The Amish Widow (Amish Romance Mystery) (Amish Secret Widows' Society Book 1) (6 page)

Wil stopped the buggy and Emma walked toward Mary. “Mary, it’s nice of you to visit.”

“I was just going; a few of the ladies have given your
haus
a
gut
cleaning and we’ve got a weeks’ worth of food for you.” She grabbed Emma’s hand. “You won’t have to do anything for a whole week.” She pulled Emma forward and gave her a kiss which she always gave people, calling it, ‘a holy kiss.’

Emma turned to look at Wil who was still in his buggy. “You knew about this?”

“Of course, I was instructed to get you away from here for a few hours.”

She turned back to Mary. “
Denke
, so much and thank the other ladies. This is just
wunderbaar.”

“I’ll be on my way, then.” Mary bustled her way to her buggy.

“I’ll go too, Emma.” Wil tipped his hat and drove back up the driveway.

Emma felt a little foolish thinking that Wil liked her and that was the reason he had invited her on a picnic. Wil was simply getting her out of the
haus
so the ladies could surprise her. What a fool she would have been if she had leaned into his hard body thinking that he was keen on her. She would have to be more careful in the future. Missing Levi’s strong arms around her had left her vulnerable to another man’s touch. She would not let that happen again.

Emma pushed her front door open, realizing she must have left the door unlocked. She could never do that again, not with the vulture hanging around. It was certainly nice to come home to a clean
haus.
Emma put her hand to her mouth and giggled as she wondered if any of the ladies had seen the hammer under her bed.

Emma looked around at her spotless
haus
, thankful that she had run the broom over the floor before she left, otherwise what would the women have thought of her housekeeping skills?

Chapter 6.

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Genesis 8:22

On the dot of three Emma pulled up to Elsa-May and Ettie’s
haus
as arranged. Maureen was already there and they all had to wait fifteen minutes for Silvie to arrive.

“Sorry I’m late,” Silvie said.

“Come in.” Elsa-May pulled on Silvie’s arm and hurried her to the chairs where the other ladies waited eagerly.

Silvie looked very pretty with the subtle makeup. Her face did not look painted; her skin looked smooth and her lips looked a little darker than normal and were very glossy. Her normally pale lashes were dark and very, very long which accentuated her beautiful, clear blue eyes.

“Well, I asked Mr. McAllister if he had a farm for sale. He showed me brochures of farm land and I said that I wanted land close – in a ten minute radius – by buggy.”

“Go on,” Ettie said as she sat on the edge of the old timber chair.

“He said he could have a very large piece of land coming up, but he already had a buyer for it.”

Ettie gasped and covered her mouth. “Emma, he already has a buyer for your land.”

“It could be
Wil,” Maureen said.

Emma lowered her head and rested it in her hands.

Elsa-May lifted up her hands to quiet everybody. “We can’t be sure though. This is all hearsay.”

Ettie nodded. “Quite right. What else, Silvie?”

“He stepped out of the office to take a phone call in private. So I dashed to the front of his desk and looked in his top drawer and found this.” Silvie opened her palm to reveal a key. On the key was a tag, which said, ‘Spare Office Key.’

Elsa-May clapped her hands. “Well done, Silvie, well done.”

Emma stared at the key in disbelief. “What can we do with that?”

Elsa-May pointed at her. “You, Emma, will go there tonight, no not tonight. Friday night you will go into his office and look through his files, his messages – anything you can find until you know what’s going on.”

Maureen interrupted, “Tomorrow night is Friday night.”

“So it is, well, you must go tomorrow night.” Elsa-May was insistent.

Emma clutched at her throat. “Isn’t that against the law or something? I don’t want to go to jail.”

Ettie leaned forward. “It’s breaking and entering. No wait, it may not be breaking if you have a key. But, if you have stolen the key, I’d say it’s still breaking and most certainly entering.”

Emma jumped to her feet. “This is absurd; I can’t do it, I can’t.”

“
Jah
, you can and I’ll come with you,” Maureen said. “There’s something going on Emma, and you have to find out what it is. Don’t you want to know if you can trust Wil, or not?”

Emma thought back to the romantic picnic she had just had with Wil. What if she had kissed him or something awful, only to find out he was not to be trusted? “
Jah
, but
Gott
reveals all things in time.”

“How much time do you have though, Emma? With Pluver not renewing his lease? Maybe this is an answer to prayer –
Gott
gave you a brain to use and two feet. He did not say that He’ll work everything out and for us to sit on our bottom, did He?” Elsa-May said, in her usual booming voice.

Emma considered how hard Levi’s
familye
had worked on the farm for the past few hundred years. Now, what was to become of it if she sat on her hands and did nothing? She did not want to be the one to lose Levi’s farm to strangers or land developers. Emma exhaled a large breath. “Okay, I’ll do it.” She nibbled on a fingernail hoping that she would not regret the decision she had just made.

