Amish Mystery at Rose Cottage

by Samantha Price

  “That’s nice to know. I couldn’t help reading it too. Who’s Jedidiah?” Stacey asked.

  Elsa-May said, “A friend of ours who went missing many years ago.”

  “I hope you find him.”

  “Thank you.” Elsa-May was doing all the talking because Ettie was in shock at Stacey opening her mail. “What did this woman look like?”

  “She was small and she looked … I’d say, middle-aged. She left her carriage down the road and came the rest of the way on foot.”

  “It’s a buggy,” Elsa-May corrected. “Did you notice if she had light hair or dark hair?”

  “I couldn’t tell. I’m sorry. She was too far away, and she was wearing a bonnet like yours. I was gardening and I didn’t want to look as though I was staring at her. I don’t think she even knew I was there. She popped the thing in your mailbox, looked up at your house and then hurried back to her buggy.”

  “What color was the horse?” Elsa-May didn't even start to explain about prayer kapps.

  She shrugged. “Brown? I think. I’m not really sure. It just looked like any other buggy horse. I’m sorry. If I’d known it was so important I would’ve taken more notice.”

  “Thank you. We appreciate all you’ve told us,” Ettie said, finally finding her voice.

  “I better get back to cooking Greville’s dinner. He demands it to be on time, or there’s no telling what he’ll do.” She shook her head and then turned from them.

  Elsa-May stood watching Stacey head back to her house and then, once she was halfway home, Elsa-May caught up to Ettie. “What do you think, Ettie?”

  Ettie pushed the front door open. “I think we need to find the person who wrote this note. They’d know a lot more than this. I mean, how did they find this out?” Ettie looked the note over carefully turning it this way and that. “It’s just a plain piece of paper written on with ordinary black ink.”

  After she sat down on her usual chair, Elsa-May pulled out the white baby shawl she was halfway through knitting. “It was a woman. All we need to do is—”

  They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Ettie opened it to see Stacey standing there with another note. “I’m sorry, I forgot to give you all of it. That part fell out on my floor.”

  Ettie took it from her and saw the words. “Meet me in the park behind the library at two in the afternoon on Friday.” She looked up at Stacey. “Thank you. This is very important.”

  “I’m glad I rescued it for you because it could’ve blown away. I hope it all works out for you and your friend.”

  “Thank you, so do I.” When Ettie closed the door, she looked over at Elsa-May, who was still knitting while looking at her over the top of her knitting glasses. That always amazed Ettie, as she couldn't knit well enough to lift her eyes from her needles.

  “What is it, Ettie?”

  “It’s the rest of my mail. It says to meet her at the park behind the library at two on Friday.”

  “Him or her?”

  “A woman delivered it. It’ll be a woman we’re meeting. You say the strangest things sometimes. Why would you think we’d be meeting a man? Stacey saw a woman.”

  “There’s no name, that’s all I was thinking.”

  “I'm not happy with Stacey thinking she can open our mail. I hope she doesn’t make a habit of it. I just didn’t know what to say to her.”

  “I don't think it's something that will happen all the time. As she said, she just happened to look up and see her putting something in our mailbox and it was sticking out far enough it might fall to the ground.” Elsa-May came to the end of the row, turned the knitting around and started a new row.

  “Any good neighbor would have popped it back in the letter box properly. Not done what she did. She took it back to her place and read it. What if she hadn't brought it back to us? Maybe we should get a lock on our mailbox.”

  “I don't think that's something that will ever happen again.”

  “I hope not. I thought Greville was the one to watch, but maybe she is.”

  Elsa-May gave a laugh. “We can't be suspicious of everybody. He’s just got a bad temper and she’s nosey, but so are you.”

  Ettie’s mouth turned down at the corners. “I'm not being suspicious. Look what she did. It's something that people just don't do. You don't take something out of someone's mailbox and read it and then take it home with you.”

  “I agree it’s a little odd. The main thing is, we might be getting closer to finding out where Jedidiah is, and hopefully he's still alive.”

