An Isle of Man Ghostly Cozy Collection - ABC

by Diana Xarissa

  Fenella looked around. “I don’t even know where you should start,” she told Shelly.

  Shelly went over to a nearby couch and sat down. “Maybe I’ll see if anyone comes to me,” she said.

  Fenella joined her, looking around at all the beautiful animals. “I’m glad I already have my Katie, otherwise I might be tempted,” she said as she watched two kittens wrestling with one another.

  A moment later a large grey cat jumped down off of a high platform and strolled across the room. Her eyes were focused on the large picture window at the front of the building. Seemingly accidently, she reached the couch and then jumped into Shelly’s lap.

  “My goodness, but you aren’t at all what I’m looking for,” Shelly said to the animal. The cat blinked at her and then settled into her lap. “Just a quick cuddle, then,” Shelly said. “But then I’m going to find a kitten to take home.”

  Half an hour later, paperwork complete, Shelly was ready to carry the grey cat back to her apartment.

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she said for the third time as she and Fenella walked out of the adoption center. “She weighs a ton, too.”

  “Yowl,” the cat said as she shifted herself in Shelly’s arms.

  “She’s gorgeous,” Fenella told her. “And she chose you. I don’t think you had much choice.”

  “No, I really didn’t,” Shelly agreed happily.

  They parted ways outside of the Fenella’s door. “I don’t think we want to introduce Smokey to Katie just yet,” Shelly said. “I think I need to get her settled in at home first.”

  “You have everything you need for her, right?” Fenella checked.

  “Yes. I bought a lot of it when I was going to be cat-sitting for Katie, and then I never used it,” Shelly said. “I’m all set.”

  Fenella let herself into her apartment. When Katie came to meet her, she scooped her up and gave her a big hug. “You’ve nothing to worry about,” she told the kitten. “I wasn’t even a little bit tempted to replace you with someone else.”

  “Merow,” Katie said, nuzzling Fenella’s face.

  After making herself some lunch, Fenella changed into clean clothes for her meeting at the Sea Terminal. The black pants and navy sweater she’d been wearing earlier were covered in cat hair. She left a few minutes earlier than she needed to for the walk, expecting to spend time waiting at customer service again. Instead, as she entered the building this time, she was greeted by name.

  “Ms. Woods,” Constable Corlett said. “Inspector Robinson is waiting for you in conference room two.”

  A second uniformed constable escorted Fenella down the corridor. Daniel was sitting at the head of a long table with Captain Howard next to him. They were talking intently as Fenella entered.

  “I hope we’ll get those answers today,” Daniel said.

  “If we don’t, maybe you can just arrest them all,” the captain replied.

  “Ah, Fenella, er, Ms. Woods, thank you for joining us,” Daniel said as he looked up. “Captain Howard, you remember Ms. Woods?”

  “She’s the one who caused all of the trouble,” the other man growled. “She rang you instead of informing a member of my staff about the body.”

  “I believe the murderer should be getting the blame, not me,” Fenella said crossly.

  Before the captain could reply, Stanley and Florence March were escorted into the room. As they found seats, the other cabin passengers seemed to arrive all at once. Within minutes everyone was seated around the table, looking expectantly at Daniel.

  “Thank you all for coming,” he said. “Your meeting with Captain Howard was unfortunately interrupted the other day. When he explained to me why he’d wanted to speak with all of you, it seemed that it might be beneficial to reschedule the meeting with myself in attendance.”

  “So what do you want?” Stanley snapped.

  “We’re trying to work out the order in which everyone boarded the ferry,” Daniel explained. “But the statements we’ve taken don’t seem to match the footage from the security video. I’d like to suggest that if any of you would like to amend your statements, now would be a good time to do so. Keep in mind that we do have some video footage and that we’ve been comparing that with what you’ve all told me. I have constables outside who can take any new information you’d like to share.”

  “I think people are worried that they might get others into trouble,” Fenella said tentatively, not looking at Stanley or Florence.

