Cars and Cold Cases

by Diana Xarissa

  “Order something for me while I run to the loo,” Anne told Peter. “Maybe the bartender won’t know it’s for me and I’ll actually get a drink this time.”

  She slid off her stool and walked in a more or less straight line toward the nearest restroom. As she disappeared through the door, Peter sighed and then waved at the bartender.

  “Another round?” the man asked.

  “Yes, with a watered-down drink for my friend,” Peter told him.

  “Yes, sir,” the man said with a smile. “I hope she isn’t too mad that I haven’t been serving her. She seemed quite drunk when you came in.”

  “She was, but she’s better now,” Peter said. “Just make this one half strength, please.”

  The man nodded before he walked away.

  “Are you okay?” Shelly asked Peter as he sighed again.

  “I’m fine,” the man replied. “I’m just a little tired of entertaining Anne.”

  “So tell her to go home,” Shelly suggested. “I’m sure we’ll all contribute towards taxi fare for her.”

  Peter laughed. “I take it you don’t like her,” he said.

  “Not a bit,” Shelly said cheerfully. “But I’ll be nice to her, since she’s your friend.”

  “I’ve known her since we were children,” Peter said. “The first night it was nice to have a chance to catch up with her. We’ve only seen each other very occasionally since we left school. But she seems to be rather more fond of spending time with me than I am with her.”

  “She’s going to be moving in with you if you aren’t careful,” Shelly warned. “She’s that type of woman.”

  “She’s on her way back,” Fenella whispered.

  “I’m back,” Anne said loudly as she approached. “You’ll have to find someone else to talk about now.”

  “I need the loo,” Shelly said. “Fenella, want to come with me?”

  Fenella nodded and followed the other woman across the room. Inside the spacious restroom, Shelly sank down onto a couch in front of a row of mirrors.

  “We have to do something to help Peter get rid of Anne,” she told Fenella as she dug around in her handbag.

  “Peter’s an adult. Surely he can work out how to get rid of her if he really wants to,” Fenella replied.

  “He’s too nice,” Shelly said. She pulled out her lipstick and gave her lips a fresh coat of bright red shimmer. “That’s how his second wife managed to break up his first marriage. She took advantage of how nice he is, getting him to do little things for her here and there, and then seducing him at the first opportunity. Once she’d taken him to bed, she only had to tell his wife about it and that was the end of that marriage.”

  “So Peter should have learned a lesson or two,” Fenella suggested after touching up her own lipstick.

  “He’s still too nice for his own good,” Shelly told her. “He’ll let Anne sleep on his couch again tonight. I wouldn’t be surprised if she managed to crawl into bed with him before morning, and once he’s slept with her, he’s old-fashioned enough to think that he should marry her.”

  “Maybe she’d make him happy,” Fenella suggested.

  Shelly raised an eyebrow. “I hardly think so,” she said. “Did he look happy when we came in?”

  “No,” Fenella admitted. “But I can’t imagine how we’ll get rid of her without being terribly rude ourselves.”

  “I don’t have a problem with being rude,” Shelly said. “But maybe we can come up with something. In the meantime, we’d better get back out there.”

  At the bar, Anne was sulking while Peter stared into his glass.

  “My goodness, what’s wrong?” Shelly asked as she and Fenella rejoined them.

  “My drink tastes watery, but Peter won’t complain,” Anne said loudly.

  “We should go somewhere else,” Shelly suggested. “There’s a lovely little pub towards the south of the island that never waters down drinks.”

  Anne narrowed her eyes at Shelly. “I’m happy here,” she said quickly.

  “I understand there are some nice pubs in Port Erin,” Shelly said. “I was thinking about visiting one or two. Which would you recommend?”

  “I don’t go out much,” Anne said.

  “Really?” Shelly questioned.

  “I work a lot of long hours,” Anne explained. “If I want a drink, I usually just buy a bottle of wine from work and take it home with me.”

  “You don’t seem to be working long hours at the moment,” Shelly pointed out.

