Amish House of Secrets (7 page)

“I wonder how long she’ll stay.” Elsa-May put two teacups onto a tray.

“How did she take the news that her friend lied then married Harold herself?” Ettie poured the boiling water into the teapot.

“She seemed shocked, but she got over it quickly. Surprisingly fast,” Emma said. “I’ve told Dorothy that she can stay at my place as long as she wants. I’m guessing she might stay a few days.”

Elsa-May made her way to the living room with a tray of tea and teacups. Ettie and Emma followed with a plate of cookies and some of Elsa-May’s jam tartlets.

Harold and Dorothy sat on the lounge holding hands. Harold looked up at the ladies when they walked in the room. “Dorothy’s agreed to marry me.”

“Oh, that’s delightful news,” Emma said as she placed the plate on the coffee table.

“We’re going to live in my new home at the village. There’s room for two,” Dorothy said.

“Lovely,” Elsa-May said.

“We’re so happy for you.” Emma was going to ask if she was going to see her son while she was here, but she did not know if Dorothy had mentioned her son to Harold yet.

“You ladies have been so good to both of us. I don’t know how we can ever repay you for your kindness, but we will find a way, won’t we, Harold?”

“Most definitely. We’ll find a way,” Harold said.

Emma shook her head. “We’re happy that you two have found each other again. That’s all we need.”

“We should leave you two alone to catch up,” Elsa-May said.

“Shall I call for you this afternoon, Dorothy? Around five?” Emma asked.

“No, dear. I’ll get a taxi to your house. You can’t be running around after me; you’ve done enough.”

The widows said goodbye to Dorothy and Harold and they all left the house at the same time.

Chapter 9.

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,

and put your trust in the Lord.

Psalm 4:5

Later that day, Emma met Silvie at the bakery/café where she worked. Silvie had just finished her shift and was able to sit and talk.

“You should have seen them, Silvie. It was as though they’d never been apart. They just took right back up where they’d left off, and now they’re going to get married.”

“It’s so nice to be in love. It’s funny how you can be instantly drawn to another person.”

“Did you feel an instant attraction to Bailey?”

Silvie nodded. “I did.”

“Harold is going back to live in her retirement home with her,” Emma said.

“That was so horrible what her friend did to her. Elsa-May told me what happened.” Silvie wrapped her hands around her
kaffe
mug.

Emma nodded and took a sip of her hot drink. “It was awful alright.”

“I wonder how things would’ve turned out if her friend had still been alive when she found Harold, I mean, still married to Harold.”

“That’s a point. That would’ve been awkward for everyone involved with the lies that Josephine had told.”

“It’s odd how those letters sent you on a big adventure. Especially since the purchase of your
haus
didn’t go ahead in the end. It was as if
Gott
arranged for you to see the letters and get the two of them back together.”

“I didn’t think of it like that. I wonder.” Emma wondered if more than that
Gott
was teaching her about love. There was Maureen’s ex-fiancé as well, which caused Emma to look at her relationship with Wil in a new light. There were also Dorothy’s warnings not to rush into marriage with another man when you’re in love with another, as Dorothy herself, had done.

“What are you thinking about, Emma?”

“
Ach,
sorry. Just thinking on the journey and how life takes different and unexpected turns.” Emma ripped open a sachet of sugar and poured it into her
kaffe.
As she stirred her hot drink, she looked around the café. “Must be nice to get out and meet people like you do.”

“You mean when I’m working here?” Silvie asked.

“
Jah
. I’ve been thinking I should get a part-time job, or do something.” Emma had thought of opening a small business, but that was before she gave her nest egg to Wil for the house renovations.

“It is
gut
to get out and meet people. I’ve made a lot of friends from working here. Did you know many of the people come in every day?”

Emma nodded. “I’m going to think about a job. I’ve plenty of time on my hands. I could sew quilts like some of the ladies do, but I prefer to do something where I’m amongst people.”

Silvie spread butter onto her hot banana bread. “You know that Sabrina’s got a job now, don’t you?”

“I believe you mentioned it; where’s she working again?”

When Silvie finished her mouthful of banana bread, she said, “She’s had two jobs, she didn’t like either of them, but now she’s working at the auction place. She says she likes it.”