Ettie said nothing, but all eyes were on her as she feebly walked across the room to a cupboard. She slowly opened the cupboard door and pulled out a plastic bag tipping the contents on the floor. Out fell three pairs of thin rubber gloves, a flashlight and three black ski masks and a pocketknife. Crouching over the contents, Ettie looked up at both Maureen and Emma. “You both going?” When they both nodded, Ettie passed the equipment to the two of them.

They only had a day to organize the break-in. Emma met Maureen the next day at her place to go over the finer details.

“How should we get there? We can’t really clip-clop down the street with all the buggy lights flashing in the dark and park the buggy outside his office. If anything should happen, people would surely remember a buggy parked outside,” Emma said.

“Quite right. We’ll leave from my
haus
by taxi and have the taxi take us to the other end of town and we can walk the rest of the way.

Emma nodded; it seemed a reasonable plan.

When the time came for Emma to leave her
haus
to go to Maureen’s place to get a taxi to the vulture’s office, she just wanted the whole thing over with. She’d spent all night in nervous anxiety about the whole thing. Would she really find something in his office that would make sense of it all? Was Wil her friend, or was he her foe? Why did Mr. Pluver suddenly pull out of the lease after years farming the land? Had Pluver pulled out, or tried to pull out of Wil’s lease as well? Emma made a mental note to find that out. Was it all a coincidence or was there some larger conspiracy happening, and if it was – would they be able to find it out from snooping in the vulture’s office?

As planned, they had the taxi drop them at the top of town. They walked down the street dressed in their black coats, black stockings and their black boots. Thankfully it was cold so they did not draw too much attention from having their coats wrapped around themselves. Instead of their white prayer
kapps,
they had their black over-bonnets on.

“Don’t look so worried,” Maureen whispered. “You need to look as if you don’t have a care in the world and you’re just taking a stroll in the cool night air.”

Emma nodded and forced a carefree expression on her face.

“That’s better. Now stay like that until we get there, just a couple of blocks to go.”

The streets weren’t crowded; there were a few restaurants open with a handful of people wondering to and fro. No one paid them much attention. As they got to the block the office was on, Maureen looked around about her. The entrance to the upstairs offices was set into the building. They came to a locked door that protected the stairwell.

Maureen looked down at the key. “Oh no, we don’t have a key for this door. Silvie said it was the key to the office, not the key to the downstairs door.”

“Just try it, Maureen.”

“Wait,” Emma said, “We must put the gloves on and wipe the key too.” Emma drew two sets of gloves out from inside the front of her dress and when they had both pulled them on Maureen put the key in the lock and turned it.

To their amazement it unlocked the door. “Well, I hope it unlocks the one upstairs as well,” Maureen said.

Emma gave Maureen a little shove. “Quick, let’s just get in before someone sees us.”

They both slipped through the locked door and were faced with a well-lit staircase.

“Silvie said it was just one flight up.” Maureen made her way up the stairs and Emma followed close behind, grateful that she had Maureen to lead the way. When they reached the top of the stairs, they saw three office doors. The closest one to them belonged to an accountant, the other was a financial advisor and the one farthest away had ‘McAllister’ written on the door.

“Come on,” Maureen whispered over her shoulder.

“I’m right behind you.”

Maureen put the key in the lock and the slight pressure on the door pushed it wide open. She swung around to, Emma. “It was unlocked.”

“He must have forgotten to lock it,” Emma whispered back.

When they were both inside the office, Maureen closed the door behind them and turned on the flashlight.

“Careful to keep it away from the window. Keep it down low.” Emma knew nothing of breaking into a place, but it made sense to keep the light away from the window, they did not need any witnesses.

Maureen gave the flashlight a couple of sharp hits. “We should’ve put some new batteries in this thing.”

“Here give it to me.” Emma wanted to read the papers that were sprawled across his desk. She picked up the first group of papers stapled together and Maureen peered over her shoulder. She read names on the paper out loud and then said, “I don’t know these people, do you?”

“
Nee
.”

Emma leaned over the desk and searched the papers some more. The name Levi Kurtzler caught her eye. She snatched up the paper. “Look, Maureen, Levi’s name.”

Maureen leaned closer. “Looks like a contract for the sale of your land, but was the land in your name as well as Levi’s?”

“
Jah
, Levi had the land put into my name as well, as soon as we married.”

Maureen took the flashlight from her and had a closer look. “Weird. Anything else?”

“Here, shine the light on this one,” Emma instructed.

As Maureen shone the light on the papers, they both looked at each other as soon as they read the names, Emma and Levi Kurtzler. “It looks like it’s a contract for the sale of my land.” Emma looked into Maureen’s face. “I never ordered a contract.”

“Take it with you and let’s keep looking.”

It was hard for Emma to look since there was only one flashlight and Maureen had it. Emma went closer to the window because there was a little light coming in from a street lamp, behind the blinds. As Emma made her way behind the desk toward the window, something caught on her foot and she tripped over letting out a squeal on her way down.

