“Dollars?” Ettie asked.
When Kelly nodded, Elsa-May gasped, and asked, “Do you think that's why she killed him?”
Ettie glared at her sister. “She said it was self-defence.”
“Maybe and maybe not.” Kelly continued, “Her story does sound less convincing now that we’ve found out about the substantial gains that were to be had from his death. It seems she was the sole beneficiary and nothing was mentioned about the son.”
“What about Greville's younger brother?”
“We’ve talked to him. He distanced himself from his family some time back and wants nothing to do with any of them. And he had plenty of proof that he wasn't in this area at the time of the murder.”
“Stacey said they had nothing else, but the house. Didn’t she, Elsa-May?”
“That’s right. She said they had a little savings and only the house.”
Kelly shook his head. “Well, she was named as the sole beneficiary of the shares and the life insurance.”
Ettie and Elsa-May looked at one another. “Where is Stacey now?” Ettie asked.
“She’s confessed, been charged and she goes before a judge this morning and a determination will be made regarding bail.”
“This morning?”
“That's right. Now, you say this fellow parked his car down the road?”
Ettie nodded.
He jumped to his feet. “Can you show me exactly where?”
“We can.”
He pulled a phone out of his pocket. “I'll just make a call and get the team back here. Then you can show me where the car was. Hopefully, there are tire marks.”
Once Ettie and Elsa-May showed him where the car had been, they were pleased Kelly found tracks. Now they had evidence to prove they weren’t making it up. He took photos with the camera on his iPhone in the interim. “I’ll wait here until the team arrives, so they can work this area. Have you noticed another car here this morning?”
“No. No other car has been there,” Ettie said. “I had a look out here while I was waiting for the toast to finish browning.”
“Good, very good. Now, let me reiterate how important it is that you not put yourselves in danger like you did last night. Someone has been killed. Just be mindful of that.”
“We’ll be careful,” Ettie said. “So, you don’t think Stacey did it?”
He ignored her question. “Please tell me you haven’t been back near the Charmers’ house last night or this morning?”
“No, we haven't. We only got to the fence line last night and that was all.”
He shook his head. “Please promise me you'll never do anything like that again. It was very silly. Risky, I should have said.”
Elsa-May shook her head. “We don't promise anything. We just say we won’t do it and that’s enough.”
“And we can't tell you we won’t when there’s a chance we might,” Ettie added.
Elsa-May nodded in agreement with her sister and Detective Kelly grunted his disapproval.
“So, Detective Kelly, do you still think Stacey did it?” Elsa-May repeated her sister’s unanswered question.
“My mind is open to all possibilities for the moment.” He scratched the back of his neck and frowned. “I would like to know who that person was last night and why he was there in the house.”
“I think it was the son,” Elsa-May said. “It must’ve been. He might’ve wanted a keepsake from his father.”
Kelly nodded. “That's very possible. Hopefully, we can find that out from the tire tracks. I’ll pay him a visit this afternoon and see what he has to say. No point jumping to conclusions. We have to deal in the facts.”
“I wasn’t suggesting otherwise,” Elsa-May said.
It was half an hour later before two white vans pulled up at the house and Detective Kelly set three evidence technicians to working on the tire tracks and then he sent more technicians into the house.
Ettie and Elsa-May watched from their window. “Ettie, you shouldn’t have said I made you go with me last night.”
Ettie knew that remark would’ve gotten under her sister’s skin. “It doesn’t matter.” When her sister wasn’t satisfied with that, she knew she was in trouble. “All right, I shouldn’t have said it because you didn’t force me to go with you.”
“No, I didn’t.”
She turned slightly to face Elsa-May. “I was afraid to let you go alone. Do you want me to set things straight with Kelly about that?”
“He’ll think we’re mad.”
“He already does, I’m sure.”
The sisters laughed.
