Aunt Bessie Joins (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 10) (17 page)

“I’m happy with whatever works for you,”
Bessie assured him.

As everyone else seemed to have disappeared,
Bessie took herself off to a small café she liked that was only a short
distance away.
 
She’d been something
of a regular for lunch during the last month while she’d been working at the
castle, and she couldn’t help but think that she’d miss their warming comfort
food after the next week when she would be back to rarely visiting the south of
the island.

She ate cottage pie with jam
roly
poly
for pudding and drank several cups of tea.
 
Having lived alone for all of her adult life, she was quite content to
eat on her own, but it hardly felt like she was alone, as all of the different
waitresses who’d looked after her during the month made a point of stopping to
chat.
 
She returned to the castle
feeling content and surprisingly well rested, all things considered.

For half an hour, she went from room to
room, chatting with everyone and helping tidy up odd sweets wrappers and the
like.
 
Margaret’s room was in the
worst shape and Bessie spent several minutes hunting down pens and pencils that
seemed to have wandered all over the room, under Christmas trees and behind
decorations.
 
With Mary’s help, they
managed to get everything tidied up with a fresh pile of blank letters to Santa
and cards ready to go.

“There should be fewer children here tonight
than there were this afternoon,” Bessie remarked.
 

“I certainly hope so,” Margaret said with a
rueful laugh.
 
“It was exhausting
trying to keep up with them all this afternoon.”

Bessie made a mental note to try to spend
more time with Margaret when the castle was open, especially during afternoon
hours.
 
It sounded very much like a
second pair of hands would be welcome.

The other rooms needed little more than a
bit of straightening and Mark and Marjorie had already helped the others get
that done by the time Bessie arrived in them.
 
They all ended up in Michael’s room with
only a few minutes left to spare.

“It doesn’t look too bad,” Mark said as he
looked around.

“No, I expect the children were getting
tired by the time they got to here,” Bessie said with a laugh.

“I did the MNH room first, and it needed
even less work,” Marjorie told her.
 
“As it’s the very last stop in the castle, I think there might be something
to your theory.”

“Sorry I wasn’t here this morning,” Natasha
said as she walked into the room.

“You don’t have to be here now,” Mary told
her.

“I know,” Natasha said with a laugh.
 
“But I really missed being a part of
it.
 
I know that’s weird, but it’s
such a wonderful thing you’re all doing here.
 
I hope I’m not in the way.”

“Not at all,” Mark said.
 
“We can use all the help we can
get.
 
Now, I need ideas.
 
With Michael not here, I stationed one
of the MNH staff in here this afternoon, but the poor man didn’t know anything
about the Alzheimer’s Research Fund and apparently he got a lot of questions.”

“I’m happy to hear that people were asking
questions about the charities,” Bessie said.

“I was, too,” Mark agreed.
 
“I don’t suppose any of you know enough
about Michael’s work to be able to cover for him tonight?”

Everyone exchanged glances.
 
After an awkward silence, Bessie finally
spoke up.

“I don’t know a lot, but I’ll stay in here
and do my best,” she offered.

“Thank you, Bessie,” Mark said.
 
Bessie could hear how tired he was in
his voice.

“I hope you have a nice long holiday booked
for the
new year
,” she said to him as everyone else
scattered back to their rooms or to the courtyard to greet guests.

“I do, actually,” Mark said.
 
“But if they don’t get Mr. Hart’s murder
solved I might not be allowed to go.”

“I’m sure Pete will have it all sorted by
then,” Bessie said confidently.

“Let’s hope so,” Mark muttered as he headed
out.

The two hours that Bessie spent in Michael’s
room felt long and tedious.
 
She
smiled and chatted with all of the visitors and told them everything she could
remember about the Alzheimer’s Research Fund.
 
She did her best, but she couldn’t help
but feel like someone else could have done a much better job.
 

It was nearly nine when Mark came in.
 
“Inspector
Corkill
wants to see all of us in the banquet room once the last of the guests have
left,” he told Bessie.

“That sounds ominous,” Bessie said.

Mark shrugged.
 
“He wouldn’t say anything more than
that,” he replied.

