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

by Diana Xarissa

  The inspector nodded. “Thank you. If you’d both come with me, please,” he said to Constance and Dawn.

  Dawn looked at her father and then sighed deeply. “I’ll just get my handbag,” she said in a defeated tone.

  “I’m not going,” Constance said. “I’ve told the police everything that I intend to tell them.”

  “You lied to them,” Dawn said. “You told them and the local paper a whole host of lies. They should lock you up and throw away the key.”

  “I may have omitted a few things from my statement,” Constance countered, “but I didn’t exactly lie.”

  The police inspector looked from one woman to the other and then shook his head. “I can see we’re going to have a lot to talk about,” he said. “I may have to invite John Rockwell to join us.”

  Bessie was happy to hear him say that, as she’d been trying to work out a way to suggest that very thing to the man. Constance protested a few more times, but in the end she and Dawn were both escorted out of the building by the uniformed constables.

  “I should go with her,” Brandon said as they left.

  “No, you shouldn’t,” his father said firmly. “Dawn will be fine. She knows when to keep her mouth shut. You, on the other hand, well, you don’t.”

  Bessie thought Brandon might argue, but instead he resumed eating. A moment later the rest of his party did the same.

  “That was interesting,” Grace said in Bessie’s ear as they continued on their way to the exit.

  “That’s one word for it,” Bessie replied. “I hope the inspector does include John when he questions the women. We need to tell him what we heard, as well.”

  “I rang Hugh when Constance walked in,” Grace told her. “Then I put the whole thing on speaker on my mobile. Hugh and John were listening in. They were the ones who sent Inspector Davidson over to break up the fight.”

  “What a very clever thing to do,” Bessie exclaimed.

  Grace blushed. “It was Amy’s idea,” she admitted.

  Bessie smiled at the girl. “It was a wonderful idea,” she told the teen. “I’m sure your father will be very proud of you for thinking of it.”

  “Dad hasn’t told us much about the case, but I know a little bit, and I read more in the local paper. I thought I recognised the woman when she came in as the one who’d been interviewed about the case. I knew the other woman was the victim’s wife, because she was on the front page of the paper, too,” Amy replied. “If I can do anything to help Dad, I want to do it. Then he’ll have more time to spend with us, and a killer will be behind bars.”

  The little group was making their way down the promenade as Amy spoke. “I’m sure your father will appreciate that you want to help, but you also need to be careful. Investigating murders can be a dangerous job,” Bessie said.

  “Dad says it isn’t dangerous if you do it right,” Thomas interjected.

  “I’m sure he’s right, but he’s with the police. It can be dangerous for other people when they stick their noses in,” Bessie said, something she knew only too well from her own experiences.

  “Let’s talk about something pleasant,” Grace suggested. “Which shops do we want to visit?”

  It turned out that the children weren’t terribly interested in shopping. Grace took Amy off to ShopFast for her essentials while Bessie continued down the promenade with Thomas.

  “Are you liking the island more now, then?” she asked the boy as they walked.

  “I liked it okay the first time,” Thomas told her. “I made some friends, and I liked the school in Ramsey. Mum hated it so much that, well, I felt as if I had to act like I didn’t like it, too. If I’d known then that she just wanted to get back to Manchester to be closer to Harvey, I wouldn’t have gone along.”

  “Have you been able to see some of your friends now that you’re back?” was Bessie’s next question. She wanted to avoid talking about Sue and Harvey if at all possible.

  “Yeah, we met up once and are planning to do some other things later in the summer. Most of them do lots of sports, though, so they don’t have as much free time as I do.”

  “Maybe you should talk to your father about putting you into some sort of sport,” Bessie suggested.

  “We’re leaving in a few months. It doesn’t really seem worth it.”

  “And you want to join the police when you finish school?” Bessie asked.

  Thomas shrugged. “I don’t know. It seems like an interesting job. No day would ever be exactly the same, which seems desirable, but it doesn’t pay much, really, not for all the long hours that go along with it. I like telling Mum I want to, though, because it makes her cross. No matter how hard she pushes me, I’m never going to become a doctor like Harvey.”

