Aunt Bessie Needs (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 14)

by Diana Xarissa

  “I think it’s time for fairy cakes,” Bessie said.

  Hugh and Doona cleared away the dinner plates while Bessie put the boxes of leftover food into the refrigerator. Once those jobs were done, Bessie handed the bakery box to Pete, who put it in the centre of the table and opened it.

  “Oooohhh,” Doona exclaimed.

  The box was crammed full of fairy cakes covered in swirls of chocolate or vanilla icing. Bessie passed around small plates and everyone helped themselves to a cake or two. Bessie chose a chocolate one and then added a second, yellow one to her plate as well. That was easier than choosing only one, she decided.

  “What about Sidney and Stephanie Harris?” Hugh asked after he’d finished three cakes. “Grace said they were close friends with Humphrey and Julie.”

  “There are a few things about Sidney that make me wonder about him,” Bessie said. “The first is that he recently lost a lot of weight.”

  “Which could mean he’s having an affair or at least thinking about one,” Doona said.

  “But would he sleep with his wife’s closest friend?” Hugh asked.

  “It’s a horrible thought,” Doona said.

  “But it does happen,” John said.

  “According to Alan Rossini, Sidney kept Julie from getting into trouble for being late,” Bessie said. “Would you do that for your wife’s friend or for your lover?”

  “I wouldn’t do it at all,” John told her.

  “No, but it seems Sidney did do it. The question is why,” Bessie said.

  “His wife seemed rather odd,” Doona interjected. “She broke down at the memorial service and she seemed close to the edge today, although she looked more pulled together.”

  “She seems to have taken her friend’s death very badly,” Bessie agreed.

  “What about motive, then?” Hugh asked. “If Sidney was having an affair with Julie, does that give him a motive for killing her?”

  “Maybe, if she was threatening to tell Stephanie,” Doona suggested.

  “But why would she tell Stephanie? If Julie was having an affair, I would have thought the last thing she would want to do is tell anyone. I can’t imagine she’d want Humphrey to find out about it,” Bessie said.

  “Maybe Sidney was tired of her and decided to get rid of her,” Doona said.

  “Surely it isn’t that difficult to simply end a relationship,” Bessie replied.

  “So maybe he fell madly in love with her and decided that if he couldn’t have her, no one could,” was Doona’s next idea. “Or maybe he wanted her to leave Humphrey and she refused.”

  “Both possible,” John said. “We have yet to find any actual evidence that he was having an affair with Julie, or anyone else for that matter.”

  “If he was having an affair with Julie, I can see Stephanie killing her,” Doona said, shuddering. “She seems, well, crazy enough to do it.”

  “Surely she would have killed Sidney if she found out, rather than Julie,” Hugh said.

  “You never know,” Pete said. “I’ve seen angry wives kill their cheating husbands, their husbands’ lovers, or both.”

  Bessie shuddered. “How horrible,” she said. “I think I’m glad I never married.”

  “We really need to work out whether Julie and Sidney were having an affair,” Hugh remarked. “If they were, suddenly everyone has a motive for killing Julie.”

  “If they were involved, they were very discreet,” Pete said. “The remarks from Alan about Sidney letting Julie get away with coming in late are the first hint I’ve heard of anything other than a friendship between them. And he may have been letting her come in late simply because they were friends.”

  “Perhaps you need to talk to Stephanie again,” John suggested.

  “Yes, but that’s easier said than done. She’s been under a doctor’s care since Julie’s death and her husband has been making sure that his advocates are in place whenever I speak to her as well,” Pete replied.

  “Surely that’s suspicious,” Doona said.

  “It could be, but it may not be. Julie and Stephanie became friends when they were both ill, and I understand that they came to rely on one another for support through their treatments. People can become very close in those sorts of stressful situations,” Pete said.

  “Does she have an alibi?” Hugh asked.

  “She and her husband were home alone,” Pete replied. “Although we can’t be certain what time he arrived at home. They’ve both said that she was already in bed when he got there, though, and they both insist that it was earlier than the murder.”

