“What do you mean?” asked Elsa-May.
“She was in tears. Her sister wants to sell. She owns the building, did you know?”
Ettie scratched her neck. “The movie star sister owns the building and was leasing it to her aunt? Shand is the one who raised the rent so high?”
“That’s right. Both Valerie and her sister own the business together. Valerie doesn’t want to sell but the movie star sister just wants the store gone and the lease dissolved so she can sell the building. I dare say she’ll make a bundle of money. That’s what it sounds like to me.” Kate took a mouthful of tea.
“Ah, that explains why she lingered in town for so long,” Elsa-May said.
“Valerie doesn’t see that she has any other option but to do what her sister wants. I told her she could always move the store. She doesn’t have to close down completely.”
“Since you also want to open a store, wouldn’t it be better for you if Greta’s store closed down completely?” Elsa-May smiled at Kate. “One less quilt store would have to be good for you.”
Ettie laughed loudly. “Don’t listen to Elsa-May. I think you’re right what you said before, Kate. If something’s meant to come to you it will but …” Ettie placed her teacup down on the saucer in front of her. "Do you also believe that things need a helping hand sometimes?"
"Perhaps you're right. Perhaps they sometimes do need a helping hand, other times things just fall into place all by themselves."
"It's very sad what happened to Greta, but I think the detective has already got his suspicions over who killed her." Ettie nodded while staring at Kate to see if she was scared.
Kate’s eyebrows rose. "Is that right? What did he say?"
"Oh, he'd never tell us anything,” Ettie said, “Although we did overhear a few things recently when he called me in to ask me some more questions."
"I didn’t know that, Ettie. He had more questions for you?"
"That's right."
"If they never find out who killed her, or if they do, it doesn't change the fact that she's gone."
"It doesn't mean that whoever has done it should get away with it though, don't you think? Don't you think the person who has killed her should be punished on this earth as well as in the life after?" Ettie peered into Kate's eyes trying to see if she was an honest kind of a person or not.
"I suppose so. I really haven't taken the time to give it any thought."
"Well, this whole thing is much too much to think about,” Elsa-May said.
Kate looked down at her daughter. "You mustn't kiss the dog, Matilda."
"She's so pretty and she likes to be kissed on the head—look."
“He’s a boy dog,” Elsa-May told her.
“Ah, he’s too pretty to be a boy.” Matilda planted one more kiss on the top of Snowy's head right between his ears. Snowy put his head down and almost looked as though he was smiling.
"When I say to stop doing something, I need you to stop doing it, Matilda. You're going home right now and going into your room."
She looked up at her mother. “Do I have to?"
"You do." Kate looked over at Ettie and then Elsa-May. "I'm sorry about this, but I do need to punish her when she doesn't do what she's been told."
"I quite understand," said Elsa-May.
Ettie stood as soon as Kate did. "Why don’t you take some of those cookies with you?"
"No, we have plenty at home. We did bake a lot."
Ettie followed them to the door. "I'll give you some to take home, because they won't last, and Elsa-May and I won't be able to eat them all."
"No, really there's no need. You could maybe freeze a few.” Kate grabbed her daughter's hand and quickly walked out the front door. "Thank you for the tea."
"And thank you for the hot chocolate," echoed Matilda.
Elsa-May stood next to Ettie. "That's quite all right. You're welcome."
The elderly sisters stood at the door and watched them walk out the gate. Kate was walking so fast that Matilda could barely keep up with her.
Kate knew they were onto her!
Chapter 34
"What do you make of that abrupt exit, Ettie?"
Ettie was pleased her sister also knew something wasn’t right. "It's obvious. The cookies were poisoned—are poisoned."
"Oh, Ettie you do have such an imagination."
Ettie marched into the kitchen and looked at the cookies. She brought them out and put them down on the coffee table, not brave enough to touch them.
"They don't look poisoned to me," said Elsa-May as she sat down in her chair.
