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

by Diana Xarissa

  “So, what shall we talk about?” she asked brightly as everyone began to eat.

  “I could tell you all about running into Brandon Mason and his friends at the corner shop this afternoon,” Bessie suggested.

  “I’d like to hear about that,” John said quickly.

  Bessie told them all about her shopping trip and the unpleasant trio that she’d encountered. When she was finished, Doona shook her head.

  “That poor girl. She isn’t safe on her own in that shop, is she?” she demanded.

  “Statistically the island is one of the safest places in the world,” John told her. “I’m sure statistics don’t make that shop assistant feel any better, though. I may have to have a word with the shop’s owner. I’d like to know what safety measures he has in place for his staff.”

  “Those three sound as if they’ll be trouble,” Hugh said. “Maybe we should step up our patrols in the Laxey Beach area.”

  John nodded. “We always do at this time of the year anyway. We haven’t had much trouble with the holiday cottages, but we have had some minor issues. I would be much happier if they’d only rent the cottages to families, rather than groups of single men or women, but I know they can’t discriminate in that way.”

  “It would be easy enough to get around,” Doona said. “Anyone can claim they’re booking a family holiday, no matter what they’re actually planning.”

  “Yes, I suppose that’s true,” John said. “And, as I said, we’ve had surprisingly little trouble with the cottages. I thought, when I first saw them, that they’d be very popular for stag and hen weekends, but they don’t seem to attract that sort of thing, at least not often.”

  “I walk past them every day, and I can’t remember ever seeing a stag or hen party there,” Bessie said. “Now that you mention it, it is a bit surprising.”

  “Now that we’ve discussed it, they’ll probably be a rush of them,” John said. “Touch wood.” He did just that, as did Bessie.

  “I hope not,” Bessie said. “This trio is bad enough.”

  When everyone had cleared his or her plate, Hugh sliced up the apple pie he’d brought. “I bought it at the bakery in Ramsey,” he told them. “Grace and I went to look at baby things, and I ran out of time to make anything myself.”

  “That must have been fun,” Bessie said.

  “It was, well, I’m not sure fun is the word,” Hugh shrugged. “It’s hard to believe that something so small could need so much stuff. And none of it is cheap, either. I can buy clothes for myself a good deal cheaper than you can buy baby clothes.”

  Bessie nodded. “I’ve heard that,” she said, “but I don’t believe that you need everything you see in the shops to have a happy and healthy baby. As long as you have a car seat for getting them from place to place and somewhere for them to sleep, you’ve made a good start.”

  “I’m really excited about the baby,” Hugh replied, “but I keep thinking we should have waited until we were more settled. Not that the baby was planned, exactly.”

  “It will all work out,” John told him.

  “I know, and I know we’re very blessed. Grace has a good friend who has been trying for a baby for over a year now. She and her husband are getting quite desperate. Grace didn’t even want to tell her our good news, although she took it really well and is being very supportive.”

  “I suppose I should be happy that I never really wanted children,” Doona said. “I suspect I’m too old to have them now, even if I did finally find the right man.”

  “And it’s slowly becoming more socially acceptable for women to not want children,” Bessie said. “That’s a welcome change from when I was younger.”

  “As much as I’m enjoying this conversation, I think we should talk about the murder,” John interrupted. “I’d like to get the children home before it gets too late.”

  “Sorry,” Bessie said, “but where do we start?”

  “Motive, means, opportunity,” Hugh told her. “Same as always.”

  “I don’t suppose Constance Hamilton has been any more forthcoming,” Bessie said to John.

  “Not a bit. She’s still insisting that she thought the man was a vicar. I understand the local paper is going to run the interview with her tomorrow. I suppose they thought they’d sell enough papers today with the headline they used,” John sighed.

  “I’d suggest that she had a strong motive, but you’ve already ruled her out, haven’t you?” Doona asked.

  “We haven’t been able to break her alibi,” John replied. “We’ve tried, but I’m afraid she’s out, unless we get some new information that changes that.”

  “So that leaves us with the man’s wife and her family,” Bessie said, “assuming they had the means and opportunity. When did they arrive on the island?”

  “Friday morning,” John answered. “According to Thomas Shimmin, they arrived at the cottages around midday. The cottages aren’t meant to be available to new arrivals until two, so Thomas told them to come back later. I’d very much like to know what they did with those two hours.”

  “What did they say when you asked them?” Doona wondered.

  “That they went into Laxey and had lunch at the café near the Laxey Wheel,” John replied. “I’ve checked, and they were there, but not for the entire two hours.”

  “It wouldn’t have taken them long to walk from the wheel to the church,” Bessie speculated. “The weather was fine. They may have gone for a stroll around Laxey.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” John said, “which means they might have bumped into Laxey’s new vicar on their travels. It’s also possible that someone in the party already knew he was here, of course. In that case, it doesn’t much matter what they were doing while they were waiting for the cottages to be made up.”

  “Were they all together all of the time?” Bessie asked.

  “They all claim they were, but when I tried to pin down exact times that things happened, the stories all rather fell apart. I suspect everyone was coming and going as they pleased, and no one was paying any attention. As soon as I started asking questions, of course, everyone began to insist that they were all together all afternoon and evening.”

