The Bennett Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Book 2)

by Diana Xarissa

  “I’m not sure what your aspirations have to do with us,” Janet said.

  “As the owners of the village’s premier bed and breakfast establishment, surely you are both deeply interested in the sorts of shops and restaurants that Doveby Dale has to offer,” he intoned.

  “As we aren’t actually open for business yet, I suppose the thought had yet to cross our mind,” Janet replied. Although the man was hugely annoying, she still had no idea what he’d said to upset Joan.

  “Yes, well, I suggest you start paying attention to what’s happening in the village,” William told her. “The wrong sort of shops could be seriously detrimental to your guesthouse. You don’t want to start attracting the wrong sort of people, now do you?”

  Janet forced herself to smile. “Thank you for the advice,” she said. “If that was all you needed, I’ll see you out. Joan and I are quite busy. I’m sure you understand.”

  “Oh, but that isn’t why I’m here at all,” William replied. “I came to buy some books. I was told that you have a small library full of old books, and I need some. I’m opening a very exclusive antique shop, you see, and I want to scatter a few old books among the bookshelves and desks that I’ll have for sale.”

  Well, that explained Joan’s upset, Janet thought. The library was a large part of the reason why they’d purchased Doveby House in the first place. Both women were hugely fond of the space, even if they had yet to go through the books that had been included in the sale of the house.

  “Were you looking for any particular books or authors?” Janet asked, curious what the man was planning.

  “Oh, goodness, no,” William exclaimed. “I just need about eighteen inches worth of old hardcover books, that’s all.”

  “You want to buy books by the inch?” Janet asked, incredulously.

  “Sure, why not?”

  Janet exchanged looks with her sister. “I’m sorry, but we aren’t planning on selling any of the books in our library,” she said after a moment. “We haven’t been here long enough to even begin to catalogue what we have. There’s certainly no way we could just choose a random selection and sell it to you.”

  “I won’t be opening for business for several weeks yet,” the man said. “If you find some books you don’t want, do let me know.”

  He reached into a pocket and pulled out a silver card case. “My card,” he announced as he handed a card to Janet. She glanced at it and then put it down on the closest table.

  “If I were you, I’d start looking elsewhere for books,” she advised as she walked with him to the door. “I can’t imagine we’ll want to get rid of any of ours.”

  “What an unpleasant man,” Janet said to Joan after she’d locked the door behind their unexpected visitor.

  “He was worse before you came in,” Joan told her. “He started out by giving me a lecture about all of the things we’re doing wrong here and then he demanded that I show him the library.”

  “My goodness, I’m glad I came in when I did,” Janet said. She crossed the room and gave Joan a hug. “Let’s look on the bright side, maybe he’s Peter Smith.”

  Joan chuckled. “Now I’m feeling quite torn,” she replied. “I was hoping Leonard would turn out to be the conman so that he’d go away, but now I do rather hope it is William Chalmers. I hate the thought of him having a business in Doveby Dale.”

  Another knock on the door interrupted their conversation.

  “If it’s him again, don’t let him in,” Joan told Janet as Janet headed towards the door.

  “I definitely won’t,” Janet said emphatically.

  She was quite happy to see Constable Parsons on their doorstep. “I do hope you’ve come to tell us that Peter Smith is once again safely behind bars,” she said after they’d all taken seats in the sitting room.

  “Unfortunately not,” he replied. “I just wanted to check in on your two. It rather worries me, the two of you living here on your own.”

  “Did you worry about Maggie Appleton?” Joan asked sharply. “She was completely on her own.”

  “Maggie nearly always had a husband here with her,” he replied. “They never seemed to last long, but she always had a replacement ready when one left. Anyway, there was no doubt in my mind that Maggie could take care of herself.”

  “And you don’t think we can do the same?” Janet asked before Joan could start shouting.

  “I’m not saying that,” the young man said, flushing. “But with Peter Smith possibly in the area, I just thought it would be wise to check on you, that’s all.”

