Rupert tossed his head back and laughed. “And do you know when it started?”
Ruth nodded. “I know.”
Rupert said to Ettie, “I had a taste of Ruth’s bread when I was a child. Ruth’s bread changed the direction of my life. I might have become an accountant like my father if it weren’t for Ruth. I just don’t know why I can’t get my bread to taste anywhere near as good as hers.”
“I’m sure it tastes nice,” Ettie said.
“I do get compliments, but I know it could be better,” Rupert said.
Ettie sighed. “Well, at least your bread doesn’t fall in the center like mine’s been doing lately.”
“Are you a baker too, Ettie?”
“No. I bake bread for me and my sister four times a week, well, up until I’ve had this problem with the bread.”
“When you bring it out of the oven, are you putting it back on top of the oven?” Rupert asked.
“No. I’m putting it on a wooden tray as I always do.”
“What about the quantities? Are you perhaps using more yeast than before?”
“Ettie has never measured her quantities. She knows to put a bit of this and a bit of that. She’s doing the same quantities as always.”
Ettie nodded. “Yes, and I’ve never had this problem before.”
“If I were you, I’d start measuring. That’s the only way you’ll find what you’re doing wrong. And if that doesn’t work, you’ll have to use a thermometer.”
“I’ll have to try that I suppose. Rupert, you mentioned that your parents took you to Ruth’s bakery when you were a child?”
“That’s right.”
“Did you once live near Ruth’s bakery?”
Rupert immediately looked away from Ettie. “We were passing through.” He looked over at Ruth. “I hope you’ll consider my offer. The figure I mentioned to you last time you were here is negotiable. Will you speak to me before you make your final decision?”
Ruth nodded. “I will.”
Rupert’s face beamed. “Thank you, Ruth.”
A waitress came over to ask if they wanted anything else.
“Just the bill please,” Rupert said.
“Thank you for a lovely lunch, Rupert, and I will start measuring. I have to try something different.”
When the waitress brought the bill back, Rupert took out a wad of rolled-up notes out of his pocket. He peeled off a couple of notes and placed them under the bill. “I’ll drive you ladies to the bus stop.”
“We can walk,” Ruth said. “It’s not far from here at all.”
Ruth and Ettie said goodbye to Rupert Bird, and then left the restaurant.
“He doesn’t seem to be short of money. Did you see all that money he had in his pocket?” Ettie said.
“I certainly did.”
“And did you notice he looked funny when I asked if he once lived close to your bakery?”
“Nee, I didn’t.”
“He couldn’t look me in the eye, and then he changed the subject.”
When they reached the bus stop, they had twenty minutes to wait before their bus left for home.
“Would Rupert be the same age as Alan Avery?”
“They could be around the same age,” Ruth answered.
“I’ll get Ava to look into things for me. She’s very good at doing computer searches, and she’s got a close friend who works in the Motor Vehicles Department.”
“Should we let the detective know we’ve met with Rupert?” Ruth asked.
“He didn’t seem interested at all. He already said he wasn’t going to question him or the other man who wanted your bread.”
“Hugh Dwyer?”
“That’s right, Hugh Dwyer. He might talk to them eventually but only when he comes to the conclusion that it wasn’t a robbery.”
“We won’t mention anything, then.”
“Jah, I think that’s best.”
After Ettie walked Ruth safely home from the bus stop, she had a taxi take her home. She turned the door handle and before she could step into the house, she heard Elsa-May shriek.
“Shut the door, Ettie.”
Ettie stepped in and quickly closed the door behind her. Her attention was drawn to a white streak heading for her feet. She looked down to see a small puppy. “He’s adorable. Where did he come from?” Ettie leaned down to pat the pup.
“Your friend next door.”
Ettie bit her lip. She hadn’t meant that they’d take the dog Bernie had mentioned. “He did say something to me about a pup, and I said we’d think about it.”