After some time had passed, Kelly walked back to the ladies who were now at their front gate. “We were lucky it didn’t rain last night and they parked in a good amount of dirt.”
“Very good,” Elsa-May said.
“And now they’re taking fingerprints in the house. You didn't see if he was wearing gloves by chance, did you?”
“No, we didn't. I mean, I didn't. Did you notice that, Ettie?”
“I was too scared. I just saw a male running past and then he got into the car, turned it around and drove away. He was wearing a pullover, a jacket with a big loose hood on it. You know the ones?”
“I do. Anything else you remember?” asked Kelly.
Both ladies shook their heads.
“If it wasn’t the son, it could’ve been someone who worked at the restaurant. The restaurant manager never got along with Greville. The one who lost his job, well, he was demoted when Greville was employed,” Elsa-May said. “There’s a word for employing relatives, but it escapes me at the moment.”
“Nepotism,” Kelly said. “It could have been a number of people. It might have been a criminal who knew the house was vacant. He could have no links to Charmers’ death at all if he was an opportunist and read about it in the papers.”
Elsa-May shrugged her shoulders. “Why rob a place that had already been robbed?”
“You don’t read the papers, do you?”
Shaking her head, Elsa-May said, “No, not your papers. Only the Amish newspapers.”
“I read newspapers and magazines when I’m waiting for Elsa-May at the doctor’s.”
Elsa-May frowned at her. “He’s talking about something being in the paper in regard to the murder, Ettie.”
“I know.”
Kelly frowned and then said, “In the paper, it said nothing was taken. That might have led someone to believe there was actually something to take, but it wasn’t found.”
“Ah, I see,” Ettie said.
“Hopefully whoever it was left behind a clue,” Kelly said.
“We need to find out more about the sister. That’s what I think,” Ettie said.
Elsa-May nodded. “Yes. Why would Greville tell people that he was working for his cousin when it was really his sister-in-law?”
Ettie agreed, “It doesn't make sense.”
Kelly raised up both hands. “Now let’s call a halt to things right now. If you ladies keep putting yourselves in danger, sooner or later, you’re going to find yourselves in a whole heap of trouble.”
Ettie and Elsa-May exchanged glances. “We’re in too deep to stop now,” Ettie said.
Elsa-May hunched her shoulders. “No one would kill us.”
“They might. Keeping out of jail is strong motivation and if they’ve killed once they won’t need too much encouragement to do it again. This is my job and that’s why I do what I do. I’m committed, but you two have nothing to gain by getting involved.”
“We were asked to by Stacey in the first place,” Ettie said.
“So what?” Kelly said.
Ettie nibbled on the end of a fingernail. She didn’t fancy being murdered just because she was in the way of something. “If Stacey killed him and she was too scared to admit it straight up, that means there was no intruder, so who was that person in the house last night?”
Kelly smoothed a hand over his thinning hair. “I’m hoping that will be reveale
d if we find a fingerprint or two. All this talk is going around in circles and I’m a very busy man.” Kelly stood. “Keep me informed if you see or hear of anything suspicious.”
“Thanks for stopping by.” Ettie rose to her feet.
When they had showed Kelly out, Elsa-May let Snowy back into the house. “I’ll walk Snowy later. I’ll wait until everyone leaves from next door.”
Ettie looked out the window as she sat down on the chair pushed next to it. “I’ll let you know when they go.”
Chapter 16
In the middle of the afternoon, after Snowy’s and Elsa-May’s walk, Ettie saw a taxi pull into the driveway next door. “She’s back, Elsa-May.”
“Let’s go see her.”
“Okay.”
Together, they walked over and saw Stacey pulling two bags of groceries out of her car.
“How did everything go, Stacey?” Elsa-May asked.
“They charged me and I got bail. My sister took me back to her place to freshen up and she also put up the bail money. That was good of her.” Stacey sighed. “It was fifty thousand dollars’ worth. I mean, where would I go? I don’t know why they made the bail amount so high. I’m not about to leave the country and I even confessed. My lawyer thought that was a high amount—don’t you?”
