Ettie nodded. “I’ll do it. Can you tell me what else you’ve found out?”

  Detective Kelly breathed out heavily, picked up the folder on his desk, and opened it. "Let me see what remains to tell you. I’ve covered the necklace that was found…”

  “The locket. Yes.”

  The detective looked up at Elsa-May and frowned, obviously not liking to be interrupted. “We were lucky enough to find a man's photograph in that locket, which might prove useful. We’ve got fingerprints on what appears to be the assault weapon. Then we’ve got the male visitor.” He closed the folder. “The best thing we can hope for is that Paula regains consciousness and tells us exactly what happened.”

  Ettie nodded. “How long do the fingerprint results take to come back?”

  “They can take up to two days, and if the prints aren’t in the system, they won’t lead us to an ID.”

  “We know that much,” Elsa-May said.

  He stared at Elsa-May, and then said to Ettie, “Are you going back to talk to Elizabeth today?”

  “No,” Elsa-May answered for Ettie.

  Ettie finally said, “Tomorrow. It’s too late today.”

  “We’ll go first thing tomorrow after breakfast.” Elsa-May gave a nod.

  “Very good. I appreciate that.” The detective took another look at the list and frowned.

  Elsa-May asked, “Can’t read your own writing?”

  Detective Kelly laughed. “It’s like that sometimes. I was in a hurry when I wrote this.”

  “Before we go, let me get this straight for Elsa-May’s sake,” Ettie said. “You’ve got fingerprints on the weapon, a locket, a man’s photograph is in the locket, and a man seen visiting Paula?” Ettie didn’t look Elsa-May’s way because she knew her sister was scowling at her.

  “That’s correct.” He rustled through the papers again and then picked up one of the pages. “The male neighbor on the opposite, Mr. Duggor—I was wrong it didn’t start with a G—didn’t hear anything that night, and your friend, Elizabeth, didn’t hear anything. According to what Elizabeth told the paramedics, she saw Paula staggering out of the house in the early hours of the morning, and then Paula collapsed outside the front door. The next couple of days should prove interesting, when the forensic results begin to come back.”

  “I hope so,” Ettie said.

  Chapter 4

  The next morning, Ettie and Elsa-May made their way back to Elizabeth’s house only because Ettie had told Detective Kelly she would.

  On the way there in the taxi, Ettie said, “We should try a new approach since the old one didn’t work.”

  “Cake is an icebreaker.”

  Ettie giggled. “Do you think so?”

  Elsa-May nodded.

  “What about cake and flowers?”

  “That would be going too far.”

  With a shrug of her shoulders, Ettie said, “If you say so. Just the cake would work for me.”

  “Right; very good. No flowers it is, then.”

  “I’m glad we’ve established that.”

  Elsa-May leaned over to the driver and directed him to the nearest cake shop. The driver and Ettie waited in the car while Elsa-May chose a cake. When she got back in the car, she passed the cake box to Ettie, and then waved a bag of hard caramels.

  “Candy! Excellent idea.”

  “Are you ladies done with the detours?” the taxi driver asked.

  “Yes. You can take us to the address we gave you now.”

  When Paula’s house came into view, the taxi driver commented, “I’ve never been to this part of town in my five years of working this area, and now this is the second time in as many days I’ve been to this very street.”

  “Really?” Elsa-May commented.

  “Which house did you go to?” Ettie asked.

  “She just wanted to be let out at the end of the street.”

  Elsa-May lunged forward. “Do you remember what she looked like?”

  He shook his head. “Can’t say that I do. It was at night.”

  “Old or young?”

  “Middling to youngish. She wasn’t a teenager. I’d say in her thirties if I had to guess.”

  Elsa-May handed the driver money and he gave her back some change.

  “Where did you collect the lady from?” Elsa-May inquired further.

  He frowned. “In town somewhere.”

  “Could I borrow a pen for a quick moment? I won’t hold you up for too long.”

  The driver handed Ettie a pen.

