Aunt Bessie Joins (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 10) (6 page)

“That’s fine,” Bessie replied.
 
She walked over and put in the first
cassette tape she picked up.
 
A few
minutes later a traditional Christmas carol filled the air.
 
Bessie adjusted the volume down so that
it was unobtrusive, but it helped to fill up the tense silence, at least.
 
She sat back down for a few moments, but
felt too restless to stay seated.

“Is it okay if I get back to work on my
tree?” Bessie asked the uniformed man now.

He looked at his colleague and then
shrugged.
 
“We were told you weren’t
to speak to one another,” he said.
 
“If you can decorate without speaking, I suppose it should be okay.”

“I’ll be good,” Bessie promised.
 
She quickly returned to stringing up
lights, and after a few minutes, most of the others went back to work as
well.
 
Bessie found
herself
smiling as the music played and the room began to
take shape.
 
If she ignored the two
men in the doorway, she could almost forget about Christopher Hart’s untimely
death.

When Inspector
Corkill
returned a short time later, he stopped in the doorway and stared.
 
“Music?
 
And decorating?
 
Shall I guess that Miss
Cubbon
is behind it all?” he asked.

Bessie turned and smiled at him.
 
“We aren’t speaking to one another,” she
told him.
 
“We’re just getting on
with our work.”

“I suppose I can’t complain, then, can
I?”
 
He shook his head and then
asked Mary Quayle to join him.

The morning dragged on as everyone was
interviewed in turn.
 
Bessie’s tummy
was growling by the time the police had finished interviewing the last
volunteer.
 
She was also nearly
desperate to speak, even though she had nothing in particular to say.

“Thank you all for your cooperation,” Pete
said from the doorway after he escorted Liz back into the room.
 
“As our investigation progresses, I
expect I’ll need to speak to all of you again, but I won’t take up any more of
your time today.
 
I’ve given you
all my
card.
 
Please
get in touch immediately if you think of anything that could be relevant, no
matter how insignificant it might seem.”

He spoke to the two uniformed men and then
looked over at Bessie.
 
“I’d
appreciate another quick word, Miss
Cubbon
.”

Bessie crossed to him and followed him and
the uniformed men out into the corridor.

“I’d be grateful if you could ring me later
and tell me about your afternoon,” he told her.
 
“Let me know if anyone is behaving at
all oddly or says anything interesting or out of character.”

“I’ll ring you,” Bessie promised.
 
“But as everyone is quite upset, I
suspect we’ll all be acting out of character.”

“Thank you,” was the man’s only reply.

Bessie watched as the trio made their way
towards the exit.
 
She didn’t like
feeling as if she were spying on her friends, but the idea that one of them might
be a murderer was even more upsetting.
 
Sighing deeply, she turned and walked back into the room that was still
unfinished.
 
If they were going to
open on time, that had to be their priority, she thought.
 
Maybe after lunch, her tummy added.

Mark suggested ordering pizza so that they
could keep working through lunch, and no one objected.
 
As Bessie returned to work on yet
another tree, Liz approached her.

“Bessie, I don’t quite know how to put this,
but what are we meant to do now?
 
I
mean with Mr. Hart gone, do you still want us the make the changes he suggested
or should we leave our rooms alone?”

“That’s a great question,” Bessie told
her.
 
“Let’s see what Mark thinks.”

“Let’s wait to make any decisions until
after lunch,” Mark suggested when the pair approached him.
 
“I rang Carolyn and Michael and they’re
both going to be here within the hour.
 
We can all sit down and work out exactly what we want to do at that
time.”

“Can I help in here until the pizza
arrives?” Liz asked.

Bessie gladly handed the girl a box of
decorations and pointed her towards the nearest
bare
tree.
 
The other volunteers quickly
joined in and by the time the food was delivered, the room was starting to look
like Bessie’s plan.

“This is going to be my
favourite
room,” Mark told Bessie as they helped themselves to lunch.

“It is looking rather nice,” Bessie
said.
 
“And I think it’s interesting
to learn about Christmas customs in other parts of the world.”

“Absolutely,” Mark agreed.
 
“I love that our event is fun and
educational, all while supporting great not-for-profit groups.
 
‘Christmas at the Castle’ was one of my
better ideas, I do think.”

By the time everyone was stuffed full of
pizza, garlic bread and fizzy drinks, Michael and Carolyn had arrived.
 
Mark spoke to each of them in turn and
then called the group to order.
 
Before he began, Mary spoke up.

“I’ve been talking with Natasha,” she told
the group.
 
“She has some ideas for
little things that can be done to improve each room.
 
I’m happy to pay for her time here, if
you’re all willing to listen to her ideas.”

Bessie thought all of the volunteers looked
uneasy with the idea.

“As long as everyone is free to leave their
rooms the way they are if they choose,” Mark articulated what Bessie was sure
the rest were thinking.

“Of course they can,” Mary assured him.
 
“And I promise they’re only small
changes, as well.”

“I think we ought to fix everything exactly
as dear Christo wanted it,” Carolyn said loudly.
 
“The whole event should be a tribute to
the dear man and all that he tried to do here.”

“Perhaps we should donate some portion of
the proceeds to his
favourite
charity in his name,”
Bessie suggested.
 
“Surely that
would be a more fitting tribute than trying to rearrange things based on our
memories of what he said.”

