"No. I'll stay here with Snowy.”
"What about you, Myra. Do you want to come in and say hello to Ava?"
"No! I don't want to see anyone from the community even if we are related by marriage. I had my fill of Amish people last night, thank you very much.”
Ettie walked to the house and knocked on the door and Ava opened it.
"Ettie!" She looked over at the car.
"I have a long story to tell you, but right now I just wanted to say I'm sorry that we didn't end up coming last. Elsa-May and I are going over to Myra’s house for a few hours. She wants to talk something over with us."
"Your daughter, Myra? The one you haven't seen in years?"
"That's the one.”
Ava squinted. "How did that come about?"
"Do you remember a man who used to be in the community—his name was Earl Fuller and he ran away with Moses Stoll’s dochder?”
"Nee, I don't remember the name."
"But you know Naomi Fuller?"
"Jah."
Myra’s car horn sounded.
"Oh dear. I've got a lot to tell you, but I'll have to tell you another time. In short, Earl was found murdered outside our house last night."
"Ettie, that's dreadful! I definitely want to hear the whole story.”
"Tell Jeremiah we’re sorry we didn't come here last night."
"Of course I'll tell him, but don't you worry about that, Ettie. Thanks for stopping by."
"We’ll talk later.” Ettie walked back to the car.
"What took you so long, Mother?"
"I had to tell her briefly what happened so she wouldn't hear it from anyone else first."
"I didn't drive you there to have a gossip session."
"I wasn't gossiping,” Ettie said, staring at her daughter.
Chapter 8
There wasn't much talking done in the car. Myra had her face set like flint as she concentrated on the cold wet roads.
Around twenty minutes later, she turned into a suburban estate. After a few turns, she drove into a driveway and the garage door opened.
"Is this your house?" Ettie asked staring up at the two-story house in wonder. If this was Myra's home, she’d certainly come into a lot of money somewhere.
"No, Mother, I'm driving into someone else's garage. Of course this is my house.”
When they got out of the car, Snowy got away from Elsa-May. Myra managed to grab him and then she placed him in Elsa-May’s arms.
"You can put him out in the backyard. It’s fully enclosed and part of it’s covered.”
"Okay."
While Elsa-May and Myra were busy putting the dog in the backyard, Ettie wandered through the house. The door from the garage led into a grand hallway complete with hanging crystal chandelier and a sweeping staircase to one side. Ettie stared up at the high ceilings while under her feet were marble floors. As she followed the voices, she was led into a living room that opened onto a terrace. The grass outside was covered with a fine layer of snow. To her right, Ettie noticed a massive kitchen the size of what one would find in a restaurant.
“Sit, Mother,” Myra called out from the yard where she stood with Elsa-May.
Ettie sank into one of the plush couches and waited until Myra returned.
Once Snowy had relieved himself, Myra allowed him back into the house, but insisted he stay on Elsa-May’s lap.
"Where’s Michael?" Ettie asked once Myra and Elsa-May were seated. "Doesn't he live with you?"
"He’s busy. He travels a lot.”
"Even over Christmas? Doesn't everything stop for the Englishers at this time of year?”
“Sometimes," was all that Myra said on the matter. “I wanted you both to come here so I could talk to you about what a crook Earl Fuller was. He masqueraded as my friend when all the time he was nothing but a thief. He stole my business ideas.”
Ettie wondered if she would tell her more than she told the detectives, otherwise what was the point of her being there? She'd heard all this before. "I told Elsa-May already what you told the detectives."
"There’s more. I was ready to forgive and forget but the more I think about what he did the angrier I get. He told me he could get me investors, but I don’t think he had any investors at all. I think he was somehow trying to take my money.”
“How could he have leased space for his wellness center with no money?” Elsa-May asked.
“He never went ahead with it. I think he was trying to lease a bigger, better space than mine, thinking he was leaving me no choice but to finally join with him.”
“It seems far fetched,” Ettie said.
Snowy jumped off Elsa-May’s lap.
“Get the dog,” Myra yelled.
Elsa-May reached over and pulled him back and then placed him back on her lap. “Stay,” she told him.
The command sounded impressive, but Snowy was not trained as well as Elsa-May liked to think.
"Don't let him get on the furniture,” Myra told Elsa-May.
"I won't.”
"So he was trying to encourage you to invest money into his business?" Ettie asked.
"That's right. I never felt good about it and I talked it over with Michael. Michael was the one who said I should go it alone.”
“Michael encouraged you to cut Earl out?”
“Yes."
"So the first time you saw Earl away from the community was on the cruise?"
"Yes, that’s right. I hadn’t seen him since I left the Amish and there he was on the cruise."
"But you two were still friends after the cruise?" Elsa-May asked.
"Yes, that's right, but then he got a little creepy. He was following me. So I told him I didn’t want to be in business with him. Together we’d worked on a business plan right down to the minutest of details. Then I found out that he had jumped the gun on me and was about to use my plans in a much grander way, given the space he was looking to lease.”
“You worked on the business plan together?”
