Aunt Bessie Understands

by Diana Xarissa

  “The baby will soon chase away any ghosts,” Doona laughed. “I’m sure she’s keeping everyone in the house, living or dead, awake at all hours.”

  They turned around at Thie yn Traie, heading back towards Bessie’s as the tide came in. When they reached the cottage, they sat together on the large rock rather than going inside.

  “John wants to do some Christmas shopping one night later this week,” Doona said after a few minutes. “Apparently all the shops in Douglas are having late-night opening every night from now until Christmas.”

  “You know I’m happy to have the children whenever John wants to go.”

  “Yes, but I think he’d prefer to wrap up the murder investigation before he takes a night off. He works all hours when it’s murder.”

  “That could cause difficulties in any relationship.”

  “I know. In some ways I can see why Sue got frustrated. I’m sure it was very difficult when the children were small, especially. I understand what John does better than she probably did, and I still find myself getting angry when he has to cancel plans at the last minute or simply can’t make any because he’s too busy.”

  “You should give that a lot of thought before you have your chat with him.”

  “I’ve been giving it a lot of thought. Ultimately, whatever difficulties there will be, I still care about him a great deal. He’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a man, aside from not being a multi-millionaire.”

  Bessie laughed. “Money can’t buy happiness.”

  “No, I know, especially now that I have more than I ever wanted and all it’s doing is making me miserable.”

  Bessie opened her mouth to reply, but Doona held up a hand.

  “That isn’t right. I’m not miserable, exactly. I just find the money worrying in ways I never imagined I would. I want to use it wisely, but I’m not sure how to do that, so I just keep leaving it where it is, earning a bit of interest, while I sit, frozen, worrying.”

  “I’m sure Doncan will have many different ideas for you.”

  “That’s just it. He has dozens of ideas, but I can’t seem to bring myself to choose one. He’s been brilliant, he really has, but the money is mine and he can’t bring himself to come right out and tell me what he thinks I should do.”

  “He was the same with me, or rather, his father was, all those years ago when I first inherited Matthew’s estate. He made several suggestions and then left it up to me to decide.”

  “How did you choose?”

  Bessie shrugged. “My first priority was getting away from my parents. I blamed them for Matthew’s death, and I was still living with them, which had become unbearable. I told Doncan to find me a house, any house. He found three in what he considered my budget. I very nearly bought a cottage in Port St. Mary, you know. It was lovely, much larger than Treoghe Bwaane was, at least in those days before I added the extensions.”

  “Why didn’t you buy that cottage, then?”

  “It was in the centre of a row of other cottages on a long road with houses all around. I loved the cottage, but not having so many neighbours. There were sea views, but only at a distance from one or two of the rooms, as well. Even so, I was ready to make an offer, but Doncan brought me to Treoghe Bwaane last and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was meant to be mine.”

  “It suits you.”

  “I believe it does. The name felt just right after what I’d been through, and being right on the beach was a huge bonus. The nearest neighbour was about where the third or fourth holiday cottage is now, which was quite close enough for me.”

  “I can’t imagine you living anywhere else.”

  “No, I can’t either. I do wonder, as I get older, if I’ll need to move one day into other accommodations. I hope not.”

  “I’ll do whatever I can to help you stay at Treoghe Bwaane.”

  “Thank you. I don’t want to be silly about it, but it’s home and I don’t want to leave if I can avoid doing so. I was thinking that I might turn the dining room into a bedroom at some point if the stairs get to be too much, but that’s for many years in the future.”

  “Here’s Hugh,” Doona said, nodding at the parking area behind them.

  Bessie got down off the rock and followed Doona across the sand. Hugh had climbed out of the car and walked around to the passenger door. He helped Grace out and then opened the rear door. Bessie grinned as Grace pulled a car seat out of the back.

  “You brought Grace and the baby,” she said happily when she and Doona reached Hugh.

  “I did. Grace needed to get out of the house for an hour or two and we didn’t want to leave the baby behind.”

