Aunt Bessie Knows (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 11)

by Diana Xarissa

  “Miss Cubbon? Inspector Lambert would like to see you now.”

  Chapter Four

  Bessie got to her feet and stretched. Feeling as if every muscle in her body ached simply from sitting still for such a long time, Bessie found herself walking quite slowly towards the door. She gave Doona a forced smile. Hugh didn’t look at her as she walked past. Bessie followed the young man down the corridor to a small room near the mansion’s kitchen. Inside was a small wooden table with two chairs behind it and one in front. Anna Lambert and a uniformed constable were behind the table.

  “Come in and sit down,” the woman offered, waving a hand at the empty chair.

  “If you don’t mind terribly, I’d like to stand for a few minutes,” Bessie replied. “I’ve gone very stiff from sitting still for so long.”

  Anna frowned and then sighed. “I feel as if we started off on the wrong foot,” she said. “I know you and John Rockwell are good friends and I’d really like to work with you, not against you, in this investigation.”

  Bessie swallowed a sigh. She didn’t believe one word the woman said, but this wasn’t the time to challenge her. “Of course I’ll do whatever I can to help with the investigation,” she said. “Although beyond answering a few questions about tonight, I’m not sure what I can do,” she added.

  “Yes, John is always talking about how your background knowledge of the island is so very valuable, but it isn’t going to be much help in this case, I can’t imagine. I assume you didn’t know the victim well?”

  Bessie shook her head. “I met her tonight,” she replied. “I didn’t know her at all. I don’t even think I spoke to her.”

  “But, of course, John thinks very highly of both your intuition and your observation skills. That’s what I’d like to tap into now, if I may.”

  “As I said, I’ll do whatever I can.”

  “Excellent,” Anna smiled tightly. “Tell me about the party, then. I just want you to walk me through the evening, from the time you arrived until the time you found the body.”

  Bessie began with the phone call from Mary Quayle and her early arrival at Thie yn Traie. She told Anna everything that she could remember that she thought might be relevant.

  “So, Gennifer was making a play for young Hugh?” Anna asked when Bessie was finished.

  “I don’t know if she was serious or just trying to cause trouble,” Bessie replied. “She made a point of talking to every young man at the party.”

  “I take it Hugh’s girlfriend was quite upset.”

  “Yes, at least she seemed to be. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her about it.”

  “What time did Gennifer leave the party?”

  “It was shortly after eleven,” Bessie replied. “I was keeping an eye on her, trying to make sure she stayed away from Hugh, so I noticed when she left.”

  “And you checked the time?”

  “I wanted to see how close it was to midnight,” Bessie said. “I was rather hoping it was nearly time for the party to wind down.”

  “And what time did Hugh leave the party?”

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t keeping track of him.”

  “Come now,” Anna said. “You were trying to keep Hugh and Gennifer apart. You took note of when Gennifer left, surely you noticed when Hugh left as well?”

  “I wasn’t paying attention to Hugh,” Bessie replied defensively. “I knew he was trying to avoid the woman, so I wasn’t worried about what else he was doing.”

  “But he told you later that he’d gone outside?” Anna checked.

  “Yes, he said something about going out to get some fresh air, but that it was too wet and windy for him.”

  “Who else went outside after eleven?”

  “I haven’t the foggiest idea,” Bessie said. “People were in and out of the great room all evening for all sorts of reasons.”

  “Such as?”

  “Well, for a start, the loos were across the hall,” Bessie said, feeling annoyed.

  “Did you stay in the great room all evening? Or at least until the search for Gennifer began?”

  “I went to the loo at least once or twice,” Bessie told her. “But otherwise, I stayed in the great room. That was where the party was and it would have been rude to wander around the house.”

  “But others weren’t so shy about exploring Thie yn Traie,” Anna suggested.

  “Some of the other guests were staying here, of course,” Bessie pointed out. “They had every right to be wandering around the house.”

