An Isle of Man Ghostly Cozy Collection - ABC

by Diana Xarissa

  “Are you seeing other men?” Jack demanded. “I don’t like the idea of you seeing other men.”

  “You’re seeing other women,” Fenella pointed out.

  “I am not,” Jack said.

  “What about Sue and Hazel? Surely you aren’t just letting them do your shopping and laundry without buying them dinner once in a while to thank them.”

  “Do you think I should?” Jack asked. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  Fenella sighed again. She’d known when she and Jack were together that both women were interested in the man. No doubt they were finding it frustrating now that he was single that he was so completely clueless as to their intent.

  “I’m sure they’re both expecting it,” Fenella said.

  “Oh, dear, maybe I should just do my own laundry and shopping,” Jack fretted.

  “Or maybe you should ask one of them to move in with you,” Fenella suggested.

  “But what will you do when you come back?” Jack asked.

  “I’m not coming back,” Fenella told him.

  “I’m going to see what I need to do to get a passport,” Jack said. “I think I need my birth certificate, though. I don’t suppose you remember where I keep it?”

  “I haven’t the slightest idea,” Fenella said. She could have hazarded a guess that the document in question was in the huge pile of papers that he was always talking about filing but never got around to, but his problems were no longer hers.

  “I think I can order a copy,” he said thoughtfully. “I wonder how you do that.”

  “Yes, well, I suggest you stop worrying about it,” Fenella said. “You’ve no reason to visit me, and hotels are very expensive over here. The trip would cost you a fortune.”

  “I thought I would just stay with you,” Jack said, sounding hurt.

  “Oh, goodness, no,” Fenella said quickly. “The island is very old-fashioned. My neighbors would never approve of me having a man to stay with me, not when we aren’t married.” She could only hope that Jack would never discovered that she wasn’t being totally honest with him.

  “Maybe we should get married,” he said plaintively.

  “Marry Hazel or Sue,” Fenella told him. “I’m not coming back to Buffalo.”

  “What is the island like?” Jack asked. “Would I like it?”

  “I hardly think so,” Fenella said. “But I need to go. Thank you for your concern, but it’s misplaced.”

  “So you aren’t involved in this latest murder?” he asked.

  “Someone is at my door,” Fenella lied. “I have to go.” She hung up the phone and put her head in her hands.

  “Merrrrrow,” Katie said from her chair.

  “It seemed a nicer lie than lying about the murder,” Fenella tried to justify herself to the cat. “I didn’t know what else to say.”

  “You should stop taking his calls,” Mona suggested.

  “Sure, and then when he turns up here, you can deal with him,” Fenella replied.

  “I think I’d quite like to meet him, actually,” Mona said. “He seems ghastly when you speak to him. I’m incredibly curious as to what you saw in him for all those years.”

  “Sometimes I ask myself that very same question,” Fenella admitted. “I keep thinking that it was just easier to stay with him than go through all of this. He’s having enough trouble dealing with the split and I’m three thousand-odd miles away. I can’t imagine what he’d have been like if I’d dumped him but stayed in Buffalo.”

  A knock on the door interrupted the conversation. “Only a few minutes too late,” Fenella muttered as she crossed the room.

  “I know we both spent a fortune shopping yesterday, but I can’t face cooking tonight,” Shelly told her. “I thought maybe I could persuade you to join me for some pizza at that little place a few doors down.”

  “I love their pizza,” Fenella said, her mouth already watering.

  “We could eat too much and then go to the Tale and Tail and drink too much as well,” Shelly suggested.

  “That sounds like the perfect evening,” Fenella told her.

  Shelly went back to her own apartment to get ready while Fenella changed into something a bit nicer than the jeans and sweatshirt she’d been in all day.

  “Wear a dress,” Mona urged her. “Or at least a skirt.”

  Fenella shook her head. “The nights are still a bit chilly,” she said. “I’ll be more comfortable in pants.”

