Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 2

by Samantha Price

Ettie pushed the front door of her house open. Even though Bethany had been to their house before, she was always amazed at how tiny the place was. Two steps inside the door and they were in the small living room.

  Ettie took Bethany’s cape from her and put it on the table just inside the door.

  “Have a seat and I’ll see where Elsa-May’s got herself to.”

  “Okay.” There were six wooden chairs that seemed like they’d seen better days and one couch. Listening to hushed voices in the kitchen, Bethany sat on the closest chair knowing that Ettie’s spot was the couch and Elsa-May’s chair was the one with the knitting bag underneath it.

  Elsa-May walked toward her, wiping her hands on a tea towel. “I’m glad you could come, Bethany. Ettie was just telling me everything that happened this afternoon.”

  “Denke for inviting me, and jah, it has been an eventful afternoon. The dinner smells delicious.”

  “I’m hoping it tastes the same. We’ll soon find out.”

  “Can I do anything to help?”

  “Nee! We’re about five minutes away from serving it.” Elsa-May headed back to the kitchen.

  Bethany noticed Elsa-May’s white fluffy dog asleep in the corner. He looked so cute on his little bed curled into a ball. After a few more minutes had passed, Bethany decided she couldn’t just sit there and do nothing, so she walked into the kitchen. “You must have something I could do,” she said to Elsa-May.

  “Not now. Dinner is ready.”

  Elsa-May called out to Ettie and soon Ettie joined the two of them at the table. They closed their eyes and said a silent prayer of thanks for the food.

  When they finished their prayer, Elsa-May stood and carved the roast. When she’d placed three slices of meat on each plate, she sat back down.

  “That’s a lot of meat. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get through it. Do you want to take a piece off my plate, Elsa-May?”

  “Just do what you can. Snowy gets the leftovers.”

  “I told Elsa-May what happened this afternoon, Bethany.”

  Bethany looked at Elsa-May. “What do you make of it all?”

  Elsa-May finished the mouthful she was chewing on and then placed her fork down on her plate. “I find it intriguing that the woman who introduced herself as Cheryl and invited you to her home doesn’t exist at all. Are you sure you two didn’t imagine her? Maybe you both fell over and bumped your heads?”

  Ettie snapped back, “I hope you’re joking. I know you often think I’m losing my mind, but a young woman like Bethany wouldn’t be.”

  “Calm down, Ettie. I wasn’t serious.”

  Ettie ignored Elsa-May and cut herself another portion of meat.

  “All the same, I wonder who the woman was,” Elsa-May said.

  “I’d love to know that. She seemed friendly. What would be the reason to pretend she was Ian and Randall’s sister? She’d have to know that we’d find out eventually there was no sister,” Ettie said.

  Elsa-May suggested, “Maybe she was hoping to scare you away or give you just enough information to make you think you were hearing the truth.”

  “That could be right. She said the lawyers would contact me, and I was waiting for that to happen.”

  Ettie waved a fork in the air. “What if she was buying time? If there were legal goings-on underway, she might not have wanted Bethany to interfere. By saying what she did, she could’ve hoped Bethany would go away satisfied and wait for someone to contact her—and they never would. By the time Bethany realized no one was ever going to contact her, the money that was rightfully hers could’ve gone elsewhere, and it would be too late for Bethany to do anything about it.”

  Elsa-May nodded. “Jah, that makes sense, Ettie.”

  “But I don’t want anything.”

  “They don’t know that, Bethany. Even if you tell them you don’t want anything, how do they know that you won’t change your mind tomorrow?” Ettie said.

  “But we still don’t know who Cheryl is or what part she’s playing in this whole thing.” Elsa-May popped another piece of meat into her mouth.

  “The other thing could be that Creighton was telling you lies. After all, the detective did take him in for questioning. He could’ve been the one who killed Ian Whitmire.”

  “It’s Ian Whitmore,” Ettie corrected her sister.

  “Isn’t that what I said?”