  “What about George Quayle’s associates? Did you see any of them talking with Gennifer?”

  Bessie thought back. “George took Gennifer over specifically to speak to one of them, as I said. She spent a good deal of time talking with them all, as I recall.”

  “And was she flirting with them like she had with young Hugh?”

  “Not as much,” Bessie said. “The man George wanted her to meet was one of her father’s business associates. She seemed to behave better with them than she did with her own friends.”

  “If you consider flirting bad behaviour,” Anna said lightly.

  Bessie pressed her lips together and didn’t reply. Flirting was one thing, but Gennifer had gone too far with Hugh.

  Anna had many more questions, and Bessie dutifully supplied answers, explaining again how she and Doona had come to discover the disturbed guest room and the body.

  “One last question,” Anna said eventually. “Is there anyone that you are absolutely certain had nothing to do with Gennifer’s demise? That would be anyone that you are sure never left the great room after Gennifer did.”

  Bessie thought hard and then shook her head. “As I said, everyone was in and out and I wasn’t paying attention to anyone specific. It was a party and I was having fun chatting with my friends. Besides, I was in and out myself.”

  “And you can’t give me an estimate on how long Hugh was away from the party?”

  “As I said, I didn’t even notice that he’d gone,” Bessie replied.

  “That’s a shame,” Anna said, making a note in her notebook.

  “I don’t suppose it was just an unfortunate accident?” Bessie had to ask.

  “We can’t be sure of anything until the coroner has completed his examination of the body,” Anna told her. “But I’d stake my reputation on it being murder.”

  “That’s awful,” Bessie said.

  Anna nodded. “I’m going to have one of my men take you home,” she said. “I know the island runs on rain and gossip, but I’m going to ask you not to talk about what happened here tonight, at least for a day or two. I’m hoping to wrap things up rather quickly in this investigation.”

  “I hope you do,” Bessie said.

  “I hope you still feel that way once I’ve made an arrest,” Anna told her.

  Bessie let the young constable lead her out of the mansion, her mind racing. From Anna’s last words, she could only assume that the woman suspected someone that Bessie considered a friend. As her mind raced, she followed the policeman to his car and climbed inside.

  “She couldn’t possibly suspect Hugh,” Bessie exclaimed as the thought crossed her mind.

  The young constable who was slowly pulling the car out of the car park glanced at her in surprise. “I think he’s her chief suspect,” he said quietly. “But you didn’t get that from me.”

  Bessie shook her head. “Hugh wouldn’t hurt a fly,” she said angrily.

  “No, he wouldn’t,” the young man agreed.

  Bessie sat, silently fuming, as they drove the very short distance to her cottage. “Is that your car?” the constable asked her as he pulled into the parking area next to the cottage.

  “No, I don’t drive,” Bessie answered, looking over at the dark sedan. She was certain that she recognised it, but her tired brain couldn’t seem to focus.

  “You wait here,” the man instructed her. “I’ll just check it out.”

  As he climbed out of the car, the driver’s side
door opened on the sedan. Bessie was relieved when its interior light went on and revealed John Rockwell emerging from the car.

  “Oh, Inspector Rockwell, I didn’t realise that was your car,” the young man exclaimed.

  “I wanted to check on Bessie,” John said. “Thank you for bringing her home.”

  “Just following orders, sir,” he said smartly.

  John opened Bessie’s door and helped her from the car. “You look tired,” he told her as they walked to the cottage door.

  “I’m totally done in and ready to sleep for a week,” she replied.

  “I won’t stay long, then,” Rockwell said. “I’ll just check the cottage before I go.”

  Bessie opened the door and switched on a light. She stood in the kitchen, wondering if she should make coffee, while she listened to John walking around the upstairs. When he walked back into the kitchen, she forced herself to smile.

  “I can make coffee,” she suggested.

  “I was going to go and let you sleep,” he reminded her.

