“It’s hard to say since things were moved right after he was found. It was hard for the forensic team to determine what happened with any degree of accuracy. We’re still waiting on the coroner’s report.”
“I assume you’re here because we can help you with something?” Elsa-May asked.
“I’m here, firstly, to learn what you know of the situation, and secondly, to ask you to keep your eyes and ears open.”
“What do you know so far?” Ettie asked, becoming annoyed that Kelly was taking a long time getting to the point.
“The cause of death was a blow to the head. Now whether that was caused by falling from a great height or from a deliberate blow, the coroner is still to determine that.”
“That’s most unfortunate,” Elsa-May said.
Detective Kelly stared at Elsa-May. “Do you know anything about Thomas, Mrs. Lutz?”
“I know that there was talk about his death, that’s all really.”
“What did you hear?”
“Wait a minute and I’ll finish this row. I don’t want to drop any more stitches.” When Elsa-May finished the row, she placed her knitting in her lap and perched her reading glasses on top of her head, pushing back her prayer kapp. “All Ettie and I heard was nothing more than idle gossip. Something about an argument with a young man at the farmers market.”
“Yes, that’s the story I’ve heard. As I told you, I’ve just come from Levi Hersh’s house, and I’ve spoken to a young lady called Thea. She witnessed the argument between the two young men. Then she told me something interesting.”
Elsa-May leaned forward. “What?”
“She said that Thomas had not been the same since he came back from his rumspringa six months ago. Now, what do you make of that?”
Ettie was the first to speak. “It can be a confusing time for young people. Perhaps he wasn’t certain where he belonged—in the community or out of it.”
“Did he ever get baptized, Ettie?” Elsa-May asked.
“No, I don’t think he did. At least I never heard anything about it.”
Elsa-May nodded.
Kelly tipped his head to one side. “What’s the significance of that?”
“Usually when people return from rumspringa they’ve made their decision to officially join the community, and they get baptized which shows their commitment to Gott. If they're not ready to commit to the Amish way of life, they generally don't come back."
Elsa-May added, “And, if they leave the community after being baptized, they’ll be shunned.”
“Ah, I see. I’ve heard about shunning. I thought that all Amish were born into it.”
“No! We aren’t born into it like we’re a race of people. Our children are raised in the Amish way of life, but one day—when they are old enough—they must each make their own decision. It’s a personal decision that every Amish person must make when they’re old enough to understand,” Elsa-May explained.
“I’m with you now.”
Elsa-May said, “I hope so. I know what I mean, but I’m having trouble trying to say it in words.”
“I do know what you mean, Elsa-May. Back to Thomas—you’re saying you think he was undecided?”
Ettie nodded. “It seems so, but maybe he was soon to be baptized. The bishop would know. Or perhaps Thomas’ family would know.”
Kelly chuckled. “That’s where you two come into the picture.”
“What do you want us to do?”
“Could you ask around for me? It might come to nothing, but it would be useful to know where Thomas’ head was at.”
Elsa-May and Ettie stared at each other.
“We’ll let you know if we hear of anything,” Elsa-May said as she picked up her knitting.
Detective Kelly drew his eyebrows together. “That’s not what I asked.” He looked at Ettie who looked away.
“What’s going on with the two of you? Do you know something that you’re not letting on?”
“No. We’ll ask some questions,” Ettie said.
He looked suspiciously from one sister to the other. “Am I missing something here?”
“Ettie’s concerned that people think we talk to the police too much.”
“I’m a detective.” He laughed and then stopped when he noticed that he was the only one laughing. “You see, that’s slightly different from the police.” When neither of them commented, he asked, “You’re not going to help me?” He looked again at each sister in turn. “I see. You only help me when an Amish person—someone from your community—is threatened or accused of a crime. Now that no one is in jail, you aren’t so keen to help me?”
Ettie pursed her lips. What he said was true, but it made them sound selfish and only concerned with their own community rather than the broader community. “We’ll give it some thought.”
