Free Amish House of Secrets by Samantha Price Page B

for Dorothy. She’s coming back here tonight.”
    Emma said goodbye to Wil and watched at the door as he walked back towards his place.
    Remembering Growler’s blood all over the kitchen floor, she headed back to the kitchen. She grabbed a dishrag, wet it with water and began to wipe the floor.
    She had barely finished when she heard a knock at the door, she hoped it wasn’t Dorothy so soon because she hadn’t even had a chance to think about dinner. She opened the door to see Detective Crowley.
    He jumped back in shock. “Mrs. Kurtzler, who’s dead now?”
    Emma frowned until she realized she had a rag in her hand filled with blood. She laughed and put the rag behind her back. “Oh, Growler injured himself somehow.” She stepped aside. “Come in and have a seat. I’ll just get rid of this and wash my hands.”
    Moments later, Emma sat down in the small couch opposite the detective. “How can I help you?”
    “I believe you have one Dorothy Welby staying here?”
    Emma narrowed her eyes and nodded. “Yes, she was the one the letters belonged to, the one Maureen and I went to visit in Florida. Anything wrong?”
    The detective shook his head. “Why is it Emma that you always land into the middle of things?”
    Emma stared at him wondering what he was talking about.
    “Mrs. Fielding, who used to go by the name of Josephine Cutter, died in a local hospital. She was there for a simple operation to have her tonsils removed and she died.”
    “There’s a risk with all operations, isn’t there?” Emma raised her eyebrows at the detective’s silence. “Do you think she was murdered or something?”
    The detective ignored her question and continued, “An autopsy was performed, and it was revealed that she was given a lethal dose of insulin.”
    Emma’s hand flew to her mouth.
    The detective continued, “Were you aware that Dorothy Welby was once a nurse?”
    “I don’t think so, I can’t remember whether she mentioned that or not. Surely you can’t think that Dorothy had anything to do with it?”
    The detective leaned back in his chair. “Mr. Fielding was not happy and claimed hospital negligence. I looked into things and asked around. The woman who was sharing the same hospital room as Mrs. Fielding says she saw an elderly lady around Josephine’s bed shortly before she died. Nothing made sense, and there were no suspects until now.”
    Emma tilted her head to the side. “I’m not following you, Detective. What are you saying?”
    “I pulled up records of Dorothy Welby and found that she matches the description of the lady who was seen over Josephine’s bed.”
    “Detective, surely all old ladies look the same. There would be thousands upon thousands of women with that same description. An old lady with gray hair of medium build five feet two inches. How many women would fit that description?”
    “She has motive from what you ladies told me of Josephine Fielding’s deception. At the time of Mrs. Fielding’s death, Dorothy Welby did live close by.”
    Emma said, “You mentioned Mrs. Welby’s record, does she have a criminal history?”
    The detective shook his head. “No, I was speaking of her driver’s license record.”
    “Detective, Dorothy Welby is a sweet old lady and not capable of doing anything like that. When we told her that Harold was alive, she had no idea, she was truly shocked.”
    The detective rose to his feet. “Of course, that’s what impression she would need to have given you. She could not have turned up out of the blue and gone straight to Harold after she’d killed his wife.” He shook his head slowly. “No. If she did kill Josephine Fielding, she would have gone underground and set about planning a legitimate way that she could be reunited with Harold. Such as, innocently leave a box of letters in her house for some ‘do-gooder’ to read and set about to re-unite them.”
    Emma thought that maybe the detective had been at the job for far too long if he thought