  “Would he lie to protect her if he thought she’d killed Julie?” Doona asked.

  “That’s a very good question,” Pete told her. “Maybe I should have another serious chat with Sidney. If she did do it, he must know or at least have his suspicions.”

  “If I knew my husband had killed someone, or even suspected that he might have done, I certainly wouldn’t lie to the police to protect him,” Doona said stoutly.

  “Me, either,” Hugh said. “But I can’t really see Grace killing anyone.”

  “Surely, if Sidney thinks Stephanie killed Julie, he must be afraid for his own life?” Bessie asked. “I mean, assuming that an affair between Julie and Sidney was Stephanie’s motive.”

  “Yeah, maybe you can check the house and see if he’s locked up all the knives,” Doona suggested.

  Pete sighed. “I quite liked Humphrey Randall. If we’re right with our speculation, he’s going to be even more devastated when he finds out.”

  “The other possibility, of course, is that Julie was killed by mistake,” Bessie said. “I suppose there are two possibilities there, really. One is that the killing was random and the other is that Laura was the intended target.”

  “If the killing was random, we’re wasting our time worrying about motives,” Pete said. “The case will only get solved when someone starts bragging to a mate about how he killed someone in a dark alley or some such thing. There are several things that suggest that it wasn’t random, however.”

  “Someone told me that Julie was lying on her handbag, which had her car keys inside,” Bessie said.

  “She was, and that’s been reported in the papers. If she was killed by someone who wanted her bag, though, I can’t see them being put off simply because she fell on top of it. It wouldn’t have taken more than a few seconds to roll her out of the way, grab the bag, and then run,” Pete said.

  “Or take the car,” John added.

  Pete nodded. “Although stealing cars isn’t very lucrative on the island, really. Either way, it’s unusual for bag snatchers or car thieves to kill their victims.”

  “Maybe they were just going to use the knife to threaten her and their hand slipped or something,” Hugh suggested.

  “I still think if that had happened, that the killer would have grabbed Julie’s bag,” Pete said. “I’m not totally ruling out something random, but I still think this was deliberate murder.”

  “Which just leaves us with Laura to talk about,” Bessie said.

  John sighed. “And that’s the big question, isn’t it?” he asked. “If she was the intended victim, we’re investigating the wrong people.”

  “This is probably going to sound horrible, but if she was the intended victim, surely the killer would have had another go by now,” Doona said.

  “He or she might have been so shocked or upset by what they did or their mistake that they aren’t ready to try again,” Pete suggested.

  “I hope Laura is being extra careful now, as well,” Bessie said.

  “Whoever the intended victim was, the killer was lucky in many ways when he or she killed Julie,” John said. “Julie pulled into the alley and parked illegally. The streetlight was out, which gave the killer some cover, but he or she must have worked very quickly. The body was found within minutes. The killer could easy have been spotted either while he or she was waiting or after the murder.”

  “Maybe it was random, t
hen,” Bessie said.

  “Or someone knew Julie was coming home at that time and was going to leave her car in the alley,” Hugh said.

  “Humphrey knew her plans. According to him, no one else did. He also knew that she usually left her car in the alley when she was planning to go back out, but there’s no reason to suppose that anyone else did,” Pete said.

  “Except it wasn’t exactly a secret. I’ve been told that many of the people who live in the blocks of flats in that neighbourhood do the same thing,” John said. “It wouldn’t be surprising if Julie’s friends knew about it.”

  “Laura said she was deliberately using the alley in case Marcus was watching the front of her building,” Bessie said.

  John nodded. “What did you think of Marcus Porter?” he asked Bessie.

  “He seemed perfectly pleasant,” Bessie said, frowning. “If I didn’t know anything about him, I probably would have liked him.”

  “I’ve spoken to him several times,” Pete said. “And as Laura continues to refuse to speak to me, I’m afraid I’m inclined to doubt her story.”

  Bessie shook her head. “She had a bad experience with the police before,” she explained. “She doesn’t want to go through that again.”

