The Moody Case

by Diana Xarissa

  “Oh, hello,” Mr. Weaver said as Janet walked into the sitting room. “I wasn’t sure if I was meant to let you know I was back or not.”

  “We try to keep track, so that we can make sure the house is locked up properly for the night,” Janet told him. “We’re just in the television lounge.”

  “Oh, are you? What are you watching? Maybe I’ll join you.”

  Janet named the programme and the man made a face. “Not really my thing,” he said, “but I may join you anyway. My room is a bit lonely.”

  Janet struggled to keep the polite smile on her face as she checked that the front door was locked and then led the man back to the lounge.

  “Oh, good evening,” he said to Joan. As Janet sat back down next to her sister, the man settled into one of the chairs and leaned back. Within seconds he was snoring.

  “I think he’s been drinking,” Janet said softly.

  “He certainly smells as if he’s been drinking,” Joan replied. “I hope he didn’t drive himself back here.”

  The sisters watched the rest of their show and then the start of the next one. During a commercial break, Joan looked over at Janet.

  “I don’t want to just leave him here,” she said.

  “No, I don’t think that would be a good idea, but I don’t want to wake him, either.”

  “Maybe we should turn the telly up,” Joan suggested.

  Janet turned up the volume until the woman on the screen was shouting about her denture adhesive, but the man in the chair didn’t stir. She turned the sound back down to a more reasonable level and then shrugged.

  “Why don’t you go to bed? I’ll watch the rest of this programme, and then if he’s still sleeping, I’ll wake him.”

  “I’m not leaving you alone with the man,” Joan told her.

  Janet nodded. “Did I tell you that I spoke to Edward earlier?” she asked.

  “No, how is he?”

  “On his way to Oklahoma.”

  “Really? Why?”

  “He wouldn’t say.”

  Joan sighed. “I don’t understand what you see in that man.”

  “He gave me another combination to try for the safe.”

  “Have you tried it?”

  “No, I forgot about it. I left it upstairs.”

  “Maybe you can try it tomorrow,” Joan suggested. “I’ll remind you.”

  “Sure, but we both know it isn’t going to work.”

  A few minutes before ten, Mr. Weaver suddenly began to cough. Janet and Joan exchanged glances as the man jumped out of his chair, coughing and turning red.

  “Are you okay?” Janet asked after a moment.

  “Yes, fine,” he gasped. “Just a tickle.”

  “Let me get you some water,” Joan offered.

  She walked out of the room as the man sat back down.

  “What time is it?” he asked.

  “Ten,” Janet replied.

  “Just in time for the news, then,” he said.

  Janet found the right channel as Joan returned with a glass of water. Mr. Weaver drank it all quickly.

  “Thank you. I’ll just watch the news headlines and then head upstairs, I think.”

  Joan took the glass back to the kitchen as the news began. Janet was only half watching as the newsreader listed the day’s top stories.

  “And more meetings at Number 10 for the prime minister and a number of important advisors,” she said as the picture switched to the scene at Downing Street. Janet watched as an attractive grey-haired man climbed out of a limousine and was escorted into the prime minister’s residence.

  “Wasn’t that…” Joan said from the doorway behind Janet.

  Janet looked over at her and shrugged. If it hadn’t been Edward Bennett on the television, it had been a man who looked exactly like him.

  “Right, I’m off to bed now,” Mr. Weaver said. “I enjoyed watching telly with you ladies. We should do it again another night.”

  Janet and Joan both smiled, and then watched as the man walked out of the room.

  “He’s staggering a bit,” Joan whispered.

  “Let’s hope he manages the stairs. I don’t want him sleeping on the couch down here.”

  Janet switched off the telly and then she and Janet walked to the sitting room. Mr. Weaver was still slowly climbing the stairs to the first floor. Aggie was sitting on the bottom step, staring at the man and looking annoyed.

  Janet swallowed a smile as the kitten caught her eye and seemed to scowl at her.

