Amish Regrets (Amish Secret Widows' Society #4) (10 page)

“Because, dear innocent, Emma, if a hired hit-man wants someone killed, they don’t deliver a poisoned lunch to someone’s office and risk that someone else might eat it. They are not so hit and miss - pardon the pun. They shoot to kill,” Elsa-May said.

“You could be right, Elsa-May, you too, Maureen. I didn’t even consider it.” Silvie pushed her prayer
kapp
up on her head a little.

“I’ll call Crowley first thing in the morning and run what we’ve said by him. Then we’ll all meet back here tomorrow night and have Crowley come and tell us what he’s found out.” Elsa-May said.

“Don’t forget to tell him that Maud, the housekeeper, has a brand spanking new, expensive car. She wouldn’t be able to afford that on her wage,” Maureen said.

Elsa-May nodded.

Chapter 14.

Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed,

and was delivered of a child when she was past age,

because she judged him faithful who had promised.

Hebrews 11:11

The very next night Crowley had some news for the ladies when he arrived at Elsa-May and Ettie’s house.

“I’ve quite a lot to tell you ladies. We confiscated all the cell phones and all the computers at the residences of Mrs. Liante, Miss Scotsdale and Miss Tobrill.”

“And what did you find out, Detective?” Elsa-May asked.

“As I suspected, Mr. Liante’s computer at his residence was automatically logged in and was read from the computer at the house. Mr. Liante was nowhere near his house that day, so the email must have been read by someone at the house.”

Silvie gasped. “Did you speak to Mrs. Liante?”

“I called Mrs. Liante into the office and told her that we know that she opened that email and we were able to tell her at what time the email was opened. I also told Mrs. Liante that the man we’ve got in custody implicated her when he confessed that she hired him to kill Mr. Banks and her husband.” The detective chuckled. “It wasn’t true of course, we don’t have a confession from him yet. She denied it and refused to speak to us any further. We let her leave the station and we had a patrol car standing by ready to bring the housekeeper in before Mrs. Liante had time to communicate with her. We told the housekeeper that Mrs. Liante had confessed. We offered the housekeeper a deal if she testified against Mrs. Liante and she agreed. Now, we have a full statement from the housekeeper.”

Everyone was quiet except Elsa-May. “She did it? Mrs. Liante killed him? I knew it, I just knew it.”

“You were right about the car. The car was a pay off for her silence.” Detective Crowley said.

“Wasn’t the lunch labeled for Mr. Banks? How would Mrs. Liante know that Mr. Banks wouldn’t be there?” Emma asked.

“It appears Mrs. Liante thought to cover her tracks from the very beginning. We may never find that out, but somehow she found out that Mr. Banks wouldn’t be there.”

“I’m confused,” Emma said to the detective. “Mrs. Liante wasn’t trying to kill Neville Banks?”

The detective laughed. “She had to kill Neville in the end to cover her tracks. She knew her husband would eat that meal because she somehow found out that Neville Banks would not be in the office. She knew her husband wouldn’t let good food go to waste. In labeling the food for Neville, it made it look as though Neville was the target. The man who cut the brakes to Neville’s car was the same man who delivered the lunch full of poison.”

Emma nodded her head.

Detective Crowley continued his explanation. “When we did not make the connection with the meal in the first instance, we started to question Mrs. Liante. She couldn’t tell us that we missed the evidence and ruined her little plan so she had to stage that knife attack to cause us to stop looking in her direction. It was only when poor old Banks was killed that we made the connection to the poison in the meal. I guess she thought we’d think that her husband’s death was an accident and we very nearly did. Mrs. Liante nearly got away with murder.”

“So what was it that gave her away? What was it that led you to believe that she did it?” Emma asked.

“It was the email being opened from the computer in the house when Mr. Liante was nowhere near the house at the time. It was also the fact that the housekeeper was driving an unusually expensive car. Thank you, Maureen for your keen observation.” The detective smiled at Maureen.

Maureen smiled back at him and said, “What a wicked woman. She also killed poor Mr. Banks who had nothing to do with anything.”

The detective slowly nodded. “Wicked indeed. We’re working on getting a statement from the man we’re holding, the man who cut the brakes. He’ll possibly talk now that we’ve got the housekeeper’s statement.”

“Well done, Detective,” Ettie said.

“Yes, thank you, Detective. Sabrina will be pleased that justice will be done,” Silvie said.

The detective gave a low chuckle. “The quarter that Sabrina’s got coming to her will no doubt become a third if Mrs. Liante is convicted.”

After Ettie brought the food out and after the detective ate two slices he got up to leave.

“Detective, why don’t you take some slices home to your wife?”

The detective hung his head and murmured in a low voice, “I’m not married.”

“I thought by your age you’d be married,” Elsa-May said in her usual candid way.

“In my line of work, it’s hard for a woman. I work long hours and don’t have much free time. Most women find that difficult.”

The widows all stared at him as he tipped his head and walked out the door.

“Imagine, a man of his age not being married,” Ettie said. “I might make him a few meals that he can freeze.”

“
Jah
, he works long hours. How would he eat without a
fraa
to cook for him?” Maureen asked.

Silvie could not think about Crowley and his stomach; she wanted to go home and be with Sabrina. “I’ll go home now and tell Sabrina everything.
Denke
everyone for helping with this.”

When Silvie arrived home, she sat down with Sabrina and told her everything she’d found out.

“In a way, it makes me feel better that the truth has been told,” Sabrina said.

Silvie put her arm around Sabrina. “I’m sorry that you’ve been through something so awful at your young age.”

“It’s my own fault for making bad choices. From now on, I’ll not do anything that I could not stand up and tell the congregation of.”

Silvie gave a little laugh. “
Jah,
that must have been awful.”

“It was, but now I know why the bishop made me do it. Now, I feel clean and can live my life the way that
Gott
would want me to live.” Sabrina bounded to her feet. “I forgot to tell you, this arrived today.” Sabrina retrieved a letter from the top of the bureau.

Silvie took the letter from her. She knew at once that it was another letter from Bailey. Sabrina walked out of the room while Silvie pulled the letter in toward her heart. Was she at risk of making the same mistake that Sabrina had made? Was
Gott
trying to warn her not to get involved with this
Englischer
? After all, what guarantee did she have that Bailey was ever going to join the community?

She placed the letter on the couch beside her, pulled her knees up under her full dress and hugged them to her chest. She knew she was one step away from falling into something from which there would be no return. Silvie saw what love had done to Sabrina. It had made her lose all sense and control. As Silvie ripped the envelope open, her heart felt just as torn.

Her mood took a turn for the better when she scanned the words of the letter to read:

Just six more months and if I have not closed the case within that time, I will leave my job and come back to you, my dearest Silvie.

*** The End ***

********************

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