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

by Diana Xarissa

  “I am sorry,” Bessie replied. “Perhaps you should take a nap this afternoon.”

  “I’m terrible at napping. I’ll just have an early night. The coffee is helping, anyway.”

  “I’m afraid there isn’t much in the house for breakfast,” Bessie said apologetically. “There’s some bread for toast or a few boxes of cereal, although they’ve been in the cupboard for a while. I’m not sure they haven’t gone stale.”

  “Stale cereal is my normal breakfast,” Hugh told her, pulling open the cupboard and helping himself to the nearest box. He poured some flakes into a bowl and added a healthy dollop of milk. “It’s fine,” he told Bessie after his first bite.

  Bessie made herself some toast with honey and drank another cup of coffee. “I need to get to the grocery store,” she told Hugh. “We haven’t anything for lunch or dinner today.”

  “I can drive you,” Hugh offered. “Did you want to go into Douglas or Ramsey?”

  “I always shop at the ShopFast in Ramsey,” Bessie told him. “On the odd occasion when I stop in the Douglas one, I can never find anything.”

  Hugh laughed. “I know what you mean. The Douglas store is much larger, but I just find all the extra choice unnecessary. They had twenty or thirty different toothpastes that last time I was there. I just want something that will clean my teeth, you know?”

  Bessie nodded. “If you don’t mind driving me, a trip to Ramsey is just what I need. We can just go to ShopFast, or we can spend a bit more time there and visit a few more shops.”

  “Well, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather just go to ShopFast and get back here,” Hugh said. “I feel as if the whole island thinks I killed Gennifer since I’ve been suspended from work. I’d rather not see more people than I have to.”

  “ShopFast it is,” Bessie agreed. “Whenever you’re ready.”

  Hugh went back upstairs to finish his morning routine while Bessie made a quick shopping list. Her normal shopping day was Friday, but she’d missed it this week because of everything else that had happened. Her cupboards were a great deal more bare than normal today.

  “Off we go, then,” Hugh said. Bessie wrapped up in her warmest coat, tutting at the man, who threw on a light jacket.

  “It’s very cold out there,” she cautioned him.

  “I’ll be fine,” he insisted. “We won’t be out in the weather for long.”

  Hugh drove steadily and Bessie found herself remembering what he’d been like as a child as they went.

  “When you were six, you wanted to be a race car driver,” she reminded him as he negotiated around a bend.

  Hugh laughed. “I did, you’re right,” he said. “I can’t believe you remember that.”

  “You used to tell me all about it when I saw you on the beach,” Bessie recalled. “I think you spent as much time on Laxey Beach that summer as I did.”

  “Aye, I was there nearly every day, usually all day. Mum used to like to come and sit on the sand and read her romance novels. By the end of the summer, she knew enough other folks that went regularly that she would just drop me off and know that someone would look after me.”

  “There was a real community feel to the beach in those days,” Bessie said. “That was before the holiday cottages went in, of course.”

  “I was going to be a race car driver and have a different girlfriend for every day of the week,” Hugh remembered. “At six, I couldn’t imagine what I would want them for, so I just thought we could play games and things.”

  Bessie laughed. “It wasn’t long after that that you decided you wanted to join the police,” she said.

  “When Uncle Jack had that car accident, the constables that came to tell my aunt and my grandmother were wonderful,” Hugh said. “And I thought their uniforms were really neat.” He laughed. “Now I know that they’re uncomfortable and really hot in the summer, but at the time, I was impressed.”

  “You’re a very good constable,” Bessie told him. “And I’m very proud of you.”

  “Ah, Bessie,” Hugh said, swiping a hand at his eyes. “That really means a lot to me, you know.”

  Bessie patted his arm and then let him focus on his driving. They were in Ramsey only a moment later.

  “If you really want to visit a few more shops, you go ahead,” Hugh said as he found a parking space. “I can just wait here for you.”

  “No, I think ShopFast is enough for today. I’m quite tired, really. Let’s get some shopping done and get home.”

