The Patrone Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novella Book 16)

by Diana Xarissa

Janet added water to the vase of flowers on the bedside table and then went into the other guest room to check that the flowers there were still fresh. After adding water to them, she headed down the stairs. With the vacuum running, it was probably best if she were somewhere she could hear if anyone knocked. Robert hadn’t said exactly when he was going to visit, and she’d hate to miss him.

  When someone knocked a short while later, though, it wasn’t Robert at the door.

  “Ah, good morning,” the tall and very slender man said. “I hope we aren’t too early. I’m Oscar Gorham. My wife, Jenny, and I are here for a two-night stay.”

  “Welcome to Doveby House,” Janet told him. “Please, come in.”

  “I’ll just get Jenny,” he replied. He turned and hurried back down the steps to the car park.

  Janet dashed up the stairs to warn Joan, rushing back so that she was at the door when the man returned, escorting a petite brunette who appeared to be ten months pregnant.

  She looked at Janet and laughed. “I know. I look as if I’m going to burst, don’t I? Believe it or not, I have another month to go, or so the doctors tell me. I’ve not even gained all that much weight. This is all baby.” She patted her stomach affectionately.

  “Congratulations,” Janet told her.

  “Oh, thank you,” the woman replied. “I’m at the point now where I just want to get this all over with, but it’s still very exciting. I think we’re ready to meet Baby Gorham, though, aren’t we?” she asked her husband.

  “Yes, of course,” he replied.

  Janet thought he looked less certain about that than his wife did. Of course, at the moment he wasn’t having to do much of anything towards looking after the baby. All of that would change once the baby arrived, but for now it was only Jenny who was having to deal with the impending new arrival.

  “I hope you’re okay to climb stairs,” Joan said once everyone had been introduced.

  “Oh, I’m fine. I’m supposed to be getting exercise,” Jenny told her. “Oscar and I both thought a little trip away before the baby arrives would be good for us, but I didn’t anticipate being quite this unwieldy by this stage. We’re meant to be visiting an art exhibit in Derby, but we may just explore what Doveby Dale has to offer instead.”

  “We have all sorts of information about many different things to see in the area,” Janet told her.

  The woman nodded. “Right now, I just want to have a lie-down, if that’s okay. The drive here took more out of me than I was expecting, and I got carsick, too, which has never happened before.”

  Joan showed the pair to the Montgomery Room, which was the larger of the two guest rooms. She’d only just rejoined Janet in the sitting room when Oscar appeared in the doorway.

  “Is everything okay?” Joan asked.

  “I’ve left Jenny to have a nap,” he explained. “I thought maybe I’d go and do some exploring on my own while she sleeping. Maybe I’ll be able to find a few places to take her later, when she wakes up and is feeling better.”

  Janet spent a few minutes telling Oscar about nearby sights and then circled a few on a map for him. He thanked her before he headed out the door.

  “Let’s hope Jenny doesn’t suddenly go into labour,” Janet muttered as the door shut behind him.

  “She said she has a month to go.”

  “She doesn’t look as if she has a month to go.”

  “He wouldn’t have left her if he thought she was going to have the baby today.”

  “I hope you’re right. I think he seems the type to leave precisely because he thinks the baby might come today.”

  Joan shook her head. “I’m sure he’s incredibly nervous about the baby, but he wouldn’t have abandoned his wife here. I’m sure of it.”

  Whatever Janet was going to say in reply was cut off by a knock on the door. She opened it to Robert.

  “Come in,” she invited him. “I think it’s just about time to put the kettle on.”

  The trio settled in the kitchen. Joan piled biscuits onto a plate while Janet made tea.

  “I hope there wasn’t too much damage to Owen’s shop,” Janet said as she sat down opposite the police constable.

  “It wasn’t too bad. He’d recently changed the display, and before he left for the night he covered everything in plastic sheets. Once we were done with our photos, he was able to simply roll up the sheets. Nearly all of the broken glass was contained.”

