Amish Barn Murders

by Samantha Price

  Ettie cleared her throat. “So, you’re saying that Blue Fish is Roy Strongberg’s company? According to the woman at…”

  Kelly leaned forward. “What woman?”

  Elsa-May took over. “Ettie and I went to William Spreed’s place of business simply to ask him a couple of questions.”

  Kelly shook his head and he propped his chin on his knuckles with his elbows on the desk. “What were you thinking? Were you going to ask him if he killed Thomas for outbidding him on a job?”

  “You knew?”

  “We didn’t know Blue Fish was Roy’s company—no. I’ve got someone looking into it now and we would’ve found that out today." Kelly continued, “I told both of you simply to keep your ears open and nothing more. I don’t want you to go snooping around. It could be dangerous.”

  “We didn’t know,” Ettie said because she couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  Kelly reached into a drawer and pulled out a small pill bottle. He shook one of the pills into his palm and tossed it into his mouth, following it by a mouthful of water. When he looked up to see Ettie and Elsa-May staring at him, he said, “Just a small Xanax.”

  Ettie and Elsa-May exchanged glances. They recognized that name, and knew what the medication was used for.

  “Okay,” Ettie said, nodding, not wanting to upset him further.

  “You really should try some deep breathing and perhaps a hot peppermint tea,” Elsa-May suggested to the detective.

  He stared at Elsa-May with his lips turned down at the corners.

  Ettie cleared her throat again. “So, Detective, where are you up to with the investigation? Do you now think Thomas was murdered?”

  “And what have you found out about the death of the young man—what was his name—Bart?” Elsa-May added.

  Kelly took a deep breath. “He was hit over the head with a piece of two-by-four. We found it in the corner of the barn. It had both Bart’s blood on it and Thomas.’ So we know Thomas didn't die accidentally. Bart was also stabbed.”

  Ettie gasped. “That’s terrible!”

  “And it was missed the first time by your team?” Elsa-May asked.

  Ettie and Kelly stared at Elsa-May.

  Ettie said, “Missed what? He just said that Bart was stabbed as well as hit over the head.”

  “Oh, stabbed, was he? That’s not nice. I didn’t hear that part. I was talking about the two-by-four that your team only just found in the corner of the barn, Detective.”

  “I don’t know that it was ‘missed.’ Maybe it wasn’t there after Thomas’ death. The killer could’ve taken it with him. Anyway, it looks like there are hundreds of bits and pieces of wood floating around in that barn. I’ve got the team still out there pulling the barn to pieces. Not literally, of course, but they’re combing the barn for evidence as we speak. That’s something we couldn’t do before because Thomas’ death wasn’t ruled as a murder.”

  “I see,” Elsa-May said.

  “Did the wood have any other DNA on it? From the killer perhaps—a third person?” Ettie asked.

  “No. There were no other significant amounts of DNA found on the wood in question. Otherwise, the conversation we’d be having right now would be quite different.”

  Chapter 17

  When Ettie and Elsa-May left the police station, Ettie insisted on visiting the Strongberg’s.

  “They would be feeling so awful. Imagine finding another person in their barn like they found their son. And imagine their shock at finding Thea in their barn.”

  “You’re right, Ettie. We should go and see how they’re coping with everything.”

  When Ettie and Elsa-May arrived at Wilma and Samuel’s house, they saw two white vans parked outside the barn with men in white suits going in and out of the barn door.

  “They’ve still got the evidence technicians here.”

  “They look like beekeepers with that get-up on.”

  Elsa-May chuckled.

  “What’s going on here?” the taxi driver asked as he pulled up close to the house. “Is this where that man was found killed?”

  “That’s right.” Ettie paid the driver, realizing that it must have been on the news. They never read the news and had no radio or television. They only read the Amish newspapers to keep up with local Amish events, mostly The Bulletin.

  “I wonder if they’ve found anything yet,” Elsa-May said, looking toward the barn.

  “They mightn’t know until they take things back for processing.”

  The front door of the Strongberg house was flung open before they’d even knocked.

  “Come in. It’s nice to see a friendly face,” Wilma said.

  Ettie stepped inside, directly behind Elsa-May.

  Elsa-May spoke first. “We heard what happened and we came to see how you are.”

  “I’m shocked; that’s how I am. Let’s sit on the couch.”

  “We heard that Samuel found someone dead in the barn,” Ettie said once she'd sat down.

  “Jah, it was dreadful. He was shocked and didn’t know what was going on.”

  “Did he see anyone else beside Thea and her Englischer friend?”

  “Nee and there must’ve been someone else because I saw lights in the barn earlier, and when the police came after we called them, there was nothing in the barn that would’ve created the light. There was no lamp, no light of any kind, not even a flashlight.”

  “That is odd.”

  “While we were waiting for the police, the young man told Samuel that he didn’t turn his flashlight on at all, and Thea confirmed that. Now I wish that Samuel never called the police because they seem to think that Thea and her friend killed that man.”

  “Jah, they do,” Elsa-May commented.