Time seemed to slow down even further now as
Bessie wondered what the inspector wanted.
 
The possibilities raced each other around Bessie’s mind as she
absentmindedly greeted the last few guests who straggled through.
 
A few minutes after what she’d hoped were
the last of the guests, Bessie heard voices in the corridor.

“Come on,” Mary called to her from the
doorway.
 
“Henry is chasing everyone
out and Mark wants us all in the banquet room.”

Bessie followed the others who were all
chatting amongst themselves.

“You’re very quiet,” Mary said as they
reached their destination.

“It was a long day,” Bessie replied.

“I’ll come and help you tomorrow, if you get
stuck in Michael’s room again.
 
I’ll
bring Natasha and we’ll have fun,” Mary offered.
 
“Really, Carolyn should have done it
anyway; she’s on the board.”

“I forgot about that,” Bessie
exclaimed.
 
“She really should
have.”

In the
centre
of
the room, Pete cleared his throat.
 
“I have a few things I want to discuss with you all,” he said.
 
“I know it’s late and you’re all tired,
but I need to ask each of you a few questions, one at a time.
 
I’d like to start with Bessie
Cubbon
, please.”

“What’s going on?” Agnes demanded.

“I want to go home,” Carolyn snapped.
 
“You can question us in the morning.”

“I’ll try not to keep you here for too
long,” Pete said.
 
“But I really
must talk to you all before you leave.”

“Something has happened to Michael,” someone
guessed.

Pete held up a hand.
 
“I’d like to speak to each of you in
turn,” he repeated.
 
“Miss
Cubbon
?”

Bessie stood up and followed him out of the
room.
 
He stopped at the door to the
room they’d used for lunch and gave Bessie a grim smile.
 
“I didn’t mention that we have company,”
he said as he pushed the door open.

Bessie frowned as she walked into the room
and spotted the man behind the table.
 
John Rockwell got to his feet and frowned back her.

Chapter Nine

“Your being here can’t be good,” Bessie said
as she crossed the room.

“No, it isn’t,”
John
replied.
 
He stepped around the
table and gave Bessie a quick hug.
 

“You shouldn’t hug suspects,” Pete said from
the doorway.

“And I’ll deny I did it if Bessie ends up
being the murderer,” John said with a tight smile.

Bessie forced a smile onto her own lips and
then, at John’s invitation, sat down opposite him.

“What’s happened?” she asked.

“Two things,” Pete said as he joined them at
the table.
 
“First of all, we’ve
made a tentative identification of some of the fingerprints that were found on
the inside of one of the smashed ornaments.”

“And they were Michael’s,” Bessie guessed.

“Why do you think that?” Pete asked.

“Because he has a temper, because it seems
like something he might have done after a few too many drinks, and because you
haven’t arrested anyone else,” Bessie replied.

John and Pete both smiled.
 
“She’s very good,” John said to Pete.

“I know,” Pete replied.

“We aren’t going to be telling the others
about that,” John told her.
 
“For
now we’re officially leaving the vandalism as unsolved.”

“What happened to Michael?” Bessie asked.

“A body was found in
Lonan
this morning in a house that was empty and on the market.
 
A
neighbour
saw lights on in the property late last night and rang the office, but when a
constable went to check, the property was dark and everything looked
secure.
 
He wrote up a report and
the information was passed on to the real estate company handling the
sale.
 
They sent someone around to
check everything this afternoon and found the body.”

“And it’s Michael,” Bessie said sadly.

“We haven’t had a formal identification
yet,” John said.
 
“But Pete’s
provided a preliminary one.”

Bessie nodded.
 
“Another murder connected to ‘Christmas
at the Castle,’” she said sadly.

“No one has said anything about murder,”
John told her.

Bessie looked up at him in surprise.
 
“He killed himself?” she asked, feeling
confused.

The two policemen exchanged glances.
 
“It will be some days before we have a
proper cause of death determined,” Pete said.

“But it could have been suicide?” Bessie
asked.
 
“Or an accident?”

“It could have been one of those,” John
agreed.
 
“It’s definitely not as
clear-cut as Mr. Hart’s death was, at least.”