  “Nee, you said Whitmire.”

  “Jah, Whitmire.”

  “Well, it’s not Whitmire, it’s Whitmore.”

  Bethany did her best to contain a little giggle. “Your dog’s sleeping a long time, Elsa-May.”

  “Once I put the meat in the oven to cook, we went for a long walk. He’s quite exhausted.”

  “I thought the smell of the food would’ve woken him.”

  Elsa-May shook her head. “Nothing wakes him up; he sleeps solidly.”

  Bethany was pleased that the change of subject was enough to stop the sisters’ squabbling. “Do you think Creighton will blame me for the police coming to get him?”

  “Nee. Not when he finds out why they want to question him,” Elsa-May said.

  “Or if he is guilty, he might think that the detective was having him followed,” Ettie suggested. “I’ll visit the detective tomorrow and see what he’s found out. I know you can’t do it, Bethany, because you’ll be busy at your store.”

  “Denke, Ettie. I’m anxious to find out everything.”

  “Did you have time to make any dessert, Elsa-May?” Ettie asked, licking the gravy off her fork.

  “Nee, I didn’t. I thought you would’ve brought a cake back with you since you would’ve gone right past our favorite bakery.”

  “I do have other things on my mind. I had to go to the detective and then go see Bethany at the store. I can’t do everything around here.”

  “I don’t expect you to do everything around here. It would be nice if you could just do some things.”

  “I don’t need any dessert,” Bethany blurted out.

  “Why not?” Elsa-May pursed her lips. “Surely you’re not worried about getting fat. Look how tiny you are.”

  Bethany giggled. “Nee, I’m not worried about anything like that. I’m just not a big eater.”

  “Fruit! We do have fruit,” Ettie suggested.

  “Not for me. I’m fine.” Bethany sat at the dining table while Elsa-May and Ettie fixed themselves some fruit. After that, she helped them wash the dishes, and then stayed and talked for another hour before she made her excuses to leave.

  Ettie suggested that Elsa-May walk with Bethany to the shanty to call for a taxi.Bethany held her breath, hoping there wouldn’t be more arguing about who should walk with her. To her relief, Elsa-May was happy to go with her.

  “I’ll just put the leash on Snowy. The obedience trainer said that the more tired he is, the more receptive he’d be to training. It works, too, because when he hasn’t been for his walk, all he wants to do is play. He doesn’t listen to a thing I say.”

  After the taxi had been called, Elsa-May and Snowy waited outside with Bethany until the taxi arrived.

  Although it had been nice to have a lovely dinner cooked for her, it had worn Bethany out listening to Ettie and Elsa-May. Ten minutes later, she was glad to be home. The first thing she did when she walked through the front door was kick off her shoes, and then she lay down on the couch, covering herself with a warm blanket. Closing her eyes, scenes of the previous few days flashed before her and soon she fell asleep.

  Chapter 18

  When Bethany woke, she was surprised to see light outside. It was morning already. She hadn’t intended to stay the whole night on the couch. Stretching her arms over her head, she wondered what the day would bring. Surely she’d find out more about Creighton.

  As Bethany was making herself a breakfast of oatmeal she’d found at the back of the cupboard, it occurred to her that the detective would know by now whether there was someone called Cheryl amongst the Whitmore family. Creighton had denied
Cheryl’s existence, but how could she trust anything he said? Ettie hadn’t said so, but surely she’d stop by the store as soon as she spoke with the detective. There were so many things that didn’t make sense.

  Just as Bethany had finished the washing up, she heard a car horn sound. She’d arranged a taxi to collect her at the same time Monday through Friday. Bethany hurried outside, careful to lock the door behind her just in case she got some unwelcome visitors. Now she bitterly regretted giving Cheryl her home address.

  As the taxi took her along the usual route, she ignored the music, which jarred her nerves, and concentrated on Ettie’s advice. Her true family was made up of her brothers and sisters in the Lord. Maybe the hole in her heart would not be filled by her earthly family. The way everything was turning out with Creighton, it certainly seemed that way.

