Plain Murder (Amish Romance Mystery): Clean Mystery series (Amish Secret Widows' Society Book 8) (9 page)

Chapter 16.

Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and
believe
me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

Isaiah 43:10

When Sabrina arrived home the next day, she found out that Ettie was in the hospital with pneumonia.

“Is she going to be alright?” Sabrina asked.

“Pneumonia’s pretty serious, and they’re worried about her because of her age,” Silvie said of her good friend and Bailey’s elderly aunt.

“She’s a tough old thing. I’m sure she’ll be okay. Can we visit her?” Sabrina had always liked Ettie.

Silvie nodded. “Maybe in a day or two. I’m going back tomorrow to take her some fresh nightdresses, but you’ll be at work. We can both visit on Saturday if you’d like.”

Sabrina nodded.

“I’ll go with you tomorrow,” Bailey said to Silvie.

“Now, Bailey, what did you find out today from Crowley?” Sabrina asked.

“He ran the plates and found out that it was a rental car. The car was rented to a man by the name of Ben Nate. Turns out Ben Nate is a journalist. Crowley went to see him and found out that he’s covering the Victor Parker trial. Mr. Caruthers was considering testifying against Parker.”

“Why was this Ben Nate person taking down the number plates?” Sabrina asked.

“Maybe to see what connections Mr. Caruthers had. I’m not sure what he told Crowley he was doing that for. Nate said that two people who were going to testify against Parker have just died in suspicious circumstances.”

“So that means that Parker could have had someone kill Mr. Caruthers,” Sabrina said. “It might not have been May or Trevor.”

Baily rubbed his chin. “The other two people died in suspicious circumstances. That’s what bothers me about Caruthers’ death; a knife in the back is an obvious murder – too obvious. The other two deaths appeared to be accidents. Although considering the circumstances, it can’t be ruled out that Parker had someone kill him.”

Sabrina saw the look on Bailey’s face as if he wanted to know more of what was going on. “Do you miss being in the center of it all, Bailey?”

Bailey laughed. “
Nee
, I’m glad I’ve left that behind me.” Bailey turned to Silvie. “Speaking of leaving things behind me, I got a letter from my realtor today and he has someone seriously interested in my house.”

“
Ach
, Bailey, that’s
wunderbaar
news.”

Bailey nodded. “Then we can buy a bigger
haus
.”

“I’ll be moving out soon,” Sabrina said. “That’ll give you more room if you want to stay in this
haus.”

“Not this again, Sabrina. We like having you here and when we get a bigger
haus,
you can have a bigger bedroom,” Silvie said.

Sabrina smiled and figured she’d save all her arguments for moving out for another day. She had to conserve her energy.

* * *

The next day, when Sabrina arrived at work, the first phone call was from Crowley. Crowley asked Sabrina if she knew whether Bailey was coming to see him today. Sabrina knew that Bailey was going to visit his aunt Ettie in the hospital, and he said nothing of going to see Detective Crowley. “Do you need to talk to him, Detective?”

“There have been some developments and Bailey’s been following the case. He might be interested.”

Sabrina could read people. She could tell that there was a major development and Crowley really wanted to speak to Bailey. “Since Bailey and Silvie don’t have a phone, I could try Wil and Emma Jacobson’s phone.”

“Ah, Wil and Emma Jacobson. I could phone them myself and see if they can get a message to Bailey. Thank you, Sabrina.”

Wil and Emma had a telephone in their barn, since the Amish are restricted from allowing any outside wires coming into their house.

Sabrina did not ask the detective what the development was, even though she was dying to know. She’d have to wait until she got home. She looked at the clock on the wall. It was only a quarter past nine; she had a whole day to wait.

“Where’s that coffee, Sabrina?” Jamie poked his head around the door. “Was that a personal call?”

“Sorry, I forgot about the coffee. That was just the detective on the phone.”

Jamie frowned. “What detective?”

“Um, the detective on the case about your father.”

“Did he want to speak to me?” Jamie fixed his hands on his hips in an aggressive manner.

“No, he just wanted to know if I had someone’s phone number.”

Jamie stepped out from his office and walked a few steps towards Sabrina. “What are you holding back? Whose phone number did he want?”

Sabrina considered that she had done enough lying over the last few days. She took a deep breath then said, “My brother-in-law used to work for the FBI. The detective wants to run a few things by him; that’s all, I suppose. I didn’t ask him any questions. I mean, I didn’t ask him what he wanted to speak to my brother-in-law about.”

Jamie sat down in the chair on the other side of Sabrina’s desk. “Have they found anything else out? That detective promised me he’d call me if there were any developments.”

“I don’t know,” Sabrina said. “I’m sure he would’ve told you if there were anything more he should tell you.”

“Do you value your job here, Sabrina?”

Sabrina looked into Jamie’s cool blue yes. She realized at that moment that he was just like his brother, Trevor, maybe even worse.

“Yes, of course, I do. I love working here. Why do you ask?”

“I get the feeling you are holding something back. What do you know, Sabrina?”

Chills went up and down Sabrina’s spine. She looked down at Jamie’s hands; they were shaking.

“Something, about what?” Sabrina did her best to look confused. She probably did know a little more than she should have thanks to Bailey and his involvement with Crowley.

“This brother-in-law of yours, what’s his name?”

“Bailey Rivers, why?”

Jamie breathed in deeply and leaned back in the chair. “Because I’m going to have him checked out, that’s why.” Jamie stood up and quickly returned to his office.

Sabrina saw from the light that lit up on her desk phone that Jamie was calling someone. What was he hoping to find out about Bailey other than what she had already told him? Sabrina hurried to the wall and pressed her ear to it so she could hear what he said.

