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

by Diana Xarissa

  “It wouldn’t have come to that,” Bessie said soothingly. “The community would have rallied around and helped replace the stolen funds. Luckily, though, the money is safe.”

  “I feel guilty for not feeling worse about the two deaths, as well,” Agnes said. “I liked Jonathan and Nathan and I enjoyed working with them. They were both smart and they could be funny and interesting to talk with. I should be sad that they’re dead, but I’m not.”

  “It’s probably just the shock of it all,” Bessie suggested. “Shock that they were murdered, as well as the shock of finding out who they really were and what they were trying to do.”

  “Maybe. I hope so. Do you know if they had families?”

  Bessie shook her head. “I don’t know. Nathan didn’t have a wife with him on the island, as far as the police can tell, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have one.”

  “I hope someone out there knew them and knew their good qualities,” Agnes said solemnly. “I hope someone is mourning their deaths.”

  On that somber note, Bessie and Agnes focussed for a time on the cards they needed to write. Bessie worked as quickly as she could while still producing legible handwriting. When they finally finished the items on the typed list, Agnes stood up and stretched.

  “That was a lot of work,” she said. “And we aren’t even finished. There are another dozen or so items that haven’t been added to the list yet.”

  “Let’s get started on those, then,” Bessie said, forcing herself to sound more cheerful than she felt.

  Agnes held up the first item, a gift certificate for a well-known island restaurant. “I’d like to bid on this one, but it will probably go for more than its actual value and I can’t afford that.”

  “When this is all over, we should there go to dinner,” Bessie suggested. “Or maybe lunch, as the food is just as good and half the price.”

  “Oh, yes, let’s,” Agnes said happily.

  It didn’t take long to finish the extra cards. When they were done, Bessie stood up and rolled her shoulders a few times. “I’m glad that’s done,” she said.

  “There may be some more to do later,” Agnes warned her. “But let’s not think about that for now. Let’s go and see how your friends are doing with the decorating.”

  CHAPTER 11

  T he huge event space was almost unrecognisable, Bessie thought as she and Agnes walked into the room. Janet had managed to make the space feel surprisingly like the Douglas quayside.

  “You’ve worked wonders,” Agnes exclaimed. “It doesn’t look anything like the big boring room it actually is.”

  “Thanks,” Janet said, flushing. “We tried.”

  “You tried,” Joan corrected her. “I just followed your directions.”

  “Well, you’ve both done a marvelous job,” Bessie told them. “I can’t believe how good it all looks.”

  “Henry gets a lot of the credit,” Janet said quickly. “He’s been up and down ladders and has been fetching and carrying all afternoon.”

  “I’m happy to do it,” Henry told her. “It’s been a pleasure working with you two lovely ladies.”

  Janet blushed a bit more and then glanced down at her notes. “We still have a lot of work to do, obviously. We haven’t put any of the tables in place yet and we need to get the crates with the auction items set up. All of this is just window dressing. Now we need to work on the actual things we need to have the event.”

  “Did I hear someone say work?” a voice said from the corridor. “I’ve arrived at just the wrong time.”

  Bessie turned around and grinned at Anthony Roth. He crossed the room, swiveling his head from side to side as he went.

  “This looks incredible,” he said when he reached the others. “I’m beyond impressed.”

  “Janet gets the credit,” Joan told him. “She’s really very clever at this sort of thing.”

  “She definitely is that,” the man agreed. “If I weren’t retired, I’d hire you to plan events for my company.”

  “I’m retired as well,” Janet told him. “And we have a bed and breakfast, so I’m kept quite busy.”

  Anthony nodded. “If you ever do need work, ring me. I’m sure my son could use someone with your talents.”

  Janet smiled and then looked at the floor, clearly embarrassed by all of the praise.

  “But what brings you here?” Agnes asked Anthony.

  “I brought some of the alcohol,” he told her. “I just came in to see if I could get some help carrying it in from the car.”

  “I’ll help,” Henry said. “We’ve left a space for the bar, which was what we were going to set up next. We can stack the boxes along the wall behind where it’s going.”

  “Excellent,” Anthony said. “My driver is here as well. I’m sure between the two of you you’ll have it all unloaded in no time.”

  He led Hugh out of the room. A few minutes later he was back on his own.

  “Henry is having my driver move the car around to the back of the building,” he told the others. “I’m staying out of the way.”

  Bessie grinned. “That’s probably wise,” she said.

  Janet and Joan moved over to where the bar was going to be placed to show the men exactly where they wanted the boxes. Agnes made her way to the building’s back door to make sure it was open.

  “But how are you?” Bessie asked Anthony.

  “Oh, I’m well. Once this event is over, I’m off across for a few weeks to visit the children. I’ve a new granddaughter that needs fussing over, you see.”

  “Congratulations!” Bessie exclaimed.

  “Be careful, or I’ll bore you with the photos,” the man replied.

  “Oh, yes, please,” Bessie said.

  Anthony smiled and pulled his wallet out of his pocket. He opened it and slid several photographs out of it. “This is Margaret Mary,” he told Bessie, handing her the picture. “She was named for her grandmother, my wife.”