“I’m not asking too much. The thing is, I know you two will hear things, so all I’m asking is to tell me what you hear. Is that too much to ask?”
Ettie looked at Elsa-May, hoping she’d speak. “No. We’ll do it,” Elsa-May said glancing up from her knitting.
“It should be ‘Yes. We'll do it.'” Ettie took every opportunity to correct her older sister because Elsa-May corrected her every day.
Elsa-May’s expression soured. “I’m saying ‘no’ because the detective said, 'Is that too much to ask? I’m merely saying, ‘no’ it isn’t too much to ask.”
“Okay. Don’t go on about it.” Ettie was annoyed that Elsa-May always had an answer for everything.
Elsa-May shook her head. “I can’t say anything right these days.”
Ettie chuckled. “I’m just getting a bit of my own back. Giving you a taste of your own medicine.”
“Now, have you’ve run out of coffee, or what’s going on?” Kelly asked, smiling at Ettie's last remark.
Ettie pushed herself up from the couch. “I’ll get you a cup. We’ve only just boiled the pot so it won’t take long.”
While Ettie was in the kitchen, she thought about it and decided it was best to help Kelly. Elsa-May had been right to agree to do so. Thomas was dead, so it was too late to help him, but if they helped Detective Kelly now, next time someone in the community might be in trouble, he would return the favor.
Chapter 6
Kelly hadn’t been gone long when Thea knocked on Ettie and Elsa-May’s door.
“Thea! What a nice surprise. Come inside,” Ettie stepped back and opened the door, moving aside.
“Denke.” Thea walked in and spotted Elsa-May. “Hello, Mrs. Lutz.”
“Hello, Thea,”
“Have you heard about Thomas?”
“We have.” Ettie guided Thea to the couch and sat down next to her.
“I thought if anyone would know anything it might be you, Mrs. Smith.”
Ettie frowned narrowing her eyes. “Know what exactly?”
“People, well, some people think that Thomas might have been murdered. He was a friend of mine and I just wanted to see what both of you thought. At first, I heard he died accidently from falling off a ladder and then someone thought that it might not have been an accident.”
“Do you know who found Thomas?” Elsa-May asked, pushing her knitting back into the bag by her feet.
“It was one of his brothers, Roy.”
“Roy! He doesn’t live at home still, does he, now that he’s married?”
“Nee, he doesn’t. He lives close by. He was visiting and no one was in the haus and he went into the barn to see if anyone was there. That’s when he found Thomas lying on the barn floor.”
Elsa-May reached back into her bag and pulled out her knitting again as she said, “Now, now, Thea. The world is not about to end. A nice cup of tea always helps one to see things clearly and think things through. If there is a problem, then there’s surely a solution. This is just the way the world works.”
Thea nodded. “Okay. I guess I’ve gotten myself a bit worked up over the whole thing. A cup of tea would be nice.”
“Ettie
!”
“Jah, I’d like one too, denke Elsa-May.”
Elsa-May’s brow furrowed more deeply. “I meant, you can please get it for us, Ettie.”
“Ah!” Ettie pushed herself up. She would’ve much preferred to sit talking to Thea. And besides, they’d just finished a cup with Detective Kelly. “How do you have it, Thea?”
"I like it white with one, denke.”
Ettie walked to the kitchen listening to Elsa-May talk to Thea, while also thinking of her own questions to ask Thea when she returned.
Thea felt a little brighter talking to Elsa-May. She was a kind woman who seemed to care about her problems.
“Here you are, Thea. White with one.”
“Denke, Mrs. Smith.” Thea took the cup and saucer with both hands.
“What about me?” Elsa-May asked her sister.
Ettie held up both her hands. “How many can you count? I’ve only got the two.” Ettie shook her head at her sister. “Ours are in the kitchen. I can only carry one at a time.”
