Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 2

by Samantha Price

  “Okay.”

  Ettie found the photo of Kel Flower and handed it to her.

  Genevieve Cohen looked at it hard, and then shook her head. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen this man before. Who is he?”

  “Just… don’t worry. He’s no one.”

  “Just another man who might have possibly been involved in a kidnapping,” Elsa-May said.

  Mrs. Cohen handed the photo back.

  “Where is your secretary today?” Ettie asked.

  “She’s sick today, and then she has tomorrow off. Which works out well because I don’t want her anywhere near the baby when she’s sick.”

  “She’s not too ill, I hope,” Elsa-May asked.

  “She’s got a cold, and she couldn’t stop sneezing this morning, so I told her to take the day off. She’s not left her apartment all day.”

  Ettie nodded. “She lives nearby?”

  Mrs. Cohen raised her eyebrows. “She lives in the servants’ wing.” Mrs. Cohen laughed. “I know it sounds pretentious—we don’t call our employees servants, but that’s what they called that section of the house when we purchased the property ten years ago. It’s more of a self-contained apartment adjoining the house, but that’s quite a mouthful to say.”

  “Could I have a quick look at the baby?” Ava asked.

  “Yes, he’s upstairs. I’ll take you now.” Mrs. Cohen led the way, and they all followed her up the stairs. When she reached the landing, she turned around. “My husband is getting used to the idea of another baby, but we don’t have a proper nursery yet. We’re keeping him in the upstairs study until the decorators come and turn it into a nursery.” She pushed a door open. “There he is. I don’t think he’s awake.”

  The three of them peered into the crib to see Luke sleeping soundly.

  “He looks happy to be home,” Elsa-May said quietly, turning to Mrs. Cohen.

  “I hope so. And I hope he’ll forgive me when he grows up and finds out what I did. I don’t think my husband will forgive me. He’s coming around; he never wanted another baby after what happened before, and neither did I.”

  “You did what you thought was best,” Ettie said.

  “That’s not what the police think. I’m going to be charged for leaving him.”

  “Are you?” Elsa-May asked, acting shocked, as though she hadn’t heard that before.

  Mrs. Cohen nodded.

  “I’m sure they’ll take into account your extraordinary circumstances. And the fact that you stayed and waited until I took the baby into the house.”

  “I hope you’re right. It’s just another worry. My husband insisted we have a fulltime nanny to help look after Luke. He doesn’t trust me anymore—I’m sure that’s why he wants a nanny here.”

  “You’re leaving his name as Luke?” Ava asked.

  Mrs. Cohen smiled. “I think it suits him well, but we’re leaving off the traditional ‘k’ and the ‘e,’ and spelling it with a ‘c.’ That’s what we put on his birth certificate, ‘Luc.” It’s the French spelling, I believe, and I have a penchant for all things French.”

  French or not, Ettie hid her dislike of the name Genevieve had chosen for the baby. Surely that name would be mixed up with the female name of Lucy. She didn’t like that idea at all, but she kept silent, as it wasn’t her choice to make.

  Chapter 17

  A loud buzzing sounded.

  “That’s the intercom,” Mrs. Cohen said. She called out to someone they hadn’t seen before, “Jill, if that’s the police, let them through.”

  Ettie’s heart beat wildly, hoping that she was helping rather than hindering the investigation. If she were hindering it, she’d never hear the end of it.

  “Who’s Jill?” Ava asked.

  “She’s my housekeeper. We don’t have a nanny yet; we’re still interviewing.” Mrs. Cohen moved into the hallway and looked out a window at the driveway below. “It’s the police. We should head downstairs. Watch Luc would you, Jill?”

  A small dark-haired woman appeared out of an adjacent room. “Yes, Mrs. Cohen.”

  The three women walked down the stairs behind Mrs. Cohen who then opened the door to Detective Kelly, who had another plainclothes man standing beside him.

  Ettie, who was standing a distance back from the door, could see them in the doorway. She whispered to Elsa-May, “I’d say that’s the man who’s heading up the cold case unit.”

