“Okay. I'll do it. But if I forget something you jump right on in, okay?”
Ettie nodded and Elsa-May walked through the door first. Kelly was talking to one of the officers on duty at the front desk and he looked up, surprised to see them. “Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Lutz, what a nice surprise.” His eyes crinkled at the corners indicating he was pleased to see them. And then his lips turned down slightly. “Is this a social visit?”
“We have something we'd like to discuss with you if we might,” Elsa-May said.
“Certainly, come through to my office.”
They followed Kelly down the long corridor that led to his office. He sat down behind his large desk, which was surprisingly free from the usual stacks of folders and paperwork. He clasped his hands on the desk, interlocking his fingers.
“Is it a slow time of year for you?” Ettie’s eyebrows rose.
“It has been surprisingly quiet, and that’s given us a chance to take another look at cold cases.”
“That's fortunate because we've come here to talk to you about somebody who went missing around forty years ago.”
His eyes opened wide. “Did you say forty?”
“Yes.”
“Has he shown up?”
“No. He hasn't,” Elsa-May chipped in, “That's the problem, you see.”
“He’s Amish?”
“Yes.”
He opened his drawer and took out a yellow writing pad and clicked the end of the pen that he drew out of his pocket. “You better start at the beginning.”
Elsa-May told him the whole story, and Kelly scribbled notes. “And that's everything we know.”
Kelly looked at the two ladies and then read through the notes he’d penned. “He had no enemies that you know of?”
“Not as such, but there was that man who was harassing him, and Nell thought it was about the money he borrowed to buy Rose Cottage. Then we only just found out that he might have loaned people money, but we don’t know who. You see, Nell's brother-in-law Simon said Jedidiah was wealthy and hadn’t needed to borrow. He had so much money he was able to loan money to other people.”
Elsa-May said, “And we know it can't have been a private lender who came to harass him because he had a lot of money and didn't borrow on the property. Abraham’s brother told us that.”
“Let me see now. You said Simon is Nell’s late husband’s brother?”
“Jah. That’s the one.” Ettie was pleased he was taking them seriously.
“Hmmm, we could easily find out if a loan was ever registered against that property.”
“You can do that?” Elsa-May asked.
“Yes. Now, scroll back a little. You said he loaned other people money?”
Ettie nodded and hoped he wouldn’t ask more.
“To whom did he loan money and how much was it?” He had his pen poised ready to take down the information.”
Elsa-May said, “That’s something we can’t tell you.”
“Only because we don’t know,” Ettie added.
“And why not?”
“Simon told us he loaned money to someone, or maybe more than one person, but he wouldn’t tell us the details.”
“Go back and try to find out.” Kelly gave a quick nod. “And why didn’t your friend report his disappearance?”
Ettie remembered that Nell's bossy older sister, Jennifer, wouldn’t allow her to go to the police. It seemed she wasn’t the only one who had a problem sister. “It was probably something she just didn't think about. We don't mix with outsiders, as you know, and even more so back then. We don’t normally go to the police over things, we go to our bishop.”
He clicked on the end of his pen a couple of times. “I'll do what I can, and I’ll also check with the hospitals. I might need the name of your bishop from that time, too.”
“Your help would be much appreciated,” Elsa-May said. “We'll have to think back to who was bishop at that time.”
They knew, but weren’t sure why it was relevant.
He placed the pen on the table on top of the writing pad. “It won't be easy. It was a long time ago. All the hospital records are now computerized. They'll have to go back through their paper archives. He was in good health?”
“He certainly seemed so. He was working on the house, as we told you, with Nell's brother. He also had a regular job working for someone outside the community.” Ettie pulled out the piece of paper from her sleeve and studied it making sure she'd told Kelly everything.
He leaned over. “What's that?”
“My list of facts. Yes, I think we've told you everything we know.”
“See what else you can find out, and I'll see what I can find out from my end. You need to find out who would've benefited from him being out of the way. Either financially or socially, or any other way.”