  “Elsa-May, give me that receipt you got for the cake.”

  When Elsa-May passed the receipt over, Ettie scratched down the driver’s name and ID number that were clearly displayed on the dashboard. “Thank you.” She handed back the pen and tucked the receipt into her sleeve.

  “You wrote his ID down?” Elsa-May asked when they'd gotten out of the car.

  “It was strange that the woman had him drop her at the end of the street and not at a particular house, don’t you think.”

  “Jah, it is odd. Are you going to give his details to the detective?”

  “Of course I am. The driver would surely keep some kind of a logbook, or the people who make the bookings for him must have some kind of records.”

  When Elizabeth opened the door, she smiled when her eyes settled on the cake box that Ettie held out toward her.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s a lemon sponge cake.”

  “And we thought you might like some hard caramel candy,” Elsa-May said.

  “Wunderbaar, denke. I love any kind of candy, and lemon cake is a particular favorite.” As Elizabeth stood aside to let them in, Elsa-May glanced at Ettie and gave her a look as if to say, ‘I told you so.’

  “Come to the kitchen and I’ll boil the teakettle. It’s just been boiled not long ago, so it shouldn’t take long. Tea for you two?”

  “Jah, please,” Ettie said, sitting in the chair next to her sister who’d already taken a seat.

  “Tea for you two, plus me, makes tea for three.” Elizabeth gave a little laugh as she lit the gas burner beneath the teakettle. Then she opened the box and looked in at the cake. “Lovely.” She took a knife and sliced into the cake. “What brings the two of you back here today? I told you all I know yesterday.”

  Ettie was glad that Elizabeth seemed in a much better frame of mind. “We got to thinking that you must know some of the goings on next-door. More than you told us yesterday. We’ve heard that she often had a tall dark handsome man visit her—an Englischer.”

  “Oh Ettie! There was no mention of him being handsome,” Elsa-May said.

  “Tall, dark, with a solid build—he’d have to be handsome too.”

  Elsa-May shook her head. “You people! Tall dark men aren’t necessarily handsome.”

  Ettie’s lips turned down at the corners and she looked up at Elizabeth. “What would you think, Elizabeth? Are most tall dark men handsome as well?”

  “Let me think about that for a minute.” Elizabeth placed the cake in the middle of the table along with the cake server. Then she placed three small plates on the table. “Help yourselves to the cake.” When she pushed the cake toward them, she said, “I agree with Ettie. Tall and dark goes along with being handsome.” Elizabeth laughed and sat down at the table with them.

  “See, Elsa-May? Two against one.”

  Elsa-May shook her head again. “It doesn’t bother me whether he was handsome or not. Why are you making such a big fuss about it, Ettie?”

  “Jah, what’s this about the man, Ettie?” Elizabeth asked.

  Elizabeth had perked up and was friendlier than she’d been the day before. Whether it was the talk of handsome men or the lemon sponge cake, Ettie didn’t know.

  “I was just saying that a tall dark man was often seen visiting Paula. Do you know whether that was a friend or maybe her bruder?”

  Elizabeth had just popped a portion of cake into her mouth, so she had to wait until she swallowed before she answered the question. “I’d seen that man visiting her every few days. It’s not my place to mention that to the bishop or anybody else. I’m not Paula’s keeper.”

  Elsa-May interrupted Elizabeth, “So you thought it possible that there was funny business going on?”

  “I couldn’t really say. I wasn’t going to mention anything and look like a fool if there was a good reason for the man to be at her haus. I’d look silly, not to mention that I'd ruin a neighborly friendship with Paula. You just said it could’ve been her bruder. I’m not an interfering person. Paula keeps to herself and so do I.”

  “I see.”

  “So you didn’t see if the man was handsome?” Elsa-May’s eyes twinkled.

  “I thought you didn’t care about handsome,” Ettie said.

  Elizabeth answered before Elsa-May could, “It’s possible that he was. I got the number of his car, if that’s any good to you.”

  Elsa-May’s mouth fell open.

