The Jackson Case

by Diana Xarissa

“Ah, you must be Mr. Grayson,” Stuart said. “I was told you’d be stopping in to check on us.”

  “Yes, that’s right,” the man said. He smiled and shook hands with Stuart, who introduced Janet and Joan as well.

  “But you must call me George,” the man added after the introductions were complete. George was probably sixty-five, with grey hair and brown eyes. He was short, with a rounded tummy. “I’m responsible for arranging the rental of the space here. I understand you’re going to be having a charity auction here on Friday evening?”

  “Yes, that’s right,” Stuart said. “The party starts at seven. We’ll want to get in as early as possible to decorate, though. We had been hoping to have the event at The Mill Restaurant. We’re hoping to create a similar atmosphere in here to what they have in their private dining room.”

  The man raised his eyebrows. “Good luck,” he said. “We have a bingo night on Thursday, but you’re welcome at any time on Friday. There was meant to be a birthday party here Friday afternoon, but the child decided he wanted to go to some soft playground space instead. Normally I’d try to rebook the space, but I thought I’d let you in early instead.”

  “That’s very kind of you,” Stuart said.

  “Yes, well, we will be charging you for the privilege,” George said with a laugh. “We require half of the rental charge in advance and the balance on the day. I can take cash from you now, if you’d like.”

  Stuart looked as surprised as Janet felt. “I believe the rental is being paid for through ticket sales,” he said eventually. “I’ll have to talk to Norman about that, as well.”

  George nodded. “I do need payment by the end of the day,” he said. “Otherwise, we’ll cancel the event and try to rebook the space.”

  “The end of the day?” Stuart echoed. “I don’t know if I’ll hear from Norman by then.”

  “I hate to be the bad guy here,” George said cheerfully. “But the event is only two days away.”

  “How much do you need today?” Janet asked.

  “Fifty pounds,” George said.

  “Is that all?” Janet asked. “You’re only charging a hundred pounds for the use of the space for the entire day?”

  “We offer a discount for charitable events,” George said.

  Stuart opened his wallet and pulled out some notes. “I’ll pay it,” he said. “But I’ll need a receipt to show to Norman so I can get my money back.”

  “Just wait here a minute and I’ll get you one,” George said.

  He was gone less than that. “Here you are,” he said, handing a slip of paper to Stuart.

  “I think I’ve seen enough,” Janet said. “Are there any ladders available?”

  “Yes, there’s one in the storage shed behind the building,” George told her. “I can be here on Friday to let you into the shed to borrow it.”

  “But who will be going up the ladder?” Joan demanded.

  “I suppose I can,” Janet replied.

  “I think that might be a job for me,” Stuart argued.

  “Let’s worry about it on Friday,” Janet said. “As long as a ladder is available, we’ll work it out.”

  The trio headed back to Doveby Dale in silence. Stuart stared at the road, his hands tightly clenched on the steering wheel. Clearly something was bothering him. Janet didn’t want to ask him what it was. Instead, she reworked her plans for the room several times, moving a makeshift stage around the place until she was happy with its location. By the time they arrived back at Doveby House, she’d added several round tables for guests and begun working out how to cover up the basketball hoops.

  “I’ll pick you both up at eight on Friday,” Stuart told them as they got out of the car. “I can’t thank you enough for your willingness to help me with this.”

  “It’s not a problem,” Janet said. While it was hard work, she was actually enjoying planning out exactly how to decorate the plain space to make it look elegant. Before she went to bed, she walked back out to the carriage house and went back through the boxes. For once the door stayed open and the lights stayed on as she worked.

  “How are your plans going?” Joan asked when Janet went back into the house.

  “I think I’m getting there,” Janet replied. “I just hope we have enough time to decorate the whole space. It’s a big room and it needs a lot of work.”

  “Do you think we have enough supplies to work with in the boxes that Norman gave Stuart?”

