“No, let’s talk about what happened. We understand you were there when the body was found. What can you tell us?” Peter demanded.
Bessie shook her head. “I was with the police constable when he found the body, but I didn’t see or hear anything. I’ve given the police a full statement, but I doubt it will help with the investigation.”
“The police inspector who questioned us said that someone was found with Phillip, but they don’t think that man was responsible for his death,” Rebecca said. “I don’t understand.”
“Did they tell you where the body was found?” Bessie asked.
“Yes, at the last holiday cottage, the one where that other man was killed a few months ago,” Peter replied.
“I believe the police think that the man who was discovered with the body had simply broken into the cottage so that he’d have a place to stay for the night. They seem to think that he was as surprised to see the body as anyone.”
“So you can’t tell us anything,” Peter sighed.
“I wish I could. The best thing you can do now is talk to the police. Tell them everything you can about Phillip. Give them every detail about his life, his friends, his jobs, everything that seems important and everything that doesn’t seem to matter at all. The more they know, the easier it will be for them to work out what happened.”
“We don’t know much about his current job,” Rebecca said. “He was working for a UK charity. They recruited him from the island. As far as I know, he was happy and doing well.”
“Did he have a girlfriend across?” Bessie asked.
Rebecca shook her head. “He’d had a bad experience in his last relationship. He said he was going to wait a while before he was going to risk getting hurt again.”
“His last relationship? Was that on the island?” was Bessie’s next question.
“Yes,” Rebecca sighed. “He was involved with a girl called Nicole Carr. He was getting ready to propose, actually. He’d even picked out a ring, but then he found out that she was seeing someone else behind his back. He was heart broken. I don’t know that he would have taken the job in the UK if it hasn’t been for that, actually. He needed to get away and the job offer came at just the right time.”
“Nicole married the man she’d been cheating with,” Peter added. “His name is Liam Kirk, and they got married about three months after Phillip left the island. I don’t know if they’re still together, though. Knowing her, maybe not.”
Rebecca sighed. “It was difficult for all of us. Phillip and Nicole had been together for three years and she’d become like a daughter to us. We were excited that about them getting married, looking forward to grandchildren, even. When we found out that she’d cheated, we were all shocked and hurt.”
“If she and Phillip had married, he wouldn’t be dead now,” Peter said flatly.
“We don’t know that,” Rebecca said quickly.
“We do. He must have been killed because of something that happened when he was across. It’s her fault he went across in the first place. As far as I’m concerned, she’s as guilty as whoever actually wielded the knife.”
“I don’t agree,” Rebecca said, flushing. “I don’t want to argue, though. Let’s not fight, not now.”
Peter shrugged. “I don’t want to argue either. This is hard enough as it is.”
“I hope you told the police all of this,” Bessie said.
Rebecca nodded. “We told them everything we could think to tell them. We’ll probably have more for them later, after it all starts to sink in, but we did our best.”
“I told them all about Nicole and Liam,” Peter interjected. “I suggested they take a good long look at Liam when they start looking for the killer.”
Bessie nodded. She wasn’t sure why Liam would want to kill Phillip, especially since he was the one who’d ended up with Nicole, but she didn’t want to ask and risk starting another disagreement between the couple.
Rebecca clearly had the same thought. “Liam didn’t have any reason to kill Phillip. He took Nicole away from Phillip. If anything, Phillip had reason to kill Liam, not the other way around.”
“Maybe Nicole was trying to get back together with Phillip behind Liam’s back,” Peter suggested.
“Phillip would have told me,” Rebecca replied. “If he’d heard from her at all, he would have mentioned it.” She looked over at Bessie. “We spoke on the phone at least once a week. He knew I’d worry otherwise, so he indulged me. He told me everything that was happening in his life.”
“Was he just on the island for a holiday, then?” Bessie asked.
Rebecca frowned and looked down at the table. “I don’t know,” she said in a low voice. “We didn’t know he was here. He never mentioned that he was coming for a visit. I don’t understand it. He always told me everything and he had to know how excited I’d have been if I’d known he was coming for a visit.”
“Did he visit often?” Bessie wondered.
“Never,” Peter snapped. “He’d been gone for two years and he’d not been back, not once. Rebecca used to cry after every week after she’d spoken to him, but he didn’t seem to care, not at all.”
“That’s not fair,” Rebecca said. “He did care and he wanted to visit, but he was very busy with his new job and his new life across. It took him ages to settle in and make new friends, but once he’d done that he got very busy. He also felt odd about coming back to the island because he was worried about seeing Nicole. We visited him a few times, though, which was lovely.”
“And he never mentioned having any problems at work or in his personal life?” Bessie asked.
“Never. He loved his job and he felt as if he was making a real difference. He especially enjoyed being able to meet some of the men, women, and children that the charity helped. He’d not been able to do that with his last job over here and he missed it very much.”
“I seem to remember he worked for The Liliana Fund before he moved,” Bessie said.