“Bailey Rivers could be ex-FBI, see what you can find out about him.” When Sabrina heard Jamie end the call she hurried back to her desk.

Jamie might have an alibi, but what if he had someone kill his father for him? She was sure May did not murder her father and anyway, the evidence showed that it was someone roughly six feet tall. Jamie was six feet tall and so was Trevor, then again so was John. What if it was Mrs. Wright, the jilted lover? She did not show up at the funeral, maybe she had gone away for a while. In her absence either May or Trevor would be convicted, perhaps both.

The rest of the day was spent with Sabrina trying to avoid Jamie.

When Sabrina got home that night, she could not wait to find out what Bailey had learned from Detective Crowley.

“Crowley found that Caruthers was having an affair, but the woman he was having an affair with has an alibi. She was at her place of employment and we have surveillance footage of her there.”

“What if she had someone else kill him?” Silvie asked.

“Highly unlikely since she was in love with him. She was married as well so they both were in the same position.”

I can strike her off the list,
Sabrina thought. “What else?”

“It wasn’t old Mr. Caruthers who owed money to Clarkwell, it was Trevor Caruthers. He owes $55,000. He was using his father’s name to borrow the money and that’s why you got the phone calls, Sabrina. He used his father’s name and his father’s contact details.”

Sabrina nodded. “And Addison?”

“Again, it was Trevor. We got a warrant for his phone records. We have several text messages to the representative from Addison’s company. Trevor must have got wind that his father was considering testifying against Victor Parker and Trevor; posing as his father, took out a loan against the compensation he was going to sue Victor for. At least, that’s as much as we can assume from the information we have.”

“So, if Trevor killed his father that would wipe out his debts because they were in his father’s name?” Sabrina asked.

“It would appear that might have been his plan,” Bailey answered.

Sabrina slumped into the couch. “I wish May would’ve just kept out of the whole thing. You know, it doesn’t make sense, Bailey. May told me that she thought Trevor was guilty and she wanted to tell someone, so why would she suddenly feel she needed to protect him? She was ready to tell the police she thought he did it.”

Bailey rubbed his chin as he did when he was deep in thought.

Silvie said, “Possibly because she thought a little more about it? She could’ve thought of what would happen to her brother if he were found guilty. She’s lost her father and then she would lose her brother.”

Sabrina sat up straight. “Bailey, I forgot to tell you that Jamie heard me speaking to Crowley and he asked questions. I had to tell him about you being in the FBI, well, that you were ex-FBI and he got nasty then said he was going to get you checked out.”

Bailey’s eyebrows rose. “That’s odd. Well he won’t find much out about me. Just a few press clippings regarding stolen art.”

“Now let’s forget the whole thing for one night, can we? I’ve made a lovely dinner and I’d like us to speak of happy things tonight,” Silvie said.

“Well, one happy piece of news I have is that I’ve sold my house, Silvie.”

“You have?
Wunderbaar
.”

“So we can get a bigger house or stay here. It’s up to you, Silvie. Maybe we can buy a business and run it together.”

Silvie and Bailey looked adoringly at one another. Sabrina hoped that one day she might find a love such as theirs. Bailey had left his whole
Englischer
life behind him to be with the woman he loved. “I’ll set the table.” Sabrina thought she should make herself scarce. She walked into the kitchen and tried to push the whole matter of Mr. Caruthers’ murder out of her mind, but she couldn’t help worrying about May and hoping that she was okay.

Once Bailey and Silvie sat down to dinner with Sabrina, they had polite small talk.

In the middle of dinner, Bailey said, “I’m sorry, Silvie, I know you don’t want to speak about the murder, but what Sabrina said about Jamie keeps niggling at me.”

Sabrina put her fork down and finished her mouthful. “Which part of what I said?”

“Why would Jamie feel the need to look into me?”

“I don’t know,” Sabrina said.

“I’m going to pay Crowley a visit early tomorrow morning.”

Silvie lay a hand on Bailey’s. “
Jah
, you do that, but now let’s have no more talk of it tonight.”

When Sabrina went to bed she lay awake wondering who could have done such a thing to her boss. It had to be Trevor, yet Bailey did not seem to think it was Trevor because the evidence pointed directly toward him. Maybe Bailey had a point. Why had May changed her mind and was suddenly defending him to the point where she confessed to it herself? Surely Trevor did it to wipe out his debts and then be able to take over the stables.

The next day Silvie arrived at work to see three police cars in the car park. She pushed the main door and came face to face with two large police officers who were either side of Jamie. Jamie’s hands were cuffed behind him and the two officers had a hold of each of his arms.

Sabrina was sick to the stomach. “Jamie, what’s happening?”

“Call Dad’s lawyer. Tell him to meet me at the station.”

Sabrina nodded and watched him being led away. She heard someone come up behind her. She swung around to see two more officers and Detective Crowley.

“Hello, Sabrina.”

“Detective Crowley, what’s going on?”

“We took another look into Jamie Caruthers’ alibi. We have a flight booked in his name from Europe to here, but according to the surveillance footage he was never on that plane.”

“He was here in the country all the time?” Sabrina asked.

Crowley nodded. “Apparently so, but we have to get a confession out of him otherwise he’ll walk free.”

“So you think that he did it?” Sabrina bit her lip not wanting to know the answer to her question.

“Yes, I do, Sabrina. Do you know anything at all that might help us? Anything at all even if you don’t think it’s important?”

“I need to sit down.”

“Of course.”

Sabrina sat down in the main reception area and Crowley sat next to her.

“You know about Addison and Clarkwell?”