Aunt Bessie Questions (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 17)

by Diana Xarissa

  “Well, yes, but it was never his fault. He kept getting betrayed by his associates. We were together for years, and one day I decided that I’d had enough. When he was sent to prison the last time, I told him I was going to file for divorce.”

  “I’m sure that was a difficult decision.”

  “The thing is, though, I never actually did it. I kept putting it off and, well, I don’t know, maybe I was hoping he’d come back one day. I knew he was serving a six-month sentence, and I really thought he’d turn up on my doorstep when he was released. He didn’t. According to the police inspector I spoke to last night, he was living here with another woman. He wouldn’t give me any information about her, but I’d be willing to bet I know who she is.”

  Bessie bit her tongue. If John hadn’t told the woman about Ms. Hamilton, it wasn’t her place to do so.

  “You can’t trust other women,” Dawn continued. “I never should have confided in Constance Hamilton. We were best friends, and I told her everything. I think she and Walter were sleeping together before he went to prison the last time, you know. And she suddenly disappeared right around the same time as he was due to get out. If he had a woman here with him, I’d bet that who it was.”

  “I hope you told the police inspector all of this,” Bessie said.

  “Oh, yes, every last bit,” Dawn replied. “Walter was murdered, after all. No matter how many problems we had, I never wanted him dead. I still cared a great deal about him, even though I’d told him I wanted a divorce. I mean, look at me, sobbing my eyes out over him, when I hadn’t even seen him in a year.”

  “I’m sorry,” Bessie said softly.

  Dawn nodded and then sniffled as tears began to stream down her face again. Bessie quickly found her a box of tissues.

  “I shouldn’t be crying,” the woman said after several minutes. “If you’d have asked me yesterday morning about Walter, I would have told you that I was over him. I really think I am over him. It’s all just such a shock, you know? I was planning to finally file those divorce papers once we all got back home. I was ready to move on.”

  “And once the shock wears off, you’ll be able to do just that,” Bessie told her.

  Dawn nodded. A sharp knock on the door kept her from replying. Bessie crossed to the door, hoping it wasn’t John or Hugh on the other side. She didn’t want Dawn to know that she was close friends with members of the constabulary. She opened the door and gasped. The two men on the doorstep were both strangers, and they both looked angry.

  “Where’s Dawn?” the taller of the two demanded aggressively.

  Chapter 6

  “I’m right here,” Dawn said from behind Bessie. “Having a nice cuppa with a new friend.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” the man replied. “You don’t know anything about her. She could be friends with the police inspector who questioned you.”

  “I don’t mind if she is,” Dawn said. “I don’t have anything to hide, after all.”

  “I think it’s time for you to come back to the cottage,” the other man said. “We left you alone as you’d asked, but if you’re feeling like you want to be around other people, you should be with family.”

  Dawn sighed deeply. “Ms. Cubbon, this is my father, Lucas Mason, and my big brother, Brandon. They mean well, truly they do.”

  “It’s very nice to meet you both,” Bessie said. “It’s actually Miss Cubbon, but everyone calls me Bessie.”

  “Great, wonderful, whatever,” Brandon snapped. “Dawn will be leaving now.”

  “No, she won’t,” Dawn said. “I’ll be back at the cottage when I’m ready to come back, and not before. You two go and splash in the sea or something.”

  Brandon opened his mouth to reply, but his father held up his hand. “You have to deal with everything in your own way. I understand that, but I think Brandon is right. You should be with family now.”

  Dawn shrugged. “If it were just family, maybe I’d agree.”

  “We can send Mike and Horace down to the pub,” Brandon told her. “They won’t mind, and then you can relax.”

  “I’ll be back soon,” Dawn replied. “Truly I will. I’m just enjoying having some girl talk, that’s all. I can’t do that with you two, now, can I?”

  Lucas flushed. “You know I’ve done my best,” he began.

  “And you’ve done a wonderful job,” Dawn interrupted. “I’ll just finish my tea and my biscuits, and then I’ll come back to the cottage, okay? Just give me a few more minutes with Bessie.”

