The Donaldson Case

by Diana Xarissa

  “Have you noticed anything unusual when you’ve been in the store?” Janet knew she was being pushy, asking all these questions, but as long as Michael was willing to answer, she wasn’t going to stop.

  “Not really,” Michael said. “The last time I was there when a shipment came in from head office, I remember there were a few items missing that the invoice claimed has been sent. It happens from time to time and the driver just noted it on the paperwork before I signed for the delivery. Other than that, it’s all been business as usual, as far as I know.”

  “So what do you think is going on?” Joan asked quietly.

  “I wish I knew,” Michael said with a sigh. “For now we’ll just have to wait and see what the police can find out, I suppose. Robert wasn’t sure when the shop will be allowed to reopen. I gather Matthew is arguing that he should be able to offer at least a limited service immediately, even if they want to shut up the pharmacy itself.”

  “The good people of Doveby Dale will be up in arms if they can’t get their headache tablets and baby food,” Janet remarked. Those were the two items that someone always seemed to be buying whenever she was in the store, anyway.

  Michael chuckled. “You’re right about that. We’re convenient for the locals who don’t want to drive all the way out to the grocery store, even though it’s only a few minutes further away. We get a lot of mums who need nappies or baby food and a great many folks who run out of headache tablets and can’t bear the thought of driving anywhere until they’ve taken some.”

  “What can we do to help?” Joan asked.

  “Nothing,” Michael said, shaking his head. “For the moment, there’s nothing anyone can do. We just have to wait and see what the police find out. Whether the shop is open or not isn’t my concern. Matthew will be dealing with that. I just have to get on with my life.”

  “With a dark cloud hanging over you,” Janet said.

  “Janet, I hardly think that’s appropriate,” Joan scolded.

  “Janet is right, though,” Michael said. “I do feel as if there’s a cloud hanging over me. Let’s hope Robert and his associates are good and quick.”

  “I’m sure Robert will do his best,” Janet said. “That is, I’m sure he’ll get it all worked out quickly,” she added, feeling as if the first statement wasn’t encouraging enough.

  “Let me see that key, then,” Michael said. “I didn’t take a proper look earlier.”

  Janet dug the key out of her pocket and handed it to the man. He turned it over in his hands and then shrugged. “There’s a number on it,” he pointed out. “1226; I would think it must be for a safe deposit box or a locker somewhere or something.”

  Janet nodded. She’d noticed the number herself, but that didn’t seem to get her any closer to solving the mystery. “Thanks for looking, anyway,” she said as she took the key back.

  “If I think of anything, I’ll let you know,” Michael said.

  “I don’t suppose you know where Maggie Appleton did her banking?” Janet asked.

  “She had an account at the bank next to the grocery store,” Michael said, referring to the local branch of a national chain. “I used to run into her there once in a while when I was doing my own banking.”

  “Do they have deposit boxes?”

  “They do. I even have one,” Michael replied. “But the keys don’t look exactly like that.”

  He dug around in his pocket and pulled out a ring of keys. He flipped through them and then stopped and held up a key. “See? They’re a little bit smaller and the numbers are done differently.”

  Janet took the key and studied it for a moment. Michael was right. The key was just different enough from hers that it seemed unlikely they were keys for the same bank deposit boxes.

  “There are lots of other banks around, though,” Michael said as he returned his keys to his pocket. “Just because she had an account at one bank doesn’t mean she didn’t have other accounts elsewhere.”

  Janet nodded. “Maybe I’ll have time to try a few banks over the next few days,” she said thoughtfully. “We don’t have guests until next week.”

  “You’re having more guests?” Michael asked, giving Joan a surprised look.

  “We have a nice young married couple arriving on Monday,” Joan told him. “I’m sure they won’t be any trouble at all.”

  Michael and Janet exchanged doubtful looks, but neither voiced their thoughts.

  “If you want a hand with breakfast or anything, let me know,” Michael said. “Now that I’m not covering at the shop, I have lots of free time.”

