“There you are,” she said. “That should keep you happy for five minutes.”
Hoping to actually get a bit more time than that, Fenella headed for the shower. A short time later she was dressed and ready to face the day. A glance at the clock told her that she was ready for a day that hadn’t really begun yet anywhere else on the island.
“It’s Sunday,” she told Katie. “I’m probably the only person awake on the whole island.”
Katie blinked at her and then walked out of the room. Fenella followed and watched as the kitten jumped up on the bed and curled back up in her favorite spot. Within seconds the tiny animal seemed to be fast asleep again.
“You have some nerve,” Fenella said to the slumbering animal.
“Oh, leave her alone,” Mona said. “She’s had a hard morning, eating all that kibble.”
Fenella laughed. “It’s a tough life,” she said.
“What are you planning for your day?” Mona asked her.
“I’ve no idea,” Fenella replied. “I wasn’t meant to be here, after all. Maybe I’ll just curl up with a good book and relax.”
“We should talk about the murder,” Mona told her. “You should try to work out what happened.”
“I’m not interested in what happened,” Fenella said. “And I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I thought you would at least ask me if I know any of the suspects,” Mona said.
Fenella swallowed a sigh. “Gee, Mona, do you know any of the suspects?” she asked through gritted teeth.
“I do, as it happens,” Mona said. “But if you’re going to take that attitude, I don’t think I want to discuss it with you.”
Now Fenella did sigh. “Oh, stop being silly,” she said. “Who do you know and why didn’t you mention knowing them earlier?”
“You didn’t ask,” Mona said with a small shrug.
Fenella took one more look at her pet, and was jealous of the animal that was fast asleep. Fenella was tired, and she had to deal with her aunt, who seemed to be in a particularly annoying mood.
“Let’s go and sit in the other room,” Fenella suggested. “I don’t know if you get tired of standing up, but I do.”
“I don’t get tired,” Mona replied. “But I still prefer sitting comfortably.”
Fenella didn’t question her aunt any further. In the living room, Fenella sat on the couch and waited for Mona to join her. “So, who did you know from the people I met yesterday?” she asked once Mona was settled.
“I didn’t know any of them well,” Mona began. “But I’d certainly met several of them. Let’s start with Sarah Grosso.”
“You knew the widow?” Fenella gasped.
“She’s a nurse at Noble’s,” Mona told her. “I wasn’t often unwell, but many of my friends suffered with ill health. Sarah used to work in the general medical ward, although she moved to the surgical ward in the last year. Before she moved, I saw quite a lot of her, really. It seemed as though one friend or another was nearly always falling ill with something.”
“What did you think of her?” Fenella asked.
“She’s a very hard worker,” Mona replied. “Some of the nurses act as if doing some little thing for a patient is a huge favor, but she never acted like that, no matter what she was being asked for. She used to take on extra hours whenever they were offered, which is probably why I saw so much of her. She was nearly always there. I know she moved to the surgical ward because it pays better. Money was tight for her and her husband.”
“Which was why she was so excited about his winning the trip across,” Fenella said.
“I doubt very much he won anything,” Mona said. “I met the man once and I didn’t like him one bit. He was, well, shifty, I would say. If someone else had died instead of him, he’d be at the top of my list of suspects.”
“So you think he might have been involved in something criminal?”
“Undoubtedly,” Mona replied. “I always thought it was rather unfortunate that he wasn’t more successful, really. Perhaps if he had been, poor Sarah wouldn’t have had to work so hard.”
“But if he didn’t win the trip, how was he paying for it?”
“Perhaps someone needed something taken across and he was being paid to take it,” Mona suggested.
“Why would he include Sarah if it was work?”
“Maybe he needed to look innocent,” Mona said. “What could be more innocent than a married couple having a short holiday?”
“Could Sarah have known about it?”
“From what I know of the woman, I don’t think so,” Mona said. “She didn’t seem the type to engage in criminal activity. I suspect she was completely in the dark as to what her husband was doing, if he was doing something wrong.”
“Can you be married to someone and not know what they’re doing?” Fenella asked.
“Perhaps she had her suspicions and chose to ignore them. From what I could see, she was more than a little in love with the man.”
“And yet she’s planning on going to work today,” Fenella said.
“Everyone deals with grief differently,” Mona replied. “I suspect she’ll bury herself in her work and try to block out everything else. It might even help. She does love her job.”
“Who else did you know?” Fenella asked.
“The lovely Stanley and Florence March were, well, acquaintances of mine,” Mona said.
“Not friends?”
“Oh, goodness, no,” Mona laughed. “I was a woman of questionable morals with no visible means of support. Stanley and Florence were carefully polite when we used to see one another at various charity functions, but they were also carefully distant so as not to seem to be approving of my lifestyle.”
“I knew I didn’t like them,” Fenella said.
“Florence is, well, difficult to like,” Mona told her. “Stanley is worse, though. He was quite fond of getting me alone and trying to seduce me.”
“Oh, dear,” Fenella gasped.
“He’s quite a bit younger than I am, or rather than I was, and he seemed to think he was doing me a tremendous honor by even speaking with me. This was all some years ago now, of course, when I was closer to your age and Stanley was in his thirties. He could never understand why I always turned him down.”
