Elsa-May set the cup carefully on the saucer and then looked up at Ettie. “What?”
Ettie shook her head in disgust. “Forget it.”
The waitress brought their cake to the table.
“Thank you,” When the waitress left, Ettie picked up a knife and went to divide it in two, but Elsa-May got there before her.
“Was I drinking too noisy again?”
“Just a little.”
“We’re getting off the track. You’ve got to focus, Ettie. You were talking about the corporation.”
“We’ve got to find out more about them.”
Elsa-May carefully cut the cake into two pieces and put half onto her saucer and passed the plate to Ettie. “Jah, the corporation. Why didn’t they just buy the land from Jedidiah if it meant so much.”
“It doesn’t work like that. Maybe they didn’t even know that man didn’t still own the cottage. It takes a while for the paperwork to go through at the land titles office, doesn’t it?”
Elsa-May shrugged. “Don’t know.”
“Also, what happened to all that man’s land after his death?”
“Disappearance, not death,” Elsa-May corrected.
“He’s officially dead now, but what happens to someone’s property when they’ve disappeared for that long? How long is it before the family could have him declared 'presumed dead' or whatever the term is?” Ettie cut into her cake with a fork and broke off a piece. “Hmm. How do we find out all of this? We need to know what happened to his land. Was it sold when it passed into the hands of his benefactors? Or did it pass on to them? Or, maybe it just stayed as is for all those years.” She popped the bite of cake into her mouth. It wasn’t as nice as the lemon cake, but it was a good compromise.
“We should find that out. And, we could’ve asked Kelly if he hadn’t been in such a hurry.”
Ettie swallowed her mouthful. “Let’s go and visit Edgar again.”
“Why him?”
“Jedidiah confided in him, that’s why.”
“He might give us a clue, I suppose.” Elsa-May stared at her half of the cake.
“Try some.”
“It’s not chocolate.”
“It’s not bad. In fact, it's quite good. Try it. It’s better for you.”
Elsa-May muttered, “That’s why I know it’s not going to taste as good.”
Ettie chuckled.
Chapter 19
Ettie and Elsa-May found Edgar in the games room again. His face lit up when he saw them and he looked even more pleased when Elsa-May held up the paper bag of candy. He knew what was inside. Fortunately, Ettie had remembered the licorice. They’d stopped at a candy store on the way.
“Thank you, ladies. You came again.”
“We did and we brought licorice.”
“Ah, thank you.” He reached out for the bag and Elsa-May handed it to him.
He was sitting with the same man as the first time they’d visited, playing chess. Doug smiled at them again and after he nodded, he wheeled himself away. The ladies pulled up chairs and sat down with Edgar.
He pulled open the bag and popped a piece of licorice into his mouth, closed his eyes and savored it. When he opened his eyes, he held the bag toward them. “Want some?”
“No, thank you. We’ve just eaten.”
He twisted the top of the bag and placed it in his lap. “It’s nice to see you both again. Have you found Jedidiah yet?”
Ettie shook her head. “No, we haven’t.”
“I read in the paper that they found the remains of a body at Rose Cottage.”
“Do you know who it was?” Ettie asked.
He rubbed his stubbly chin. “Should I?”
Elsa-May leaned over to him. “Arnold Salisbury. He’s the man who was trying to buy back Rose Cottage.”
His eyes widened. “Oh. That was his name.”
“He disappeared around the same time as Jedidiah.”
“Yes,” Elsa-May said, “and now the police are looking for Jedidiah to question him.”
“You say the man had been murdered?”
“We didn't say so, but he was. With a hammer,” Elsa-May said.
Edgar looked down and shook his head. “It doesn’t look good for Jedidiah.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“I’m sure he didn’t do it. He wasn’t capable. What can I help you with?”
“Well, we came to ask you if you know anything about the corporation who tried to buy that land? We’ve been told it was a big company. Do you know anything about it? Or, do you know the names of any companies that were buying up land back then?”