  “But you didn’t wait outside my cottage for goodness knows how long just so you could check it was secure,” Bessie said. “You must have wanted to talk to me about something.”

  Rockwell sighed. “Something, indeed,” he said.

  “Sit down and I’ll start a pot of coffee,” Bessie instructed him. “There’s no way I’ll stay awake otherwise.”

  John nodded and fell heavily into one of the kitchen chairs. Bessie frowned as she looked over at him. He looked exhausted. She dug around in the cupboard for biscuits, passing him the first packet she came to.

  “No plates?” he asked, surprised.

  Bessie took a deep breath. Even though she was exhausted, he was right. There were certain standards that needed to be upheld. She handed him a large plate to put the biscuits on and put two smaller plates on the table for each of them to use. It wasn’t long before the cottage was filled with the smell of coffee brewing.

  John took a deep breath. “Just the smell helps,” he said.

  Bessie chuckled and breathed in. “You’re right,” she agreed. “Not as much as drinking it will, though.”

  It wasn’t until she’d poured the drinks and they’d both had their first cautious sips that John started the conversation.

  “As I was a guest at the party, I’m just as much a suspect as everyone else,” he told Bessie. “Anna will be responsible for the investigation.”

  Bessie frowned. “I don’t like Anna and I don’t think she’s a competent investigator,” she argued.

  “I’m being reassigned to Castletown while the investigation is taking place.”

  “Castletown?” Bessie echoed. “That’s a very long drive for you every day.”

  “Yes, I may just take a short leave of absence rather than take up the posting,” John replied. “Inspector Armstrong has his own way of doing things in Castletown and I’m not sure I’d fit in well down there. The Chief Constable has given me the weekend to make a decision as to what I want to do, but he’s suggested that an unpaid leave of absence would be one of my better options.”

  “Unpaid?” Bessie asked. “But that isn’t fair. It isn’t your fault you were at a party where someone got murdered. It was murder, then?”

  “Yes, it was murder,” John replied. “Although I don’t know exactly why they’re so certain about that.”

  Bessie shook her head. “What about Doona and Hugh? They were both there as well.”

  “Doona is being moved to Douglas until the case is solved,” John told her. “They could use an extra pair of hands down there anyway. Pete will take good care of her.”

  “And Hugh?”

  John frowned. “I believe that Hugh is going to be given unpaid leave,” he said.

  “Anna thinks he killed Gennifer, doesn’t she?” Bessie asked.

  “I can’t imagine that she would seriously think that,” John replied. “But he has to be considered a suspect. He had, well, interactions with the victim, after all.”

  “She threw herself at him,” Bessie said. “That’s hardly a motive for murder.”

  “She caused a disagreement between him and his partner,” John replied. “And he was out of the room for a considerable amount of time during the relevant time period.”

  “Hugh wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Bessie said stoutly.

  “I’d agree with that assessment,” John replied. “But Anna doesn’t know him as well as we do, and she has to consider the evidence.”

  “Everyone was in and out of the great room all night,” Bessie said. “Anyone could have pushed Gennifer over the cliff.”

  “It seems likely that someone arranged to meet her in that empty guest room,” John said. “Anna is hoping whoever was there left behind some trace.”

  “Well, she needs to stop looking at Hugh and start investigating all of Elizabeth’s friends,” Bessie said. “They’ve all known her long enough to have real motives for wanting her dead.”

  “I’m sure she’s going to investigate everyone thoroughly,” John said. “But in the meantime, I was hoping you wouldn’t be too tired to take me through your day.”

  Bessie bit back a sigh. When caught up in investigations, John always wanted her to walk him through her entire day, sometimes minute by minute, when he questioned her.

  “I know you’re tired,” he added. “But I’d like to do it while it’s still fresh in your mind. I’m not asking in any official capacity, though. You’ve already given a statement to Anna. You don’t have to indulge me.”