  Bessie could see tears in the man’s eyes and hear the pride in his voice as he shared that information with her. “She’s beautiful,” Bessie said, even though, as far as she was concerned, every baby looked alike.

  “She looks like her mother,” Anthony told her, handing her another photo.

  Bessie smiled at the picture of the beaming and handsome young man who looked like a younger version of Anthony. His tired-looking wife was blonde and pretty. Although she was smiling at the camera, Bessie could tell that she’d been reluctant to tear her eyes away from the baby.

  “They make a lovely family,” Bessie said, handing the photos back to the man.

  “Yes, they do. My son chose wisely. She’s an aerospace engineer and much smarter than he is. Her company supplies component parts to one of my companies and it took my son over a year of asking before she’d even agree to have dinner with him. She thought he was too rich and spoiled to bother with, but she soon learned better once they started seeing each other. She was shocked to discover that he had to actually work hard to keep his job and that he’d actually had to buy his own house and car and things. She’d just assumed that he’d been given everything, but that was never the way my wife and I did things.”

  “No, and I think your children are better for it,” Bessie told him.

  “They all know the value of hard work,” he replied. “But I will confess that they’ll all be getting much more than they realise when I die. Margaret and I used to tell them that they’d each get a few personal items and that all of the money would go to charity, but I’ve found as I get older that I can’t quite bring myself to do that. I’ve set up trust funds for each child and each grandchild now. I hope that they’ll all be well looked after but not spoiled. I won’t be around to worry about it if it doesn’t work out that way, of course.”

  “You have given a great deal to charity over the years,” Bessie said. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with giving a bit to your children. From what I can see, they’ve earned it.”

  Anthony s
hrugged. “I think I’m just getting soft in my old age,” he said with a laugh. “But I am leaving a great deal to charity as well. Mannanan’s Kids is one of my main beneficiaries.”

  “That’s good to hear. I think they do wonderful work.”

  “They do. I’m always happy to help with events like this one.”

  “It’s sad to think that those horrible men might have stolen all of the money.”

  “It is, but I did tell Agnes that if they had done, I would have written a cheque to cover the loss. There’s no way I’d let that summer camp get cancelled.”

  Bessie smiled. “I know it’s very popular. But what did you think of Jonathan and Nathan?”

  “I thought they were slick salesmen. They clearly knew that they were doing when it came to raising money, but I didn’t much like them.”

  “Were you worried about them at all?”

  “I wouldn’t say worried,” Anthony frowned. “They bothered me, and I did think that they were probably up to something, but my thoughts ran more towards them trying to get themselves hired into paying jobs or some such thing. It never crossed my mind that they would try to steal the proceeds from the event. When I think about it now, I can’t believe that I didn’t think of that, but at the time it never crossed my mind.”

  “Because people simply don’t steal from charities,” Bessie said firmly.

  “They do, though, although fortunately not this time.”

  “It was unfortunate that they were murdered, of course.”

  “Yes, I suppose so. Murder is shocking, naturally, but I’m not sorry they’re both gone. I’d have been happier, I suppose, if they’d simply left the island.”

  “We’re all done,” the tall man who had been unloading boxes with Henry said to Anthony.

  “Excellent, that was good and quick work,” the man replied. “And with that, I must be off. It was lovely to get a few minutes to chat with you,” he told Bessie. “I hope we’ll have time to talk again tomorrow.”

  Bessie watched as Anthony followed his driver out of the room. She really liked the man and she couldn’t help but hope that he didn’t have anything to do with the murders.

  “We should start setting up the auction items,” Janet suggested. “I thought we might arrange them in a half circle in front of the stage.”

  “Let me go and see if building maintenance can get the stage set up now,” Henry suggested. “Once that’s in place, we’ll have a better idea of where everything else should go.”

  “Hello, wonderful people,” a loud voice boomed from the corridor.

  Bessie turned around and smiled at George and Mary Quayle. George was carrying a large box and he crossed the room slowly, making Bessie think that the box was quite heavy.

  “Hello,” she greeted Mary.

  Mary gave her a hug. “Hello. I didn’t know you were going to be here this afternoon.”

  “I’m meant to be helping Janet with the decorations, but I’ve been helping Agnes with the auction items instead.”

  “The decorations are fantastic,” Mary said.

  “They are, at that,” George shouted. “We should have Janet come and redesign our bedroom at Thie yn Traie. We’ve had three different designers in and none of them have come close to what we actually want.”

  “I’ve never done interior design,” Janet said.

  “I’m sure you’d be very good at it, but I know you have your own business to run,” Mary said.

  “I do, yes,” Janet agreed.

  “We’ve brought more auction items,” George said loudly. “We cleared out a few things from home. I hope that’s okay.”

  Agnes raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure…” she began.

  Mary held up a hand. “What George means is that we went through the huge pile of things we’d accumulated and never used. Everything in the box is still in its original packaging and has never been used. If you don’t want it, we’ll take it back, but you’d be doing us a favour if you can use it.”

  Agnes opened the box and looked inside. “These are all very costly items,” she said after she’d pulled a few things out of the box. Bessie spotted an expensive speaker system, a top of the line mobile phone, and a box stamped with a local jeweller’s name on the top.