“Seems you told him I needed a dog to get me to go for a walk.”
“I did say something to him, and he suggested that you should get a dog.”
“Well now you’ve got one, Ettie. And he’s left a present for you on the floor over there.”
Ettie stood up and looked over at the ‘present’ the dog had left, and giggled. She looked back at the dog. “Did you do that?”
“That’s why I’ve never liked dogs in the house, they’re dirty and messy. They also encourage mice.”
“Elsa-May, they do not encourage mice. He’ll learn to go outside. We’ve already got the dog door.” Ettie leaned down and patted the dog once again. “What’s your name? Did Bernie say what his name was?”
“We’re not keeping him, Ettie.”
“Not we, he’s your dog. I said I’d never have another dog after Ginger died. I don’t mind helping you look after him. I’ll even get rid of his first accident.”
Elsa-May looked over at the dog. “He is a little bit cute, but dogs are a lot of trouble.”
Ettie stood up. “What trouble? We’ve got a yard big enough for a small dog, we’ve got the dog door, and we can take him for walks. That’s what the doctor told you to do. Maybe this little fellow will talk you into taking him for a walk.”
“Do you think we should keep him?” Elsa-May asked.
“I do, now that he’s already here.” Ettie picked the dog up and walked over to her sister. “You hold him while I clean up his mess.” Ettie knew that the longer Elsa-May had him around, the more she’d want to keep him.
When Ettie finished cleaning up, she washed her hands and went back to Elsa-May, intending to talk her into keeping the pup. “Where is he?” Ettie asked when she saw that her sister wasn’t holding him.
Elsa-May pointed to the corner of the room. “I’ve made him a little bed.”
The pup was curled up on a mattress made out of one of Elsa-May’s good blankets.
“Your gold blankets are your good ones, aren’t they?”
Elsa-May nodded. “I couldn’t use the blue ones. They’re not soft enough.”
Ettie smiled. That’s when she knew they were keeping the dog. She stepped closer to see that the dog was fast asleep with his head between his front paws. “He’s asleep.”
“He won’t be much longer if you keep talking that loud.”
Ettie tiptoed to the couch and sat down. “I’ve had a long day.”
“Tell me all about it. Start at the beginning.”
Ettie told Elsa-May every detail of their trip to Harrisburg to see Rupert Bird. “And then I got to thinking while we were out today, about the knife. It wasn’t Ruth’s knife, so either the other man in the bakery with Alan brought the knife with him, or Alan Avery had the knife. Why would someone carry a knife around like that if they weren’t intending to use it?”
“Hmm. Detective Kelly thinks that the people were after cash. Would they have carried a knife in case they ran into any trouble? For self defense purposes?”
“It makes no sense,” Ettie said. “Unless the second man brought the knife with him intending to kill Alan Avery as soon as they’d found the bread recipe, or the starters.”
“So, Ruth’s admitted to using starters?” Elsa-May said.
Ettie shook her head. “She’s keeping quiet on the whole thing. I’m assuming she would, though. Anyway, when the recipe and nothing else was found, the accompl
ice might have killed Alan in anger.”
“And you think that he had intended to kill Alan anyway, once the recipe was found? Leaving Alan’s body in the bakery and Ruth’s bread recipe missing?”
Ettie thought for a while. “I guess so. What are your thoughts?”
“I suppose if he’d been successful in stealing her bread recipe, there’d be no way to prove that someone was using Ruth’s starters or recipes. In that way, the thief would be hard to track down.”
Chapter 8
Ettie got herself ready to go to Alan Avery’s funeral. She and Elsa-May picked up Ruth in the taxi and headed to the chapel where the funeral service was to be held.
They sat in the back row of the church and waited for the service to begin. Ettie looked up at the stained glass windows with scenes of the resurrection. Then she stared at the statues and the cross that took a prominent position at the front of the room. Ettie was reminded how the Englisch believed different things.