  “Could be,” Elsa-May whispered back.

  When Kelly walked through the door, he introduced the other man as Detective McDonald from the Cold Case unit.

  “We’ll sit down in the sitting room. Come through this way,” Mrs. Cohen said.

  Ettie had thought they’d already been in the sitting room, and was amazed at how many rooms there were in the house. The sitting room overlooked the rolling green grounds of the hedge-walled back yard. There was a pool to the left and what appeared to be a pool house next to it.

  “Thank you for your call, Mrs. Smith,” Kelly said to Ettie in a low voice.

  After they had all sunken into the soft white leather couches, Kelly leaned forward and said to Ettie, “Can I take a look at the pictures you showed Mrs. Cohen?”

  “Ava,” Ettie said.

  Ava handed over all the photos they’d printed off at the library.

  After he leafed through them with Detective McDonald looking on, he handed them to Genevieve Cohen. “Which man do you think was working for you?”

  She picked her way through them until she found the one. “Here.” She handed it to the detective. “This man definitely worked here as a gardener.”

  “And this is his name?” Kelly pointed to the penciled name.

  “His name is George Cousins. He was never a good worker. I gave him chance after chance, but he just wouldn’t follow instructions. I had no choice but to let him go after he butchered my roses. I grew them from seeds that I’d brought all the way back from France. I can’t replace them. They’ve recovered now, but it’s taken years.”

  Kelly said to McDonald, “Have you come across him before?”

  “He was in the file as someone who was questioned, but he had an alibi. We’ll take a closer look at him and his alibi.”

  “Good. Thank you, Mrs. Smith and… everyone.”

  Ettie felt a weight off her shoulders. She wasn’t in trouble like she thought she might be.

  McDonald jumped to his feet. “Excuse me. I need to call someone to get onto things right away.” He strode out of the room and made a call from the hallway.

  When McDonald came back into the room, Kelly said he’d be in touch with all of them and then both detectives left.

  “Well, we shouldn’t hold you up any longer,” Ettie said to Mrs. Cohen.

  “I’m not doing anything important. Ava, shall we go up and see if Luc's awake yet?”

  “Yes, I’d love to have another hold of him if I could.”

  “We might wait here, if that’s okay,” Elsa-May said. “We’re too old to go running up and down stairs. Once a day is enough.”

  Mrs. Cohen smiled. “Why don’t you go through to the kitchen and I’ll have Jill bring you a cup of hot tea if you’re not in a hurry?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Elsa-May said.

  “The kitchen is down the hall and to the right.”

  Ettie nodded hoping that tea would be accompanied by cake or at least cookies—she was starving and it was a little past their regular time for the midday meal. “I would like to see Luc again, but I do feel a little faint.”

  “As soon as we leave here we’ll get something to eat somewhere.”

  It was a rare occasion that Ettie and Elsa-May were thinking along the same lines.

  When they heard a car, Ettie looked out the window. “The gates opened by themselves so this might be Mr. Cohen.” When the car drove into a four-car garage next to the house, they knew it was Mr. Cohen.

  “Has he come home for lunch I wonder?” Elsa-May said.

  “He might work at home som
e of the time; many people do.”

  They watched the man leave the garage and walk through the doors of the kitchen. He was a small portly bald man—nothing like Ettie had envisioned Mrs. Cohen being married to.

  “Hello?” he said as he closed the sliding door behind him.

  “Hello, are you Mr. Cohen?”

  “I am,” he said looking slightly amused.

  Ettie introduced herself and Elsa-May to him and let him know how they knew Mrs. Cohen.

  “Your wife is upstairs showing the baby to one of our friends.”

  “You’re the ladies Genevieve left our baby with?”

  “We are.”

  “I don’t know how I can thank you for taking such good care of him.”

  “It was our pleasure to look after him.” Elsa-May smiled.

  “We did the best we could,” Ettie said.

  “My wife has been under tremendous pressure—we both have. I’ve got my company to keep me busy, but my wife has no distractions and she constantly dwells on the past.”