  “I want to assure you all that we, as a company, recognize that it is more important to solve these murders than to worry about minor infractions of the rules. If someone let you on the ferry early and you’re worried about that person’s job, please don’t be. I won’t be firing anyone for having done that.”

  “We boarded early,” Florence said. “A very nice young lady at customer service arranged it for us. She had a member of the security staff walk us through security and onto the ferry. The girl at customer service sorted our cabin keys for us as well.”

  “How early did you board?” Daniel asked.

  Florence glanced at Stanley. “Maybe about an hour before they started letting everyone else on,” she said.

  Daniel raised an eyebrow and then made a note in his notebook. “Did anyone else board early?” he asked.

  “I did, but only a few minutes early,” Justin said. “I went to school with one of the girls who works in the gift shop on the ferry. I bumped into her as she was walking through the terminal building and we were chatting. She said I could walk on with her, as I had a proper ticket and everything. Once I got there, she dug out my cabin key for me.”

  “I see,” Daniel said. “Anyone else?”

  “Brenda and I boarded early, too,” Nick said. “Like the other couple, we asked at customer service and they said that we could. The girl there had someone walk us through and that person got us our cabin keys.”

  “Do you know who it was who escorted you onto the ferry?” Captain Howard asked.

  “It was some man,” Brenda said. “He was about twenty-five and his head was shaved.”

  Daniel flipped through a file in front of him and held up a photograph. “Is this the man?” he asked.

  Brenda shrugged. “It could have been,” she said. “I know that’s the other man who was killed, but I’m not sure if that’s the man who took us onto the ferry or not. It looks like him, but I wasn’t really paying attention.”

  “Mr. Proper, do you recognize the man in the photo?” Daniel asked.

  Nick shrugged. “Maybe,” he said. “If it wasn’t him, it was someone who looks quite like him.”

  “But you didn’t think to mention that to me when we talked earlier,” Daniel said as he made notes.

  “You asked if I knew the man in the photograph,” Nick said. “His showing us onto the ferry a few days earlier isn’t exactly the same as knowing him.”

  “What time did you arrive on the ferry?” Daniel asked.

  “I don’t know, not too early,” Nick said. “Just long enough to get ourselves settled into the cabin. We were quite happy to just wait out the journey there.”

  “But I saw you,” Fenella blurted out.

  Daniel looked over at her and she blushed under his stare. “You saw them?” he asked after a moment.

  “Yes, when I first walked out of my cabin, I saw them. They came up the stairs and looked at me and then let themselves into one of the other cabins.”

  “We went down to get a newspaper,” Brenda said quickly.

  “Did they have a newspaper?” Daniel asked.

  “It was in my bag,” Brenda snapped.

  “I don’t like the direction this is going,” Nick said. “I think Brenda and I have had quite enough for today.” He stood up and motioned to Brenda, who jumped to her feet.

  “Just a few more questions, please,” Daniel said.

  “I don’t think so,” Nick replied.

  “We can continue the conversation in my office, if yo
u’d prefer,” Daniel said in a pleasant voice.

  Both Nick and Brenda sat back down, but neither looked happy about it. “Fenella,” Daniel said, “who else did you see in the corridor while you were waiting for the police?”

  Fenella closed her eyes and tried to think. She’d told Daniel all of this on the day it had happened. He had to have it all in his notes. “Mr. and Mrs. March came up the stairs as well,” she said after a minute.

  “We did,” Florence agreed. “I wanted to change some of my Manx money for English, so we went down to see about that, but they weren’t open yet.”

  “I see,” Daniel said. “And why did you both need to go?”

  “I wasn’t letting my wife wander around the ferry with several thousand pounds in cash in her pocket,” Stanley said tersely.

  Daniel made another note and then looked at Justin. “And you were safely tucked up in your cabin while all of this was going on?” he asked.

  “I suppose so,” Justin said. “Once I got in there, I didn’t leave until we were ordered out by the police. I was, um, going to wait until we were underway before I went out to see if there were any pretty girls around.”

