The detective nodded. “That’s one theory and we’re already looking into that.”
“Ettie, are you saying Thomas would be involved in something like that? Do you think Thomas knowingly hid the drugs in the barn?” Elsa-May asked.
Ettie turned around to see her sister heading back into the room.
“I didn’t see you there. What did Levi say?”
“He found Thea missing this morning. They’ve been everywhere looking for her and he was just in the barn getting a fresh horse when I called him. The poor man is distraught. He’s coming here right now.” Elsa-May sat down. “You think Thomas could’ve been involved in something, Ettie?”
“Maybe,” Ettie said. “There is that possibility. He had been acting strangely.”
“I don’t think so.” Elsa-May shook her head in disgust at her sister.
“In my experience, you can’t really know someone and what they would and wouldn’t do.”
“I quite agree, Ettie,” Detective Kelly said.
Elsa-May sighed. “Well, you would wouldn’t you, Detective? You don’t trust anyone. You’ve told us that before.”
“In my profession, I can’t afford to trust anyone.”
“Have you had a chance to look into those names Ava mentioned last night?” Ettie asked Detective Kelly while studiously ignoring her sister.
“I’ve got people working on it. I should know more later today.” He leaned across the desk, and asked them, “How did you hear about the murder so fast?”
“We heard it from Doris, who heard it from…”
He held up his hand. “Stop! Spare me the details. I should’ve known better than to ask.”
Elsa-May chortled.
“We better go now, Elsa-May.” Ettie remembered that Ava was waiting for them.
“I’ll be in touch to let you know if we find out what Bart Crittenden was doing in the barn. And, I know you’ll be anxious to hear about Thea and her friend.”
“Would you mind letting us know?” Elsa-May asked.
“Of course I will. This is proving to be more than someone accidently falling to his death.”
“Good,” Elsa-May said. “I don’t mean about Thomas falling; I meant good about you letting us know and keeping us informed. Did you hear that, Ettie?”
“No. I wasn’t listening.”
“I corrected myself before you could do it.”
Ettie scrunched up her nose. There was no need for Elsa-May to say things like that in front of the detective. She remained quiet, burying her annoyance.
Kelly nodded, then he pushed out his chair and stood up. “That’s all I can tell you ladies today.” When they were nearly out his door, Kelly added, “Please don’t do anything silly. All I want the two of you to do is keep ‘these’ open.” He tugged at the bottom of his ears.
Ettie and Elsa-May nodded before they turned and headed out of his office and hurried out to tell Ava the dreadful news about Thea and her young friend being arrested. They knew it was more important than ever to find out if there might be someone else the detective and the police department could turn their attention to.
Chapter 13
At the library, Ava prepared to look up the names that Doris had given them.
“Let’s see.” Ava glanced at her notes. “Let’s see what we can find out about the woman who was stalking Thomas.”
“Doris didn’t know about that one, did she?” Elsa-May said with a chuckle.
“Nee, or if she did, she didn’t think to tell us.”
“Oh, she would’ve told us if she’d heard about it, don’t you worry about that.”
Ettie peered at the screen as Ava typed the name of Breanna Taylor into the search bar. The first thing that came up was an online news article with her picture.
“Is that the same Breanna Taylor? There could be other people with that name,” Ettie said.
“We’ll soon know.” Ava scrolled through the article. "This is from two years ago; she was arrested in connection to a drug ring.”
“I’m guessing that has something to do with drug smuggling?”
“Quite possibly,” Ava answered. “A drug ring is a group of people involved in distributing drugs, possibly smuggling, or selling, and maybe both.”
“I suppose they would have to sell them after they smuggle them, otherwise what would be the point?” Ettie asked.
“What else are you finding out, Ava?” Elsa-May asked.
“This is not the woman who was at the funeral. I’m sure of it. Although, it could be.”
“That’s not much help,” Ettie blurted out. “I’m sorry, Ava. I know you’re doing your best.”
