“Always. I’m interested under the conditions on the contract I sent you.”
Ruth nodded. “I still have the contract. I think it’s a little extreme. Surely I should be able to make my own bread just for myself.”
He shook his head. “I can’t have any gray areas in the contract. It might start off being just for you, but then you’ll have visitors, and if you’ve got a starter, they might take some of that, and then my exclusive bread is not so exclusive any more.”
“I suppose I just have to make my decision, and then we can sort out the finer details later.”
He ran a finger along his narrow moustache. “Are you considering other offers?”
“I do have a couple of other people interested, but that’s no different from when we first started talking.”
The waiter brought their coffees over.
“When we finish these, I’ll show you around.”
“I’d like to have a good look over your shelves, you seem to have an interesting variety here. I haven’t been in here before,” Ettie said.
“Everything on our shelves is authentic Amish food. I don’t know if Ruth told you, but we’ve got big plans for many more stores.”
“Yes, Ruth mentioned you were expanding.”
When they were finished with their coffees, Hugh took them to the front of the store and worked through to the back, explaining all the goods and where he’d sourced them. “Now you can look over my kitchen.”
“We’d love to,” Ruth said.
“It’s not busy now, but we’re packed out at lunch time.”
Ruth and Ettie followed Hugh into his kitchen and looked around. “There’s no room to make the bread.”
“No. I wouldn’t make the bread in here. I’d need your bakery. Didn’t you read the contract?”
“I didn’t see that in it. I’ll have to look over it again. I’ve had a few offers and I get a little confused.”
Ettie followed close behind Hugh and Ruth. When Ettie looked up, she saw a rack of knives on the wall. They were graded in size from smallest to largest. Ettie noticed that the largest size was missing. And not only that, the knives looked exactly the same as the knife that had been sticking out of Alan Avery’s back. Ettie hadn’t realized she’d been staring at the knives until Hugh came to stand beside her.
“They are a lovely set of knives,” Ettie said. “Are they commonly available? I’ve been looking for a better set of knives.” Since Ettie was so close she could see a bruise across the left cheekbone of Hugh’s pale face.
“Many people throw knives away without realizing they just need sharpening. I brought these knives back from an overseas trip. You can’t get them in this country.” Hugh continued showing them the rest of his kitchen, but Ettie couldn’t stop thinking about the missing knife.
At the end of their visit, Ruth said, “Thank you for showing us around. I will have another look at your contract and give it some serious thought.”
“You do that, Ruth. And I’ll be in touch with you soon.”
When they were a distance away from the store, Ettie said, “Did you see that, Ruth?”
“The missing knife?”
“Jah. We definitely have to tell Detective Kelly what we found. It looks like an exact match. It had the same grooves in the handle and the same inscription on the base of the blade near the handle. It seemed to be the same inscription anyway, from a distance.”
“And did you see he had a bruise on his face?”
Ettie nodded.
Just as they were walking up the steps of the police station, they came face to face with Detective Kelly who was walking out of the building.
“Hello, ladies, are you coming to see me?”
“We are.”
“Were you going somewhere?” Ruth said.
“It can wait. Come into my office, we can talk there.”
Ruth and Ettie followed Kelly into his office, and then sat down.
When Kelly sat opposite, he said, “What can I do for you ladies today?”
“We have some things to tell you,” Ruth said.
Ettie began, “We went to see Hugh Dwyer today. He’s the man who runs the Amish small goods store. Actually, he owns the store.”
The detective lifted both hands to his head. “And why would you do that? Didn’t I tell you ladies I would follow that up after my other inquiries?”
“We went there to find some things out,” Ruth said.
“And I’m guessing you found something out, and that’s why you’re here?”
Ruth and Ettie both looked at each other, and then nodded.
“He took us to have a look over his store and his café. When we went into his kitchen, we saw he had knives that looked identical to the knife sticking out of the back of Alan Avery,” Ettie said. “There were around eight knives on the rack, all of different sizes.”