  “It would be something difficult to forget. I can’t imagine going through something like that,” Ettie said.

  He nodded.

  Jill appeared. “Tea, Mr. Cohen?”

  “Will you join me, ladies?”

  “Yes we will, thank you.”

  He handed his briefcase to Jill. “Put this away for me first would you?”

  “Yes, Mr. Cohen.” Jill disappeared with his briefcase while Mr. Cohen sat down at the table with Ettie and Elsa-May.

  “There’s been a development that you might not know about,” Ettie said.

  “Well, it might be a long shot—or a tiny piece of a large puzzle. I’d hardly call it a development yet, Ettie.”

  He stared at them. “What is it?”

  “One of your gardeners from years ago was implicated in another kidnapping.”

  “The police questioned him at the time, but he had an alibi,” Elsa-May added.

  “They questioned him about my first son going missing?”

  “Yes, when they were questioning everyone. Detective Kelly said that they questioned all your past and current employees.” Ettie nibbled on her thumbnail wondered if Kelly had said that or if she’d heard it from someone else.

  He sprang to his feet. “I’m going to call Kelly right now and get the facts. He said he’d keep me up to date with everything.”

  “It’s only just happened,” Ettie said, hoping he’d change his mind about calling Detective Kelly.

  Mr. Cohen ignored Ettie’s comment and pulled his phone out of his pocket and paced up and down while talking to Kelly.

  Elsa-May leaned over to her sister, and whispered, “Nice work, Ettie. If Kelly wasn’t mad at us before, he will be now.”

  Ettie shrank down further in her seat while Jill came back into the kitchen and filled up the electric kettle.

  When Mr. Cohen hung up the phone, Ava and Mrs. Cohen appeared with the baby in Mrs. Cohen’s arms.

  “There he is,” Mr. Cohen said as he took hold of the baby.

  In her heart, Ettie knew that Mr. Cohen couldn’t have had anything to do with the disappearance of his first baby four years ago, and she was ashamed of herself for recently thinking otherwise.

  Mrs. Cohen introduced Ava to her husband and then asked Jill to heat Luc's bottle. Ettie felt a little sorry for Jill who appeared to have to do everything around the place.

  While Mr. Cohen fed the baby his bottle, they sat around the kitchen table eating smoked salmon sandwiches on soft white bread with the crusts cut off, and small round tasty cheese cookies.

  “Do you mind if I hold the baby before we go?” Ava asked before she gave an embarrassed giggle. “I love babies and can’t wait to have one of my own.”

  Before Mr. or Mrs. Cohen could answer her question, Mr. Cohen’s cell phone sounded and without saying anything, he handed the baby with his bottle to Ava before he stood.

  Ettie guessed it was Kelly on the phone by the concerned look on his face. “Very good. Be sure to call me back and let me know what happens.” He ended the call and sat down. “That was the detective. He said that man who used to do the gardening for us was in the same jail at the same time as Victor Lemonis was in jail. He said he’s going to pick him up and then they’ll question him and take things from there.” He turned to his wife. “He said depending on how things go, you might have to make a positive ID on him.”

  “Me? No. I don’t want to do that. I’ve already told him that’s the man who worked for us.”

  Mr. Cohen shrugged. “I guess we have to do whatever they say.”

  Mrs. Cohen’s face grew dark and angry like a storm cloud ready to release a lightening strike. “Look what happened last time you trusted the police.”

  Mr. Cohen remained silent, but his face went beet red.

  Ettie said, “Well, we should be going now. We’ve taken up enough of your time.”

  Elsa-May pushed herself to her feet. “At least now they’ll be sure to check on his alibi again.”

  “Bye, little man,” Ava said softly to the baby before she handed Luc back to Mrs. Cohen.

  “Thank you once again ladies—all of you. We owe you a great deal. If there’s anything we can ever do for you, please let us know,” Mr. Cohen said rising to his feet. “I’ll walk you out.”

  “Well that was awkward,” Elsa-May said once they were outside the gates.

  “At least we got fed,” Ettie said.

