Aunt Bessie's Holiday

by Diana Xarissa

  Monique brushed away tears. “I don’t blame you for not believing me,” she said after a moment. “I know he hurt you very badly.”

  “It was a long time ago,” Doona said dismissively. “I’ve moved on.”

  “He hadn’t,” Monique said.

  They all stared at the lake for a moment before Bessie broke the silence.

  “I hope you’re feeling better,” she told the girl.

  “I’m okay,” she said with a shrug. “Sometimes it’s easier to be alone. Taking care of guests takes so much effort. Being polite and rushing about with heavy trays isn’t fun.”

  “Perhaps you should look for a different job,” Bessie suggested coolly.

  “I have thought about it,” Monique said. “But Nathan needs me. He counts on me to help with everything. We’re a team, even when we don’t get along.”

  Bessie opened her mouth to ask another question, but Monique rose to her feet.

  “I must go,” she said, her gaze darting back and forth. “Someone will miss me.”

  She slipped away into the darkness before Bessie or Doona could reply.

  “We should go and see what the inspector wants,” Doona said, clearly reluctant to do so.

  “Or we could go for a walk,” Bessie suggested. “Maybe get some more ice cream and then find a quiet spot to sit and watch the world go by.”

  “Don’t tempt me,” Doona told her. “But I won’t be forced into hiding. I didn’t do anything wrong and if the inspector has more questions for me, I need to answer them.”

  The pair got to their feet and walked slowly towards Foxglove Close. When they turned the corner into the cul-de-sac Bessie spotted the inspector standing in front of their cabin. She crossed to them, a tight smile on her face.

  “Mrs. Moore, I’m afraid I have more questions for you,” she said as a greeting.

  “Shall we talk out here so that Bessie can get some sleep?” Doona proposed.

  “I think I’d rather talk to you in my office,” Margaret replied. “If you don’t mind.”

  “You’re arresting me,” Doona said flatly.

  “Not at all,” the inspector countered. “I’m asking you for your cooperation.”

  “It’s quite late,” Bessie said. “Maybe she could come to your office in the morning.”

  “I’d rather not wait,” Margaret said smoothly. “This is a murder investigation, after all.”

  Bessie opened her mouth to object, but Doona held up a hand. “It’s fine,” she said tiredly. “You go and get some sleep and I’ll try to be extra quiet when I get back. We can catch up in the morning.”

  “Are you sure?” Bessie asked, taking Doona’s hands in hers and staring into her eyes.

  “I’m sure,” she said, her eyes meeting Bessie’s without blinking. Bessie could see many emotions in her friend’s eyes. She gave Doona a tight hug and then, reluctantly, stepped back and watched silently as the inspector and Doona walked away. As soon as they were out of sight, Bessie headed for the cabin.

  “The inspector had just taken Doona to her office for questioning,” she told John Rockwell as soon as he answered his phone.

  “I’ll ring her and see what I can find out,” he replied. “Don’t worry.”

  Bessie laughed at his words, but John had already disconnected. With nothing to do but worry, Bessie paced around the small building, walking from room to room, staring at her mobile and willing it to ring. It felt like hours, but was really only about ten minutes later when John rang her back.

  “Margaret is under a lot of pressure to solve this thing,” he told Bessie. “Doona had a very strong motive, the murder weapon came from her accommodation, it has fingerprints on it that are a partial match for hers, and she’s already admitted to seeing Charles the night of the killing. The only surprising thing in all this is that Margaret hasn’t actually arrested her. She’s only taken her in for additional questioning.”

  “But Doona didn’t do it,” Bessie said angrily.

  “Margaret doesn’t know Doona at all,” John said calmly. “And even if she knew her well, she has to work from the evidence she’s collecting. If I were in her place, I’d probably arrest Doona myself.”

  “You aren’t making me feel any better,” Bessie said grumpily.

  “I talked to one of Margaret’s assistants, and they may well keep Doona overnight,” he told her.