  “You really took down the plate number of his car?” Ettie asked.

  “Jah, I did. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to know who was visiting her. I’m not certain why I took it down, but now I’m glad I did.”

  Elsa-May frowned. “Why are you only mentioning this now?”

  “I didn’t think of it before,” Elizabeth said.

  “Can you give it to us?”

  “Jah, of course. I’ll find it. I’m sure I put it somewhere; oh yes, it's in the drawer of my small writing desk.”

  “Were you suspicious of the man or something to take his plate number down?” Ettie asked.

  Elsa-May leaned toward Elizabeth. “She means, what made you write it down?”

  Ettie turned to her sister and narrowed her eyes.

  “You can never be too careful.” Elizabeth stood up when the hot water bubbled loudly. “Now, do you have milk and sugar in your tea?”

  “We both have it weak and black,” Ettie said. “We used to have cream, but with Elsa-May having to lose weight we’ve both cut down on small things like cream in our tea.”

  “Oh Ettie, Elizabeth doesn’t need to know about all of that.”

  “That’s all right. I found it interesting, and quite pleasing because I don’t have any cream in the haus.” Elizabeth gave a small laugh and then poured the tea and sat down once she’d given each sister a cup.

  “Denke for being so helpful, Elizabeth,” Ettie said. “We just want to find out who attacked Paula so awfully.”

  “I went to the hospital after you two left me yesterday. They wouldn’t let me see her. Have you heard how she is today?”

  “Nee we haven’t. I hope she’s all right. The detective told us that she had a police officer right outside her door and no one was allowed to see her, not even her own familye. We haven’t even tried to visit her because we know we wouldn’t get in,” Ettie said.

  “Jah, it was the policeman who said I couldn’t go in. He was very insistent about it. I explained that I lived right next door to her, but it made no difference to him.”

  Elsa-May nodded. “I do hope the poor girl will recover properly and not have any complications from the attack.”

  “So, Elizabeth, the man you saw visiting her regularly was definitely an Englischer?” Ettie asked. “Or could you be mistaken about that?”

  “Jah. No mistake. He was wearing a suit and driving a car. I didn’t know him. My neighbor on the other side of Paula told me he let the police know about Paula’s visitor. I didn’t talk with the police at all.”

  “Would you recognize him if you saw him somewhere else, or if we had a photograph of him?”

  She shook her head. “My distance sight is not very good, but my close-up vision is. I’m not sure if that’s called longsighted or shortsighted. I think it’s shortsighted.”

  “I’m the opposite. I need my reading glasses these days to do my knitting,” Elsa-May said. “I haven’t done much lately.”

  Ettie noticed Elsa-May glance down at her fingers, at the knuckles that were growing larger. She hadn’t mentioned anything to her, but Ettie was certain that Elsa-May’s fingers were giving her pain. That was likely the real reason she hadn’t knitted much lately.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t very nice to either of you yesterday. I was just so upset about Paula—that someone could do this to her. I’ll help you in whatever way I can.”

  “You’ve been such a good help already,” Ettie said.

  Elsa-May leaned forward. “Did you ever happen to see a woman visit Paula—an Englischer?”

  “Nee never.”

  “And you’re home most of the time, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t go out that much—not too often these days.”

  “Right. That’s good to know.”

  Elizabeth looked at the cake. “Would you take the rest of the cake with you? I can’t eat it all by myself. It’s nice to have a slice every now and again, but I wouldn’t eat any more of it.”

  “Keep it here for visitors,” Ettie said.

  “I don’t get many people dropping by. You’d get more visitors than I would because there’s the two of you.”

  “Okay, denke, we’ll take it, but only if you’re sure,” Elsa-May added, "and if you'll keep a slice for yourself to have tomorrow."

  “Okay. Aren’t the police closer to finding out who attacked Paula? It’s been over a day already.”

  “I hope so. They won’t know much more until all the evidence comes in. I believe there are fingerprints they found on what was used to hit Paula.”