  “Right, I’ll just walk you up to your room,” Joan said as Mr. Weaver finally cleared the last step.

  “I think I can manage on my own,” Janet replied.

  “I want to be sure that Mr. Weaver is safely tucked up in his room,” Joan told her.

  When they reached the first floor, they discovered that Mr. Weaver was having trouble making his key fit in his door. Joan opened the door for him and then gently pushed him inside, waving away his effusive thanks.

  “Let’s hope he just goes right to sleep,” Joan said at Janet’s door.

  “I’ll ring you if I hear him moving around on the landing,” Janet told her.

  She went into her room and locked the door behind herself and Aggie. They didn’t usually worry about their guests, but they didn’t often have to deal with intoxicated single men, either. In spite of her concerns about Mr. Weaver, Janet slept well, not waking until her alarm went off at seven.

  Chapter 5

  By the time Janet got downstairs the next morning, their guests were already gone.

  “Did Mr. Weaver say anything about last night?” she asked Joan while she was eating the breakfast that Joan had quickly made for her.

  “Not a word. I’m not sure he even remembers what happened. I think he’d had even more to drink than I’d realised. When I walked him to the front door, I noticed that he’d parked his car sideways in the car park.”

  “Sideways?”

  “I think it was more like he’d simply abandoned it once he got into the car park,” Joan amended herself. “It was a good thing he was up and out of the house before Mr. Cole came down, because his car was blocking Mr. Cole’s.”

  “Did you say anything about it to Mr. Weaver?” Janet asked. She knew her sister well enough to know that Joan probably hadn’t been able to keep her mouth shut.

  “I did mention that the police have been stepping up patrols in the area due to a recent rise in drink driving incidents. He went a little pale, but didn’t actually reply.”

  “I hope that’s enough of a warning,” Janet said.

  “It had better be. I intend to ring Robert later and give him Mr. Weaver’s plate number. I’m sure if I ask, he’ll keep an eye out for the man.”

  Janet nodded. “He needs to be stopped before he hurts someone.”

  “But what are you planning to do today?” Joan asked.

  Janet shrugged. “We need to get the guest rooms cleaned before we do anything else, right?”

  “Hopefully they won’t be too bad,” Joan said.

  “It doesn’t even look as if anyone is staying in here,” Janet said as she opened the door to the first guest room. “Mr. Cole is incredibly tidy.”

  “So is Mr. Weaver,” Joan told her. “Take a look.”

  Janet glanced around the second room. “He must have slept on top of the bedclothes,” she said. “I can’t believe he remade the bed this morning.”

  The pair had the rooms cleaned in short order.

  “Maybe we should have men on their own to stay more often,” Janet said as she shut and locked the door to Mr. Cole’s room. “They are considerably less work than most of our couples have been.”

  “Mr. Cole and Mr. Weaver are both here through the weekend. Aside from last night’s, um, incident, they’ve both been very easy guests thus far.”

  “If the guests were all this easy, having the bed and breakfast wouldn’t really seem to be work at all.”

  “I hope you don’t feel as if you’re
working all the time,” Joan said.

  “No, no, not at all,” Janet assured her. “I’m still just struggling to get used to having strangers in the house, that’s all. I don’t really mind staying up to make sure they get home safely, as long as we take it in turns, and I don’t mind cleaning the guest rooms, unless they’re especially untidy guests. And you do breakfast, so I can’t complain about that. The only thing I really don’t like is just the fact that they’re in the house.”

  Joan sighed. “It does feel odd, I’ll admit, and I know I don’t feel it as much as you do because I’m tucked away in my room behind the kitchen on the ground floor. I’m sure it’s worse for you, being just across the hall from the guests at night.”

  “It is strange, but then it’s also strange sharing a room with a ghost. I think maybe I prefer guests to ghosts.”

  Joan shook her head. Janet knew that Joan didn’t really believe in ghosts, although she did refuse to sleep in Janet’s room during a full moon, which suggested that she had her doubts.