"Of course they wouldn't look poisoned. You would never be able to tell they contain poison just by looking at them. She knows we're onto her. She might’ve overheard us." Ettie whispered, "Maybe she can hear what we’re saying. We heard Matilda crying, so maybe they can hear us."
Elsa-May reached for her knitting. "Don't be silly. Crying carries louder than talking.”
Ettie stood with her hands on her hips. "We should take those cookies away to be tested."
"Oh, Kelly would love that if we brought him some cookies and say we thought the woman next door was trying to kill us. And then we’ll get the results back that they contain sugar, flour, eggs, buttermilk and water."
"But what if I'm right?"
"I can't see that you are. Don't you think that there would be some question raised if people started dying, just like that, as soon as Kate came to town?"
"So it's okay if one person dies when Kate comes to town? Or perhaps one plus her neighbors? If we die, they might put it down to old age and who would bother to do an autopsy?"
“If we both die on the same day, I’m sure Kelly would think that’s not right.”
“Her evil plan has backfired on her.”
“What plan?”
“To buy the store cheaply from Greta’s relatives. She didn’t figure on the whole thing about the movie star niece wanting to sell the building and close the doors of the store forever.”
“It’s all very far-fetched, Ettie. She wouldn’t kill a woman hoping she could take over her store.”
Ettie bit into her knuckles. “She’s keeping something from us, I can tell. Something’s not right.”
Elsa-May finished off her row and placed her knitting back in her bag. "Why don’t you sit down, and I'll make you a fresh cup of tea? I can see you didn't drink this one." She picked up Ettie’s cup of cold tea and walked with it into the kitchen.
Ettie got up and followed her in. "Elsa-May, do you know how many times I've been right in these past years? I found the killers before Detective Kelly, how many times?"
"I don't know. Quite a few times, I suppose."
"There is no 'suppose' about it. When are you going to start trusting my judgment?"
Elsa-May placed the teakettle back onto the stove and lit the flame. "What do you want to do then, Ettie?"
"I told you already. I want to take the cookies to Detective Kelly and ask him to have them tested.”
“He’ll want to know why.”
“We’ll tell him, but we won’t say who gave them to us.”
Elsa-May blinked rapidly. "We've never done anything like this before."
"Only because we’ve never had to do anything like it before. Wait, I think we have done something like this before and it involved cake."
"How do you even know he’ll agree to it?"
"He won’t agree to anything if we don't ask him."
Elsa-May threw her hands up in the air. "Do whatever you want. Have it your way, you usually do."
Ettie grinned. When the tea was ready, they both carried their tea back out to the living room.
As Ettie set her cup down on the coffee table, she saw an empty plate where the cookies had been. “Elsa-May, the cookies!”
Elsa-May looked down at the plate and her jaw dropped. They locked eyes with one another and, at the same time, said, “They’re gone!”
Ettie held her throat and turned around t
o look at the door. It was closed. Was there someone still in the house?
Chapter 35
With the news that the suspected poisoned cookies had disappeared, Elsa-May's eyebrows nearly reached the top of her prayer kapp. "I didn't hear anyone come in."
Then they heard what sounded like a hiccup. They looked under the coffee table to see Snowy, licking crumbs from his lips and looking guilty.
Ettie screamed, "Snowy, how could you? We’ll have to take him to the vet and get his stomach pumped."
"For cookies? Nee, Ettie.” Elsa-May crouched down and stared at him. “He looks fine to me. I think you’ve been overreacting. We’ll just keep an eye on him. I'm sure he'll be all right." Elsa-May moved to her chair keeping her eyes glued to Snowy.
“Oh, what if we lose him? We can’t risk it.”
“You’re wrong, Ettie. In my heart, I know Kate isn’t a killer and she didn’t poison the cookies.”
Ettie looked at Snowy, looking up at her with his big dark eyes. He seemed okay, even better than okay. He was more lively now after the visit from Matilda.