  “Poor Doona,” Bessie exclaimed.

  “She’ll be well looked after,” John told her. “They have a couple of rooms for overnight guests that are secure but not cells. She’ll be able to sleep there and Margaret will make sure she gets fed as well.”

  “So what happens tomorrow?” Bessie asked.

  “Tomorrow we hope they find evidence that someone else did it,” John replied. “I’m going to fly across if I can get a flight. I’ll let you know when I’m going to arrive and we can go from there.”

  “I’ll feel better with you here,” Bessie said.

  “I’ll feel better being there,” John replied.

  Bessie told John about the various conversations she’d heard or overheard during the day. “It seems like there are a lot of motives out there,” she concluded.

  “And it sounds as if there’s quite a bit of money at stake,” John added. “Which is worrying, as it’s just another thing that strengthens Doona’s motive, if she really is Charles’s heir.”

  “I wish I knew what Monique wanted tonight,” Bessie said. “It was a strange conversation that went nowhere.”

  “It sounds like she was quite close to Charles,” John remarked. “I wonder how close.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Bessie asked.

  “Nothing and everything,” John replied. “Until I get there and actually meet the concerned parties, I’m just thrashing around in the dark.”

  “Let me know when you’ll be arriving,” Bessie told him. “We’ll have to sort out a place to meet.”

  “You’ll be the first to know,” John assured her.

  After they disconnected, Bessie continued to pace around the cabin. Eventually she decided that she needed to get some sleep, but as she got ready for bed, all she could think about was Doona. Bessie knew she was overtired and her imagination was overactive, but in her imagination poor Doona was sitting in a hard wooden chair with a bright light shining in her eyes while the inspector shouted question after question at her.

  Bessie grabbed her stack of book club books and curled up in bed. She read a chapter in each book, finding nothing that could hold her interest. Finally she gave up and turned out the light. After an hour of tossing and turning, she got back up and went out on the patio. She curled up in one of the comfortable lounge chairs and stared up at the sky. When she woke up hours later, she was stiff and cold and the sun was starting to come up.

  With nothing productive to do, Bessie decided to have an early morning walk around the lake. She took a quick shower and then got dressed and headed out. She locked the door behind her and turned towards the road. Andrew was just emerging from number seven.

  “Good morning,” he said cheerfully.

  “Good morning,” Bessie replied with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked immediately.

  Bessie stifled a sigh. “Inspector Hopkins arrested Doona last night,” she said. She took a deep breath and then tried again, aware of how angry she’d sounded. “The inspector took Doona to her office for additional questioning,” she corrected herself.

  “I presume there’s quite a bit of evidence against your friend,” Andrew said. “I don’t think she did it, myself, but Margaret has to investigate every possibility.”

  “Doona would never kill anyone, not even her ex-husband,” Bessie said confidently.

  “Except they weren’t divorced, were they?” Andrew asked.

  “Well, no, technically not,” Bessie said slowly.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” Andrew suggested as someone emerged from a lodge a few doors
away. He offered his arm, and after a moment’s hesitation, Bessie took it. They made their way down the path around the lake. Eventually, Andrew broke the silence.

  “I’ve been calling in a few favours to find out what’s going on with the investigation,” he told Bessie. “Let’s talk about what I know and see if we can work anything out.”

  “We can try,” Bessie said doubtfully.

  “Allegedly, Charles dumped Jessica Howe recently. She seems to have quite a volatile temper,” Andrew said.

  “Are you suggesting she killed him?” Bessie asked.

  Andrew shrugged. “I can believe it of her more readily than of Doona,” he replied. “Her husband had his own reasons for hating Charles. From what I’ve heard, they were both personal and professional.”

  “I can’t imagine why he was willing to work with Charles even though he knew Charles was having an affair with Jessica,” Bessie said, shaking her head.

  “People do odd things for money,” Andrew said. “And apparently Charles was very good at making money for the company.”