  “I understand that, but it’s difficult to take Marcus Porter seriously as a murder suspect under the circumstances,” Pete told her.

  “I know. I’ll try to talk to her again tomorrow night and see if I can’t persuade her to talk to you or John,” Bessie said. “I can tell you that she seemed genuinely afraid of the man.”

  “Did he seem at all scary to you?” John asked.

  “He seemed perfectly ordinary, but then, so did many of the men and women I’ve met over the last year. Several of them have turned out to be murderers,” Bessie replied.

  “Point taken,” John said. “I’ve been doing as much checking into the man as I can, but there’s only so much we can do when he’s not been charged with anything and he’s only barely connected to the murder inquiry.”

  “He said he doesn’t know where Laura is living, didn’t he?” Doona asked.

  “Yes,” Bessie replied. “He said he sent her a letter through his solicitors, just to let her know he was coming, but he doesn’t actually know where she lives.”

  “It seems quite the coincidence that he’s ended up only a few buildings away from hers,” Hugh said.

  “Not really, when you think about Douglas,” Bessie replied. “If you want to be centrally located in Douglas, your best choice is a flat on the promenade. I think most single professionals who move over here at least look at flats there.”

  “You’re right,” John said. “I was going to rent a flat there when I first came over, before Sue and I found the house in Ramsey. I didn’t think I’d mind the commute, but rents on the promenade were so expensive that it made more sense to buy anyway.”

  “Marcus is working at the corporate headquarters building right down the promenade from his flat,” Doona added. “He’d be silly to live anywhere else.”

  “And Laura chose her flat because it’s close to the Manx Museum,” Bessie said. “It’s just unfortunate that they’re practically neighbours.”

  “If I were Marcus and I wanted to kill Laura, I wouldn’t go to all the trouble of getting a job over here. I’d just come over, kill her, and leave,” Hugh said thoughtfully. “Why uproot your entire life if you just want to kill someone?”

  Bessie shook her head. “It sounds incredibly cold-blooded when you put it that way, but you may be right. Surely if all he wanted to do was kill her, he could simply have done that without relocating.”

  “Maybe he really did get the job and then, once he realised that Laura was here, he decided he’d get rid of her as well,” Doona suggested. “Like maybe he was cutting through that alley on his way home and he saw Julie and thought she was Laura. Maybe he just lost control and stabbed her without realising he had the wrong woman.”

  “It’s one possibility,” John said.

  “That’s the problem with this case,” Pete said. “Too many possibilities.”

  “What do you think happened?” Bessie asked Pete.

  The man shrugged. “I prefer simple solutions,” he said. “I think the killer meant to kill Julie and I suspect the motive had something to do with someone having an affair. That seems the simplest solution.”

  “So you suspect Sidney or Stephanie?” Doona asked.

  “I’m going to talk to both of them again,” Pete replied. “And also to Alan Rossini. I want to hear more about the special privileges that Julie was getting thanks to Sidney.”

  “Is it possible that there’s a motive there?” Hugh asked. “Maybe one of the other customer service representatives got jealous of Julie’s preferential treatment or something.”

  “Or maybe Sidney got tired of getting her out of trouble all the time and decided to get rid of her,” Doona suggested.

  “Nothing has come of the bank’s audit, I assume,” Bessie said.

  Pete shook his head. “Everything has checked out perfectly so far. They should wrap the whole thing up in another few days.”

  “Where does all of this leave us?” Doona wondered. “I don’t know that we’ve done anything more than talk in circles.”

  “You’ve given me some things to think about,” Pete told her. “And some questions to take back to some of our witnesses. Alan Rossini never mentioned that Julie was often late, for instance. It will be interesting to see what Sidney Harris has to say about that.”

  “I’m going to talk to Laura tomorrow night,” Bessie said. “I want to find out whether Marcus really knows her address or not.”

  “Even if he didn’t know it when he sent the letter, he may well know it now,” John pointed out. “You said he knows where she works as well, didn’t you?”

  “He does,” Bessie agreed. “I’m not sure how he found that out.”

