Aunt Bessie Solves

by Diana Xarissa

  “I’m fairly certain I know what happened to her,” Andrew replied. “Now it’s just a matter of gathering evidence. You’ve been a big help. Thank you.”

  “What did I say?” the woman demanded. “What do you think happened to Jeanne?”

  Andrew smiled. “I’m sorry, but I can’t possibly comment on an active police investigation. I’m pretty sure you’ll hear something soon.”

  “You can’t possibly suspect that I had anything to do with Jeanne’s death,” Mabel said.

  “I didn’t say any such thing,” Andrew replied in a reassuring tone.

  “I didn’t, you know. I would never have done anything to hurt her.”

  “Of course not,” Andrew said, “but someone did kill her and I think I know who that someone was.”

  Mabel nodded tightly and then turned and took a step away. When she turned back around, Bessie could see tears in the woman’s eyes. “Was it Howard?” she whispered.

  “As I said, I can’t comment on an active investigation,” Andrew repeated himself.

  Mabel took a deep breath. “I never thought, I mean, I never wanted to believe, that is, I can’t quite imagine…” she trailed off and looked at the floor. “He and Jeanne knew each other before I met him,” she said in a disbelieving tone.

  “That’s certainly something we’re investigating,” Andrew told her.

  “They were trying to kill me,” she said softly.

  “Maybe we should have this conversation down at the station,” Andrew suggested.

  Mabel shook her head. “I don’t want to talk to the police. You can tell them what I tell you. Howard insisted that he never meant to hurt anyone, but I’ve always wondered. We were having drinks with Jeanne that Friday night. I started feeling really sleepy after my first glass of wine. I fell asleep and when I woke up, Howard and Jeanne were fighting. I didn’t understand what they were saying, but now it makes more sense. They were planning to kill me for the insurance money.”

  Tears were streaming down Mabel’s face as she talked. Bessie stood up and handed her a tissue. She patted the woman’s back as Mabel wiped her eyes.

  “As I said, I believe the police should hear this,” Andrew said.

  “Jeanne was telling Howard that it was too soon, that if it looked like suicide, the insurance wouldn’t pay. She just kept saying ‘they won’t pay,’ and I didn’t realise what she meant until just now. Howard was really angry and he kept talking about years of planning, which didn’t make any sense, either, until today.”

  Andrew pulled out his phone. Bessie knew he had to be ringing John. She patted Mabel’s back. “You need to tell John Rockwell all of this,” she said softly.

  “We’re meant to be going on a walking holiday next month,” Mabel said. “Howard has been poring over the maps, insisting that he really wants to walk on mountains and cliffs and things like that. I told him I don’t like heights, but he keeps insisting.”

  “I’m very sorry,” Bessie told her.

  “I suppose I should be grateful that he hasn’t already killed me,” Mabel sighed. “It seems as if he’s been planning it for six or seven years.”

  She stood still, staring straight ahead for several minutes. Bessie could only imagine what was going through the woman’s mind. Every time she tried to speak to her, Mabel seemed to ignore her. Eventually Bessie stopped trying and simply stood and rubbed her back until the police car pulled up outside.

  “That poor woman,” Bessie said as the car drove away with Mabel in the back.

  “I only talked to John briefly, but he suggested that Howard told him a very different story,” Andrew replied. “Don’t feel too sorry for her until you’ve heard his side of things.”

  Chapter 15

  “Howard has actually given us two versions of events,” John told Bessie and Andrew the next day. “In the first version, he and Mabel teamed up to kill Jeanne, thinking that she’d taken out the life insurance policy that Mabel had suggested to her. It’s one possible solution, but it leaves a few loose ends.”

  “I can’t see Mabel agreeing to kill Jeanne,” Bessie said. “She may just be a very good actress, but she seemed genuinely devastated when she began to realise what had happened five years ago.”

  “You’ll probably like Howard’s second version of events, then,” John said. “In that one, Jeanne wanted to kill Mabel. He insisted that he knew nothing about her plan, even though he did admit that he was the one who’d talked Mabel into buying all of the life insurance. He claimed he only realised what Jeanne was planning when Mabel fell asleep after her first drink that night. Jeanne had several more bottles of tablets and she wanted Howard to help her feed them to Mabel. As he tells it, he refused and then took Mabel home. He claims Jeanne must have taken an overdose herself once they were gone.”

  “How does he explain the missing bottles?” Andrew asked.

  “He can’t. He insists that the bottles were all still there when he left, along with the glasses of wine out of which they’d all been drinking,” John replied.

  “That doesn’t explain what Mabel overheard,” Bessie said.

  “No, and Mabel has been working to remember as much as she can from that night. She’s convinced that Howard was trying to kill her and that Jeanne intervened,” John replied.

  “I’m surprised he didn’t try to kill her again in the last five years,” Andrew remarked.

  “From what we can determine, he may have been planning something for their upcoming trip. While he’s never shown any interest in hiking or mountain climbing before, the entire trip was planned around both activities, even though Mabel didn’t want to do any such thing,” John said.