  “As I said, we’ve no use for them,” Mary told her. “If you think you can make a few pounds from them, please keep them.”

  Agnes opened the jewellery box. “Gold cufflinks?”

  “A business colleague gave them to me for Christmas one year,” George explained. “I don’t like them, but they should bring in a few quid.”

  “They should indeed,” Agnes said, showing the contents of the box to Bessie.

  Although Bessie wasn’t at all interested in jewellery for herself, she recognised the quality of the cufflinks in the box. They were probably worth several thousand pounds. No doubt they would make several hundred for Mannanan’s Kids, and maybe more.

  “This is terribly kind of you,” Agnes told George and Mary.

  “Not at all,” Mary replied. “We have a lot of house clearing to do before we can put the house on the market.”

  “Hello, hello,” a voice called from the corridor. “I’ve brought bottles and bottles of wine and spirits. Now I just need help getting it all in here.”

  Bessie smiled at Scott. Henry and George were both quick to volunteer to help him. As the men followed Scott out of the room, Janet and Joan went back to their spots behind where the bar would be going.

  Agnes shrugged. “I’d better open the back door again,” she said.

  “How are you?” Bessie asked Mary.

  “A little shaken up by there being a murder on either side of Thie yn Traie,” Mary said frankly. “But I know John is working hard on solving the cases. George and I are thinking about having a holiday once this fundraiser is over. I think we both need to get away for a while.”

  “I can understand that,” Bessie told her.

  “But the murders happened just down from your home as well,” Mary said. “You should come on holiday with me and George.”

  Bessie quickly shook her head. She liked Mary a great deal, but George was best dealt with in small doses. She couldn’t imagine spending days on end with the loud and loquacious man.

  “We should send you on a holiday on your own,” Mary said thoughtfully. “You’ve been through a lot in the last year or so.”

  “I have, but I’m fine,” Bessie assured her. “I might go and stay with the Markham sisters in the autumn, but I intend to enjoy summer on my own little stretch of Laxey Beach.”

  “Do you know how John is coming with the investigations?” Mary asked her.

  “I don’t, but I’m having him over for dinner tonight. I’m sure he’ll tell me everything that he’s allowed to share.”

  “I’m still shaken by the idea that those two men were planning to steal from Mannanan’s Kids,” Mary admitted. “They seemed too good to be true, of course. We should have suspected something, I suppose.”

  “Agnes feels responsible for not investigating them,” Bessie told her.

  “I thought they seemed perfectly trustworthy. And they really seemed to know what they were doing when it came to fundraising.”

  “Did you get the impression that any of the others knew them before they joined the committee?” Bessie asked.

  “Not at all. I mean Agnes met them first, but she brought them to one of the very earliest committee meetings. The rest of us were surprised and delighted to meet them.”

  “And you didn’t hear about any arguments between them and anyone on the island?”

  Mary frowned. “Are you suggesting that someone on the committee murdered them?” she demanded. “That’s impossible.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “They didn’t argue with anyone, anyway,” Mary told her. “Scott said something about them trying to take over the whole committee, but it wasn’t like he wanted to do more of the work; he was just grumbli
ng. Otherwise, I never heard a bad word about either of them.”

  “Jacqueline got along with them both?” Bessie asked, recalling what Agnes had told her.

  “Jacqueline got along rather well with Jonathan,” Mary replied. “I don’t know that she spoke to Nathan more than once or twice.”

  “Are you suggesting that there was something going on between Jacqueline and Jonathan?”

  “Oh, no, Jacqueline is far too, well, let’s be honest, she’s far too much of a snob to get involved with a man like Jonathan. But that didn’t stop Jonathan from flirting outrageously with her every chance he got. Jacqueline pretended that it annoyed her, but she always sat and stared at him with an odd self-satisfied smile on her face. I’m sure she loved the attention, even if she wasn’t about to let him know that.”

  Bessie nodded.

  “Mary, I’ve done all my heavy lifting for today,” George shouted as he carefully placed a box on the floor in the corner. “I think we should have dinner somewhere special tonight.”

  “That’s probably a good idea,” Mary replied. “Seeing as how the chef is away and her assistant can’t do much more than cheese on toast.”

  “I need something more substantial than that after all of my hard work today,” George said stoutly.

  “Yes, dear,” Mary said. She glanced at Bessie and shrugged her shoulders.

  “Do you need any more help here?” George asked Agnes.

  “I think we’re getting there,” Agnes replied. “Thank you for your kind donations and all the help with moving boxes.”

  “You’re very welcome. All this charity stuff is Mary’s thing, really, but I don’t mind helping out once in a while,” George told her. He turned to Mary. “Shall we?”

  Mary nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Mary said to Bessie before she followed her husband out of the room.

  “This is the last box,” Scott said from the corner. “It looks as if we should have more than enough.”

  Agnes nodded happily. “I’m hugely grateful to you and to Anthony for your donations.”

  “Hasn’t Trevor been yet?” Scott asked. “He’s meant to be bringing some bottles as well. We may have a lot more than we need.”