  “No, I took a few days off to deal with, well, having to talk about Kay again. It’s brought up all sorts of emotions, and I don’t feel like I can handle work right now,” Anne said.

  “You’re lucky you can just take time off without notice like that,” Shelly said.

  “Yes, well, it hasn’t been easy, exactly,” Anne replied. “But I have to do what’s best for me.”

  “Yes, of course,” Shelly murmured.

  “I’m ready to call it a night,” Fenella said after she’d drained her glass. “Katie is probably ready for her bedtime snack, and I’m certainly ready for bed.”

  “Can we stay for one more?” Anne asked Peter.

  “I’d rather not,” he told her.

  “But you have wine at home, right?” she giggled.

  “Actually, I think you finished off the wine in my flat,” Peter said.

  “I have wine at home,” Shelly said. “Why don’t you come back to my flat with me? We can have a drink together and get to know one another better.”

  “Um, well, I mean, Peter, are you coming?” Anne asked.

  “I didn’t think I was invited,” Peter said with a laugh. “Let’s all walk back together, and then you and Shelly can have a drink while I pop into Fenella’s to see how Katie is getting on.”

  Anne opened her mouth to argue, but she couldn’t seem to work out what to say. After a minute, she joined the others as they got to their feet. Outside the pub, she took Peter’s arm and whispered something in his ear. He shook his head, which made her drop his arm and take a step backwards.

  “Oh, don’t let Peter upset you,” Shelly said, sliding her arm around Anne’s waist. “He’s ever so staid and boring. You and I should try going to the pub without him one night. I’m sure we’d have a wonderful time.”

  Peter dropped back and fell into step with Fenella. “What’s Shelly doing?” he hissed at her.

  “Killing her with kindness?” Fenella guessed.

  Peter laughed, which made Anne look back at them and frown. When he noticed that Anne was watching, Peter took Fenella’s hand. “Sorry,” he whispered. “Or rather, I’m not sorry, as I quite like holding your hand, but I wouldn’t normally do so in public like this. I’m just hoping to put Anne off a bit, that’s all.”

  Fenella nodded but didn’t reply. If she was honest, she was enjoying holding Peter’s hand as well, but she didn’t want to get caught between Peter and Anne, no matter what Shelly thought.

  Shelly kept prattling on and on about nothing as the foursome rode the elevator to the sixth floor. Anne looked uncertain as she was dragged out of the elevator car and down the corridor to Shelly’s door.

  “Come and get me in a few minutes,” she told Peter as Shelly pulled her through her apartment door.

  “Or just leave her there forever,” Fenella muttered. She opened the door to her own apartment and switched on the lights. Peter followed her, pushing the door shut behind him.

  “It’s lovely and quiet in here,” he said as he sank onto the couch.

  “If you don’t want the woman around, you should just tell her,” Fenella suggested.

  “I’ve known her since we were children,” Peter objected. “I can’t be rude to her. She’s very upset about Kay. I’m trying to be supportive.”

  “Shelly reckons she’ll sneak into bed with you and try to seduce you,” Fenella said.

  “Honestly, I’m not sure you should be repeating what Shelly said,” Mona told her sharply. Fenella igno
red her.

  Peter nodded. “That might have been her plan last night, actually,” he replied. “I heard her trying my bedroom door in the middle of the night, but I’d locked it when I went to bed.”

  “Did you ask her about it this morning?”

  “Um, no, it was, well, it seemed awkward,” Peter said, blushing. “I might have imagined it, anyway.”

  “But you probably didn’t,” Fenella said. “At least you were smart enough to lock the door.”

  “Yes, I felt odd doing it, but I was grateful I had.”

  “You can’t let her keep staying with you.”

  “I was going to take her home tonight, but then she insisted on wine with dinner,” he said with a sigh. “She said she needed a drink after her difficult session with the police and she begged me not to make her drink alone. I gave in to stop her from crying.”

  “You are too nice,” Fenella said.

  “Maybe I could sleep here tonight,” he suggested. “Although I’m not sure what excuse we could give Anne for that.”

  A knock on the door interrupted the conversation. Fenella crossed to the door with Peter on her heels.

