lady? She wasn’t guilty of any crime and hadn’t done anything wrong, so surely there’d be no one behind that mirror. Not knowing if there was anyone behind it unnerved her.
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