  “That’s another job that must be interesting,” Bessie said. “I can’t imagine any two days are alike there, either. And, of course, it does pay rather well, or so I’m told.”

  “Yeah, I might even be tempted by the idea if it weren’t for Harvey,” Thomas told her. “It isn’t even Harvey, really, it’s Mum with Harvey. If I decided to study medicine, she’d insist on telling everyone that I was following in Harvey’s footsteps. She’d use it to justify leaving Dad and breaking up the family.”

  Bessie nodded. Thomas was clearly still upset about the divorce and Bessie could understand how he felt. “I suggest you stop worrying about what your mother will do and focus on what you want,” she told the boy. “If you genuinely want to study medicine, you should do so, no matter what your mother thinks.”

  “We’ll see,” Thomas replied. “I’m doing all the right GCSEs, anyway. I don’t have to make any real decisions for a few more years.”

  The pair walked in silence for a few minutes and then chatted about the weather and the people on the beach for a while. When Bessie’s phone buzzed they were nearly back to the centre of Douglas.

  Bessie pulled out her phone and read the text message. “Grace and Amy are waiting for us at the bookshop,” she told Thomas.

  “Great. I hope they have new stuff. A few of my favourite authors are meant to have new books out,” he said happily.

  Bessie was relieved to hear that the young man enjoyed reading. It seemed to her that fewer and fewer children were being encouraged to read books these days. Electronic devices were taking over their lives and Bessie didn’t feel that was an improvement.

  The foursome spent a happy half hour browsing the shelves. Thomas found three books he wanted and Amy found four. Bessie found about a dozen, but she limited herself to two paperbacks. She had a great deal of cleaning and tidying to do at home. Time for reading would be in short supply for a few days, anyway. Grace bought several books on pregnancy and baby care, which made Bessie smile.

  “I know,” Grace said as she took her bag from the shop assistant. “No matter how much I read, I’ll still be totally unprepared. I feel as if I’m studying for a French exam but that when I sit down the entire paper is going to be written in Japanese. Having said that, I still can’t resist buying more and more books.”

  “I’m sure you’ll get many helpful tips from the books,” Bessie told her. “Just don’t forget to trust your instincts. People have been bringing up babies quite successfully for many years. You’ll be just fine.”

  “My mum laughs at me when she sees all the books I already have,” Grace said. “She didn’t have any books and she reckons I turned out okay.”

  Bessie chuckled. “Now who wanted ice cream?” she asked.

  Thomas and Amy got two scoops each, in different flavours. Bessie and Grace opted for single scoops instead.

  “I’m still feeling quite full after that delicious lunch,” Grace said as they walked out of the ice cream shop.

  “The food is always good there,” Bessie said. “I couldn’t say no to ice cream either, though.”

  When the sweet treats were all gone, the group piled back into Grace’s car and headed back towards Laxey. For perhaps the first time ever, Bessie wasn’t looking
forward to going home to Treoghe Bwaane.

  Chapter 10

  “I’m not sure where to park,” Grace said as she approached Bessie’s cottage.

  Bessie shook her head. “People from the holiday cottages sometimes use my parking area, as it’s always less busy than their car park. I’ll have to ring Thomas or Maggie and ask them to get people to move their cars,” she sighed.

  “That one is Doona’s, anyway,” Grace said, “and I think I see John’s car as well.”

  “You’ll have to park on the road,” Bessie told the girl. “Although you don’t have to park. You can just let me and the children out and then you can get home.”

  “I’m going to park,” Grace countered. “I told you that I’d come in and help you with the cleaning that needs doing.”

  “It looks as if John and Doona have already started,” Bessie muttered as Grace pulled her car off the road as far as she could.

  She was out of the car and walking briskly towards her cottage before Grace could unbuckle her seatbelt. While Bessie appreciated that her friends wanted to help, she felt odd about them working on the cleaning while she wasn’t home. The front door to the cottage was standing open, and when Bessie stepped inside she simply stopped and stared.