“Yes, that’s right,” Rebecca said. She rattled off a short list of island charities. “He worked for all of them before The Liliana Fund. He enjoyed the work there, but it frustrated him that so many of the grant recipients were either across or elsewhere in the world. They do great work and he enjoyed being a part of it, but he missed feeling a real connection to the people he was helping.”
Bessie nodded. “I can understand that.”
“He was going to look a few of them up,” Peter said. “I wonder if he ever managed to find anyone.”
“He found one woman,” Rebecca replied. “I told you about it at the time. Phillip found her in a Derby hospital and she couldn’t stop crying when she found out that he used to work for The Liliana Fund. Apparently, the fund was paying for someone to look after the woman’s daughter while she was in hospital. That is the sort of thing the charity funds, rather than actual medical treatment.”
“I seem to remember Oliver Preston saying something about wanting to buy wigs for cancer patients who’d lost their hair and helping patients keep food in their cupboards,” Bessie said.
“Yes, and they often pay for cleaning services to help patients keep their homes clean during treatments, or buy school supplies for patients’ children, “ Rebecca told her. “There are so many little things that people don’t think about when it comes to fighting cancer and other serious illnesses.”
“Who replaced Phillip at the fund?” Bessie asked.
“There was a young man, Dylan Collins, who was already working there part-time,” Rebecca said. “He took on Phillip’s responsibilities when Phillip left. I understand that Oliver hires temporary staff to deal with the things that Dylan was doing before he moved into Phillip’s job.”
A loud ringing noise started everyone. Rebecca sighed. “That’s my phone,” she said. It took her a minute of digging around in her handbag before she found the device. It was still ringing loudly as she pulled it from her bag.
“Hello?”
“Yes, ok
ay, we’ll be back soon.”
“I know, I know.”
She frowned as she dropped the phone back into the bag. “That was Harry,” she told Peter.
“What did he want?”
“Madison is upset and can’t stop crying,” she explained. “He thinks we should come home.”
“You go. I’ll stay here and see what else I can learn from Bessie,” Peter suggested.
“I don’t know anything,” Bessie told him.
Rebecca shrugged. “Harry was Phillip’s closest friend. I don’t know if you ever knew Harry Holt?”
Bessie thought for a minute. “I don’t believe so. Did he grow up in the south of the island?”
“He grew up in Douglas,” Rebecca replied. “He and Phillip actually met at university, or rather on the ferry across before their first semester. They sat next to one another on the ferry and they were both delighted to find out that they were going to the same school. They were friends from that moment onwards.”
“He’s very upset, too, obviously,” Peter said. “He wasn’t happy when Phillip moved across. They had something of a falling-out over it, actually. I’m not sure they’d spoken in the past two years.”
Bessie frowned. “That’s a shame.” She’d been hoping that Phillip would have told someone about his planned visit to the island. That seemed less and less likely. “Do you have any idea why Phillip was on the island?” she asked.
“I wish I did. He rang on Sunday, as usual. We had a lovely chat about a charity race they were planning for spring. I asked him about visiting, because I asked him every time he rang. He said he’d try to find time to fit a quick trip home into his schedule, but it would probably be after the race, because the planning for that was taking up a lot of his time.”
“Excuses,” Peter said bitterly. “He always had excuses. I don’t know why he was staying away, but he was definitely staying away.”
“Nicole broke his heart,” Rebecca said.
“Two bloody years ago. He should have been able to get over that by now. Anyway, he didn’t have to see Nicole if he came home. It’s a big island, big enough for him and Nicole, at least for a weekend.”
Rebecca shrugged. “I kept trying to be understanding,” she told Bessie. “As I said, we visited him in Derby. Madison went more often than we did. She even hinted that she might look for a job over there, but, well, I’m afraid I got very upset when she mentioned the idea. She never discussed it with me again.”
“But she was still giving the idea some thought,” Peter said. “Apparently, Phillip was sending her information about jobs.”
“I see,” Rebecca said tightly.
“We have to let them go,” Peter told her.
“If we hadn’t let Phillip go, he’d still be alive,” she shot back.
“We don’t know that,” Peter said. “We don’t know anything yet, but we’re going to find out.”
Rebecca’s phone rang again. She frowned as she answered it. “Yes, Madison?”
“We’ll be home soon. We’re trying to find out what happened to Phillip.”
“I know that, but we’re doing what we can.”
When she put the phone back in her bag, she got to her feet. “We have to go,” she told Peter. “Madison needs us.”
Peter looked as if he wanted to argue, but after a moment he stood up. “If you think of anything that would help us discover what happened to Phillip, please let us know,” he said to Bessie.
“I’ll let the police know. Solving Phillip’s murder is their job,” she replied.
He nodded. “Of course, but you must understand that, as his parents, we have a need to understand what happened.”
“If I can help in any way, I will,” Bessie said. “Remember what I told you, though. The more you can tell the police about Phillip, the better the chances of them solving the case.”
“They’ll soon get tired of hearing me talk,” Rebecca said. “I feel as if I could talk about him for hours and hours.”
“Maybe you should find a counselor,” Bessie suggested.