“That’s
gut
that’ll keep her out of trouble.”

“I’m hoping it will.” Silvie laughed.

An hour later Emma opened the front door of her
haus.
She had no idea what time Dorothy would arrive back and assumed she might be back around dinnertime that night. She looked into the cold box to see what she could make for dinner.

She turned when she heard Growler behind her. “Hello, Kitty. What have you done today?” When she looked closer at Growler, she could see that his paw was bleeding. She looked behind him and saw that blood had trailed all over the kitchen floor. She bent down. “Let me see your paw.” Growler would not let her anywhere near his paw.

“You home, Emma?”

“I’m in the kitchen,” Emma said recognizing Wil’s voice. “Wil, it’s Growler, he’s hurt his paw.”

Wil raced to the kitchen and bent down to take a look. Growler was no more interested in letting Wil pick up his paw than he was to let Emma pick it up. Wil sat on the floor and held Growler against his body and parted the long fur on his leg to see where the bleeding was coming from. “It’s not too deep a cut. I’ll just put some aloe vera on it, and it’ll be fine. Do you still have that aloe vera plant?”

“
Jah
, shall I squeeze out the gel?”

“
Jah
, squeeze out about as much as you can cover on two fingers, make it a
gut
dollop.”

Emma rushed out to the garden and pulled some aloe vera leaves and squeezed out the gel and hurried back to Wil.

Wil took the gel with his two fingers, while still holding onto Growler. “Good boy, Growler.” Wil talked to Growler in soothing tones while he pasted the gel on his cut.

Growler growled a long, slow growl then leaped away from Wil. “Looks like he’s been in a cat fight.”

Emma watched Growler walk towards the living room. “Are you sure he’s okay or should I take him to the vet?”

“
Jah
, he’ll be alright.”

“I’ll have to keep him inside for a while. At least until he heals.”

Wil nodded. “I’ll wash my hands outside.”

Emma was pleased that Wil came just when he had. She was no good in a crisis. She wondered how she would be with
kinner
when they got hurt if she panicked when her cat was bleeding.

Wil came back in the back door wiping his hands on an old towel. “Emma, I came to talk to you about something quite serious.”

“What is it?” Emma asked. This was the first time they had come face to face after finding out that the sale of the house Wil tried to buy had not gone through.

“I feel terrible about what happened with the house and you losing money. I will pay it all back to you.”

Emma breathed out slowly and nodded, pleased that she would have the money to go ahead with a small business.

“I could still buy the house if I borrow against my farm.”

“
Nee
, Wil, don’t do that.”

“I will if you want me to. If you love the
haus
.”

Emma shook her head. “It’s a nice
haus
, but I feel as though we are best to wait until after we’re married before we make a final decision. Didn’t you say you had inherited money?” Emma did not like to talk about money, but he had mentioned that he had inherited money. Surely he would not have made that up.

Wil looked down. “I’ve loaned it to people in the community who were in need.” He looked back up. “You know I can’t ask for it back, don’t you?”

“Of course I know.
Nee
, you can’t ask for it.”

“Will you live at my
haus
though, Emma? Or shall I live here? Or do we live separately once we’re married until we have another
haus
?”

Emma was tired, and all his questions required thinking and she was far too weary. “I really don’t know. Can we talk about this later? I’m tired from the big trip I’ve just had and I’ve got to plan dinner for Dorothy. She’s coming back here tonight.”

Emma said goodbye to Wil and watched at the door as he walked back towards his place.

Remembering Growler’s blood all over the kitchen floor, she headed back to the kitchen. She grabbed a dishrag, wet it with water and began to wipe the floor.

She had barely finished when she heard a knock at the door, she hoped it wasn’t Dorothy so soon because she hadn’t even had a chance to think about dinner. She opened the door to see Detective Crowley.

He jumped back in shock. “Mrs. Kurtzler, who’s dead now?”

Emma frowned until she realized she had a rag in her hand filled with blood. She laughed and put the rag behind her back. “Oh, Growler injured himself somehow.” She stepped aside. “Come in and have a seat. I’ll just get rid of this and wash my hands.”