To some of the Englisch, a church was a building where they went on Sundays, but to the Amish, the church was the people who belonged to the body of Christ. Their church wasn’t a building, and that’s why they held their meetings in the houses of different members of the community. For convenience, in communities where members lived too far apart, they had erected buildings for their meetings, but these buildings were never referred to as churches.
When the seats were filled, a man in white robes entered and everyone stood. After a hymn was sung, everyone sat down again. The minister said a prayer and then a man got up to say something about Alan Avery. When he finished, another man got up to speak.
Ettie noticed a young woman crying in the front row. “Is that the daughter?” she whispered to Ruth.
“Yes, it is. That’s Melissa.”
Ettie had suggested they go to the funeral. Detective Crowley had always told Ettie that you find out a lot of things out at funerals by keeping eyes and ears open. Right now, they were keeping theirs open to find someone who might have profited from Alan Avery’s death.
After the speeches, another hymn was sung before the minster read a few passages of Scripture. After the minister closed in prayer, everyone made their way out of the church and walked a little distance behind the church to the plot where Alan Avery would be buried.
As everyone gathered around the coffin that was placed over the grave, more words were said. It wasn’t long before the coffin was lowered into the ground.
Ettie noticed that the daughter was making her way around, talking to everyone. When Ruth and Melissa’s eyes met, Ruth waved, and then Melissa made her way over.
“Ruth, it was so good of you to come. I’ve been meaning to come by and see you. It must have come as an awful shock to find my father on your floor like that.”
Ruth introduced Melissa to Ettie and Elsa-May.
“Will you all come to the wake?” Melissa asked.
“We’d love to, Melissa,” Ruth said.
“Do you know what my father was doing in your bakery?”
“We weren’t talking to each other at the time. As you know, I cancelled his standing order.”
“Yes I know. I thought you might have asked him to meet you there, or something.”
Ruth shook her head. “No. I haven’t heard from him since he told me he was opening a bakery down the road.”
“Believe me, Ruth, I knew nothing about that, or I would’ve told him not to do it. That was his dream for me, not mine. He wanted me to run it, but I was happy with my little café.”
“I hope he hasn’t left you in financial difficulties,” Ruth said.
Ettie and Elsa-May stayed a distance away so they wouldn’t appear to be listening in, but they were.
“He has, Ruth. I found out that he’d borrowed an awful lot of money. Now the people he borrowed money from are demanding that I pay them.” Melissa put her hand to her head. “It’s all too much. Dad being killed, and now people are harassing me for money. He didn’t owe you money too, did he, Ruth?”
Ruth shook her head. “He always paid in cash at the end of every week. Just tell these people you don’t have the money.”
“And end up like my father?”
“Do you think they had something to do with his death?”
“I don’t know what I think anymore, but somehow those people found out I was due to get an insurance payout from dad’s life insurance policy, and now they want me to give them that. The insurance company won’t even release the money until the police find out more about his death, though. So I don’t even have the money yet.”
“How much did he owe them?”
“More money than I can say out loud. I don’t want to hear myself say it.”
“Who are these people? You should go to the police.”
Melissa nodded. “Anyway, today is about my father. Come and have something to drink. I’ve got to get around and talk to everyone.” Melissa leaned closer to Ruth, and said, “Even though that’s the last thing I feel like doing.”
They followed Melissa into a room at the back of the chapel where the wake was being held. Ettie got herself, Elsa-May, and Ruth some sodas.
“Did you hear what she said, Ettie?” Ruth asked.
“Jah, I did. She was certainly giving you a lot of private information. I didn’t know you knew her that well.”
“I’ve known her for a few years, but we never talked about personal things.”
Ettie said, “Sounds like he borrowed money from private lenders – loan sharks.”
“See if she can tell you more about them, Ruth,” Elsa-May said.
Ruth nodded. “Okay, I’ll wait until she’s made her way around and talked to everyone, and then I’ll see what else she can tell me about these moneylenders.”
