“I made your excuses for you, don't worry yourselves. What did she tell you?” Kelly asked, on his way to sit in the living room.
Elsa-May sat down. “We could ask you the same.”
He chuckled and sat down heavily on one of their wooden chairs. “She didn't know anything and she talked about the brothers when they were boys. She hasn't seen any of them. She doesn’t think much of Stacey. After Stacey and Greville married, she didn’t have much to do with them.”
“Valda was no help at all, then?”
He shook his head. “I see you have your own chauffeur now.”
Elsa-May laughed. “That was a friend of a friend. Doing the other friend a favor.”
“Ah.” Kelly nodded.
“Stacey’s back, Elsa-May.” It was the next morning and Ettie had been drinking her hot tea by the window.
Elsa-May hurried over to look out. “What’s she doing?”
“It’s hard to see. She’s driven so close to the house.” They watched as she unlocked the door and then closed it.
“Should we go over and tell her the police are looking for her?” Ettie asked.
“She would know that, Ettie.”
“Oh, here she comes.”
Elsa-May peered out the window. “I can’t see very well. Is she coming here?”
“Yes. She’s past her car and heading down the driveway.”
They went to the door and waited for her. A breathless Stacey hurried up their porch steps.
“I don’t know if you know the latest?”
“What’s that?” Elsa-May asked.
“Greville is not dead. It was his brother. He’d just got out of prison. Now, I don’t know where Greville is. At least I’m not arrested.”
“They’re not blaming you for his brother’s death?”
“Not now at least. My lawyer did some work and I’m no longer arrested. All my charges were dropped. I just have to hope they don’t bring new ones against me.” She wiped away a tear. “It’s all been so stressful. I said goodbye to Greville, but it wasn’t Greville. It was definitely his brother because of the DNA match.”
“You don’t know where Greville is?”
“As far as I knew, he died on my floor.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Unless the authorities have gotten it wrong.”
“So, Greville killed him, his own brother?”
“I don’t know. I heard a scuffle. Then, when I got to the living room, a man was dead on the floor and I thought it was my Greville. Greville must’ve killed him and run away in fright. I’m sure he’ll be back. At least I’m free now and to show my appreciation I’m going to bake a fruit cake for both of you. I just bought all the ingredients today.”
Elsa-May shook her head. “There’s no need to do that, Stacey, truly.”
“I haven’t baked for so long and now I feel the urge. It must be that taste of freedom.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll be back when I’ve baked it. I’ve bought all fresh ingredients.” She turned around and hurried back down the steps.
“We don’t need fruit cake,” Ettie said under her breath. “It’s nice of her to think of us at a time like this.”
“It seems she has nervous energy. Baking a cake is probably good for her.”
Ettie closed the door.
It was two hours later when Stacey came back with a still-steaming cake on a plate. “I didn’t know it would take so long. I thought it would be ready in half an hour, silly me, but the recipe said to bake it for an hour and twenty minutes. I hope it tastes all right. Would you like to try it?”
Ettie looked at the cake. It appeared a little dry and over-baked. “It looks tasty, but we’ve just had our lunch. Can we leave it for dessert, for after our evening meal?”
The smile left her face. “Oh. I thought you might try some now.”
“We would but we have no room,” Elsa-May said taking the tray from her.
Ettie asked, “Would you like to come in for coffee?”
“No, that’s okay. I hope it tastes all right.”
“Won’t you stay?” Elsa-May asked.
“I’m tired after all the baking. I’ll go home now.”
“Okay. Is there anything we can do for you?” Ettie asked.
“Enjoy the fruit cake, that’s all.” Stacey turned and walked out of their house.
Elsa-May placed the cake tray on the stove and then put her hand over her stomach. “I feel awful, but I couldn’t have fitted another thing in.”
“Me either. Maybe I should’ve forced myself to eat some.”
“Too late for that. We’ve already upset her.”
Elsa-May looked down at the cake. “Should we call Kelly and tell him Stacey’s back?”
“Nee. He’ll figure things out and it doesn’t seem like she’s going anywhere with all this baking she’s doing.”
