Secrets Come Home (12 page)

Chapter 20.

Ettie had Crowley drive her back to Agatha’s old house. She stood at the door and watched Crowley drive away. A quick look in the paddock told Ettie that Ava had taken her buggy somewhere. At last she could have a time to sit in peace and empty her mind of all the dreadful things she’d heard.

She had kept the door locked since she’d had the incident with the intruder who’d ripped up her floor. She reached into her sleeve and pulled out her front door key, pushing it into the lock and turning it. Once she pushed the door open she stepped inside, hoping that everything was okay.

She took a few steps further, slowly, until she saw that nothing was out of place. After she checked every room she finally felt she was able to relax. She kicked off her boots, placed her slippers on her feet and headed to the kitchen. Ettie smiled when she saw how tidy Crowley had left things in the kitchen – even the dishtowel was carefully folded and left adjacent to the sink. After she made a cup of tea, Ettie headed to the living room.

Ettie looked around – it didn’t feel like her house. It would always be Agatha’s home. She sat in Agatha’s rocking chair holding her teacup, careful not to spill a drop. After looking around the room, she put the cup to her lips. She slurped her tea, glad that Elsa-May wasn’t there to tell her to stop. Hot tea tasted much better when it was slurped. “Did you play a part in this nasty business, Agatha?” she asked her late friend, wishing Agatha could tell her exactly what she knew. Agatha had to have known something about Horace being under the floor, Ettie was now convinced of that.

A knock on Ettie’s front door startled her. She hadn’t heard anyone approach the house. She set her tea down on a small side table and peeped out one of the front windows. It was Sadie.
The police are going to think I’m meddling again.

With Sadie sobbing as she waited for the door to open, Ettie had no choice but to let her in. Once the door was open, Sadie put her arms around Ettie’s shoulders and sobbed. Ettie instinctively patted her on the back.

“Oh, Ettie. I’m so upset.”

“Come inside. I’ve just boiled the water.” As Ettie closed the front door she looked up the road. No sign of the police.

She sat Sadie at the kitchen table while she made her a cup of tea. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on, Sadie? I was at the police station earlier today and I believe I heard them saying they’re getting a warrant for your arrest.”

Sadie sniffled and shook her head. “I don’t care anymore. I don’t care what happens to me now. My life is finished.”

Ettie placed a cup of tea in front of her. “Did you come to talk to me?”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“You could start by telling the truth before the police think you had something to do with Horace’s murder.”

Sadie’s eyelids flickered as she avoided Ettie’s gaze. Ettie wondered if she did have something to do with his death. “Correct me if I’m wrong, Sadie. Horace gave you the stolen goods and had you open the deposit box at the bank. You never gave him back the key, did you?”

Sadie sniffled, closed her eyes and said,
“Nee.”

“You heard Horace was returning to the community to marry Agatha. You were furious; he was the cause of you losing your baby so you wanted to confront him. You drove past and saw he was here at Agatha’s house. You came to the door to talk to him, possibly to tell Agatha about the baby you’d had with Horace. You hit him hard in anger and killed him.”

With both hands clutching her stomach she asked, “Did Agatha tell you?”

Ettie slowly shook her head. “Agatha kept your secret. Although she loved him, he’d betrayed her as well as you. She couldn’t have been happy with what he’d done. Neither could she marry him.”

Sadie sighed. “It’s just as you said. Only Agatha was right here when I hit him, and she saw the whole thing. I didn’t mean to kill him. I was so upset with him and how he’d trusted those people with William. He’d lost me my baby because he wouldn’t do the right thing and marry me.”

Ettie patted her on the arm.

Sadie continued, “Agatha knew it was an accident and that’s why she helped me hide his body. We figured nobody would find him there. We had a pact, Agatha and I. We didn’t like each other, but we had both loved Horace. We made certain to stay a distance from one another after that, in the hope that no one would suspect that we had worked together to create his disappearance.”

“Did Horace know you cleared out the safe deposit box?”

Sadie shook her head. “It was after Horace had gone and I realized I was never going to get my baby back. It was me who took the gems out of the bank. I sold all that I could – there were some that were too big to sell quickly. I took the big diamonds and the cash to Mrs. Settler hoping that when she saw all that jewelry and those big diamonds she’d give me my baby. When I realized she wouldn’t give my baby up for anything, I left everything with her. What else could I do? That was all I could do for him; the last thing I could do for him.”

“It must have been hard for you to keep that secret all these years.”

“It was. I told
mamm
some of it.”

“What happened to the key after that?”

“I gave the key to Agatha and asked her to hide it where no one would ever find it.”

“Ah, and she hid it close to Horace.”

“She never told me where she hid it. When I heard that Horace was found I asked Bill to help me find the key. I knew that the police would’ve combed the place and if they found the key it’d be only a matter of time before they pieced everything together. I had to tell Bill about the box and that I might go to jail if they found out that key was in my name. He came here the other night to look for it, but he told me someone spotted him. Then he heard that you had the key and he sent someone to get it.”

“He was doing what he could to take care of you, Sadie.”

“Now I’ve probably gotten my own son into trouble.”

Ettie heard cars pull up in front of her house. She walked to the front window and pulled the curtain aside. She called out to Sadie who was still in the kitchen. “It’s the police – looking for you, no doubt.”

Sadie rose to her feet and joined Ettie by the front door. “I’m ready for them.”

Ettie opened the door just as Detective Kelly was walking up the porch steps followed by two policemen.