  “Trousers,” her aunt corrected her. “You don’t want to talk about pants in polite company over here.”

  Fenella nodded. Whoever had said that a common language divided the US and the UK was absolutely correct. She was amazed nearly every day with how many words were different in the two countries.

  She found a pair of black trousers and a light red sweater that were warm, comfortable and slightly dressy. After combing her hair, she touched up her makeup and then waited for Shelly. Less than five minutes later, the other woman knocked on her door.

  Fenella picked up her bag and was ready to go out when Katie let out a shout.

  “MMMeeeoowww,” Katie said crossly.

  “Oh, dear, I haven’t given you your dinner, have I?” Fenella said. “Sorry,” she told both Shelly and Katie.

  A minute later, Katie was happily munching her way through her dinner, with a full water bowl next to her, and Fenella was ready to try leaving again.

  “Let’s go before she decides she needs something else,” Fenella told Shelly.

  “Maybe I don’t want a kitten,” Shelly laughed.

  “You really do,” Fenella told her.

  “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

  7

  The little Italian restaurant was busy, but then, it was always busy. Fenella and Shelly were shown to a table in the corner. They asked for garlic bread before they’d even sat down. Their waiter laughed.

  “Everyone always wants garlic bread,” he said. “I’ll put that order in while you look at the menus.”

  “I don’t really need to look,” Shelly told Fenella after they were settled in. “I’m having pizza. I always do.”

  Fenella opened her menu and read through the list of pasta dishes and pizzas. As the waiter returned with their garlic bread, she shut the menu and smiled at Shelly. “I looked, but I can’t find anything I want more than I want pizza.”

  Drinks and food ordered, Fenella glanced around the room. The other customers seemed to range in age from an elderly gentleman at the head of a large table to a toddler in a high chair who looked to be covered in tomato sauce.

  “I’ve never been here when it hasn’t been busy,” Fenella told Shelly.

  “It’s because the food is so good,” Shelly said after she’d swallowed a bite. “And the garlic bread is amazing.”

  Fenella helped herself to a second slice and grinned. “I won’t argue with that,” she said.

  She looked around the room again, this time paying more attention to the people around her. Having lived on the island for six weeks now, she was starting to feel as if she ought to recognize more people. Logically, she knew that the island was home to around eighty thousand people and that she’d only met a handful of them, but she was still disappointed that Shelly was the only familiar face in the room.

  A large group came in and was seated across the room from them. They were laughing and shouting together, and Fenella didn’t bother to study them as they all appeared to be in their teens or early twenties.

  “Well, there’s a familiar face,” Shelly said, nodding toward the new arrivals.

  “Someone I know?” Fenella asked, surprised.

  “Someone you’ve met, at least,” Shelly told her. “It’s Justin Newmarket and some of his friends.”

  Fenella turned in her seat to look at the group again. Shelly was right. Justin was sitting between two beautiful blondes, but he didn’t look happy.

  “The girls with him are stunning,” Fenella commented.

  “The one on his left i
s his sister,” Shelly told her. “She’s a year or two younger and light years smarter than her brother.”

  “He doesn’t look happy, does he?” Fenella asked.

  “Not at all,” Shelly agreed. “I wonder what’s bothering him.”

  The waiter returned with their drinks, and their pizzas weren’t far behind. The pair ate and chatted, but Fenella found her eyes returning to Justin repeatedly. He was eating and drinking as well, but he didn’t seem to be enjoying himself.

  “I think I might just use the loo before we leave,” Fenella said as she wiped her mouth. “I won’t be long.”

  “Well done for remembering to use ‘loo’ this time,” Shelly laughed.

  “I am trying,” Fenella told her.

  She walked across the room, right past Justin and his friends. Feeling rather foolish, she made a point of catching Justin’s eye and nodding at him on her way. A few minutes later, feeling refreshed, she started back across the room to Shelly.

  “Hey, hey, aren’t you that woman from the ferry?” Justin shouted as she passed his table.