“They were mostly my ideas. I’d worked them out on the cruise, with Ralph. I found out from the realtor what name the business was going to have. It seemed he told her a great deal of things. He had intended to steal my name and everything.”
"How would he have had the money to do it without your investment?"
"That's a good question, Elsa-May.”
Elsa-May continued, “If he was asking for your investment in his current business, it sounds like he wouldn't have had the money to go ahead with the new business. Unless he’d had investors like he’d said.”
"I don’t think he did. That's just it. He was holding me to ransom. He wanted me to borrow half a million dollars and we would be forty-sixty business partners. He wanted sixty percent because he said he could get the investors, but I was the one who’d come up with the concept originally.”
"And was Michael putting any money into it?"
"Michael is the numbers man. I got him to look into it and he asked Earl questions and it turns out that Earl hadn’t intended to put any money into it. Essentially he was trying to steal sixty percent of my business. When I said that to him, he said it was his idea and then he threatened to sue me.”
“You didn’t tell the police that.”
“With everything I've been through I just couldn't go through the stress of it."
"So did he open the business, or where are things sitting with that?" Ettie asked while patting her daughter on her arm.
"I got a letter from his lawyer demanding I stop everything."
"Can the town take two of these wellness centers?" Elsa-May asked.
"That's just it. Probably not, but now that he’s dead I don’t have that problem. I can go ahead.”
"Exactly what is a wellness center, Myra?" Ettie asked.
"It would be hard for you two to understand. It will have yoga classes, spiritual healing, aura cleansing, chakra healing, and other things that you wouldn’t understand about.”
"There’s money in that kind of thing?"
Ettie asked.
"People spend billions of dollars on wellness a year.”
"I guess everyone is looking for something,” Elsa-May said.
"And who do you think killed Earl?" Ettie asked her daughter.
"I don't know."
"Who would’ve benefited from having him out of the way? Besides yourself, of course.”
"That's just it. That's what I'm worried about. I don't think anyone would get more out of him being dead than what I'd gain.” Myra nibbled on a fingernail before she continued, "He didn't have any friends and he wasn’t in touch with his family that I know of. He was still married to Naomi, I found out last night. I'm worried that someone is trying to frame me and I’ll end up in jail. I see things like that in the movies all the time."
"Surely not," Ettie said.
"Well, that's what I think. Who sent those invitations, then?"
Elsa-May said, "Detective Kelly is working on finding that out. He thinks it was someone who was at the house last night.”
"What about Santa Claus? Do you think that he might have known Earl and killed him?” Myra asked.
Ettie shook her head. "He seemed to be a harmless old man who thought he was Santa Claus.”
"Okay. I was too scared to say it, but now I might have to say it out loud.”
Elsa-May leaned forward. “What is it, Myra?”
"I think it was Naomi who killed him."
"Why do you think that?” Ettie asked.
“He left her alone to become a shrivelled-up cranky old woman. If a woman doesn’t have children in the community, she’s an outcast.”
Ettie shook her head. “I don’t think that’s right, Myra. But I do see that she’d be upset about being abandoned.”
“After all these years, though?" Elsa-May asked.
Myra’s eyes opened wide. "I could see the bitterness on her face. What he’d done to her was probably building up and building up over many years.”
"Yes, but what does this any of this have to do with you?" Ettie asked.
Myra frowned at her mother. "Why would it have to have anything to do with me?"
Ettie continued, "Everybody who came to the house last night was someone you knew when you were growing up."
"See? I was right. Someone's trying to frame me and it could be Naomi. I never really got along with her."
You never got along with anyone, Ettie thought.
“You think Naomi killed him and then tried to make it look like you did it?" Elsa-May asked Myra.
“Yes. It seems a reasonable assumption.”
"There are many easier ways to kill a man and, like Ettie said, she probably would've done it along time ago if she was ever going to do it."
Ettie pulled her mouth to one side. “I don’t think that’s exactly what I said.”
"Well, what about Crowley?" Elsa-May asked, changing the subject. “How did you feel seeing him again?”
"I never thought we were suited."
"How did you feel seeing him again?" Elsa-May repeated.
Ettie frowned at Elsa-May being brave enough to ask Myra something so personal.
"I won't say there isn’t something there between us because there is. I don't think anything will ever work out for us because I have Michael now."
"And what kind of work does Michael do?"
"He’s a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company. He travels all over the place.”
"And how long have you known him?" Elsa-May asked while Ettie sat in silence, anxious to hear the answers but not bold enough to ask the questions.
Myra laughed. “I didn’t bring you both here to talk about my relationship.”
Elsa-May laughed along with her. “We’re just curious. We’ve never seen you so happy.”
A smile brightened Myra’s face. “I’ve known him for about eighteen months.”
"But haven't you been living together for around that same amount of time?”
"That's right.” Myra sighed. “But I want to tell you more about Earl. I’d applied for a grant and then I also found out that he had applied for the same one.”
“A business grant for money?”
“Yes.”
Elsa-May tapped a finger on her chin. “So he was doing everything he could to have you join with him?”
“Yes.”
“That was quite a compliment,” Ettie said.
“Annoying was what it was.”
“Was he doing it out of love? Do you think he could’ve been in love with you?” Elsa-May asked.