Rebecca shrugged. “Maybe.” She headed for the door with Peter at her heels. “Thank you for your time. I wish I could have brought my grandchildren to Laxey Beach to play. Now, even if Madison does have children, I won’t ever bring them here. They won’t play on the beach where Phillip died.”
She opened the door and walked out with Peter following. He gave Bessie an awkward wave as he shut the door behind them. Bessie sat at the table, staring at the door, for several minutes. Her heart ached for the couple, for Madison and for everyone else who had cared for young Phillip. Whenever she closed her eyes, she could see the bed covered in blood. Who had killed Phillip and why?
It was too early to go to bed, even though she felt exhausted. After pacing around the kitchen for several minutes, she decided to take a walk in spite of the rain. The last cottage in the row felt closer than normal as she went. There were still several lights on inside, and as Bessie walked past, she could see a pair of men working hard in the cottage’s dining room. One of them noticed Bessie and waved at her. Waving back, she picked up her pace and walked on to the steps at Thie yn Traie.
As the rain began to fall more heavily, she turned back towards home. As she passed the last cottage again, she heard someone call her name.
“Bessie?”
She smiled when she spotted Hugh Watterson rushing towards her. “Hugh? What are you doing here?”
“Grace is still at Noble’s, so I came over to do a few hours of work. I’m hoping to save as much as I can of my holiday time and paternity leave for when the baby is actually home. Besides, I found the body. I want to be a part of the case, baby or no baby.”
“You aren’t tired of the baby already?” Bessie teased.
Hugh flushed. “Not even a little bit,” he said firmly. “Grace may be, though. I understand she had trouble feeding the baby today. When I suggested that we just give her a bottle, though, she nearly bit my head off.”
“What did her mother say?”
“That breastfeeding is very difficult, but totally worth it if Grace can manage. And that it’s too soon to give up. I love having Grace’s mum there, but I rather feel as if she’s taking over a bit.”
“You should talk to her.”
“I might, once Grace is home. I’m torn, really, though, as I’m terrified to do anything with the baby. She’s so tiny and she seems incredibly fragile. Grace’s mum is terrific with her and she’s good with Grace, too. She made Grace sleep most of today, which is exactly what Grace needed. I don’t know what we’d do without Grace’s mum.”
“But you’d like to find out?” Bessie suggested.
Hugh flushed. “Maybe, but maybe not in the middle of a murder investigation.”
Bessie nodded. “The victim’s parents came to see me.”
“They did? You should ring John and tell him everything they said.”
“I was going to wait until morning. It seems too late to ring him now.”
“He’ll want to know,” Hugh insisted. “They were very upset when he spoke to them. They may well have told you more than they told him.”
“I’ll ring him when I get home, then.”
Chapter 4
“Thanks, Bessie,” John said when she’d finished recounting the time she’d spent with the bereaved parents. “They were very badly shaken when I spoke with them. I hope they take your advice and come back in to tell me more about their son. If they don’t, I’ll follow up with them in the next day or two.”
“I was hoping you would solve this case quickly. Hugh is going to want to be involved and he should be home with Grace and the baby.”
“He’s going to start his paternity leave as soon as Grace gets home, but I believe they’re keeping her an extra day. The baby has a touch of jaundice, I understand.”
“Is that serious?”
“Not as far as I know. Hugh didn’t seem worried, anyway.”
“He didn’t even menti
on it to me, and I just spoke to him a few minutes ago.”
“I’m sure he has a lot on his mind. As I said, I don’t think it’s anything serious, just something the doctors want to monitor.”
“I know Hugh wants to be involved in the investigation. The timing is unfortunate.”
“That’s the nature of the job,” John sighed. “I was in the middle of a major drug smuggling investigation when Thomas was born. I missed nearly all of his first three weeks of life. Sue was furious.”
“I don’t blame her.”
“I didn’t either, but I didn’t have much choice. I didn’t have paternity leave in the same way that Hugh does, either.”
They chatted for a short while longer about changing attitudes towards childrearing before Bessie found herself yawning in between her own sentences. “I think I need some sleep,” she said apologetically.
“We both do. Ring me tomorrow if you learn anything else. Otherwise, maybe we should have a gathering at your house tomorrow night.”
“You’ll be more than welcome. I’m not sure we should invite Hugh, though. He should be home with Grace.”
“If she’s still in Noble’s, Hugh will probably be happy to come.”
Bessie put the phone down and headed for the stairs. There seemed to be many more of them than normal. When she finally reached the top, she gave her teeth a cursory brushing and ran a comb through her hair. Feeling as if she’d done enough, she changed into her nightgown and crawled into bed. She was asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.
It was three minutes past six when her internal alarm woke her. She stretched and then carefully climbed out of bed. “Not too bad,” she said to herself as she headed for the shower. She was still slightly out of sorts but felt almost back to normal, which was gratifying.
What she needed now was a very long walk on the beach, she decided. Perhaps she’d walk as far as the new houses, or even beyond. After a quick breakfast of cold cereal, she headed out, determined to walk until she was too tired to walk any further.
She’d only gone a few hundred yards when a loud voice shouted at her across the sand.
Aunt Bessie Understands Page 5