  Fenella knew he was lying, but she bit her tongue. That he was prone to seasickness didn’t seem relevant at this point.

  Nick had relaxed slightly while Daniel had been talking to the others; now Fenella watched him tense up as Daniel looked at him. “Mr. Proper, your wife said you went down to the gift shop to get a newspaper. Is that correct?”

  Nick swallowed hard. “I don’t recall,” he said after a moment. “We got on the ferry and into our cabin. After a while, Brenda said something about going to the gift shop, so we went. When we got back up the stairs by the cabin, Ms. Woods was standing outside her door, looking all pale and upset. The next thing we knew, we were being escorted off the ferry.”

  “You didn’t try to speak to Ms. Woods, in spite of seeing that she was upset?” Daniel asked.

  “I, er, no,” Nick replied. “That’s more Brenda’s line than mine, and she was eager to lie down.”

  “Mr. and Mrs. March, do you remember seeing Ms. Woods on the ferry?” Daniel asked.

  “I’m pretty sure it’s in my statement,” Stanley said. “We were getting ready for the ship to sail and when we went up to our cabin, Ms. Woods was standing in the corridor.”

  “And did you also see Mr. and Mrs. Proper?” Daniel asked.

  Stanley frowned. “I don’t think so,” he said.

  “I saw them,” Florence said. “I didn’t pay any attention at the time, but now that you’ve mentioned it, I saw them in the passenger lounge. They were talking to that man in your photograph about something. He didn’t look very happy.”

  “This was after the ferry was boarding?” Daniel asked.

  “Yes,” Florence said. “After we boarded and went to our cabin, we didn’t want to leave until other people were being let on board. We were worried that someone might question us about being on the ferry early.”

  Daniel looked over at Nick. “Do you remember talking to Mr. Mason again, after boarding started?” he asked.

  “Yeah, but I didn’t want to mention it,” Nick said. “The thing is…”

  Daniel held up a hand. “I think we might be better off having this conversation in my office, privately,” he said. As he stood up, Nick continued.

  “It wasn’t a big deal,” he said. “He wanted some money from me, that’s all.”

  Daniel frowned. “As I said, let’s take this down to my office,” he said. He had his phone in his hand, and a moment later the door opened and two uniformed constables walked in.

  “Please take Mr. Proper down to my office. I’d like Mrs. Proper escorted to the station as well, but they need to go in separate cars,” Daniel said.

  “I’m sure Brenda remembers exactly what happened,” Nick said quickly. “How the man asked for a hundred pounds and I said…”

  “That’s quite enough,” Daniel said loudly. “If you say one more word, I’ll arrest you for obstructing justice.”

  “You can’t do that,” Brenda said. “I do remember, Nick said…”

  “The same goes for you,” Daniel told her. “No one says anything, do you understand?”

  Nick and Brenda exchanged glances. Before they could do more than that, Constable Corlett escorted Nick out of the room. Daniel waited until he’d received a text to follow with Brenda.

  “Well, this has been interesting,” Stanley said after the door shut behind Daniel and Brenda. “I never would have suspected Nick Proper of murdering two men. Not that I know Nick, particularly, but he doesn’t seem the type, really.”

  “It’s a lot more complicated than just murder,” Captain Howard said. “Someone was masterminding a huge stolen property ring between here and Liverpool.”

  “Well, that wasn’t Nick,” Stanley said. “He’s not smart enough to manage something like that.”

  “On the contrary,” Florence said. “I think he is quite capable of that very thing. No doubt Brenda helped him. She’s very clever.”

  “I thought you didn’t know them,” Charlotte said.

  “It’s a small island,” Florence said with a shrug. “Everyone meets everyone if they live here their entire lives.”

  “And you think they were the brains behind the burglary ring?” Charlotte asked.

  “I think that seems like the most likely solution,” Florence said. “Of course, that’s for the police to work out, really.”

  “I don’t know,” Stanley said. “I suspect the police will still be looking for the person behind it all.”

