The Fenton Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novella Book 6)

by Diana Xarissa

  “Yes, well, maybe,” Joan replied. “I’m still working my way through Agatha Christie’s works.”

  Janet was surprised and delighted by the reply. Usually when she recommended books, Joan refused to even consider them.

  After dinner and several more chocolate chip cookies, Janet helped Joan with the washing-up. “Is Michael coming over tonight?” she asked as they finished in the kitchen.

  “No, he has some things he needs to get done at home,” Joan told her. “And then he’s off to Liverpool for a few days for a conference of some sort. You’re stuck with me for a while.”

  Janet laughed. “I’m quite happy to have you at home,” she replied. “Especially now that home is so large and comfortable. The cottage the sisters had shared for many years had been considerably smaller than Doveby House. Janet was still grateful every day for simply having her own en-suite rather than having to share with Joan.

  “It is a wonderful house,” Joan agreed. “I just hope we don’t have to use up more of our savings to keep it running during these quiet months.”

  “Maybe we should advertise,” Janet said.

  “I’ve been thinking that,” Joan replied. “But I don’t even know where to start. Running a business is more work than I’d anticipated.”

  “But it has it rewards,” Janet countered. “Look at our beautiful home.”

  “Yes, I feel quite spoiled when I’m alone in my huge suite,” Joan told her. “I never imagined having such a luxurious place to call home.”

  The sisters took seats in the sitting room. Janet pulled out the book she’d read half of before dinner. She was happy to see that Joan was reading one of Agatha Christie novels Janet had suggested. Several hours later, they were interrupted by a knock on the door.

  “My goodness, I was quite lost in that,” Joan exclaimed as she stood up and walked to the door.

  “I’ve one more page to go,” Janet called, not even looking up.

  “If it’s an axe murderer, you’ll never notice,” Joan muttered as she opened the door.

  “Good evening,” Robert Parsons smiled at Joan. “I’ve just about finished for the day, so I thought I would drop in here and see if there was any chance your guests had just wandered in.”

  “They aren’t back yet, but you’re just in time for a few biscuits and a cup of tea,” Janet said, standing up and stretching.

  “I won’t say no,” Robert replied. “I ended up working right through dinner. A few biscuits might help fill the gap.”

  In the kitchen, Janet switched the kettle on while Joan filled a plate with biscuits and cookies. “Before I offer you these, you should have some soup or something,” she told the young man, holding the plate just out of his reach. “Or I could make you a sandwich.”

  “A sandwich would be wonderful,” Robert replied, his eyes looking longingly at the sweet treats.

  Joan put the plate on the counter and quickly made a sandwich for the young man. He had it nearly gone before the kettle boiled.

  “That was delicious,” he said as he wiped the last of the crumbs from his mouth as Janet put his tea in front of him. “Susan usually makes sure I eat, but she went home early today, being that it’s Sunday. While our little burglaries are making lots of extra work for me, they aren’t enough of a problem to make Susan work too many extra hours.”

  Joan put the plate of biscuits on the table and Janet found herself falling on it almost as quickly as Robert did. Seeing the stern look on her sister’s face made Janet pull her hand back and wait a polite moment for the constable to help himself first.

  “So you’ve no idea when the guests will be back?” Robert asked again, after many biscuits and a second cup of tea.

  “No, but they haven’t been out late previously,” Janet said. “I would expect them any time now, really.”

  The trio went back into the sitting room and settled in to wait. Robert was just telling the sisters about his childhood ambitions when the door opened.

  “Good evening,” Sue called as she swept into the room. “I was ever so worried for the last hour or so, nagging poor Henry to hurry back so we could get on the road. He only just told me that we’re staying an extra night. Thank you so much for letting us do that.”

  “It’s our pleasure,” Joan assured her.

  “We will have to leave pretty early tomorrow,” Harry reminded Sue. “I have to be at work by one, and you know the drive will take ages.”

