Aunt Bessie Knows (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 11)
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Plain chocolate in the UK is (more or less) semi-sweet chocolate in the US.
In the UK, rather than use measuring cups for dry ingredients, they use scales and measure the ingredients in ounces or grams.
Ronaldsway is the location where the airport on the island is located. While it is officially called the “Isle of Man Airport,” locally it is referred to as “Ronaldsway.”
Eton College is (arguably) the best-known boys’ boarding school in the UK. (Such schools are called public schools there.) Eton mess is a pudding made with strawberries or bananas, cream, and pieces of meringue, all mixed together.
Acknowledgments
Thanks, as ever, to
Denise, my amazing editor.
Charlene, Janice, Ruth, and Margaret, my incredible beta readers, and
Kevin, the brilliant photographer whose photos grace Bessie’s covers.
Most importantly, thank you, readers, for coming along on this journey with Bessie and her friends. Please get in touch at any time to share your thoughts!
Coming January 13, 2017
The 12th Book in the Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Series
Aunt Bessie Likes
Aunt Bessie likes weddings.
Elizabeth Cubbon, known to everyone as “Aunt Bessie,” is delighted to see two of her friends being united in marriage. But before the wedding, there’s a cold case that has the whole island talking.
Aunt Bessie likes helping Hugh Watterson and John Rockwell with their investigation.
But when the three girls who went missing decades ago turn out to have been murdered, Bessie isn’t as happy to be involved. When one of the main suspects turns up dead, things look increasingly complicated.
Aunt Bessie doesn’t really like surprises.
But she’s determined to give the happy couple the best possible surprise she can arrange. She just has to find time to plan that while hunting down a killer.
A new series by Diana Xarissa
starts in November.
Arrivals and Arrests
An Isle of Man Ghostly Cozy
Release date: November 18, 2016
Fenella Woods has only met a few people during the twenty-four hours she's been in Douglas, the capital city of the Isle of Man. She's shocked when she discovers one of them dead in an alley behind her apartment building.
Struggling to adapt to her new life in a foreign country seems easy compared to coping with finding herself in the middle of a murder investigation.
Nearly fifty and newly single, Fenella meets a handsome police inspector, a dashing new neighbor, and a sophisticated businessman, all of whom have her questioning her determination to remain unattached.
Having a ghost for a roommate and a kitten as an uninvited houseguest has her questioning her decision to start a new life on the small island in the Irish Sea after all.
Turn the page for a sneak peek…
Chapter One
If they could put a man on the moon, why couldn’t someone find a way to make plastic shopping bags comfortable to carry, Fenella Woods thought to herself as she walked through the alley behind her apartment building. She’d bought far too much, really, and now the six bags, three in each hand, were cutting off the circulation to her fingers.
It didn’t help that it was raining, a cold and steady rain that made Fenella sorry she’d ever left her warm apartment. That there wasn’t a single thing to eat in that apartment was what had driven her out into the rain in the first place. A gust of wind blew her shoulder-length hair into her eyes and made her mutter under her breath.
Why would anyone be lying on the ground outside in the rain, she wondered to herself when she saw the man lying just a few steps away from the building’s back door. He looked vaguely familiar, which surprised Fenella. She’d only been on the island for twenty-four hours. The man, who was lying on his stomach anyway, couldn’t possibly be anyone she knew.
“Hello?” she said cautiously, not wanting to startle the man, who must have suddenly taken ill. He hadn’t been there when she’d left an hour or so ago. She was sure she would have noticed. “Hello? Are you okay?”
The man didn’t respond. Fenella sighed and switched all of her bags to one hand. The hand protested, sending shooting pains through Fenella’s arm. Flexing her fingers repeatedly on her now empty hand to try to restore circulation, Fenella bent down over the man and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hello?” When she saw the knife in the man’s chest, Fenella wondered for a moment if she were on some sort of hidden camera show. She looked around the alley, hoping to spot a camera and some B-list celebrity hiding behind one of the dumpsters. When she didn’t spot anything other than a few seagulls, she pulled out her new mobile phone.