  “He was probably afraid to do anything too quickly after Jeanne’s death. Having Mabel die in an accident across would have been safer for him,” Andrew said.

  “Poor Mabel. I don’t believe that she was a party to Jeanne’s murder,” Bessie said. “I do wonder about Jeanne, though, whether or not she was part of Howard’s plan to kill Mabel.”

  “I don’t suppose we’ll ever know the answer to that,” John said. “Howard has done his best to implicate her, but he may just be lying to try to save himself.”

  “I wonder if Mabel knows anything about the missing bottles,” Bessie said speculatively. “If Jeanne died on Friday evening, isn’t it possible that she went to visit her over the weekend? Maybe she found the body and took the bottles away for some reason.”

  “It’s an interesting theory,” John said. “I may just have to ask her some very specific questions.”

  “Maybe Jeanne really did commit suicide and Mabel was trying to frame Howard for murder,” Andrew suggested.

  “I’m not sure that Mabel was thinking that clearly,” Bessie replied, “and I’m not convinced that it wasn’t murder. I just suspect that Howard would have been more careful once he’d killed her.”

  “Maybe he set the scene before he took Mabel home and she went back and altered it later,” John said. “As I said, I’ll have to talk to Mabel again.”

  “Meanwhile, Lukas has been in touch again,” Andrew reported. “He’s had a full and seemingly honest confession.”

  “He has?” Bessie demanded.

  “I’ll read you exactly what he wrote in his email,” Andrew said. “He says, ‘I walked into the interview room and looked at the woman at the table. I said ‘Hello, Betty,’ and she burst into tears.’”

  “My goodness, you’d think someone who had killed four people would be able to bluff their way out of that,” Bessie said.

  Andrew shook his head. “From what Lukas said, she’s been waiting for someone to work it out for the last thirty years. He said she’s incredibly thin and unbelievably edgy and nervous. She’s been running from what she did ever since she was released from prison, apparently.”

  “But she did kill the other three women, didn’t she?” Bessie asked.

  “It certainly seems as if she had a hand in at least some of their deaths, yes,” Andrew replied
. “The plane crash may have been an accident, but she did admit that she’d met with Dorothy at the airport before Dorothy and her fiancé were due to leave. Whatever she said to Dorothy caused them to rush away without completing the necessary safety checks which could have been a factor in the accident.”

  “So she killed Cindy and then took her place?” Bessie checked.

  “Yes, although she insists that it was self-defense. The fact that she had the charity already set up in case of her untimely death puts that into question, but as she’s already done her time in prison for Cindy’s death, Lukas isn’t pushing her on it.”

  “Did she tell him why she killed Cindy?” John asked.

  “Cindy was having an affair with Betty’s fiancé,” Andrew replied. “The other three women knew about it. Apparently the plan was to get Cindy to the chalet and confront her about it. Betty insists now that she never wanted to hurt her sister, she just wanted to convince her to end the affair.”

  “But Cindy didn’t agree?” Bessie asked.

  “Betty says that they got into a huge fight and then Cindy went and got the knife and started threatening Betty with it. We’ll never really know what happened, of course.”

  “And she killed the other three to keep them from revealing her true identity?” was Bessie’s next question.

  “Not exactly. According to Betty, the other three women witnessed the fight and knew that Cindy had been killed in self-defense. They were all meant to tell the police the whole story to strengthen Betty’s version of events when she confessed. Instead, they all insisted that they’d been asleep and missed the entire thing. When Betty got out of prison, she decided to make them pay for what they’d done to her.”

  Bessie shuddered. “How awful,” she exclaimed.

  “Lukas is looking into Betty’s father’s death again as well. It seems possible that the pair crossed paths accidentally and that she killed him,” Andrew added. “She hinted at that to Lukas, but wouldn’t answer any questions about it.”

  “I hope he can find enough evidence to charge her with something,” Bessie said. “I’ll sleep better at night knowing she’s behind bars.”

  “As she’s confessed to killing Abby and Flora, I don’t think you need to worry about her getting out of prison anytime soon,” Andrew assured her.

  “And that makes two cases more or less solved,” John said. “Mostly thanks to Bessie.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Bessie said, blushing.

  The two men laughed.

  Bessie and Andrew spent the rest of his holiday sightseeing and enjoying the island. They even found time for a nice dinner with Pete and Helen. When it was time for him to leave, she felt mixed emotions. It had been fun spending time with the smart and handsome man, but it had also taken up a lot of her time and energy. Once he’d driven away, heading for the airport, she returned to Treoghe Bwaane and locked the door behind her. While she’d be happy to see the man again if he came for another visit, for today she was perfectly content on her own in her little cottage by the sea.

