Aunt Bessie Joins (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 10) (18 page)

“No need, at least at this point,” Pete
said.
 
“We’ll have a crew here
tomorrow working on processing the
vandalised
room
further, but as long as we can keep out of the way of your event, you can go
ahead.”

“Excellent,” Mark said with a sigh.

Bessie couldn’t help but think that it would
be easier for everyone if the police had cancelled their Sunday hours.
 
She didn’t feel as if she’d be at all
ready to be cheery and bright again the next day.

“Bessie, I can take you home now,” John
Rockwell said from the doorway.

“I’ll just lock up behind us all,” Mark
said.

Natasha and Mary left with a uniformed constable
as an escort.
 
John, Pete, Mark and
Bessie walked out together, checking and locking up as they went.

“We’re going to have to do some tidying up
in the morning,” Mark commented as they walked through Margaret’s room.
 

Bessie sighed as she saw that writing
utensils were scattered all across the floor again.
 
“What are people doing in here?” she
demanded.

“I think we need more staff helping
Margaret,” Mark said.
 
“She seems to
be a little bit overwhelmed.”

“I’d be happy to help her,” Bessie said.
 
“But you’ll have to find someone else to
cover for Michael, then.”

“I think Carolyn should do that,” Mark
said.
 
“She is on the board for the
charity, after all.”

“Good luck,” was all that Bessie could say
to that.

Mark laughed.
 
“I think I’ll need it,” he said.
 
“I’ll pick you up at ten tomorrow,” he
told her.
 
“There’s nothing that
needs doing any earlier than that.”

Bessie was happy to agree.
 
She just hoped she might get a little
extra sleep out of the later start.

“I’m parked on the next street,” John told
Bessie, taking her arm.

Bessie hated being coddled, but she was just
tired enough to appreciate the extra support.
 
John helped her into the car and shut
the door for her before climbing into the driver’s seat.

“You look tired,” Bessie said sympathetically.

“I am,” John admitted.
 
“Inspector Lambert is on leave and I suppose
I didn’t
realise
how much she was actually doing
around the office.
 
I can’t seem to
get caught up with all the paperwork at the moment.”

“When will she be back?”

“I don’t know,” John told her.
 
“There are some issues that need working
through, and that’s all I have to say on the subject.”

Bessie knew that the chief constable hadn’t
been happy with the way Anna Lambert had handled questioning a vulnerable
suspect during a recent investigation, but this was the first she’d heard about
the woman being away.

“How are you?” Bessie asked.
 
“Besides tired,” she added.

“I’m doing well,” John told her.
 
“I’m meant to be flying across on
Christmas morning to spend a few days with the kids.
 
I’m really hoping we can have this case
solved by then so I don’t have to cancel.”

John and his wife had only recently
separated.
 
She’d moved back to the
UK with their two children and Bessie knew John was finding it difficult being
away from them.
 
“You’ll have to go
anyway,” she said firmly.

“Unfortunately, my job is more important
than my personal life,” John told her.
 
“I knew that when I joined the police.”

“Can’t Inspector Lambert come back and take
over the investigation?” Bessie demanded.

“I don’t think anyone would like that idea,”
John replied.
 
“For a number of
reasons.”

Bessie pressed her lips together to prevent
herself from blurting out all of the questions that sprang to her mind.
 

“Anyway, I want you to tell me what you
think was going on with Carolyn and Richard yesterday,” John said.
 

Bessie shrugged.
 
“I wish I knew,” she said.
 
“Or maybe I don’t,” she amended.
 
“It seemed very much like they were both
looking to start affairs and that they were flaunting it in front of one
another.
 
I hope I totally misread
the situation, though.”

“Do either of them have regular affairs?”
John asked.

“I didn’t think so,” Bessie replied.
 
“Richard had an affair with Carolyn, of
course.
 
That’s how their
relationship started.
 
That much is
common knowledge.
 
I don’t see them
often, but I don’t recall hearing any skeet about either of them over the
years.
 
As I said before, Carolyn
sits on all the right boards and committees that make her look good, but beyond
that I don’t really know anything about her.”

“Do you like her?”

Bessie frowned.
 
“I don’t dislike her,” she said
thoughtfully.
 
“She’s exactly what a
committee like ours needs, as she’s friends with all of the wealthiest families
on the island.
 
Her friends are
going to be ninety per cent of the audience at the auction on Christmas Eve,
and they should spend a lot of money bidding against one another on the various
prizes.
 
Just having her name on the
invitations will have made MNH and the other charities quite a lot more money.”

“So she’s useful; but do you like her?”

“Not much,” Bessie admitted.
 
“She’s polite and friendly enough while
we’re working together, but I can’t help but feel that she wouldn’t bother to
speak with me if we ran into each other elsewhere.”

“Who are her friends?
 
I mean her real friends.”

“I don’t know that she has any,” Bessie said
after giving it some thought.
 
“She’s in the same position as a lot of wealthy men’s wives.
 
They get thrown together at events and
things, but I don’t think many of them like one another.
 
I don’t think I’ve ever seen her out
having lunch with a friend or anything like that.
 