“I can remember exactly what he said about
every room,” Carolyn said.

“I think Bessie’s idea is a good one,” Mark
interjected.
 
“And I think letting
Natasha have a turn at improving the rooms is also wise.
 
Mr. Hart’s ideas were, well, divisive
might be the best word.
 
I think
it’s important that we all work as a team to make this event the best it can
be.”

“Perhaps it’s time for me to resign from the
committee,” Carolyn said crossly.

“What did you and Mr. Hart fight about last
night?” Bessie blurted out.

Carolyn flushed.
 
“That’s certainly not any of your
concern,” she snapped.
 
“And it
certainly has no bearing on my determination to
honour
the memory of my dear friend.”

“Maybe you could decorate a room in his
honour
,” Marjorie said.
 
“We haven’t used every room in the castle,
by any means.
 
Perhaps MNH could
find a small space that you could decorate in Mr. Hart’s style.”

Carolyn looked as if she wanted to argue,
but after a moment she simply sighed dramatically.
 
“If that’s the best I can get, I suppose
that will have to do,” she said with an injured sniff.
 
“I have all of the decorations that
Christo purchased last evening.
 
I’ll have my staff get to work right away.”

Mark and Marjorie had a quick conversation
before Mark led them all down one of the corridors.
 
“We didn’t want to try to do too much,
as this is our first year,” he explained.
 
“So we have an entire wing of rooms that we aren’t using.
 
This is the largest of the unused
spaces.
 
You’re welcome to decorate
it in
honour
of Mr. Hart.”

Carolyn looked around the large and empty
room.
 
“It’s cold and dark,” she
said.
 
“But I suppose, if it’s all I
can have...” she trailed off and looked at Mark expectantly.

“There are smaller rooms on either side if
you’d like one of those instead,” Mark told her.

“This will do,” she said sourly.
 
She pulled out her mobile and within
minutes she was shouting orders into it.
 
Bessie felt sorry for the woman’s employees, now tasked with bringing
several boxes of decorations to the castle, where they would be expected to
decorate the large drafty space Carolyn had been given.
 

“What should we expect?” Mark asked when
Carolyn finally disconnected her call.
 
“What theme was he planning to use?”

“I’m not sure exactly what he was planning,”
she replied.
 
“I suppose you could
call it ‘Deadly Christmas,’ but that seems, well, inappropriate, especially
under the circumstances.”

Mark nodded.
 
“We’ll decide what to call it after
you’re done decorating,” he said.
 
“Now, the rest of the committee probably needs to get back to our room.
 
Mary, how about if you and Natasha start
working with the volunteers to see what you can do?”

It was nearly five o’clock when Bessie stood
back from a tree and smiled.
 
“I
think we’re about done,” she said happily.
 
She looked around the room at all of the bright and cheery trees and
smiled more deeply.
 
The finished
room was every bit as beautiful as she’d hoped it would be.
 

“I’m so going home to soak in a bath,”
Marjorie said, climbing down from a ladder.
 
“I’ve been reaching over my head all
afternoon.
 
My arms and my back are
really stiff.”

“But the garland looks wonderful,” Bessie
said.
 
A long garland of pine
branches, with fairly lights woven through it, now stretched all around the
room.
 
Marjorie had spent all day
measuring and hanging it so it was perfect.
 

“It wasn’t easy on these old stone walls,”
Marjorie admitted.
 
“But I think it
was worth the effort.”

“I had it easy,” Mark said.
 
“I was just doing trees.”

“Wow,” a voice from the doorway said.
 
“You’ve been working really hard in
here.”

Bessie turned and nodded at Mary and Natasha,
who were standing the doorway.
 
“We
have, but we think we’re done.”

“And I wouldn’t change a thing,” Natasha
told her.

“But come and see what she’s done
elsewhere,” Mary urged them.
 
“I
think she’s amazing.”

They all followed Mary back down to the
courtyard where Natasha had had a few ornaments rearranged.
 
For some reason, those few changes made
the space feel brighter and Bessie was immediately impressed with the woman.

An hour later, she was wishing she had the
money in her own budget to have Natasha redesign her entire cottage.
 
None of the changes the designer had
made were huge, but they’d all made a significant difference to the feel of
each room.

“I can’t believe how different it all feels,
even though nothing much has changed,” Bessie said as they ended the tour in
the banquet room.

“I love what she’s done in our room,” Liz
told Bessie.
 
“I never thought that
moving the giant teddy to the opposite wall would make any difference at all,
but it seems to make the space feel warmer and more enclosed, like a real toy
box should.”

It seemed that everyone, even Michael Beach,
was happy with Natasha’s input.
 

“Let me buy you dinner,” he suggested to the
young blonde as the group made their way out of the castle a short time later.
 
“We can go anywhere you’d like.”

“I wish I could,” she replied.
 
“But I’ve been here playing with
Christmas decorations all day.
 
I
have to get back to my plans for
Thie
yn
Traie
.
 
I’m on a tight deadline there.”

Bessie expected Mary to insist that the
woman take the evening off, but Mary didn’t say a word.
 
In the car park, everyone went their
separate ways, with Bessie dropping onto the bench to wait for Mark to finish
locking doors in the castle.
 
She
was surprised when Michael sat down beside her.