Ettie gasped. “That is a lot of money.”
“Just a second. I have to put the groceries in the house and pay the driver.”
Ettie and Elsa-May helped her by pulling out grocery bags from the trunk. After Stacey paid the driver and he drove away, she swivelled around to face them. Her gaze dropped to the bags in their hands. “Just drop them by the door.”
“We’ll take them inside for you.”
“No. It’s okay. I’ll do it.”
Elsa-May and Ettie did as she asked and Ettie counted eight bags of groceries. “You’ve got a lawyer now?” Ettie asked.
“Yes. I’m using the one my sister found. She had to take out some kind of a loan to pay the bond. I’ll have to pay her back the interest and what not, but you have to do what you have to do.”
“Would you like to come over for lunch? Elsa-May’s just made pumpkin soup and I’ve baked bread just now.”
“The pumpkin came fresh out of our garden this very morning.”
“That’s kind of you, but no thank you. I just want to stay home and pretend to be a normal woman for one day.” She sighed and her mouth turned down at the corners.
“Will you be all right going back into the house?”
“It’s my home. Of course, I’ll be all right. There’s nothing to be scared of in there. The danger has passed, I’m sure of it. I don’t think that man will come back.”
Ettie and Elsa-May looked at one another. “So, there was a man who attacked Greville?”
Stacey shook her head as laughter escaped her lips. “That’s right. I forgot I needn’t carry on with all the lies to protect myself. There was no one else there that night.”
It didn’t seem like Kelly had told her about the man in her house last night. “Didn’t Kelly tell you that there was someone in your h …”
“It’s all right, Ettie. Your detective friend told me someone was in the house flashing a light around. I'm pretty sure I know who it was. I can’t tell you, but he’s no one to worry about.”
Elsa-May stepped forward and put a hand lightly on Stacey’s shoulder. “If you need anything, just let us know.”
“I’m fine.” She gave them a little smile, and then turned toward her front door. When Stacey stepped on her door mat, she swung around. “Oh, you might be able to help me.”
“What is it?” Ettie took a step forward thinking she’d changed her mind about them helping her inside with the groceries.
“Do you know of a good lawyer?”
“Um, I thought you said you had one?”
“I do, but I could change my mind. I don’t know how good he is and I need a good one, an excellent one.”
“We used to know one didn’t we, Elsa-May? The one who wore the baseball cap. I can’t remember his name, but we could find out.”
“Yes, he was very good. Young, but good.”
Stacey scowled. “Oh no. I couldn’t use someone who wears a baseball cap.”
“He didn’t wear it in court,” Elsa-May said. “He wore a nice suit and looked very respectable.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll find my own.” She unlocked her door. “Bye, ladies,” she called out over her shoulder as she picked up two bags of groceries.
“Bye,” the sisters said in unison.
Ettie and Elsa-May walked back to their house. “She seemed a little hostile,” Ettie whispered.
“She’s been through a lot with having to stay in jail and then going to court.”
“There’s worse to come for her,” Ettie said. “There’ll be a trial and everything, won’t there?”
“I guess so, but she has confessed, so there might not be a trial as such.” Elsa-May shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not certain about these things. She could get sentenced without a trial.”
“She’s cross with us over something. She wouldn’t let us help her and she didn’t want any of our pumpkin soup.”
Elsa-May took a few more steps before she said, “She’s just tired, Ettie, from spending the night locked up.”
Ettie sighed. “Maybe.”
Chapter 17
Later, over their second bowl of soup, the sisters’ conversation once again turned to Greville’s murder and Stacey. “Who’s she protecting, Ettie?”
“I was just wondering the same thing. The estranged son, who killed his father in a rage, or the sister-in-law?”
“Greville’s estranged sister-in-law, also his boss,” Ettie corrected her sister.