  After she had paid the driver, she hurried down the alleyway, unlocked the back door and stepped inside. Once she’d closed the door behind her, she heard hoofbeats. She hoped it was Jabez, but saw it wasn’t when she peered out the window. In her heart, it felt like she hadn’t seen him in weeks when in reality she’d only seen him the day before.

  The day wore on, and she hadn’t heard from Ettie, Jabez, or the detective. It was just before closing time when Ettie walked through the door.

  “Ettie! Have you been to see the detective? I’ve heard from no one all day.”

  “I’ve just left him. The news is that Cheryl doesn’t fit with the description of anybody in the family. Can I sit down?”

  “Jah, of course.” Bethany pulled the chair out from behind the counter.

  When Ettie sat down, she continued, “Not one of them knows anyone called Cheryl.”

  “That makes me feel sick to the stomach.”

  “I know how you feel. How could we be so deceived? I’m usually more accurate with my estimations of people.”

  Bethany held her hand over her stomach. “What did he find out from talking to Creighton?”

  “Creighton admitted he left soon after his uncle on the night in question, but he claims he went to a friend’s house. The detective checked with his friend, and he verified that it was true. He does have an alibi for his whereabouts when Ian Whitmore was murdered.”

  “I feel so bad now. Creighton won’t trust me.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about that. How do you know that he can be trusted? I don’t know if you should trust anyone. We believed Cheryl and look what happened. Someone’s been murdered, don’t forget that.”

  “I’m reminded of that every minute of the day when I look at the floor where he was found.”

  Ettie nodded.

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s all a lie and my father didn’t want me to be left anything. That woman who was calling herself Cheryl could’ve told me anything and I would’ve believed her. How dumb am I?”

  “It’s not dumb to be trusting, Bethany. We should be able to trust people, but it’s not always a smart thing to do when you meet someone you don’t know.”

  Bethany sighed.

  “The detective has an interesting theory about Cheryl. She must’ve had some claim over the Whitmore estate, or had some connection to someone who did, to try to throw you off like that.”

  “Isn’t that what you said last night, Ettie?”

  “Jah. My theories often become the detective’s theories. Funny how it works that way.”

  Bethany couldn’t quite figure Ettie out. Sometimes Ettie was vague and hard to understand and at other times, she didn’t miss a thing that was going on. “Does the detective have any other suspects?”

  “If he does he’s keeping the information very much to himself. Which means we’ll have to find things out for ourselves.”

  “We?”

  Ettie looked down, straightened the top of her apron and grinned.

  “And just how are we going to do that?”

  “We could pay Creighton a visit. He visited you, now it’s your turn to visit him. We’ll ask him some things.”

  “He’s not in jail?”

  “No. The detective just questioned him. There was no reason to keep him at the station.”

  “Oh. I don’t know how these things go. If we do ask Creighton questions how do we know we can believe the things he says?”

  “We don’t.”

  “Then what will we ask when we get there? I don’t know if this is a good idea at all, Ettie.”

  “We can go there to find out why he came to visit you. He came to discuss things with you and hadn’t finished what he was saying since the police interrupted.”

  “Nee he hadn’t, and I thought he was telling me lies. I’m never good at knowing if people are telling me the truth. I believe everything people say to me.”

  “Detective Kelly never believes anybody.”

  “Ach nee! It’s raining.”

  “Wunderbaar, my garden will be watered. I’ve been waiting for it to rain; it’s been so dry for this time of year.” Ettie stared at Bethany. “Don’t you like the rain?”

  “I do, but only when I’m at home in front of the fire cuddled up with a blanket. I don’t like having to go out in it.”

  “Just call a taxi and have him pull up right out front. You’ll only have a few steps to get into it. While you’re at it, call one for me.”

  “I’ll call one for you now, Ettie. I have a bit of tidying to do before I go home.”