  “That’s kind of you,” Janet told him, shooting Joan a “keep quiet” look. “We’ve been meaning to ring you anyway. We’ve met a few more men that could fit Mr. Smith’s description.”

  The constable pulled out his notebook. “We are still checking, very discreetly, into the two men you told me about last time,” he told them. “As it’s very likely both men are exactly who they claim to be, we don’t want to upset them.”

  “Yes, well, perhaps you should do the same with James Abbott, who is staying with the Longs. He’s meant to be a step-brother-in-law or some such thing to Mary Long,” Janet said.

  Robert made a note. “Someone mentioned that the Longs had a guest, but they didn’t have any details.”

  “The other man who bears some investigating is a Mr. William Chalmers,” Joan said. “He claims to be opening an antique shop in the village, and he’s thoroughly unpleasant.” She handed Robert the card that William had given to Janet.

  “Perhaps he’s the man who’s leased the old greeting card and gift shop on the high street,” Robert replied. “It’s been empty for a few years, and I noticed the other day that someone had cleared some of the mess out of it. I’ll have to stop by and introduce myself to him.”

  “I doubt he’s doing the work himself,” Janet said. “He doesn’t seem the type to clean anything.”

  Robert nodded and made another note on his pad. “Thank you for the information,” he said. “I do hope you’re both locking your bedroom doors at night while you have a guest.”

  “We are,” Janet assured him. “And we both double-check all of the outside doors before we head to bed as well.”

  “Modern security systems are quite useful,” he suggested. “You could track movement around the inside of the house as well as monitoring the exterior doors and windows.”

  “I’m not sure our guests would feel especially welcome if we told them that they couldn’t move about the house after a certain time at night,” Joan replied. “Part of the whole bed and breakfast experience is feeling like you’re staying in a home rather than a hotel. If someone fancies a midnight snack or wants to watch a bit of telly after Janet and I are in bed, they should be able to move around without ringing alarms or bringing the police.”

  “I suppose that makes sense,” the man conceded.

  “You really mustn’t worry about us,” Joan told him. “We’re a lot tougher than we look.”

  “I’m sure you are,” Robert replied, but he didn’t look convinced.

  “Maybe I should take some karate classes or something,” Janet said after she’d locked up behind the policeman.

  “I wonder if we could,” Joan replied, surprising her sister.

  “Seriously?”

  “It’s something to think about.”

  Joan disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Janet blinking in astonishment. Retirement was changing her older sister in all sorts of ways. After a moment, she followed Joan into the kitchen.

  “The coach house is open, which means Stuart and James are still working in the garden,” Joan said. “I thought I would take them some tea.”

  “I’ll help,” Janet offered.

  Joan arranged a pot of tea on a tray, with milk and sugar in tiny containers. She added two cups while Janet piled biscuits onto a small plate. Joan carried the tray, while Janet opened the French doors for her. They crossed the garden to the coach house where Stuart stored some of his gardening
equipment.

  “Hello? Stuart? Are you here?” Joan called as they approached the coach house door.

  Stuart’s head popped out of the coach house. “We’re in here, trying to reorganise some hose pipes,” he replied.

  “We’ve brought you some tea and biscuits,” Joan said. “You’ve been out here all morning.”

  Joan and Janet walked into the coach house, which was dimly lit by a single bulb. Joan set the tray down on a rickety table near the door.

  “One of these days we have to start clearing this place out,” Janet said, looking around the large, dirty, and cluttered single room.

  “We certainly do,” Joan replied. “We’ve been too busy with the house thus far.”

  “I hope you aren’t planning to fix it up as a guest room,” Stuart said. “It’s handy having storage space for my tools and things.”

  “We just need to clear out the junk and then clean the whole room,” Joan told him. “I can’t imagine we’ll ever use it for anything more than storage.”

  “I saw you had a visitor,” James emerged from a dark corner in the room. “Who was that, then?”