  “I’m determined to make it work,” Janet said. “I don’t want Stuart to have to buy anything else. I’m not sure that I trust Norman and Julian to pay him back. I can see them arguing that every penny they have to give Stuart is a penny that isn’t going to fight cancer.”

  “Well, I suppose they’d be right,” Joan said.

  “Yes, but poor Stuart would still be out of pocket. If they want to have a big charity event, they should have a decent budget to fund it.”

  “They are charging a lot for tickets,” Joan admitted. “They should be using that money to pay for everything. Then whatever they raise from the auction should go to charity.”

  “Perhaps that is how it works,” Janet said. “It all seems rather disorganised, really.”

  “No doubt the last-minute change of venue has thrown all of their careful plans into disarray,” Joan said. “But it seems like things are slowly coming together.”

  “I hope so,” Janet replied.

  Chapter 5

  Friday morning at eight, Janet wasn’t feeling anything but tired. Aggie had protested loudly when Janet’s alarm had gone off at half six. When Janet emerged from the shower, the kitten had fallen back to sleep.

  “Enjoy,” she muttered at Aggie. “I’ll leave your breakfast in the kitchen. I’ve no idea when I’ll be home to get you some lunch.”

  Because of Aggie, Janet and Joan had agreed that they’d take their own car to the community centre instead of riding with Stuart. If things weren’t going well, only one sister would have to run home to get Aggie her lunch, and Stuart wouldn’t be inconvenienced at all. Before they left, they helped Stuart pack all of the boxes of decorations into his boot.

  “I’ll see you there in a few minutes,” Stuart said.

  Janet went back inside to make sure that Aggie’s water and food bowls were full before she and Joan made their way to Little Burton. They were surprised to see three cars in the car park at the community centre.

  “One of them must be George’s,” Janet remarked as she climbed out of the car. “Maybe one of the other committee members has come to help as well.”

  Inside the building, she discovered she was wrong.

  “Todd? Ted? What are you doing here?” she asked as she greeted the café owners. Todd’s dark and unruly hair was held back in his usual ponytail. As the cook of the pair, he was slightly overweight, especially when compared with his partner, Ted, who was slender. Ted’s hair and his neatly trimmed beard were both ginger.

  Ted grinned at her. “Stuart came by and asked us to buy tickets for tonight,” he explained. “Then he started telling us about how the three of you were going to be doing all of the decorating. When he said you were going to be up on a ladder, we offered to come and lend a hand.”

  Janet felt a rush of relief as she hugged the men. The two men were both probably somewhere in their forties. While she hadn’t been looking forward to it, Janet had been willing to do the ladder work. She was much happier with having Todd and Ted do it, however. They were both younger and taller than Janet.

  “Where do we start?” Todd asked.

  “We need to unpack my boot,” Stuart said.

  Janet walked around the room, mentally arranging and rearranging things as the men carried in the boxes. When they were done, she turned to Stuart.

  “What did Norman say about the stage?” she asked.

  “He said we should do whatever we think is best,” Stuart said, not meeting Janet’s eyes.

  “What about tables for food?” was Janet’s next questi
on.

  “Again, he said he was happy for us to do whatever we liked,” was the unwelcome reply.

  Janet sighed. “That doesn’t really help, does it?”

  Stuart shrugged. “What would you suggest?” he asked Janet.

  Opening her handbag, Janet pulled out several sheets of paper. “I’ve done three different arrangements,” she told Stuart. Everyone gathered around and looked at her rough sketches.

  “I think this one is the best,” Joan said after a moment. “It gives them a small stage with seating around it for the auction. It also gives the caterers a long table to lay out the food on, with plenty of round tables for the guests to use while they’re eating.”

  “I agree with Joan,” Ted said. “Who is doing the food?”

  Stuart sighed. “I’m not sure what’s happening with that,” he said. “Julian and Norman are meant to be sorting it out with Simon Hampton.”

  “Simon is in Portugal,” Todd told them.