He shook his head. “It was a long time ago.”
“Can you give it some thought? It’s really important.”
“I’ll give it some thought and when you visit me again, I’ll tell you if I’ve remembered anything.”
Ettie leaned forward. “Elsa-May meant can you try to remember now.”
He closed his eyes for a couple of moments and then opened them. “No, nothing’s there. I can’t help you.”
Elsa-May and Ettie exchanged glances.
Ettie tried something else. “Did you know any of Jedidiah’s friends? He had Nell’s brother helping him fix the cottage and he had other helpers there from time to time.”
“No, they were all the same to me. I remember a young lad helping out.”
“That would’ve been Titus, Nell’s brother.”
“Yes, that was his name. Then there were a couple of other men there, but I can’t tell you anything about them. I don’t remember their names and I might never have been introduced to them. It’s all hazy. I helped him at the house for a couple of days and that was that.”
“Do you remember the dates?”
He chuckled. “I’d have no way of knowing that. It was all too long ago. I never kept a diary and my work notes are all thrown away years ago when I closed the business down.”
“Well, thank you for your help.”
“It was a pleasure.” He lifted the bag out of his lap. “Thank you for this. I can’t get out to get any. I can get out, but I can’t walk around much. It’s too much effort.”
Elsa-May pushed herself to her feet. “You’re welcome.”
“Goodbye and thank you once again,” Ettie said. Then she asked, “Do you think someone was there to help him?”
“No.”
“Do you know where he might be living now? Someone told us he moved to a nearby town.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t help you, ladies. All I know is what I know. I can’t say what I don’t know.”
“We wouldn’t want you to do that,” Elsa-May said with amusement.
“Now, how about a game of chess?”
Elsa-May moved closer to him and then crouched down in front of him. “Edgar, if you had to make a wild guess where Jedidiah would’ve gone, where would you say?”
He was quiet for a moment, and then said, “I’m sorry, I can’t help you. I saw that the bully’s funeral is on Monday. I saw it in the paper.”
They looked at Edgar in surprise. “The bully?” Ettie asked.
“The man who was trying to buy Rose Cottage back.”
“Ah, Arnold Salisbury.”
“They found him dead in the garden. I read it in the paper today. The funeral is next week. I saw that too. It was in a different part of the paper. I always read the funeral notices to see if I know anyone who’s dead.”
When they first talked with him he hadn't mentioned having read it in the paper. That confirmed to Ettie that he wasn’t in his right mind. Kelly had thought he was. “Yes, we heard that. Do you think Jedidiah had anything to do with it?”
“Jedidiah who?”
“Never mind,” Ettie said. “Enjoy your licorice. We should go, Elsa-May.”
As they were walking away, he called after them, “I told him he needed to stand up to that bully and order him off the property, but he was too gentle.” His voice reverberated around the room and everyone looked over at him.
On their way down the front ramp of the building, Ettie said, “Well, we tried.”
“It was a waste of time.”
“Now, we should go back and talk with Nell. Perhaps she holds a clue without realizing it.”
Elsa-May nodded in agreement.
Chapter 20
Gloria, Nell’s granddaughter, opened the door of Rose Cottage.
“Is your grandmother home?” Elsa-May asked sweetly. It was a tone that Ettie didn’t often hear from her sister.
“Jah, come in.”
They followed Gloria into the living room where Nell sat reading a newspaper.
“I'm glad it’s you two come to visit me again. Sit down.” Nell patted the couch next to her. “Gloria, would you be a dear and make us some hot tea?”
“Of course.”
When Gloria walked out of the room, Nell said, “She's been such a comfort. I don't know what I’d do without her. She’s been staying here with me and cheering me up. I feel like I've been living in a nightmare that I can’t wake up from. A total nightmare. It’s such an awful feeling that the man was buried right by the house. And it can’t have been an accidental death because he was buried. Someone covered him up. He must’ve been killed.”