  “The local police constable,” Janet told him. “He was just checking in on us.”

  “That was kind,” the man said. “He’s gone now, though?”

  “Yes. I think he was off to Little Burton, actually,” Janet said. “He covers both villages, you see.”

  “Hmmm,” the man mumbled around a biscuit.

  Stuart and James quickly finished the plate of biscuits and the pot of tea while Janet and Joan looked around the coach house. Janet opened a few boxes that were stacked in one corner and found books.

  “We should take these in and go through them,” she said to Joan.

  “We still have to sort out the ones in the library, not to mention the boxes of books we brought with us from our old cottage,” Joan pointed out. “These have been in here for some time. We can go through them after we’ve figured out a system for cataloguing what we already have.”

  Janet nodded reluctantly. Joan was right, but somehow these books, hidden away in the coach house, seemed more interesting than the ones neatly shelved in the library.

  “We’d better get back to work,” Stuart said. “Thank you for the tea break.”

  “Any time,” Joan told him. She picked up the tray and she and Janet headed back towards the house. Janet could hear the men talking in low voices as they walked away, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying.

  In the kitchen, Joan pulled out some cold cuts and bread for sandwiches. “I’ll cook something nice for dinner,” she said. “I hope a light lunch is okay.”

  “It’s fine,” Janet agreed. She wasn’t really hungry. Her mind was on too many other things.

  “I’ll make a steak and kidney pie for later,” Joan said. “Is Edward going to be joining us?”

  “I don’t know,” Janet snapped. “He certainly didn’t tell me his plans.”

  Joan patted her arm. “Never mind. I’ll make two pies so we’re sure to have plenty. If it’s just the two of us, I can freeze the second one for a rainy day.”

  After their lunch, Joan got to work on the pies while Janet made her way back to the library. She spent several minutes twisting and turning the dial on the wall safe that they’d discovered, occasionally attempting to open the door. It was a pointless exercise and she knew that, but she couldn’t stop herself from trying.

  The letters in the desk seemed to be calling to her, teasing her and tempting her to read them. She felt a curious mix of curiosity and dread whenever she thought about the letters from Edward.

  They may not even be from Edward Bennett, she told herself, as she headed towards the desk. Edward is a common name, after all. She sat down in the desk chair and pulled open the bottom desk drawer. The folders were right where she’d left them, and she quickly found the one that she was looking for.

  “Here goes nothing,” she muttered to herself as she opened the folder.

  Half an hour later she shut the folder and pushed it away from her. While the letters were less explicit than she’d feared, it was clear from reading them that Edward and Maggie had been lovers. What she couldn’t be certain of was whether this Edward was Edward Bennett. All of the letters were simply signed “Edward” or even just “E,” which was no help.

  They were fairly short and said little more than how much Edward missed Maggie and what he was planning to do with her when he saw her again. If the author had deliberately tried to avoid providing any information about himself, he couldn’t have done a better job of it.

  Already feeling uncomfortable about reading someone else’s private correspondence, Janet opened the next folder and read through some far more graphic notes from someone called Simon. There were only a few of them, but the content left her blushing. They also gave her a surprising amount of information about Simon. While the letters weren’t long, Simon managed to mention his job (dentist), where he lived (Bristol), and with whom he lived (his wife, who didn’t understand him).

  Janet felt struck by the contrast between Simon’s correspondence and Edward’s. She sighed and shook her head. Maybe she was creating something from nothing. The Edward in the letters might not be the Edward who was staying with them anyway. She put all of the folders back in the bottom desk drawer and stood up. She’d be better off helping Joan fix dinner than sitting here snooping through Maggie’s past.

  Chapter Eight

  Joan already had the pies in the oven, so Janet decided to curl up with a book for a short while. She felt unsettled and a bit cross with the world. By the time Joan called her down from her room for dinner, she was feeling a bit more like herself. She’d lost herself in one of her favourite classic detective stories and now felt as if Sherlock Holmes would be most welcome at the moment. No doubt he’d be able to open the library safe and spot Peter Smith with no difficulty whatsoever.

