Free Secrets Come Home by Samantha Price Page A

didn’t realize the importance of it. We’ve both touched it, Ava and I, and so has Jeremiah.”
    Crowley slipped the key back inside the envelope before placing it in his inner coat pocket. “It’ll be very interesting to find out who this key belongs to.”
    “I don’t know if you’ll have any luck speaking to that new detective,” Ettie said.
    Crowley scratched his neck. “Don’t you worry about that, Ettie.”
    Crowley stood and disappeared out the door. Ettie was happy that someone was finally listening. Crowley had been a little like Detective Kelly when she first knew him.
    Ettie had just sat down with a cup of tea when she heard a knock at the door. She knew it wasn’t Ava because she always came to the back door. Maybe Crowley’s forgotten something. When she flung the door open, there before her stood Sadie.
    “Sadie, how nice to see you. Come in. Come through to the kitchen – I’ve just made a pot of tea.”
    “Denke, Ettie.” Sadie followed Ettie into the kitchen, dragging her feet. When Sadie was seated, she began. “Oh, Ettie, I’m just so upset over everything that’s happened. I’m too upset to live.”
    “Life has its low points, but don’t go saying things like that. How’s your mudder coping now?”
    “Still upset. Your visit the other day cheered her up. I always thought he had died, and that’s why he never came back.” She balled her hand into a fist and held it against her stomach. “I felt he was dead.” Sadie looked up at Ettie. “I didn’t want it to be true.”
    Ettie racked her brain, trying to come up with words of comfort. “There, there, Sadie. He’s at home with Gott , and he’s happy now.”
    Sadie nodded. “Oh, Ettie, I hope you don’t mind me coming here to talk to you. I don’t have many close friends and if I talk to mamm I know she’ll start crying all over again and not be able to stop.”
    “That’s perfectly all right. Talk to me whenever you want. I remember how close you always were to Horace.”
    “You do?”
    Ettie nodded.
    “Jah , we were close, weren’t we?’
    “You were.” Ettie desperately wanted to ask her questions but feared now was not the time to do so.
    “There’s another reason I came here today.”
    Ettie raised her eyebrows.
    Sadie continued, “I was hoping that you might have found something here in this house that belonged to Horace, since he was so close to Agatha. I’d like a memento, something to remember him by.”
    “Wouldn’t he have left all his belongings at your haus? Surely all his possessions were left there.”
    “Mamm threw everything out a long time ago when he didn’t come home. She thought he was living as an Englischer so she wanted to rid the place of his memory.”
    “I can sympathize with you, and your mudder. I’ve been through the pain of losing someone many a time.” Ettie thought about her dog that had just died. No one or nothing would be able to replace him. “But, as Bishop John would say, death is a part of life.”
    “Jah, but why did he have to go so soon?”
    “Nee. He was still very young, but none of us knows when our time will come.”
    As Sadie sipped her tea, Ettie noticed Sadie’s red-rimmed eyes and her paler-than-usual skin. She remembered the pain of losing her own brother. “There was a key found near him.”
    Sadie gulped on her tea, then wiped her mouth with her fingers. “A key? Where is it?”
    “On its way to the police. They should have it by now,” Ettie answered.
    “Why the police?”
    Ettie decided not to tell her about the floor being taken up. “Evidence I suppose, much like his clothing.”
    Sadie nodded. “Do you know what the key is for, what it unlocks?”
    “Nee, I don’t.” She paused. “All that’s happened shows us that we have to appreciate those we have, while we have them.”
    “That’s true, Ettie.”
    A loud knock sounded on the door. Ettie opened it to see a young man dressed in black. “I don’t want any trouble, lady, I just