  Hugh was out of his seat and holding Bessie’s door for her a moment later. “Let’s each get our own trolley,” Hugh suggested. “I’ll want a bunch of snacks and things and I should pay for them myself.”

  Bessie didn’t object. Inside the store, she worked her way through her list as quickly as she could, nodding and smiling at the acquaintances she saw, but not stopping to speak. She wasn’t as lucky with Maggie Shimmin.

  “Bessie, I wondered if I’d see you in here today,” Maggie said in her booming voice. Maggie was married to Thomas and the couple owned the holiday cottages just down the beach from Bessie.

  “Hello, Maggie,” Bessie said. “I’m just dashing about grabbing a few things.”

  “Yes, but what’s going on at Thie yn Traie?” Maggie demanded. “I mean, it was bad enough that man from there getting killed last March, but now, just when new owners are moving in, another murder? That house must be cursed.”

  “Now, Maggie, no one has actually died in the house, you know. If anything is cursed, it must be the beach, surely? Anyway, that’s all nonsense. People die every day, all over the island and all over the world. It’s just an unfortunate coincidence that those two had a connection to Thie yn Traie.”

  “Well, you wouldn’t catch me going in there,” Maggie said. “Oh, me and Thomas were invited to that New Year’s Eve party, but I told Mrs. Quayle that we’d be having a quiet night in, I did. And it’s a good thing, too. I’d hate to be all caught up in a murder investigation. Why, look at you, you clearly haven’t slept since the body was discovered. I can’t have that sort of stress in my life, oh no.”

  “It’s all very sad,” Bessie replied. “But the police will have it sorted in no time, I’m sure.”

  “I understand young Hugh Watterson is the chief suspect,” Maggie said in a very loud whisper. “He always seemed shifty to me, he did.”

  “Hugh wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Bessie snapped at her. “And you should be very careful what rumours you spread around the island. Young Hugh has quite enough to deal with at the moment, without having to worry that some ignorant people are thinking he’s a murderer.”

  Maggie flushed and then looked away. “Well, that’s what I heard,” she said after a moment.

  “Clearly, your sources are wrong this time,” Bessie said. Before she could continue, Hugh turned the corner and greeted them.

  “Bessie, I’m just about finished. Mrs. Shimmin, it’s very nice to see you today.”

  Maggie turned an even brighter shade of pink. “Ah, you too,” she muttered. She glanced at Bessie and then turned and rushed away, pushing her shopping trolley in front of her.

  Bessie chuckled. “That was fun,” she said to Hugh.

  “I could hear her accusing me of murder from three aisles away,” he hissed in her ear.

  “Never mind,” Bessie said, patting his arm. “Let’s just get finished and get home.”

  Hugh insisted on paying for his own shopping and half of Bessie’s. “I’m going to be eating at least half of what you’ve bought,” he pointed out. “I should probably just pay for the whole thing.”

  Bessie knew the young constable didn’t make much money, and hopefully, he had a wedding to pay for in the future, so she insisted that he pay no more than half. The drive back to Treoghe Bwaaue seemed to take no time at all, and Hugh was quick to help put the shopping away after he’d carried all of the bags into the house.

  “It’s nearly time for lunch,” Bessie exclaimed as she looked at the clock. “
The morning has completely rushed away.”

  “Can I help you make something?” Hugh asked.

  “No, no, you go and work on your cold cases,” Bessie suggested. “I’ll make spaghetti Bolognese. That doesn’t take too long and it sounds good on a cold day.”

  “It does,” Hugh agreed.

  Bessie set a pot of water on to boil and began to fry some mince. When it was brown, she added some sauce from her freezer and waited for it all to heat through. When it was nearly ready, she dropped some dried pasta into the boiling water and called Hugh.

  “Lunch in about ten minutes,” she said.

  Bessie set out a large bowl of salad and some crusty bread with butter. Hugh joined her a moment later and the pair worked their way through salad, bread and spaghetti in a companionable silence. Bessie simply didn’t have the energy to start a conversation and Hugh seemed distracted. When Bessie put out a few leftover snickerdoodles, he apologised.