“Can you think of any reason why he might
have killed himself?” Pete asked Bessie.

She took a deep breath and then sat back,
feeling shocked.
 
“He wasn’t happy
on the island,” she said eventually.
 
“But he was exploring other job opportunities, not talking about killing
himself.”

“His altercation with Christopher Hart was
public knowledge,” Pete pointed out.
 
“That might have limited his job options.”

“Even so, Carolyn was standing behind him, at
least for the moment.
 
His job here
was safe.”

“But he didn’t want to be here,” John
reminded her.

“No, but suicide is quite a long way away
from being somewhat dissatisfied with your current job,” Bessie replied.

“What if he’d killed Mr. Hart?” Pete asked.
 
“Was he the sort who might have let
guilt eat away at him until he took his own life?”

“I barely knew the man,” Bessie said.
 
“But I would have said no; at least
before yesterday I would have.”

“What happened yesterday?” John asked.

“He was behaving strangely yesterday,” Bessie
told him.
 
“He drank a lot, and I’d
never seen him have more than a single glass of wine before.
 
Of course, I’d only seen him at one or
two social gatherings early in the planning stages for our event.
 
Maybe he was out drinking every other
night and I never knew about it.”

“And he disappeared for a while,” Pete said thoughtfully.

“It wasn’t like him to miss the press
conference,” Bessie said.
 
“He was
very ambitious, and a lot of his success at work was dependent on his raising
both money and awareness.
 
I was
shocked that he’d miss an opportunity to gain publicity for the charity.”

“Who knew him best?” John asked.

“I don’t know anything about his private
life,” Bessie said.
 
“Carolyn was on
the board at the charity he worked for, but I don’t know how well they knew one
another.
 
Harriet said something
about having worked with him previously, I think.”
 
Bessie shook her head.
 
“I’m feeling all muddled up,” she
said.
 
“It’s such a shock.”

“He went for a walk with Natasha yesterday
afternoon,” Pete said.
 
“Do you
think they were some sort of a couple?”

“I thought at the time that Natasha was
being nice and getting a rather drunk man out of our hair while we finished
decorating,” Bessie recalled.
 
“But
after everything that happened last night, I’m not sure what they were doing.”

Pete and John took Bessie back through the
entire previous day before having her walk them through her Saturday.
 
When she was finished, John sat back
with a sigh.

“I have a number of questions for you, but I
think I’d rather talk to the others before I ask them,” he said.
 

“No doubt Carolyn
Teare
is kicking up a major fuss,” Pete added.
 
“We’d better get her sent home before her advocate arrives and we have
to deal with him, too.”

“Bessie, would you mind waiting until I’ve
spoken to everyone else so we can talk again?” John asked.
 
“I can give you a ride home, if that
makes it any more tempting.”

Bessie chuckled.
 
“You don’t have to tempt me,” she told
him.
 
“I’ll do whatever you think
will be most helpful.”

“Why can’t all witnesses be like Bessie?”
Pete muttered as he ushered Bessie out of the room.

“Please don’t talk to anyone,” he told
Bessie loudly as he walked her back into the banquet room.
 

Bessie shrugged and crossed to a chair in an
empty corner of the space.

“I demand to be allowed to leave,” Carolyn
said angrily.
 
“I’ve been saying
that for over half an hour and these men wouldn’t let me go.”

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience,” Pete said
without conviction.
 
“Come on back
and I’ll get your statement and then you’ll be free to go.”

“Why isn’t Bessie free to go?” Carolyn
demanded as she stood up.
 
“Don’t
tell me you suspect Bessie of anything criminal.”

“No comment,” Pete replied.
 
He gave Bessie an amused grin before he
led Carolyn down the corridor.
 

As soon as they were gone, several people
started to speak.
 
Mark held up a
hand.

“We all heard the inspector tell you not to
talk to anyone,” he said, glancing around the room.
 
“But I do hope you’re okay.”

“I’m fine,” Bessie assured him.
 
“But I can’t say anything more.”

Mark nodded and the room fell into an
awkward silence.
 
To Bessie, time
seemed to stand still.
 