  “That was smart of him,” Joan remarked.

  “He’d only started doing it yesterday, after the broken window at the antique shop,” Robert explained. “He told me that he hoped he was being overly careful.”

  “But he wasn’t,” Janet sighed.

  “If I didn’t know Owen as well as I do, I might have found his behaviour suspicious,” Robert said. “As it is, I was surprised that he wasn’t already covering his window displays at night. He’s usually a very meticulous person and I was surprised the idea of a broken window had never occurred to him.”

  “I’m sure there were never any broken windows there when Michael had the shop,” Joan said.

  Robert nodded. “You’re right, of course. Vandalism has never really been an issue in Doveby Dale. We’ve had odd incidents, of course, but nearly all of them were attributable to young men and women from other areas simply causing a bit of trouble. Mostly, in the past, we’ve only had to deal with graffiti. That’s less of a concern than broken windows.”

  “Was it a brick again?” Janet asked.

  “Yes. We believe the second brick came from the same pile as the first. The owners of the coffee shop are going to move the bricks indoors today. Hopefully, that will help, although whoever is behind the attacks could have taken several extra bricks from the pile. As no one knows where the bricks came from, no one seems quite sure how many there were when they were first delivered.”

  “I can’t believe no one knows where they came from,” Janet said.

  “It’s possible that Mr. Kingston, the former owner of the café, ordered them for some reason before he, um, before he left Doveby Dale,” Robert said.

  Janet nodded. The man had left the village in back of a police car and no one in the village had been sorry to see the disagreeable man go.

  “He’s been asked, and he denies any knowledge of them, but I’m not sure he can be trusted,” Robert added.

  “Why would he lie?” Joan wondered.

  “I suppose it rather depends on where the bricks came from,” Robert told her. “If he arranged with someone to buy bricks that had, say, fallen off the back of a lorry, then he might not want to admit to that now.”

  “If you’ve asked the coffee shop owners to get rid of the bricks, does that mean you expect the vandal to strike again?” Janet asked.

  “Unfortunately, it’s a possibility. When it was just the antique shop that had had an issue, I thought maybe someone had a problem with William Chalmers, but now it seems more likely that someone is simply determined to cause trouble. They may be targeting that parade of shops or they may be simply hitting random targets.”

  “You don’t think we’ll be a target, do you?” Joan asked worriedly.

  “As I told Janet, I’m warning all local businesses, but it seems more likely that they’ll target other businesses in the centre of Doveby Dale rather than venturing out here,” Robert told her. “For one thing, Doveby House is occupied. Thus far they’ve confined themselves to damaging shops that are shut and empty for the night.”

  “The cameras didn’t pick up anything?” Janet asked.

  “Not a thing. We believe whoever it was either walked from home or parked on a nearby street. They didn’t use the car park for the shops, anyway.”

  “What happens next?”

  “Derby police are going to be helping me step up patrols around the shops,” Robert replied. “We’re hoping a heavier police presence after hours will discourage whoever was behind the attacks. In the meantime, we’re doing what we can with what little evidence we have.�
��

  “Does that mean you don’t have any suspects?” Janet wondered.

  “We’re still looking at the three people who were interviewed on Thursday at the antique shop. We’re also talking to the other dozen or so men and women who replied to William’s advertisement but were not interviewed.”

  “I suppose those people might have a reason to be angry with William, but I can’t see what Owen did to upset anyone,” Janet remarked.

  “These sorts of random acts often don’t have proper motives behind them,” Robert told her. “Someone from the area might simply have been bored the other night. If that someone went out for a walk and spotted the pile of bricks, perhaps he or she just thought it might be interesting or clever to try throwing it through a window. I understand such experiences can be exhilarating. Perhaps having done it once, whoever it was couldn’t resist the temptation to do it again.”

  “Let’s hope twice was enough for them,” Joan said.