  “Perhaps that person is across,” Florence said. “Maybe the operation was being managed out of Liverpool. That’s where the stolen property was going, wasn’t it?”

  “I suppose that’s possible,” Captain Howard said. “Maybe the Propers were simply in charge of the island side of the operation.”

  “I don’t know that Nick could have even managed that,” Stanley said scornfully.

  “No one has offered a motive for Robert’s murder in any of this,” Sarah said quietly.

  “I think it’s pretty obvious that he was involved in the burglary ring,” Stanley said. “He was probably responsible for getting the stolen property off the island. It wouldn’t have been difficult for him to add a few things here and there to the containers his company was shipping across, I’m sure.”

  “I don’t believe it,” Sarah said.

  “You’ll see, when the Propers go to trial,” Stanley predicted. “It will all come out.”

  “Maybe I should take a long holiday,” Sarah muttered.

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Florence said. “I think Stanley and I might go away in the next day or two, actually.”

  “I’m not sure the police are finished with everyone,” Captain Howard said. “And I’d still like to talk to you more about the young woman who let you board early.”

  “You said no one was going to lose their job,” Florence reminded him. “It doesn’t matter who she was.”

  “There is going to be some significant retraining going on, that’s for sure,” the captain said.

  “At least now the crime rate on the island should drop,” Harry said. “I was thinking about putting in a security system. Now I won’t bother.”

  “Many of the burgled homes had systems,” Stanley said. “Another reason why I can’t picture Nick behind the operation. He’d have no idea how to disarm a security system.”

  “You seem to know an awful lot about a man you claim you don’t know,” Charlotte said.

  Stanley shrugged. “I’ve spent my life learning how to read and understand people on very short acquaintance. You have to do that to run a business. I knew everything I needed to know about Nick when I shook his hand for the first time.”

  “When was that?” Fenella asked.

  “Oh, I, that is, I can’t remember. It would have been at some charity function that my wife dragged me to, no doubt,” S
tanley said.

  “What about Brenda? What did you think of her?” was Fenella’s next question.

  He glanced at Florence. “She wasn’t the criminal mastermind type,” he said dryly.

  “I think you underestimate the woman,” Florence said sharply. “She may well have been the driving force behind everything that’s happened. I will be telling the police that, the next time I speak to them.”

  “Nonsense,” Stanley said. “They need to look elsewhere for the person responsible.”

  “No, they don’t,” Florence said sharply.

  “We’ll have to agree to disagree, my dear,” Stanley said. “Perhaps I know Nick and Brenda better than you do.”

  “Or maybe not,” Florence said. “Anyway, what matters is what the police believe, not you.”

  “Yes, well, I suppose we’ll all have to talk to the police again, won’t we?” Stanley said.

  “What does that mean?” Florence demanded.

  “It means that I shall have to share my thoughts on the matter with the police, that’s all,” Stanley told her.

  Florence’s cheeks turned red and she got to her feet. “I think that’s quite enough,” she said. “I’m going home.”

  “At least the police won’t have any trouble finding you there,” Stanley said.

  Florence picked up her handbag and stormed out of the room, leaving the others staring after her. After a moment Stanley shrugged.

  “I suppose I should go with her,” he said. “She hates when I disagree with her, but I had to share my thoughts on Nick and Brenda. I’m sure they’re in all manner of trouble, but I still think someone else was behind it all.”

  “Do you think Nick and Brenda killed the two men?” Fenella asked.

  “Probably,” Stanley said. “But only on orders from someone else. Nick wasn’t much more than hired muscle.”

  “I hope you talk to the police soon about your theory,” Fenella said. “I’m sure Inspector Robinson will be interested.”

  “I’ll ring him from home and share my thoughts,” Stanley told her. “I assume we’re done here for today?” he asked the captain.

  “We might as well be,” the man replied with a sigh. “I don’t think we’ve accomplished anything, but I suppose the police have arrested someone, so it wasn’t a total waste.”