Aunt Bessie Observes (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 15)

by Diana Xarissa

  “I’m looking forward to the conference,” Janet countered. “I’m a teacher, remember? It should be educational and interesting. And it’s exactly the sort of thing that Joan likes to do when we travel. If we were here on holiday and we didn’t know you, we’d probably be going to the conference anyway.”

  Bessie nodded, but she wasn’t convinced. Her friends had come to the island to get away from the stress of running their own business. They’d wanted to see the sights and have some fun. Instead, they’d stumbled across two dead bodies and been dragged into helping with a charity fundraiser for a charity they knew nothing about. It wouldn’t surprise her at all if the Markham sisters never came back to the island again.

  “It shouldn’t be long,” Joan said as she sat back down at the table.

  “I was just telling Janet that I think you should go sightseeing over the weekend, instead of spending all of your time at the conference,” Bessie told her.

  “I’m looking forward to the conference,” Joan told her. “I’ve always been fascinated by history and archeology and culture. I’m afraid I’m going to have trouble choosing which sessions to attend, actually.”

  “I haven’t seen the final schedule yet, but once we get a copy of it, I can help you make your choices,” Bessie told her. “Some of the speakers will be better than others.”

  Joan nodded. “But I’m sure they’ll all be interesting.”

  “They should be. There were many more papers submitted than Marjorie could fit on the schedule. She’s tried to include as much of the newest research as she can. The people who were turned down are going to be given an opportunity to speak on special evenings throughout the year.”

  “It’s wonderful that there is so much research going on here at the moment,” Janet said.

  “The new Manx History Institute has a lot to do with that,” Bessie told her. “They’re doing great things to promote the study of the island.”

  A few minutes later the waitress delivered three plates full of steaming steak and kidney pie. Bessie swallowed a grin as Joan’s plate was put in front of her. So much for eating light, she thought. Janet was happy to comment on her sister’s changed plans.

  “I thought you didn’t want anything heavy,” she said as she picked up her fork.

  “I thought it would simplify things if we all ordered the same thing,” Joan told her. “As Bessie said, we don’t have to finish everything on the plate.”

  Of course, all three women did exactly that.

  “You were right,” Janet said after she’d finished her last bite. “They do wonderful steak and kidney pie.”

  “It was very good,” Joan agreed. “I do think mine is better, though.”

  “Of course it is,” Janet said quickly. “But for pub food, this was excellent.”

  “I’m glad you enjoyed it,” Bessie said. “Does anyone have room for pudding?”

  Joan shook her head while Janet laughed.

  “As much as I’m tempted, I really don’t,” she said. “Besides, we have Bakewell tart for later.”

  Bessie nodded. “And we did just have cake, as well,” she added.

  It was only one o’clock, but the trio made their way back to the House of Mannanan.

  “Hello, Bessie,” the woman behind the ticket desk said. “I have a huge pile of papers for you.”

  Bessie took the large envelope from the woman and pulled it open. Inside were dozens of photocopies of various import and export records, accounts of the trials of suspected smugglers and other documents.

  “These are splendid,” Janet exclaimed as Bessie passed the papers to her. “I’m not sure how we’re going to use them, but I love them all.”

  “Agnes is already here,” the woman behind the desk said. “She’s in the conference room.”

  “We’ll find her,” Bessie said. “Thank you.”

  Agnes was sitting at the table in the conference room with a huge stack of cards in front of her. The table was covered with an odd mix of things that Bessie recognised as auction items.

  “Hello, hello,” Agnes said as the trio walked in. “I was sure you weren’t going to turn up today. And I wouldn’t have blamed you one bit. You’re meant to be on holiday, after all.”

  “We really are happy to help,” Janet told her. “I don’t suppose our crates have been delivered yet?”

  “They have, and I think they’ll be perfect,” Agnes said. “Come and see.”

  Agnes led the others to the large party room. One corner of the room was largely taken up by a huge number of rough wooden crates.

  “These are exactly what I was picturing,” Janet said happily. “We can use them to hold the auction items and to decorate the space. Are my boxes of decorations here as well?”

  Agnes nodded. “They’re in the corridor, though. They were just delivered and no one has had time to move them in here yet.”

  “That would be my job,” a friendly voice said from the doorway.

  Bessie smiled at Henry Costain. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “They’ve sent me over to help out in any way I can,” he told Bessie. “I’ve been reassigned to help Mannanan’s Kids until the fundraiser is over. Friday I get to start working on the conference.”

  “I hope you aren’t working too hard,” Bessie said, studying the man’s face. He looked tired to her.

  “I think working is the best medicine,” the man replied. “It keeps me busy and my mind off, well, other things.”

  Bessie nodded. “I’m sure Agnes has a great deal for you to do. You won’t have time to think about anything else today.”

  Henry nodded. “That’s what I was hoping for,” he said.

  “I’m going to have you help Janet and Joan for now,” Agnes told him. “I suspect your first job will be moving in all the boxes that we’ve brought up from Douglas. I don’t think any of them are very heavy, but there are a lot of them.”

  “I’ll get started, then,” Henry said cheerfully. Agnes showed him where the boxes had been left, Janet pointed out where she wanted them stacked, and Henry got to work.

