Elsa-May frowned. “I don’t know why you want more tea. You’ve had three cups this morning already. You know the doctor told you less tea and more water.”
“I just wanted a word alone with nurse McBride. Something is not right; I can feel it in my bones.”
“Do you think that she’s involved somehow?”
“Jah, but I don’t know how she’s involved,” Ettie scratched her chin.
“What should we do? How will we find out?”
“Follow her see, what she does,” Ettie said.
Elsa-May raised her eyebrows at her schweschder’s order then promptly hurried out of the room.
While Elsa-May was gone, Ettie prayed they would get to the bottom of the goings on at the hospital.
Five minutes later, a breathless Elsa-May arrived back to Ettie’s room.
“Well?” Ettie asked.
“She was on her cell phone. I saw her in one of the staff rooms and she looked worried as she spoke. I waited, and when she finished speaking she carried on with her duties.”
“Is that all?”
When Elsa-May nodded, Ettie tapped her finger on her cheek. “Who would she have called; an accomplice?”
“Accomplice to what though, Ettie?”
“To what’s been going on. Let’s figure this thing out with logic. Why would she take the opportunity to spread rumors about Hadley yet neglect to tell me that Hadley had recently married a funeral director? She told me just a piece of what she knew.”
“Do you still call it a rumor if it’s true?” Elsa-May asked.
Ettie sighed. “Hush, it’s an effort for me to speak too much.”
Elsa-May nodded. “Could she have wanted nurse Hadley to get into some kind of trouble, but not her new husband and maybe not Hadley’s bruder?” Elsa-May asked.
Ettie shook her head. “Nee, that would not make sense. If nurse Hadley got found out so would all those associated with her.”
“Well then, maybe she knew that someone would find them all out, and she wasn’t protecting anyone, she was simply pretending not to know too much.” Elsa-May suggested.
“Why hadn’t she made a complaint? Crowley said anyone can make a complaint and the hospital would not have been told it was she who lodged it. Nee, there’s something more to that girl; I don’t know why I didn’t see that in the first place.”
“Do you think she was the one who gave the injection to Judith? What if she’s the one and not nurse Hadley?”
“Nee. I overheard someone on Deirdre’s cell telling her to leave the hospital. They wouldn’t tell her to leave if she were innocent.” Ettie realized that she had forgotten to tell Elsa-May about her encounter with nurse Hadley in the x-ray room, so she filled her in.
“You should have told me sooner, Ettie.”
“Ach, jah. I forgot.” Ettie put her fingers to her mouth. “What if nurse McBride is doing it too? What if she was simply ridding the hospital of her competition?”
“That does make sense, but it does sound extreme that two lots of people can be doing the same thing in the one hospital. What do we do; how do we find out?” Elsa-May asked.
Ettie lay back into her pillows. “I’m a little tired. Can you call Crowley and give him Melanie McBride’s name and see what he can dig up?”
Elsa-May patted Ettie on her shoulder. “You relax now. I’ll call him.” Elsa-May picked up the receiver of the telephone next to Ettie’s bed and spoke to detective Crowley.
After Elsa-May called Crowley, she packed the rest of Ettie’s belongings and called a taxi to take them home.
Chapter 12.
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest,
and cold and heat, and summer and winter,
and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22
That night, the widows all heard the news that Ettie was home. Ettie was tucked up with a blanket, on a new couch in the living room when Maureen, Emma and Silvie came through her door.
“Tell us what happened, Ettie,” Emma said.
“I’ll let Elsa-May speak,” Ettie said, preferring to conserve her energy.
Everyone turned to Elsa-May.
“Detective Crowley told me this afternoon that they arrested Deirdre Hadley at the airport just as she was about to fly out of the country. Minutes later, they arrested her bruder who was booked on a different flight.” Elsa-May turned to Emma and explained, “Deirdre’s brother was a doctor in the hospital and he was involved as well.”
Seeing Emma and Silvie’s confused faces Maureen explained, “You see, this is the way that Crowley told me; the nurse gave an injection to paralyze the people; her bruder, the doctor, signed the death certificates saying they were dead, but they might not have been. The body parts were removed at the funeral home where they had an operating room.”
Silvie asked, “How would they ensure that the bodies went to Mr. Hadley’s funeral home?”
“Seems a great many of them did since it’s the biggest and the most economical in the area,” Elsa-May said. “When they got the body parts they were flown to whoever had paid the highest price.”
“Crowley said that in Singapore a kidney is illegally sold for as much as $600,000,” Maureen added.
“He also told me,” Elsa-May said, “that the nurse and her brother admitted to their crimes. I think they were trying to justify their crime by only using people who were over fifty because they’d already lived a good life. Since Deirdre’s brother worked in the emergency room, he picked the likely candidates and Deirdre gave them the injection and the process started from there.”
Silvie asked, “Wouldn’t it be better to use younger peoples’ organs?”
“Since the nurse’s husband owned a funeral home wouldn’t they have had access to many bodies? Why not just wait until a body came in from somewhere else? Why pick these particular people from the hospital?” Emma asked.