  “If Laura did something similar in the UK, maybe he simply guessed at what she’s doing here,” Doona said.

  “And I confirmed it for him,” Bessie said, putting her head in her hands.

  “He could have simply rung the museum and asked for Laura,” Doona said, patting Bessie’s arm. “Anyone there would have happily taken a message for her if she wasn’t there, which would have confirmed it as well.”

  Bessie nodded. “I suppose so, but I really should have been more careful.”

  “It’s a small island,” John said. “And most people are very trusting. It would take very little effort on Marcus’s part to find out where Laura works, where she lives, and who her friends are.”

  “Maybe we should warn Henry,” Doona said. “If Marcus is feeling murderous, maybe he’ll be the next target.”

  “I may try and have a word with him after class tomorrow,” John said. “But I don’t think he’s in any immediate danger.”

  “What about Laura?” Bessie asked.

  John shrugged. “What do you think?” he asked Pete. “You’ve met Marcus Porter.”

  “I don’t think Marcus is an immediate threat to her,” Pete said. “Whatever happened in their marriage, they’ve been apart for some time now. Everything he told Bessie about the job checks out. He was headhunted for it; he didn’t apply. It’s impossible to be certain, of course, but I don’t think she’s in any danger.”

  “You don’t think Julie was killed by mistake,” Bessie said.

  “No, I don’t,” Pete agreed.

  “It sounds wrong to say I hope you’re right, but for Laura’s sake, I hope you are,” Bessie said.

  Pete nodded and then got to his feet. “I’m a firm believer in looking for the easiest solution,” he said. “Let’s hope that approach lets me wrap this case up in the next day or two.”

  John got to his feet as well. “It helps just talking through things, even if we don’t come up with any answers,” he told Bessie. “Thank you.”

  Bessie shrugged. “I’d feel better if we had come up with some answers,” she sa
id.

  Doona collected the pudding plates and then started running water for the washing-up. Bessie picked up the box of fairy cakes that now only held two cakes.

  “Who wants to take these home?” she asked.

  “Why don’t you keep them,” Pete suggested. “And the leftover food as well. You’ll enjoy them tomorrow, won’t you?”

  Bessie hesitated and looked over at Hugh. He grinned at her. “You keep them,” he said. “I promised Grace that we’d go out for dinner tomorrow before class. If I took anything home, it wouldn’t get eaten.”

  “There’s far too much here for just me,” Bessie protested, opening the refrigerator to show the others how many boxes of food were left.

  “I’ll come over and help you eat it before class,” Doona offered.

  “That sounds good,” Bessie agreed.

  Doona and Hugh did the washing-up while Bessie let John and Pete out. By the time she’d watched the two men walk to their cars, Doona was rinsing the last of the pudding plates. Hugh was drying everything as quickly as Doona washed it, so it only took Bessie a few minutes to finish tidying the kitchen. Hugh carried the extra chair back into the dining room while Bessie chatted with Doona.

  “I don’t think we said a single thing in Manx tonight,” Bessie said as she walked her friends to the door.

  “I think I’ve done enough for this week,” Doona told her. “Anyway, I’m too tired now to think of anything other than moghrey mie, and it’s the wrong time of day to say that.”

  Bessie laughed. “I’ll just say fastyr mie and be happy with that,” she said.

  “Fastyr mie,” Hugh repeated as Bessie let them out.

  The night seemed to go past very quickly and Bessie found herself still feeling tired when she woke up at six the next morning. Pulling the duvet up over her head, she tried to force herself to go back to sleep. After tossing and turning for several minutes, she finally gave up. Too many years of conditioning herself to wake at six meant that she couldn’t lie in even when she wanted to, she decided.

  After her shower, she made herself oatmeal for breakfast. She didn’t really like it, but she knew it was good for her and she tried to eat it at least once a week. As she put the mostly full box of oatmeal back in the cupboard after she’d made her breakfast, she noticed that it was due to expire at the end of the month. Clearly she hadn’t been having it regularly enough.