Aunt Bessie Finds (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 6) (33 page)

Acknowledgements

My beta readers continue to work hard to help make Bessie
better.
 
Thanks to Ruth, Charlene,
Janice and Margaret for your continued support.

My editor, Denise, continues to put up with my creative spelling,
questionable grammar and inconsistent punctuation.
 
Any mistakes that remain are mine.

Thanks, as ever, to Kevin for the wonderful photographs that grace
the covers of my books.
 

And a huge “thank you” has to go to my readers, who continue to
follow Bessie along on her adventures.
 
I would love to hear from you.
 
My contact details are in the back of the book.

Coming October 16, 2015

Aunt Bessie Goes

An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery

By Diana
Xarissa

Aunt Bessie goes house hunting with her friend, John
Rockwell.

CID Inspector John Rockwell asks Bessie
Cubbon
, a longtime resident of the village of
Laxey
to help him find the perfect house for him in the
village.
 
What they find in one of
the bedrooms of the last house they visit isn’t what either of them was
expecting.
 

Aunt Bessie goes to look at furniture with John as
well.

Again, they find the unexpected, this time in a
furniture storage unit in
Jurby
.
 
But are the two cases, separated by
thirty years, connected?

Aunt Bessie goes to great lengths to try to figure
out what’s happening before anyone else goes missing or ends up dead.

Have you read all of the

Aunt Bessie Cozy
Mysteries
?

Aunt Bessie Assumes

Aunt Bessie Believes

Aunt Bessie Considers

Aunt Bessie Decides

Aunt Bessie Enjoys

Aunt Bessie Finds

Aunt Bessie Goes (release date:
 
October 16, 2015)

The Isle of Man Romance Series

Island Escape

Island Inheritance

Island Heritage

Island Christmas (release date:
 
December 1, 2015)

The Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery

Novella Series

The Appleton Case (turn the page for
a sneak peek)

The Bennett Case (release date:
 
September 18, 2015)

A sneak peek at:

The Appleton Case

A Markham Sisters
Cozy

Mystery Novella

Diana
Xarissa

Chapter One

“Where are we exactly?” Joan asked in a calm voice.

“We’re right here,” Janet answered, waving the map in
the air.
 
“At least I think we
are.”
 
Janet held her breath,
knowing what was coming.

“We’re lost, aren’t we?” Joan asked, her tone
somewhat less calm.

“Maybe just the tiniest bit,” Janet admitted,
glancing at her sister in the driving seat.

Joan sighed deeply.
 
“I’ll just find a place to pull over,”
she muttered.
 

A few moments later a large pub appeared on their
left and Joan pulled into the car park.
 
She turned towards her sister in the passenger seat and smiled.

Janet wasn’t fooled.
 
She knew the smile was
fake
and that Joan was cross with her.
 
“I did suggest that I drive and you read
the map,” she said quietly, handing the map to Joan.

“Yes, well, it’s rather too late for that, isn’t
it?”
 
Joan looked at the map for a
moment.
 
“Where are the directions
from the estate agent?” she asked eventually.

Janet handed her the step-by-step directions that
she’d taken over the phone from the man.
 
Joan read through them while looking over the map and then shook her
head.

“These directions don’t make sense,” she said
angrily.
 
“There isn’t any third
turning after you leave the motorway.”

“That’s what I said,” Janet agreed, happy to have her
sister angry
at
the estate agent rather than her.
 

“Didn’t you look at the map when you were talking to
the man?” Joan asked sharply.

Not out of the woods yet, Janet thought.
 
“I just assumed, since he’s getting paid
to show us the house, that he’d want to give us proper directions,” Janet
replied.

“Yes, well, one of us shall have to go into the pub
and ask for directions from here,” Joan announced.
 
“I suggest you go.”

Janet opened her mouth to argue and then
shrugged.
 
She didn’t mind doing it
and she’d probably do a better job than her older sister anyway.

“I’ll just turn the car around, ready to leave,” Joan
told her as Janet opened her door.

Yes, I suppose we must be ready for a quick getaway,
Janet thought to herself, rolling her eyes at her sister when she was sure Joan
couldn’t possibly see her.

The middle-aged man behind the bar in the empty pub
was kind enough to trace the correct route on Janet’s map for her and she was
thrilled to find that they weren’t all that far away from their
destination.
 

“Come back for some lunch later,” he suggested.
 
“We’ve cottage pie and chips on special
today.”

Janet nodded.
 
She’d love to come back, but Joan didn’t really enjoy pub food.
 
She preferred to eat what she’d prepared
herself.
 
As Joan was an excellent
cook and an even better baker, Janet never complained.
 

With the new directions, the pair found their
destination only a few minutes later.

“It looks really large,” Janet said doubtfully,
looking up at the guesthouse that they’d come to see.

“Well, we can’t very well run a bed and breakfast
from a tiny flat, can we?” Joan asked.
 
She climbed out of the car, leaving Janet shaking her head.

“I never wanted to run a bed and breakfast,” Janet
muttered towards her sister, who was walking rapidly towards the front of the
home.
 
“This was your crazy idea,
remember?”

Joan was knocking on the front door when Janet caught
up to her.
 
By the
time she’d climbed the two steps to join her sister on the small porch
,
the door was swinging open
.

“Ah, Ms. Markham?
 
I’m Henry Fitzsimmons.
 
We spoke on the phone.”

The man who opened the door looked exactly like Janet
expected him to from their short phone conversation.
 
He had to be somewhere in his
mid-twenties and he looked uncomfortable in his suit and tie.
 
His dark brown hair needed cutting and his
thick glasses magnified his brown eyes.
 
He was at least a few inches shorter than six feet tall, but that still
made him half a foot taller than the two women.

“I’m Joan Markham,” Joan answered as she shook the
man’s offered hand.
 
“But you spoke
to Janet on the phone.”

Janet smiled brightly as she took her turn shaking
hands with the man.
 
“It’s nice to
meet you,” she said, politely ignoring the fact that he’d given them the wrong
directions.

“It’s nice to meet you as well,” the man muttered as
he took a step back into the house.
 
“Come on in and have a look then,” he suggested.

Joan followed him inside quickly while Janet took a
moment to turn back to see what the view from the porch was like.
 
There was just enough room for a few
chairs, and Janet smiled to herself as she looked out across the Derbyshire
dales.
 
Maybe this bed and breakfast
wasn’t such a bad idea.

About the Author

Diana
Xarissa
lived on the
Isle of Man for more than ten years before returning to the United States with
her family.
 
Now living near
Buffalo, New York, she enjoys having the opportunity to write about the island
that she loves so much.
 
It truly is
a special place.

Diana also writes mystery/thrillers set in the
not-too-distant future under the pen name “Diana X. Dunn” and fantasy/adventure
books for middle grade readers under the pen name “D.X. Dunn.”

She would be delighted to know what you think of her
work and can be contacted through snail mail at:

Diana
Xarissa
Dunn

PO Box 72

Clarence, NY
 
14031

Or find her on Facebook,
Goodreads
or on her website at
www.dianaxarissa.com
.
 

You can sign up for her monthly newsletter on the
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asked the most.