  “Why?” Janet asked.

  “He decided that he needed a holiday,” Todd replied. “His company is one of our suppliers. I rang last week to ask about an issue with one of the shipments they sent. When I asked to speak to Simon directly, I was told her was away and wasn’t expected back until mid-May.”

  “Let’s get on with the decorating,” Stuart said grimly. “I think we have enough to worry about without worrying about the food.”

  Everyone agreed on the plan that Joan liked, so it was simply a matter of making it come to life. Todd and Ted moved tables while Joan and Janet followed with chairs. Stuart worked with George on constructing a low stage out of various bits from the storage shed. Once the furniture was all in place, they began to decorate. It took every last bit of gossamer fabric to make the room feel elegant, but when they were finished, Janet was secretly incredibly pleased with herself.

  “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself,” George told her, looking out across the tables that were all neatly covered in thick cloth covers. “It doesn’t look like the same place.”

  “It’s truly stunning,” Ted said. “If we ever want to redecorate the café, I think we’ll put Janet in charge of it.”

  “You’ve done quite well,” Joan told her sister.

  “We’ve one last star,” Stuart said, holding up the glittery gold object. Above them, a field of stars dangled on fishing wire from the ceiling.

  “Put it over the food table,” Janet told him. “It’s the most sparse.”

  “It’s nearly four o’clock,” Joan said. “We need to get home and get ready for tonight.”

  “What time does it start?” Todd asked.

  “Seven,” Stuart told him.

  “We’ll be back,” Ted said. “With as much money as we can spare so that we can bid on the wonderful prizes.”

  “Yes, I’m meant to tell everyone that cash would be greatly appreciated tonight,” Stuart said. “Julian and Norman want to be able to present one large cheque to the charity on Monday, and they won’t be able to include every donation unless they’re all made with cash.”

  “Why don’t they wait a week?” Janet asked.

  “They have another event next weekend in Cornwall,” Stuart explained. “They’ll be down there full-time as soon as they’ve finished the publicity for this event.”

  Stuart’s phone buzzed as everyone headed for the door. His loud, “Pardon?” right after he’d answered made everyone stop in their tracks. After a moment he disconnected and slipped the phone back in his pocket.

  “We don’t have any food or drink for tonight,” he said to the others, anger clearly evident in his tone.

  “What happened?” Janet asked.

  “Apparently, Julian talked to Simon months ago. He was meant to leave instructions before he went on his holiday, but it seems he forgot. When Norman rang today to double-check the arrangements, no one knew what he was talking about.”

  “So now what?” Joan asked.

  “I don’t know,” Stuart said. “We need wine, and lots of it. And we need finger foods. People have paid a hundred pounds a person to come to this stupid thing. We can’t just serve them water and expect them to bid generously on the prizes.”

  “Surely Norman and Julian will sort it out,” Joan said. “It was their responsibility, after all.”

  “They’re both tied up in a meeting all day for the event in Cornwall next weekend,” Stuart said. “They’ve asked me to see what I can do.”

  “What can you do?” Todd asked.

  “I suppose I’ll have to go shopping,” Stuart said miserably. “I’ll ring the other committee members and tell them each to bring ten bottles of wine. Will that be enough, do you think?”

  “How many committee members?” Ted asked.

  “Four,” Stuart told him.

  “Forty bottles of wine for how many people?” was Ted’s next question.

  “I think there will be around a hundred,” Stuart said. “I don’t know how many tickets anyone else has sold, but I doubt we’ve sold more than that.”

  “Forty should be just about enough,” Todd told him. “As long as the party doesn’t last longer than two hours.”

  “That should be about right,” Stuart replied. “After everyone is here, it will be all about the auction, anyway. People won’t be getting drinks while that’s happening. At least I hope they won’t.”

  “What are you going to do about food?” Janet asked.

  “Anyone have any ideas?” Stuart replied with a question.

  “What sort of food were you planning on having?” Ted asked.