  “You know you’re all welcome, any time,” Bessie told him.

  She let everyone into the cottage. Grace looked tired, but happy as she sat down and began unhooking the baby from the seat.

  “That looks complicated,” Doona remarked.

  “It isn’t that bad,” Grace told her. “I’m starting to get the hang of it, anyway. I haven’t taken the baby very many places yet, so I haven’t had many chances to practise.”

  She lifted the baby out and then pulled her close. “We’re at Aunt Bessie’s house,” she said. “She lives just down the beach from us and she and Daddy have known each other for all of Daddy’s life. She helped turn Daddy into the man he is today and we love Aunt Bessie because she did such a good job.”

  Bessie flushed. She would have replied if John hadn’t knocked on the door just then. As she opened it, she could smell pizza and garlic bread.

  “Hello, everyone,” he greeted them. “I didn’t know Grace and the baby were coming along.”

  “I hope it’s okay,” Hugh said quickly. “They can sit in the other room when we talk about the case, only Grace was desperate to get out of the house.”

  “The early days are difficult,” John said. “I remember Sue telling me that she’d spent twenty minutes talking to the neighbours’ window cleaner one day, just so she could talk to another adult.”

  Grace laughed. “It’s not quite that bad yet, as my mum is still staying with us, but Mum needed a break from the baby and I needed a break from Mum. If we’re in the way here, I can always walk home with the baby while you have your meeting.”

  “It’s only an informal meeting,” John said. “You’re more than welcome to stay and join in the conversation. I won’t be sharing any confidential information.”

  Grace grinned. “I’ll have to get that from Hugh later.”

  John raised an eyebrow at Hugh, who blushed. “I don’t share confidential information with her,” he muttered.

  “I was only teasing,” Grace said quickly as her cheeks turned pink. “He never tells me anything about his cases. Most of the time I don’t even know which cases are his. I only know about this one because he found the body and that was in the papers.”

  “Let’s eat,” Bessie suggested.

  “Yes, let’s,” Hugh said eagerly.

  John brought an extra chair in from the dining room and they all filled plates with pizza and garlic bread. Doona got everyone cold drinks and then they settled in around the table. Grace held the baby on her lap, balancing her on her knees while she ate.

  “Have you decided on a name yet?” Doona asked.

  Grace sighed. “I know what I want, but some people don’t agree with my choice.”

  “It’s our baby. It should be our decision,” Hugh said.

  “But Mum could be right,” Grace argued. “We don’t want her initials to be EEW, do we?”

  Doona and John both chuckled. “Perhaps you should choose something else for her middle name,” Doona suggested.

  Grace shook her head. “We can’t. Her middle name is going to be Elizabeth. We’re decided on that. I hope that’s okay with you,” she said to Bessie. “We wanted to honour you, and the part you played in Hugh’s upbringing.”

  Bessie flushed. “What a huge honour. I don’t blame your mother for not liking the idea.”

  “Oh, Mum is o
kay with Elizabeth for a middle name,” Grace said. “She knows how important you are to Hugh and also how important you’ve become to me. It’s the first name that we can’t agree upon.”

  “Well, thank you,” Bessie replied. “I’m deeply honoured and a bit overwhelmed.”

  “There must be hundreds of girls named in your honour,” Hugh said. “After everything you’ve done for the children of Laxey over the years, every girl for generations should be Elizabeth.”

  “I think you’re giving me too much credit,” Bessie protested, “But what name are you considering for her first name, then?”

  “I want to call her Ealish,” Grace said. “It’s the Manx form of Alice. Alice in Wonderland was one of my favourite books when I was a child and I always said I was going to name my first daughter Alice. Hugh and I both agreed that we prefer the Manx form, though.”

  “It’s a lovely name,” Doona said.

  “Yes, but the initials are a problem. We don’t want her to be teased at school,” Hugh explained.

  “You could always spell Ealish with two a’s,” Bessie suggested.

  “E-a-a-l-i-s-h?” Hugh asked.

  “No, A-a-l-i-s-h,” Bessie corrected him.