  Glossary of Terms

  Manx to English

  fastyr mie - good afternoon

  moghrey mie - good morning

  House Names – Manx to English

  Thie yn Traie - Beach House

  Treoghe Bwaane - Widow’s Cottage

  English to American Terms

  advocate - Manx title for a lawyer (solicitor)

  aye - yes

  bin - garbage can

  biscuits - cookies

  bonnet (car) - hood

  boot (car) - trunk

  car park - parking lot

  chemist - pharmacist

  chips - french fries

  cloakroom - bathroom

  cuppa - cup of tea (informally)

  dear - expensive

  dust sheet - drop cloth

  estate agent - real estate agent (realtor)

  fairy cakes - cupcakes

  fizzy drink - soda (pop)

  hire car - rental car

  holiday - vacation

  jumper - sweater

  lead (for a dog) - leash

  loo - restroom

  midday - noon

  note - paper money

  pavement - sidewalk

  plait (hair) - braid

  poorly - ill

  primary school - elementary school

  pudding - dessert

  pulled - picked up

  starters - appetizers

  supply teacher - substitute teacher

  telly - television

  tills - checkouts (at a shop)

  thick - not very intelligent

  torch - flashlight

  trolley - shopping cart

  windscreen - windshield

  Other Notes

  The emergency number in the UK and the island is 999, not 911.

  CID is the Criminal Investigation Department of the Isle of Man Constabulary (Police Force).

  When talking about time, the English say, for example, “half seven” to mean “seven-thirty.”

  With regard to Bessie’s age: UK (and IOM) residents get a free bus pass at the age of 60. Bessie is somewhere between that age and the age at which she will get a birthday card from the Queen. British citizens used to receive telegrams from the ruling monarch on the occasion of their one-hundredth birthday. Cards replaced the telegrams in 1982, but the special greeting is still widely referred to as a telegram.

  When island residents talk about someone being from “across,” they mean that the person is from somewhere in the United Kingdom (across the water).

  “Ready meals” are prepared and chilled (not frozen) meals that can be easily reheated at home.

  Acknowledgments

  I am especially grateful to everyone who reads and enjoys these books. Thank you for spending time with Bessie and her friends.

  Many thanks to my hard working editor, Denise, who isn’t appreciated nearly enough.

  Thanks to my beta readers, who share thoughtful insights into ways I can improve these works.

  And thanks to my family, who don’t complain (too much) about sharing me with all of my fictional friends!

  Aunt Bessie Tries

  Release Date: January 18, 2019

  Aunt Bessie tries to help her friends.

  After Grace Watterson’s baby shower, Elizabeth Cubbon, known as Bessie to nearly everyone, gets stopped by one of the party guests. Lora White is worried that someone is trying to kill her.

  Aunt Bessie tries to persuade Lora to talk to the police.

  The problem is, Lora isn’t sure whether someone is trying to kill her or not. After hearing Lora’s story, Bessie isn’t certain, either. Besides, Lora doesn’t want to get any of her friends or family members into any trouble.

  Aunt Bessie tries to work out who might be trying to hurt Lora.

  She talks to the woman’s family members and neighbours, but quickly finds herself being drawn more and more deeply into Lora’s life.

  Can Bessie help Lora work out what’s happening? Is someone truly trying to kill Lora, or does the woman simply have an overactive imagination? Is it possible that Lora is creating the incidents herself for some reason? Will Bessie be sorry that she tried to help?

  Also by Diana Xarissa

  Aunt Bessie Assumes

  Aunt Bessie Believes

  Aunt Bessie Considers

  Aunt Bessie Decides

  Aunt Bessie Enjoys

  Aunt Bessie Finds

  Aunt Bessie Goes

  Aunt Bessie’s Holiday

  Aunt Bessie Invites

  Aunt Bessie Joins

  Aunt Bessie Knows

  Aunt Bessie Likes

  Aunt Bessie Meets

  Aunt Bessie Needs

  Aunt Bessie Observes

  Aunt Bessie Provides

  Aunt Bessie Questions

  Aunt Bessie Remembers

  Aunt Bessie Questions

  Aunt Bessie Solves

  Aunt Bessie Triesr />
  The Isle of Man Ghostly Cozy Mysteries

  Arrivals and Arrests

  Boats and Bad Guys

  Cars and Cold Cases

  Dogs and Danger

  Encounters and Enemies

  Friends and Frauds

  Guests and Guilt

  Hop-tu-Naa and Homicide

  Invitations and Investigations

  Joy and Jealousy

  The Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novellas

  The Appleton Case

  The Bennett Case

  The Chalmers Case

  The Donaldson Case

  The Ellsworth Case

  The Fenton Case

  The Green Case

  The Hampton Case

  The Irwin Case

  The Jackson Case

  The Kingston Case

  The Lawley Case

  The Moody Case

  The Norman Case

  The Osborne Case

  The Patrone Case

  The Isle of Man Romance Series

  Island Escape

  Island Inheritance

  Island Heritage

  Island Christmas

  About the Author

  Diana grew up in Northwestern Pennsylvania and moved to Washington, DC after college. There she met a wonderful Englishman who was visiting the city. After a whirlwind romance, they got married and Diana moved to the Chesterfield area of Derbyshire to begin a new life with her husband. A short time later, they relocated to the Isle of Man.

  After over ten years on the island, it was time for a change. With their two children in tow, Diana and her husband moved to suburbs of Buffalo, New York. Diana now spends her days writing about the island she loves.