  “I’m not sure we have money in the budget for staff just yet,” Joan told him. “But we’ll keep it in mind.”

  Michael laughed “I wasn’t necessarily looking to get paid,” he told her. “I’d be happy enough just getting fed some breakfast of my own after the guests were taken care of. I was really just trying to find a way to spend a bit of time with you because you always get so busy when you have guests.”

  Joan flushed. “We’ll see,” she said evasively.

  Michael nodded. “I suppose you might not want to spend time with me while I’m being investigated by the police,” he said sadly. “I understand.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Joan snapped. “I know you’ve not done anything wrong. I just, well, that is, I mean, we don’t have guests until Monday. Maybe we could have dinner tomorrow or something?”

  Michael smiled and Janet felt relieved to see him looking better than he had since they’d arrived. “I’d really like that,” he said eagerly. “ Do you want to go somewhere fancy?”

  “Oh, good heavens, no,” Joan replied. “I’ll cook and we can just relax. With all the cleaning and everything that needs doing before Monday, I won’t have time to get all dressed up for something fancy.”

  “A quiet night in sounds wonderful,” Michael replied.

  “And my women’s group has a meeting tomorrow night, so you can have the house to yourselves as well,” Janet said. She’d recently joined the Doveby Dale Ladies’ Club, a small group of retired women who got together once a month to discuss everything that was wrong with the world. Sometimes Janet found the other women a bit annoying, but she did enjoy having an evening out without her sister.

  “Oh, I’d quite forgotten about that,” Joan said. When she looked away from Janet as she spoke, Janet knew she was lying. Clearly her elder sister had deliberately planned the evening, wanting to be alone with Michael. Janet smiled to herself as she stood up to go. She liked Michael and thought he and Joan were well-suited.

  “Let us know if you hear anything more about the, well, unpleasantness at the shop,” Joan said at the door as Michael showed them out.

  “I will,” he promised. “And I’ll see you around seven tomorrow.”

  “Perfect,” Joan replied.

  The sisters walked back across the road to their door, both lost in their own thoughts.

  “It’s getting late,” Janet remarked when she saw the sitting room clock.

  “It is, and we have a busy day tomorrow,” Joan replied.

  “Let me guess,” Janet said without enthusiasm. “We have to start cleaning for our guests.”

  “Oh, maybe,” Joan said airily. “But more importantly, we have to start investigating the goings-on at the chemist shop.”

  Chapter Five

  “We what?” Janet asked, staring at her sister.

  “I’m sure Robert is going to do his best,” Joan said, flushing. “But I did think that maybe we could, I don’t know, ask a few questions here and there. Just to see if we can find out anything useful.”

  “You never want to stick your nose in,” Janet reminded her.

  “I’ve never had a good reason to stick my nose in,” Joan retorted.

  “But now you want to help clear Michael’s name,” Janet suggested.

  Joan flushed again. “It just seems a shame that the police are considering him a suspect. He’s such a wonderful man. I just want to help get eve
rything cleared up as soon as possible.”

  “So where do we start?” Janet asked.

  Joan shook her head. “You’re the one who reads all those stories about murder and mayhem. You tell me.”

  “I think the first thing we need to do is get a good night’s sleep,” Janet said after a moment.

  Joan looked disappointed. “I’m not sure I’ll sleep very well,” she muttered as Janet headed towards the stairs.

  “The shop is shut now anyway,” Janet pointed out. “We can’t very well go knocking on people’s doors at this hour of the night with nosy questions. We’ll have to work out how to approach the suspects and work from there.”

  “I just hope we can help Michael,” Joan said anxiously.

  Janet was on the bottom step, but now she crossed over to her sister and gave her a hug. “I’m sure it will all be okay,” she murmured. “Robert’s very good at his job, and with us poking around as well, I’m sure the culprit will be behind bars in no time.”

  “At least one of us is optimistic,” Joan said, stepping back from Janet. “Go and get some sleep. I’ll have breakfast ready at eight.”