  “Just finger foods and cheese and crackers and that sort of thing,” Stuart told him. “I suppose I could manage a cheese and cracker tray, but that’s about it.”

  “We could do finger foods,” Todd said. “I could probably do enough for a hundred people for two hours before seven, but it will be a huge push.”

  “We’ll pay you double what you normally charge,” Stuart said. “Julian wanted Simon to donate everything, but of course we’ll pay you.”

  “We’ll only charge you for our supplies,” Todd offered. “I’ll donate my time and effort.”

  “That’s very generous of you,” Joan said.

  “I lost my father to cancer,” Todd replied. “It’s a cause I’m happy to support.”

  “You’ve already lost a day’s business helping out here,” Janet said. “Doing the catering is above and beyond.”

  “We’d better get back to the café and get busy,” Ted interjected. “We have a lot of cooking to do.”

  The pair walked out discussing exactly what they could make on such short notice.

  “I need to ring the other committee members about the wine,” Stuart said to the sisters. “I’ll see you both at seven.” He walked away, his phone in his hand, while Janet and Joan continued to the door.

  “It doesn’t seem too well organised to me,” George said as he held the door open for them. “I’d have thought they’d have had all of this sorted before they started selling the tickets.”

  “It all seems to have been a misunderstanding,” Janet said, feeling as if she needed to defend Stuart and his associates.

  “Well, have fun tonight,” George said. “You have done a wonderful job with the decorating, I’ll give you that.”

  Janet glanced back at the large space and smiled. Whatever else happened, she was proud of how beautiful the room looked.

  Joan had gone back to Doveby House at midday to feed Aggie, but the sisters hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Food was the first thing on Janet’s mind when they got back home.

  “I’m starving,” she announced as she pushed open the front door.

  “I’m not sure if we should eat a full meal or not,” Joan said. “We know there will be food tonight, after all.”

  Janet shook her head. “As much as I love Todd and Ted, I’m not relying on whatever they can throw together for tonight. I want a substantial amount of food and I want it now.”
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  Joan laughed. “How about spaghetti?” she asked. “I can put that together fairly quickly, and it’s lovely and filling.”

  “Perfect,” Janet said. “I’ll help if you’d like.”

  “I don’t need help, but you can keep me company, if you don’t have anything else to do,” Joan suggested.

  Janet sat at the small kitchen table while Joan filled a pot with water. A knock on the front door had Janet back on her feet.

  “Ah, Janet, I was hoping I might have a quick word with you,” Robert Parsons said in the doorway.

  “Come in,” Janet invited. “Joan is making us some dinner. Would you like to join us?”

  “I’m afraid I don’t have time,” the young police constable replied. “But thank you for the invitation.”

  He followed Janet back into the kitchen and joined her at the table. “I just have a few quick questions for you both,” he said as Joan handed him a small plate full of biscuits.

  “What’s happened now?” Janet asked.

  “Nothing at all,” Robert said with a smile. “But I’ve been asked to provide security for tonight and I wanted to see what you two knew about the event.”

  “Security?” Janet echoed.

  “Apparently there are going to be some high-value items up for auction,” Robert said. “And they are expecting to take in quite a bit of cash as well, I understand.”

  “So you’ll be there to keep track of everything,” Janet said.

  “That’s the idea,” Robert replied. “I’ve drafted in another constable from Derby as well. Julian Glover asked for two of us.”

  “It’s all something a mess,” Janet blurted out.

  “Really?” Robert asked.

  “It just isn’t very well organised,” Janet amended herself. “The venue had to be changed at the last minute, which hasn’t helped, of course, but even so, an awful lot seems to have gone wrong along the way.”

  “What’s gone wrong?” Robert wanted to know.

  “Julian and Norman were supposed to arrange for food and wine, but Stuart just found out today that there isn’t anything sorted for tonight,” Janet told him.

  “That’s a serious problem,” Robert said.