  “Okay, I’m done being nice to Shelly,” Anne said crossly. “Let’s go to bed.”

  “Maybe I should just put you in a taxi,” Peter said hesitantly.

  “My house in Port Erin is awfully lonely,” Anne said, blinking several times and raising a hand to her eyes as if wiping away tears. “Please, may I stay just one more night?”

  Peter glanced at Fenella and then smiled at Anne. “Of course,” he said in a resigned tone.

  “You can make it up to me tomorrow, then,” Fenella said to Peter. “I’ll make dinner. You bring a nice bottle of wine.”

  Peter blinked at her. As a confused look passed over his face, Fenella closed the distance between them.

  “This will have to keep you going until tomorrow,” she said in the sexiest voice she could manage. She slid her arms around Peter and pulled him close. She almost laughed when she saw him suddenly realize what she was doing. He grinned just before his lips touched hers.

  The kiss was slightly less than magical, as Fenella was acutely aware of the woman standing in the doorway glaring angrily at her. Peter didn’t seem bothered by Anne’s stare as he continued the kiss for a considerable length of time. When he finally lifted his head, he winked at Fenella.

  “Remember exactly where we were,” he told her. “We can pick up there tomorrow night.”

  “I will,” Fenella said, feeling slightly dazed and more than a little silly.

  Peter walked into the corridor and nodded at Anne, who followed him to his door. She shot Fenella a nasty look as Peter let them into his apartment. Shelly had been standing silently behind Anne throughout the entire exchange. Now she burst out laughing.

  “That was some kiss,” she told Fenella. “I swear I felt the temperature in here go up about ten degrees.”

  “I don’t know what I was thinking,” Fenella said, blushing brightly. “He was telling me that he didn’t know how to get rid of her, and then there she was being nasty, and I just reacted.”

  “I don’t think Peter would mind if you reacted like that on a regular basis,” Shelly told her. “I just hope you did enough to get rid of Anne.”

  “I do, too. I’m not sure I could do that again.”

  Shelly laughed again and then headed back down the corridor. “Have a good night,” she said. “If you need to go shopping tomorrow, let me know. I’m not sure what you’re cooking for Peter, but he’s going to be expecting something special.”

  She disappeared through her door before Fenella could reply. “I can’t cook dinner for Peter tomorrow night,” Fenella said to herself as she pushed her door shut.

  “Of course you can,” Mona said. “And you’re going to have to, after that performance.”

  “I was just trying to help,” Fenella said. “It didn’t mean anything.”

  “Didn’t it?” Mona asked. “You seemed to be enjoying it.”

  “He’s good at kissing,” Fenella admitted. “But so is Daniel. I’m not sure I’m ready to get involved with either of them.”

  “I’ve no doubt Peter will let you take things slowly, if you prefer,” Mona said. “He’s a gentleman first and foremost. But you do have to make him dinner tomorrow night.”

  “What can I make?”

  “What can you cook?”

  Fenella shrugged. “Jack and I were in something of a rut,” she said. “He’s a fussy eater. There were just a handful of things I made that he liked and I tended to rotate through them every week.”

  Mona yawned. “And you stayed with him for ten years,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s getting late. Why don’t you get some sleep and worry about the menu tomorrow? Maybe because of the short notice, you can cheat and buy something ready to heat and serve at the shops tomorrow.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Fenella said. “Just the thought of having dinner with Peter makes me nervous. I can’t imagine trying to cook something for him as well.”

  Mona sighed. “Sometimes I wonder if we really are related,” she said. “I used to prepare sumptuous multi-course meals for the men in my life.”

  “But what happened if you burned something?” Fenella asked.

  “Then we called out for pizza and laughed about it,” Mona told her. “Or we would have, if it ever happened.”

  “Your life was so much more glamorous than mine,” Fenella said.

  “I made my life glamorous,” Mona told her. “You can do the same with yours, if you want to.”

  Fenella thought for a moment. “I’m not sure I’m ready to be glamorous, at least not all the time.”