“Do you think either of them killed Robert Grosso?” Fenella asked.
“If they did, they would have hired someone else to take care of it,” Mona told her. “And whoever they’d have hired would have done a better job of it than that. All the killer needed to do was stay with the body until the ferry sailed. Once you were underway, they could have thrown him overboard and no one would have been the wiser.”
“Surely the body would have washed ashore eventually?”
“Perhaps, but goodness knows where, or in what condition.”
Fenella shuddered. “How horrible,” she said.
“I’m afraid I didn’t know Justin Newmarket,” Mona told her. “But I did know Nick and Brenda Proper.”
“You’re making me think the island is really quite small,” Fenella remarked.
“It isn’t all that large and the population was smaller years ago. It’s only in the last fifteen or twenty years that we’ve had an influx of new arrivals from across to work in banking and insurance. That’s all thanks to the changes in the tax laws, of course.”
“So how did you know Nick and Brenda?” Fenella asked.
“Again, I used to see them at charity events on occasion. Not the fancy ones that Stanley and Florence would attend, but smaller ones for little local charities. I knew them before they were married, actually, when they were both on their first marriages. Nick’s first wife was a dear woman who deserved a better husband, if I can be frank.”
“Nick didn’t treat her well?”
“He cheated on her fairly regularly. Brenda was his last mistress. They started seeing one another after Brenda’s husband died, and when Nick’s wife died rather suddenly Brenda insisted that he mar
ry her.”
“Perhaps they deserve each other,” Fenella suggested.
“Yes, I rather think they do,” Mona agreed.
“But can you see either of them as the murderer?”
“Perhaps. Although I can’t imagine a motive. They’re both retired and as I understand it, they spend most of their time visiting their various children in turn. It’s an inexpensive way to live, I believe.”
“The poor children,” Fenella remarked.
“Yes indeed.”
“Is that everyone?” Fenella asked, feeling tired of the conversation.
“I also knew Harry Hampton and his first wife,” Mona told her. “He was always too frugal to donate much to charity, but his first wife was a keen volunteer on a great many committees. She died rather suddenly as well and Sherry Kelly didn’t waste any time seducing him.”
“I can’t imagine what he sees in her,” Fenella said.
“Really?” Mona asked, raising an eyebrow. “I would have thought by your age that you’d understand men better than that.”
Fenella flushed. “Well, I mean, I know she’s a lot younger and she’s really pretty, but he doesn’t seem the type to fall for that sort of woman.”
“As I said, she was quick,” Mona told her. “Mary fell ill quite suddenly and needed care around the clock. Sherry was one of the nursing assistants who came to help look after her. When Mary passed away, Sherry was right there to offer a sympathetic shoulder to poor Harry. And over time, she offered more than her shoulder.”
Fenella shook her head. “They didn’t seem to be getting along terribly well yesterday,” she told her aunt.
“I would imagine they’re already getting quite tired of each other,” Mona said. “I can’t see them lasting too much longer, unless Harry decides he’d rather have to live with her than part with any of his money. We’ll see.”
“Could either of them have killed Robert Grosso?” Fenella asked.
Mona shrugged. “Again, I can’t work out much of a motive for either of them. Perhaps, if Sherry was having an affair with Robert, she might have killed him to keep him from telling Harry about it, but if Robert was having an affair, he had plenty of good reasons for keeping quiet about it himself.”
“I don’t think I like any of these people,” Fenella said, mostly to herself.
“Well, don’t waste any energy trying to like Charlotte Masters,” Mona said firmly. “She’s incredibly disagreeable.”
“I thought maybe she was just upset yesterday,” Fenella said.
“Oh, no, she’s always difficult,” Mona told her. “She didn’t approve of my lifestyle, either, and she made a point of telling me that every time she saw me. She was always incredible nosy as well, prying into my personal life and asking all manner of rude questions, and then acting quite put out when I refused to answer.”
“Does any of that give her a motive for murder?” Fenella asked.
“I can’t imagine that it does,” Mona said sadly. “If she’d been the victim, there would be a very long list of suspects, but I can’t imagine her killing anyone. Not unless she has some deep dark secret of her own that Robert Grosso discovered and threatened to reveal.”
“That’s an interesting idea,” Fenella said.
“It’s certainly my favorite solution to the murder,” Mona told her with a grin.
“What about the ferry captain?” Fenella asked. “Did you know him?”
“Captain Howard,” Mona said, her voice almost a purr. “I’m sure he came across as ill-tempered and rude, but he’s actually a lovely man.”
“Is he, now?” Fenella asked suspiciously.
Mona giggled. “I knew his father,” she explained. “And his grandfather. Neither of them approved of his chosen career, of course. They were both very successful advocates. Anyway, I knew Matthew from childhood and I can assure you that he had nothing to do with any murder.”
“So where does that leave us?” Fenella demanded. “We don’t seem to have come any closer to working out who killed Robert Grosso.”
“No, but it was an interesting conversation,” Mona said. “Now you can go out and start gathering information about the various suspects, and then we can talk again.”