  “And again, we forgot to ask for them to call a taxi. We’ll have to walk up to the shops again.”

  “It’s not that far,” Ettie said.

  “The man didn’t seem very nice to his wife,” Ava said.

  “I thought he was okay,” Ettie said.

  “They’ve both been under a lot of pressure since the baby was kidnapped. And what his wife did, hiding the fact that they’d had another baby, would’ve been like Mr. Cohen losing another baby all over again. Imagine if he hadn’t found out for ten years and he would’ve lost all those years. Even though he said he didn’t want another one, he obviously didn’t mean it—look at him now. He adores that baby.”

  “Seems so, Elsa-May,” Ettie agreed.

  “What do we do now?” Ava asked.

  “All we can do is go home and wait,” Elsa-May said. “Wait, and pray that Detective Kelly and Detective McDonald uncover the truth.”

  “I do hope they keep a better watch on the man when they put him in the cell. We don’t want to lose another man who knows something about the kidnapping,” Ava said.

  “I’m sure they will, Ava,” Elsa-May said.

  “And there is something else we could do,” Ava said.

  “What’s that?” Ettie asked.

  “We could find out more about Nerida Flower.”

  “And how would we do that?” Elsa-May asked.

  “We follow her and see where she goes.”

  “How? We don’t have a car.”

  “I could see if my friend, Lydia, will drive us. She’s between jobs at the moment. We could offer to pay her for her time and that would be cheaper than a taxi.”

  “I guess we could do that, but do you think we should’ve told Kelly that her last name is the same as a suspected kidnapper's?” Elsa-May asked.

  “That’s it, Elsa-May! We tell Kelly that tomorrow morning, early. Then Kelly will question her immediately because he gets onto things quickly. And then if that man—Kel—is a relative of hers, she might go to see him to tip him off that they’re onto him.”

  “I like it,” Elsa-May said.

  Ettie turned to Ava. “Do you remember your friend’s phone number?”

  “I’ll call directory services and get her home number. She lives with her parents and I’m certain she’ll be home.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Elsa-May said, “but you mustn’t tell your friend what it’s all about.”

  Ava nodded. “I won’t.”

  Chapter 18

  Ettie and Elsa-May waited nea
r the public phone while Ava made the call to her friend to see if she would be able to drive them around the following day.

  The sisters overheard Ava's side of the conversation.

  “It sounds like her friend is agreeing.”

  “It certainly does sound that way,” Ettie agreed with her sister. “Ava was right; a taxi would’ve cost us a fortune.”

  “There is every possibility that Nerida Flower won't leave the house all day especially since she's been sick.”

  “Well, if she is a relation to Kel Flower there is every possibility that she’ll try to contact him.”

  “That's what we're hoping.”

  Ava hung up the phone. “She said she’d do it, and she's going to pick us up from your place at eight o'clock in the morning. She said that's very early for her because, since she's been out of a job, she hasn't been waking up till eleven or twelve.”

  “Humph, that’s the waste of a day,” Elsa-May said.

  Ettie agreed, “Half the day would be gone.”

  “She's agreed to do it and I said we’d pay her gasoline costs.”

  “That’s only fair,” Ettie said.

  “We’ll pay her for her time too,” Elsa-May said.

  “Nee, Elsa-May, there's really no need. She's not doing anything else and she's happy to do it.”

  “Okay.” Elsa-May nodded.

  “Are you going to tell Jeremiah what we’re doing tomorrow?” Ettie asked.

  “Not unless he asks me, which he probably won’t. I'll have him bring me over early in the morning before he starts work.”

  “Good idea,” Ettie said.

  “Now we should call for a taxi to get home.” Elsa-May stepped toward the pay phone.

  The sisters had the taxi driver take Ava to her place before they were delivered home. When Ettie and Elsa-May walked through their front door, Snowy came bounding towards them.

  Elsa-May leaned down and lifted Snowy up, but he was wriggling too much, so she had to put him down again. “I'll guess I'll have to take him for a walk to use up some of his energy.”