The detective looked past Ettie to Sadie. “Sadie Hostetler, I have a warrant for your arrest.”

She stepped forward and Ettie noticed one of the policemen had handcuffs in his hands. He stepped forward. “Put both of your hands out.”

“Is that necessary, Detective?” Ettie asked. “She’s not going to run off anywhere.”

“Very well.” The detective gave the officer a look, which caused the officer to clip the cuffs back onto his belt. “Let’s go, Ms. Hostetler.”

“Will you be all right, Sadie?” Ettie called after her.

“I’ll be fine, Ettie. I’ll tell them all that I told you.”

The detective looked up, stopped in his tracks, turned around and glared at Ettie.

Ettie took a step back, wondering what she should say. Before anything came to mind, the detective turned again and continued to the waiting car.

* * *

With all that had happened that day, Ettie decided that Agatha’s house held too many sad memories, and so she went back to stay with Elsa-May that night.

After dinner, while she was doing her needlework and Elsa-May was knitting quietly, Ettie remembered her words to Jeremiah. “I told Jeremiah we’d have him over for dinner. And I invited Ava over too.”

Elsa-May looked over the top of her glasses. “No good comes from meddling in other people’s lives, Ettie.”

“It’s just dinner. Whatever the two of them do after that is none of my business.”

Elsa-May scoffed. “You make it sound like they’re going to run off and do something bad.”

“You know that’s not what I mean. Once they get to know one another a little better they might find that they like each other.”

“And if they do it’s well and good.” Elsa-May nodded firmly.

Ettie smiled and looked back at her needlework as she planned what they’d cook for the dinner. “Perhaps we should have that dinner next week?”

Elsa-May kept her head down. “Whenever you’d like; a week or more would give us enough time to plan for a nice dinner.”

Chapter 21.

The next day, after completing their chores, Elsa-May and Ettie had settled down for a quiet day when someone knocked on their door.

“I’ll get it.” Ettie rose to her feet and hurried to the door, hoping it would be someone from the community coming with news of Sadie. She’d not been brave enough to go near Detective Kelly since he’d arrested Sadie the day before.

“Ah, I’m glad it’s you. Come in.” Ettie ushered Crowley through the door and sat him in the living room.

“Thank you, Ettie. That’s one of the best receptions I’ve ever gotten.”

“Ettie’s been anxiously waiting to find out what happened to Sadie. Is she still arrested?”

Ettie didn’t mind Elsa-May speaking on her behalf today. She looked at the retired detective, waiting, hoping he knew something.

“I’ve just come from the station. Sadie was arrested for the murder of Horace Hostetler after her confession. Her son, Bill Settler, posted bail.”

“She’s out?”

Crowley nodded.

“Will she go to prison?” Elsa-May asked.

Crowley sucked in his lips before he said, “She didn’t have the intention to kill him and there were extreme circumstances, but I guess it depends on the judge and the jury on the day. With the waiting periods it might be two or three years before she stands trial.”

“What about Mrs. Settler? She took what Sadie gave her; will she be charged?”

“I’m not certain, but most likely she’ll be charged. They’re still sorting through the evidence.”

“Well, you were right about one thing, Ettie,” Elsa-May said.

“I was right about a lot of things.” Ettie glared at her sister. She reckoned she’d done pretty well piecing everything together.

“I meant you were right about Agatha not killing Horace.”

“There was never any doubt in my mind about that.” Ettie smiled, feeling good that her sister had finally given her a compliment. “I knew Agatha had no violence in her, but keeping a secret, that would be something she’d do. She was a good and loyal friend these past ten years, since we grew close.”

“The Settler family’s not short on money, I can assure you of that. With Bill looking after her, Sadie will get the best legal team money can buy.”

“The son now looks after the mother that never got a chance to look after him,” Elsa-May said, her voice filled with sadness.

“It’s awful for Sadie that she lost a son. It would’ve been sad for Agatha too, but she didn’t lose a child, just a man. There were many others she could’ve chosen over the years.” Ettie wiped away a tear.

“That’s what secrets will do. What would’ve happened if Sadie had been able to tell the truth about having a baby? Surely what she would’ve gone through would be less painful than what finally happened?” Crowley asked.

Ettie and Elsa-May looked at each other. “Most likely they would have had to have confessed their sin in front of the community on a Sunday, in front of everyone.”

“Would they have been shunned?” Crowley asked.

“Depends if they’d been baptized or not. The young usually wait until just before marriage to get baptized,” Elsa-May said. “They would’ve had to live with the shame. And they’d have had to marry.”

“It probably all came down to Horace not wanting to marry Sadie,” Crowley said.

“Well, he should’ve,” Elsa-May said flatly. “After what he did, he should’ve.”

Crowley nodded. “It would’ve been easier to marry Sadie than to end up under a house.”

“Well, once again we owe you many thanks, for helping Ettie with all these goings on,” Elsa-May said.

“Yes, thank you. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you stepping in once that key was found. I haven’t made a very good impression on Detective Kelly.” Ettie ran her finger around the top of her teacup.

Crowley chuckled.

Ettie stared into her nettle tea. What would she do with Agatha’s house? All those years of being a good friend to Agatha and she never breathed a word of what had happened to Horace. Then the scripture came to Ettie’s mind: Luke 8:17.
For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.

“All secrets come home,” Ettie muttered to herself while Crowley and Elsa-May reached as one for the last piece of cake.

* * * The End * * *

Thank you for your interest in

Secrets Come Home

Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries
Book 1

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