“There's no one that we can think of.” Elsa May blinked rapidly. “He disappeared two weeks before his wedding.”
“We're not sure if it was two weeks. It might've been one week,” Ettie said.
“It was a matter of days,” Elsa-May added.
Kelly waved a hand in the air. “My point is, did she ever marry after that?”
“Oh yes, she married Abraham Graber.”
“He’s only just died.” Elsa-May added, “That prompted her to find out what happened to her first love.”
He grimaced and looked down at his notes. “Tell me more about this Abraham character.”
Ettie looked at Elsa-May, but she just nodded, telling Ettie to tell the story. “He was a good man and a very quiet man. Abraham and Nell married several months after Jedidiah went missing.”
“It was over two years, Ettie, before they married.”
“Did he ever show Nell any interest before the man went missing?” the detective asked.
Elsa-May and Ettie looked at each other.
“I don't think so. Abraham and Jedidiah were good friends, weren’t they, Ettie?”
“They were.” Ettie kept quiet about Simon showing interest in Nell.
Kelly asked, “Abraham didn’t wait too long before he jumped into his friend’s place, did he?”
“I think two years is long enough, Detective. Nell tried hard to find Jedidiah. She must've written to every community in the country. No one had seen or heard anything from him.”
“He disappeared off the face of the earth,” Ettie added.
“There is always a trail,” Kelly said. “I’ll look him up on the computer now and see if I can find anything quickly. I’ll run his name through the system.”
“Thank you.” At last, they might find out something. Ettie said a silent prayer, hoping something would jump out at Kelly.
They waited while Kelly tapped away at the computer’s keys. “I can't find anything quickly. I’ll get one of the officers to comb through.”
“Thanks,” Elsa-May said.
“What do you suggest we do now in our search for some answers?” Ettie asked.
“I'll start working on it from my end and you ladies find out what you can. Get back to me a couple of days.” He stared at each of them until they nodded. “We’ll go through the information and hopefully, we’ll all have something to share.” A slight smile turned the corners of Kelly's lips upward.
Ettie was taken aback. He rarely smiled unless he had food in front of him. Then she jumped a little when her sister dug her in her arm.
“Come on, Ettie.” Her sister had just said goodbye to the detective and was standing up waiting for her to get up and join her.
Kelly stood. “Thank you, ladies, for coming in.”
Ettie pushed herself to her feet. Kelly seemed pleased he had something to do.
As they walked out of the police station, Elsa-May said, “Did you see him smile?”
“Jah, I couldn't believe it. I kept staring at him.”
Elsa-May carefully held onto the side railing as they walked down the front steps. “It is intriguing; it's a big mystery, what happened to him.”
“He's been missing for so long he almost has to be. Otherwise, Kelly was right about him leaving a trace, or leaving clues. All we have to do is find them.”
“Is that all?” Ettie said with a trace of sarcasm as she shook her head. “It’s going to be hard after forty years.”
“Let's go to that coffee shop up the road and we can sit down and figure out who we’re going to talk with next.”
That pleased Ettie. She’d secretly hoped Elsa-May would suggest it. All the way there, Ettie’s mouth watered thinking about the variety of cakes and pies on offer at the café. It had become one of her favorite places.
Chapter 6
Once they were at the café in front of the array of cakes, Ettie couldn’t make up her mind. “So many choices.”
“What do you feel like?”
“Something lemon and tangy. Do you think they’ll have something like that today?” Ettie leaned down to look at the cakes toward the back. There were so many varieties it was hard to find the one she wanted.
Elsa-May shuddered. “That’s the last thing I feel like. We’ll have to have one each instead of sharing. Don’t make me share today.”
Ettie chuckled when she saw Elsa-May’s look of desperation. “Okay, one each.”
“You sit, and I’ll find you a lemon cake or something tangy. It’ll be my treat today.”
“Really?” Normally Ettie paid, since she was the one with more money thanks to an inheritance from a friend. “Are you sure?”
“Jah.”
