Ruth shook her head. “I can’t tell you what I do, Ettie.”
“Just curious. You’ll have to let Detective Kelly know all that you told me when we go in. Was there anyone else who wanted your recipe?”
“No one else with a serious offer. I get asked for the recipe and for my secrets all the time; most of the people are customers who buy three to four loaves of bread a week.”
Two hours later, Ettie and Ruth were sitting in the police station waiting to have their fingerprints taken.
Ettie groaned.
“What, Ettie?”
“I’m just thinking about Elsa-May at home. She’s got no idea I’m sitting in a police station about to have my fingerprints taken. Neither has she got any idea what’s happened in your bakery this morning.”
“You’ll have a lot to tell her when you get home. Do you think she’ll be worried about you?”
“Nee. I told her that after I saw you, I was going to drop by Ava Glick’s, so she won’t be expecting me back until later this afternoon.”
“You ladies here to be fingerprinted?” a gruff voice said.
They looked up at the officer.
“Yes,” Ettie said.
“One at a time, please.”
Ettie went first and followed the man into a room.
“Wash your hands thoroughly please.” He pointed to a sink with antibacterial soap in a pump bottle.
After Ettie washed her hands, the officer handed her two paper towels. She dried her hands thoroughly and threw the paper towels in the bin.
The officer took hold of Ettie’s hand while saying, “I’m going to roll your thumb from side to side, so just relax as best you can.” He told Ettie how to spread her hand, and then he took a rolled impression of each thumb and finger, after inking each one. “All done. Now you can wash the ink off.”
Ettie looked down at the ink on her hands. “I hope it comes off.”
“Most of it will. When you go out, can you send your friend in?”
Ettie scrubbed her hands, and then it was Ruth’s turn.
After they’d both had their prints taken, they made their way back to the front of the station to wait for detective Kelly. It wasn’t long before the detective stuck his head into the waiting area, and beckoned for them to follow him.
When they were all seated, Ettie began, “Has Alan Avery’s daughter been told about his death?”
“Yes. His daughter has been informed, and you were right, Ruth, his wife died some years ago.”
“We’ve figured out why he was in there,” Ettie said.
The detective frowned. “Who was where?”
“Alan Avery; why he was in Ruth’s office.”
The detective pushed himself back in his chair. “Why was he there?”
“The man had offered Ruth an extremely large sum of money to buy her bread recipe. Apparently other people wanted it too.”
“I can believe it. Bread’s big business.”
Ettie continued, “Ruth has an antique bureau in her office and she had often told people, when they admired it, that it held her most prized possession. Which, of course, was her Bible. What if someone thought that bureau held her bread starters or bread recipes?”
Ruth frowned. “I don’t know if I told everyone that, but I do remember telling Alan Avery that not too long ago.”
“Let’s wind back a little. You’re losing me. What’s a bread starter? Is that like an entrée?” the detective asked.
Ettie raised her eyebrows when she looked at Ruth figuring she’d be the one to best explain what a bread starter was.
“A bread starter is a leavening agent,” Ruth said.
“Like yeast?” Kelly asked.
“Yes exactly. And some bread starters are passed down from one generation to the next. The old starters are the best because they often will contain wild yeast that has a distinctly different flavor than today’s harvested yeast.”
“Can starters be used in all the different varieties of bread?” Kelly asked.
“The starters are mostly used in Amish friendship bread and sourdough.”
Ettie wondered if that was Ruth’s secret; maybe she had particularly wonderful bread starters.
“So you see, there was something tangible to steal. I should say they thought that there was something there in that bureau to steal,” Ettie said.
Ettie and Ruth went on to tell Detective Kelly about Hugh Dwyer, the man with the Amish small goods stores, and Rupert Bird, the man who lived in Harrisburg and who had the Amish Bakery.
The detective looked at Ruth. “Do you really think that Alan Avery might have thought the bureau contained your bread recipe?”
Ruth nodded. “It’s very possible.”