  “I hope you don’t mind if I leave you to it for a short while,” Agnes said. “I’m trying to get the signs for the auction prizes made and it’s taking far too long. I don’t have the neatest handwriting, and we want them to look really good.”

  “I can help, if Janet doesn’t need me in here,” Bessie offered, mindful that she wanted to talk to Agnes about the other committee members.

  “You help Agnes,” Janet told her. “Joan and I will get started in here with Henry’s help. By the time you have the signs done, maybe things will have started taking shape in here as well.”

  Bessie followed Agnes back into the conference room.

  “Thank you for this,” Agnes said. “You have the most beautiful handwriting I’ve ever seen.”

  “I had to work hard for many years to learn to write like that,” Bessie told her. “My penmanship teacher in the US used to make me write pages and pages of words and sentences. I was always being given extra writing assignments because she thought my writing was too sloppy. Eventually, I learned to slow down and write carefully, at least for her.”

  “She taught you well,” Agnes replied.

  “Yes, but I still can’t see the point,” Bessie sighed. “I mean, I suppose it’s a good skill to have for helping with things like this, but really, the only thing I write most days is my grocery list and my normal handwriting is barely legible, even to me.”

  Agnes laughed. “I can never read my shopping lists,” she admitted. “Then I have to guess what I wanted and I usually end up buying things I already have too much of and not buying what I really need.” She handed Bessie the carefully typed list of everything that was being auctioned off. “If you want to start from the bottom of the list, I’ll keep working from the top and we can meet in the middle.”

  “That sounds good,” Bessie agreed. She picked up a pen and a stack of cards and began to carefully write t
he title and description of the last item on the list.

  “Of course, even after we finish the list, we won’t be done,” Agnes said after a minute. “There are more items coming in all the time. Kathryn seems to have persuaded a lot of people to donate and Mary did a wonderful job as well. I’m sure we have more this year than ever before.”

  “That’s good news,” Bessie said.

  “For everyone except you and me,” Agnes laughed. “I’m afraid we’ll still be writing these darn cards when the auction starts.”

  “It won’t be that bad,” Bessie replied, hoping she was right. She wrote a few more cards and then took a deep breath. It was time to ask Agnes a few questions. She just hoped their conversation wouldn’t slow down their work.

  “Have you given any thought to who might have killed Jonathan and Nathan?” she asked, using the names that they’d used on the island.

  Agnes gave her a surprised look. “I’m sure it must have been someone who was involved in their criminal enterprises, mustn’t it? Someone from across, probably.”

  “Maybe,” Bessie replied. “Or maybe it was someone from the fundraising committee.”

  Agnes gasped. “Why would anyone from our committee want to kill them? If one of the committee members found out what those two were doing, they might have been upset, but surely they would have simply rung the police and had them arrested.”

  “You could be right,” Bessie said. “But the men were hiding on the island. I don’t know that anyone from across could have found them to kill them.”

  “If they were hiding, they must have been hiding from someone,” Agnes said. “That someone must have tracked them down.”

  Bessie opened her mouth to argue, but decided against it. It was possible that Agnes was right, even though her experience suggested otherwise. She wrote a few more cards before she tried another question.

  “How’s Nicola coping with working so many extra hours?”

  “She’s doing great,” Agnes said, sounding relieved at the change in subject. “Her mother-in-law is collecting the kids from school for her every day at the moment. She’s been able to do a lot more planning for the fundraiser thanks to that.”

  “You’re lucky to have her.”

  “I am. I’m sure she’ll decide she wants a proper job that pays her for her time one of these days, but for now I’m just thrilled to have her.”

  “I understand her mother-in-law is friends with Jacqueline,” Bessie said.

  “Oh, yes, that’s how we managed to get Jacqueline on the committee. Jacqueline isn’t exactly known for putting time and effort into charitable endeavors. In fact, I think this is the first charity fundraiser she’s ever been involved with.”

  “Really? And Nicola’s mother-in-law persuaded her to get involved?”

  “Something like that,” Agnes said, waving a hand. “Nicola and I made a list of people we hoped we could get on the committee. Trevor and Anthony have both helped before, and I knew Mary from Christmas at the Castle. Scott has been talking about doing more charity work in the past few years, so getting him on board wasn’t that difficult. I was happy with that committee, but Nicola suggested adding Jacqueline as well. Obviously I wasn’t going to say no. She’s incredibly wealthy, even if she doesn’t have a reputation for generosity.”

  “And has she been a lot of help?” Bessie had to ask.

  Agnes glanced around the room as if to reassure herself that they were alone. “She sold a lot of tickets,” she said after a moment. “But she hasn’t done much else. Whenever we ask her to do specific jobs, she offers to have her staff take care of them. That hasn’t worked out very well, so now we try not to ask her for help.”

  “Hopefully, she’ll bid on several things at the actual event,” Bessie suggested.

  “We can but hope,” Agnes replied.

  “I don’t know her well. She did grow up on the island, didn’t she?” Bessie asked.

  “Yes, and then she went across for a while and married a fabulously wealthy man. To hear her tell it, she was madly in love and devastated when he died not long after they’d married. She came back to the island in her grief, because it was familiar.”