“You normally bring everything out on a tray.” Elsa-May made a gruff sound from the back of her throat while Ettie hurried to the kitchen.
Thea did her best to contain a smile.
Once they all had their tea, Ettie asked Thea, “Have I missed anything? What did you two talk about while I was in the kitchen?”
“Nee, nothing; we waited for you. I first heard that Thomas fell off a ladder. Is that what you heard?” Thea asked them.
“That’s what we heard, but what we hear and the truth are often two very different things,” Ettie said. “We also heard a rumor of Thomas arguing with a man and then that man had threatened him.”
“That’s almost true. That was someone I know at the market, but he didn’t mean he would actually kill him. It wasn’t said like that at all. Thomas had developed a bad temper and he pushed over a stallholder’s honey display and smashed a bottle and that made the stallholder angry. I worry that Thomas might have made some enemies out of some Englischers.”
“What was the stallholder’s name?”
“His name is Austin. I don't know his last name. He’s fairly new at the market and sells organic honey. I guess he’s got hives, too, somewhere. I think he said once that he leases some land somewhere near someone’s orchard.”
“Organic honey? That’s a new one to me. Exactly what does it take for honey to be called organic?” Elsa-May asked.
“He told me once. There can be no pesticides used on any land within so many miles of where the beehives are kept.”
“Ah, that sounds like a good idea,” Ettie said.
“Did Thomas have any enemies that you knew of personally, or by name?” Elsa-May asked, leaning forward to take a piece of cake from the plate Ettie had brought in after she'd delivered their tea.
“Nee. He wasn’t very nice to a lot of people. People outside of the community might not be so forgiving with the way he’d become.”
“Are you talking specifically about Austin?”
Thea shook her head. “Nee. I’m not. I don’t know how that rumor got around so quickly.”
“We’ve heard it from a couple of people now,” Ettie said.
“Oh dear, poor Austin. He didn’t mean it. They got into an argument, him and Thomas. It was Thomas’ fault. I’ve always been good at knowing what people are like and Austin is a gentle person. He wouldn’t do anything to harm anybody—that’s what I think he’s like, anyway.”
Elsa-May chuckled. “Quite fond of him, are you?”
“I do like him, but not like that—not in a romantic way. He’s just a friend. Oh, please don’t say anything to my vadder; he’s already so overprotective. He was there just after the argument. Thomas told him about it and he would’ve made it sound ten times worse.”
“I won’t say anything. We had a vadder like that ourselves once. I was married with six kinner before he stopped being overprotective. It’s a wonder he allowed me to marry at all.”
Ettie laughed at Elsa-May’s story. "Jah, I remember feeling the same way, like he'd always see me as a little girl."
“I hope it doesn’t take that long before Dat stops watching me.” Thea gave a little laugh and then stopped abruptly and frowned. “I’m a little worried. What if Austin gets blamed for Thomas’ murder?
Elsa-May shook her head. “That shouldn’t happen.”
“But things like that do happen. My friend Bessie said that he might get blamed.”
“Police have scientific ways of finding out who committed crimes in these modern days.”
“I know that, Mrs. Lutz, but the detective who came to the house asking questions said they weren’t even sure how he died because Thomas was moved after he died.”
“Who moved him?”
“I don’t know. He just said the familye moved him. So he might mean his bruder because that’s who found him—I’m not sure.”
“Try not to worry, Thea. You’re much too young to have those worry lines in your forehead,” Elsa-May said. “Another line or two on my face wouldn’t matter, but you’re far too young to have lines. Although I do think you're old enough to do away with the 'Mrs.' thing, and call us Elsa-May and Ettie.”
Thea smiled and nodded, and then sipped from her teacup. It was good to be with the elderly sisters. Everything was calm in their house. Even the fluffy white dog curled up asleep in the corner of the room looked peaceful. The sisters made her feel that everything would turn out okay. She leaned back into the couch clutching her teacup and hoping it would be so.