  Elsa-May added, “And, of course, the plate number you wrote down would be of interest to them.”

  “Jah. I’ll get that for you now.” Elizabeth went into the other room and moments later returned with a slip of paper.

  Ettie and Elsa-May left Elizabeth’s house with stomachs full of tea and cake, and with the plate number held tightly in Ettie’s hand. Elsa-May carried the box with the rest of the cake.

  “I think we should go to see Detective Kelly now.”

  “Jah, he would like to know who the car belongs to."

  Ettie shook her head. “I just don’t see that Paula’s visitor would’ve attacked her. He would know the neighbors would have seen him coming and going.”

  “I don’t see what you’re saying. They might have argued about something and he hit her without giving it too much thought—in anger.”

  “Nee, Elsa-May, that makes no sense. They were arguing and then in a rage he went to his car and got the tire iron? And then went back and hit her? Nee! That’s silly.”

  Elsa-May nodded. “Jah, I agree, that doesn’t make sense. I can see now that it must’ve been planned.”

  Ettie nodded. “It had to be premeditated and done in a fit of rage. That would be my guess.”

  “That seems so.”

  “Elsa-May?”

  “Jah?”

  “What’s a tire iron?”

  Elsa-May pushed out her lips and thought for a while. “I have no idea.”

  “Is it the thing that holds the car up while the tires are being changed?”

  “I think that’s called a jack.”

  “Is it the thing that tire bolts are loosened and tightened with?”

  “I’m not certain. It sounds likely. It could be what you said. I can’t think what else it could be.”

  “When the taxi gets here we’ll ask the driver so we’ll be sure what it is before we see Kelly. If we ask Detective Kelly what it is, he’ll have some sarcastic comment to make about us not knowing.”

  “Good idea. Kelly spoke as if we’d know what one was. We can’t disappoint him.”

  Ettie nodded.

  Chapter 5

  Later that same day, Ettie and Elsa-May were told there would be a long wait to see Detective Kelly. While they sat in the large waiting area, a lady joined them, sitting close by.

  After a moment, the woman spoke to them. “Excuse me, but are you friends of a woman called Paula Peters?”

  “Yes, we are,” Ettie said. “Do you know her?”

  “No, I don’t know her at all, but they’ve brought me in to question me about her.”

  Elsa-May and Ettie looked at each other.

  The woman continued, “They found my locket in her house. I told the police I reported it stolen weeks ago and even put in an insurance claim for it.” A tear rolled down her face.

  Ettie leaned over and introduced herself and her sister.

  “Nice to meet you. My name’s Nora George.” She sniffed and pulled a tissue out of her pocket. “I’ve never had any dealings with the police before.”

  Elsa-May said, “I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding that will be sorted out soon.”

  “No it won’t. They didn’t believe me about the locket.”

  “You said you reported it stolen so there’ll be a record of it.”

  “There would. If they look for it, they’ll find it. I can’t remember the exact date I reported it stolen.”

  “Just tell them what you told us and everything will be fine,” Elsa-May said.

  Nora wiped her nose. “They looked in my car and found my tire iron missing and they said it would be the same kind of tire iron that they found at Paula Peters' house.”

  “I’m sure there would be thousands of them out there and when they find that your prints aren’t on it they’ll know you didn’t do it,” Ettie said.

  “I didn’t even know I had a tire iron. They tell me there’s one in every car. My husband looks after all those things. He’s at work now.” She looked down at her wringing hands as though they belonged to someone else. “I hope I don’t have to tell him about this.”

  “Just tell them what you told us and I’m sure everything will be fine.”

  “This way please, Mrs. George.”

  Ettie and Elsa-May looked up to see two uniformed police officers. Nora stood and they escorted her down the corridor where the interview rooms were.

  “So it was her locket?” Elsa-May said.

  “Jah.”

  “Someone stole it she said.”

  “The poor woman. She looks terrified. I don’t know if she was more scared of the police or her husband finding out she’s being questioned by the police.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10