“I don’t know. It could’ve been her.”
“We’ll worry about that later. See what else you can find out, Ava.”
Ettie saw Elsa-May glaring at her shaking her head behind Ava’s back and Ettie knew she should keep her mouth closed and not be so discouraging to their young friend. After all, Ava was only trying to help them.
“It mentions some other names here, but no one we know of.”
Elsa-May peered at the screen. “Write them down anyway.”
“I will.”
Once Ava was through reading that article, she went back to the search page. “That’s all I can find on her.”
Ettie frowned. She was hoping to find out a whole lot more. “Could your friend from the DMV find out where she lives?”
“Sure. I can call him when we finish here.”
“What about the man, William Spreed?” Elsa-May asked.
“I’ll look him up. Now, I asked Jeremiah and found out that Thomas had gotten into the roofing business.”
“On his own?”
“I think so. Jeremiah would’ve mentioned if he were in business with someone else. You know what he’s like about things like that, and the bishop wouldn’t approve of Thomas going into business with Englischers. So we know he wasn’t in business with Englischers.”
“That’s true,” Ettie said. “Did Jeremiah mention anything else about Thomas?”
“I couldn’t ask too much. I asked if he knew if he had gotten any large orders for work and he said he’d heard that he gotten a contract to do all the roofs in a new housing development on the edge of town.”
“I guess that would be worth a lot of money,” Elsa-May said.
“Enough to kill for?” Ettie shook her head. “That doesn’t sound right to me.”
“Well, what if Thomas beat out William Spreed, won that contract, and then had an argument with the man? Thomas had many disagreements with people lately, as we’ve found out,” Elsa-May said.
“I’ve found William Spreed’s photo and it’s not the man who was at the funeral,” Ava announced as she scrolled through some news articles.
After they had read about William Spreed and his roofing business on the screen, they found a website and scrolled through the staff photos.
“Look there!” Ava pointed at the screen.
“I can’t see without my knitting glasses,” Elsa-May said.
Ettie peered at the screen, moving closer. “Is that Thomas?”
“Jah, it looks like Thomas. This is an old photo of William Spreed’s staff. It seems that Thomas once worked for Spreed.”
“Ah, some pieces are coming together,” Elsa-May said. “Then, Thomas set up shop on his own and stole some business away from Spreed.”
“That could be a reason to want Thomas out of the way, but that doesn’t explain why Bart was found dead in the barn.”
“Nee, it doesn’t, Ettie, but I feel we’re one step closer,” Elsa-May said.
Ava, still staring at the screen asked, “Should we pay Mr. Spreed a visit?”
“Jah, I think we should,” Ettie said.
Ava and Ettie both looked at Elsa-May. “Jah, that’s the logical thing to do. Right after we find Breanna Thomas’ address.”
“I’ll take down the address of his business.” After Ava had scribbled down some notes from the com
puter screen, she said, “I’ll phone my friend now.” Ava stood up and made her way to the public phone out at the front of the library.
“What good will having Breanna’s address be? Are you thinking we should say something to her?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Elsa-May said. “It wouldn’t hurt to have it just in case. I hope Ava’s friend doesn’t get into trouble.”
“Jah, he would if anyone knew he was giving out addresses.”
“We’ll have to hope his bosses don’t find out.”
Ettie was looking forward to talking to Mr. Spreed to see what he’d have to say.
Ava headed back toward Ettie and Elsa-May holding up a piece of paper. "I've got it; I've got her address."
“Gut!" Elsa-May said with a sharp nod of her head.
"Shall we go to Spreed’s place of business first?"
"Jah, we will. But it's going to be too far for the horse, and it'll take too long. I'll have to take the buggy back home and then we can call for a taxi from there."
"Sounds like a plan,” Ettie said. “Ava, didn’t you have to help your mudder today?”
“I did, but I was able to change it to later in the week.”
“Very good.” Elsa-May said. “Now we’ll see what Mr. Spreed has to say.”