Mary might be better able to answer that
question, though, as she’s in the same social circle.
 
I’m not, obviously.”

John laughed.
 
“What about Richard?
 
Do you know if he has friends?”

“Years ago he used to go across almost every
weekend to spend time with his children,” Bessie told John.
 
“His first wife took the children and
moved to London as soon as the divorce was mentioned.
 
She used a London solicitor and he
worked it somehow so that if Richard wanted to see the children, he had to
travel to them.
 
The children never
visited the island.”

“She must have had a good solicitor,” John
remarked.

“She did,” Bessie agreed.
 
“And it helped that Richard was head over
heels in love with Carolyn.
 
According to my sources, Richard would have agreed to just about
anything to get the divorce pushed through.”

“But the children are all grown up now?”

“Oh, yes, in fact, one or two of them have
visited the island in the last couple of years.
 
Richard and Carolyn had a huge party
when his daughter came over to see him about five years ago.”

“Did you go?”

“Oh, goodness, I wasn’t invited,”
Bessie
laughed.
 
“But it was the talk of the island.
 
They flew in some boy band that was popular at the time for
entertainment and probably spent more on that one weekend than an average house
is worth.”

“So what does Richard do with his weekends
now that his children are adults?”

Bessie shrugged.
 
“Again, you should probably talk to
Mary.
 
She’ll have a better idea of
what goes on in that circle than I do.
 
If it were me, I’d spend my weekends in my enormous library, trying to
read every book I could get my hands on.”

John grinned.
 
“Somehow I don’t think Richard is doing
that,” he said.

“No, I don’t suppose he is,” Bessie agreed.

At Bessie’s cottage, John insisted on going
inside to check that everything was okay.

“Mark doesn’t do this,” she said grumpily as
she stood in the kitchen waiting for John to finish his quick inspection.

“Well, he should,”
John
said as he rejoined Bessie.
 
“This
cottage is far too isolated, especially in the winter months when the holiday
rentals are empty.”

“There was a whole row of cottages on the
beach when I bought this one,” Bessie told him.
 
“And we all lived here all year,
too.
 
When the island became a
tourist destination, my
neighbours
soon discovered
that they could rent out their homes during the summer for far more money than
they’d ever imagined, and that was the end of this stretch of beach being
properly residential.”

“Now you’re the only one left,” John said.

“I do hope George and Mary get settled into
Thie
yn
Traie
quickly,” Bessie said.
 
“It will be
nice to have
neighbours
again, even if they aren’t
all that close by.”

“I’ll feel better when they’re moved in,”
John told her.
 
“But that doesn’t
mean I won’t stop checking your cottage when I bring you home at night.”

Bessie shook her head.
 
“I hate being treated like a small
child,” she grumbled.

“But you’ll put up with it because you know
I only do it because I care about you,” John said.

Bessie nodded.
 
“Now you’d better get home and get some
sleep.
 
Tomorrow is going to be a busy
day.”

“It is,” John agreed.

In the doorway, he paused and looked back at
Bessie.
 
“You don’t happen to have
anything with Michael’s handwriting on it, do you?”

Bessie thought for a moment.
 
“I don’t, but Mark will have his
application for a place at ‘Christmas at the Castle.’
 
It wasn’t long or complicated, but he
will have written at least a few sentences on it.”

“I’ll have to ask Mark about that tomorrow,”
John said, making a quick note in his notebook.

Bessie shut and locked the door behind him,
her mind churning.
 
Michael must
have left a note, she thought.
 
So
it was suicide?
 
She shook her
head.
 
Thank goodness it was John’s
problem and not hers.
 

It was late and she was tired, but once she
got into bed, she found she couldn’t sleep.
 
Nero and Archie were waiting on the
nightstand and it took six chapters before she finally began to feel tired
enough to rest.
 
Sleep late, she told
herself firmly as she drifted off to sleep.

At six, she found herself suddenly
wide awake
.
 
She
sighed and rolled over, trying to coax herself into another hour of rest, but
it was no good.
 
She was tired, but
her brain was already hard at work, replaying memories of Michael over and over
again.

She had her shower and got dressed.
 
Feeling too tired to appreciate food,
she poured herself some cereal and nibbled on it while she waited for the
coffee maker to finish.
 
The first
cup of coffee helped to disperse the fog in her brain and a second left her
feeling almost too awake.
 
With
several hours to fill before Mark was due, Bessie headed out for a long walk.

It was cold, windy, and foggy on the beach,
but Bessie was determined to walk anyway.
 
She made it as far as
Thie
yn
Traie
before stopping for a rest.
 
Leaning on the cliff face, she stood and
watched the waves as they pounded the beach.
 

While Bessie had planned to walk for longer,
she was soaked through in spite of her heavy coat.
 
She turned for home with a sigh.
 
The walk back was straight into the wind,
and when Bessie finally let herself into her cottage, she felt as if she’d had
a real workout.
 
After dripping in
the kitchen for a moment, she squelched her way up to her bedroom and changed
clothes.
 
A few minutes with a mop
cleared up the mess she’d left and the rest of the pot of coffee managed to
warm her all the way through.
 
She
was just settling in with her book when someone knocked on her door.