Aunt Bessie Understands

by Diana Xarissa

  “It was the perfect job for him, really,” Madison said sadly. “One that he knew he’d love and that would make good use of his talents and training. The charity was smart enough to realise that as well. He was hired based on a phone interview, before they’d even met him.”

  “So he moved across,” Bessie said.

  “It wasn’t quite that simple,” Harry interjected. “Nicole came to see him at my flat. She tried to insist that it wasn’t what it seemed. She told him that she’d simply needed to get away, so she’d gone to the UK to visit a friend. Phillip almost believed her, too, but by that time I’d tracked down the man with whom she was cheating.”

  “Liam Kirk,” Madison spat out the name as if it were poison.

  “When Phillip said his name, Nicole burst into tears. She told him a dozen different lies about how long she’d known him and when they’d met and all sorts, but I’d done my detective work and I’d already told Phillip the whole story. Nicole eventually left in tears, still swearing that she’d done nothing wrong.”

  “Phillip left a week later and less than a month after that Nicole married Liam,” Madison said. The way she said “Liam” almost sounded like a curse.

  “I hear they aren’t happy together,” Harry said, sounding grimly satisfied. “He has a flat in Douglas now, even though they still have a house together in Foxdale.”

  “They live in Foxdale?” Bessie asked. She knew someone who lived in Foxdale, and it was a small community. No doubt Joney would know Liam and Nicole and would have something to say about their relationship.

  “That’s where Nicole grew up, I believe,” Harry said. “Liam is from across, but he has family on the island. He moved over to work for his uncle who has a gym in Douglas.”

  Bessie nodded and made a mental note to ring Joney. “I understand that Phillip told everyone he was never coming back,” she said.

  Harry flushed. “He did say that. That was what we fought about.”

  Madison leaned across the table to pat his hand. “You were angry. You both said things you shouldn’t have said. You would have made up eventually.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Harry sighed. “I was being stubborn and stupid. Phillip rang me twice after he left, but I never rang him back. I was too angry that he’d gone to try to understand why he’d needed to leave.”

  “Did he ring you recently?” Bessie asked.

  “No, not recently. He rang about three months after he’d moved and left a long message about his new life. He told me that he was finding it difficult settling into a new place and finding new friends, but that he was sure he’d made the right choice. He rang again about six months later. This time he just left a short message to say that he missed me and that he’d like to hear from me. I…” he stopped and cleared his throat, swiping at his eyes with his hand. “I ignored both messages,” he said finally.

  “He was adamant about not coming back,” Madison said. “I went over to see him three times and he always refused to discuss coming home even for a short stay, let alone moving back. I was seriously considering moving there for a while, not just because I missed Phillip but also for the job opportunities, but then, well, things changed and I decided to stay here.”

  Luke smiled and then winked at Madison.

  “Did he ever mention having any problems over there?” Bessie asked. “Problems with work or in his personal life?”

  “He didn’t have much of a personal life,” Madison said sadly. “That’s one of the reasons why I was thinking of moving there, actually. Phillip was friendly with the people where he worked, but they never did things together outside of the office. He refused to consider getting involved with another woman, too. I’d hoped if I were closer to him that I could drag him out once in a while.”

  Bessie nodded. “When did you speak to him last?” she asked.

  Madison blinked and then shook her head. “I’m not sure I can talk about that, not yet.”

  “Did Phillip ever say anything about problems with any of his jobs on the island?” Doona changed the subject.

  Madison frowned and looked down at her teacup. “I need some fresh air,” she said. “Can we take a walk on the beach and talk?” she asked Bessie.

  “Of course,” Bessie agreed.

  “You two can wait here,” Madison told the men. “We won’t be long.”

  Luke objected, but Madison just shook her head and then walked with Bessie to the door.

  Chapter 8

  Bessie and the girl walked to the water’s edge and then turned and began a slow stroll along the sand. Madison didn’t speak for several minutes. When they reached the first holiday cottage, she stopped.

  “I’m not sure I want to see the cottage where, well…” she trailed off and then swallowed hard. “Maybe we could walk in the other direction.”

  “The tide is coming in. There isn’t anywhere to walk in the other direction,” Bessie replied. “Let’s just go and sit on the rock behind my cottage. We can talk there.”

  Madison nodded and fell silent again. It wasn’t until the pair were both settled on the large rock that she spoke.

  “I don’t know Harry well enough to say some things in front of him,” she told Bessie. “He and Phillip were incredibly close, but they only met after Phillip had left home. I never really got to know Harry, not well. I’m sure it would be fine, but I’d rather talk to you privately about some things.”

  “What things?”

  “Phillip didn’t talk about work much. He was good at what he did, raising money for good causes, but he didn’t really tell me much about his job. He could talk for hours about whatever charity he was working with at any given time, but he never complained about going to meetings all day or having a difficult boss, or anything like that. Am I making any sense at all?”

  “I think so,” Bessie replied, patting Madison’s arm. “He would talk about the causes, but not his day-to-day routine.”