“Hush, Emma.” Maureen turned the flashlight toward Emma’s face and it was then that the light lit up something large on the floor next to her.

Emma gasped and jumped to her feet and ran to stand behind Maureen who trembled as she held the flashlight with both hands. “I think it’s a person.”

“Is it, is it a person?” Emma asked.

Maureen took a step closer and touched the lump on the floor with her foot. There was no reaction. She reached an outstretched hand so the flashlight would be closer. The light shined on a face. Maureen gasped. “
Jah
, it’s a person, but I think they’re dead.”

Chapter 7.

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three;

but the greatest of these is charity.

1 Corinthians 13:13

“Quick, Maureen, we have to check to see if he’s still alive.”

Maureen was speechless and stood still, like a statue. 

Emma snatched the flashlight from Maureen’s hands and shone the light on the face of the body once more, only to see that it was Henry Pluver. “It’s Pluver.” Through her plastic gloves she could tell that his neck had no pulse, she checked his wrist as well, although the neck would be the better source of information, she was sure. “He’s dead, for sure. And it’s Henry Pluver.”

Maureen gasped. “What will we do?”

“Get out of here, of course. Then we’ll call the police.”

Emma pushed the contract for her property down the front of her dress, grabbed Maureen’s arm and hurried her outside the building. “Now, remember, Maureen, we have to walk up the street as if we’re having a nice walk, and nothing more.”

Maureen’s eyes were wide, like saucers.

“Well, maybe just pull your bonnet down over your face.” Emma pulled Maureen’s bonnet
forward so it hid the majority of her face.

They got in a taxi and went straight to Elsa-May’s
haus.

“We should call the cops and let them know,” was Elsa-May’s first response when she heard the news.

“Shall
I go and phone them from the public phone down on the corner?” Emma offered.

Elsa-May shook her head. “
Nee
, I’ll call them from my cell phone.”

“Your what?” Emma nearly choked. The Amish were not to have technology such as phones. Some had phones in their barns and some had a telephone in a shanty outside their
haus
, but no one had a cell phone, no one that she knew of, until now.

“Cell phone. I just use it for emergencies such as these.”

Did she just say emergencies such as these? How many dead bodies has she had to call the police about?
Emma realized her mouth was open very wide as she looked at the elderly lady in disbelief. “How do you even know how to use a cell phone?”

Elsa-May tipped her head slightly to the side. “Easy; it came with instructions.”

“Elsa-May we’re not supposed to have the outside world coming into the home,” Emma said, trying to abide by the unwritten rules of the
Ordnung.

“I’ll use it outside then.”

Emma was a little too flustered to argue. “Well, what will you say to them?”

“I’ll say there’s a body in an office in town.” Elsa-May pressed a button on her cell.

Ettie spoke up. “Why don’t we just wait until they discover it in the morning? Emma can call there just after nine. By then the place will be swarming with cops and she can gather information. Maybe get friendly with one of the cops.”

Elsa-May was silent for a time. “You know, Ettie, I think you’ve just had your first good idea.”

Emma looked at Ettie; she wasn’t sure if what Elsa-May said to her
schweschder
was a compliment, but by the look on Ettie’s face she certainly had taken it as one. “Wait, I have to go back there?” Emma thought the idea a bad one.

“Of course you do. The man’s been killed just after telling you he can’t lease your land anymore, you find a contract for the sale of your farm – of course you have to go back there.” Elsa-May switched off her cell phone and placed it back in the sideboard drawer. “What was he doing in the vulture’s office? You need to find all these things out.”

Ettie touched Emma lightly on her arm. “
Jah
, dear. You have to go back there and get all the information you can.”

“What will I say that I’m doing there?” Emma swallowed hard.

Maureen spoke up, “You could say that you’re there to speak to Mr. McAllister about selling your farm. I mean, say that you’re thinking of selling and you want to talk it over with him.”

“I’m a little scared. What if someone saw us there?” Emma asked.

Ettie shook her head. “
Nee
don’t worry about it. No one would have seen you and besides you didn’t kill him, did you?”

Emma shook her head.

Elsa-May said, “See, nothing to worry about. Besides all Amish look the same to the
Englischers.
If someone saw a couple of Amish ladies just deny it was you. They can’t prove anything. Ettie, hitch the buggy and take these two girls home; they look like they need a
gut
night’s sleep.”

“
Jah
, Elsa-May.”

Emma was concerned by the late hour. “
Nee
, we’ll get a taxi.”

“
Nee
, it’s no problem. I’ll be two minutes.” Ettie left the three women in the
haus
and went to the barn.

“I should help her,” Maureen said as she walked out the front door.

“Elsa-May, sometimes I feel that you’ve been involved in things before, with the flashlight, the rubber gloves and all.”

“Let’s just say, we look after our own.” She gave Emma a wink. “We’ll get to the bottom of this mess, don’t you worry.”

Emma studied the capable old lady. Somehow she believed her words, but Emma was worried at exactly what they would uncover. She hoped that Wil had nothing to do with whatever was going on.