  “Obviously, I hope that as well, although it may be easier to catch the culprit if he or she tries it again. Sooner or later the cameras will catch something or one of our patrols will be in the right place at the right time. The vandal has been lucky so far, really,” Robert replied.

  “I can’t understand why any of the three job candidates would want to cause trouble,” Joan remarked.

  “They’re only on my list because they were all in the area on Thursday just before the first attack. I’ve no reason to suspect them more than anyone else,” Robert said.

  “They were all there yesterday, too,” Janet interjected.

  “Where yesterday?” Robert asked.

  “I saw all three of them at the shops in Doveby Dale yesterday,” Janet explained. She told Robert about her visit to the shops.

  “Interesting,” was his verdict when she was finished. “I may have to pay all three of them another visit.”

  By the time Janet had walked the man to the door, it was time for lunch. Joan made sandwiches for both of them.

  “I’m going to make cottage pie tonight,” she told Janet. “I believe we’re overdue for a nice pudding as well.”

  “You know I’m not going to argue with that,” Janet laughed.

  “Apple crumble or Victoria sponge?”

  Janet laughed again. “You already know what I’m going to say.”

  “Apple crumble it is,” Joan told her.

  Janet smiled at the news. Apple crumble was her favourite pudding and Joan made the best apple crumble in the world.

  “I’m sorry, but do you know where Oscar has gone?” a low voice said from the kitchen doorway.

  Janet smiled at Jenny. “He went out to look around the area a little bit,” she told the woman. “He said he wanted to find places to take you later, once you’d had some rest.”

  Jenny nodded and then burst into tears. Janet jumped to her feet and led the woman to the table.

  “Are you okay?” she asked as she helped her into a chair.

  “I am, really,” Jenny replied. “I’m just very emotional at the moment. Being pregnant is hard work. I didn’t realise, that is, I never knew it was going to be like this. I wouldn’t be surprised if Oscar has left me, really. I’m not any fun any longer, and he deserves better.”

  “Nonsense,” Janet snapped. “It’s his baby, too, after all. You’re full of hormones and exhausted by the effort of growing a whole person. I’m sure he understands all of that.”

  Jenny shrugged. “If I’d known it was going to be like this, I’m not sure…” she trailed off and then sighed. “It doesn’t matter now, of course. The baby is here, well, not exactly here, but almost here. And I’m excited and thrilled about that. It’s just incredibly difficult, too. Oscar seems to be getting cold feet about the whole thing, and I simply don’t know what to do.”

  Get rid of Oscar, Janet thought. She bit her tongue. “He’ll probably be fine once the baby arrives. For the moment, the baby is more of a theory than a reality to him. You’re the one getting kicked and dealing with fluctuating hormones and everything else. He’ll probably be thrilled once the baby gets here and he starts to have a real role in his or her life.”

  Jenny nodded. “I hope you’re right. He’s been really odd lately. This last-minute trip was all his idea. He wanted us to have one last romantic weekend together, as a couple before the baby arrives, but it won’t be very romantic if he disappears, will it? Did he say when he’d be back?”

  Janet glanced at Joan and then shook her head. “He should be back soon, though,” she added quickly.

  Jenny sighed. “Or not.”

  Chapter 8

  Joan insisted that Jenny have some lunch while they all waited for Oscar to return. When he still wasn’t back after Jenny had eaten, Janet suggested a walk around the house’s large gardens.

  “This is lovely,” Jenny said as they strolled along one of the paths that wound its way through the gardens.

  “It’s much better in the summer months, of course,” Janet told her, “but it looks lovely all year long.”

  “It must take a lot of upkeep?” Jenny made the statement a question.

  “One of our neighbours takes care of the gardens for us. He was a professional gardener and he still enjoys the work.”

  “What’s this, then?” Jenny asked, stopping in front of the small carriage house.

  “It used to be a carriage house, but at some point the larger doors were replaced with just a simple door.”

  “It’s lovely. What’s inside?”