The next morning, Stacey knocked on Ettie and Elsa-May’s door. When Ettie opened the door, Stacey smiled at her. “How did you like the cake?”
“Um, it was lovely.” Ettie didn’t like to lie. They hadn’t even had a little taste, but the last thing she wanted to do was to hurt Stacey’s feelings.
Elsa-May walked up behind Ettie. “It was truly tasty. We must get the recipe.”
“Well, if you liked that I’ve got something else for you that I baked this morning.”
Ettie chuckled. “It seems you’ve found a new hobby.”
The smile left Stacey’s face. “You didn’t eat it did you?”
Elsa-May said, “We didn’t. it looked too good for us to eat, so we've put it aside for visitors. Fruit cake can last for months in an airtight tin.”
“We should eat it,” Ettie mumbled.
“We will when we have visitors. Would you like to join us for some right now, Stacey?”
“Not right now. How about I come back with my other cake for morning tea?”
“Okay.”
“I’ll be back soon. Unless, you were going somewhere today?” Stacey’s eyes widened as she looked from Ettie to Elsa-May.”
“We're not going anywhere. You come back whenever you’re ready,” Elsa-May said.
When she was down the steps and out the front gate Ettie looked at Elsa-May. “What are we going to do? I hope the next cake looks better than the last.”
Elsa-May chuckled. “Jah, I hope so too.”
Ettie grimaced. “What if this becomes a habit and she wants to bake for us all the time? And stops by every day?”
“Stop thinking the worst. If this cake looks as bad as the last I think I’ll have a stomach ache.”
“I’ll be on a diet.”
“I’ll be on a diet, it makes more sense, and you take the stomach ache excuse.”
Ettie shook her head. “It’s no good. I think we’ll have to try a piece. I see no way around it.” Ettie left her sister alone, sat down on her couch and started going over everything that had happened since seeing Greville, or the man they had thought was Greville, on the floor of Stacey and Greville’s house.
Two hours later, Stacey was back. “Let’s sit down in the kitchen before I show you my creation,” Stacey suggested, as she held a tea towel covered tray in her hands.
Ettie nodded “Okay; we’ve only just made hot tea.”
“Good.”
When everyone was seated, Ettie started talking. “I know both you and Greville killed his brother.”
“Why would you think that?”
“The pajamas. You lured him there to kill him with the idea of swapping the brothers’ identities. But, something went wrong and you had no time to put Greville’s pajamas on him. That’s why they were tossed in the corner. You wanted it to look like an intruder killed him when actually it was you or Greville who did it.”
“Is that right, Stacey?” Elsa-May asked when Stacey kept silent.
Stacey pulled off the tea towel and instead of their gaze falling onto a cake, it was a gun. Slowly and carefully, Stacey picked it up. “That's right, Ettie. Well, you’re nearly right and n
ow I'm going to kill you both.”
“What are you doing?” Ettie asked.
Elsa-May cringed. “Why are you … why do you want to hurt us?”
“Because I thought you were on to me and now I know I was right.” Stacey gave an evil cackle.
“You killed Greville? I mean, Kevin?” Elsa-May asked.
“You might as well tell us, Stacey, since you’re going to kill us anyway.”
“Greville was too stupid to come up with any plan. It was all me. I had this planned for a long time.”
“But you asked for our help to find his killer,” Elsa-May said.
“I had to. You’re friends of that detective, so I made myself believable to you, so I’d appear that way to him. Get it?”
Elsa-May frowned. “If you kill us, how’s that going to look to the detective?”
“I don’t care. I’ll be long gone.” Stacey giggled. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it all figured out. I’m going to make it look like there was a struggle at my house and the cops will think I’ve been abducted, most likely by the same people who killed the two of you. They won’t think to check the airports and I’ll make my escape with my son and Greville. Kevin knew the right people to change our identification documents and we’ve all got new names. Lucky he did all that before he was killed. My name is now officially Amanda Pringle. How about that?”
Elsa-May screwed up her nose. “I don’t like it.”
“I like it,” Ettie said, earning a frown from Elsa-May. “Tell us how it all came about before you kill us, would you?”
