“We should get going,” Pete broke in. “You have a lot of shopping you want to get done before dinner.”
Helen laughed. “We have a booking somewhere posh,” she told Bessie. “It’s a rare treat and I thought I ought to have a new dress and shoes.”
“Well, have a wonderful time,” Bessie said, wondering if they were celebrating something special, but not wanting to pry.
“I’m sure we will,” Helen told her. “And we’re both really looking forward to your party next weekend as well.”
“I’m glad,” Bessie said with a smile. “It’s going to be my biggest ever Thanksgiving feast.”
“We’ll see you then,” Pete said.
Helen gave Bessie a big hug and then the couple disappeared out the doors Bessie had just come in. She smiled to herself as she crossed the reception area. Helen and Pete made a very attractive couple and Bessie was really happy to see them together.
“How may I help you?” the young woman behind the reception desk asked Bessie.
“I’d like to visit with Niall Clague,” Bessie told her. “We’re old friends.”
The girl tapped something into her computer and then gave Bessie a well-practiced smile. “He’s in room 127,” she said. “I’ll just buzz one of the girls to take you back.”
“Thank you,” Bessie replied.
“I’m sure he’ll be glad to have a visitor,” the girl said. “But I feel I should warn you that he isn’t always, well, he has problems with his memory. He often forgets who people are and he can get very confused when he talks about the past.”
Bessie nodded. “I know his daughter, Fenella,” she said. “She’s told me that her father isn’t doing very well.”
“That’s sadly true,” the girl said, nodding. “But I know he’ll be happy that someone has come to see him, anyway.”
Bessie wasn’t so sure about that, but she smiled and nodded as she waited for someone to escort her to Niall’s room. It was only a moment later that a young girl came out through the door to the left of the reception desk.
“Hi,” she said brightly to Bessie. “I’m Noreen, and I’m one of the nursing assistants here.”
“Hey, Noreen, can you show our guest to Niall Clague’s room, please?” the girl behind the desk asked. “Maybe you can stay with them for a few minutes. You know how Mr. Clague can be when something unexpected happens.”
Noreen nodded. “If you’d like to follow me,” she said to Bessie. She led the way to the door she’d just come out of and tapped in a code on the panel next to it. Bessie heard the click as it unlocked. Noreen pulled the door open and then motioned for Bessie to go through first.
“How does Niall get when something unexpected happens?” Bessie asked nervously as they made their way down the corridor.
“Oh, he can get a bit upset, that’s all,” the girl replied in the same cheery tone that was starting to annoy Bessie. “He likes his routine, does our Niall.” She glanced over at Bessie. “Which isn’t to say he doesn’t like visitors,” she added quickly. “Just that he can find visitors a bit overwhelming, that’s all.”
“Well, if I upset him, I’ll go,” Bessie replied. “I didn’t come to see him to upset him.”
“I’m sure it will be fine,” Noreen assured her. “He’s a favourite of mine, so I’m pretty good at dealing with him.”
Noreen paused outside the open door to room 127 and knocked gently. When there was no reply, she knocked again, with more force.
“Niall? It’s Noreen. Can we come in?” she called.
“I suppose,” a low voice called back.
Noreen led Bessie into the spacious room. Bessie looked around approvingly at the solid wooden furniture and spotlessly clean room. Noreen had gone straight to the chair that had been placed in front of the television, even though the telly was dark.
“Niall, do you remember I told you that you were going to have a visitor today?” Noreen asked. She glanced up at Bessie and winked at her. “Here she is.”
The man in the chair looked up slowly. Bessie was shocked at how old and frail he looked. His many years of hard physical labour on the farm had given him broad shoulders and strong arms. Now he appeared to have shrunk in much the same way his son-in-law had. Fenella had told Bessie that her father was still physically strong, but Bessie wondered if the woman was seeing what she wanted to see rather than reality. The man staring up at her looked incredibly fragile.
“Bessie?” he said now. “Bessie Cubbon? Is that you? My goodness, woman, you’ve grown old.”