  “I don’t know what they were doing in the barn. They didn’t say. Well, they didn’t say anything that made sense.”

  “When did the lights start in the barn?”

  “There were lights on in the barn for weeks before Thomas died. I kept telling Samuel I saw lights, but he didn’t get out of bed to look. Samuel’s like that at night. He’s just so tired by the time he gets to bed. I have a nap in the afternoon, so I don’t sleep as solidly as he does.”

  “What did the lights look like?”

  “Like there was someone looking around inside the barn.”

  “A flashlight?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Jah, a flashlight. Not a lantern, more like a flashlight. Now I know I was right. There must have been people or a person looking around the barn. What do you suppose they were looking for?”

  “I couldn’t think what it might be,” said Ettie.

  “On a different subject, Wilma, did you ever meet any of Thomas’ Englischer friends from when he was on rumspringa?”

  “Do you think it might have been one of them?”

  Elsa-May scrunched her shoulders up to her ears. “I don’t know.”

  “Nee, I didn’t meet any of them. There was a girl who came here looking for him once.”

  “What was her name?”

  “She didn’t give me her name and neither did I think to ask. I didn’t like the look of her, so I didn’t ask her to stay and wait for him to return. I didn’t know where Thomas was that day and that’s what I told her.”

  “Was that when he first came back from rumspringa?”

  “Jah, it was, because I remember thinking I hope he hadn’t been involved with that girl. There seemed to be something wrong with her. She was affected in some way.”

  Ettie knew that Wilma most likely detected that the girl might have been affected by drugs.

  “What did she look like?”

  “She was small and thin with dark long hair. It looked like she’d drawn on her eyebrows with a felt-tipped pen and her hair was so dark it was almost black and it was thin and greasy looking. She looked like she needed a good bath and I’m not saying that to be nasty. I mean she really looked unclean.”

  “Did she say anything else, like why she wanted to find T
homas?”

  “Nothing. Now, I must get you some tea. I won’t be long.”

  Once Wilma was out of the room, Ettie leaned over and whispered to Elsa-May, “When she comes back, ask if Roy and Thomas ever had an argument. Find out if they were friendly right before Thomas died.”

  Elsa-May nodded. “I’ll try to work it into the conversation.”

  “Good. It would be a sensitive subject if they weren’t getting along.”

  “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”

  Wilma came back with a tray of tea and cookies. When she'd poured their tea, she offered them the plate of cookies. After each lady had taken one, Wilma sat down.

  Elsa-May placed her cookie on the saucer and had a small sip of tea and then placed her cup back down on the saucer. “Wilma, how was it for you when Roy and Thomas had that big argument?”

  Ettie froze in her chair and didn’t know where to look. Didn’t Elsa-May just say that she knew what she was doing?

  “What do you mean?” Wilma asked.

  Elsa-May frowned. “When Thomas and Roy were going to buy that business and then Roy cut Thomas out, prompting Thomas to open his own firm?”

  “You don’t know what you’re saying, Elsa-May. It wasn’t like that at all.”

  Elsa-May tipped her head on the side as though she were confused. “Nee?”

  “Nee!”

  “Then what was it like?”

  “Thomas changed his mind about going halves in that business, and then by the time he changed it back, the deal had already been done. Because Roy was in business with others, he could do nothing about it.”

  “I see, but what would that matter? Couldn’t Thomas have still bought a share of the business? That would have saved their big falling out.”

  “They didn’t have a falling out. What are you implying, Elsa-May?”

  “Nothing. Nothing at all. I’m just wondering how it was that they weren’t getting along and on the day he died, they were doing things together as though they were.”

  “Well, they were still talking to each other. They weren't going to let business come between them. ”

  Ettie thought it time to intervene. “It’s hard to ask you things, Wilma. Forgive us. We just heard some things and we don’t know if they were true. And now Thea is involved with being found in the barn, and…”

  “There are always rumors and talk going around and most of these things aren’t true. Go on, tell me what you heard, Ettie. I’m guessing it was about Thomas and Roy being enemies and having some kind of feud? Is that what you heard?”

  Elsa-May took over again, “That’s about it. If you really want to know, this is what we heard. They had an agreement to buy the business when William Spreed died. Roy bought it and cut Thomas out of the deal. Thomas opened a firm on his own and recently won a large contract over Roy.”

  “The last part was true. Thomas was quite pleased with himself for winning that contract. Not in a prideful way, but he was delighted that his workers would have continual work for quite some time. They were soon to run out of work, you see.”

  “What’s happening with the men Thomas had working for him?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Roy’s come to the rescue there. He’s been good enough to incorporate Thomas’ business into his own and that means the workers will benefit. That’s what Thomas would’ve wanted.”

  “That’s good of Roy,” Ettie said.

  “Jah, and I guess Roy’s got that big contract now, too?”

  “I’d imagine so. He never discusses business with me. I just hear bits and pieces when he’s telling his vadder things.”

  * * *

  Ettie and Elsa-May had asked one of the forensic team near the barn to call a taxi from their mobile.

  On the way down the drive to wait for it, Elsa-May dug her sister in the ribs. “What did you think of that, Ettie?”