  “Anyway, we’ve had the house for just about a year now. I suggest, after our busy summer is over, that we sit down and have a long talk about the business. We need to decide if we want to keep Doveby House or not.”

  Janet’s jaw dropped. She had no idea her sister had ever even considered selling Doveby House. Joan turned and disappeared down the stairs before Janet could manage a reply.

  “What do you think?” she asked Aggie a few minutes later.

  Aggie stared at her for a minute and then curled up on Janet’s pillow and went to sleep. Sighing, Janet headed down the stairs, taking a load of laundry with her. Joan was in the kitchen, baking as usual.

  “I think I might go for a drive,” Janet said after loading her things into the washing machine and starting it going. “I want to enjoy our borrowed car while I have the chance.”

  “Have fun,” Joan told her, “but don’t get too attached.”

  Too late, Janet thought but didn’t say. She went outside and walked down to the cute little car. Patting its bonnet gently, she unlocked the door. “I’m really going to miss you,” she said softly as she climbed behind the steering wheel. “I’m not going to think about that right now, though. Now I’m going to enjoy having you.”

  Janet drove through Doveby Dale and then onwards towards Little Burton. Joan hadn’t said anything about wanting her back at any particular time, so she ignored the time and simply kept driving. When she reached the outskirts of Derby, she pulled into a car park and turned around. Driving back to Doveby Dale, she made various random turns, telling herself that she was exploring the area rather than simply prolonging her journey. When her mobile began to ring, she pulled into a convenient lay-by to answer it.

  “Lunch is ready,” Joan said, sounding slightly annoyed. “I’ve switched your laundry to the tumble dryer, as well.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m just a few minutes outside of Little Burton, which makes me maybe fifteen minutes from home. You go ahead and eat and I’ll reheat mine when I get there.”

  “I’ll wait if it truly will only be fifteen minutes.”

  “I can’t promise that traffic will cooperate, but I’ll do my best.”

  “Don’t do anything reckless.”

  Janet laughed and then ended the call. She’d been driving for a great many years, and the accident on Monday had been her first. She’d never even had so much as a parking ticket, and Joan knew that she was anything but reckless, even if she was hungry and in a hurry.

  She seemed to have most of the roads to herself, right up until she reached Little Burton. As she came around a bend towards the junction near the shops in the village, she found herself at the back of a queue of cars. She had to brake quite suddenly, but slid to a safe stop behind the last car in the queue. After a minute or more, the car in front of hers began to inch forward.

  Eventually, she was able to crawl past the accident that was blocking most of the junction. Police were on the scene, directing traffic around the two cars that both appeared to be badly damaged. As Janet maneuvered her way around broken glass, she noticed the two men who were talking to Robert Parsons.

  Feeling slightly confused, she looked back at the cars. She’d never seen either of them before, so why was Mr. Cole talking to the police? Maybe he was a witness, she thought as she continued on her way. She hadn’t noticed his car anywhere around, but it could have been in a car park nearby. What he was doing in Little Burton was another question that occurred to her as she drove. With her mind whirling, she finally made her way back to Doveby House.

  Joan didn’t even look up from the sink as Janet walked into the kitchen.

  “There was an accident in Little Burton,” Janet said. “I think Mr. Cole was involved in some way, but I’m not sure how. His wasn’t one of the cars involved, anyway.”

  “I’m surprised you know what car he drives,” Joan said as she began to fill plates with steaming hot servings of shepherd’s pie.

  “I noticed both his and Mr. Weaver’s cars the night they arrived,” Janet said. “I thought Mr. Weaver was too old for such a sporty little car, but maybe he bought it to make himself feel better after his wife left. Mr. Cole’s seemed exactly like him, almost nondescript. Neither of the cars that crashed in Little Burton was even similar.”

  “Did it look as if anyone was hurt?” Joan asked as she handed Janet a cup of tea.

  “Not from what I could see. Robert was there with a pair of constables I didn’t know. They were directing traffic while Robert was talking to two men. One of them was Mr. Cole, but I don’t know who the other man was. I didn’t see an ambulance, but maybe it had already come and gone before I arrived.”