Just to make sure he was okay, Ettie brought him into her room to sleep that night so she could keep an eye on him. She slept fully clothed in case they had to rush him to the vet if he showed one sign of being ill.
In the morning, Elsa-May shook Ettie awake. "Snowy’s still with us."
She looked up to see Elsa-May smiling. "Well, I'm pleased about that, but he might not have been."
"But he is, so that means you were wrong about Kate trying to poison us. And if you were wrong about that …"
"All right, okay. I was wrong about that, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong about Kate being the killer. I mean, she’s still on my list of possibles and she’s still hiding something."
"Oh, do you really think a woman with a young child would kill someone? Remember, she is one of our ladies."
Ettie pushed herself up on her elbows. She liked to wake up slowly, not like this with her sister hovering over her. "But how do you know that for certain? We know nothing about her. What if she's not Amish at all?"
Elsa-May fixed her hands onto her hips. "You said yourself that your friends know her under a different name, so she is Amish.”
"Jah, but what if she's not the real Kate Lapp?"
"I think you've got everything wrong. You really have no idea who killed Greta, do you, Ettie?”
"Nee, I don't. I never really said I did. We have to eliminate everybody one by one. If only we had gotten to talk to the person, that name we got out of the phone book.” Ettie sat up and stretched her hands over her head and yawned.
“We can go back there.”
“Do you think we should?”
“Nee, but that doesn’t ever stop you from doing anything. You never listen to me. Are we going to visit Ann Maree today?"
"Jah. I’ve bought everything for my quilt so now I’ll buy everything for yours. Soon as I finish mine, I’ll start on yours. And it would be good to see what she knows.” As soon as she finished her quilt, Ettie thought, Elsa-May would see that she had finished what she started, and she’d have to apologize.
"All right, I'm not going to argue with you."
Ettie got out of bed, leaned down and patted Snowy, who was still lying in his dog bed. "I'm just glad that Snowy’s still with us and Kate didn't try to poison us."
“Me too.” Elsa-May walked out of the room and Snowy got up and followed her.
Ettie lay back down and pulled the covers over her head, hoping to get a few minutes more sleep to make up for what she didn't get during the night. It didn’t work, Elsa-May making noises in the kitchen made sleeping-in impossible. It didn’t help that her bedroom and the kitchen shared a common wall.
Chapter 36
Ettie and Elsa-May arrived at Ann Maree’s Quilt Store and she was pleased to see them. “Hello ladies, you’re back already!”
"Yes we are," Ettie said. “Now Elsa-May is excited to get started on her quilt."
"Well I'll certainly be able to help you with that. Have you got your design worked out, Elsa-May?"
"Yes, I have. I'm going to do the Jacob’s ladder design quilt too, same as my sister."
“Oh, I’m impressed. That’s a lovely quilt and quite a challenging starter.”
Elsa-May’s eyebrows knit together. “I have quilted before. I’m not a total beginner. And I'm going to have it mostly greens and blues. Not pink. In fact, no pink anywhere at all."
"Certainly. I think we can achieve that. Let’s see now. I'll print off a few finished designs from my computer, shall I? And then you can get some ideas of different colors and how they intermix."
"You can do that?" Elsa-May asked.
"Of course, with the computer I can do anything. Except sew a quilt of course." She laughed.
Ettie stood next to Elsa-May as she looked through fabric rolls for her quilt, after they’d seen some options on the computer. "Ann Maree, would you happen to know if anyone's made an offer on Greta’s quilt shop yet?"
Ann Maree stared at her and pushed her hair behind her ear. "What have you heard?"
"We’ve heard a whisper," Elsa-May said. “We heard that someone is fairly interested in buying it and they made their intentions known quite early on.”
"I haven't heard anything. I mean, why would I?"
"We just thought that you seem to know a lot about what happens around the town."
"Yes, in particular when it's in regard to quilts," Elsa-May added.