“It does give him a reason to be there. Why else would someone break into an empty bakery at night unless you keep large sums of cash? Did you keep a lot of cash on your premises?” He stared at Ruth.
“I only bank once a week. Joe, my bakery manager is always insisting we should bank at the end of every day. I tell him ‘no.’ I’ve always banked once a week.”
“So you regularly had large sums of cash on hand?”
Ruth said, “Sometimes. But we banked yesterday.”
“If they were after money, wouldn’t they be watching the place to see how often they banked and what day?” Ettie asked.
“They might not be efficient thieves, Mrs. Smith.”
“I was starting to think you ladies might be right, up until I found out about the cash. How much money are we talking about, Ruth? What would you normally bank every week?”
“Usually just under twenty thousand dollars.”
The detective gasped. “The bread business must be good.”
“I do have rates, taxes, the accountant, and the staff bill to pay,” Ruth said defensively. “And I insist on being paid in cash.”
“Ruth, I wasn’t being disrespectful. I’m sorry for my comment.”
Ruth nodded.
“Now that I know how much cash you regularly keep on your premises, that changes everything. He very well might have been after your recipe, but he’s more likely to have been after the cash. You might be right, he could’ve thought while he was there he’d see if he could find your recipe.” He placed his hands on his desk and laced his fingers together. “Then that could explain why the Bible was in his hands. And when there was no cash, and no bread recipe, his accomplice did away with him in a fit of rage.”
“You believe us? You believe he might have been after the bread recipe?” Ruth asked.
“I’m not ruling anything out at this stage. We’ve got two and possibly three reasons for someone to break in. We have the cash, and the recipe, or the bread starters.” He took a pad and a pen out of his top drawer. “Now, Ruth, can you give me the names of all the people who wanted to buy your recipe?”
Ruth repeated all the names she’d previously given the detective, while Ettie stared at the faint ink smudges on her fingers.
When the detective finished writing he looked up. “I’m sorry about the ink stains, Mrs. Smith, they should fade soon.”
“Has your team at my bakery found out anything yet, Detective?” Ruth asked.
“They’re collecting evidence, and then it has to be processed. It’s not a quick process, I’m afraid. Hopefully you’ll have your key back later today.”
“I hope so. I don’t like letting my customers down.”
“I’ll personally bring your key back to you.”
Ruth nodded. “Thank you.”
The detective rose to his feet. “Thank you, ladies, for coming in and giving us your prints. And I’ll look into the information you’ve given me.”
“You will?” Ettie asked.
He nodded. “I will.”
“When can I get my Bible back?” Ruth asked.
“All in due time,” the detective said.
Ettie and Ruth left the police station and headed back to Ruth’s house.
Before they had
gone far, Ettie stopped walking. “Why don’t you come back to my haus, Ruth? It’s not nice to be on your own after all that’s happened. We can go back to the station and let Kelly know you’ll be at my place. He knows where I live.”
“I’d like that, Ettie. And you’re right, I don’t feel like being on my own.”
When Ruth and Ettie walked into the house, Elsa-May stared at them open-mouthed. She placed her knitting down and pushed herself to her feet. “Ruth, I wasn’t expecting you. Come in and sit.”
When the three of them sat down, Elsa-May looked at Ettie. “What’s happened?”
Ruth and Ettie told Elsa-May the whole thing about the murdered man, and the people who had wanted to buy Ruth’s bread recipe.
“What do you think, Elsa-May?” Ettie asked.
“I agree with you, Ettie. If they were after the money, they would have kept a watch on when the banking was done. It doesn’t make sense for them to go to all the trouble to break in and then have no money to steal. They must have been after the recipe.”
“I hope the police find out how they got in. I have the only two keys,” Ruth said.
Ettie continued, “I’m certain Detective Kelly thinks they were after money. He thought they were after Ruth’s recipe until he asked about the amount of cash that gets banked once a week.”