  “We’ll see you back at the cottage soon, then,” the older man replied.

  The pair turned and walked away slowly. They were both almost as wide as they were tall, and from what Bessie could determine, their bulk was mostly muscle. Brandon’s dark brown hair fell almost to his shoulders, in contrast with his father, who was nearly bald. Bessie watched them walk away until they disappeared into the crowd behind the holiday cottages.

  “I’m sorry if they seemed intimidating,” Dawn said as Bessie pushed the door shut. “They don’t mean to be. They just worry about me. I’m the baby of the family, and my mother passed away when I was just five, you see.”

  “I’m sorry. That must have been difficult,” Bessie replied as she sat back down in her chair.

  “I didn’t really realise what I was missing until I hit my teen years. Dad did his best to be both mum and dad to me, but he couldn’t really explain about puberty and periods and whatever. And Brandon wasn’t much help, either, as you can imagine.”

  Bessie’s eyes met Dawn’s, and then they both chuckled. “How much older than you is he?” she asked.

  “Three years. He was eight when Mum died, and sometimes I think it was worse for him than for me. He remembers her a lot more than I do, and he missed her terribly for a long time. That was all many years ago, of course. We got through, and the only long-term effect seems to be that both my father and my brother insist on treating me like I’m still five all the time.”

  “I’m sure they mean well.”

  “They do, but it’s frustrating. Sometimes, I think I only married Walter because they were both so opposed to the idea. I did care deeply for the man, but I probably wouldn’t have married him, given his criminal tendencies, if my father hadn’t told me that I couldn’t.”

  “They must have been happy when you and Walter separated, then.”

  “Oh, yes, they were delighted. We didn’t see much of each other during the years that Walter and I were together, well, except when Walter was in prison. I sometimes went and stayed with my father when Walter wasn’t around, as I didn’t have a steady source of income. And I know, I’ve only myself to blame for them treating me like a child when I kept relying on my father to help me out of every difficult situation.”

  “And now you’re all here on holiday together?”

  “Because of Brandon,” Dawn explained. “He was coming over with a bunch of friends. They booked two cottages next to one another, and then one of the women had a big fight with her husband, and they ended up cancelling, and someone else suddenly had to work.” She shrugged. “I’m not sure I know the whole story, but Brandon ended up with two holiday cottages for himself and only two friends. He invited Dad and me to come and use one of them. He and his friends are staying in the cottage next to ours.”

  “That sounds as if it could be fun.”

  “It could be, except I’m not enjoying the company very much,” Dawn shrugged. “Mike is okay, but Horace is a bit of a pain.”

  “Oh?”

  “He keeps asking me out and hinting that we should get together, and, well, I’m just not attracted to him. I was using Walter as an excuse, telling him that I couldn’t get involved because I was still married, but now I’ll have to come up with something else.”

  “You could tell him you’re in mourning,” Bessie suggested.

  “Yeah, except that will just upset my father and brother. They don’t understand why I’m upset about Walter’s death. If
I was going to file for divorce anyway, I mustn’t still have been in love with him.”

  “Love it far more complicated than that.”

  “It is, yes,” Dawn agreed. “Anyway, Brandon wants me to get together with Horace, and my father seems to like the idea as well. Horace has a good job, and he’s dependable, unlike Walter, you see. I really just want to go home and leave them all here for the rest of the week.”

  “I’m not sure the police will want you leaving just now,” Bessie said.

  “They don’t. The very lovely police inspector who came to talk to me said that I need to stay on the island, at least for a few days. He asked me loads of questions, but he thought he’d probably have more later.”

  “He’ll be trying to work out who might have wanted to kill Walter. Unfortunately, I’ve been involved in murder investigations before. There are always more questions.”

  Dawn nodded. “I don’t think I’ll mind if that same inspector is doing the asking. He had the most gorgeous green eyes I’ve ever seen.”

  “Inspector Rockwell is actually a friend of mine,” Bessie felt obliged to tell her. “He’s very good at his job.”