Ann Maree said, "I know nothing about this. I think everyone is still reeling about how awful the whole thing is, with Greta being murdered and all. I mean, any of us could be next now that they’ve let that man out of jail. He got bail you know."
"Yes, you’re right. Everyone's reeling from what happened," Elsa-May said. "We hadn't heard about that man getting out of jail."
After they discussed patterns, Elsa-May made her final choices of fabric for the front of the quilt. Ettie handed over the money once it was all tallied.
Ann Maree gave her the change as Elsa-May lifted the heavy bag off the counter.
“Now, you have your fabric, will you borrow all your sister’s implements?” Ann Maree asked.
“I will.”
Ann Maree turned to Ettie. “Did you find you need a cutting board?”
“No. We’re fine with the scissors. Just the fabric. I saw you, Ann Maree.”
Elsa-May rested the bag on the floor.
Ann Maree smiled. “Saw me where?”
“At the fair, right before Greta was killed.”
“You must be mistaken. I wasn’t there. I didn’t go to the fair. I was here getting ready for the store to open. I’d come in here early, you see. It can’t have been me.”
Ettie nodded. “I must’ve been mistaken.”
“Oh, I’ve forgotten to add these up. I’ll have to start again.”
Ettie guessed Ann Maree was flustered because she’d been seen at the fair. Why was she lying about being there? wondered Ettie as she showed her the receipt with everything already totaled up and paid for.
When more customers walked in, the sisters left.
When they were outside, Elsa-May said, “Well, you were mistaken, Ettie.”
“I wasn’t. I let her think that just to avoid a confrontation. I know it was her and she knows I know it was her. The thing is, why is she lying about it?”
“Okay, let me get this straight. The woman next door was trying to poison us, and now you’re insisting Ann Maree was at the fair when she wasn’t. From a distance, Ettie, all Englishers look the same.”
“That’s not so.”
Elsa-May stopped walking. “Who do you think killed her then? Ann Maree, Martin Cruise, Mondo, or poor young Kate from next door? It’s even possible that it’s someone else entirely.”
“You left out Leonora. She could’ve hidden poison in that quilt. Maybe she was in on it with Martin Cruise.”
“You’re impossible, Ettie. Now help me with th
is bag.”
Ettie took hold of one of the handles. “You were right, what you said this morning.”
“That you should forget this nonsense of helping Kelly?”
“Nee, that we should go back to that house where one of Mondo’s relatives lives.”
“Well, we don’t know that for certain. Wait a minute. I don’t recall saying that at all.”
“Oh, are you sure?”
“Quite sure.”
“That’s still where we should go next.” Ettie dropped the handle of the bag and rushed out to the side of the road to wave to a passing taxi.
When Ettie and Elsa-May got into the backseat, they were surprised that they had gotten the same driver who’d taken them to that house the other day.
“I hope you still remember that address, Elsa-May.”
“I do.” Elsa-May rattled the address off for the driver.
He didn’t say anything about driving them there again. Perhaps, he didn’t remember them.
When the taxi driver got to the address, he said, “Two houses, up, right?” and then Ettie knew he remembered them.
“Thank you. That’s right and you’ll wait for us?”
“Sure.”
They both got out of the car and Elsa-May tugged on Ettie’s sleeve. “What will we say?”
“We’ll just ask them questions." Just as they were on the footpath outside the property, a young man walked out the door with a basketball in hand and a bag over his back. He began bouncing the basketball as soon as he reached the sidewalk between the house and the driveway. He suddenly looked up at them and took hold of his ball.
“Hello,” Ettie said, “Are you Raymond?”
“Who’s askin’?”
“We’re friends of Greta. Did you used to mow her lawns?”
"Do you have a lawn that needs mowing?"
Ettie pushed in front of Elsa-May in case she said that they did. The last thing they needed was more complications caused by half-truths. "What we would like is to know some information.”
"About what?"
Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 7 Page 41