  Elsa-May’s brow wrinkled. “Who wrote the note?”

  “We can guess all we’d like, but we’ll find out tomorrow.” Ettie placed the notes down on the side table and headed to the kitchen to prepare the evening meal. She secretly hoped the person wasn’t going to tell them that Abraham did it, but what could he have had against Salisbury? Unless Salisbury came back looking for Jedidiah.

  Chapter 17

  The next day Elsa-May and Ettie were in the back of a taxi heading to the park. Elsa-May put a hand over her chest. “My heart’s beating so fast.”

  “Mine too. I just hope this isn't a waste of time, or a prank.”

  “I don't think it would be.”

  “What if no one shows?”

  “Of course they will. She took the trouble to write the note, and she hand-delivered it, so of course she’ll be here.”

  The taxi pulled up at the entrance of the park and they paid and got out. Then the two ladies wandered down the tree-lined path and sat on a bench in front of a small fountain. “She should see us here.”

  “It's not a large park.”

  They knew they had arrived ten minutes before two o'clock because that's what the taxi driver told them. They waited and then waited some more.

  “It must be half past by now,” Elsa-May grumbled some time later.

  “Be patient. She might’ve been caught in traffic.”

  “Perhaps it was a prank. People like to play pranks. It was in the paper and someone probably saw it.” Elsa-May rose to her feet. “Well I don't find it funny and if I find the person who wrote that note to you, I'll be giving them a piece of my mind.” When Elsa-May turned away from Ettie, Ettie noticed an Amish woman entering the park from the other side.

  “There's someone now, Elsa-May.”

  Elsa-May swung around and squinted. “Who is it Ettie? I can't see without my glasses.”

  “You won't believe this, Elsa-May. Sit down.” When Elsa-May sat back down, Ettie said, “It's Sarah King.”

  “Titus’s wife.”

  “And Nell’s schweschder-in-law. What would she know about Jedidiah? I did say she spoke about him as though he was alive, didn’t I? You didn’t listen to me.”

  “Perhaps she’s not who we were meant to meet.”

  When Sarah got closer, Ettie knew she was the one who'd written the note because she smiled and walked right up to them.

  “Sarah, it’s you we’re meeting?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Jah, it’s me who wrote the note. I'm sorry I'm late. I had a visitor and had trouble getting away.”

  “You're here now. Have a seat.” Ettie and Elsa-May moved to make room in between themselves for Sarah. “What is it you know about Jedidiah?” Ettie asked.

  “It's not what I know, it's what Titus told me. He told me many years ago and has never spoken of it since, even after you came the other day asking questions. And then when that body was found and I saw how upset Nell was I couldn’t keep my silence any longer.”

  “What is it?” Elsa-May asked.

  “Titus won't be happy with me telling you this. I had to say things the other day to throw you off the track, so it would sound like I knew nothing, but then I felt so guilty.”

  “Go on,” Ettie said.

  “I don't know the full story of the thing, but I know he’s alive. Jedidiah was in a hurry to get away. He told Titus he was going to live close by as an Englischer and he was going to melt into the crowd.”

/>   “Is that right?” Elsa-May covered her mouth in shock.

  Sarah continued, “Titus bought him some clothes so he would blend in, and then Jedidiah went to a nearby town. And don't ask me where.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I've racked my brains trying to remember and I can't ask Titus again, or he'll be suspicious I'm telling someone and he’ll be upset.”

  “I thought he seemed a little uptight when we asked him questions,” Ettie said.

  “I think he thought I was going to say something when you were there the other day.”

  “He would’ve been nervous. Undoubtedly.” Elsa-May nodded.

  “Jedidiah left and I don't know why. This is all true.”

  “Does Titus know exactly where he is?” Elsa-May asked.

  Sarah turned to Elsa-May. “If he has his address, he didn't tell me. And you can't ask him anything, or he'll know I told you this much.”

