Aunt Bessie Joins (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 10) (26 page)

“Chocolate is good for the soul,” Bessie
told her firmly.

Laura took a bite.
 
After she swallowed, she smiled at
Bessie.
 
“It’s so good,” she
said.
 
“And just what I needed.”

Bessie nodded.
 
“If you ever want to talk about
whatever’s upsetting you, I’m happy to listen, but only if you need a
sympathetic ear.”

Laura flushed and then bent her head over
her plate.
 
Bessie ate her own cake
slowly, watching the other diners and leaving Laura alone with her
thoughts.
 
As the waiter cleared the
plates, Bessie ordered coffee for them both.

“I don’t have to rush away anywhere,” she
explained to Laura.
 
“If you have
somewhere else you need to be, though, don’t feel that you need to stay.”

“No, I’m fine for a bit longer,”
Laura
said.
 
“Coffee sounds perfect to wash down that rich cake.”

“Are you spending Christmas with Henry?”
Bessie asked.

“Yes, and all of his family,” Laura told
her.
 
“He has an astonishing number
of nieces and nephews, at least that’s how it seems to me.
 
I was an only child.”

“Henry comes from a large family,” Bessie
recalled.
 
“I hope they don’t
overwhelm you.”

Laura nodded.
 
“I’ve warned Henry that I’m used to very
quiet Christmas celebrations.
 
I’ve
told him I might have to leave early if it all gets to be too much.”

“They’re all wonderful people,” Bessie told
her.
 
“I’m sure they’ll try to make
you feel welcome, which might actually be worse than if they ignored you.”

Laura laughed.
 
“You could be right about that,” she
said.
 
“The thing is, well, you see,
my ex-husband, he didn’t like crowds or family so we always spent Christmas
just the two of us.”

“Sometimes that’s nice, too,” Bessie
said.
 
“Just some quiet time
together.”

“But it wasn’t nice,” Laura blurted
out.
 
“He was, he, that is, he
wasn’t a very nice man.”

Bessie patted Laura’s hand.
 
“I’m sorry,” she murmured.

Laura blinked hard several times.
 
“When Mr. Hart started yelling and
screaming it just reminded me so much of him,” she said softly.
 
“It took me ten years to finally walk
away from being treated so badly and then I only managed it because he hit me
so hard that I ended up in hospital.
 
After they patched me up, they made me talk to someone about what was
happening at home and I finally
realised
that I
needed to leave.”

“Good for you,” Bessie said.

“It wasn’t easy, but the divorce was final a
few months ago.”

“And you decided that you needed a change,”
Bessie said.

“I did,” Laura agreed.
 
“He’d moved a few miles away from the
flat we’d shared, but I used to run into him once in a while, and everywhere I
went I saw people who knew us as a couple.
 
It was really difficult.
 
Many of them thought I was making things up.
 
He was the perfect gentleman in public,
you see.”

“Well, I’m glad you got away and I’m glad
you ended up here,” Bessie told her.
 
“The island is lucky to have you.”

Laura flushed.
 
“Thank you,” she said.
 
“I hope you’re right.”

While they sipped their coffee, they talked
more about Christmas and other neutral topics.
 

“I suppose I must get home and do something
useful like laundry,” Laura said eventually, after glancing at her watch.
 

“Yes, I have lots of little chores to get
through today, as tomorrow is going to be busy and the next day is Christmas,”
Bessie replied.
 
“But I’ve
thoroughly enjoyed our lunch and I’d like to do it again sometime soon.”

“I’d really like that,” Laura told her.
 
“You’re the only person I’ve talked with
about my ex-husband, well, aside from Natasha.”

“Natasha?” Bessie said in surprise.

Laura flushed.
 
“We had a chat one day at Castle
Rushen
,” she said.
 
“I was upset about everything that was happening and Natasha found me
crying in one of the back rooms.
 
She was so sympathetic that I ended up telling her all about my ex.”

“It’s good that you had someone you could
talk to.”

“Yes, and she really understood as well,”
Laura told her.
 
“She and Michael
had just had a fight and, well, she told me that he’d swung at her.”

“She must have been very upset,” Bessie
said.

“Yes, she was,”
Laura
agreed.
 
“It was that day when she’d
gone for a walk with him, before he disappeared for the afternoon.”

“Can you remember what she said happened?”
Bessie asked.

“I probably shouldn’t be repeating it,”
Laura replied anxiously.

“I’m just surprised, that’s all.
 
Michael seemed like a nice man.”

“But he punched Mr. Hart.
 
He had a bad temper.
 
Natasha said that he tried to kiss her
and she told him to stop and that’s when, well, he lost his temper.
 
Luckily he missed when he swung at her.”

Bessie nodded.
 
“I hope she’s told the police about the
incident,” she said.

Laura shrugged.
 
“I’m not sure why she would.
 
It isn’t like she’s going to press
charges against Michael now.”

“No, but the more they know about the man,
the more quickly they can work out exactly what happened to him,” Bessie
explained.
 
“It sounds as if his
temper was getting the best of him just before he died.”

“I think he killed Mr. Hart,” Laura confided
in Bessie.
 
“He was really angry
when he punched him, and then after Mr. Hart was killed, Michael started
drinking all the time.
 
I think he
was trying to forget about the murder.
 
It wouldn’t surprise me if he committed suicide in remorse.”