  Fenella stopped and smiled at the man. “It was Justin, wasn’t it?” she said. She took the handful of steps she needed to stand next to him by the large table. The group had been having a loud conversation when she’d walked out of the bathroom; now everyone stopped speaking and stared at Fenella.

  “Yeah,” Justin muttered. “But have you heard anything from the police? That’s what I want to know.”

  “I haven’t spoken to the police lately,” Fenella replied. “But I can’t imagine why they would contact me, anyway. What happened on the ferry was nothing to do with me.”

  “Someone told me you found the body,” Justin said.

  “Well, yes, that’s true,” Fenella replied. “But I didn’t know the man, or anyone else on the ferry for that matter.”

  “Don’t have many friends, then, do you?” the girl on Justin’s right drawled. “Every time I sail, I know at least a dozen people on the ferry, even if I didn’t know they were going to be there.”

  “I’ve only been on the island for a short time,” Fenella told the girl. “I haven’t had time to make many friends.”

  “I heard you and Inspector Robinson from CID were good friends,” Justin said, making the statement sound like an accusation.

  “Is that the gorgeous new inspector from across?” one of the other girls asked. “I had to pay a parking ticket the other day and he was in the office doing something or other. I was tempted to break some law, just so he could arrest me.”

  “Oh, come on, Tiffany. He’s like forty,” the girl that Shelly had identified as Justin’s sister scoffed.

  “I like older men,” the other girl shot back.

  “I don’t even know how I got mixed up in the whole thing,” Justin complained loudly. “I was just trying to get across to visit a friend. You got the whole sailing cancelled, and I missed a great party.”

  “You could have sailed later in the day,” Fenella pointed out.

  “Yeah, but by that time I was too fed up to even think about it,” Justin replied.

  “He means he was too seasick to even think about it,” Justin’s sister interjected. “He’s a terrible sailor. He even has to book himself a cabin so he can just lie flat for the entire journey. Aside from when he’s in the loo being sick, that is.”

  “You have a big mouth,” Justin said to his sister. “I don’t know why I even bother hanging around with you.”

  “You hang around with me because I have much cooler friends than you do,” the girl told him. “If you weren’t with me, you’d be stuck at home with mum and dad, and they’d be nagging you about getting a job and doing something with your life. This is much better, isn’t it?”

  “Not much,” Justin muttered.

  “So what did the dead guy look like?” Justin’s sister asked. “Was there blood everywhere like on telly when someone gets murdered?”

  “I’m sure I’m not meant to be talk about what I saw,” Fenella said. “But it was terribly unpleasant. I can tell you that much.”

  “I think it would cool to find a dead body,” Tiffany said. “I’d ring up Inspector Robinson and then sob in his arms until we fell into bed together.”

  Several of the others at the table laughed at that. “Maybe you should kill someone,” someone shouted.

  “That’s a thought,” Tiffany said. “Who’s most expendable?”

  “Surely that must be Justin,” his sister said. “No one would miss him.”

  Fenella took a deep breath. “That’s a terrible thing to say about your brother,” she said sternly. “Everyone has value and no one has any right to kill anyone else. Even joking about it is in terribly bad taste, especially after what Justin and I went through yesterday. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

  The woman looked Fenella up and down and then shrugged. “It’s easy to see why you’re friends with Mrs. Quirk. She was one of my least favorite teachers ever.”

  Fenella glanced over at Shelly, but she was far enough away that she couldn’t have heard the nasty remark. “Murder is no laughing matter,” she said.

  She turned and walked briskly away from the table, ignoring the rude comments that followed her across the room. When she sat back down next to Shelly, she found that she was shaking.

  “What did they say to you that’s upset you?” Shelly asked.

  “They’re just horrible people,” Fenella replied. “They were laughing about the idea of murder, and then Justin’s sister suggested that he was expendable if one of the other girls wanted to kill someone so that she could meet Inspector Robinson.”