  “That’s good to hear. I hope he can work out what happened to Walter fairly quickly. It’s such a horrible thing.”

  “The inspector will be looking for people with motives. I’m sure he asked you lots of questions about that.”

  “He did, but I couldn’t tell him much. I hadn’t seen Walter in over a year. Knowing him, he made at least a dozen people angry enough to want to kill him in that many months.”

  “Oh, dear,” Bessie exclaimed.

  “Walter could be incredibly kind and sweet when he wanted to be, but he was a con artist. You never really knew where you stood with him or when he was being honest. If I were the inspector, I’d start by looking at Constance Hamilton. If Walter was here with her, she should be the inspector’s prime suspect, and if Walter was here with someone else, Constance should still be the prime suspect.”

  “He must have made a lot of enemies due to his crimes,” Bessie suggested.

  “No doubt, but I don’t really know much about that. Walter never confided in me about his schemes. He had so many problems with his associates, I suppose that isn’t surprising. Whenever he did think he could trust someone, they ended up betraying him. Sadly, he never really trusted me, and he could have.”

  “Perhaps one of those former associates found him on the island,” Bessie mused.

  “I believe most of them are in various prisons around the UK, but that’s one possibility, maybe. I don’t know. As I said, I hadn’t seen the man in a year. I just think that Constance is involved somehow, whatever happened to him. Maybe that’s just because I’m still bitter that he took up with her in the first place. As I said, she had been my friend once upon a time.”

  “Not a very good one.”

  “No, not at all. I wouldn’t mind a friend like that now, though. Someone who could take Horace off my hands would be more than welcome.” Dawn looked at the clock and then sighed and got to her feet. “I really do have to go before Brandon comes back with Mike and Horace and drags me away.”

  “It was lovely meeting you. I enjoyed our chat,” Bessie told her, getting up from her chair. “I’m nearly always home or out walking on the beach. If you want to talk further, you know where to find me.”

  “I may just take you up on that. It’s peaceful here, and you are awfully easy to talk to.”

  Bessie grinned. “Everyone tells me that,” she replied.

  As Dawn walked away down the beach, Bessie watched her. She felt oddly sorry for the woman, but she wasn’t sure why. When Dawn was out of sight, Bessie shut the door and headed for the phone. She wasn’t sure she’d learned anything interesting, but that was for John to decide.

  “My goodness, you’ve had a busy morning,” John said after Bessie told him all about her meeting with the new widow. “I’d like to sit down with you and talk everything through, but I’m not sure that meeting at your cottage is a good idea right now. I don’t want Mrs. Gray and her family to know just how close we are. Maybe we could meet at Doona’s?”

  “That would be fine with me,” Bessie told him. “I can walk up there.”

  “Or Doona can come and collect you,” John said. “Let me ring her, and I’ll ring you back.”

  Bessie walked around the kitchen a few times while she waited for the phone to ring. John rang back within minutes.

  “Hugh will collect you a few minutes before six and take you to Doona’s,” he told Bessie. “I’ll be bringing Chinese food, and Hugh will be bringing pudding.”

  “I’ll see you later, then,” Bessie replied. She put down the phone and walked around the kitchen again. It was nearly time for some lunch. Her unexpected visitor had taken up the morning. Having eaten more than a few biscuits while she’d been chatting with Dawn, Bessie wasn’t particularly hungry. What she needed was a walk up the hill to the shop at the top. The local paper would be full of the murder. Bessie wanted to see if they knew anything she didn’t.

  The girl standing behind the counter talking on her mobile phone was a stranger to Bessie. She smiled, but the girl ignored her. Sighing, Bessie grabbed a basket and wandered around the shop, wondering if she needed anything other than the paper.

  When she reached the till, Bessie unloaded the basket, shaking her head at the packets of biscuits and bars of chocolate that had found their way into it. She’d been so busy selecting treats that she’d nearly forgot the local paper. She’d just added it to her pile when the shop door swung open.