“It’s all very sad,” Bessie said
neutrally.
 
“I just hope the police
can work it all out soon.”

“I know I’ll sleep better once they’ve
closed the case,” Laura said emphatically.
 
“Even though I’m not still working at the castle, I still find the whole
matter very upsetting.”

“I’d better get home and finish up my
pre-Christmas chores,” Bessie said reluctantly.
 
“I’ll ring you in the
new
year
and we’ll do this again.”

“Next time is my treat,” Laura replied.

“Oh, and Happy Christmas,” Bessie said,
handing the woman the small wrapped box from her handbag.
 
“I have something for Henry as well, but
I’ll give it to him at the castle tomorrow night.”

“Oh, you shouldn’t have,”
Laura
exclaimed.
 
“I didn’t get you
anything, and you bought lunch as well.”

“It’s only a little something,” Bessie told
her.
 
“I bought the same little
thing for everyone who worked on ‘Christmas at the Castle.’
 
I just hope it won’t bring up bad
memories when you see what it is.”

“I’m sure I’ll love it.
 
Thank you so very much.”

Bessie gave the woman a small hug and then
they both headed out of the restaurant.
 
Outside a cold wind was blowing and Bessie quickly buttoned her coat
while she walked to the nearest taxi rank.
 
Laura walked that far with her.

“Thank you again,” she told Bessie.

“You’re welcome.
 
I’m so glad everything has worked out
for you and that life brought you to the island.”

“I am, as well.”

With that, Laura continued on her way.
 
Bessie was about to climb into a taxi
when she remembered that she was meant to try to speak to Carolyn.
 
With a sigh, she turned and headed for
the nearest boutique.
 
Half an hour
later, she’d visited nearly all of Carolyn
favourite
shops without any luck.
 
As she
pushed open the door to the last possibility, she heard a familiar voice.

“I’d like it better in green,” Carolyn was
saying to a harassed-looking shop assistant.
 
“Or maybe blue would be better.”
 

Carolyn turned slowly in front of the large
mirror.
 
She was wearing a red
sequined dress that tightly hugged her slender figure.
 
“No, the red is just all wrong.”

“It’s very festive,” Bessie commented.

“Ah, Bessie
Cubbon
,
how delightful to see you,” Carolyn said.
 
“But what brings you here?
 
I
can’t imagine this is your sort of shop.”

Bessie glanced around at the designer
dresses and shoes that were elegantly displayed around her.
 
“No, it really isn’t,” she agreed.
 
“But I was walking past and I saw you
and thought I’d stop and see how you are.”

She hadn’t seen Carolyn from outside the
shop, but she hadn’t tried looking in the window either.
 
It didn’t really matter, as Carolyn
didn’t question her words.
 
“I’m
fine, I suppose,” Carolyn replied.
 
“Just trying to find something suitable for tomorrow night.”

“I’m really looking forward to tomorrow,”
Bessie told her.
 
“And, dare I say
it, I’m really looking forward to ‘Christmas at the Castle’ being over.”

“Yes, I know what you mean,” Carolyn
replied.
 
“It’s been such hard work,
and so upsetting at times.
 
Losing
dear Christo was so difficult.”

“I know you two were good friends,” Bessie
said, hoping her emphasis on the word friend would spark a reaction.

“We were twin souls,” Carolyn said, taking a
tissue from the counter behind her and touching it to her eyes.
 
“We understood each other
perfectly.
 
If I’d been a few years
younger, we might have been lovers as well, but it’s better that we weren’t, I
suppose.
 
Taking our relationship
further might have spoiled things between us.”

“It’s a shame you had that falling out just
before he died,” Bessie said, feeling mean as she did so.

“We didn’t have a falling out,” Carolyn
snapped.
 
“Richard and Christo had a
disagreement, that’s all.
 
I had to
pretend to take Richard’s side, of course, but Christo knew I didn’t mean it.”

“The vandalism of the room you were
decorating in his
honour
must have been a huge
shock,” Bessie suggested.

The shop assistant had been hovering around
Carolyn with a bored look on her face, but now she looked interested.
 
Carolyn noticed and waved her away.
 
“I’m talking to my friend,” she
said.
 
“Go and see if you have
anything else that might suit me while I do that.”
 
She turned back to Bessie.
 
“The vandalism was heartbreaking,” she
said.
 
“And it’s even worse thinking
that Michael might have been responsible for it.”

“You and Michael were friends, too,” Bessie
commented in her most innocent tone.

Carolyn frowned.
 
“We were friends,” she agreed.
 
“I’m on the board of the charity where
he works, so we knew each other before ‘Christmas at the Castle.’
 
I was on the committee that hired him,
actually.
 
Then, working at Castle
Rushen
together naturally brought us even closer.”

“Did you think he had a violent temper?”
Bessie asked.

“Because he punched Christo?” Carolyn
laughed.
 
“Christo was being
difficult,” she explained.
 
“And,
dare I say it, I do think that Michael was just the teeniest bit jealous of my
friendship with the man.
 
Michael
seemed to think that he and I could, well, be more than friends, if he played
his cards right.”

“I see,” Bessie said.

“Of course I’d never cheat on Richard like
that,” Carolyn added.
 
“But it is
such fun to flirt, just a little bit.
 
I didn’t mean to give Michael the wrong idea.”
 
She glanced around the tiny store and
then leaned in close to Bessie.