“And his largest knife was missing,” Ruth added.
“And not only that, he had a bruise on his cheekbone.”
The detective pulled out a pad and made some notes.
Ettie said, “He said that the knives weren’t available in this country and he brought them in from an overseas trip.”
“Okay. I’ll check on how we’re doing with the identity of the knife. As far as the bruise on his face is concerned, there was no sign of a struggle. It seems as though the knife in Avery’s back had come as a complete surprise to him.” The detective winced. “Looks like I have to pay Hugh Dwyer a visit sooner than I’d planned.”
“There’s one more thing, Detective,” Ettie said. “Hugh Dwyer has known Alan Avery for many years.”
“But he didn’t go to his funeral,” Ruth added.
“You ladies don’t know how to stay out of trouble. You went to Alan Avery’s funeral?”
“Yes, I went out of respect. As you know, I’ve known him for many years. He was murdered in my bakery, so the least I could do was go to his funeral, Detective.”
“And you think this Hugh Dwyer fellow knew him well enough to go to his funeral?” The detective asked.
“They used to work together. He said that they’d known each other for many years, but they weren’t good friends. So I suppose it wasn’t unusual for him not to go to the funeral,” Ruth said.
Without saying anything, the detective turned to his computer and tapped some keys on the keyboard. He turned the computer screen to face Ruth. “Would this be Hugh Dwyer?”
“Yes, that’s him.”
He turned the screen to face himself. “He’s got a record. Petty theft. At least we’ve got his prints on record.” The detective raised his eyebrows as he read more of what was on the screen. He turned back to the ladies. “You ladies best steer clear of him.”
“We will,” Ruth said.
“I will check out what you just told me, and then I want you ladies to go back and live your lives as normal. Leave the investigations to us.”
Ettie nodded. “Yes, we’d like to do that, wouldn’t we, Ruth?”
“I’d like to rid myself of the awful memory of finding Mr. Avery dead in my office, then I could go back to how things used to be.”
“You said you didn’t know Alan Avery’s daughter, Melissa, well?” the detective asked.
Ruth answered, “Not very well at all. We did have quite a chat, though, after the funeral.”
“Did she happen to mention she’s going to do quite well out of her father’s life insurance policy?” The detective looked smug.
Ettie and Ruth looked at each other. They knew Melissa was being harassed by loan sharks, but was it their place to tell the detective that all the money coming from the policy was going to go to pay off her father’s loans?
“I wasn’t going to mention anything,” Ruth said, “but Melissa told me that the men her father had borrowed money from are coming after her. They found out about the life insurance, and they want her to pay back the money her father borrowed.”
The detective raised his eyebrows and wrote some
thing else down on his note pad, while muttering, “I guess I’ll have to talk with her again, as well.” The detective rose from his chair. “Thank you ladies for coming in. You’ve given me a few leads to follow up, and I appreciate that.”
When Ettie and Ruth had left the building, Ettie said, “I’d like nothing more than to forget about things. It’s hard to forget about it when I think of that poor man with the knife sticking out of his back.”
“Yes, Ettie, I also find it hard to forget. I ran into my realtor friend this morning. The one I was telling you about, Brandy Winnie. She said she’d be pleased to come and take a look at your house.”
“I suppose that would take my mind off things.”
“That’s what I hoped you’d say because I did make an appointment for you to meet her at your house tomorrow.”
Ettie frowned. “You didn’t, did you?”
“I did; at eleven in the morning. I know it’s hard for you to make appointments and things with you not having a phone. I’ve got one at the bakery, but I remember how hard it was to get in touch with people when I didn’t have a phone.”
“Denke, Ruth. Eleven you said?”
Ruth nodded.
Chapter 10
“Jah, you have to come to the haus with me today, Elsa-May. I don’t want to be talked into anything that I’m not ready for. Ruth said the realtor’s pushy. I don’t know why Ruth made this appointment without asking me.”