“Formerly estranged but not anymore, it seems. Or could it be someone from his work?”
“Then we’re in agreement she didn’t do it?” Ettie asked.
“Jah. I don’t think she did. Put it this way, I’m not convinced she did it.”
“Me either. When she told us she killed him, she asked us to stop investigating, but why would we keep investigating once we learned she confessed? That was the part that didn’t make sense to me.”
Elsa-May’s mouth opened wide. “Nee, it didn’t. I hadn’t noticed that until you mentioned it.”
“Some things we don’t know are, why had they disowned the son? And, also why was Stacey reluctant to get in touch with her sister?”
“She said they haven’t always gotten along, so it could be just that. You know how some sisters are?”
Ettie slowly nodded. “Just like you and me.”
Elsa-May fastened her blue eyes onto Ettie’s dark ones. “What do you mean?”
“We don’t always get along.” Ettie giggled recalling their frequent disagreements.
“Jah, we do.”
Ettie raised her eyebrows, surprised at Elsa-May. “Is that what you think?”
“We get along great. Otherwise, how could we have lived together for so long?”
“We do get along quite well most of the time,” Ettie agreed and then gave another little giggle. “Anyway, that aside. Let’s find out why the son was …”
“Forgotten?”
“Let’s call it estranged. Disowned sounds awful.”
Elsa-May stared at Ettie. “I didn’t say disowned.”
“I know you didn’t. I was thinking it and was just about to say disowned and then changed my mind to say estranged.”
“Oh, then why didn’t you say so?”
Ettie’s face screwed up. “I didn’t think I’d need to.”
“Okay, forget it.” Elsa-May shook her head. “Where do we start from now?”
“Why don’t we visit Evelyn, the sister?”
“But, Ettie, it wasn’t a female who ran past us it was a male.”
“Just because someone was in the house where someone was killed doesn’t mean he was the murderer. And if it was Evelyn who killed Greville, she’s not going to kil
l us in broad daylight. There’s no danger. If she killed Greville, she had some reason of her own and it had probably been brewing for years.”
Slowly, Elsa-May nodded. “When should we visit her?”
“I’d rather do it tomorrow, but we don’t want to visit her and run into Stacey. We should see her right now because I don’t think Stacey’s going anywhere today.”
“Nee, it looked to me like she was staying there all day. Do you have the sister’s address?”
“Stacey gave it to us the other day.”
“Grab it and let’s go. I want to be home before dark. While we’re there, we must learn all we can about Logan.”
Elsa-May and Ettie stayed in the taxi when it stopped. “Is this it?” Ettie asked the driver.
From the front seat, a gruff voice replied, “This is the address you gave me.”
Elsa-May tapped Ettie. “Let’s go, Ettie.”
Once Ettie paid the driver, she asked him, “Could you wait a few minutes for us?”
“I could, but I’ll have to keep the meter running.”
Ettie looked up at Elsa-May. “Go on.”
“Yes, please wait. We might only be ten minutes.”
“Okay. It’s your money.”
“Could you wait up the street a little?”
He frowned. “All right.”
Ettie and Elsa-May got out of the car and looked at the small house again. “I was expecting something a little grander since she owns lots of businesses. I thought she’d be wealthy.”
“She might be.”
Ettie looked at the peeling paint above the doorway. “It doesn’t look like it.”
“Shh, she’ll hear you.”
The two sisters walked through the front gate and knocked on the dark green front door. Ettie wondered if this might be the old family home where Stacey and Evelyn had grown up.
The door opened and Evelyn stood there in a dressing gown. “Oh, it’s you two. I wasn’t expecting visitors. I was having a little lie down.”
“We’re sorry to disturb you—”
Elsa-May interrupted Ettie, “We’re worried about Stacey.”
“That makes three of us.” She stepped aside to allow them through. “Come in. Is Stacey all right?”
Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries Box Set 6 Page 34