  “Can you do that?” Grace asked.

  “Of course you can. I’ve seen it both ways in old records. Anyway, she’s your baby. You can spell her name however you’d prefer,” Bessie replied.

  “What do you think?” Grace asked Hugh.

  “I think it will take me ages to learn to spell it correctly, but I like it,” he replied. “She shouldn’t have any trouble with AEW as her initials, should she?”

  “No more so than any other child,” Grace sighed. She looked down at the baby who was fast asleep in her lap. “What do you think? Should we call you Aalish?”

  The baby squirmed slightly and something like a smile flitted across her lips. Grace smiled. “I’m sure that’s a yes,” she said happily.

  “I’m sure that’s wind,” Hugh replied. “The doctor said she wouldn’t begin smiling properly for six weeks or more.”

  “What does he know?” Grace retorted. “She smiled when I said her name. I’m sure of it.”

  “I thought it was a smile,” Doona said.

  “Definitely,” Bessie agreed.

  Grace beamed. As she reached for her drink, the baby shifted again and then began to scream loudly.

  “I think she’s hungry,” Grace said over the sudden uproar. “I’ll just take her in the sitting room and feed her.”

  “She’s lovely, but she’s very loud,” Doona said as Grace disappeared into the sitting room.

  “That was nothing,” Hugh said proudly. “You should hear her when she really gets going.”

  “I think I’d rather not,” Doona laughed.

  They finished their pizza and drinks and then waited for Grace to return before Bessie got out the cookies. She piled several dozen onto a plate while Grace handed the sleeping baby to Hugh. As everyone else helped themselves to cookies, Grace quickly cleared her dinner plate.

  “So what happened at the memorial service?” Hugh asked around a bite of cookie.

  “Hugh, don’t speak with food in your mouth. You’ll teach Aalish bad habits,” Grace admonished.

  “Aalish is fast asleep,” Hugh countered.

  “Babies are like sponges. They’re always learning,” Grace told him.

  Hugh took a sip of his drink and then turned to John. “What happened at the memorial service?” he asked again.

  John chuckled and then told him what he’d missed. Hugh made a few surprised noises during some of the more interesting parts, but he didn’t interrupt.

  “It doesn’t sound as if anything happened after Doona and I left, anyway,” Bessie said when John was done.

  “Nothing as dramatic as the things that happened while you were there,” John replied. “Oliver left right after you two did. Dylan stayed long enough to try to pull one of the girls who worked for another charity that had once employed Phillip. He was a bit too persistent, and I had to threaten to arrest him in order to get him to leave her alone.”

  “My goodness, how awful,” Grace said.

  John nodded. “I’ve given her my number in case he gives her any more trouble. I also gave him a stern lecture about such behaviour. I hope he listened.”

  “He didn’t seem very bright,” Doona interjected.

  “That’s no excuse,” Bessie snapped.

  “I wasn’t making excuses for him,” Doona told her. “I just doubt anything John said to him made any impression at all.”

  “I’m going to follow up with him tomorrow,” John replied. “I have some more questions for both him and Oliver. I’ll combine that with another little chat about boundaries and respect for women.”

  “What do you need to talk to them about?” Bessie asked.

  “It’s mostly just a general follow-up, but I’d also like to pin down exactly when they each last spoke to Phillip. They were both vague at the service, which was fine under the circumstances, but they were also vague when I interviewed them the first time. Now I want to push them a little bit.”

  “Do you think Oliver did tell Phillip about Nicole wanting to speak to him?” Bessie asked.

  “That’s one possibility,” John said. “Something brought Phillip back to the island. His mother admitted to begging him to return, and according to her, he refused. Whatever brought him back had to be something serious.”

  “Everyone insists that he was still angry with Nicole. Why would he come back for her?” Grace asked.

  “Maybe she said she was in trouble,” Hugh replied. “If he’d never stopped loving her, in spite of everything, maybe she managed to convince him that she needed his help.”