Chapter 14
After the taxi had pulled up in at an industrial area, the three ladies got out and looked around.
"Are you sure that this is the right address?" Ettie asked.
"Look over there."
The three of them looked to where Ava was pointing. There was a colorful sign that read, ‘Spreed Roofing.’
"I guess this must be the place,” Ettie said hurrying over to the tall wire fence behind the sign.
They walked through the gates in a high double fence that enclosed many sheds. In the distance, they saw a couple of men carrying large sheets of metal. They walked into the first building and were pleased to find a lady behind a desk. She was an elderly lady with silver-streaked dark hair pulled back into a bun.
"Can I help you, ladies?"
Elsa-May spoke, "We’re looking for William Spreed."
"I'm sorry, but Mr. Spreed died well over a year ago. Can anyone else help you?
Ava spoke up. "We thought William Spreed was the owner of this place. We must've had the wrong information."
"He used to be the owner, but now the owner is Roy Strongberg. He's out at the moment, but I can have him call you.”
Ettie was stunned. She didn’t know what to think about Roy being the new owner. She stood there with her mouth open and was glad that Ava was able to speak.
“Perhaps we’ll call back later," Ava said.
"Are you sure someone else can't help you? Did you want a quote on something?"
"We’ll call back. Thank you." Elsa-May was the first to walk out the door.
They hurried out of the gates before they even spoke to one another.
"Did you know that, Ava?"
"Do you mean did I know Roy had a roofing business?" She shook her head. "Nee, I knew nothing of the kind. I didn't know what he did. This is a huge surprise and it means that Roy and his brother were in competition to one another."
"Were the brothers enemies or friends?" Ettie searched her memory banks for clues. “They were in direct business competition as you said, Ava.”
"Well, from the way Roy told it, they were friendly. And nothing’s ever been said to the contrary. They went to the market together on the day Thomas died.”
"Nee. It's just not possible. What are we thinking? Roy wouldn't have killed his brother just because they were in the same line of work," Ettie said.
"All the same, Ettie, it’s odd that no one knows Roy owns this business," Elsa-May added.
"He probably left the name as Spreed Roofing because he wanted to keep the customer base that William Spreed had. Otherwise, people might think he only did Amish houses," Ava suggested.
Ettie nodded. “Let's go up to the main road and see if we can get a taxi from there."
"Did you hear anything at the funeral about a falling out between the brothers, Ava?"
"Nee, not at all.”
Ettie said, “At the beginning of the funeral, Roy did seem kind of odd. Remember he ran out of the room and then we followed him and asked him questions, Elsa-May?"
"Jah, I remember. What you said is right, Ettie. It's a different thing to have a falling out and it's another thing to kill someone. Even if the brothers weren’t getting along, it’s a big stretch of the imagination to think that Roy would've killed his own bruder, or anyone else for that matter."
"Should we visit Roy and Thomas’ parents again?" Elsa-May suggested.
Ava said, "Is that before or after we go to see the girl who was in love with Thomas?"
"I've got a better idea," Elsa-May said.
"What is it?"
"A bite to eat.”
“That's the best idea I've heard for awhile," Ettie said.
Chapter 15
Elsa-May, Ettie, and Ava, went to the market to have lunch at one of the little cafés inside the farmers market.
“Why don’t we visit Doris?” Ava asked before she finished the last bite of her egg and lettuce sandwich.
Ettie agreed, “Jah! She seems to know a lot. And she doesn’t live too far from here.”
“Let’s not waste any time,” Ava said.
“We’ll take her a pie,” Ettie said.
Elsa-May dabbed at the corners of her mouth with a paper napkin. "We must come here again. That was lovely."
Ava and Elsa-May waited while Ettie went to get Doris a pie. She never liked to go to anyone’s house empty-handed.
* * *
"It's so nice to see you here. I get so few visitors these days. It’s not like it was years ago,” Doris said when she opened her door to see the three of them standing there.