  “So let’s assume they all had the opportunity to sneak away and murder Walter,” Doona said. “Who wanted him dead?”

  Bessie shrugged. “The widow seemed quite upset about it, really, especially considering that she’d been planning to file for divorce.”

  “Just because she’s upset doesn’t mean she didn’t kill him,” Hugh said.

  “That’s true, and maybe she’s just a really good actress,” Doona suggested.

  “Maybe, but how did she know she should be acting in front of me?” Bessie asked.

  “Anyone on the island might have told her about your connection with the police,” John pointed out.

  Bessie frowned. “Starting with Maggie Shimmin,” she sighed.

  “We’ll leave her on the list then,” Hugh said. “What about her father?”

  “I don’t know,” Bessie said. “He barely said two words, but he seemed very protective of his daughter.”

  “If he raised her on his own, I can understand why,” Doona said. “And Dawn told you that he didn’t approve of her marrying Walter in the first place, didn’t she?”

  “She did tell me that,” Bessie agreed.

  “So maybe he’d decided that enough was enough,” Doona said. “Maybe they were having a nice stroll around Laxey, and he spotted the vicar and recognised him. Maybe, as everyone else was settling into the holiday cottages, he dashed back up to the church and got rid of his daughter’s annoying husband once and for all.”

  “That’s certainly a possibility,” John said. “He may even have known the man was here.”

  “Then there’s Brandon Mason,” Bessie said. “I really don’t like him, although that’s no reason to assume he’s the killer.”

  “Actually, I consider you a good judge of character,” John told her. “If you don’t l
ike someone, I tend to look at them a bit more closely. Having said that, I was already looking at Brandon quite closely because I didn’t like him either.”

  “He seemed very protective of Dawn as well,” Bessie said. “She told me that he didn’t like Walter, either.”

  “Maybe the dad and the brother were in on it together,” Doona suggested. “Maybe they agreed to give each other alibis to cover for one of them sneaking away and murdering Walter.”

  “Or maybe they did it together,” Hugh said.

  “What about Brandon’s two friends?” Bessie asked. “I didn’t get any surnames for them, but they are called Mike and Horace.”

  “Michael Osprey is the younger of the two men,” John said. “Apparently, he and Brandon work together. He has a girlfriend who didn’t come along for some reason.”

  “He has a girlfriend,” Bessie echoed, remembering the man’s behaviour in the shop.

  “He does,” John confirmed. “I was told she decided not to come when the married couple cancelled. I gathered that she has a couple of children from a previous relationship, and she wasn’t keen to leave them at home for a week, either.”

  “And then there’s Horace, who allegedly is interested in Dawn,” Bessie said.

  “That would be Horace Green. From what he said when we spoke, he’s friendlier with Dawn than Brandon. I got the feeling he only came along this week once he knew Dawn was going to be here.”

  “Lucky Dawn,” Bessie muttered.

  “Maybe he thought that killing Walter would be a good way to win Dawn’s heart,” Hugh said. “It’s certainly faster than waiting for a divorce to come through.”

  “It’s not the strongest motive I’ve ever heard, but we all know people have been killed for far less,” John replied. “At this point, I believe that everyone in that group had motive, means, and opportunity for the murder.”

  “So where does that leave us?” Bessie asked.

  “With a lot of detective work to do,” John replied, “or rather, it leaves me with a lot to do. Our technicians are going over everything meticulously. We’re working to track Walter’s movements on the day he died. We also need to determine exactly what the widow and her party were doing throughout that day.”

  “It’s all just a lot of legwork at this point,” Hugh added. “Questioning people about who they saw and when they saw them, checking mobile phone records, trying to track down sales of the murder weapon.”

  “Are you keeping Dawn and the others on the island until the case is solved?” Bessie asked.

  “For now, we’ve asked them to stay on the island for the duration of their planned holiday,” John told her. “I’m hoping that will give me enough time to solve the case, but if it doesn’t, we may have to ask them to stay a little bit longer.”

  “What about Constance Hamilton?” Bessie wondered.

  “She’s been asked to remain as well,” John replied. “She’s perhaps understandably eager to get back to the UK, but she’s agreed to remain for a short while anyway. The bishop has arranged comfortable accommodations for her for the time being.”

  “That was nice of him,” Hugh said.

  “As she’s still claiming that she was taken in by Walter’s lies, he may well feel obliged to help,” John replied. “I’ve suggested to him that she’s lying, but he’s chosen to take her at her word.”

  “Dawn Gray told me that Constance and Walter were involved before he went to prison a year ago,” Bessie said.

  “And Constance says Dawn is lying,” John replied. “There’s no way Constance will be able to keep up with her story for much longer, but it’s fascinating to watch her try.”

  “But surely if she’d tell the truth, you’d get closer to finding out who killed Walter,” Doona said. “Doesn’t she want the man’s killer found?”

  John shrugged. “I don’t know. I have every intention of finding the killer, though, with or without her help.”

  “But we know she didn’t do it,” Bessie sighed. “It seems as if Dawn and her family and friends are the most likely suspects.”

