Bessie nodded. They had been all through this, but that didn’t make her any less nervous.
“Hugh and I will both be back and well hidden before anyone else gets here,” Doona said reassuringly.
Bessie nodded and settled comfortably into her chair. “Off you go,” she said, a touch of excitement in her voice. Really, in spite of the danger, she was curious to see if they could flush out the killer.
She listened as Doona walked through the kitchen. A moment later Bessie heard her door open and close and then she heard Doona’s car roar to life. Bessie sighed and closed her eyes. In ten minutes both Doona and Hugh would be back and hiding in the closet and they could all wait and see if the killer turned up.
Bessie eyes flew open a moment later when she heard an unexpected noise. Her front door was opening again. Doona and Hugh were going to use the back door from the beach so as not to be spotted by anyone approaching from the road. Could Bahey have found a ride over already?
“Hello, Aunt Bessie.” The voice was cold, and Bessie pulled the blanket across herself more tightly as a chill ran through her.
“Donny, what brings you here?” she asked, her voice shaking only slightly.
“I wanted to see how you were doing,” Donny answered with an amused grin. “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” Bessie answered, her mind racing. “How are you?”
Donny laughed harshly. “Oh, I’m just fine as well,” he answered. He sat down on the couch across from Bessie and studied her for a moment.
“How long are your minders going to be gone for?” he asked eventually.
“Not long,” Bessie answered. “And Bahey is on her way. Didn’t she tell you?”
“Bahey?” Donny frowned. “I haven’t seen her all day. I’ve been hanging out on the beach since early this morning, hoping you might be left alone for a minute or two.”
And there was the obvious fault in their plan, Bessie thought. They hadn’t expected the killer to be watching Bessie’s cottage. “What did you want to talk to me about?” Bessie asked, struggling to keep her voice calm. She needed to drag the conversation out until Hugh and Doona got back.
“Nothing really,” Donny shrugged. “You know I killed Danny and Samantha, so now I have to get rid of you as well.”
“I don’t know any such thing,” Bessie replied.
“No? I thought I was your chief suspect.”
“Not at all,” Bessie lied. “I thought, that is, I still think, that Vikky killed Danny and probably Samantha as well.”
Donny shook a finger at her. “Now, now, Aunt Bessie, I just said that I did it, didn’t I? It’s no good pretending you didn’t hear me.”
“But why?” Bessie asked. She had to keep the man talking.
“Why don’t you guess?” Donny suggested.
Bessie frowned and tried to think. “Maybe, when you talked about Danny’s drug problems, you were really talking about yourself?” she began hesitantly.
“Very good,” Donny answered.
“I assume that Danny found out and tried to get you to stop,” Bessie continued.
“Oh yes, he was such the good big brother,” Donny said. “He offered me all sorts of help and promised not to tell the folks. I knew he was lying, though. He was just waiting for the right moment. I found out he’d been talking to his lawyers. He seemed to think he could break up the trust if I was arrested for some drug offense.”
“That’s terrible,” Bessie said as sympathetically as she could.
“It is, isn’t it?” Donny mused. “He was suspicious of Jack White. He knew that I knew him from across and I think he thought Jack was my local source. I wasn’t dumb enough to leave things to chance like that, though. I don’t trust Jack White, not one little bit. I brought more than enough with me to get through the long and boring family weekend, even if I did have to use a few tablets here and there for other purposes. Of course, now it’s dragging on and on. If we don’t get to leave tomorrow, I’ll start worrying about running low.”
Bessie thought about pressing him for more information about Danny’s murder, but she wasn’t sure she could stomach the details. “What about Samantha?” she asked instead.
“Ah, the lovely and misguided Samantha,” Donny laughed harshly. “She wasn’t feeling well that night and she went to bed early. If she’d stayed in bed, she would still be alive today.”
“What happened?” Bessie had to ask.
“Talking to you is cathartic,” Donny answered. “I thought that at the top of the Laxey Wheel as well.”
“I’m glad,” Bessie murmured. What else could she say?
“My dear sweet Samantha was already suspicious,” Donny told her. “She saw a bottle of tablets in my suitcase when we were unpacking. I told her they were mild stuff for my back problems, but I don’t know if she believed me or not. Anyway, as I said, the night that Danny died she went to bed early with a headache. But a few hours later, when she started feeling better, she decided to come and find me.”
He stopped there, his unseeing eyes gazing at the wall behind Bessie.