  “I haven’t even told you how good everything was,” he said. “I’m just lost in one of the case files, you see. It seems as if several mistakes were made during the investigation, and I can’t stop thinking about how differently we would do things today, if we had the chance.”

  “You go and get back to it, then,” Bessie said. “I’m quite happy to sort out the washing-up myself.”

  Hugh objected, but only for a moment. Bessie smiled to herself as he left the room. John had provided the perfect distraction for the man while he was suspended from work.

  She’d only just finishing putting the last cleaned and dried plate back in the cupboard when someone knocked on her door.

  “Ah, Miss Cubbon, I hope I haven’t come at a bad time,” Anna Lambert said from the doorstep.

  “Do come in,” Bessie invited the woman. The rain was still falling; there was no way she could make anyone, not even Anna Lambert, stand in the pouring rain.

  “Thank you. I can’t stay long, but I wanted to speak to you about a few things,” Anna told her.

  “Sit down. I can make some tea, if you have time.”

  “Oh, no, I don’t have time. I’m on my way to Thie yn Traie. That’s what I wanted to discuss with you.”

  Bessie forced herself to remain silent, waiting for Anna to tell her to stay away from the mansion and its occupants.

  “We’ve been having some difficulty in working out everyone’s movements on New Year’s Eve,” Anna surprised her by saying. “I’ve had three different constables working on a timeline and trying to move the various sus, er, party guests around the house according to their statements, but they simply keep getting muddled up. Of course, we know at least one person is lying, but no one has been able to determine which person or persons that might be.”

  “I see,” Bessie said, not seeing at all.

  “Yes, so what we’ve decided to do is to reconstruct the entire thing,” Anna told her. “I’m going up to the house now to start getting everything ready. We need all of the party guests to arrive at the same time tonight as they arrived on New Year’s Eve.”

  “And then what happens?” Bessie asked.

  “We’re going to go through the evening, minute by minute, and see where everyone goes,” Anna explained. “Mr. and Mrs. Quayle are allowing us to install cameras in the corridors so that we can monitor everyone’s movements.”

  “With an eye towards accomplishing what?” Bessie wondered.

  “We’re hoping to sort out at least a few of the discrepancies we’ve found in people’s statements,” Anna said. “People’s memories are faulty. If we completely reconstruct the evening, maybe someone will remember seeing someone who was somewhere they weren’t meant to be. That’s the goal, anyway.”

  “It sounds like an interesting challenge,” Bessie said. “Everyone was drinking and no one was paying much attention to anyone else. I hope it proves helpful, though.”

  “Thank you,” Anna said stiffly. “Actually, you’re one of the more important guests. Not only were you there from the beginning, but I doubt very much that you were drunk, even if you were drinking.”

  “I don’t ever drink very much,” Bessie replied. “I had some wine before the party started, but I think I only had two glasses of champagne after that.”

  “I’m going to be counting on you to help us out, then,” Anna said, frowning.

  Bessie could tell that the woman wasn’t happy to have to admit to that. “I’ll do my best,” she replied. “Obviously, I’m as eager as anyone to see the killer caught.”

  “Yes, well, if you could please make your way to Thie yn Traie at the same time tonight as you did on New Year’s Eve, that will be a good start.”

  “I arrived not long after four,” Bessie told her. “Do you really want me there that early today?”

  Anna nodded. “As I said, we’re trying to run the reconstruction as closely as we can to the actual timings. We thought about doing it twelve hours out, but we want the lighting and everything else to be as close to exact as it can be.”

  “That’s going to make for another very late night,” Bessie remarked.

  “Unfortunately, that’s an unavoidable consequence,” Anna said. She walked to the door and then turned to face Bessie again. “If at all possible, we’d like everyone wearing the same clothes and having their hair and makeup and everything exactly the same as they had them at the party.”

  Bessie stared at the woman for a moment and then shrugged. “I’m not sure I remember exactly how I did my makeup,” she said. “I’ll do my best.”

  “Excellent,” Anna said crisply. “Now the only other thing I must ask you is to please let Hugh know what’s happening and ask him attend, preferably in the same suit.”