  “I know, but it’s totally worth it,” Sue replied.

  “Before you head up to bed, Constable Parsons would like a quick word with you both,” Janet told them.

  Sue turned pale. “A police constable? But we haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “I’m sure you haven’t,” Robert said smoothly. “But there was a break-in across the street last night. I was hoping you might have seen or heard something that might help me find the culprit.”

  Sue glanced over at Harry, her face still devoid of colour. Harry crossed to her and took her hand. “It’s okay,” he assured her.

  The door opened again, interrupting the conversation. “Hello, everyone,” Margaret called as she shut the door behind her. “But you all look very serious about something. What’s going on?”

  “I’m Constable Robert Parsons,” Robert replied. “I just have a few questions for each of you about last night. It won’t take long.”

  “Questions? About last night? But what happened last night?” Margaret asked.

  “One of the houses across the street was broken into,” Robert told her. “I was hoping someone here might have seen or heard something or someone that could help me identify the perpetrator.”

  “What time did all this happen?” Margaret asked.

  “We aren’t absolutely certain about that,” Robert replied. “I’ll want to talk to you about your movements from around six yesterday afternoon until around five this morning.”

  Margaret opened her mouth, but Robert held up a hand. “Why don’t I talk to you first?” he asked her. “I can answer your questions and you can answer mine as well.”

  “You can speak to Harry and Sue first, if you’d rather,” she said. “Sue looks exhausted. I can wait for my turn.”

  Robert looked over at Sue, who was still clinging to Harry. She had tears in her eyes. “Why don’t we go into the library,” he suggested gently.

  “There’s a library?” Sue asked.

  “After Robert is gone, you can take a good look around it,” Janet promised the girl. “I’ll even bring you tea and biscuits in there if you want.”

  “I think we’ll need to get to bed after our chat with the constable,” Harry said. “But thank you anyway.”

  “I’ll just unlock the library door for you,” Janet said.

  She turned and left the room with Robert on her heels. Sue and Harry followed more slowly. As she walked through the television lounge, she stopped.

  “What’s that noise?” she asked Robert.

  Very faintly, she could just make out the sounds of someone shouting.

  “It sounds like someone is calling for help,” Robert exclaimed.

  Chapter Ten

  Janet listened again. “It sounds like it’s outside,” she said. She walked through the conservatory and opened the door. The sound was slightly louder there.

  “I think it’s coming from your carriage house,” Robert said.

  “My keys are in my room,” Janet said. “I’ll see if Joan has hers.”

  Joan and Margaret hadn’t moved when Janet raced in. “Do you have your key to the carriage house handy?” Janet demanded. “It sounds like someone is locked in there.”

  “How would someone get into the carriage house?” Joan asked. She stood up and patted her pockets. “Keys,” she said, pulling them out of her pocket.

  Joan walked out of the room with Janet and Margaret following close behind. Outside the carriage house door, Robert was standing with Sue and Harry. From there, Janet could clearly hear someone shoutin
g from inside the small building.

  “Help, please,” the voice called.

  “I’ve tried calling back, but they keep shouting so much they can’t seem to hear me,” Robert told the others.

  Joan inserted her key into the lock and unlocked the door.

  “Step back,” Robert instructed her. He waited until Joan had taken a step backwards before he slowly opened the carriage house door. Everyone pressed forward as he switched on the light. In the middle of the room, looking wide-eyed and terrified, Kara Newstead stared back at them.

  Robert was the first to speak. “Ms. Newstead? Perhaps you’d like to explain what you’re doing here?”

  Kara swallowed hard a couple of times and then cleared her throat. “I was just walking by, killing some time, like, and I saw this old building and I wondered what it was. The door was open, so I went in, and then the lights went out and the door shut and I couldn’t get out.”

  “I see,” Robert said flatly. “And what about these?” He pointed to something on the ground between himself and Kara.

  “Those? They, um, they aren’t mine. They must have already been in here when I got trapped in here,” she replied quickly.