Ettie added, “You did say he didn’t have anyone in his life. Perhaps he was harbouring a secret crush on you.”
“I don’t think so. He never said anything. Anyway, I wanted you both to know everything so you can help me to figure the whole thing out. I’m convinced that Naomi is trying to set me up for his murder. I don’t know why she’d hate me so much. The person she should hate is Earl.”
Elsa-May and Ettie exchanged glances.
“Mother, I know you’re a friend of Crowley and that Detective Kelly. I need you to convince both of them that I had nothing to do with Earl’s death.”
Chapter 9
The next morning Elsa-May and Ettie had just sat down when they were disturbed by a loud knock on their front door.
"I would say that's Detective Kelly," Ettie said.
"Why would you say that?" Elsa-May asked.
"Who else would it be at this early hour?”
Elsa-May stood up. “We’ll soon find out."
Ettie headed to the door behind Elsa-May. In front of them when they opened their door, stood Detective Kelly in a crumpled suit, looking like he hadn't slept for two days.
Elsa-May opened the door wider. "Detective Kelly, come in."
When he stepped through the door, Ettie asked him if he would like some breakfast.
"No thank you.” He sniffed the air. “Is that pancakes I can smell?"
"Yes. There’s still some batter left if you would like to change your answer and have some. It won’t take a moment."
Ettie added, "It won't take any time and we can do that while you're talking.”
"I'd like that very much.” A smile hinted around Kelly’s lips. “Thank you"
“This way,” Elsa-May said as she walked back into the kitchen.
Ettie sat down at the table with Detective Kelly while Elsa-May dropped a measure of the pancake batter into the hot buttered frying pan.
"Did you find out who murdered Earl?" Ettie asked.
A chuckle caught in his throat. "No, not yet."
"Is there anything we can do to help?"
"Yes, that's why I’m here."
"Just tell us what you need,” Elsa-May said.
"While some of your Amish people were helpful when they were here in your house, when I asked them to make official statements all of them declined."
"What do you need from us?" Ettie asked.
"I need to know if I should do further investigations on Moses Stoll and Naomi Fuller. Each had a reason to hate him."
"Exactly what would you like to know from them?" Ettie asked.
"Naomi Fuller was still married to the man, is that correct?"
"Yes, they never got a divorce and I think you had that confirmed."
Elsa-May added, "Unless he filed for divorce it wouldn’t have been permitted, because she wouldn't have been allowed."
"You’re right, Ettie. The records show she was still his legal wife and heir to his estate."
"Detective, you make it sound like he had a substantial amount of money to leave, but my impression from Myra was that the man didn't have much money at all.”
Kelly chuckled. "We searched his apartment and found bank statements and other paperwork that show a totally different side of Earl Fuller.”
"Do you mean he had a lot of money?" Elsa-May asked.
"That's a very subjective question. To you and me the amount of money he had would seem quite substantial, but to somebody else it may not."
; "Exactly how much money are we talking about?" Ettie asked.
"Two and a half million dollars. And we found evidence of various real estate holdings.”
Ettie raised her eyebrows. She would've thought that would've been a lot of money in anybody's opinion. "Since he had so much money, I wonder why he was trying to use Myra’s?"
"I suppose that's how people become rich by using other people's money."
"Myra would've never guess that he would've had that much money. I'm certain of it."
"Let's just keep this to ourselves at the moment. Anything I tell you ladies is just between us."
Ettie nodded. "Yes, of course.”
"Anyway, the point is that Naomi Fuller has just become a very rich woman. Unless, of course, a later will surfaces.”
Elsa-May turned around from the stove. "Well, that wouldn't make up for what the man did to her.”
"No, but it is a strong motive for murder. The money coupled with what he did to her, makes Naomi Fuller suspect number one."
"So where does this leave Moses?"
"I don't know what I think about him yet. Maybe they were in it together. Either of them could’ve slipped outside your house, murdered the man and got back into the house.”
"But how would she have known he was going to be there?"
"Remember we found that note in his car from Myra?”
“That’s right. I did forget that temporarily,” Ettie said.
“So whoever killed him, must’ve been in contact with him to know the connection he had with Myra. And they would’ve known he was trying to get back into her good books,” Elsa-May said.
“Correct,” Kelly said.
"And you want us to talk with Naomi?"
"Yes. I’m torn whether she’s capable of murder. Just talking to her, she didn’t seem to have it in her.”
"We’ll see what we can find out.”
Elsa-May slid the pancakes onto a plate and placed it in front of Detective Kelly.
His face lit up as he sprinkled sugar, squeezed a little lemon over them and drizzled maple syrup over the top.
"That will be a good lining on your stomach today,” Elsa-May said.
"Coffee?" Ettie asked.
"Always,” Detective Kelly answered. "I'd leave it a day or two before you visit both Moses and Naomi. I don't want them to feel like people are hammering them to get information out of them. Things move slowly at this time of year. The courts won’t be open until after New Year. If I have to arrest anyone, they’ll be sitting in jail without bail until court opens again.”
Amish Christmas Mystery Page 5