Bessie laughed and sat down in the chair opposite him, after passing him the box of chocolate biscuits she’d brought. “We both have, Niall,” she replied. “Growing old isn’t so bad.”
“I don’t know,” Niall said. “I think I’d rather be young again, if I had a choice.”
Bessie nodded. “Unfortunately, we don’t get that choice,” she said.
“I’ll just leave you two for a short visit,” Noreen said, her tone still perky. “I’ll be back to check on you in a little while.”
Niall watched her go. “She’s too bloody perky,” he told Bessie after she’d disappeared from view. “I think she’s helping herself to something from the drugs cabinet when no one is looking. It’s not possible for someone to be that happy all the time.”
“She seems like a very nice girl,” Bessie replied. “But how are you?”
“Eh, I’m old and my mind has gone,” he told her. He set the box of biscuits on the table next to him and sighed. “I miss my farm and the animals and I don’t know why Marion never visits. Can you tell her to come and see me, please?”
Bessie felt her smile falter. She’d been thinking that Niall seemed perfectly normal up until then. “I was just at the farm yesterday,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “Eoin showed me the birds he’s put aside for my Thanksgiving feast.”
“Ah, is it that time again?” Niall asked.
“It is, and I’d love for you to come this year,” Bessie told him.
“They don’t let me out,” Niall replied. “I can’t go anywhere. They’re afraid I’ll get lost, you see.”
Bessie wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “I’m sure, if you’d like to come, we can work something out,” she said after an awkward pause.
Niall seemed to think for a moment. “No, that’s okay,” he said eventually. “I’m hoping Marion will come and live with me here soon. If I go away for a day, I might miss her.”
Bessie nodded, her mind racing. She wanted to bring the conversation around to Jacob Conover, but she didn’t want to upset the man who was clearly struggling with reality.
“I hope Eoin is taking good care of my farm,” Niall said now. “Once I’m well again, I’ll be taking it back over and he’ll have to go, of course.”
“That would be difficult for Fenella, wouldn’t it?” Bessie asked, wondering where the man’s mind was wandering.
“Difficult for Fen? Why?” Niall demanded.
“Well, since she’s married to Eoin,” Bessie explained.
“She is?” Niall asked. “When did that happen?”
“Oh, some time back,” Bessie said vaguely.
“The police were here, you know,” Niall said suddenly.
“Were they?” Bessie asked.
“They wanted to talk to me about some man who disappeared a long time ago,” he replied. “I said I couldn’t remember him. My memory isn’t very good, you see.”
“Never mind, I’m sure it doesn’t matter,” Bessie said soothingly.
“I do remember him, though,” Niall told her in a whisper. “He wasn’t a nice man. He chased after all the girls. I wasn’t going to have him chasing after Fen, though. I told her to stay away from him. She was a good girl.”
“You did a good job bringing her up,” Bessie told the man.
“It was hard,” he replied. “She never liked farming. She wanted to be a nurse.”
“She did?” Bessie asked in surprise.
“She did what?”
“Fenella wanted to be a nurse?”
“Did she?” the man replied. “I didn’t know that.”
Bessie shook her head. She could only hope that Anna Lambert had had a similarly odd conversation with the man and had realised that she couldn’t rely on anything he’d said.
“What was that man’s name?” Niall asked Bessie.
“What man?”
“The one that police lady kept asking me about. I can’t seem to remember his name.”
Bessie took a deep breath. “Maybe it was Jacob Conover,” she said.
Niall frowned. “That doesn’t sound right,” he replied. “I remember Jacob Conover. He said he wanted to buy my farm, but I didn’t want to sell it to him. He didn’t care, though. He was going home, back across, where he’d come from.” Niall stopped talking and looked out the window.
Bessie sat back in her chair and wondered how much of what Niall had said was true. The man was clearly confused about many things, but other times he seemed lucid. His comments on Jacob matched what Bessie already knew about the man.