  “Roy has profited from Thomas’ death. That’s what I know, never mind about what I think.”

  “Jah, but that doesn’t make him guilty.”

  “Nee, it doesn’t. It gives him a reason to want his brother out of the picture, though.”

  “I wonder how much the roofing contract was worth?”

  “I don’t know. It must be worth quite a bit. We already know that Roy is extremely competitive because he cut his brother out of the partnership.”

  “What are you thinking, Ettie?”

  “I wonder how Spreed died.”

  “Now you’re letting your imagination run away with you.”

  “I can’t help it. This is just the way I think. Maybe we should find out if Kelly knows.”

  “I think you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

  Chapter 18

  "Let’s go over what we have so far, Ettie.” Now at home, Elsa-May leaned down and picked up Snowy, who was pawing at her leg. She popped him in her lap and then he was happy.

  “Okay. What do we know?” Ettie stared blankly at her sister.

  “You go first.”

  “Well, we know that Thomas didn’t get along with Roy. The woman who was stalking Thomas has disappeared, and then we’ve got the beekeeper, Austin, who was found with a second dead body in the barn—along with Thea. Then—what else?”

  Elsa-May continued, “Then we have the dead man, Bart, who was involved with drugs.”

  “What was Bart doing in the barn?”

  “If we find out why, that will lead us to who.”

  “That makes sense. How do we find out why?”

  Elsa-May stroked Snowy. “It must’ve been something to do with drugs because that seemed to be the connection between Bart and Thomas when they knew each other.”

  “Back when Bart was arrested, he told the police Thomas had nothing to do with anything. It’s back to the old theory that there might be something hidden in the barn. And, what’s more, I think that’s what Thea and Austin were doing in the barn. They’d come to the same conclusion.”

  “Jah, but with all the police combing the barn, surely they would’ve found something by now.”

  “What if Bart had found it and was then killed when he had it in his hands and they took it from him?”

  “Good point, Ettie. He could’ve gone there with someone else to retrieve the drugs, and then was double-crossed.”

  “And when Thea went there with Austin, they stumbled over the body.”

  “I think Thea knows something and that’s why she was in the barn. Let’s go to the station and see if we can speak with her.”

  “I don’t think they’ll let us.”

  “We can try.”

  “I’m right behind you.”

  Thea sat in her cell crying. She was wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, since her other clothes had blood on them from the man Austin and she had tripped over in the dark barn. The police had kept those clothes as evidence. Her parents had come, hoping to see her, but she wasn’t allowed visitors until she went before the judge for her bail hearing.

  She sat wondering what to do now that Thomas was dead. He’d shared some information with her, and now that he was dead... would it be all right to tell?

  On hearing a door of the outer cellblock opening, she stood up to see that it was the detective who’d come to the house days ago to talk to her about Thomas.

  “Hello, Thea,” he said between the bars when he stood in front of her.

  “Hello. I don’t recall your name, sorry.”

  “It’s Detective Kelly.”

  She wiped her eyes. She was embarrassed because she’d been crying. “Have you come to let me out?”

  “No.”

  “But I didn’t do anything.”

  “Well, why don’t you tell me what you were doing in the barn?”

  She’d had different police asking her questions, but not the detective. “I’ll talk to Ettie.”

  “Ettie Smith?”

  “Yes.”

  “I might be able to arrange that, if I’m in the room as well, and we’ll have to record the conv
ersation.”

  Thea swallowed hard. “I don’t know.”

  “You’re facing life in prison if you’re found guilty.”

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  “Did you know the deceased—Bart Crittenden? Or know of him?”

  “I’ll talk to Ettie.”

  Kelly stepped back. “I’ll send a car out to collect her.” He stepped in closer and stared in her face. “You wouldn’t want to withhold any information. Anything you might know could be vital even if you think it’s of no importance.”

  The detective’s eyes were wide and he looked a little crazy, which made Thea a little fearful. She felt safe around Ettie.

  Kelly stormed out and now she was alone again. She was in the end cell of a row of six prison holding-cells. One thing she knew was that she didn’t want to go to a real prison. It was bad enough being locked in a small cell, but she didn’t know how she would handle being locked away with hardened criminals who’d committed horrendous crimes. She sat down on the bed which was just a narrow bench covered by a mattress one inch thick. Pulling her knees to her chest, she went back to counting the rough bricks on the wall since there was nothing else to do. She'd already prayed as much as she could.

  Chapter 19

  Ettie and Elsa-May stood in front of the sergeant at the front desk.

  “That was fast. Simkiss only left minutes ago.” The gruff sergeant stared at them.

  Ettie frowned at him, not knowing what he was talking about. “We’re here to see…”

  “You can head back to his office. I’ll let him know you’re here already.”

  The two sisters made their way down the corridor to Kelly’s office.

  “He must have broken some speeding record to get you here so fast,” Kelly said, jumping up from his chair when they appeared in his office doorway. “This way.”

  Kelly pushed past them. Elsa-May and Ettie looked at each other, shrugged, and then followed.