  Janet nodded and then climbed the stairs. Her mind was racing as she tried to work out how she could help her sister in her quest to aid Michael. She was sure she’d have a good idea if she slept on it, or at least that’s what she told herself as she climbed into bed. When her alarm rang the next morning, she was disappointed to find that no wonderful idea had come to her in the night.

  After a quick shower, Janet got dressed and combed her hair. Neither sister generally bothered with makeup. Now Janet stared at herself in the mirror. It seemed as if everyone they met thought the sisters looked a lot alike, but Janet couldn’t really see it. While Joan was slender and always looked slightly disapproving, Janet was curvy and smiled almost constantly. Today the smile looked a bit forced as she thought about Michael’s problem.

  “I think the first thing we should do is head into town and see what’s going on at the shop,” Joan announced after she’d set the breakfast plates on the table.

  Janet sat down and picked up a fork. She frowned down at her plate. Joan was an excellent cook, but today’s breakfast was not up to her usual standards.

  “Sorry about breakfast,” Joan added. “I can’t seem to concentrate on cooking.”

  Janet ate without complaining, but where before she had been interested in getting involved in Michael’s case because of her inherent nosiness, now she was determined to get the matter resolved for far more selfish reasons. While she didn’t mind cooking for herself once in a while, there was no way Janet wanted to take on cooking for the bed and breakfast when they had guests on the way. If Joan was too upset to cook properly for their guests, Janet wasn’t sure what they’d do.

  Janet washed burnt toast down with bitter coffee, trying to pretend that she hadn’t really noticed anything unusual. “What do you think we can accomplish by stopping at the shop?” she asked as she loaded the breakfast plates into the dishwasher.

  “I want a word with this Matthew Rogers. He’s the one who’s stirring up all the trouble, after all.”

  Janet nodded. As she hadn’t come up with a better idea, she couldn’t argue. “Maybe, while we’re there, we should stick our heads in at the bank and see if the key we found is for one of their boxes,” she suggested.

  “I suppose,” Joan shrugged.

  Janet could tell that Joan didn’t want to spend any time on anything other than helping Michael, but the key intrigued Janet. She really wanted to find out what it opened.

  A few minutes later the pair were heading into Doveby Dale with Joan at the wheel.

  “Of course Owen is laid up in hospital,” Joan said, swerving back into the correct lane when she noticed the approaching car.

  “Why don’t you let me drive?” Janet suggested.

  “I’m fine,” Joan snapped. “Just a bit distracted.”

  The loud honking of a car horn told both sisters that Joan had just missed a stop sign. Joan sighed. “Okay, maybe I’m too distracted to drive.”

  Luckily it was only a short distance into the small city centre of Doveby Dale. Janet sighed with relief when Joan slid the car into a parking space.

  “I’ll drive home,” Janet said firmly as they exited the car.

  “Yes, I think you should,” Joan agreed.

  Joan had parked across two spaces, but as the car park was nearly empty, Janet didn’t think it mattered overly much. The pair walked quickly towards the short row of shops. It seemed very quiet as they strolled past the newsagent. The chemist shop had a sign in the window.

  Closed due to unforeseen circumstances. We will reopen on Monday at nine.

  “Well, that’s that, then,” Janet said.

  “I wonder if William knows anything?” Joan replied, walking past the chemist and down to the end of the strip.

  WTC Antiques was owned by William Chalmers, a somewhat disagreeable man with a shady past. Strangely, it seemed as if the sisters were becoming something like friends with the man. Now Joan pushed open the door to his shop.

  Janet winced at the loud buzzing noise that filled the room as they walked into the shop. A moment later William appeared in the doorway to the back room.

  “Ah, Janet and Joan Markham, what a pleasant surprise,” he said in an artificially bright tone. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

  “We were just in the neighbourhood,” Janet said, wrinkling her nose as she realised her own tone was just as false sounding as his had been.

  “I do hope you are enjoying your painting,” he replied, smirking at her.