It still hadn’t occurred to Nell that everything pointed to Jedidiah being the guilty party. Ettie was running out of things to say to comfort her.
Elsa-May said, “They're having a funeral for Arnold Salisbury this upcoming Monday.”
“I must pay my respects. Someone said his wife died five years after his disappearance. The poor woman. The stress of it all probably killed her. I know what it's like living with not knowing what's happened to a person. I would like to go to his funeral. Do you know when it is?”
“Nee, not exactly,” Ettie said, “but we’ll find out.”
“Could you?”
Ettie nodded, not quite sure how she’d find out. Surely there would be a notice in the local newspapers, as that was how Edgar learned of it.
“Would you both go with me?”
Ettie smiled and reached out and held Nell's hand. “Of course we’ll go with you, won’t we, Elsa-May?”
Elsa-May nodded. “If that's what you want, we’ll go with you.”
Gloria came in with a tray of tea items and set them down on a table and then poured each lady a cup of tea.
“I don't know why that Arnold man even bought Rose Cottage in the first place. It just lay abandoned for years. No one lived here. There was so much work to do when we got it. You should've seen it.”
“Abraham did a lot of work to it over the years,” Elsa-May commented. “The other people probably just had it as an investment it seems. Maybe just for the value of the plot of land.”
“Abraham loved the place as much as I did. We had a happy life, and now the memories of that will fade just as the memories of Jedidiah faded into the background. It was another lifetime—a different lifetime.” She looked at Ettie. “I’m rambling. It’s something that’s hard to explain.”
“You don't have to explain anything.”
“Since it was well known that the two men, Jedidiah and Salisbury were at loggerheads over Rose cottage, do you think the family will be a little unwelcoming toward us at his funeral?” Elsa-May asked.
“I don't see why they would be. Jedidiah gave it to me and I lived in it with Abraham. It was almost as though Jedidiah was a previous owner and I was the next one. I didn’t even know them, so how would they be upset with me?”
Ettie gulped and looked at Elsa-May. She sure hoped Nell was right because she didn’t want to upset the family at the funeral. Elsa-May was nodding at what Nell said, as though she was making perfect sense, but what if they knew Jedidiah was a suspect and they knew Nell was once promised to marry him? It might look to them like Nell was a co-conspirator.
After their tea, and a lot more conversation about days gone by, Ettie and Elsa-May finally walked out of Nell's house. Nell had Gloria hitch the buggy to take them home.
They had only gone two steps toward the waiting buggy when Nell called after them, “Don’t forget to tell me when the funeral is. I'll have John drive us there if it's not too far.”
“Jah, I'll let you know,” Ettie said.
Elsa-May stage-whispered, “We avoided one funeral, and now we’re roped into going to another one. Gott is showing His sense of humor.”
Ettie dug Elsa-May in the ribs. “Shh. Gloria might hear you.”
Elsa-May chuckled.
Ettie found out that Arnold Salisbury’s funeral was to be held in a chapel at the main building of the Garden Lawn Cemetery. The newspaper announcement had stated that the funeral was to be non-denominational.
Since it was a little too far to go by buggy, the three ladies traveled by taxi. All the way there, Ettie’s heart pounded. She was fervently hoping they weren’t making a big mistake by going.
They stepped out of the taxi and Ettie looked at the plain square building. It reminded her of Edgar’s retirement home. There were two men in dark suits talking outside, and a couple of cars were pulling into the parking lot.
“Not many people are here yet,” Nell whispered.
“They might all be inside,” Ettie said then she jumped when Elsa-May poked her in the ribs. “I wish you wouldn’t do that, Elsa-May!”
“Come on. We’ll be late if you don’t move along.”
“You go ahead. I’ll be right behind you.” When Ettie hung back, Elsa-May strode ahead.
Ettie and Nell followed Elsa-May through the door. They followed a sign directing mourners to the chapel, went in, and took seats in the back row. Ettie counted twenty-five people including a grim-looking man sitting up at the front.