  “We just use it for storage. It was already full of boxes when we bought the house and we’re still taking our time going through them.”

  “How exciting. Your own little treasure hunt right in your back garden.”

  Janet laughed. “Except all we’ve found so far have been decades-old textbooks and piles and piles of paperwork. I don’t think twenty-five-year-old electricity bills count as treasure.”

  “I’d love to see inside,” Jenny told her shyly.

  “I can go and get the key,” Janet offered.

  “If you truly don’t mind, I’m really curious now.”

  Jenny sat on one of the many benches that were scattered around the garden while Janet went back into the house to get the key for the carriage house. She also grabbed a torch.

  “There’s no power inside?” Jenny asked when Janet rejoined her.

  “There is power, but sometimes the wind blows the door shut and that makes the light switch off.”

  “How very odd.”

  Janet had thought all the way into the house and back about warning the young woman about the ghost, but she’d decided against it. The poor woman had enough on her mind without worrying that the carriage house ghost was going to lock them inside the building in the dark. Janet had taken the necessary precautions of bringing a torch and a second key. It would be better for Jenny if she simply thought the wind was the issue, Janet thought.

  She turned the key and then pulled the door open and switched on the light. Jenny took a few steps into the room and then clapped her hands together.

  “I’m sure there’s treasure in some of these boxes,” she said excitedly.

  “Feel free to open a few and see what you find,” Janet offered.

  “Really? I can open some boxes?”

  Janet laughed. “Please do. Joan is always nagging me to go through them all. Find a few with exciting things in them, please.”

  Jenny walked slowly around the room, or at least as much as she could with the piles of boxes that were everywhere. Finally she stopped. “This one,” she said, putting her hand on a box.

  Janet helped her move the two boxes that had been on top of it onto other piles and then put the chosen box on top of a handy table near the door.

  Jenny started to open the box and then giggled. “I feel like a little kid at Christmas,” she said. “I’m expecting to find the Crown Jewels, or at the very least a map to the Holy Grail or something equally exciting.”

  �
��I used to feel that way when we first bought the house, but now I know better,” Janet told her.

  Jenny slowly pulled the lid off of the box. Janet watched as her face fell. “Books,” Jenny said sadly.

  “Books can be wonderful,” Janet said quickly. “Although these don’t look particularly appealing.”

  “The Care and Feeding of Infants and Small Children,” Jenny read the title off of one of the books.

  “Considering the book is probably older than you are, I wouldn’t put much stock in its advice,” Janet told her.

  “Oh, no. I’m sure you’re right. I have about a dozen books at home and I’ve read them all cover to cover. I don’t need to read any more books. I just need the baby to get here.”

  She pulled another book out of the box and then laughed. “Housekeeping Hints and Tips,” she told Janet. “I could probably use this one, but I’m really not interested.”

  Janet took it from her and flipped through it. “Imagine setting aside an entire day to do laundry. Everything had to be washed by hand, and after a dozen other steps, it had to be hung out to dry. We should be more grateful for our washing machines and tumble dryers, I suppose.”

  Jenny nodded. “And microwaves. I love my microwave.”

  Janet put the books back in the box and moved the box back into its pile. “Did you want to open another box?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. That was rather disappointing.”

  As the last word left her lips, the door suddenly banged shut. A split second later, the light went out. Jenny screamed as Janet reached into her pocket for the torch.

  “I did warn you,” she told the girl. “Just stand still.”

  Janet switched on the torch and then headed towards the door. It only took her a second to turn the light back on. She tried the door, but it was locked. Patting the pocket with the key inside it, she turned back to Jenny. “Did you want to look through another box?” she asked.

  Jenny shook her head and then frowned at Janet. “Did you put that box there?” she asked.

  Janet looked where she was pointing. A small box was sitting neatly in the centre of the table next to Jenny. “I just moved the box off of that table,” Janet said slowly. “Where did that box come from?”