“I’m sure there must be many other suspects,” Fenella said. “If the man was dead for some time before I found him, that suggests that he was on the ferry before they were letting passengers board. He must have been killed by some member of the crew, therefore.”
“You’ve been giving this a lot of thought,” Mona said approvingly.
“Not too much,” Fenella muttered. “But it is on my mind, of course.”
“You must ring Daniel and ask him about that very thing,” Mona told her.
“I’m not ringing anyone,” Fenella said firmly. “I’m not getting involved in another murder investigation.”
“Suit yourself,” Mona said. “I’ll just go and see what I can find out, then.”
Before Fenella could speak, Mona faded away.
“You do that,” Fenella snapped at the empty air.
Realizing that she was starving, Fenella made herself some toast and spread it liberally with honey. She needed the extra sugar after the stress of the previous day, she told herself, as she nibbled her way through a third slice. After breakfast, she forced herself to sit down with one of the many biographies of Henry the Eighth in her collection and began to read and take notes. By the time noon rolled around, she was thoroughly ready for a long break.
“Lunch and then a walk on the promenade,” she told herself as she walked to the kitchen.
“Merow,” Katie said conversationally from next to her food bowl.
“Yes, yes, I know. You seem to have run out of kitty munchies, haven’t you?” Fenella replied. She filled the cat’s food and water bowls and then made herself some soup and a sandwich.
“It’s a shame you aren’t a dog,” she said to Katie as they both ate.
Katie hissed at her.
Fenella laughed. “But wouldn’t it be nice to go for a long walk on the promenade with me?” she asked the kitten.
Katie shook her head and then walked out of the kitchen, straight to her favorite chair. She jumped up onto it and turned around several times before curling up in a ball. Again, she seemed to be asleep in seconds.
Fenella sighed and finished her lunch, piling all of the dishes into the dishwasher. Maybe Katie had the right idea. Maybe she should simply go back to bed as well. The warm spring sunshine coming through her windows persuaded her to venture outdoors, though. She walked in the opposite direction from the Sea Terminal, wanting to stay as far away from it as she possibly could. The fresh air and brisk exercise left her feeling refreshed by the time she returned to her apartment building.
Katie apparently hadn’t moved while Fenella had been gone, but she did lift up her head to stare at her owner as Fenella walked into the room.
“Did I miss anything?” she asked the animal.
“Mmmmerroowww,” Katie said.
Fenella raised an eyebrow. What was Katie trying to tell her? She glanced at her phone on the table and then sighed. The light on her answering machine was blinking. Clearly someone had called while she’d been out and the phone had disturbed Katie.
“So sorry that you were bothered,” Fenella said sarcastically.
She pressed the play button and was surprised when the mechanical voice told her she had two new messages. No wonder Katie was annoyed.
“Ah, Fenella, it’s Edward Jones. I’m awfully sorry that your plans had to be changed at the last minute. You know my door is always open for John’s baby sister. Ring me when you’ve rebooked and we’ll work something out.”
Fenella smiled. Surely, at her age, she wasn’t anyone’s baby sister anymore? The second message wiped the smile off her face.
“Maggie? It’s Jack. I was just surfing the Internet and I found an article about a dead man on the ferry there. I’m sure you aren’t involved this time, but it’s st
ill disturbing. I think it might be best if I came over for a visit. I’ll have to see about getting a passport, but once that’s taken care of, I’ll be on the next flight to London. You’ll be able to pick me up there, won’t you? Call me back.”
Fenella sighed deeply. For such an intelligent man, Jack was surprisingly stupid sometimes. Which was one of the reasons why, after ten years as a couple, she’d been happy to leave him behind. It felt strange to hear him call her Maggie, even though she’d gone by her middle name, Margaret, when she’d lived in the US. Jack was just about the only person in the world who called her Maggie, which she’d never really liked. Sighing again, she reached for her phone.
“Jack, don’t come to visit,” she said when he answered.
“Oh, Maggie, you don’t mean that,” he replied. “I miss you and you must miss me. We were good together.”
“You don’t miss me, you miss having everything done for you,” Fenella corrected him. “Now you have to do you own grocery shopping and cooking and laundry, and you hate that.”
“Actually, Hazel has been doing my laundry for me,” Jack told her. “She said it isn’t any trouble, as she never has a full load. Apparently, I’m doing her a favor, which is good, because the first load I did on my own all came out pink for some reason.”
Fenella swallowed a sigh. “I’m glad Hazel is taking care of you,” she muttered, feeling almost sorry for the other woman whom she’d never liked. “At least as far as laundry is concerned.”
“And Sue is doing my grocery shopping,” Jack added. “She shops every Sunday for herself and she said she can save a lot of money by buying everything in bulk and then splitting it with me.”
“Did she?” Fenella asked.
“But I still miss you,” Jack said. “And I’m worried about you. There seem to be a lot of murders happening over there.”
“No more so than in Buffalo,” Fenella told him.
“But Buffalo is a big city,” Jack argued. “I thought the island was tiny.”
“Whatever you thought, I’m perfectly safe,” Fenella said, hoping she was speaking the truth. “And I’m not your concern anymore, anyway. We split up, remember?”
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