“She would only have thought she was doing the right thing for you.” Elsa-May stroked the fluffy white puppy in her lap.
Ettie breathed out heavily. “I suppose so.”
“I don’t like to leave Snowy alone. Look, he’s going to sleep.”
“Is that his name, Snowy?”
Elsa-May nodded. “It came to me this morning.”
“You could bring him, but it might be distracting when we’re trying to talk to the realtor. He’ll be all right. He sleeps most of the day anyway.”
“Okay. We’ll be right back, Snowy,” Elsa-May whispered to her dog.
“He’ll have the run of the place, or he can go out the dog door into the backyard.”
Elsa-May stood up and then placed Snowy on his dog bed in the corner.
“Finally,” Ettie said when she saw Elsa-May put the dog on his bed.
Elsa-May chuckled. “You were the one who wanted me to get a dog.”
“I wanted you to walk. Have you taken him for a walk yet?”
“I might do that later today.”
“Gut. I might go with you. Now let’s go and wait outside. The taxi will be here any minute.”
The two sisters placed their black over-bonnets over their prayer kapps, and put their capes over their shoulders before they stepped outside. The wind was chilly, but it wasn’t long before the taxi arrived.
When they stepped out of the taxi at the end of their journey, Elsa-May looked up at the house. “Jeremiah’s certainly made it look better.”
“Jah, it’s taken a bit to get it into proper shape. Let’s get out of the cold and wait inside.” Ettie had noticed that Ava’s horse was not in the yard, so she knew that her young friend was out somewhere.
Minutes later, a shiny blue car pulled up in the driveway. A tall slim blonde-haired woman stepped out. She opened the back door to retrieve a briefcase and headed to the house.
When Ettie looked through the window and saw her approach, she opened the door.
“Mrs. Smith?”
Ettie nodded.
“Lovely to meet you.” The tall blonde woman put out her hand.
Ettie shook her hand. “It’s lovely to meet you, Ms. Winnie.”
“Please call me Brandy.” She looked over Ettie’s shoulder at Elsa-May.
“And this is my sister, Elsa-May.”
“Nice to meet you too.” She shook Elsa-May’s hand and then flicked her long hair over her shoulder. “Ruth tells me you’re thinking of selling?”
“I will be selling later on. I’ve got a young friend living in the grossdaddi haus until she gets married, and then I’ll sell.”
“Perfect. Would you like to show me through?”
“Before I do that, I must tell you that a man was murdered and hidden under the floor for forty years.”
Brandy’s mouth turned down at the corners. “I heard about that. So that was this house?”
Ettie nodded.
“That will affect the price. By law, I do have to let people know if anyone’s been murdered at a property they’re viewing. The other thing is, it might take some time to find a buyer. The price will have to be drastically reduced, too. Ruth’s just had someone murdered in her bakery, Alan Avery.”
Ettie nodded. “Did you know him?”
“I know everyone. I know all the gossip – who’s having affairs with who, that type of thing. I knew both Alan and his daughter, Melissa. Of course, what happened to him was no surprise.” She shook her head.
“What do you mean?” Ettie asked.
“He’d borrowed money from Big Freddy. Big Freddy isn’t just any loan shark; if you don’t pay him back, you’ll end up at the bottom of the harbor with no questions asked.”
“Did you sell Alan Avery the building he recently bought? I believe he was going to turn it into a bakery,” Ettie said.
“Yes, I did. And I happen to know he used the money from his wife’s insurance settlement to pay for it. And the money for the remodeling was Big Freddy’s money.”
“How did his wife die?” Elsa-May asked.
“You didn’t hear about it?” She looked at both of the sisters in turn, and when they shook their heads, she continued, “She died many years ago. She’d disappeared for around five months, and then she was found murdered.”
Ettie and Elsa-May looked at each other.