Chapter 7
The next day Ettie and Elsa-May went to visit the Strongbergs, Thomas’ parents. The funeral was still a few days away, until relations who lived in different communities had time to get there.
When they knocked on their door with a chicken casserole in Ettie's hands, the door was opened by Thomas’ younger sister, who called out to her parents, invited the sisters into the living room, and then disappeared into the kitchen with the casserole.
The gurgle of the water heating on the stove soon filtered into the living room.
Soon they were joined by Thomas’ parents, Wilma and Samuel.
After getting through the mandatory pleasantries and some uncomfortable pauses, Elsa-May asked, “How are both of you coping?”
“We know where he is, so that gives us some comfort,” Wilma said.
“So, he got baptized?” Ettie asked knowing that if he hadn’t been baptized, they would be uncertain about his place in the hereafter.
Wilma gasped.
Samuel put a hand on Wilma’s shoulder. “He was baptized shortly after he came back to us.”
Their daughter sat down with them. “Mrs. Lutz and Mrs. Smith brought us a chicken casserole.”
“How kind, denke. Becky, would you make us some tea?”
“Jah, I’ve just put the pot on the stove.”
When Becky went out of the room again, Wilma said, “We don’t know what happened to him and that’s a horrible thing. We don’t know if someone took his life or whether he just fell.”
Samuel said, “He’s gone and that’s all that should matter.”
“Nee, if someone killed him, someone else might get killed too,” Wilma said. “And if he was killed, why would someone do that?”
“Surely there would be no reason for him to be killed?” Ettie asked.
“There’s no reason,” Samuel said. “He more than likely fell. Roy said that the ladder was across his body as he lay there. It’s more than likely he fell even though it seems hard to work out why he would’ve fallen and how the fall would’ve killed him.”
“I heard that Roy moved him, or that someone did after he died. Do you know why?”
Samuel nodded. “Roy tried to revive him but to no avail. He was gone. Wilma and I arrived home and Roy came out of the barn to tell us what had happened. We didn’t want him to lie there in the barn alone, so we moved him into the house. The police weren’t too happy about that when they arrived.”
/> “Who called the police?”
“They came automatically when we called the funeral director, and so did the paramedics.”
Wilma shook her head. “We have no experience in these things. We didn’t know the proper things to do. How would we know we weren’t supposed to touch anything? It was the last thing on our minds that someone might have killed our son.”
Samuel said, “He was one fine young man. He never ever fainted or felt dizzy, or anything like that. He was healthy and he steered clear of booze. And he’s been up there hundreds of times to that loft—if not thousands of times. I can’t think who’d have reason to want him dead, but neither am I convinced he fell.”
“We’ve gone over it and over it a million times and we can’t work it out,” Wilma said.
“I understand. It is all very peculiar. Sorry for asking silly questions, burdening you over your loss,” Ettie said.
“The police have been here, and detectives. I think they feel there’s more to things than Thomas falling,” Wilma said.
“Well, whatever happened, whoever did what—my son died. And whoever had a hand in that will have to face his maker one day and give an account.” Samuel clenched his jaw and Ettie knew he was doing his best to stop the tears that were forming in his eyes.
Wilma touched his arm gently.
“I suppose you’ve heard rumors that there was an argument at the farmers market involving Thomas?” Elsa-May asked.
“Jah, we heard,” Wilma said. “I think that’s what’s got everyone thinking there’s more to this than Thomas falling.”
“Could he have met some people on his rumspringa who might have disagreed with him over something?” Ettie asked.
“He was aware of who to spend time with, and who to avoid. He didn’t go to the clubs, pubs or the like—he was bored by that stuff! He was not that into baseball or other sports either. So he never got into fights, really. He preferred working in the orchard, waking up early, going to the market, taking care of the livestock, and he recently started his roofing business. Look, if we had any idea, we would tell you just like we would’ve told the police.”
Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 3 Page 22