Ettie found a table near the back and sat down with her back to the wall. Normally, Elsa-May took that position, but today Ettie got to choose first.
While Elsa-May took her time in ordering, Ettie’s mind wandered back to Jedidiah. Was he still alive, and had he gotten cold feet about marrying, like Nell's bossy-older sister, Jennifer, had said? Or, would his body turn up somewhere, someday?
Elsa-May pulled out the chair in front of her, giving Ettie a smile. “I found you a lemon cake with thick frosting and lemon zest on top.”
Ettie rubbed her hands together. “That’s exactly what I feel like, denke.”
Elsa-May put her change back into her small hand-sewn fabric bag.
“Did you order hot tea?”
“Jah, of course. Do you have pen and paper?”
Ettie pulled the paper out of her sleeve. “I have paper.”
“No pen?”
Ettie shook her head. “No pocket for one.”
“I’ll see if we can borrow one.” Elsa-May headed back to the counter, and came back a few seconds later with a pen. She passed it to Ettie.
“Denke.” Ettie smoothed down the crinkled paper with the front of her arm. “There’s Titus, Nell’s brother. Nell said he was helping Jedidiah with the house. They must’ve been spending a lot of time with one another.”
Elsa-May shook her head.
“What’s wrong?” Ettie guessed Elsa-May wanted to take charge, in her usual way.
“You’re doing this all wrong. Let’s start at the beginning. We already talked with Simon. Write him down and then cross him out.”
That part didn’t make sense to Ettie. Was Elsa-May trying to make the list look longer? They both knew they’d already talked with Simon. For the sake of peace and because she had decided not to fret over the small things, Ettie wrote down Simon’s name and then crossed it out.
“Moses was a friend, wasn't he? A friend of Jedidiah?” Elsa-May asked.
“I can't remember who was friends with him back then. I think everyone just mixed in together with one another.”
“Write down Moses. We’ll need to speak with him. I’m sure they were in the same circle of friends.”
Ettie stared at the list. “Okay. And who else do we have?”
“We have Nell's younger brother, Titus, who was helping him at Rose cottage. Write that down.”
“We wrote him first, before you made me write down Simon and cross him out.”
The waitress arrived with a tray and unloaded their tea and cakes onto the table. Ettie’s face lit up when she saw the small cake with the white frosting and the lemon zest sprinkled atop. It didn’t matter that the piece was small, Ettie knew it would be full of flavor. Then her face fell when she saw Elsa-May’s triple-layer chocolate cake with cream and ice cream on the side. “Elsa-May! Just look at that.” She shook her head, worried about Elsa-May’s health.
Elsa-May pushed out her lips. “You got what you wanted and I got what I wanted.”
“That’s why you offered to pay.” Ettie refused to remind her for the fiftieth time she needed to cut back on rich food. At some point, her sister had to exert some self-control over her eating.
“Do you want some?” Elsa-May pushed the chocolate treat toward her.
“Nee denke. I’ll stick with my lemon delight.”
“Suit yourself.”
Ettie inhaled deeply. “This is what we have so far. Abraham’s brother, Simon. Then we have Titus, and Moses.”
“That's a start.”
“Not a very big one.” Ettie placed the list down. “Nell said someone had come looking for him. I wonder who that was. It wasn’t a man he’d borrowed money from like Nell thought.”
“Not according to Simon, anyway. Perhaps Titus or Moses might know more?” Elsa-May broke off a portion of cake and popped it into her mouth. She closed her eyes as she savored it. “Oh, Ettie. Why is it that food that’s bad for you always tastes so good?”
“You’ve got to train your brain to like different foods.” Ettie put her cake fork through the frosting and collected some of the cake along with it. When she placed it into her mouth it was an explosion of tart lemon and sweetness—a delightful combination. “Oh, you’ve got to try this.”
Elsa-May’s lip curled. “I don’t think it would go too well with the chocolate.”
“Hmm, probably not.” Ettie had a sip of hot tea. If there was a man angry with Jedidiah, he could’ve killed him and hidden the body. “Should we go to visit Titus after this?”