  When Ettie’s taxi drove away, Bethany locked the front door and made sure it was well and truly bolted. She logged off the credit card terminal and counted out the day’s takings. A soft scratching sound behind her sent ripples of fear through her. She stood still and listened hard to hear where it was coming from. The back door! Had she locked it? She hurried to make certain it was locked but just as she had a hand on the door it pushed open and she stood face-to-face with her half-brother, Creighton Whitmore.

  From his scowling expression, she knew his visit was not a friendly one. She took a step back. Had he come to kill her? Her escalating heart rate quickened further when he held up a gloved hand.

  Chapter 19

  Scrambling through her mind were ways to fend Creighton off. Helping out on a neighboring farm the past two years had made her strong, but would she be strong enough?

  Creighton took two steps toward her, smirking all the while.

  Deep in her mind she called on God, screaming out silently for Him to save her. Right now she needed Him more than ever. Surely this wouldn’t be the end for her. She didn’t want to die before she had a chance to marry and have a houseful of children.

  “Where is it?” His voice was one of controlled rage.

  “Get out of my store immediately or I’ll call the police!”

  “You’ve already done that, and it didn’t work for you.”

  “Get out!” she called again, mustering all the courage she could.

  He tossed his head back and laughed. “I’ll get out when you hand it over.”

  “Hand what over?”

  “Tell me where it is and you won’t end up like dear old Uncle Ian.”

  Bethany decided right then and there she wasn’t going to die. She’d fight for the right to live her life. “You killed him?”

  “Where is it?” he repeated.

  “I don’t know what you want. Where’s what?”

  “I warn you, don’t play games with me.”

  She took another step back, and he matched it with a step forward.

  “Just tell me what you want!”

  “I need what my uncle left here.”

  “He didn’t leave anything here—nothing.”

  He eyed her carefully and pulled a knife from his jacket pocket. Now the gleaming blade was pointing right at her. “Are you telling the truth?”

  “I don’t want to die. I am telling you the truth. He didn’t leave anything here. I didn’t even know he was my uncle until I went to the funeral. Think about it—if he’d left something here for me wouldn’t I know who he was?”

 
; “How did you find out?”

  “I didn’t find out until the police told me the dead man was a Whitmore. I wondered then if he was my father. I didn’t know my father was already dead. I told you everything before.”

  “I was seeing if your story had changed.”

  “It’s not a story. It’s the truth.” Tears streamed down Bethany’s face.

  “Quit the waterworks.” He kept the knife pointed at her while he looked around the store. “If you’re telling the truth, maybe he hid it in here somewhere hoping you’d find it.”

  “Find what?”

  “Shut up!”

  “There’s nothing to find. The whole place was stripped of everything and washed when the body was taken out. There’s nothing here. If there had been anything here that wasn’t supposed to have been here, I would’ve found it by now.”

  “I’m gonna pull this place apart until I find it.” He pushed her out into the center of the store while keeping the knife pointed at her. “Strip everything off the shelves.”

  Bethany had no choice but to do as he ordered. Once she had a bundle of fabric in her arms, she placed it neatly on the floor.

  “Not like that! Like this!” In two seconds, he emptied three shelves by sweeping everything onto the floor with his arm.

  It pained Bethany to see a mess when she’d spent hours arranging everything just so. “What is it that you’re looking for? If you’re looking for the will, it’s not here.”

  “Just do what I tell you and stop talking.”

  She mimicked his actions and swept everything onto the floor. Soon the floor was covered with fabric.

  “Now we’ll take a look at those back cupboards,” he said.

  “Why are you doing this to me? We have the same father. That makes us family. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

  “You’re not my family. I’m the legitimate son and the only son. You’re just a kid born out of wedlock at a time when my father was young and stupid. If he’d been in his right mind at the time, he never would’ve gotten involved with a woman like your mother.”

  She spun around to stare at him, hurt by his words, and suddenly felt protective of her mother. “What do you know about my mother?”