“Ah, Bessie Cubbon? What brings you here?” he said suddenly, looking at Bessie as if he’d just noticed her.
“I came to invite you to my Thanksgiving dinner,” she told him.
“Ah, you know I have a farm to run,” he replied, shaking his head. “Maybe in another twenty years, when I’m retired and have nothing else to do.” Before Bessie could reply, he went back to looking out the window. Within minutes, he fell asleep, leaving Bessie wondering what to do with herself.
“How’s the visit going?” Noreen asked from the doorway.
“Niall’s fallen asleep,” Bessie told her.
“He does that,” Noreen replied, her voice still relentlessly cheerful. “When he wakes up, he’s sometimes quite disoriented.”
“Oh, dear,” Bessie exclaimed. “He’s been rather confused anyway. I’m not sure how much he really remembers and how much is muddled.”
“On good days, he’s about fifty-fifty,” the girl told her. “On bad days he doesn’t even remember his own name.”
Bessie sighed. “It’s such a shame,” she said. “At least he’s getting good care here.”
“We do our best,” the girl replied. “He’s a sweet man and we all enjoy looking after him, at least most of the time.”
Niall made a sudden noise and then sat up in his chair. “Who’s that?” he demanded.
“It’s just me,” Noreen said soothingly. “It’s Noreen. I was just talking to your guest.”
“My guest?” Niall looked at Bessie. “Who are you?”
Bessie smiled and got to her feet. “I’m an old friend,” she said. “But I really must be going. It was lovely to see you.”
“I’m awfully tired,” Niall said to Noreen. “Could I take a nap?”
“Of course you can,” Noreen told him.
Bessie walked towards the door.
“If you’ll just wait a minute, I’ll show you out,” Noreen told her.
Bessie watched as the girl helped Niall climb into bed. She fussed over him for a minute, adjusting his blankets and pillows until he was satisfied.
“Sleep well,” she whispered as she straightened and turned to go.
“Will there be ice cream at dinner?” Niall asked.
“I’m sure we can find some for you,” Noreen told him, patting his hand where it rested on top of the blankets.
“Oh, good,” Niall muttered. He closed his eyes and seemed to fall asleep almost instantly.
“I doubt that he’ll remember you were here when he wakes up,” Noreen told Bessie. “But you never know. He certainly remembers that policewoman who was here a few days ago, but that’s probably because she upset him so much.”
“Did she? How sad,” Bessie murmured.
“Yes, we actually had to ring the doctor to come and check on Niall. He was so upset by her visit,” Noreen told her. “I understand she’s investigating a murder, but even if Niall did it, he certainly doesn’t remember it now, at least not reliably.”
“I can’t believe that Niall ever killed anyone,” Bessie said.
“You should have seen him when the police were here,” Noreen said. “He was furiously angry. I saw a side of him I didn’t know existed, and it was a little bit scary. Anyway, I do think just about anyone can kill someone else if they feel they have enough of a reason.”
“Sadly, you may be right,” Bessie said.
Noreen held open the door to the reception area and Bessie walked through it. “Thank you,” she told the girl.
“It was my pleasure,” the girl replied. “It’s always nice to have a bit of variety in our day.”
Bessie turned to leave, but stopped as Fenella came in through the building’s front door.
“Bessie? You did say you were going to visit my father. How is he?”
“He’d just settled in for a nap as I was leaving,” Bessie told her.
“I might as well get tea and a cake, then,” Fenella said with a sigh. “He won’t thank me for waking him up.”
“Is there a café here?” Bessie asked.
“In that corner,” Fenella replied, waving towards the opposite corner of the room.
Bessie glanced over and saw a glass door with a sign that read “Garden Café.” “Let me buy you a cuppa and a slice of cake,” she told Fenella.
“I can buy my own drink,” Fenella said crossly.
“But why not let me treat?” Bessie said persuasively. “I’m simply returning the favour after our visit together yesterday.”