  “So we know they both had motives. Did they have means and opportunity?” Bessie asked.

  “As far as getting to Charles, just about anyone could have done that. The Squirrel’s Drey was meant to be closed, but Charles could have let someone in, the killer could have had a key, or a door somewhere in the building could have been left open. Security wasn’t as much of a priority as it should have been.”

  “Did they alibi each other?” Bessie asked.

  “Actually, just the opposite,” Andrew told her, shaking his head. “They both claimed to have been alone in their lodge the entire night.”

  “Well, clearly one of them is lying, then,” Bessie exclaimed.

  “Probably both of them,” Andrew said dryly.

  “So why isn’t the inspector dragging them in for questioning?” Bessie asked.

  “Because there’s no evidence that they knew who Doona was until after the murder,” Andrew replied.

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Bessie demanded.

  “If Doona didn’t kill Charles, someone took a risk climbing onto your patio to take that knife to try to frame her. Whoever that was must have known that she had a motive for killing Charles.”

  Bessie stopped suddenly, her mind racing. “I never really thought about that,” she admitted. “I should have realised.”

  “Of course, the murderer wouldn’t necessarily admit to knowing about Doona, even if he or she did,” Andrew added.

  “Someone sent Doona an envelope full of evidence that Charles was cheating on her two years ago,” Bessie said. “That person certainly knew about Doona and about Charles’s affair with Jessica.”

  “Doona doesn’t know who sent the envelope?”

  “She said she thought it was Herbert Howe,” Bessie replied.

  “Why did she think that?”

  “I don’t know,” Bessie said with a frown. “You’d have to ask her.”

  “If it was Herbert Howe, that certainly makes him more likely as a suspect,” Andrew said.

  “Has anyone admitted to knowing about Doona?” Bessie asked.

  “It’s a good thing I’m retired,” Andrew replied with a chuckle. “And I’m only repeating what I’ve heard secondhand through miscellaneous connections. If I were still working for the police, I could get fired for discussing an active investigation.”

  “So has anyone admitted to knowing about Doona?” Bessie repeated herself.

  “Mai suspected, because she wrote out the place cards for the welcome reception,” Andrew told her. “And Monique said she knew because she and Charles were good friends and he confided in her.”

  “How good of friends were they?” Bessie asked.

  Andrew shrugged. “She said Charles was like a big brother to her. She and Nathan had been having trouble and Charles provided a shoulder for her to cry on.”

  “Hmm,” Bessie murmured.

  “Other than that, apparently Charles told everyone that you two were coming and were very important people, but nothing further.”

  “I find it hard to believe that Charles never told Lawrence, his business partner, about his wife,” Bessie said.

  “And yet, as I understand it, Doona didn’t know anything about Lawrence, either,” Andrew countered.

  “What about Harold?” Bessie asked.

  “He said he and Charles had a decent working relationship, but never discussed their private lives. As Charles took Harold’s job and was highly vocal in his criticism of how the park was run when Harold was in charge, I can’t imagine they spoke much at all.”

  “So why did Harold stay?”

  “He started working here right out of university,” Andrew replied. “Over the years, he worked his way from being an assistant in guest services all the way up to site manager. He’s never worked anywhere else.”

  “Why didn’t Charles fire him, then?”

  “I can only tell you what I’ve inferred from things that have and haven’t been said,” Andrew said. “I suspect Harold knows too much to be let go.”

  “About running the park?”

  “About any number of things,” was Andrew’s cryptic reply.

  “Have we left anyone out?” Bessie asked, thinking back through their conversation.

  “Nathan Beck wasn’t happy with the changes Charles was making in suppliers, from what I understand,” Andrew replied.

  “He seems to have quite a quick temper,” Bessie said. “Maybe he didn’t approve of Monique’s friendship with Charles, either.”

  “But there’s nothing to suggest that he knew anything about Doona,” Andrew said.

  “Maybe the killer just happened across the knife while walking across the grass or something,” Bessie suggested.