“And where did she find you?” Bessie asked after a moment.
“I was just coming back in,” Donny answered. “She was surprised that I had been out walking on the beach in the dark. It was raining as well, and I was carrying my coat, not wearing it.” He shook his head.
“I made up some story about a fight between Danny and Vikky. Said that I went out to try to find Danny and calm him down, but I couldn’t find him. Then I got her back to bed with one of my special tablets. In the morning I insisted that she must have dreamt it all. She was still so groggy from the tablet that I thought she believed me.”
He fell silent again, and this time Bessie left him to his memories. She wasn’t in any hurry for the conversation to finish, after all. After a brief period, he shook his head and then smiled eerily at her.
“It wasn’t long before she started making little comments that spooked me, though. She was going to try to blackmail me. Would you believe that she wanted me to marry her?”
“No,” Bessie said softly. “Not if she actually suspected you of murder.”
Donny shrugged. “I couldn’t marry her anyway,” he continued. “I’ve already got a very convenient wife.”
“What does that mean?” Bessie asked.
“It means I can date lots of women and when they start whining about wanting a commitment I’ve got the perfect excuse to dump them,” Donny chuckled. “All men should marry young and inappropriately.”
Bessie shook her head. “What’s Maeve getting out of the relationship?” she asked curiously.
“Money, what else?” Donny told her. “As long as we’re legally wed, she gets a monthly stipend that means she doesn’t have to work. Why would she rock the boat? Besides, we still hook up once in a while. She’s a great girl, lots of fun to spend time with, especially in bed.”
Bessie blushed, which made Donny laugh. “Sorry, I guess that isn’t really an appropriate comment to make in front of an old spinster lady.”
Bessie bit her tongue. The man was already planning to kill her; she didn’t want to argue with him.
“Anyway, Samantha was starting to get on my nerves, and she knew too much. It was easy enough to get her fighting with Vikky so that Vikky took off as soon as we got to the wheel. Then I just had to follow Sam into the mine. There wasn’t anyone else around; I was surprised at how easy it was, actually.”
“Why did you leave Vikky’s phone with the body?” Bessie didn’t really care, but it was another topic for discussion. Hugh and Doona must be at the cottage by now.
“That was a mistake,” Donny shrugged. “I meant to leave Sam’s phone with her, but she was taking pictures with it when I stabbed her and she dropped it. I picked it up and tucked it in my pocket while I put her body in the cart and then I grabbed the wrong phone out of my coat. Danny had Vikky’s phone in his possession. That’s how he saw the sexy text from Jack White, and then he
actually used it to record his conversation with Jack. In the recording, Jack was dumb enough to admit that he used be my supplier before he moved to the island.”
Donny shook his head. “I’d happily kill him, too, if I could get near him, just for being so stupid. The police have him wrapped up tight, though.”
Bessie thought she heard a sound outside the sitting room window. She tried to look towards it casually, but from where she was sitting she couldn’t see anything but beach and sky. Donny didn’t seem to have heard anything.
“What about Vikky?” Bessie asked. “How does she figure into all of this?”
“Dear, sweet Vikky,” Donny shook his head. “She really is nearly as dumb as she seems. She was dating Jack White when I met her and I was able to tempt her away from him by suggesting she go after Danny instead. She’s just another gold-digging slut, but Danny was too taken with her to notice.”
“And that was to your advantage?” Bessie wondered.
“Sure, she was able to keep track of Danny for me. She was the one who let me know that Danny was talking to lawyers about breaking the trust because of my drug use. I told her to hurry up and marry him before the trust got broken.”
“And she did just that.”
“Yep, I’m not sure how she managed it, but she did it, and then I killed Danny and put her in line for a nice little inheritance. Of course, my father wasn’t going to sit back and let her collect a penny, but I sorted that out as well.”
“Did you?”
Donny grinned nastily. “Just last night I got Miss Vikky to sign a bunch of papers rescinding any claim to Danny’s estate.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Because she knew she’d have a huge legal battle on her hands if she refused.” Donny held up one finger and then a second as he counted the next reason. “Because we offered her what she thinks is a generous settlement to get her to sign.” He grinned and held up a third finger. “And because she thinks I’m going to marry her once all the dust has settled.”
“But you’re not?” Bessie kept the questions going.
Donny shrugged. “I might, you never know. She isn’t bad-looking and she could be fun, for a little while anyway. I’ll have to get rid of Maeve first, though.”
