“He’s got no respect for us, Ettie.”
“Is that what it is?”
“What else could it be?”
“He said he couldn’t tell us what was happening at the time. Maybe he knew we’d ask too many questions, or he might have thought we’d get in the way.”
Elsa-May shook her head. “It’s just not right. He didn’t have to lie.”
“You’re right about that,” Ettie said.
“What? I’m right about it not being right?”
“Jah.”
Elsa-May sighed.
“What should we do now?”
“Start cooking dinner.”
“Nee,” Ettie said.
“Are we going out?”
“Nee, we never go out. I meant what are we going to do about John? Should we talk to him again and see why he did what he did?”
“That’s a silly idea. If he was covering evidence, do you think he would tell us?”
Ettie blinked rapidly. “I don’t think it’s silly. We could get an inkling of what he’s up to.”
“I suppose. Can we do it tomorrow?”
“Okay.”
That night, Ettie tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Her mind was roiling like clothes in a washing machine.
There was the early morning sighting of an Englischer taking something to Levi’s house. The woman—if it had been a woman—would’ve been the one who’d bought and delivered the cookies. She’d driven a red car, but left it parked on the road, so she could walk to the house undetected and unnoticed by Levi as he slept.
Why had Levi mentioned Tony’s name as one of the four potential killers if they’d had no recent dealings?
Had the detective also been lying to them when he indicated that Nella Bridges might have been a serial killer, or was that actually true? Why had Nella disappeared?
Ettie was also disturbed by John’s actions in having his father cremated just days after the Amish funeral.
As if all that wasn’t enough, there was also the matter of the missing money—if it ever existed at all.
Chapter 18
The next morning, Ettie staggered out of bed and sat down at the kitchen table, elbows propped on the table and her head in her hands.
“What happened to you?” Elsa-May asked.
“Coffee, please.”
“Coming up.” Elsa-May poured the rest of the coffee she’d already made into a small cup. “There you are.”
Ettie took a sip. “Mmm. Denke. I couldn’t sleep. Everything kept tumbling around in my head.”
Elsa-May sat down at the table, and together they sat in silence for a few moments.
Finally, Elsa-May broke the silence. “Is John our first stop?”
“I don’t know.”
“You tell me. What are you thinking?”
“I’d like to find out more from Kelly, but now that he’s taken to lying to us we can’t trust him.”
“Let’s bypass him, shall we? I suppose we should tell Florence what we know.”
“Later,” Ettie said. She took another sip of coffee.
“We won’t tell Florence?”
“Nee, it won’t do any good. We’ll tell her when we know more. No need to worry her. She’s had a dreadful time, being there when Levi died so suddenly.”
“Okay. First stop is John. I’ll cook you some eggs.”
“Denke.”
“Unless you want to go back to bed, Ettie? You look like you could do with more sleep.”
“I won’t get any sleep until we know what’s going on. Everyone looks guilty and if they don’t, they look guilty by not appearing guilty.”
“You mean Tony?”
“Jah.”
“It bothers me that Tony says he’s had nothing to do with Levi. He’s hiding something, I’m certain of it. But what?”
“If he’s got a secret, who would know what it is?”
Ettie drummed her fingers on the table as she thought. “Who are Tony’s friends?”
“He was seeing a lot of Maud Fisher. The two of them have been on and off for years.”
“Hmmm, I don’t know if he’d share secrets with Maud. Who else? No, let’s leave him for a moment. We’ll put him on the shelf and see if we can find out anything about Nella from her brother. That book of Kelly’s might have fallen open on that page for a reason.”
“Jah, and I know where his workshop is. Why don’t we pay him a visit before we visit John?”
“We could. What will we say?” Ettie asked.
Elsa-May cracked two eggs into a bowl. “Weren’t we talking about getting a new roof?”
“Nee, there’s nothing wrong with our roof. We’ve never thought about a new roof.”
“We’ve talked about it. We’re talking about it now. It wouldn’t hurt to say we’re thinking about getting the roof looked at or something.”
Ettie sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t like to waste anyone’s time. He’ll want to come out and look at the roof and measure it, and on and on it will go.”
“Nee, Ettie. We won’t let it get that far. We’ll get him talking about Levi and then see what else he says.” Elsa-May whisked the eggs.
“Good thinking.” When Ettie took another sip of coffee, she noticed that
Elsa-May’s lips were turned slightly upward at the corners and she was looking pleased with herself.
* * *
Ettie and Elsa-May got out of the taxi at Bridges Roofing. “You do all the talking then, Elsa-May.”
“Let’s be realistic. That’ll never happen.”
“You start off then, because I’m not comfortable telling him we’re looking to get a new roof.”
“They quote on things all the time. They don’t mind.”
Ettie bit her tongue. There was no use telling Elsa-May there was nothing wrong with their roof. She knew that very well, but at the same time, she couldn’t think of another reason to talk to Nella’s brother without being obvious.
They walked into the warehouse and saw workers down at one end.
“That looks like an office there,” Ettie said, nudging Elsa-May in that direction.