  “Oh, dear, that does sound like Jennifer,” Shelly said. “I usually managed to see some good in all of my students, but I never did find anything to like about her.”

  “She didn’t like you either, apparently,” Fenella said dryly.

  Shelly laughed. “I suppose I ought to feel bad about that, but really, I couldn’t care less. Let’s go to the pub, shall we?”

  Fenella was happy to agree. They paid their bill and headed for the exit. Fenella pointedly ignored the group that was still eating and drinking and being loud. She and Shelly were only a few steps away from the restaurant when she heard her name being called.

  “Fenella? I’m sorry, I don’t remember your surname,” Justin said as he caught up to them.

  “It’s Woods, but you’re more than welcome to call me Fenella,” she replied.

  “I just wanted to, well, thank you for trying to stick up for me,” Justin said. “Jennifer was just teasing, but she can be, well, difficult.”

  “She was deliberately mean to you. I’m not sure why you put up with it,” Fenella said.

  Justin shrugged. “She was right. Her friends are cooler than mine and going out with them is better than sitting at home. My parents, well, they aren’t happy with me right now. I would have gone out with just about anyone tonight to get out of the house.”

  “Are you feeling okay after yesterday?” Fenella asked.

  Justin blushed. “The police part wasn’t too bad,” he said. “I’ve been questioned by the police lots of times, and the inspector yesterday was better than most. Jennifer was right, though. I do get really seasick. If I could have found the money, I would have flown across for the party, but I barely scrounged up enough to pay for a foot passenger ticket and a cabin.”

  “And once you got off the boat, you couldn’t stand the idea of getting back on,” Fenella guessed.

  “Yeah,” he said. “And I’d already missed my ride from Liverpool to the party anyway. I could have tried to work something else out, but, yeah, getting on another boat when I was already feeling sick didn’t sound like fun.”

  “I know exactly what you mean,” Fenella told him.

  “I sort of knew the dead guy,” Justin said. “He was friends with a mate of mine, at least.”

  “Robert Grosso? I hope your friend isn’t too upset over his death,” Fenella said.

>   “He’s angry, more like,” Justin said. “He and Robert were doing some sort of business together and now it’s all a mess.”

  “What sort of business?” Fenella asked.

  “I think Robert was going to get him some quality items for his market stall,” Justin explained. “My friend sells bags, like handbags and suitcases and the like. Robert told him he could get him some designer bags at a really good price. My friend had already paid in advance for some stuff and now he doesn’t know if he’ll get it or not.”

  “Designer bags?” Fenella repeated, feeling confused.

  “Well, not real ones,” Justin told her. “Really good knock-offs, you know.”

  Fenella nodded. “I hope you told the police about that,” she said.

  “I didn’t know about it when I talked to the police,” Justin said. “I just saw my friend last night. He came over to ask me what I knew about the murder, and then he told me about his business deal going wrong.”

  “You should call the inspector and tell him,” Fenella suggested.

  “Ah, I don’t want to get my mate in any trouble,” he said. “I mean, I suppose he hasn’t done anything wrong, but you never know. Maybe it would be better if I let him talk to the police. I probably shouldn’t have said anything to you, but, well, I sort of needed someone to talk to.”

  “Yesterday was upsetting for all of us,” Fenella said soothingly.

  “Yeah, I mean, it’s weird. It started out like a normal day. Life is really short, though. I bet Robert Grosso didn’t wake up yesterday expecting to be dead before lunch. It’s all sort of freaked me out.”

  “I know exactly what you mean,” Fenella told him. While she wasn’t sure she’d have used those exact words, she felt more than a little “freaked out” herself.

  “Anyway, I’d better get back to my friends. I’ll probably see you around or something,” he said. Before Fenella could reply, he turned and walked back into the restaurant.

  “Maybe yesterday’s events will get that young man to take a good look at his life and make a few changes,” Shelly said as she and Fenella continued on their way to the pub.

  “He didn’t seem like such a bad kid, really,” Fenella said.