She punched in 911 and held the phone to her ear. She heard nothing but silence. The woman in the shop had assured her, only forty minutes earlier, that the phone was ready to use. Deciding she must have done something wrong, Fenella began to dial again.
“The emergency number in the United Kingdom is 999, not 911,” a voice in her head told her. Fenella frowned when she recognized the voice. At least some of the endless lectures and hectoring she’d received from the man she’d left behind were proving useful, she told herself as she tapped in 999.
“Isle of Man Emergency Services, what is your emergency?” a female voice asked.
“Oh, yes, well, I’ve found, that is, there’s a man here and I think he might be dead,” Fenella said.
“Can you give us a location, please? I can dispatch an ambulance.”
“I’m behind the Promenade View Apartments building in Douglas,” Fenella replied. “In the alley that runs behind the building.”
“And the man you’re calling about is in the alley?” the woman asked.
“Yes, he’s just lying on the ground here.”
“I’ll send an ambulance,” the woman said. “If you could just wait with the man, please.”
“Oh, I think you’ll want to send the police,” Fenella replied. “I think the man has been stabbed.”
“Do you?” the woman sounded shocked. “Well, I’m sure the paramedics can call for the police if they think they need to. Please just wait with the man until they arrive. Have you tried talking to him or shaking him to wake him up?”
“Yes, I’ve tried both,” Fenella said. “When I tapped him on the shoulder, that’s when I saw the knife, you see.”
“Okay, is there anyone else there with you?”
“No, I’m alone in the alley,” Fenella replied. As soon as the words left her lips, she felt terrified. Someone had stabbed this man and left him in the alley. Goodness only knew where the killer had gone next.
“I’m going to send the nearest constable. He should be with you in a minute or two. In the meantime, keep talking to me.”
“I don’t want to talk to you. I want to take my shopping up to my apartment and put my ice cream in the freezer. I have six bags of shopping that are spoiling while I’m standing here. Yeah, maybe I bought too much stuff, but I was hungry and there isn’t a single thing to eat in my apartment, nothing.”
“I am sorry about that. I’m sure someone will be with you soon. Do you recognize the man in the alley?”
“He looks very familiar, actually, although he’s lying on his stomach, so I can’t see his face. Maybe it’s his clothes that look familiar. I can’t possibly know him, though. I’ve only been on the island since yesterday afternoon. I don’t know anyone.”
A head suddenly appeared around the side of the building. Fenella jumped and shrieked. “There’s someone else here,” she said in a loud whisper.
“Hello,” the man called. “I’m from Manx Ambulances. We received a call about an injured man.”
Fenella nodded. “He’s here,” she said, staring hard at the man, as if that would help her figure out if the new arrival really was who he claimed to be. A moment later a second man joined the first and the pair walked the short distance to where Fenella was standing.
They were both dressed like paramedics, at least, which made Fenella feel a little bit better.
“You can tell the operator that we’re here now,” one of the men said. “And you can hang up.”
Fenella felt curiously reluctant to disconnect from the voice on the other end of the phone. In a strange place and under incredibly odd circumstances, the woman on the other end of the phone felt like the only friend Fenella had.
“That’s the paramedics, then?” the voice asked.
“Yes,” Fenella agreed. “Thank you.”
She disconnected the call and dropped the phone back in her pocket. As she took a step backwards, she switched all of her shopping to her now free hand. Feeling as if the other hand might never recover, she took another step backwards. The two paramedics were bent over the man, speaking quietly with one another.
“I’ll just go and get my shopping put away,” she said in a voice that sounded weirdly strained to her. “Thanks.”
“I think you’d better stay here,” one of the men said. “We’ve rung for the police.”
“I told the woman on the phone that she should send the police,” Fenella replied.
“Yes, well, they’ll be coming now for sure,” the man said.
She nodded and then glanced over at the man on the ground. “He’s dead, then?”
“Not officially, not until the coroner gets here,” she was told.