  Robert nodded. He pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket. “May I borrow those gloves?” he asked Joan, pointing to a pair of gardening gloves that were lying on one of the shelves.

  “Of course,” Joan answered.

  Robert put the gloves on and then picked up the object and dropped it into the bag. “We’ll just have these checked for fingerprints,” he said conversationally. “I hope you don’t mind coming down to the station to provide me with yours,” he added, looking hard at Kara.

  “I won’t,” she said. “You can’t make me.”

  “Actually, I believe I can,” he replied. “Whatever story you’d like to tell me, you’re trespassing on private property and I have reason to believe that you were in possession of lock picks that would have enabled you to gain illegal entry to that property. We can discuss this further at the station.”

  “I want my solicitor,” Kara said crossly.

  “You can ring him from the station,” Robert told her.

  “Does that mean you don’t have to question us?” Harry asked as the pair began to walk away.

  “Please leave contact information with the Markham sisters before you head for home,” Robert replied. “I may be in touch later, if things don’t go the way I think they will.”

  Joan locked the carriage house door and the small group made their way back into Doveby House.

  “So Kara was behind the break-ins?” Janet said as everyone sat down in the sitting room.

  “I don’t know who Kara is,” Margaret said.

  “She’s Paul’s girlfriend,” Janet said. When Margaret continued to look at her blankly, Janet laughed. “Sorry, I’m not thinking. Paul recently came up here to work for William Chalmers at the antique shop in the village. I gather he brought Kara with him. I’ve only met her twice before tonight, but both times all she did was complain about how bored she was here.”

  “So she was entertaining herself by breaking into people’s homes and businesses,” Margaret guessed.

  “It looks that way,” Janet agreed.

  “I hope that’s the end of that,” Harry said.

  “Me, too,” Sue said, sliding closer to Harry on their shared couch.

  “Are you okay?” Janet asked. The girl was still pale and looked upset.

  “I’m fine,” she answered quickly. She glanced at Harry and sighed. “I’m sorry, I’m sure I’m behaving oddly. It’s my father, you see.”

  Harry coughed loudly. When Sue looked at him, he shook his head. “You don’t have to explain anything to anyone,” he said softly.

  “I know,” Sue replied. “But I think I’ll feel better if I do.”

  Harry put his arm around her and squeezed her gently. “I hope you’re right,” he muttered.

  Sue took a deep breath and then blew it out. “My father is a criminal,” she said softly. “He’s been in and out of prison his entire life, but every time he came out my mum took him back. He was, well, not nice to her or to me, and just as soon as I turned eighteen Harry and I got married and started a new life together. My father was locked up when we got married three months ago, but he’s out now and all I could think was that he’d followed us up here and was trying to make my life miserable again.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Janet said, feeling as if that was a stupid remark.

  “Thank you,” Sue replied.

  “What Sue has left out is that we met when I was working for her father,” Harry added. “But as soon as I met her, I decided to go straight, and I haven’t so much as driven over the speed limit since. We’re trying hard to do the right thing, but neither of us has any real qualifications. This holiday was the first time we’ve spent any money on anything other than rent and groceries, and it’s our honeymoon, really.”

  “Well, congratulations on your marriage,” Margaret said heartily. “As for not having qualifications, I might just be able to help you there. I volunteer for a programme for young offenders who are trying to straighten out their lives. We have all sorts of educational schemes to help you get GCSEs or A Levels or whatever you need.”

  “Really?” Sue asked. “But neither one of us is a young offender. I mean, I’m not, and Harry wasn’t ever caught.”

  Margaret laughed. “I’m sure I can help anyway.” She gave the young couple her contact information and insisted on collecting theirs as well. “That way, if you forget to ring, I can nag you,” she told them.

  “We won’t forget,” Sue said fervently.

  “No, I don’t believe you will,” Margaret replied.