Ettie whispered, “Emma, they wanted their organs fresh.”
“Oooh.” Emma pulled a face.
Elsa-May looked up from her knitting and said, “I asked the very same thing of Crowley this afternoon, Emma. He said it was quite likely they would not have disclosed the age of the donors to the recipients. If they could do what they did then telling some lies would not concern them.”
Emma reached over and grabbed Ettie’s hand. “Ettie, how clever of you to notice the nurse giving Judith the injection. If you hadn’t been there and seen that, there’s no telling how long it would have carried on.”
“I knew Judith wasn’t supposed to get an injection; they’d only given her pills. At first I thought I’d had a dream and then I realized that I wasn’t dreaming at all. It was real.”
Elsa-May said, “It was good that Maureen overheard what she did too.”
Maureen nodded as she remembered the overheard conversation of the nurses who were giggling about the fact that Nurse Hadley had just married a funeral director.
After Emma let go of Ettie’s hand, she dropped her hand by the side of the couch to stroke her dog Ginger. Ginger had not left Ettie’s side since she had come home from the hospital. “It was the nurse in the hospital who’s really due the credit. She gave me the names of people who died suddenly when they weren’t supposed to; she gave me Deirdre’s name as well. If it weren’t for her then Crowley would have had nothing to work with.”
There was a knock on the door. Being in the middle of her row of knitting, Elsa-May placed the knitting carefully on the chair she’d been sitting on before she opened the door. “Detective Crowley, right on time.”
“Good evening, ladies. I thought you might all be here,” he said as he walked into Ettie and Elsa-May’s small living room.
“Have a seat,” Elsa-May said.
He sat down on one of the chairs. “Ettie, you’re on a couch. I’ve never seen a couch here before, just these chairs.” He hit the side of the old wooden chair.
“Bailey gave it to us. It was here when I got back from the hospita
l.” Ettie smiled as she nestled further into the two pillows behind her back.
“Bailey knew that Ettie would not want to stay in bed all the day long. She needs rest. He thought the couch would enable her to rest out of her bedroom,” Elsa-May explained.
Ettie knew that the doctor told her to walk around, but was glad Elsa-May had forgotten that piece of doctor’s advice. Ettie would much rather rest than walk.
“You ladies all know what happened?” Crowley looked at each of the five widows in turn. “How we’ve arrested the three main people involved?”
“So they’re all arrested now?” Emma asked.
Crowley nodded and said, “I’m going to the hospital tomorrow to see if anyone is prepared to come forward and give evidence. We need as many people as we can to testify.” Crowley laughed.
“You rarely laugh, Detective. What do you find so funny?” Silvie asked.
“It’s hard for me to believe that a major operation of this kind has been busted by a hunch from an Amish widow and overheard conversations.” He turned to Maureen. “I especially want to thank you, Maureen. If you hadn’t come with me to speak to Mr. Morcombe he might never have given his consent to collect his mother’s body. Then, I would have had nothing. I certainly had no evidence to obtain a warrant before that.”
Maureen smiled. “I’m glad I could help. I don’t like the thought of people having to die before their time. At the same time, it is awful that there aren’t enough organs available for transplant for those who need them.”
Ettie put a finger in the air to gain Crowley’s attention. “What of the nurse; nurse McBride? Did you find out anything about her, Detective?”
Crowley turned to Elsa-May. “Do you want to tell her, or shall I?”
Elsa-May looked up from her knitting and began, “When you were asleep this afternoon, Ettie, I went back to the hospital and asked some questions.” Elsa-May gave a chortle. “You’re not the only one who can persuade people to tell you things.”
“You asked questions about Melanie McBride?” Ettie asked.
“Jah it seems not all of the people who died suspiciously did so on the 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift.”
Ettie opened her mouth in shock. “What? I naturally believed what Melanie told me. I never thought that she would have reason to lie about things. She pointed us specifically in Deirdre Hadley’s direction.”
Elsa-May said, “It seems that Hadley took over Melanie’s business when she married the funeral director and Melanie was annoyed; that’s when Melanie started rumors in the hospital about Deirdre Hadley.”
Ettie’s brow furrowed. “Well how could you possibly know that for sure? No one at the hospital would have told you such a thing. They would be in terrible trouble if they knew so much and kept quiet.”
“Quite right, Ettie,” Crowley said. “When Elsa-May gave me McBride’s name, I checked with the Department of Health and there were complaints against her. Because they were personal complaints, they had not come up in my search of general complaints against the hospital. In the past year alone, Melanie McBride has been investigated twice by the Department of Health. They were not able to find anything conclusive against her.”
“Until…” Elsa-May said.
“Until what?” Ettie turned her head to hear what Elsa-May had to say.
Crowley took over, “No one had any solid evidence against her until Deirdre gave us a full written account of what she knew of her activities.”
Ettie leaned back into her pillows and breathed out heavily. “I was right; Melanie McBride was involved in something. I didn’t think so at first, but as the days went on, something did not sit right with me.”