  “Yes, that’s right. I never really gave it much thought, but when the police inspector interviewed me after, well, you know, he asked me about Phillip’s bosses and coworkers over the years and I had to admit that I didn’t know very much about any of them.”

  “Was Phillip friendly with his coworkers?”

  “Friendly but distant might be the best answer. He had this thing about keeping his work life and his personal life separate. Fundraising is difficult work and it can be stressful, especially when it involves big charity events and that sort of thing. Phillip wanted to leave work at the office so that he could relax when he was at home.”

  “That makes sense.”

  “As I said, I’m sure he was friendly with his work colleagues, but I don’t believe that he saw them outside of work. That may have changed when he moved across. I’m not sure.”

  “So you don’t know anything about anyone at work with whom he may have had problems?”

  “Not really, although I know there were some issues with Oliver Preston.”

  “Were there, now?” Bessie asked.

  “I know Oliver. We, um, went out a few times back when Phillip was working with him. Phillip introduced us at one of the fundraisers they held not long after Phillip had started working there.”

  “Was it a great romance?”

  Madison laughed. “Not even close. We kept it really casual for the first few months. It was slightly awkward, Oliver working with Phillip, I mean. Things got a little bit serious later, and then, well, then we stopped seeing one another.”

  “I don’t want to be nosy, but I’d like to hear the whole story.”

  “There isn’t much of a story to tell. As I said, it wasn’t much of anything at first, and then after a few months, Oliver suggested that we stop seeing other people. I hadn’t been seeing anyone else, so I didn’t object.”

  “Why hadn’t you been seeing anyone else if you and Oliver were just casual?”

  “I just hadn’t,” Madison shrugged. “I know some people seem to have men in and out of t
heir lives all the time, but I’ve always seemed to have trouble finding good men and then keeping them around. Things are going really well with Luke so far. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”

  “What happened with Oliver, then?”

  “I’m not really sure. We were spending more and more time together, and I was starting to take a real interest in the work that The Liliana Fund does, until one day he cancelled our plans on short notice. I was a little angry. We were meant to be having a romantic dinner at my favourite restaurant for my birthday and he rang me half an hour before our booking to tell me he couldn’t make it. He never rang me again.”

  “Had you had an argument when he cancelled?”

  “No, that’s the weird part. I was disappointed, but he told me that something had come up at work, and I tried to be understanding during the phone call. I planned to shout at him a bit the next time I saw him, but I never got the chance.”

  “That seems odd.”

  “It does, now that I’m talking about it. At the time, I was hurt and confused, but when I think back it was odd behaviour.”

  “Did Phillip get angry with Oliver for upsetting you?”

  “He wasn’t happy, but I made him promise not to treat Oliver any differently, regardless.”

  “But you said that he and Oliver had problems.”

  “They did, but later. I’m trying to make sure that you know everything that might be relevant. I can’t imagine why my short-lived relationship with Oliver matters, but I suppose it may have coloured Phillip’s feelings towards Oliver to some extent.”

  “You were Phillip’s baby sister. I’m sure he was angry with Oliver for treating you badly.”

  “He didn’t treat me badly, not really. He should have taken the time to end our relationship in person, or at least rung me again to tell me it was over, but I can’t complain about how he treated me when we were together. Anyway, that was all at least a year before anything else happened.”

  “What happened next, then?”

  “As I said, Phillip didn’t talk about work much, but one day we met for a drink after work and he seemed really upset. When I asked him about it, he said that there’d been an issue with one of the grants they’d awarded. The man who was meant to be getting the money had never received the cheque or something. Oliver was tracking it down and I’m sure it was all sorted in the end, but it upset Phillip at the time.”

  Bessie nodded slowly, trying to think. Was it possible that Oliver was doing something illegal or immoral with his funds?

  “That was about the same time that Oliver hired Dylan Collins. Dylan and Phillip had never liked one another, so that made things difficult.”

  “When you say never, do you mean that they knew each other before Oliver hired Dylan?”

  “Yes, Dylan’s grandmother had a house near ours. He used to visit on weekends and sometimes he would join in games with Phillip and the other boys on the street. Phillip didn’t like him and the feeling was mutual.”

  “Did Oliver know that they had a shared history?”

  “Yes, Phillip told Oliver at least some of the background when they interviewed Dylan for the job, but Oliver still hired him, in spite of Phillip’s feelings.”

  “That must have made things awkward for Phillip.”

  “It did, but he loved his job, so he stayed even after Dylan was hired. He managed to make it work for almost a year, too. Then things blew up with Nicole and, well, you know the rest.”

  “Was Oliver upset when Phillip left?”

  “I only ever heard anything secondhand, but I believe he was pretty angry. Phillip left just before their biggest fundraiser of the year. I know my brother would have done his best to make the transition as smooth as possible, but I also know that he was heart broken and not necessarily performing as well as he should have been.”

  “Did Phillip tell you anything about his job in the UK?”

  “Not really. I did meet one or two of his colleagues on one of my visits, when I met him at his office one evening, but only briefly. They both seemed pleasant enough, but we didn’t really speak. Phillip didn’t tell me anything about them, other than what they did at the charity, really.”