  When Janet joined Joan in the kitchen, the two pies had just come out of the oven.

  “They look wonderful,” Janet said. “And they smell even better.”

  “I am rather pleased with them,” Joan admitted. “The crust has browned quite nicely. I wasn’t sure about this oven, but it does a very nice job.”

  “Something certainly smells good,” a voice boomed from the front of the house.

  The sisters exchanged glances. Edward had a key to the front door, but the voice sounded like Michael’s, and he did not. A moment later, all was revealed as Edward, Michael and Leonard all appeared in the kitchen.

  “I was coming up the walk just as Michael was about to knock,” Edward explained. “I figured I might as well let them in.”

  Janet glanced at Joan. From the look on Joan’s face, Edward’s decision hadn’t been a good one.

  “Of course,” Janet said loudly before her sister could speak. “We’re always happy to see Michael.”

  “And his friends,” Joan added icily. “I thought you two had plans for today.”

  “We changed our minds,” Michael said. “We decided we’d rather stay closer to home. I came over to see if you both wanted to join us for dinner.”

  “As I’ve just finished cooking, it’s a bit late for that,” Joan replied.

  “I see that,” Michael said. “And I smell it as well. Those pies smell beautiful.”

  “Thank you,” Joan said shortly.

  Janet could tell that the compliment had done little to soften her sister’s annoyance with the man. Of course, the polite thing to do would be to invite them all to stay for dinner, but Janet was hesitant to upset her sister further. She glanced at Joan and raised her eyebrows. For a moment it seemed as if Joan was going to pretend not to understand the unspoken question, but then Joan sighed deeply.

  “We’ve plenty if everyone would like to stay for dinner,” she said in a grudging tone.

  “Thank you kindly,” Michael said. “We’d love to, wouldn’t we, Leonard?” Leonard grunted something that didn’t exactly convey enth
usiasm.

  “Am I invited as well?” Edward asked, taking Janet’s hand to get her attention.

  “As Joan said, we have plenty,” Janet replied, pulling her hand away and ignoring the tiniest bit of regret as she did so.

  “You’d better get yourselves settled in the dining room,” Joan said. “Janet and I will serve.”

  “I’ll help,” Michael said. “It’s the least I can do.”

  Joan opened her mouth and then snapped it shut. “In that case, Janet, you go and get everyone settled in the dining room. Michael and I will serve.”

  Janet led Edward and Leonard into the dining room. Janet quickly laid the table with cutlery from the sideboard and then they all took seats. Leonard sat across from Edward, who’d taken the chair next to Janet’s once she’d sat down.

  “Maybe we could go down to the pub for a drink after dinner?” Edward asked Janet.

  “I think, after this lovely meal, I’ll be too tired to go out,” Janet replied. Determined to change the subject, she smiled at Leonard. “I do hope you’re enjoying your visit with Michael,” she said brightly.

  “It’s fine,” he muttered.

  “What have you two been doing?” Janet asked.

  “Not much,” the man said with a shrug. “I’m here to get away from things at home. I’m not much for sightseeing or whatever.”

  “But there are some lovely old castles and stately homes in the area,” Janet told him. “You should at least visit Chatsworth and Hardwick.”

  Leonard shrugged. “I’m happier just keeping to myself,” he said.

  Janet was trying to think of something else to discuss when the door to the kitchen swung open and Michael entered with several plates full of food. He put one down in the front of Janet and then served Edward and Leonard before returning the kitchen. Only a moment later he was back with plates for himself and Joan. Joan followed with tea for everyone.

  “I hope you don’t mind. It was easier to plate everything in the kitchen,” Joan explained as she took her seat. No one objected.

  For several minutes the room was mostly silent as everyone enjoyed the delicious pies. Joan had added salad to each plate as well, and Janet noticed that Edward was the only man who ate his.