Fenella shifted three of the bags back into her other hand. That way she was balanced and both hands hurt equally.
“I see, well, I hate to be demanding, but I’d really like to get my shopping put away,” she said tentatively. “I’ve spent a lot of money on far too much food and it’s all getting ruined out here in the rain,” she said.
“You’ll have to stay to talk to the police,” the taller of the two men said. “Maybe they’ll let you take your shopping inside before they question you.”
“I can’t possibly tell the police anything,” Fenella argued. “I only arrived on the island yesterday. I don’t know a soul.”
“Is that a fact?” The question came from behind her and Fenella spun around so quickly that she nearly lost her balance as her shopping bags spun with her.
“Yes,” she said with more certainty than she felt. There was still something naggingly familiar about the man on the ground.
The man smiled at her and Fenella found herself smiling back. He was probably approaching fifty, with light brown hair and hazel eyes. He was taller than Fenella’s five feet, seven inches, by at least another half a foot. Fenella sucked in her stomach as she noted that his body looked fit and firm under his dark raincoat. She was conscious of the ten extra pounds she was carrying. To her mind they were relics of the extravagant fortieth birthday vacation she’d taken eight years ago.
“I’m Inspector Daniel Robinson,” the man said. “Douglas CID.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Fenella replied. She looked down at her shopping bags and then shrugged. “I’d shake hands if I could,” she told him. “I’m Fenella Woods, anyway. I moved to the island yesterday and this was my first trip out of my apartment. Now I’ve tons of food to get put away. I do hope you don’t mind if I take the shopping upstairs?”
The man frowned. “As soon as one of the constables gets here, I’ll have him or her escort you to your flat,” he said. “They can wait with you until I’m ready to question you.”
Fenella was going to argue that questioning her was a complete waste of time, but she bit her tongue. Instead she watched as the man approached the body. As he leaned over the man, Fenella’s tired brain suddenly made the necessary connection.
“It’s Alan Collins,” she gasped.
Also by Diana Xarissa
The Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Series
Aunt Bessie Assumes
Aunt Bessie Believes
Aunt Bessie Considers
Aunt Bessie Decides
Aunt Bessie Enjoys
Aunt Bessie Finds
Aunt Bessie Goes
Aunt Bessie’s Holiday
Aunt Bessie Invites
Aunt Bessie Joins
Aunt Bessie Knows
Aunt Bessie Likes (release date: January 13, 2017)
The Isle of Man Ghostly Cozy Series
Arrivals and Arrests (release date: November 18, 2016)
The Isle of Man Romance Series
Island Escape
Island Inheritance
Island Heritage
Island Christmas
The Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novellas
The Appleton Case
The Bennett Case
The Chalmers Case
The Donaldson Case
The Ellsworth Case
The Fenton Case
The Green Case (release date: December 16, 2016)
About the Author
Diana would love for you to sign up for her newsletter so that you can find out about new releases as well as enter contests and giveaways. You can sign up on her Facebook page or on her website at www.dianaxarissa.com.
Diana grew up in Pennsylvania, moved to Washington, DC, and then found herself being swept off her feet by a handsome British man who was visiting DC on vacation. That was nearly nineteen years ago.
After their wedding, Diana moved to Derbyshire, where her new husband had his home. A short time later, the couple moved to the Isle of Man. After more than ten years on the island, now a family of four, they relocated to the outskirts of Buffalo, NY, where Diana keeps busy writing about the island she loves and driving her children everywhere.
She also writes mystery/thrillers set in the not-too-distant future under the pen name “Diana X. Dunn” and fantasy/adventure books for middle grade readers under the pen name “D.X. Dunn.”
She would be delighted to know what you think of her work and can be contacted through snail mail at:
Diana Xarissa Dunn
PO Box 72
Clarence, NY 14031
Or find her on Facebook, Goodreads or on her website at www.dianaxarissa.com.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Glossary of Terms
Other Notes
Aunt Bessie Likes
Arrivals and Arrests – sneak peek
By the Same Author
About the Author