“Murdered?” Ettie asked.
“Yes, and they never found out who did it.”
“I had no idea. Ruth didn’t mention that.”
Brandy pushed her hair back from her face. “It said in the paper that Alan was found in Ruth’s bakery holding a Bible. I didn’t like to ask Ruth, but does anyone know why he was holding a Bible? It seems as though it must’ve held some significance to him.”
“I’m not sure,” Ettie said.
“Oh, that’s disappointing. Now, back to your house. Show me around.”
Ettie showed her through the house with Elsa-May following along behind.
When they came to the end of their tour, Ettie said, “As you can see I’ve had some work done. There’s just a little work still needed on the porch, and then all the work will be finished.”
“It’s good that you’ve had the house freshly painted inside. That always helps. I suggest having an open house and seeing what kind of offers we get. I’ve got a few people looking for low-priced homes; I’ll call a few of them and get them through.”
Ettie wasn’t sure she liked the idea of Agatha’s house having to go for a low price. “I’m not ready yet,” Ettie said.
“Ettie, it’s not going to sell quickly even at a reduced price. No one wants to live in a house where someone was murdered.” She reached out a hand to rub Ettie on her shoulder. “Oh, don’t look so sad. I’ll get you the very best price possible.” Brandy went back to her briefcase she’d left by the door. After she pulled out some paperwork, she said, “Just sign this. I’ll cover the cost of the advertising.”
“What am I signing?” Ettie asked.
“An exclusive property listing for six months.”
“I’ve still got the lady in the grossdaddi haus.”
“Very good,” Brandy said. “I should have a look at that accommodation too, then.”
Ettie shook her head. “I don’t think Ava would like that. She’s not home at the moment. It’s much the same condition as this place. It’s got one bedroom, a living room half the size of this one, the kitchen’s half the size as well, and there’s a tiny bathroom with shower and toilet.”
“My grandson has to finish off the repa
irs at the front of the house too,” Elsa-May said.
Ettie nodded. “Yes, he’s got to finish replacing some of the boards on the porch.”
The realtor folded her arms. “It’s not going to be an easy sale. Best we start sooner rather than later. We could have a delayed possession date for the buyers, which will give your friend plenty of time to move out. We can date it at a time to suit her.”
“I didn’t know you could do that,” Ettie said.
Brandy nodded. “Of course you can.”
“Brandy, since you know everything. I’m wondering if you know a man called Hugh Dwyer or a man called Rupert Bird?” Elsa-May asked.
“I’ve never heard of a man by the name of Rupert Bird, but I do know Hugh Dwyer. No one in my office will deal with him anymore. He’s unscrupulous. A few years ago, he was always trying to put shady deals together. He was trying to be tricky, buying property with no loan and no money down, and flipping them before he had to pay for them. Technically what he was doing wasn’t illegal, but we realtors have to be careful with deals like that because if anything blows up, we’ll get the blame and be the ones to suffer the consequences.”
“That’s interesting,” Elsa-May said.
Brandy went on, “I also heard he was caught shoplifting more than once.”
Ettie recalled the detective mentioning Hugh had a record of petty theft. Ettie’s gaze fell to the listing agreement in her hands. “Will you give me a day to read through this?”
“Yes. How about I meet you back here at the same time next week?”
“Okay.”
“Perfect. Here’s my card with all my numbers.”
Elsa-May looked over Ettie’s shoulder at the card. “Winnie. That’s an unusual surname.”
Brandy giggled. “I don’t tell too many people, but that’s not my real name. My name was Winchester, but it was too long for the business card. I changed it to Winnie.”
“I thought I could use it for slogans as well. ‘Win a better price for your house when you sell with Winnie.’ ‘Win with Winnie.’ Winning agent, Brandy Winnie.’”
“They are catchy,” Elsa-May said.
“And it does fit nicely on the card too,” Ettie said with a smile.
Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 1 Page 31