  Bessie smiled at him. “I have a lot more faith in your abilities to solve this murder than in Anna’s,” she told him. “Let me top up my coffee and then I’ll bore you with exactly how my day went.”

  John was a great deal more thorough than Anna had been, starting with Bessie’s internal alarm at six that morning and moving slowly through her rather boring morning and afternoon. John was yawning as she told him about lunch and the book she was reading when Mary rang. He looked more alert once she told of her arrival at Thie yn Traie.

  “So Mary didn’t like Gennifer,” John said thoughtfully a great while later, when Bessie had finally finished.

  “She wasn’t especially likable,” Bessie replied. “Please don’t tell me that Mary is a suspect.”

  John shook his head. “She’s about the only person I can say isn’t a suspect,” he told her. “She never left the great room after Gennifer did.”

  “She didn’t?”

  “No,” John replied. “I didn’t either, but I doubt anyone noticed. Anyway, I was keeping a close eye on everyone and I’m certain that Mary didn’t leave. She was talking with some of George’s associates and then she moved over to chat with Liz, who was upset about something. As it grew closer to midnight, she started rounding everyone up to watch the telly broadcast of the countdown.”

  Bessie shut her eyes and thought back. She could picture Mary moving around the room, chatting with everyone and keeping everything running smoothly. John was probably correct. Mary was too good of a hostess to leave the party.

  “I wish you could rule out Hugh,” Bessie said.

  “I can, based on what I know of him as a person,” John said. “But he did leave the great room, and he was gone for at least twenty minutes.”

  “And when he came back, his hair and clothes were wet,” Bessie added. “He spoke to me when he came back in, to tell me that the weather was bad. There’s no way he could have talked about the weather with me like he did if he’d just killed a woman.”

  “I agree, but Anna will be dealing with facts, not feelings.”

  “What about Doona?” Bessie changed the subject before she could feel too bad for poor Hugh.

  “She left the room at least once,” John replied. “We were talking, and she excused herself to go to the loo. She was gone about ten minutes, which seems a long time.”

  “There was a queue for the loo,” Bessie told him. “I had to wait several minutes myself when I went.”
r />   “Hardly surprising, considering how many guests there were,” John told her.

  “The woman in the queue behind me ended up going off in search of an alternative. I would imagine she wasn’t the only person wandering around the place.”

  “No, that’s part of the problem, of course. No one would have stopped any guests from going just about anywhere. It’s a huge house and besides dozen of guests, there were at least twenty staff working at the party.”

  “And any of them could have had a disagreement with Gennifer,” Bessie suggested.

  John shrugged. “Mary hadn’t heard about any problems, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any.”

  “What a mess,” Bessie sighed.

  “Yes, in some ways I’m not sorry that I don’t have to try to sort it out.”

  “You don’t mean that. And I have a great deal more confidence in your abilities than I do in Inspector Lambert’s.”

  “The Chief Constable will be keeping a close eye on things,” John told her. “Maybe someone has already confessed and we’re wasting our time.”

  Bessie laughed. “Why do I doubt that?” she asked.

  “Anything is possible. I’m sorry. I feel like I’m wasting your time. I have no idea what’s going on in the investigation. We should both get some sleep and see what tomorrow brings.”

  “I’m worried about Hugh,” Bessie told John.

  “Try not to worry too much,” John said. “It’s very early in the investigation. As I’m certain that Hugh didn’t do it, I’m sure he’ll be fine in the end.”

  “I’m not sure Grace will ever speak to him again,” Bessie said.

  “That’s another matter altogether,” John replied. “I did think she was awfully hard on him, even though he did handle the whole thing badly.”

  “I suspect that the remark about her not having a ring on her finger hurt a lot. I’m sure she’s been expecting Hugh to propose for a while now.”

  John sighed. “I need to go home and get some sleep,” he said. “Luckily tomorrow is a bank holiday and then it’s the weekend. Maybe Anna will have everything sorted by Monday and I can just go back to work as normal.”