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

ID,” Juliana said.
    “We don’t have any yet,” Maureen said.
    “There was a mix-up with the new model of ID and they’ll be ready tomorrow. We can call back and show you tomorrow if you wish,” Silvie said.
    Juliana shook her head, “Don’t worry about it. Will this survey help other women?”
    “That’s the purpose of it,” Silvie said. Without written questions from Elsa-May and with no time to write any of her own, Silvie had to pull some quick questions from her head. “Have you ever been the victim of abuse?”
    “Yes, I have. I’ve been physically abused many times in my life.”
    Maureen leaned forward. “Have you? That’s awful.” After an intense stare from Silvie, Maureen straightened up.
    “Thank you and yes, it was awful. First my step-father beat me on more than one occasion and I had two boyfriends who used to hit me when they got angry.”
    Juliana cast her tear filled eyes downward and Silvie looked at Maureen. Had they bitten off more than they could chew?
    “When was the last time you experienced abuse? Could you tell us about it? If you feel you can talk about it,” Maureen said.
    Juliana sniffed and looked at the two ladies in front of her. “It was a while ago now. I made sure that he could never hurt anyone again.”
    “That’s good and how did you see to that?” Silvie asked.
    Juliana shook her head. “I don’t want to speak about it. In fact, I’d prefer not to talk at all. It’s too upsetting for me to speak about.” Juliana looked at Silvie and then looked at Maureen. “I appreciate what you ladies are doing. There’s too much violence towards women. I hope you can make a change, but I can’t help you.” Juliana rose to her feet. “I’ll show you out.”
    Maureen stayed seated. “Before we leave can you tell me just how does one go about making sure that a man will never hit a woman again?”
    Juliana shrugged her shoulders. “How should I know?”
    Maureen locked eyes with Juliana. “You just said that you made sure that the last man who hurt you would never hurt anyone again.”
    “I’ve had enough questions for today. I’m done.” Juliana stared at Maureen until she stood up.
    “Okay, thank you,” Maureen said.
    Maureen and Silvie left Juliana’s house and hurried to the main road. Maureen reached into the pocket of her long black Englisch looking skirt and took out Elsa-May’s borrowed cell phone to call a taxi.
    Once the call was made, Silvie asked, “What do you think of all that?”
    Maureen placed the cell carefully back in her pocket. “Did you hear what she said? She said she made sure the last man who hurt her would never hurt anyone again. Do you think she was referring to the man who was murdered two years ago?”
    “Could have been.”
     
    * * *
     
    That afternoon the five widows waited for the detective at Elsa-May and Ettie’s haus . He had phoned ahead and told them that he had a significant development in the case of Ross Geiger.
    “What news do you have for us, Detective?” Elsa-May asked once the detective sat on one of their hard, wooden chairs.
    “Juliana Redcliffe admitted to killing the man and said that it was self-defense. She claimed that she witnessed Ross kill the man because she wanted him in jail so she could get her child back. She said that it was after she killed the man and was back in her house that she got the idea to make it look as though Ross had done it. She’d seen some sticks at the scene of the crime so she took some twine back to the body, made a cross and tied him to it. She figured it would be believable that an Amish man did it if there was a religious element there somewhere.”
    “But the dead man was found about 500 meters away from her house. How could she get him that far away?” Emma asked.
    “He chased her out there. She claims he knocked her to the ground after chasing her from the house. She saw a rock and when he turned his head that’s when she hit him. The first knock stunned him