“Well, didn’t you tell him how much Ruth’s recipe must be worth, Ettie?”
Ettie looked at Ruth. “We tried to, didn’t we, Ruth?”
Ruth nodded. “I told him how many people wanted to buy it.”
“I can’t recall if Ruth told him how much she’d been offered. In fact, I’m certain that no figure was mentioned.”
“Then you should go back and tell him that it’d be worth a lot of money,” Elsa-May said with a sharp nod of her head.
“He’ll be here later. He’s dropping the key off to Ruth.”
Ruth added, “Jah, the police are still looking through the bakery for evidence.”
Ettie nibbled on the end of her fingernail. “So much was happening so fast. We should’ve thought to tell him that, Ruth.”
“You can tell him soon,” Elsa-May said.
“Now that I’m here, Ettie, do you want to make some bread and I’ll watch what you do so I can try to spot where you’re going wrong?”
“Denke, Ruth, but I’m too shaken up after everything that’s happened.”
“You both sit there, I’ll make everyone a nice cup of tea,” Elsa-May said.
Ruth stayed the rest of the day at Ettie and Elsa-May’s house and when Detective Kelly arrived, Ettie ushered him into the living room.
“What have you found out so far?” Elsa-May asked before the detective had a chance to sit down.
The detective looked at Elsa-May and then lowered himself carefully into the rickety wooden chair. “We’ve found out that the deceased had gotten himself into a large amount of debt.” He looked at Ruth. “It does sound like he was after the cash and not your recipe, Mrs. Fuller. Excuse me, I meant to say Ruth.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Ettie said. “He was offering Ruth a lot of money for her bread recipe. We forgot to tell you this morning just how much money he was willing to pay her.”
“And he’d just bought a large building not far from me; he was going to turn the building into an Amish bakery,” Ruth said. “That conversion would’ve cost a lot of money to do.”
The detective rubbed his chin. “And that’s the problem. You see he was spending far more money than he was making. That’s why people in this country today are having a lot of problems; too many people are spending at a rate faster than they’re earning.”
“If he was in a lot of debt, surely Ruth’s weekly takings wouldn’t go far to solving his problems,” Elsa-May said.
The detective answered, “When people are desperate, some money is better than no money at all. Ruth’s weekly takings were quite a tidy sum.”
Ettie cleared her throat. “If what you’re saying is correct, Detective, who do you think the second person was in the bakery with him? Do you think they went in together, or had they both broken in and they surprised each other?”
“Hopefully the evidence we’ve collected will help us come up with the answer to that, Mrs. Smith.” He reached into his pocket. “Here’s your key, Ruth. The insurance company had the cleaners in already.”
“That was fast.” She reached over and took hold of her key. “Thank you. Now I can open for business tomorrow. How did they get into the building? Have you found out that yet?”
He shook his head. “Not as yet, but we’ll know more, hopefully, over the next few days.”
“Are you going to look into those names Ruth gave you?” Ettie asked.
“At this time, we’re going over the leads that Alan’s daughter, Melissa, gave us.”
“Which are?” Elsa-May leaned forward.
“I can’t disclose that, I’m sorry. They are to do with certain debts Mr. Avery had, and that’s all I can say. If nothing comes from our assumptions that he was after the cash, of course, we’ll look into the option that he, and the person with him, might have been after your recipe, Ruth.”
“But if Ruth is right about that, don’t you need to act fast, so whoever killed him doesn’t have time to cover his tracks and perhaps concoct some sort of alibi?” Elsa-May asked sternly.
“I don’t have enough men to send all over the countryside. Where one of the men who wanted Ruth’s recipe lives is out of my jurisdiction. All kinds of red tape are involved, not to mention the extra paperwork. Not that I’d mind doing all of that if I believed one of these men might be involved, but it’s too much of a long shot. There’s zero evidence at this stage to connect either of those men to Alan Avery.” He pulled a notepad out of his pocket and looked at it. “The fact that Hugh Dwyer and Rupert Bird wanted to buy Ruth’s recipe, just the same as the deceased, doesn’t mean that one of those men killed him.” The detective shook his head. “We need some solid evidence before we head down that track.”