  Before everyone headed up to their rooms, Janet made sure she had contact information for all of them.

  “I hope we can come and stay again some day,” Sue told her after she’d given her their address in Milton Keynes. “I love it here.”

  “Maybe we should look at moving to Derbyshire,” Harry said thoughtfully. “Maybe I could get some qualifications in car repair and get a job with Mack over at the garage. He was really good to us.”

  “Well, we’d love to have you in the area if you do come back,” Janet told the couple. “There aren’t enough young people around here.”

  “I have a feeling those two are going to live happily ever after,” Margaret said after Sue and Harry headed up the stairs.

  “I do hope so,” Janet replied.

  “I’d better get myself to bed, as well,” Margaret said. “I have one place I need to go tomorrow morning and then I’ll be on my way home. Will you both be here around ten tomorrow?”

  Janet and Joan exchanged looks. “I expect so,” Janet said. “Why?”

  “I’ll have breakfast at half seven as normal, but then I have an appointment. I’ll be back around ten to collect my things,” Margaret explained. “And I’ll want to say good-bye to you both, of course.”

  “We’ll be here,” Joan said.

  “Excellent,” Margaret gathered up her handbag and swept out of the room.

  “Whatever could she want?” Janet demanded as soon as she heard the woman’s footsteps on the stairs.

  “I don’t know, but we weren’t going out anyway. If it makes her happy to say good-bye to both of us, then we should be here for her to do that. Happy guests tell their friends about us,” Joan said.

  Janet shrugged. “I’m off to bed. That was a lot of excitement for one day.”

  “It does seem to have been a much longer day than normal,” Joan agreed.

  The night, on the other hand, seemed to fly past. Janet glared at her alarm when it rang the next morning. Maybe letting the guests stay an extra day hadn’t been such a great idea. If they’d all left the previous day, Janet could have had a lie-in now instead of having to get up and help make breakfast.

  In the kitchen, Joan was already getting everything ready. Janet began slicing bread for toast after she’d filled
and turned on the coffee maker.

  “Coffee this morning?” Joan asked.

  “I need a little help getting going,” Janet replied. “And I expect our guests will want some as well.”

  Sue and Harry were down with their luggage before the pot was finished brewing.

  “I hate having to leave,” Sue said. “But I’m more excited about the future now. If Margaret can really help us, we might just have a chance.”

  “I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully well,” Janet told her. “You’re both young and you’re both willing to work hard. We’ll expect you back for your first wedding anniversary next year.”

  “And your first night will be on us,” Joan added.

  Janet nearly dropped the coffee pot in surprise. Clearly Joan was fonder of the young couple than Janet realised.

  “Oh, thank you,” Sue said. “We’ll have to be good now and save up, as we know you’re expecting us.”

  “Thank you,” Harry added. “This holiday has been everything I’d hoped it would be and more.”

  Janet was sad to see the couple leave. They’d been perfect guests and she could only hope that they’d be back one day and still be just as happy and in love.

  Margaret came down as Janet was walking back to the kitchen after locking up behind the Mortimers.

  “I’m sorry I missed them,” Margaret said. “But I’ll be ringing them by Wednesday if they haven’t been in touch yet.”

  Janet still had a long list of questions she wanted to ask Margaret about Edward, but there was no easy way to raise the subject. With Joan in the room, she didn’t dare anyway.

  “I’ll be back around ten,” Margaret reminded them both as she finished her breakfast. “I’ll see you both then.”

  Janet followed her to the front door. As Margaret walked towards her car, Janet saw Robert Parsons leaving the Longs’ house across the street. She waved and he waved back and gestured something that Janet assumed meant he was coming over to see her and Joan. Sure enough, he climbed into his car and drove across the road to park in Doveby House’s car park.

  “I was going to walk,” he told Janet as he climbed up the steps to the small porch. “But I hate to leave my car on the road. I should have parked in your car park and walked over to see Stuart and Mary, I suppose.”