  Bessie nodded and watched, wordlessly, as the woman let herself out. It shouldn’t have surprised her to learn that Anna knew Hugh was staying with her, but it did. She shook her head. Knowing Hugh’s whereabouts was, no doubt, part of her job in investigating the murder.

  “I heard her voice and hid,” Hugh said from the doorway behind Bessie.

  Bessie crossed the room and quickly locked the door. The last thing she wanted was the inspector walking back in unannounced.

  “Did you hear what she said?” Bessie asked.

  “I couldn’t. I snuck upstairs and hid next to the wardrobe in the spare room.”

  Bessie couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “What did you think she wanted?” she demanded.

  “I thought maybe she’d come to arrest me,” Hugh admitted.

  “If she had, she would have found you easily enough,” Bessie pointed out.

  “I suppose,” Hugh shrugged. “But I felt better hiding anyway.”

  “Well, you can’t hide tonight,” Bessie said.

  “What’s tonight?”

  “Inspector Lambert is having everyone back to Thie yn Traie to stage a reconstruction of the party. We’re all to dress in the same clothes and arrive at the same time. She’s going to try to go through the whole evening, minute by minute, to see who’s lying about where they were at any given time.”

  “Say that all again, slower,” Hugh asked, shaking his head.

  Bessie explained again. “I have to get upstairs and get ready,” she added at the end. “I was at the party not long after four.”

  “I don’t want to put that suit back on,” Hugh complained. “It needs to go to the dry cleaners, I just haven’t had time to take it yet.”

  “I’m sure you won’t be the only one in a crumpled suit,” Bessie said. “My dress probably needs a clean, too, but we must try to do what we can to help Inspector Lambert.”

  “I’m not sure why,” Hugh muttered.

  “The more I think about it, the more sense it makes, actually,” Bessie said. “Everyone has given separate statements to the police, but actually matching everyone’s statements in every instance must be impossible. She might be right; this might just clear up a few things.”

  “I hope she’s right,” Hugh said. “I want to get back to my job.”r />
  A knock on the door preempted Bessie reply.

  “Bessie, I assume you’ve heard about Anna’s plans?” John asked from the doorstep.

  “I have,” Bessie agreed as she let him and Doona into the cottage. “I was just about to go and start getting ready, actually. I need to be at Thie yn Traie not long after four.”

  “My dress is at the cleaners,” Doona said. “I’ll have to wear something else.”

  “I wish I’d thought to take my suit in,” John said. “I’m sure it’s a mess after being out in the rain and all. By the time I got home that night, I just wanted to go to bed, and I think the suit is still in a ball in the bottom of my wardrobe.”

  “No one is going to look their best,” Bessie said. “But I can see exactly why the inspector wants us dressed the same. It’s much more likely to jog our memories that way, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” John said. “It’s actually a very good idea and I think it might yield some good results if everyone cooperates.”

  “If they don’t, that might be even more telling,” Bessie suggested.

  “What was Anna’s deadline?” Doona asked. “I thought the Chief Constable was taking over today.”

  “He gave her until eight o’clock tomorrow morning,” John said. “It looks as if she’s trying to squeeze out every second of investigating that she can.”

  “I’d be more enthusiastic about this if I weren’t so tired,” Bessie said.

  “I’d be more enthusiastic if I thought there was going to be lovely food again,” Doona told her.

  “Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” Bessie exclaimed. “And I won’t get any dinner either, going up so early.”

  The phone rang and Bessie answered it without thought.

  “Bessie? It’s Mary,” the familiar voice said.

  “Oh, I was just going to get ready to come and see you,” Bessie replied.

  “Now I’m meant to be saying exactly what I said on Thursday,” Mary told her. “I think it was something like, ‘I’m fine, but you know how nervous I get before parties. Could you possibly be persuaded to come over a bit early, as we’re only just down the beach from you?”

  “Surely the exact words for this conversation don’t matter,” Bessie said. “And I’ll be on my way as soon as I can be.”