“Won’t you just talk to these men?” Ettie asked. “It couldn’t do any harm. Just talk to them and you might get a lead.”
“We might, and we might not. It depends on what the forensic evidence and our other inquiries turn up. We do need to follow certain procedures. After we exhaust one line of inquiry we go down another. If we followed all the leads at once, we wouldn’t be working efficiently.”
Ettie nodded. “I’m sorry, Detective, we haven’t offered you anything. Would you like some tea, or perhaps some coffee?”
He stood. “No, but thank you. I’ll have to get going.”
“Thank you for bringing the key over,” Ettie said.
“Yes, thank you,” Ruth added.
When the detective left, the ladies sat back down. Just as Ettie was about to speak, they heard hoofbeats.
“Who could that be?” Ettie asked as she pushed herself up off the couch.
Chapter 5
Ettie opened the door enough to see Ava’s buggy coming toward the house. “It’s Ava,” she said to the others who were still in the living room.
Ettie leaned against the doorpost and waited for Ava. “It’s nice to see you again, Ava. Everything all right, is it?”
“Jah, Ettie, everything’s fine.”
“Well, come in. We’ve got Ruth Fuller visiting us too.”
After Ava greeted everyone, she sat down with them.
Elsa-May said, “Ettie and Ruth had a nasty shock this morning.”
Ava whipped her head around to look at Ruth and Ettie, “Why? What happened?”
Ettie leaned forward. “I was over with Ruth today at the bakery — very early, as I told you yesterday when you offered to drive me there — and we found a dead man in her office. He was dead on the floor with a knife in his back.”
Ava gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. “That’s awful! Who was he?”
Elsa-May answered Ava’s question. “He was a customer of Ruth’s.” Elsa-
May went on to tell Ava everything that Ettie and Ruth had told her.
“And the police think he was after the weekly take?” Ava asked Ruth.
Ruth nodded. “Seems so.”
“You don’t take that money to the bank all by yourself, do you?” Ava asked.
“I have two young men go to the bank with the money. One carries the money and the other walks beside him. I feel safer with two going to the bank and it’s not that far from us.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to bank more often than once a week? It is dangerous to have too much cash about,” Ava said.
“You’re right. I suppose some habits are hard to break. I’ve always banked once a week, but I guess I might have to change the way I’ve always done things.”
“Is there anything special that brings you by today, Ava, or did you just want to come visit a couple of old ladies?”
Ava giggled. “I do have something to tell you. I was supposed to tell you yesterday, and I didn’t. Now I have to tell you today, but I don’t like to tell you after what you’ve just told me.”
“Not more bad news, is it?” Ettie asked. “I don’t know if we can take another shock.”
Ava shook her head and laughed. “Nee. It’s gut news. Well, I think it is.”
“We could all do with some news like that. What is it?” Ettie said.
“It’s about me and Jeremiah.”
“Jah?” Elsa-May and Ettie said at the same time as they leaned forward.
Ava giggled. “We’re getting married.”
Ettie clapped her hands. “I knew it, I knew it.”
Elsa-May pushed herself to her feet and gave Ava a hug. “That’s wunderbaar. Now we’ll be related. You’ll be my grand-dochder-in-law.”
“And my great-niece,” Ettie added.
“I’m happy for you, Ava,” Ruth said.
“Denke.” Ava’s face beamed.
“It’s certainly good news. Where is Jeremiah? Why didn’t he come with you?” Elsa-May asked.
“He’s got a job that he’s finishing off. Otherwise he would’ve come with me. I tried to tell you yesterday but the words wouldn’t come out. Now that we’ve told both sets of parents, it’s only a matter of time before everyone knows. Jeremiah didn’t want you finding out from other people.”
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