  “At this point, we’re certainly taking a good look at them,” John told her. “There are other possibilities.”

  “Such as?” Bessie asked.

  “Walter Gray was a career criminal. He was a con man who cheated a lot of people out of money. It’s possible that someone he cheated decided to get revenge,” John told her.

  “So you have to look at everyone that he ever conned?” Doona wondered.

  “We’re looking into the crimes we know he committed. A lot of it was small-scale stuff, just getting a few pounds here and there, but the last time he went to prison, it was for a more serious and long-term con. The people involved in that could well still be angry. Much of the money that was stolen was never recovered.”

  “But how would anyone have found Walter?” Bessie asked.

  “Like Dawn and her group, it’s possible that someone who was involved simply stumbled across the man entirely coincidentally,” John said. “We’re trying to work our way through flight and ferry records, looking for any of the people who were involved in the case. It’s something of a long shot, but having already found the man’s wife and her family here, I wouldn’t be totally surprised to find a few of his victims as well.”

  “It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack, though, isn’t it?” Doona asked.

  “It is, rather,” Hugh sighed. “I say that because I’ve been working on it, and I haven’t found anything yet.”

  “We’re going to put a few more constables on the job tomorrow,” John told them. “We’re also tracking down Mr. Gray’s former business associates. It’s possible, maybe even likely, that some of them had reason to be unhappy with Mr. Gray. We just have to work out whether they’ve been on the island in the last month or not.”

  “Did anyone know he was here?” Bessie asked. “I mean, of the people you’ve interviewed, his wife and her family and any victims or anyone, did any of them know he was on the island?”

  “No one has admitted to knowing he was here,” John replied.

  “That must make Constance Hamilton an even more important witness,” Bessie said. “You need to work out who she told about moving to the island.”

  “Believe me, we’re trying,” was John’s reply. “She claims she’s more or less alone in the world, though. According to her, she didn’t tell anyone about Walter or about moving, aside from her friends that she was with the day of the murder. They’re friends from her school days. We don’t believe that they knew Walter at all.”

  “It was Dawn’s brother or father,” Doona said firmly. “You just have to work out which one.”

  “I’ll be talking to both of them again tomorrow,” John said. “We’re trying to pin down exactly where they all were from the time they arrived on the island until the body was found. As I said, there’s a great deal of confusion over that.”

  “Which is suspicious,” Hugh said.

  “Not necessarily,” John countered. “They are here on holiday, but they couldn’t get into their accommodations immediately. They went to get some lunch and then, eventually, moved into their cottages. It’s hardly surprising that no one was keeping track of where everyone else was at any given time.”

  “Well, I didn’t like any of them, except for Dawn,” Bessie said. “I’d be quite happy for you to arrest any or all of them.”

  John laughed. “I’m not sure about all of them, but I’ll do my best.” He glanced up at the clock on the wall. “And on that note, I should get the children home. I think we all need some sleep.”

  “Indeed,” Bessie said. “They’ve a busy day in Castletown tomorrow.”

  “And I’ve a busy day at the station,” John added, “and in the field. How much does admission to Castle Rushen cost?” he asked, pulling out his wallet.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Bessie said with a wave of her hand. “I’m allowed to bring guests because I’m a lifetime member of Manx National H
eritage.”

  “Here’s some money for lunch, then,” John said, handing Bessie a few folded notes. “I hope that’s enough for you and Grace and the kids. It’s the least I can do, as you and Grace are entertaining them for the day.”

  Bessie wanted to protest, but the look on John’s face kept her quiet. She was sure he was disappointed that he wasn’t going to be able to spend the time with the children. Letting him buy lunch was a small thing, but she hoped it would make him feel better. “What time do they need to be home?” she asked as she put the money into her handbag.

  “I’ll probably be at the station until half five or six,” John said. “Thomas has a key, though, so you can drop them off at your convenience, or rather at Grace’s convenience.”

  “How about if I take them back to my cottage after Castletown,” Bessie suggested. “I can put together some dinner for all of us for six o’clock. You can join us if you get there in time, or have leftovers when you arrive.”

  “I don’t want you to have to fuss,” John protested.

  “It’s no bother at all. I have to eat anyway, and so do the children. I’ll make something easy, like spaghetti with garlic bread, and the children can run on the beach while it’s cooking,” Bessie replied.

  “If you’re sure you don’t mind, that would be great,” John said. “I was planning on taking the children grocery shopping today, but obviously we didn’t make it. I don’t think there’s a lot of food in my house for dinner tomorrow night.”

  “Remind them that I’ll see them at around half nine, then,” Bessie told him. “Now go home and get some sleep.”

  John nodded. He stood up and started out of the room. Doona got up and followed him while Bessie began to clear the table.

  “You and Grace are welcome to join John and the children at my cottage for dinner tomorrow,” Bessie told Hugh as he got up to help her with the washing-up.

  “Thank you, but we’re having dinner with Grace’s mother tomorrow night in Ramsey. Her father is out of town for work, so her mother offered to treat us to dinner at the Seaview,” Hugh replied.