  “It would be a pretty big coincidence, he or she just happening to find a knife on the patio of the property where the victim’s wife was staying,” Andrew said. “Anything is possible, of course, but it seems highly unlikely.”

  “I suppose,” Bessie replied. “Are there any other suspects?”

  “I think we’ve covered the main ones,” Andrew replied. “One of the reasons they aren’t looking too closely at the huge number of other guests is the connection to Doona. I do hope that doesn’t turn out to be a coincidence. Margaret can’t keep everyone here until she finds the killer.”

  “Tomorrow is an arrival and departure day, isn’t it?” Bessie asked. “We’re booked through the weekend, but not everyone will be. Is Margaret making anyone stay?”

  “As I understand it, no, but then most of the main suspects are employees. Jessica and Herbert are booked through the end of the month. I gather as an investor he gets special rates.”

  “It doesn’t seem as if we’ve made any progress,” Bessie complained as they finished their circuit of the lake and arrived back where they’d started from.

  “There is one other suspect we haven’t mentioned,” Andrew said after a moment.

  “Who?” Bessie demanded.

  “Well, you, of course,” Andrew replied.

  Bessie took a step backwards, feeling stunned. For a moment she felt angry with the man. She forced herself to count to ten before she replied.

  “I’ve managed to live into my late middle age without ever feeling the need to kill anyone,” she said steadily. “And you can be sure that if I ever did decide I needed to do so, I would do it in such a way that I would never be a suspect.”

  Andrew looked at her for a moment and then he laughed. “You’re right, of course,” he said after a while. “You’re much too smart to use a knife from your own kitchen, especially in the middle of all those restaurants. There were dozens of knives for the killer to choose from. The only reason to use the one from your cabin was to frame someone.”

  “Surely all the knives in the various restaurants were locked up for the night,” Bessie replied. “Not that I’m trying to incriminate myself or anything,” she added hastily.

&
nbsp; “I had a long talk with Joe Klein about just that,” Andrew said. “All of the restaurants on the site are owned by Lakeview, including everything in the food hall. That means they only have a single locking door between the public areas and the staff areas where you can access all of the kitchens. Any member of staff with a master key could have opened the door, and Joe said it was often left unlocked during the day to let staff get in and out easily. There’s no way to tell if it was locked or not on the night of the murder, but as nearly all of the suspects have master keys or access to them, it doesn’t really matter.”

  “Did Joe know who Doona is?” Bessie asked, realising they hadn’t discussed the security head.

  “He told me he didn’t,” Andrew replied. “I get the feeling he wasn’t involved in the day-to-day running of the place in any way.”

  “Except for providing all of the security.”

  “Well, yes, but I don’t think Charles took that very seriously.”

  “Maybe he should have,” Bessie said dryly.

  “Indeed.”

  They’d been standing still for several minutes. Now Bessie moved over to the nearest bench and sat down.

  “It doesn’t seem as if we’ve worked out anything,” she said grumpily.

  “No, it doesn’t,” Andrew agreed as he sat down next to her. “I have to tell you that I’m quite enjoying the mental exercise. Retirement doesn’t really agree with me. But I don’t suppose that makes you feel much better about your friend.”

  “No, it really doesn’t,” Bessie told him sharply.

  He flushed. “I’m trying to do everything I can on her behalf,” he said. “But I have to be careful not to get in the way of the official investigation.”

  “So you really don’t think Doona did it?” Bessie checked.

  “No, for much the same reasons I don’t think you did it,” Andrew replied. “Even if she snuck out of your cabin intending to kill Charles, I can’t see her taking that particular knife with her. And if she did, I think she’d be smart enough to have removed the knife from the crime scene. She could have thrown it in one of the lakes and I doubt anyone would have ever found it.”

  “But the killer left it there to incriminate Doona,” Bessie said. “Surely Margaret Hopkins must be thinking the same way you are. She must know Doona’s being framed.”