  “Grace was meant to keep you busy for another hour,” Doona said from where she was standing behind Bessie’s cooker. “We’d have been done by then.”

  Bessie looked around the room slowly. “It looks as if you’re nearly done anyway,” she said, shaking her head. “It must have taken you hours.”

  “Not at all,” Doona replied. “I had a lot of help.” She turned her head and looked over towards the dining room. “Bessie’s home,” she called loudly.

  A few moments later Bessie heard what sounded like a herd of elephants tramping through her house. John was the first to join her and Doona in the kitchen.

  “Ah, Bessie, I thought Grace was going to keep you out for a while longer,” he said. “We’ve just finished tidying the upstairs.”

  “We?” Bessie echoed softly.

  “Hello, Aunt Bessie,” Hugh said brightly. “Doona wanted to handle the kitchen herself, so John and I worked on putting books back on shelves and that sort of thing.”

  Bessie nodded. “Thank you,” she said.

  “I helped in the kitchen,” another voice said, “or rather, Mum and I did.”

  “Andy? But surely you had better things to do,” Bessie said to the young man who was back on the island on summer break from culinary school.

  “I couldn’t think of anything I’d rather do today than help clean Treoghe Bwaane,” he said cheerfully. “After all the time I spent here in my teen years complaining about my mum and all, it was the least I could do.”

  “You never complained about me, really,” Anne Caine laughed from where she was standing behind her son. “I was an awesome mum.”

  “You were, all things considered,” Andy agreed. “Anyway, when I heard what had happened here, I rang the police to find out if I could help. Doona was kind enough to let Mum and me come over and do a few things.”

  “I’ve made a list, actually,” Doona said. “There have been about twenty different people here throughout the day. The phone at the station didn’t stop ringing with people who wanted to come and help, and some of them simply showed up at your door. As I said, in another hour we’d have finished the job.”

  Bessie felt tears welling up in her eyes. “I can’t begin to thank you all,” she said, stopping because she felt completely overcome.

  “We were happy to do it,” Hugh said. “With so many people helping, it didn’t take long, anyway. Once Andy vacuumed up most of the flour, there wasn’t that much else to do.”

  “There was lots to do and I’m immensely grateful to all of you and to the others on the list who helped,” Bessie said. “I don’t know how to thank you. I wasn’t looking forward to coming back here this afternoon, but you’ve made the cottage feel homey again.”

  Grace put an arm around Bessie. “I hope you couldn’t tell that I was dragging my feet and trying to keep you away,” she said. “Doona didn’t want you back until five at the earliest.”

  “I was dragging my feet too,” Bessie replied. “I didn’t want to come back and deal with the mess.”

  “I’ve finished the dining room, although there wasn’t much to do in there,” Bessie’s friend Bahey Corlett said as she walked into the room. “Joney wanted to come and help, too, but I think it’s best that she didn’t. There isn’t any more room to park, and I think we’ve done nearly everything anyway.”

  “I just need to move the cooker back into place and give the kitchen a final polish,” Doona said. “Mary and Elizabeth should be back by the time I’ve done that.”

  “Mary and Elizabeth?” Bessie echoed.

  “Your neighbours from Thie yn Traie,” Doona said. “They’ve just gone to run a few errands.”

  Bessie was afraid to ask what those errands might entail. Everyone insisted that Bessie sit down at the kitchen table while John and Hugh slid her cooker back against the wall. Doona gave everything one final wipe with her duster, and then she went and stood in the middle of the room.

  “I think it looks pretty good,” she said as she slowly turned and surveyed the kitchen.

  “I think it looks better than it has in a long time,” Bessie replied. “I can’t remember the last time I moved the cooker out to clean behind it.”

  Doona laughed. “It needed doing because of the flour,” she explained.

  Bessie nodded. She could only imagine how difficult it must have been, cleaning up all of that flour. “How can I ever thank you?” she asked.

  “That’s what friends are for,” Bahey told her. “We were all happy to help. Now we should get out of the way.”