“I think we’ve had enough for one day, don’t you?”
Ettie didn’t want to put too much stress on her sister and they’d already been away from home for a good part of the day. “Okay, let’s go home and we’ll start again tomorrow. We’ll need to stop by the markets and pick up something for dinner. We’ll get some decent food after this indulgence.”
“All right, we’ll just pick up a few small things. Try not to buy things we already have.”
Ettie frowned. “I only did that once.”
Elsa-May stared at her and one eyebrow lifted just slightly.
“Okay, maybe I did it more than once.”
Elsa-May’s face finally broke into a smile. “We’ve both done it.”
The chocolate cake had definitely changed her sister’s mood for the better. Ettie took another bite of lemon cake and noticed Elsa-May was nearly finished already.
* * *
When they got to the markets, they saw Ava getting out of her buggy.
“Ava,” Elsa-May called out.
Ava looked over at them and waved.
They hurried over to her. “What are you doing shopping alone?”
“I always do. What are you two doing?”
“Shopping.”
“Finding out about Jedidiah,” Ettie said at the same time that Elsa-May had spoken.
“Jedidiah Shoneberger?”
“You know about him?” Ettie asked.
“I do. He went missing right before he was to be married to Nell Graber. Although, she wouldn’t have been a Graber back then. I don’t know what her last name was before.”
“It was King,” Elsa-May said. “Titus is her bruder, and he’s Titus King.”
“Ah that’s right. I should have made that connection.” As they continued into the markets, Ava asked, “What have you found out?
“Not much yet,” Elsa-May said.
“Nell asked
us to find out what happened to him.”
“Did you end up going to Abraham’s funeral?” Ava asked.
“Nee, we didn’t.”
“Nell came over to our haus the very next day and asked us to find out about Jedidiah.”
Ettie added, “Just quietly, she didn't feel like she could investigate the matter while Abraham was still alive. Her sister came there too, after Nell had been there for a while, and she was quite annoyed that Nell had asked us. She thinks Jedidiah just ran away because he couldn’t face marriage.” Ettie touched Ava’s arm. “Ach, you should’ve seen the look on Nell’s face when her sister said that. She was devastated.”
“Ettie! There’s no need to tell people something like that.” Elsa-May shook her head and glared at Ettie.
Ettie gulped and was sad that her sister’s chocolate-induced good mood hadn’t lasted longer.
“I can't wait to tell Jeremiah you're trying to find out what happened to Jedidiah. I heard about him, but I haven't heard about him lately.”
Elsa-May said, “I suppose you can tell Jeremiah we’re looking into it. It's a big mystery and nobody seems to know anything.”
“It's okay. I won't say anything to anyone but Jeremiah,” Ava said.
They stopped by a vegetable stall and Elsa-May said, “We need potatoes, Ettie.”
“I’ll bag some.”
Elsa-May turned to Ava. “As long as Jeremiah doesn’t say anything, it’ll be okay. I don't want it to be embarrassing for Nell and I don’t want her to get in trouble from Jennifer.”
“You don't need to say something like that to Ava because Ava won't say anything, and Jeremiah’s against any talk or gossip of any kind.” Ettie continued to fill the bag with medium sized potatoes.
Elsa-May nodded. “That’s true. He takes after our vadder.”
Ava leaned against the stand. “Can I help with finding him?”
“There’s not much to do so far, but we’ll let you know,” Ettie said.
“I’m just here to collect a few things; if you can wait I’ll drive you home.”
“Would you?” Elsa-May asked.
Before Ava could answer, Elsa-May turned to Ettie. “You get what we need and I’ll stay with Ava.”
“Okay.” Ettie continued to look over the vegetables to see what else they needed while Elsa-May walked off with Ava. They had plenty of greens from their small but productive vegetable garden. All they really needed were carrots and potatoes, and a small amount of meat.
Amish Mystery at Rose Cottage Page 4