“We brought you a pie,” Ettie said. “It’s a blueberry pie.”
“Wunderbaar.” Doris took the pie from Ettie and opened the door fully. “While I put the pot on, show Ava the way to the living room. She hasn’t been here before.”
When Doris joined them on the couch, Ettie spoke first, bringing up the reason they were there. "We have some questions to ask you."
"Of course, go right head. Is it about Thomas?"
“Jah. Do you know how well Thomas and his bruder, Roy, got along?"
"They had a big falling out months ago. No one is supposed to know this, but Roy is working—was working—for an Englischer and then he bought the company. He was supposed to be going halves with Thomas, so they would be fifty-fifty owners of the business, and then all of a sudden Thomas found the papers were signed and Roy had cut him right out of it."
"That's terrible," Ava said.
Ettie clicked her tongue. "I can imagine that Thomas would've been very upset about that."
"He was. That's when he started his own business."
Elsa-May leaned forward. "In opposition to him—his brother?"
"He had no choice but to work for himself. He didn't want to, but he found it hard to get employment and now he couldn't go into business with his bruder. It wasn't as though he was trying to outdo his brother because the business Roy bought was quite large and successful. I once heard Thomas say he didn't know where Roy got all his money from. You see, since Roy bought the business, it went downhill, but Roy still seemed to have a lot of money. That’s one thing I thought odd."
Ettie gave Elsa-May a side-long glance. Elsa-May sat upright slightly, still leaning forward, and spoke in a quiet voice, "That day at the market, the last day Thomas was alive, he had an argument with Austin."
Doris nodded. "Yes, that's right."
"Do you know if Roy drove Thomas to the market?"
"That would be very unlikely. As far as I knew, they still weren’t talking to one another."
"That's strange," Ava said.
"What do you mean?" Doris asked.
Ettie said, "The thing is, Doris, tha
t Roy says he drove his bruder to the market that day."
"What exactly did he say?" Doris squinted.
"We heard this: Thomas was visiting with Roy at his haus and then Roy’s wife, Olive, wanted some meat so Roy said he would go to the market and Thomas said he would go with him. Roy drove Thomas home after the market and he said Thomas wanted to tell him something that had been bothering him."
Elsa-May continued with the story, "And so, Roy dropped Thomas at their parents’ house while Roy took the meat back to Olive to cook for dinner, then Roy went back to hear what was troubling Thomas. And that's when he found Thomas in the barn."
On hearing the story back from Elsa-May’s mouth, the whole thing seemed implausible to Ettie.
"Perhaps the brothers were trying to sort out their differences," Ava suggested. “You know the familye better than we do, Doris; do you think that’s what happened?”
Doris shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know. I had heard that Roy found Thomas in the barn. But I had no idea that they were now speaking to one another. Now, how about a cup of hot tea and some of that pie?" Doris asked.
Chapter 16
“Do you have something to tell me?” Detective Kelly asked the next day when Ettie and Elsa-May sat before him in his office.
“We found out that Roy, Thomas’ brother, owns Spreed Roofing and Thomas had just outbid him on a job. A very lucrative job from what we found out.”
Detective Kelly put his head to one side. “So, you think that Roy might have killed his own brother?”
Ettie gulped when she remembered they had agreed not to mention that to the detective and that was also why she could feel Elsa-May glaring at her. Ettie scratched her chin and looked over at Elsa-May, hoping she’d say something to get her out of the hole she'd dug.
“We were wondering if you’d found out anything about the girl who was stalking Thomas,” Elsa-May said.
“She seems to have vanished. We ran her through the system and found she has an arrest record as long as my arm.”
“Drugs?” Ettie asked.
“Drugs and petty theft. We found out Spreed was dead, but we didn’t know that Roy owned his firm. According to our records, the firm is now owned by…” he picked up a sheet of paper lying on his desk. “A company known as ‘Blue Fish.’”
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