  Bessie gave her a hug before she left. Anne and Andy were the next to go. “Ring me if you need anything,” Anne said in her ear.

  As Bessie let them out of the cottage, Mary Quayle’s expensive car slid into the parking area. Elizabeth jumped out of the passenger seat as soon as the car stopped.

  “We were hoping to be here before you got home,” she told Bessie. “At least now you can make sure we put things in the right places.”

  Hugh and John helped the women carry in dozens of bags of groceries. Bessie’s cupboards were all completely full when they were finished unpacking, and a few boxes of biscuits and crackers ended up on the kitchen table because there simply wasn’t any more room in the cupboards.

  “I hope we’ve managed to replace everything,” Elizabeth said.

  “I’ve never had this much food in my cottage at one time before,” Bessie told her. “Not even at Christmas. I’ll never manage to eat it all before it starts going out of date.”

  “I’m sure you’ll have lots of help,” Elizabeth replied. “Everyone you know will want to visit to make sure you’re okay.”

  There was some truth to Elizabeth’s words, but Bessie wasn’t convinced that, even with help, all of the food would get eaten.

  “We won’t stay,” Mary told her. “I’m sure you’d like some peace and quiet after all of the upset.”

  “Thank you so much,” Bessie replied. She hugged both mother and daughter as they headed for the door.

  “Bessie, sit down,” Grace suggested as Bessie shut the door behind the Quayles. “It’s been a long day after a late night.”

  Bessie wanted to argue, but Grace was right. She was exhausted. It would be lovely to sleep in her own bed later, she thought, blocking out the immediate rush of fear that followed the idea. Her cottage had always felt safe and secure, and now it didn’t.

  “If you’re okay, I think I’ll take the children and go home,” John said. “Maybe we could have another gathering tomorrow to talk everything through.”

  “That would be good,” Bessie replied, “but I’m not sure I want to go out and leave the cottage empty again in the evening.”

  “We’ll find someone to watch the cottage,�
� Doona told her. “I suspect Brandon is well aware of your connection with John by now, though.”

  “So you may as well all come here,” Bessie suggested. “Goodness knows I have plenty of food for everyone. I’ll cook something and we can each eat our own body weight in biscuits for pudding.”

  “I might just be able to do that,” Hugh said with a chuckle.

  “Especially now that he’s eating for two,” Grace teased.

  Hugh flushed. “I have been incredibly hungry since Grace found out she was pregnant,” he said.

  “You’re always hungry,” Doona countered.

  “I know,” Hugh shrugged.

  Bessie walked John and the children to the door. “Thank you for spending the day with me,” she told Thomas and Amy. “You helped keep my mind off of my cottage.”

  “It was fun,” Thomas told her.

  “But next time we go to a castle,” Amy said firmly. “Just not tomorrow.”

  “What’s tomorrow?” John asked.

  “I told you, I’m meeting Maddie and Sue in Ramsey. We’re going to go shopping and maybe go to the park,” Amy replied. “Doona said she could take me.”

  “That’s good of her,” John replied.

  “I thought I’d have her take me as well,” Thomas added. “There’s more to do in Ramsey than there is in Laxey.”

  The trio were still talking about their plans for the next day as Bessie shut the door behind them. Hugh and Grace were talking quietly together when Bessie turned around.

  “We’re going to go too,” Hugh said. “Grace needs to put her feet up for a while.”

  “I’m sorry,” Bessie replied. “You must be tired after everything we did today.”

  Grace shook her head. “I’m fine. Hugh just likes to fuss. I’ll let him make dinner while I curl up with one of my new books, to make him feel important.”

  “I can hear everything you’re saying,” Hugh pointed out, “and I don’t need to feel important. You can make dinner if you want.”

  “I am a little bit tired,” Grace said, winking at Bessie.

  Bessie chuckled. “Off you go. Hugh, make something lovely for your beautiful bride. You won’t get to spoil her in the same way if you have more children, you know. Once the first one arrives, the world suddenly revolves around him or her.”