Stacey’s eyes sparkled. “I might as well. Kevin stole money and put it in an overseas account under Greville’s name. The plan was for us all to live abroad when Kevin got out of prison. The account had been opened in Greville’s name and he was the one who was supposed to get it out, but he changed his mind about the whole thing. When I told him I wasn’t happy, he said I was pressuring him to be crooked just like Kevin.”
Elsa-May nodded. “That’s why he was so unhappy all the time. He was under stress.”
“What did he change his mind about?” Ettie asked.
“He changed his mind about going overseas and being involved with any dishonesty to do with the money. When he found he’d killed Kevin and not an intruder, he had no choice but to go overseas and live abroad. He wasn’t happy about including Logan, but I wasn’t going anywhere without Logan. Logan’s not his biological son, but that’s another story altogether. They never got along.”
“How did Kevin come to be killed?”
“Kevin was released earlier than expected, and we all kept it quiet from Greville because of my new plan.”
“Which was?” Elsa-May asked.
“Kevin was to come here and kill Greville, and then take his place.”
“How could you kill your own husband?”
“As easy as I’m going to kill the two of you. I used to hunt with my father. This is just the same only you two will be easy targets. Sitting ducks. Anyway, I was bored with Greville. He left his good job to throw toppings on pizzas. Not only is there no skill involved, there’s no money in it.”
“What happened that night of the murder, Stacey?” Elsa-May asked.
“All Greville knew was I told him there was someone in the house and he went to investigate. That’s when Greville killed Kevin by accident. He probably figured whoever it was in the house was trying to kill him and he retaliated. When I turned on the light, I couldn’t believe my eyes and neither could he. Greville had killed Kevin and not the other way around. I didn’t know what to do and yes, I took out a pair of pajamas to dress Kevin in to make him look like Greville, but you two got to the house too fast and ruined everything.”
“That’s why you came up with the story about him wearing his suit under his chef’s clothes?” Elsa-May asked.
“That’s right.”
“That was an ingenious plan. What were you planning on doing with the body?”
“My original plan was to bury Greville deep in the garden under a fish pond. Greville had already dug a large hole near the back fence. Then when things went wrong, I told Greville to run and we’d pretend Kevin was Greville to cover up the murder. He agreed.”
“So you do love him after all?” Elsa-May asked.
“Oh no. I needed one of the brothers alive so I could recover the money. If Greville went to jail, who knows when I would get the money, if at all.”
“So, where’s Greville now?”
“I’m not finished yet.” When she gave another evil laugh, Ettie noticed a slight gap in her front teeth that she’d never seen before because Stacey so rarely smiled. “Then, Greville said that when the dust settled we should leave the country. My original plan had to change quite drastically of course.” She gave a deep sigh.
“So Greville, wherever he is, has no idea he was the one supposed to be killed that night?” Ettie asked.
“Correct, and all would’ve been well except for your detective friend and his stupid idea to run Kevin’s fingerprints through the system.” She pointed the gun at them with her arms straight. That and the DNA from the blood.”
“Where’s Greville now?”
Her eyebrows rose. “Waiting for me to join him. Now, no more questions.”
Elsa-May raised her hand. “One more question before you kill us. Was there poison in the cake you baked us?”
“Yes. And I went to all that trouble baking it.” She clicked the gun. “Goodbye.”
“Just a moment. Why did you deny having children?” Ettie asked.
“I said, “No more questions.'“
“Elsa-May had a last question and I didn’t have my last one.”
“Ettie, even at times like these you’re jealous of me.” Elsa-May’s full cheeks pouted.
Ettie’s mouth dropped open. “I’ve never been jealous. You had a turn, now I want mine.”
“Stop!” Stacey yelled. “You're driving me crazy. What’s your question, Ettie?”
“I forget now.” Ettie bit her lip.
“She wants to know why you always said you never had any children.”
Ettie frowned at Elsa-May for asking her question, when she'd really been stalling.
“When I suddenly disappeared to leave the country, you would’ve known as little about me as possible. Now, it won’t matter because I'm going to kill you two right now.” She stood up walked over and held the gun at Ettie’s head. “You never liked me, did you?” she whispered in Ettie’s ear.