  Janet flushed. She’d fallen in love with a painting in the store when it had first opened, but it was far too expensive for her. Edward Bennett had purchased the painting and had it sent to Janet as a gift. As Janet didn’t really know what to think of Edward, she wasn’t sure how she felt about the expensive gift. She’d not had a chance to speak to Edward since the painting had been delivered, and the subject was somewhat uncomfortable for Janet.

  “It’s a lovely picture,” Joan said now, clearly trying to help her sister during the awkward pause.

  “It is, yes,” William agreed. “But I have a few paintings coming in soon by local artists, if you’re still interested.”

  “Oh, yes,” Joan said. “Do let us know when you have something.”

  William nodded and then looked expectantly at them both.

  “We were hoping to get a few things from the chemist,” Janet said. “That’s why we came into town.”

  “Oh, I did see that it was shut. I wonder why,” William said.

  “I can’t imagine,” Janet lied, feeling relieved that William obviously hadn’t heard anything about the missing drugs yet.

  “I know Owen had some surgery or something, didn’t he?” William asked. “But I thought your neighbour was covering for him.”

  “We’ll have to ask Michael what’s going on,” Janet said with a shrug. “Anyway, we won’t bother you any further today. Do ring us when you’ve something for us to see.”

  She turned and pulled Joan out of the store. On the pavement, Joan shook her head.

  “How do you do that?” she demanded.

  “Do what?”

  “Lie, that’s what,” Joan replied. “You pretended that you didn’t know anything about why the shop was shut. I was afraid if I opened my mouth I would say something I shouldn’t.”

  “It’s probably best if only one of us is a good liar,” Janet muttered. “Anyway, he didn’t seem to know anything. That’s the good news.”

  “I was hoping he might say that he’d seen someone stealing drugs from the store,” Joan replied. “That would have been better news.”

  The pair were walking slowly away from the short row of shops, down the pavement towards the small local bank. “Still determined to find out about that key?” Joan asked as they reached the entrance.

  “I am,” Janet replied. “You can wait here if you wa
nt.”

  Joan sat down on a small bench just outside the door, while Janet made her way inside. A moment later she was back, a frown on her face.

  “No luck?” Joan asked.

  “Honestly, when did they start hiring twelve-year-olds to work behind bank counters?” Janet demanded. “She glanced at the key and said ‘nope, not ours,’ and then went back to gossiping with the girl at the next window. I’m awfully glad we don’t bank there.”

  “So where to now?” Joan asked her.

  Janet sighed. They’d made their way to the car and she simply couldn’t think what they could do next to help Michael.

  “Derby’s a long drive, if we want to visit Owen in hospital,” Joan said, thoughtfully.

  “We should talk to Michael before we drive all that way. The poor man might not even be allowed visitors,” Janet pointed out. “And we don’t know where to find the other two men at all.”

  “Michael might be able to help us out there as well,” Joan said. “Maybe we should head back to Doveby House and see if he’s home.”

  “Maybe, since you’re having dinner with him, we should do some work around the house before he comes over,” Janet suggested. “Robert is meant to be stopping by and we have guests arriving on Monday, after all.”

  Joan flushed. “Of course you’re right,” she said. “But lunch with Michael would be better than dinner. I’d really like to get his troubles sorted out before the guests arrive, if we can.”

  Janet drove the pair back to Doveby House. As soon as they were in the front door, Joan rang Michael. She hung up with a frown.

  “No answer,” she said.

  “And you didn’t leave a message.”

  “I didn’t know what to say,” Joan replied. “Anyway, let’s do a bit of cleaning and then I’ll try again.”

  Janet started on the public spaces, dusting and vacuuming her way from room to room. She hadn’t finished the deep cleaning in the library yet, but she ran a duster over the shelves that she’d yet to tackle and then vacuumed the space. If their guests had any interest in seeing the library, it was at least presentable. When she finished, Janet shut and locked the library door, hoping that their guests wouldn’t even notice the small room.