  “I suppose that’s possible,” Joan said. “How badly damaged were the cars?”

  “It looked as if one drove into the back of the other,” Janet told her. “The driver of the first car should have been okay, but I don’t know about the driver of the second car.”

  “But there was more damage than from our accident?”

  “Oh, yes, quite a bit more. The front of the second car was all smashed up and the windscreen was shattered. I couldn’t see much of the back of the first car, but it must have been just as bad.”

  “I wonder if you should ring Robert,” Joan said thoughtfully.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. I just always feel as if ringing Robert is a good idea. Maybe you could tell him that you wanted to check on Mr. Cole.”

  “Robert is probably still busy at the scene of the accident. I’d hate to bother him. Anyway, he’d probably think that I’m being nosy.”

  “He already knows you’re nosy,” Joan told her. “I think it’s perfectly legitimate for us to be concerned about our guests.”

  “Maybe I’ll ring him later. I’m sure he’s still in Little Burton trying to sort everything.”

  “Speaking of ringing, we haven’t heard anything from Mack yet. Didn’t he say he’d ring once he’d seen how much work our car will actually need?”

  “He did,” Janet agreed. “I’ll ring him after lunch.”

  Joan let Janet have a few biscuits for pudding after Janet had loaded the dishwasher. When the kitchen had been tidied, Janet picked up the phone.

  “This is Mack. I’m sorry I’m away from my desk right now. Please leave a message and I’ll ring you back.”

  Janet sighed. “Hi, Mack. It’s Janet Markham. I was just ringing to check on our car, that’s all. Ring me back when you have time.” She rattled off their phone number and then put the phone down.

  “What should we do now?” she asked Joan.

  “Curl up with a good book,” Joan suggested.

  Janet didn’t wait for Joan to have second thoughts. Instead, she headed straight to the library and grabbed the first book she saw. She curled up in her favourite chair and had just opened the book when Joan stuck her head into the room.

  “What about that combination?” she asked Janet.

  “Oh, bother. I ju
st got comfortable, too,” Janet sighed. She put the book down and got to her feet. “I just know this is a waste of time, as well.”

  “Perhaps I should have a word with Mr. Bennett the next time he rings,” Joan said.

  Janet laughed. “He’d probably give you the right combination straight away, especially if you use your angry teacher voice.”

  “I intend to do just that.”

  Janet was still chuckling as she climbed the stairs to her room. She’d left the scrap of paper on her desk, but it didn’t seem to be where she thought it should be. It took her several minutes to search through the piles of papers on her desk. The combination simply wasn’t there.

  “What did I do with it?” she asked Aggie.

  Aggie opened one eye and then rolled over and went back to sleep.

  Janet sat down on the bed and tried to think. She could picture herself talking to Edward. He’d given her the numbers and she’d jotted them down. She remembered dropping the paper on the desk and then thinking she would probably forget about it if she left it there.

  “I put it in my pocket,” Janet exclaimed, earning another quick look from Aggie. She checked her pockets, but they were both empty, of course, because she’d put on clean clothes that morning. Everything she’d been wearing the previous day had gone into the laundry basket, and everything in the laundry basket had gone into the washing machine.

  Janet raced down the stairs, past a confused-looking Joan, and into the laundry room at the back of the house. She opened the tumble dryer and began to pull things out of it. The trousers she’d been wearing the previous day were near the bottom of the machine. Sighing deeply, she pulled a washed and dried note from the pocket.

  “I take it that’s the combination,” Joan said from the doorway.

  “It was the combination,” Janet corrected her. She unfolded the sheet of paper and sighed again. The washing machine had washed away everything that had been written on it.

  “Maybe we really don’t want to know what’s in that safe,” Joan said with a rueful grin.

  “Maybe I should ring Edward and ask him again. Except I can’t, because he’s in stupid Oklahoma, wherever that is.”

  “You know where that is. You taught geography for years.”