Fenella looked as if she might argue, but after a moment she shrugged and headed towards the door to the café. Bessie followed. The room only had a dozen or so tables, but most were empty. In one corner, a woman in a bathrobe and slippers was sipping a drink, and at another table two women in nurses’ uniforms were eating sandwiches. Fenella chose a table in the centre of the room and dropped into a chair. Bessie joined her.
“The food here is edible, but not spectacular,” Fenella told Bessie in a soft voice. “But the cakes are excellent.”
Bessie glanced at her watch. It was nearly time for dinner, so she really shouldn’t have cake. She looked over the menu and sighed. There was no way she was going to be able to resist the sticky toffee pudding, no matter how indulgent it was. The waitress was efficient, but not friendly. Both women ordered tea and cake.
“Do you visit your father often?” Bessie asked after the waitress had delivered their tea.
“When I can,” the other woman replied. “The farm is a lot of work, of course, but I like to see him at least once or twice a week.”
“He seemed to remember me, at least at first,” Bessie told her.
“He has good days and bad days, and some days he has good and bad hours or even minutes,” Fenella replied. “The doctors aren’t sure if he truly has dementia or if he’s simply having problems with his memory due to all the different medications he’s on.”
“I didn’t realise he needed medication,” Bessie said.
“He has high blood pressure and heart problems as well as liver issues and partial kidney failure,” she sighed. “Actually, I should probably just tell you what is working in his body rather than what isn’t. The simple answer is nothing.”
Bessie patted her hand. “I’m sorry,” she said. “He was always so much larger than life when he was younger. It must be hard to see him this way.”
“The doctors keep telling me that he’s going to go any time now. They’ve been saying that for two years. When that policewoman was here, questioning him, they were worried he’d have a heart attack, but he just keeps hanging on. I hate seeing him so ill, but I can’t imagine how awful it will be to lose him.”
“I’m sure Inspector Lambert didn’t mean to upset your father,” Bessie said.
“I don’t know about that,” Fenella said bitterly. “He told me she accused him of murder.”
Bessie gasped. “That’s sh
ocking.”
Fenella shrugged. “Of course, it might not be true,” she sighed. “That’s just how my father remembered it. He couldn’t remember who she thought he’d killed, though. He was all mixed up and for a while he thought that she’d said he’d killed Eoin.”
“No wonder he was upset,” Bessie said.
“Did he mention anything to you about the body or the police?” Fenella asked.
“He said they’d been to see him,” Bessie told her. “And he said that Jacob Conover wasn’t a nice man. He also told me that you wanted to be a nurse.”
Fenella stared at her for a moment and then gave a shout of laughter. The waitress delivered their cakes then, looking nervously at Fenella as she put them on the table.
“Sorry,” Fenella said after she’d taken a bite and washed it down with some tea. “My father doesn’t remember his name or my name half the time, but he remembered that?” She shook her head. “I tried for years to persuade him to let me go to nursing school as soon as I was old enough, but he wanted me to stay and help with the farm. He thought I ought to get married and have lots of children who could carry on with the family farm, no matter what I wanted to do.”
Bessie patted her hand. “I’m sorry,” she said. “It was such a different time, wasn’t it? Children today don’t realise how much more influence our parents had in our lives than today’s parents do.”
Fenella nodded. “I ended up marrying Eoin to make my father happy,” she told Bessie. “Oh, don’t get me wrong, I fell in love with him and we’ve had a good life together, but marrying him was never my first choice.”
“I’m sorry,” Bessie said.
“It surprises me that my father remembered that,” Fenella said thoughtfully. “At the time I didn’t think he took my plans at all seriously. Maybe he was listening, even as he was saying no.”
“Maybe he regrets saying no,” Bessie suggested.
“How different my life would be if I could do it all over again,” Fenella said with a sigh.
“I think we’d all make different choices if we could go back,” Bessie said quietly. “But as soon as you start doing things differently, everything changes.”
“I’m not sure that would be a bad thing,” Fenella said.
Aunt Bessie Invites (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 9) Page 16