“And ask her if her father knew Rupert Bird, or Hugh Dwyer,” Ettie added.
Half an hour later, Ruth decided she couldn’t wait any longer. She saw that Melissa was now by herself so she walked over to her.
After they’d been talking for a while, Ruth came back to Ettie and Elsa-May.
“Well, what did she say?” Elsa-May asked.
“I’ll tell you after we leave here,” Ruth said.
Chapter 9
When they were back at Ruth’s house after Alan Avery’s funeral, Ruth sat Elsa-May and Ettie down in the living room and then told them what Melissa had said.
“I didn’t want to tell you where anyone could overhear. Melissa Avery told me that the first thing she knew about her father borrowing the money was when he hid in the back of the shop when he saw two men walking toward the café. The men came in and asked for him, and she told them he wasn’t in and she didn’t know when he’d be back.”
“Did she say what they looked like?” Ettie asked.
“They were big and muscled. She called them ‘thugs.’ When they left, she confronted her father and he admitted he owed them money. He’d borrowed from them to remodel the bakery.”
“Did her father know the other two men that Ettie mentioned?” Elsa-May asked.
“She wasn’t certain about Rupert Bird, but she did know that her father knew Hugh Dwyer.”
Ettie explained to Elsa-May. “He’s the local man with the Amish small goods store.”
Elsa-May nodded.
“She said they met a long time ago when they were in chef’s school. You see they have their apprenticeships when they’re assigned to different firms, and then they also had to go to school sessions. She said they’d always been rivals, but she was sure they’d been friendly rivals. Years ago, Hugh once worked as a head chef and he got Alan a job where he worked.”
“Sounds like they knew each other well,” Ettie said. “Did you tell Melissa that Hugh was also trying to buy you out?”
“I told her that, and she said that her father would have been livid with rage if he’d known. He hadn’t mentioned anything to her, so chances are that he didn’t know.”
“I wonder if he did know, and just hadn’t mentione
d anything to his daughter,” Ettie said.
“Are you thinking they were in it together, Ettie?” Elsa-May asked. “Both Hugh and Alan had broken in and were trying to steal Ruth’s recipe?”
Ettie shrugged. “I don’t know what to think. It sounds likely that Hugh might have been in that room. Could they both have been intending to double-cross the other? Ruth, I think we need to go and visit Hugh Dwyer,” Ettie said.
“Do you think so?” Ruth asked.
Ettie nodded. “I think we should go there tomorrow.”
“Was he at the funeral?” Elsa-May asked.
“Nee, I know what he looks like. He wasn’t there. All right, Ettie, I’ll visit him tomorrow if you come with me,” Ruth said.
It was just after nine the next morning when they arrived at Hugh Dwyer’s Amish small goods store.
“Ruth!” Hugh rushed over to Ruth.
He was a tall thin man with pale skin, dark hair, and a narrow moustache.
“Hello, Hugh. My friend and I thought we’d pay you a visit. This is my friend, Ettie Smith.”
He tipped his head to Ettie. “Nice to meet you.”
“And you as well,” Ettie said.
“I was just about to have my second morning cup of coffee. Care to join me?” he asked.
“We’d love to,” Ruth said.
They followed Hugh to a table in his café, which was attached to his store. After he gave one of his employees their drinks order, he said, “Now tell me, Ruth, what brings you here today?”
“Have you heard what happened to Alan Avery?”
He nodded. “I did. I’ve been meaning to call you. It must have come as a shock. I read in the paper that you found him.”
“Yes, I did. And Ettie was with me at the time. You knew him, didn’t you?”
“I’ve known him for many years. We worked together at one point in time.”
“When did you see him last?”
“I honestly can’t remember. It would’ve been a good six months ago. We knew each other, but we were never close friends.”
“I’m considering retiring, and I’m wondering if you’re still interested in buying my recipe?”
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