Ettie whispered to Nell, who was sitting in the middle, “That must be the fellow handling the funeral service. The non-denominational person.”
“It looks like it.”
Elsa-May leaned across Nell, and looked directly at Ettie. “Shhh.”
Ettie stifled a giggle. Her older sister looked so much like their mother when she pulled that stern face.
The dark shiny coffin was on one side of the room, and a microphone on a stand took center stage. Sitting in the front rows were a few middle-aged couples. Ettie guessed they were Arnold Salisbury’s children and their spouses.
“Still not many people here,” Nell whispered to Ettie.
Ettie could only nod in agreement, not daring to upset Elsa-May. They hadn’t been thrown out yet, but still, Ettie felt out of place and couldn’t help wondering if someone was going to be asking them to leave.
A song was played over the loudspeaker. Ettie caught a few words about life, but most of the words were mumbled. It was modern music and Ettie wasn’t used to it. When the song ended, a man got up to speak. Ettie soon learned he was the oldest son.
Nell leaned over, and whispered to Elsa-May, “He looks like a nice person.”
“He does.”
Ettie had a hard time not leaning across to shush her sister.
When the service was over, the son who had spoken approached them.
“Hello. I’m Frank Salisbury. Can I ask how you knew my father?”
“My name is Nell Graber and I live in Rose Cottage. These are my friends, Elsa-May Lutz and Ettie Smith.”
His face lit up with a smile. “I loved to play in that old place when I was a kid. I like what you've done with it. I’ve driven by it over the years. Were you a friend of my father or my mother?”
Ettie was immediately relieved. He knew nothing of the past tension between his father and Jedidiah.
“No, I wasn’t, but I wanted to come anyway because of the connection, and you are sort of my neighbors.”
“Do you still live in the area?” Elsa-May asked.
“After my mother passed away, my father was still missing, so my brothers and I were sent to live with our grandparents in California.”
Nell said, “You would've been young when your mother died.”
“I was.”
“Do you mind me asking what happened to your father's land?” Nell asked.
“The land adjoining your place?”
“Yes.”
“I guess it will be divided amongst the three of us boys. Did you have some interest in buying some of it?”
“Oh, no. I was just curious.”
“I know my father was giving someone grief over Rose Cottage. He bought and sold properties all the time but I remember him telling me his biggest mistake was selling Rose Cottage too quickly. I was only a kid, but I remember him telling me he was trying to get it back because it was more valuable than he knew when he sold it.”
“I was told that it led to a road that would be beneficial to someone else who wanted to buy that and some other land from your father.”
“I believe so. Do you want to sell it now?” he asked Nell with a twinkle in his eye.
“Never. I’d never sell.”
He smiled as though he didn’t have a care if she sold or not.
Ettie hoped he wouldn’t become like his father if the land still held that same value. Ettie asked, “Would you happen to know the name of the company that wanted to buy the land back then?”
He looked thoughtfully at Ettie and slowly shook his head. “No. I don’t remember, and I was probably never told. I was just a kid back then.” He turned to face Nell. “It's nice you found a place you feel so strongly about.”
“I've always liked the place,” said Nell. “You should've seen it when I was a child. It was beautiful and the roses were huge and red, some of them so dark they were nearly black. I used to stop by there with a particular friend of mine. Then it lay vacant and quickly fell into ruin.”
Ettie held her breath hoping she wouldn’t mention Jedidiah’s name. Thankfully, it appeared Frank was growing bored talking to three old ladies, because his eyes were now wandering over the crowd.
“Oh, forgive us. We’re keeping all your attention away from other people. I'm sure there are many who’d need to speak with you,” Ettie said.
His lips turned upward into a broad smile. “There are people here I haven't seen for years. It was nice to talk to you ladies. We have refreshments in the adjoining room if you'd like to stay on. The burial is later today, and that’s family only.”
Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 6 Page 10