  “Well, well, well, if isn’t Mrs. Cubby,” Brandon Mason said as he strolled into the shop. “I was going to visit your cottage later. You’ve saved me a trip.”

  Bessie stared at the man, who looked even larger in the small shop than he had in her doorway. “What did you want to talk with me about?” she asked, working to keep her voice level.

  “I want you to stay away from Dawn,” the man said. “She doesn’t need any new friends.”

  “I think that should be Dawn’s decision, not yours,” Bessie told him.

  “You think whatever you like,” the man sneered. “Just stay away from my sister.”

  Bessie opened her mouth to reply as the shop door swung open again. The two men who walked into the building were both as tall and broad as Brandon, and they looked to be of a similar age.

  “They have lager, right?” one of the men asked Brandon.

  “Yeah, in the cooler on the left,” he replied, his eyes still on Bessie.

  “Great,” the man said. He walked past Bessie and opened the cooler.

  “That’s twelve pounds, eighty-seven,” the girl behind the till told Bessie.

  Bessie took a deep breath and then turned her back on the angry man. She counted out the exact change and then took her shopping bags from the girl. “Thank you,” she said softly.

  “Is everything okay?” the girl asked, glancing behind Bessie.

  “I certainly hope so,” Bessie replied.

  “I can ring 999 if you want me to,” the girl offered in a very low voice.

  “Thank you, but I don’t think that’s necessary,” Bessie told her.

  “Why don’t you wait here until they’ve left,” the girl suggested.

  Before Bessie could reply, the man at the cooler started piling packs of lager on the counter. “You’re done, aren’t you, love?” he asked Bessie.

  “I forgot something,” Bessie said, “but you go ahead. I need to go and find it.”

  Bessie carried her bags with her as she walked back into the shop. She ducked down the first short aisle and then watched the three men who were now at the counter.

  “Just the lager today?” the girl asked.

  “Maybe we should get some crisps and stuff,” Brandon said.

  “How about popcorn?” one of the men suggested. “That microwave stuff is easy and would be good with a movie.”

  “Sure, Horace, grab some
popcorn,” Brandon told one of the men.

  Bessie peeked around the shelf, eager to see which man was the one that Dawn had said was interested in her. As Horace went to find the popcorn, Bessie studied him. He was around the same height as the others, probably around six feet tall. His shoulders were broad, but his T-shirt was stretched around his stomach as well. Thinning brown hair topped a rounded head, and thick glasses covered his brown eyes. Bessie didn’t consider him the least bit attractive.

  “What about crisps?” the other man asked as Horace threw a box of popcorn at Brandon.

  “Yeah, yeah, we’ll get some crisps too,” Brandon said. “No one wants you to miss dinner, Mike.”

  The men laughed as Horace added a bag of crisps to the pile on the counter.

  “That’s dinner and pudding,” he told the others. “Unless your sister is cooking again tonight?”

  “She’s in mourning,” Brandon said with a harsh laugh.

  “For that idiot she was married to? She should be celebrating his untimely demise,” Mike said. “They were separated, weren’t they?”

  “Yeah, but she says that doesn’t mean she didn’t still have feelings for him, or some such nonsense. I’m just hoping he left her something in his will, like maybe everything.”

  “That would be good. He had loads of money, did Walter,” Horace said. “Of course, most of it was probably hidden away in accounts no one knew about, as it was all illegally acquired. Does Dawn know where to find the money?”

  “She says not, but we’ll see. I’m watching her closely,” Brandon replied.

  “Nothing new there,” Mike muttered.

  “Is there anything else?” the shop assistant asked.

  “We should get a bottle of wine for your sister,” Horace said. “She won’t want lager, will she?”

  “Nah, she’s too classy for that,” Brandon laughed. “Sure, get her a bottle of wine. Grab another six-pack of lager for my dad too. We can all get drunk toasting Walter Gray and his unfortunate end.”

  “If you aren’t doing anything later, you should come and have a drink with us,” Mike told the girl behind the counter. “We’re down at the holiday cottages on the beach. You’d have fun.”