Crowley cleared his throat. “Deirdre was quite pleased to give as much information as she could on Melanie.” Crowley chuckled. “Most likely thinking that she would get a reduced sentence. There’s a warrant out now for McBride’s arrest.”
“Melanie seemed so sweet,” Ettie said while stroking her dog. “Why did you wait for so long to tell me all this, Elsa-May?”
Elsa-May exchanged a knowing look with Crowley. “Detective Crowley wanted me to wait until he got here to tell you about Melanie McBride.”
Emma stood. “You’ll stay for cake and tea, Detective?”
A seldom seen smile spread across Crowley’s face. “Yes, of course.”
And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
* * * The End * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Watch for Book 10 in the ‘Amish Secret Widows’ Society’ series.
One of Ettie’s estranged daughters, Myra, turns up unexpectedly on Ettie’s doorstep. Myra who ran away from the Amish as a teen, tells Ettie that her Englischer husband of ten years, Hunter Wallace, has disappeared without a trace. When Myra went to file a missing person’s report she found that the person she knew as Hunter Wallace does not exist. The widows agree to help Ettie’s daughter and enlist the assistance of Detective Crowley. As if trying to stop them from making enquiries, strange accidents beset the widows. Who is behind Hunter’s disappearance and why is there no record of his birth? Will the widows be able to solve the Hunter Wallace mystery before one of them gets hurt, or worse?
Other books in the
‘Amish Secret Widows’ Society’:
The Amish Widow: Book 1
Newly widowed Amish woman Emma Kurtzler has little time to grieve before she discovers that someone is trying to force her from her farm.
The man who had the lease on her farm is found murdered shortly after informing Emma of his intention to break the lease.
In an effort to both save her farm and avoid becoming a suspect in the man's murder, Emma sets out to get to the bottom of things.
Emma befriends a group of Amish Widows and quickly discovers that there is more to these sweet Amish ladies than meets the eye when they willingly help her with her investigations.
In the midst of Emma's troubles she is drawn to Wil Jacobson, a friendly neighbor, but can she trust this man who is trying his best to win her heart?
Hidden: Book 2
It's another murder to solve for the Amish Secret Widows' Society.
An elderly Amish man, rumored to be in the possession of paintings worth millions of dollars, is found poisoned.
Can the widows find out who killed him before there is another murder?
Emma Kurtzler is in love with Wil Jacobson but struggles with it being too soon to marry after the death of her husband.
Meanwhile, Silvie Keim is swept off her feet by Bailey Abler. Bailey is a mysterious stranger who is staying within the community and proclaims he wants to be Amish.
What connection does Bailey have to the murdered man that will shock the community?
What will Silvie do when she discovers Bailey's true identity?
Accused: Book 3
Meet all the widows again as they endeavor to solve another murder. This time the murder took place some years ago.
On her aunt's insistence, Amish woman Angela Bontreger has been writing to Robert Geiger. When Angela travels from her small town to meet Robert in person, he denies knowledge of her and the letters.
As they talk further, Robert tells Angela that his late brother was accused of murder. Angela's aunt Elsa-May and the other widows offer to help Robert clear his brother's name.
Will Robert see past the tragedies that have plagued his life to realize that he is falling in love with Angela?
Will Angela go home to her small town without the love of the man she wants?
Amish Regrets: Book 4
There is another mystery for the widows to solve.
This time there is a murder close to home. Silvie's younger sister, Sabrina, has become involved with the millionaire Englischer, Carmello Liante.
When Carmello is found murdered and Sabrina becomes a suspect, the widows rally
around to find the killer.
In their investigations, they find many people who wanted to see Carmello dead. Even more suspects come to the fore once the benefactors of Carmello’s will are made known.
In the midst of her grieving Sabrina must decide whether to stay in the Amish community.
Will Sabrina accept what the bishop proposes she should do to make amends?
Or will the grieving Sabrina decide to leave the community for good now that her shameful secret is out.
Amish House of Secrets: Book 5
Wil buys an old house to renovate for Emma and he to live in after they are married.
What does Emma find in the old house that sends her on a journey to unite lost loves?
Join the five widows as they endeavor to reunite two people who have been kept apart for over forty years through lies and deceit.
While Emma is trying to repair another's relationship, is she at risk of letting her own happiness fall by the wayside?
Emma takes advice from others regarding her relationship, but when she realizes her true feelings has she left things too late?
Amish Undercover: Book 6
In best selling Amish fiction author Samantha Price's new-release, the five Amish widows have another mystery to solve.
FBI agent, Bailey Rivers, has thought long and hard about his life.
He has spoken to the bishop and is set to join the Amish community and leave the English world behind.
His decision was made easy by his love for the Amish widow, Silvie Kiem.
Silvie persuades the other widows to help Bailey solve his last case, the case he has worked on for years.
The widows come up with an elaborate plan, and Emma, despite Bailey's warnings, goes undercover in an effort to obtain information on stolen paintings.
Will the widows' efforts turn out to be far more dangerous than any of them anticipated?
Will Bailey be able to join the Amish community and marry the woman he loves not knowing whether he can close the case that he has been working on for years?
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