  “That’s a possibility, for sure,” John said. “Sue and I are divorced and I’d still drop everything if she needed me. Part of that has to do with the children, of course. Whatever else happens, she’ll always be the mother of my children.”

  Bessie glanced at Doona, who looked sad. As far as Bessie knew, Doona had never wanted children of her own, although she seemed to be adapting very well to helping with John’s. Hearing that John still cared about Sue had to hurt, though.

  “I can’t imagine Grace and I not being together,” Hugh said. “If she found someone else, I’d probably do the same as Phillip and run away. Except I couldn’t leave Aalish behind, so I suppose I’d have to stay and simply be miserable for the rest of my life.”

  Grace shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Anyway, if Grace had refused to marry me, I may well have left the island,” Hugh continued. “The memories would have been very painful.”

  “Would you have come back if your mother begged you to visit?” Doona asked.

  Hugh shrugged. “Mum and I have had our difficulties over the years. I’m not sure how I’d feel about that.”

  “What if Bessie begged you to visit?” John asked.

  “I’d come back for Bessie,” Hugh said firmly. “If she needed me, I’d be here, no matter what else I was feeling.”

  Bessie patted his hand. “Have another cookie,” she suggested.

  Hugh grinned and took a cookie from the plate. He took a big bite and then frowned as a bit dropped onto the baby’s head. When he tried to pick up the crumbs, he seemed to smash them into Aalish’s very fine baby hair.

  “Oh, goodness, you’re making a mess of that,” Grace laughed. She leaned over and took the baby from Hugh just as Aalish began to wake up, her tiny face seemingly scrunched in confusion.

  “Would you like a comb?” Bessie asked as Grace tried to pick crumbs and melted chocolate out of the baby’s hair.

  “I’m not sure it would help,” Grace sighed. “I think we may have to give her a bath.”

  “Oh, no,” Hugh said.

  “I thought babies loved baths,” Doona said.

  “They usually do when they’re older,” John told her. “When they’re old enough to splash in the w
ater and maybe have a few bath toys in the tub with them. When they’re very small, like Aalish, they often hate the whole experience, though. It’s probably rather scary for them, having all their clothes removed and then being dunked into a big tub of water. I don’t blame them for crying, really.”

  “I don’t blame her for crying, but when she does I feel awfully guilty,” Hugh said, “and this is all my fault for dropping crumbs on her, too.”

  Bessie went into the bathroom and found a flannel. She wet it with warm water and brought it out to Grace. “Try this,” she suggested. “It won’t be perfect, but it should help.”

  It only took Grace a few seconds to clean away the worst of the mess. Aalish made faces as Grace worked, waiting until she was finished to begin crying loudly.

  “I’m done,” Grace told her. “You’ve nothing to cry about now.”

  “She probably wanted to eat the cookie,” Doona suggested.

  Grace laughed. “Maybe she takes after her father,” she said, grinning at Hugh, who was reaching for another treat.

  “Does anyone have any ideas about the murder based on the conversations from today’s memorial service?” John asked after the baby was soothed.

  “I didn’t care for Liam,” Doona said. “The fact that he came to the service just to spy on Nicole shows that he doesn’t trust her. I don’t know if he’d kill for her, though.”

  John shrugged. “I’m going to be talking to him and Nicole again tomorrow. At this point, I’m going to be going back through all of the witnesses, actually.”

  “I went to see Dan Ross this morning,” Bessie said, somewhat sheepishly.

  “Why?” John asked, looking surprised.

  “Some of the things that Madison said about Oliver bothered me. I thought maybe Dan could do some looking into The Liliana Fund. I tried to persuade him that he should write a series of articles about the island’s charities, but he was smart enough to realise that it was Oliver and The Liliana Fund that were my concern.”

  “Do you think Oliver is doing something illegal?” John asked.

  Bessie shrugged. “I’m probably seeing things that aren’t there, but Phillip’s parents said something about Phillip trying to track down some of the grant recipients that The Liliana Fund had helped over the years. What if he couldn’t find some of them?”