“I don't dislike anyone, but there was always something untrustworthy about you. I must admit, I thought Greville was the aggressive one.”
Stacey cackled. “You're a brave woman to say that when I'm just about to snuff out your lights.”
“You're about to shoot me anyway. Just make it quick.” Ettie closed her eyes, said a prayer and reached for Elsa-May’s hand. Then she felt Elsa-May’s hand wrap tightly around hers.
Elsa-May said, “You don’t have to kill us, Stacey.”
“It’s Amanda.”
“You don’t have to kill us, Amanda. We won’t stop you from doing anything. We’re just a couple of old ladies, and we did try to help you because you asked us to.”
“If I leave you alive, you’ll tell that detective friend of yours what I’ve told you and my plan will be ruined. You should’ve just eaten the cake,” Stacey snapped. “Then it all would’ve been done. We’re leaving this evening.”
There was a sudden knock on the door and when Stacey turned her head, Elsa-May released Ettie's hand and put both hands under the table and overturned it, knocking Stacey to the floor and tipping Ettie and her chair over. The gun went off. Ettie closed her eyes, her ears ringing from the gunshot and her heart pounding so hard she couldn't hear anything else, and then she heard Kelly’s voice.
“What’s going on?” Kelly yelled. Ettie opened her eyes. Kelly was now pointing his gun at Stacey, and his gaze flicked to the gun on the floor. He carefully moved it aside with his foot. “Is ev
eryone okay?”
“She was going to kill us,” Elsa-May said. “With fruit cake, and the gun.”
So frightened was Ettie, she couldn’t find her voice to utter anything. Kelly grabbed Stacey just as she made a lunge for the gun, and somehow, he managed to place her in handcuffs while Elsa-May hurried to help Ettie to her feet. Elsa-May righted the chair, and Ettie sagged onto it.
With Stacey’s hands cuffed behind her back, Kelly pulled out his phone and called for backup. “Are you both all right?” he asked when he’d ended the call.
“A little shaken, that’s all,” Elsa-May said.
“Mrs. Smith?”
Slowly, Ettie nodded. “I’m okay. I’ll probably be bruised, that’s all. She tried to poison us with fruit cake and then she came to shoot us. If we’d eaten that cake we’d be dead by now.”
“Where is that cake?”
“We’ve got it in a tin,” Elsa-May said.
He pursed his lips and nodded. “Don’t touch it. I’ll take care of it.”
Detective Kelly took Stacey out to his car and waited for a squad car to pick her up. Ettie and Elsa-May watched out the window while she was read her rights. Then the paramedics Kelly had ordered came and checked the elderly ladies over. After the paramedics left, Ettie and Elsa-May huddled together and looked out the window.
“What a dreadful end for our neighbors. That was close, Ettie. She would’ve shot us. And, what if we’d eaten that cake? We might’ve if it’d looked more appetizing. If she’d been a better cook we’d be dead.”
“I know. She was so calculating and evil. I’m still shaking.” Ettie put her hand out for Elsa-May to feel.
“You’re so cold, Ettie.”
“That’s not nice.”
“I mean, your hand is cold. It’s freezing to the touch.”
“Oh.” Ettie put a hand to her face. “You’re right, it is cold. Thank you for your quick thinking, Elsa-May. I thought my life was over.”
Kelly came back inside and he sat down with them while two police officers recovered the shell from Stacey's gunshot in the kitchen and took photographs of the bullet hole in the ceiling.
“What did she tell you?” he asked.
“She organized all of it. Kevin was hiding money in some overseas account with Greville's name on it, and Greville and Stacey were supposed to fly over there and get it out. Greville changed his mind so Stacey plotted with Kevin to kill Greville. Anyway, Greville wasn’t supposed to kill Kevin, it was supposed to go the other way around. I think Greville truly thought he was fending off an intruder. To save himself from going to prison, Greville told Stacey to pretend his brother was him, and tell everyone robbers had killed him. When you got closer to the truth, Detective Kelly, that’s when she decided to change her story to self-defence.”
Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 6 Page 37