When she
checked her watch, she worked out that she’d spent about half an hour with the
two inspectors.
 
She was surprised
to see Pete back only twenty minutes after he’d left with Carolyn.

“Mark, I’d like to talk to you next,” he
said.

Mark got up and followed him out of the
room, leaving everyone to shift in their seats and wonder what had happened to
Carolyn.

Mark was back only fifteen minutes
later.
 
“Just to set your minds at
rest,” he said in the doorway, “Carolyn has been sent home.
 
Once you’ve had your turn with the
inspector, you’ll be allowed to leave as well.
 
I need to wait and lock up, but if
anyone has a particular reason for being questioned sooner rather than later,
let me know.”

A few people muttered under their breath,
but no one spoke.
 
After a minute,
Mark continued.

“Liz, I know you have small children to get
home to.
 
Why don’t you go next?”

“Thanks,” Liz replied, getting slowly to her
feet.

Bessie hated how exhausted the poor girl
looked.
 
It had been a very long day
for a pregnant woman.
 
This time it
was only ten minutes before Pete reappeared.
 

“If I could have Agnes next, please,” he said.

Bessie amused herself with trying to guess whom
the two inspectors would send for next.
 
She decided that they were working through the charity volunteers, and
was strangely pleased when, less than ten minutes later, Pete asked Margaret to
come through.
 
After Harriet, the
questioning seemed to go even more quickly as Henry, Laura and the three young
MNH staff members were questioned in very short order.
 
When Marjorie went back with Pete, Mary
exchanged glances with Natasha.

“It looks like they’re leaving us for last,”
she said.
 
“I hope that doesn’t mean
they think we did something wrong.”

Natasha yawned.
 
“I’m going to fall asleep in this
incredibly uncomfortable chair in a few minutes,” she replied.
 
“I don’t even like the hotel bed, but
it’s definitely calling to me at the moment.”

When Pete came back in a short time later,
he looked exhausted.
 
“Thank you
both for your patience,” he said to Mary and Natasha.
 
“Mrs. Quayle, your husband insisted that
we wait to question you until your advocate could be with you.
 
He’s arrived now, so if you’d like to
come with me, please.”

“Oh, goodness, George is such an idiot
sometimes,” Mary said affectionately.
 
She left the room with Pete.
 
They were both back about twenty minutes later.

“I’ll just wait here for you, dear,” Mary
told Natasha.
 
“Then I can give you
a ride back into Douglas.”

“Thank you,” the girl told her.
 
“I hope I won’t be long.
 
Do you think I need to borrow your
advocate?”

“Oh, he was nothing but an inconvenience,”
Mary told her.
 
“I sent him home
after the third question.”

Bessie laughed and Mary turned and winked at
her.

“You run along and see if you can help the
police work things out,” Mary told Natasha.
 
“You can bring fresh prospective.
 
We all know each other too well, I
think.”

Natasha nodded and then followed Pete down
the corridor.
 
Mary took a seat next
to Bessie and patted her hand.

“I know you aren’t allowed to talk about
anything, so let me bore you with tales of my grandchildren, please.
 
I think I’ll go mad if I have to sit
here in silence again.”

Bessie smiled.
 
“I’d love to hear about your
grandchildren,” she told Mary.

When Natasha walked back into the room half
an hour later, Bessie was laughing over the antics of the newest addition to
the Quayle family.
 

“He’s too smart for his own good, that
child,” Mary said.
 
“But I love them
all so very much.”

“We can go now,” Natasha told Mary.
 
“I do hope you aren’t expecting me to
help out again tomorrow,” she added, looking from Mary to Mark and back again.

“I said you weren’t expected today,” Mary
reminded her.
 
“Of course you may
take tomorrow off and just rest.
 
Take Monday as well and then you can start back on
Thie
ny
Traie
and forget all about Castle
Rushen
.”

“I’m not sure I’ll manage two days off,”
Natasha replied.
 
“But I will take
tomorrow to rest, at least.”

“We’re meant to be open from one to five
tomorrow,” Mark said.
 
“I’m hoping
the police aren’t going to make us close.”