  Elsa-May leaned over and patted her hand. “Denke for telling us, Sarah. This makes things a lot easier for us now that we know he’s still out there somewhere. And, hopefully he still is out there somewhere.”

  “Denke for not asking Titus questions again. It makes me so upset when he gets cranky with me. I try to be a gut fraa.”

  Ettie said, “I'm sure you do, but many other people are involved in this, not just Titus. You've done a good thing, Sarah.”

  “What are you going to do now?” Sarah asked.

  Elsa-May said, “We're going to try to find him.”

  She sprang to her feet. “I have to get back before Titus notices I’m missing.”

  “Denke, Sarah.”

  “Jah,” Ettie added, “this saves us a lot of time and worry.”

  Sarah leaned down and gave each lady a quick hug before she left. The two ladies sat and watched her walk away until she disappeared around a curve at the other end of the park.

  Elsa-May gave a deep sigh and faced Ettie. “What do you think of that?”

  “We thought he might be alive. How do we even begin to find him?”

  “We can’t. Not on our own.”

  Ettie stroked her chin. “You’re right. We’ll have to tell Detective Kelly and he can do some digging. He said people always leave a trace and with all the modern technology at his fingertips, he’d do a far better job than we can.”

  “Nee, he’ll talk to Titus. We can’t let that happen, or Sarah will not forgive us. And Titus would make Sarah's life miserable.”

  Ettie put a finger in the air. “But, if he’s still out there somewhere he could have heard about the body having been found. If you were Jedidiah and you heard about the body found at Rose Cottage, what would you do?”

  “That would depend on why I chose to leave. Did he accidently or deliberately kill this man, and was that why he left? If we’re totally honest with ourselves, we must know that one or the other of those reasons is the thing that made him leave.”

  “Hmm, it’s a hard one.”

  “Is he still living nearby, or has he moved away? He could have a whole other life now. He could have married and had a family.”

  Ettie added, “He could even have died.”

  “That’s true. If he’s alive and never married, he might try to contact Nell if he’s heard about Abraham’s death.” Elsa-May sighed. “There are so many possibilities.”

  “We could tell Kelly we’ve found out he’s living nearby as an Englischer.” Ettie pushed her lips together, thinking and wondering what to do. She continued, “Then he’ll question us about how we found out. We’ll have to speak with Titus again. He’s the only one who knows anything.”

  “We can’t! We can’t possibly. Sarah would never forgive us. And we promised.” Elsa-May shook her head so vigorously that her bottom lip wobbled.

  “Hmm. There must be a way around this.”

  “The only thing we can do is give Kelly the information and not tell him how we found out. We can refuse to tell him, and that’s not lying.”

  “I suppose you’re right.” Ettie looked around the park. They seldom had time these days to relax in a place such as this. “It would be so lovely to bring sandwiches here one day and feed the ducks the leftovers. Why don’t we ever do anything like that?”

  “Because we’ve got too much to do.” Elsa-May stood and as she did so, she put her hand under Ettie’s arm to lift her to her feet. “Let’s tell Kelly what we know.”

  “I’m going to come back here when we find Jedidiah and this whole thing is over. I’m going to sit down by myself even if you don’t come with me.”

  “Alright. I’ll come with you. I’ll even make the sandwiches if you put a smile on your face.”

  Ettie smiled even though she didn’t want to.

  “That’s the way.” Elsa-May started walking with her hand now looped through Ettie’s, and Ettie had no choice but to place one foot after the other.

  Chapter 18

  The police station was a few blocks away from the park and just as Ettie and Elsa-May were on the sidewalk outside, Kelly’s car drew alongside them. He beeped the horn, and Elsa-May pulled on Ettie’s sleeve. “It’s Kelly.”

  They hurried over to him.

  “Are you here to see me?” he asked from the driver’s seat.

  “Yes, we wanted to tell you that there is a rumor— “

  Elsa-May cut across Ettie, “It’s a little more than a rumor. We have reason to believe that Jedidiah has been living as an Englischer close by. Well, he was when he first left.”