  Mona laughed. “There is a certain amount of effort required,” she said. “Although after a while it does become habit. Still, I don’t know that you’re the type. You’re more like your father.”

  “Is that meant to be an insult?” Fenella demanded.

  “Not at all,” Mona told her. “Your father was a steady man who took good care of his wife and his children. He just wasn’t terribly exciting, if you know what I mean.”

  “He managed to get my mother to marry him on very short acquaintance,” Fenella pointed out.

  “And I think that was the last spontaneous thing he ever did in his life,” Mona said dryly.

  “You might be right,” Fenella said with a laugh after a moment’s thought. “Dad wasn’t the spontaneous type. But I loved him dearly and I’m happy for people to think I’m like him in some ways.”

  “You’d be more fun if you were more like me,” Mona told her.

  Fenella just laughed again, and then refilled Katie’s bowls before heading to bed. She fell asleep with menus running through her mind and woke up in the middle of a dream where a large chicken leg was chasing her through the grocery store shouting something about appropriate sauces and side dishes.

  “Ah, thank you,” Fenella said to Katie who was tapping her on the nose. “I’d had more than enough of that dream for today.”

  “Yeeeoowww,” Katie replied.

  “But you jumped on the bed,” Fenella exclaimed. “You must be feeling better.”

  “Merrowww,” Katie told her.

  Fenella followed the kitten into the kitchen and gave her some breakfast. “But what am I going to do today?” she asked as she waited for her coffee to brew.

  “You need to buy food for tonight,” Mona reminded. “And we need to sit down and talk about the cases. I have some ideas about Christopher Manderly’s murder and an idea of how we can catch the killer.”

  “I’m not listening to any more of your plans to catch killers,” Fenella said quickly. “We can talk about the cases if you really want to, but we’re just going to talk.”

  “Yes, dear,” Mona said. “Maybe after your shower, before the shops open.”

  Fenella looked at the clock. “Why do you always wake me at six?” she asked Katie.

  “Meerrroooowwwww,” Katie
told her.

  “Because you’re hungry,” Fenella guessed. “Maybe when you get a bit older, you’ll learn to wait until seven for your breakfast.”

  “I wouldn’t count on that,” Mona muttered.

  With a sigh, Fenella went and took a shower and got dressed. The stores wouldn’t open for several more hours, so she made herself a large breakfast and then sat down to enjoy it.

  “Get some paper and a pen,” Mona said. “We’ll make a list of suspects in each case and see what we can work out.”

  Fenella thought about arguing, but decided it was easier to indulge her aunt. Mona sometimes complained about being bored. If thinking about Daniel’s cold cases gave her something to do, Fenella supposed she ought to encourage it. As much as she hated to admit it, Fenella really didn’t want the other woman to leave.

  “Okay,” she said once she was sitting down with her breakfast, paper, and a pen. “Where do you want to start?”

  “Let’s start with Kay Belsom,” Mona suggested. “What do you think of Anne’s story?”

  “I don’t know what to think,” Fenella admitted. “Mel was adamant that she was lying, but the story seems plausible.”

  “I think it’s true,” Mona told her. “And I think this Liam character is behind Kay’s disappearance. Daniel should focus on finding him.”

  Fenella made a note and then drew a line across the page. “Let’s call that one closed, then, at least until Daniel finds Liam.”

  “If he can’t find Liam, I don’t think he’ll ever work out what happened to Kay,” Mona said. “But I’m still hoping for a happy ending.”

  “Happy for whom? I mean, Mel isn’t going to be too happy if it turns out Kay ran away with another man, is he?”

  “At least he’ll know what happened to her,” Mona pointed out. “He’s had a long time to get over her, anyway.”

  Fenella swallowed a bite of breakfast and then looked at her aunt. “Do you really want to talk about Christopher Manderly?” she asked.

  “Absolutely,” Mona said. “His case is much more interesting than Kay’s disappearance. The suspects are fascinating.”

  “Should I start the list with Sophia, then?”

  “Oh, yes, definitely,” Mona said with relish. “I never liked her.”

  “I sort of got that,” Fenella muttered as she made notes.