Free Accused (Amish Romance Mystery) (Amish Secret Widows' Society #3) by Samantha Price Page B

murder.”
    “Did Marg ever think to go to the police? Or were the police aware that Juliana had someone staying at her haus the night of the murder?”
    “The detective didn’t mention a thing about it.” Ettie turned to Elsa-May. “Did he mention anything to you?”
    “ Nee he didn’t. I’ve spoken to him twice about that murder and he never once mentioned that she had some strange man at her house that night,” Elsa-May said. “Silvie, why don’t you knock on Juliana’s door and pretend you’re from the college doing a paper on witnesses and ask her if she wouldn’t mind answering some questions?”
    Silvie’s face went pale. “Why me? I can’t do things like that. I wouldn’t know what to ask. I can’t fool someone like that. She’d never believe me. Amish don’t go to college, so how do I explain that?”
    “ Jah she will believe you, I’ll write the questions for you and you’ll have to get yourself some clothes that will pass as Englisch . All you say when she answers the door is, Good morning. Are you Juliana Redcliffe? I’m Silvie Brown and I’m doing a paper on the effect that witnessing a crime has on people. Do you mind if I ask you some questions? She’ll either say no and slam the door on you or invite you in. If she invites you in, you’ll produce my list of questions and write down her answers. It’s simple, Silvie,” Elsa-May said.
    Silvie nodded, “ Jah , I suppose I can do that, but I’m a little frightened. What if she killed that man and blamed it on Ross? That means I’ll be alone with a murderer.”
    Elsa-May tapped her chin. “I’ll have Maureen go with you.”
    Maureen pulled a sour face. “All right, I’ll go with you, Silvie. As long as you do all the talking; you’re better at that kind of thing than me.”
    “You need to do that today. There’s no time to waste. You have to speak to Juliana and make sure you don’t bump into Crowley; he wouldn’t be too happy to see you anywhere near Juliana,” Elsa-May said.
     
    * * *
     
    An hour later, Silvie and Maureen, both wearing Englisch clothes, pulled up in a taxi up the road from Juliana’s house.
    When the taxi drove away, Silvie said, “I hope she’s home. Remember, I’ll do all the talking and you help me take notes on what she says.”
    Half an hour before, when they were at Silvie’s haus dressing in Englisch clothes, it occurred to Silvie and Maureen to go against Elsa-May’s advice. They hoped they would not get into terrible trouble with her. They decided rather than say that they were doing a paper on witnessing crime they would say that they were doing a survey for the Department of Health on violence against women. Maybe that would have her open up about the man who was violent with her.
    They had the taxi drop them a little up the road so it would appear as though they were doing a door-to-door survey.
    They knocked on Juliana’s door, hoping that she would be home.
    Seconds later a woman who answered Juliana’s description answered the door.
    Maureen spoke first. “Hello, we’re doing a survey.”
    “We’re from the health department,” Silvie added.
    The woman looked from one to the other. “What’s it about?”
    “It’s about violence against women. We’re trying to find how wide spread it actually is and we’re going door to door in the whole neighborhood,” Silvie said, hoping that Gott would forgive her for telling a fib if it was to help someone.
    “Do you have five minutes to answer some quick questions?” Maureen asked.
    Juliana looked at her watch. “As long as it will only be five minutes.”
    “That’s all it will take,” Maureen said.
    “Come in then.” Juliana stepped back so both women could enter the haus. “This way.” She took them through to a small room with two small couches. “Have a seat.”
    Once they were seated, Silvie shuffled some papers in readiness to make it look as though she was reading questions out.
    “I forgot to ask for your