“Okay. I hope he’s here.”
“I’m sure he will be.”
Before they got there, they heard a man talking on the phone. Elsa-May stuck her head into the office. He quickly ended the call, sprang to his feet and stepped toward them. “Good morning. How can I help you?”
He was tall, with jet-black shoulder-length hair and large bushy eyebrows. When she realized he’d been the man who had driven Nella to Levi’s house the other day, Ettie’s nerves took over. “We’re here about a new roof.” Looking straight ahead she ignored Elsa-May’s look of disapproval burning through her. She’d told Elsa-May to do all the talking and now she’d gone back on it. Her sister hated it when that happened. Of course, Ettie did, too, when it went the other way around.
“Are you the owner of the business?” Elsa-May asked.
“Yes, I’m Justin Bridges.”
“I’m Elsa-May Lutz and this is my sister, Ettie Smith. We’re not sure if we need one—a new roof, or not,” Elsa-May said. “But we’d like to get an idea of what roofing material is available nowadays.”
“Our house is quite old,” Ettie added.
“Sure, I can show you some options on the computer. Let’s sit at the table.”
The three of them sat down at the table and Ettie and Elsa-May sat either side of Justin. He showed them various types of materials and asked them questions about their own roof. After a while he said, “Would you like me to come out and take a look at your roof? You might just need a few repairs. There’s no point spending money on a new roof if you don’t need one.”
“That’s exactly what I said.” Ettie grinned at Elsa-May.
“We’ll just think about it a little longer. We don’t want to waste your time,” Elsa-May said.
“Would you be Nella’s brother?” Ettie asked him. He would’ve seen them out in front of Levi’s house
when he’d driven his sister there. Ettie kept quiet about that part, knowing that most Englischers thought all Amish women looked the same because they dressed alike.
“I am. Do you know her?”
“We do. She was looking after a very good friend of ours. He just died recently.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Nella would be very upset about that. She takes it very hard when one of her patients dies.”
“What a coincidence this is. We were going to call her place of employment today to thank her for looking after him so well. Maybe you could give us her phone number instead?” Elsa-May asked.
“My sister and I don’t talk often. I tried to call her yesterday but her phone was disconnected. Is Levi the man who was your friend?”
“Yes.” Ettie knew he probably remembered that from the police who came looking for Nella in connection with Levi’s death.
He nodded. “If I hear from her, I’ll let her know you want to thank her. It’ll mean a lot to her.”
“Thank you,” Elsa-May said.
Ettie shook her head. “It was such a sudden departure.”
“I did a quote for him once. What bothers me is that there was some kind of rumor about my sister taking money from Levi.”
“We heard that. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”
His dark eyebrows drew together. “If you were close with Levi you might know where the rumor started. Was it anything to do with Tony Troyer?”
Ettie gasped. “You know Tony?”
“Tony recommended me to Levi to do some work on his house some time back.”
“We didn’t know that,” Elsa-May said.
Ettie said, “Levi didn’t have many friends. I think the closest friend he had was Tony Troyer, but then they had that falling out.”
“It wasn’t so much of a falling out. Things happen like that when friends borrow money from each other. Unless there’s a firm agreement in place things can go wrong.”
“I didn’t know Tony had borrowed money from Levi.”
Justin shook his head. “It was the other way around. Some time back, Levi was trying to get his son out of financial problems and it nearly sent him broke. He would’ve gone broke, too, if it wasn’t for Tony loaning that money to tide him over until the next selling season.”
“How do you know all this?” Ettie asked.
“I’ve known Tony for years. He used to do insulation and I do roofing.”
Elsa-May said, “Tony and Levi were thinking of going into business together many years ago. But the story I heard was that Tony couldn’t come up with the full amount of the money at the right time.”
“I think what you heard was Levi changing the story, and that way he saved face if anybody had heard about a transaction with money between the two men.”
Ettie nodded. “That would make sense.”
Justin chuckled. “I only met Levi the once, but I know Tony quite well and he’s said some things about Levi. Then my sister took care of him. But all that is nothing to do with roofs.”
“No, it’s not,” Elsa-May said.
“But what I can’t understand,” Ettie said, “is why Tony was so upset with Levi only very recently.”
Justin exhaled heavily and scratched behind his ear. “Let me just say this, when men have a falling out, there’s very often a woman who is at the center of their disagreement.”
Ettie tried to work out what he was saying. Was a woman stirring up trouble between the two men, or did they both like the same woman? Nella perhaps? Nella was an Englischer, she was in her forties, and she was attractive. The two men in their seventies would’ve found a woman like that extremely attractive. “Are you talking about your sister?”
“I can’t say more. I’ve had the police snooping around. I hope they don’t seriously think my sister stole that man’s money.”
From his twisted smile, Ettie knew she’d hit the nail on the head. Both Levi and Tony liked Nella and that had been the source of their most recent falling out. Tony had chosen not to tell them that part of his history with Levi.
Elsa-May pointed to a roof on the screen. “I like that color roof. What do you call that?”