  “We’ve just put out an APB on Jedidiah Shoneberger. If you have any information, you must tell me now.”

  Ettie gasped. “Are you going to arrest him?”

  “He’s wanted for questioning regarding the murder of Arnold Salisbury.”

  “You found out the man was definitely murdered?” He hadn’t told them anything about that before.

  “His skull was crushed and it wasn’t from a fall. Someone hit him with a hard blunt object. The medical examiner said it was most likely a hammer. We know that the two men had a falling out.” He stared at both of them intently. “Nothing else to say?”

  “We can’t help more than that,” Ettie said.

  Elsa-May added, “That’s all we know.”

  He gave them a sharp nod and the car zoomed away.

  “That wasn’t too hard, Ettie.”

  “If Jedidiah didn’t kill that man, who did?”

  Ettie sighed. “That’s the question.”

  “We’ve had a big day already and I need to sit and rest these weary bones.”

  “I wouldn’t mind filling my tank again.”

  Elsa-May chuckled. “I know just the place for that.”

  “Jah, but no more chocolate cake.”

  Elsa-May frowned. “Halves?”

  “Nee, it’s far too rich for me. I prefer something not so sickly-sweet.”

  “We’ll find something we both like and we’ll go halves. Happy?”

  Ettie nodded and together they walked up the road to what had become their favorite café.

  * * *

  As they sat at a quiet table with their hot tea, waiting for their carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, Ettie asked, “What do we know about the dead man?”

  “He wanted to buy back Rose Cottage.”

  “And?”

  Elsa-May took a sip of the hot tea and Ettie was pleased she didn’t make that dreadful slurping sound that she often made when she was at home. Elsa-May finally said, “Salisbury was trying to sell his land to the corporation.”

  “Hmm. The corporation we know nothing about. Perhaps we should look into that?”

  Elsa-May nodded and then there it was—the slurp.

  “Ach, Elsa-May, do you have to always do that?” Ettie hissed.

  Elsa-May set the cup carefully on the saucer and then looked up at Ettie. “What?”

  Ettie shook her head in disgust. “Forget it.”

  The waitress brought their cake to the table.

  “Thank you,” When the waitress left
, Ettie picked up a knife and went to divide it in two, but Elsa-May got there before her.

  “Was I drinking too noisy again?”

  “Just a little.”

  “We’re getting off the track. You’ve got to focus, Ettie. You were talking about the corporation.”

  “We’ve got to find out more about them.”

  Elsa-May carefully cut the cake into two pieces and put half onto her saucer and passed the plate to Ettie. “Jah, the corporation. Why didn’t they just buy the land from Jedidiah if it meant so much.”

  “It doesn’t work like that. Maybe they didn’t even know that man didn’t still own the cottage. It takes a while for the paperwork to go through at the land titles office, doesn’t it?”

  Elsa-May shrugged. “Don’t know.”

  “Also, what happened to all that man’s land after his death?”

  “Disappearance, not death,” Elsa-May corrected.

  “He’s officially dead now, but what happens to someone’s property when they’ve disappeared for that long? How long is it before the family could have him declared 'presumed dead' or whatever the term is?” Ettie cut into her cake with a fork and broke off a piece. “Hmm. How do we find out all of this? We need to know what happened to his land. Was it sold when it passed into the hands of his benefactors? Or did it pass on to them? Or, maybe it just stayed as is for all those years.” She popped the bite of cake into her mouth. It wasn’t as nice as the lemon cake, but it was a good compromise.

  “We should find that out. And, we could’ve asked Kelly if he hadn’t been in such a hurry.”

  Ettie swallowed her mouthful. “Let’s go and visit Edgar again.”

  “Why him?”

  “Jedidiah confided in him, that’s why.”

  “He might give us a clue, I suppose.” Elsa-May stared at her half of the cake.

  “Try some.”

  “It’s not chocolate.”

  “It’s not bad. In fact, it's quite good. Try it. It’s better for you.”

  Elsa-May muttered, “That’s why I know it’s not going to taste as good.”