  “So if his death had something to do with work, Oliver or Dylan seem to be the most likely suspects,” Bessie concluded.

  Madison stared at her. “I can’t get my head around that,” she sighed. “I can’t imagine anyone I know killing Phillip, or anyone else for that matter. Murder is something that happens in books or on telly, not in real life.”

  “I wish that were true.”

  “I know you’ve been through this a number of times. Do you ever get used to the idea that people are capable of killing other people?”

  “I suppose I find it easier to believe now that I’ve seen so many examples of it,” Bessie admitted. “Often the motives are the most shocking part. People kill other people for the oddest reasons.”

  “I know Dylan never liked Phillip, but murder? I don’t know.”

  “Let’s try looking at it from a different angle,” Bessie suggested. “Whom would Phillip have come back to the island to see?”

  Madison nodded slowly. “That’s an excellent question.” She shivered and then sighed. “Let’s go back in the house and ask the others that question. Harry might have a better answer than I do.”

  “No one,” Harry said emphatically as Bessie put her question to the group.

  Doona had made a pot of coffee while Bessie and Madison had been outside. Bessie took a long drink of the lovely hot liquid before she replied.

  “But he did come back,” she pointed out.

  “Maybe he was brought here against his will,” Harry suggested. “That’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “I believe the newspaper has tracked his arrival at the Sea Terminal,” Bessie replied. “From what I’ve been told, Phillip was alone when he disembarked and hired a car.”

  “Maybe he thought someone he loved was in danger,” Doona suggested.

  “Nicole,” Harry said loudly. “If she rang and said she was in danger, he’d have come back to help her. He was still crazy about her.”

  Madison shook her head. “You hadn’t spoken to him in two years,” she reminded him. “I know he was still badly hurt, but I think anger had replaced love in his feelings for Nicole. If she’d rung him to say she thought she was in danger, I think he would have told her to ring the police.”

  “But the sneaking around and meeting in an empty cottage might have been to avoid Liam,” Harry suggested. “He wouldn’t have wanted to start a fight with that man.”

  “Liam is a kick-boxer,” Madison told Bessie. “He’s nationally ranked, I understand, or he used to be, anyway.”

  “Phillip would have come back if he thought you or your mother or father needed him,” Luke told her, squeezing her hand.

  “But who would have told him that we needed him?” Madison demanded. “If he was worried about any of us, he would have rung to speak to us directly. I can’t imagine someone ringing to say we needed help and Phillip just rushing to the ferry without giving the matter any thought. He wasn’t like that.”

  “No, he’d have rung you straight away,” Harry agreed. “If someone rang and told him that you had all been injured in a car accident or something, he’d have rung me or one of his other friends to confirm before he’d rush to catch a ferry back here.”

  “What if one of his former work colleagues needed something?” Bessie asked.

  Madison opened her mouth and then shut it again. After a moment, she nodded slowly. “I can almost believe that he’d come back here to help Oliver. I can’t imagine why he’d feel as if he had to keep the visit a secret, though.”

  “Maybe he was planning to surprise you all,” Luke said.

  “That wouldn’t have been like him either,” Madison replied. “Phillip didn’t like surprises, not giving or getting.”

  They talked for a while longer about Phillip’s childhood friends,
neighbours, and former girlfriends. Eventually, Madison looked at the clock and sighed.

  “It’s getting late. We should go. I wish I felt as if we’d accomplished something.”

  “You’ve given me a number of things to think about,” Bessie told her. “I’ll be discussing everything with John Rockwell later today or tomorrow. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll spot something that will help him solve the case.”

  “I was hoping you’d work it out while we were here,” Madison admitted.

  Bessie swallowed a laugh. “It isn’t that easy, I’m afraid. I’ll talk to John. What I’d really like to do now is meet Nicole Carr and Liam Kirk. I don’t suppose any of you know where they work?”

  “Nicole works at Noble’s. She’s a nurse, which was one of the things that Phillip loved about her. He thought she was kind and caring and special,” Madison said scornfully. “Liam is part owner of the gym in Douglas, the one that specialises in kick-boxing and other martial arts.”

  “I can’t imagine finding a reason to go there,” Bessie murmured.

  “Maybe I could be interested in joining,” Doona suggested. “I’m sure after a single class I’d have a reason to visit Noble’s as well.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “Nicole may be at the memorial service,” Madison said.

  “When and where is the service?” Bessie asked.

  “It’s tomorrow,” Madison replied, naming the small church in Port Erin as the location. “We’re going to have a reception in the church hall after the service. You’re more than welcome to attend.”

  “I may,” Bessie replied. “Do you really think that Nicole will come?”

  “She’d better not,” Harry said darkly. “I blame her for Phillip’s death, no matter who actually killed him.”

  “Let’s reserve judgment on that until the police work out exactly what happened to Phillip,” Madison said. “In answer to your question,” she told Bessie, “yes, I can see Nicole turning up. I don’t think she ever truly appreciated the seriousness of what she did to Phillip, and I believe she’s just stupid enough to think that she’d be welcome as someone mourning his loss.”