“That color is called gunmetal gray. It’s more of a charcoal.”
They’d come there to find something out, and that’s exactly what they had done. “We really shouldn’t take up any more of your time, Justin.”
“I don’t mind at all. I’ll stop by and have a look at your roof and give you an assessment.”
“Maybe some other time. At the moment, we’ve got more pressing things to do on the place, like bathroom repairs.” Elsa-May stood up and so did Ettie.
“It’s not leaking at this stage, so there can’t be too much wrong with it. Elsa-May tends to worry too much about things. I’ve always said, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” Ettie smiled at Justin.
“You could say that about most things, Mrs. Smith, but with roofs it’s different. Your roof could be leaking, and you might not know it. Moisture might have gone through all the timbers, down the sides of your walls and all through the place creating mold, and moisture attracts all manner of pests.”
Ettie glared at Elsa-May. She knew this would happen and that’s why she didn’t want to pretend they were worried about the roof.
“What I’ll do is get my grandson to look at the roof. He often stops by. He’s a builder. He doesn’t do roofs, but he’ll know if something’s wrong with it. If he finds something wrong with the roof we’ll give you a call.”
“Very well. If that’s what you prefer to do.”
“Thanks for your time,” Ettie said as she walked toward the door.
“Might we call for a taxi?” Elsa-May asked.
He picked up the phone on his desk. “I’ll call one for you.”
“It was lovely chatting with you, Justin.”
He gave them a smile and a nod.
As soon as they got into the back seat of the taxi, Elsa-May gave the driver John’s address, and then turned to her sister. “Ettie, what do you think of that?”
“I think it was a bit lame saying your grandson is a builder and doesn’t do roofs. I didn’t know where to look. Jeremiah could fix a roof or build a new one. Couldn’t any builder do a roof?”
“Ettie! I’m not talking about the roof! I’m talking about what he said about his sister.”
“Oh. Do you believe it?”
“I don’t know.” Elsa-May whispered, “Do you really think that those two men would’ve been interested in a woman at their age?”
“It makes me shudder thinking about it,” Ettie replied.
“And would they really like an Englischer? Surely it’s only the silly young men who are attracted to outsiders.”
Ettie sighed. “I don’t think they ever grow up. Men are always boys at heart. They were both men living alone, so why wouldn’t they be attracted to an attractive woman? I can understand why Levi was attracted to a pretty nurse who was looking after him, but where would Tony have met her?”
“Bother! We should’ve asked Justin that.”
Ettie patted her sister’s hand. “Never mind. We can’t go back and ask him that now. Tony’s met her somewhere. Maybe even at Levi’s house for all we know. Hang on a minute. Didn’t Justin say that he knew Tony and had known him for a while?”
“That’s right. You know what, Ettie?”
“What?”
“What if Nella Bridges let Levi know she wasn’t interested in him and that’s when he made up the allegations about her stealing his money?”
“That would be a dreadful thing for him to do. I don’t think even he would go that far and be that awful.”
“We’re talking about a man with the nickname Lousy Levi.”
“If what you say is true, how does that explain the neighbor saying the eighty thousand is missing? And why has Nella Bridges disappeared?” Ettie nibbled on the end of a fingernail. “It seems the more we find out the deeper the mystery becomes.”
> “You said you didn’t believe in coincidences, but we just experienced one. Nella’s brother knows Tony Troyer.”
“I don’t think that’s a coincidence. They’re both in the building trade. Tony used to install insulation.”
“We didn’t know that before we went there. We only knew that Justin was Nella’s brother.”
Ettie shook her head. “It still doesn’t make it a coincidence.”
Elsa-May pressed her lips firmly together, choosing not to argue the point. “What’s our plan next, with John?”
“I’m too stunned about what Justin said just now to think properly.”
“The cremation, Ettie.”
“Jah!” Ettie was reminded that Levi’s son had had his father’s body exhumed to cremate it just days after his Amish funeral. It was an odd thing to do by anyone’s standards.
“Surely he’d know his father wouldn’t want cremation. Everyone would find that strange,” Elsa-May said.
Ettie raised her eyebrows. “Maybe he didn’t care. We’ll soon find out. There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Let me see now.” Ettie twisted her prayer kapp strings around in her fingers while she thought. “Something else he said.”
“Justin?”
“Jah. He more or less told us Levi and Tony liked his sister, and then there was something else. It’s on the tip of my tongue.”
“On the tip of your brain, you mean.”
“Bother! I can’t think what it is. There was another sliver of information in something he said.” Ettie sighed. “I really need to start writing things down as I think of them.”
“Don’t think about it, and it’ll come to you—eventually.”
“Okay. I only hope we have that long.”
Chapter 19
Ettie and Elsa-May had just closed the doors after getting out of the taxi at John’s house when they heard yelling coming from within the house. They stared at each other, not knowing what to do. Ettie looked around at the taxi, already halfway down the driveway. It was too far away to call it back to make a quick getaway. They were stuck.
“This is awkward,” Ettie said.
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