  “I don’t suppose you know the man’s name,” Bessie said, trying to sound casual.

  Agnes looked at her for a minute. “Now that you mention it, I don’t think I do,” she said thoughtfully. “I believe Jacqueline only ever refers to him as her dearly departed husband or some such thing. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard her say his name.”

  “And she went back to her maiden name, as well.”

  “She did say something about losing the man so quickly after the wedding that she hadn’t had time to change anything. It was just easier not to bother under the circumstances, I suppose.”

  “She certainly seems to have plenty of money,” Bessie commented.

  “Yes, she does,” Agnes glanced around again. “She seems to spend a lot on cosmetic surgery, though,” she said in a low voice. “I think she’s had a bit too much done now.”

  “I agree. It doesn’t look at all natural.”

  “Still, it’s her money. If that’s what she wants to spend it on, it’s none of our business.”

  Bessie nodded and carefully wrote about another card. “You said Anthony has been involved with the charity for years?”

  “Oh, yes,” Agnes replied with a smile. “His wife was one of our first and strongest supporters, and he kindly continued to support us after her death. He’s wealthy, but he’s incredibly generous and kind.”

  “I didn’t realise that Trevor has been involved for a while as well.”

  “Oh, he joined a bunch of charity boards when he retired. Kathryn doesn’t enjoy charity work, really. I think he feels that doing something is necessary for a man in his position.”

  “On an island this small, it’s always good to be seen to be involved in helping the community,” Bessie suggested.

  “Yes, and Kathryn prefers to spend her time off-island, so it’s down to Trevor to be involved.”

  Bessie nodded. “How did Scott come to be on the committee?” she asked.

  “We invited him,” Agnes explained. “We invited him and Mary to join just for this one event. I think we were lucky he said yes, as he’s a very busy man. He hasn’t done all that much, but I know having his name attached to the event has been helpful, even if he’s too busy to do much himself.”

  “I heard a rumour that he’s having some difficulties at work,” Bessie said.

  “That’s unfortunate,” Agnes said. “He doesn’t seem to have much of a life outside of work. I can’t believe that his interchangeable blondes give his life meaning.”

  “They are incredibly alike, aren’t they?” Bessie asked.

  “Yes, and although Scott has grown older, the blondes never do,” Agnes said with a wicked grin.

  Bessie concentrated on her work for another minute before speaking again. “Tell me more about Jonathan and Nathan,” she said. “How did they get along with the other committee members?”

  “I think the other committee members were just grateful to have the extra help,” Agnes said after a moment. “Jonathan and Nathan presented themselves as experts who were willing to volunteer their services, which, let’s face it, is something every charity dreams of having.”

  Bessie nodded. “They were experts, as well,” she remarked.

  “Yes, they did a good job, at least on the things that they actually did. Too bad they promised to do a great deal more than they delivered.”

  “Did you get the feeling that anyone on the committee knew them?”

  “No, not at all. I met with them a few times before I introduced them to the committee. Everyone seemed to be meeting them for the first time at that meeting.”

  “And did they both seem to get along with everyone else?”

  “I suppose so,” Agnes said. “Jacqueline made some comment about one of them chatting her up a bit, but I think she was bragging rather than co
mplaining.”

  Bessie grinned. “That sounds like Jacqueline. As Nathan was meant to be married, it must have been Jonathan that she was referring to.”

  “I suppose so. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

  After writing out another card, Bessie put her pen down. “What’s wrong?” she asked Agnes. The other woman had stopped working and was staring into space.

  “I’ve been thinking that I was awfully stupid,” Agnes said quietly. “I should have checked references for Jonathan and Nathan. I shouldn’t have just trusted them to be who they claimed to be.”

  “You had no reason to be suspicious,” Bessie told her.

  “Except I’ve been doing this job for forty years and we’ve never once had volunteers turn up out of the blue and offer to organise everything for us. That should have made me wonder, but it didn’t.”

  “They clearly knew what they were doing, and their story was believable.”

  “Yes, and, well, I’ll confess that I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. Christmas at the Castle was hard work and after that was over, I really wanted a long break. Instead, we launched a massive fundraising drive that only just finished a few weeks ago. It wasn’t finished when we had to start planning for this event, actually. I don’t know, maybe I’m just getting tired of running everything by myself. Nicola is a big help, but she has a lot of other things to worry about besides Mannanan’s Kids. But maybe I should be looking for someone to take my place.”

  “If you feel that way, maybe you should,” Bessie said gently. “As you say, you’ve been doing it for a great many years.”

  Agnes shrugged. “I’ll have to think about it, after tomorrow night. But no matter how tired or worn out I am, I never should have trusted Jonathan and Nathan.”

  “They probably would have had references for you, if you’d asked,” Bessie told her. “They were professionals, after all.”

  “I still wish I would have been more diligent. I can’t sleep at night when I think about how much money they might have stolen from us. Every penny we raise tomorrow night goes towards our summer camp for disadvantaged youngsters. I can’t imagine how we would have told all of those kids that we couldn’t have camp this year because all of the money was stolen.”