Moments later, Emma sat down in the small couch opposite the detective. “How can I help you?”

“I believe you have one Dorothy Welby staying here?”

Emma narrowed her eyes and nodded. “Yes, she was the one the letters belonged to, the one Maureen and I went to visit in Florida. Anything wrong?”

The detective shook his head. “Why is it Emma that you always land into the middle of things?”

Emma stared at him wondering what he was talking about.

“Mrs. Fielding, who used to go by the name of Josephine Cutter, died in a local hospital. She was there for a simple operation to have her tonsils removed and she died.”

“There’s a risk with all operations, isn’t there?” Emma raised her eyebrows at the detective’s silence. “Do you think she was murdered or something?”

The detective ignored her question and continued, “An autopsy was performed, and it was revealed that she was given a lethal dose of insulin.”

Emma’s hand flew to her mouth.

The detective continued, “Were you aware that Dorothy Welby was once a nurse?”

“I don’t think so, I can’t remember whether she mentioned that or not. Surely you can’t think that Dorothy had anything to do with it?”

The detective leaned back in his chair. “Mr. Fielding was not happy and claimed hospital negligence. I looked into things and asked around. The woman who was sharing the same hospital room as Mrs. Fielding says she saw an elderly lady around Josephine’s bed shortly before she died. Nothing made sense, and there were no suspects until now.”

Emma tilted her head to the side. “I’m not following you, Detective. What are you saying?”

“I pulled up records of Dorothy Welby and found that she matches the description of the lady who was seen over Josephine’s bed.”

“Detective, surely all old ladies look the same. There would be thousands upon thousands of women with that same description. An old lady with gray hair of medium build five feet two inches. How many women would fit that description?”

“She has motive from what you ladies told me of Josephine Fielding’s deception. At the time of Mrs. Fielding’s death, Dorothy Welby did live close by.”

Emma said, “You mentioned Mrs. Welby’s record, does she have a criminal history?”

The detective shook his head. “No, I was speaking of her driver’s license record.”

“Detective, Dorothy Welby is a sweet old lady and not capable of doing anything like that. When we told her that Harold was alive, she had no idea, she was truly shocked.”

The detective rose to his feet. “Of course, that’s what impression she would need to have given you. She could not have turned up out of the blue and gone straight to Harold after she’d killed his wife.” He shook his head slowly. “No. If she did kill Josephine Fielding, she would have gone underground and set about planning a legitimate way that she could be reunited with Harold. Such as, innocently leave a box of letters in her house for some ‘do-gooder’ to read and set about to re-unite them.”

Emma thought that maybe the detective had been at the job for far too long if he thought that everyone was a murderer. “Detective, did you just call me a ‘do-gooder’?”

“I meant no offence. The old lady needed a cover, a genuine way that she could be reunited with the old man after the wife happened to die. The way I see it, Dorothy knew she’d been seen and figured there would be an autopsy. She had to lay low and have everyone think that Josephine had been mistakenly given insulin by one of the hospital staff. Is it a co-incidence that a few days after Josephine died that Dorothy moved to Florida?”

Emma bit her lip, and wondered whether there might have been someone else who would have wanted Josephine dead. “Detective, are you joking with me? Or is this all true?”

“Emma, I’m not a joking kind of person. I wouldn’t joke about something so serious. I went back to question the witness today, but unfortunately she had died.” Detective Crowley walked toward the door. “Just thought you might like to know who you’re entertaining in your house.”

Emma stood in the doorway and watched the detective walk to his car. “Wait.” She ran over to him. “Are you going to open up the investigation? I mean are you going to investigate things?”

“The witness is dead. Nothing would stick, and it’s not likely she’d confess. Not much point going further, is there?”

Emma studied the detective’s hard face. Maybe he’d been in the job far too long and had grown to be too suspicious of people. “Detective, you really should stop seeing a murderer behind every tree.”

Detective Crowley looked at Emma for a moment before he got in his car and drove away.

Emma’s head started to spin. She had the worry of the sale of the house not going through, and her nest egg gone; the last thing she wanted on her mind was the idea that she might be entertaining a murderer.