Bessie shuddered as she wondered exactly how Donny would ‘get rid’ of his first wife. “Vikky doesn’t know about Maeve?”
“Nope. Samantha didn’t know about her either. It’s helpful that my parents refused to let her name be spoken in their house,” he grinned.
“So why did you push me down the steps?” Bessie had to ask.
Donny shrugged. “I was a little bit drunk and decided to go out and get some fresh air,” he explained. “I saw you talking with Robert and decided to follow you, just because I could. Then, when you were walking so carefully down those slippery steps, I just couldn’t stop myself. Killing gets easier and easier, you know. Especially if you start by killing someone that you love.”
Bessie’s blood ran cold as he finished speaking. She swallowed hard and tried, desperately, to figure out what to say next.
“Anyway, I suppose I better get the job done and get back home,” Donny told her, rising to his feet. “I’ve really enjoyed our talk. It’s been nice to have someone to talk with about it all.”
Bessie couldn’t even begin to frame a reply to that.
Donny tilted his head as he studied her. “What do you think?” he asked. He pulled a huge knife out from his coat pocket. “It’s another one from the set that my parents bought Vikky and Danny,” he explained. “It’s a really nice set and the knives are really sharp.”
He took a step towards Bessie, twirling the knife in his hand lightly. “I thought the police would confiscate the rest of the set after I killed Danny, so I grabbed a couple of spares before they got to Thie yn Traie. I used another on Samantha, and that left this one for you.”
Bessie frowned. “You don’t have to kill me,” she said, surprised at how loud and shaky her voice sounded.
“Oh, but I do,” Donny told her with an evil grin. “The question is, how should I do it? As nice as these knives are, I’m getting bored with them. Maybe it’s time for something a little bit different.”
“Variety is always nice,” Bessie said inanely, struggling to keep the man talking. Hugh and Doona had to be somewhere nearby. Why weren’t they interrupting?
“I don't suppose I could persuade you to just swallow the whole bottle of tablets that you're meant to be taking for pain?” Donny asked her.
“I guess I'd rather do that than be stabbed.”
“Yes,” Donny frowned. “But if we do it that way, I'd have to sit here and wait for the tablets to work. I've got better things to do with my time.”
“Oh, goodness, don't let me inconvenience you,” Bessie said crossly.
Donny laughed, a hollow sound that seemed to echo through Bessie's small cottage.
“No need to get grumpy,” Donny told her.
Bessie just stared at him.
“You know what?” he asked Bessie as he took another step towards her. “I think I'll just hold a pillow over your face. It'll be pretty quick and if I do it right, it might even look like natural causes. That'd be pretty good, and it will be a lot less messy. Danny ruined my favourite coat. This one doesn’t fit nearly as well. I was lucky that Sam was wearing a raincoat herself; I was able to keep her blood off of me that time.”
“How nice for you,” Bessie muttered.
“Anyway, if I suffocate you, there won't be any blood to worry about.”
“Then what?” Bessie asked. “Do you just go back to Thie yn Traie and have dinner?”
“Pretty much,” Donny shrugged. “The police are supposed to be letting us go tomorrow. Once I'm off the island, I guess I'll just take a long holiday somewhere warm and then return home once things have died down a bit.”
“Holiday where?” Bessie struggled to keep the man talking, expecting someone to burst in at any time.
“Oh, I don't know,” Donny waved the hand that still held the knife. “Somewhere that I can live quietly with my millions, I guess.”
“I thought all of your money was tied up in trusts?”
“It's complicated,” Donny admitted, “but I've no doubt my father will be happy to fund my ‘retirement.’” Donny made quotation marks in the air around the word retirement, nearly dropping the knife in the process.
“Why?”
“Because he suspects I killed Danny. Actually, he probably knows I did it, but he'd rather play dumb than see his only remaining son in prison.”
Bessie shook her head. “That doesn't make sense,” she said.
Donny shrugged again. “You'd have to know my father.”
“I think I'm glad I don't,” Bessie shot back.
Donny chuckled. “Okay, then, let's get this over with. I've been away too long as it is. Someone might notice my absence.”
“You really don't have to kill me. I won't say anything to anyone. If you leave me alone, you should be able to leave tomorrow. If I turn up dead, the police are going to start asking questions all over again and they aren't going to let you go for ages.”
“My father has it all sorted out. No matter what happens in the next twenty-four hours, we're getting off this godforsaken island tomorrow. If they don't let us go, the police know they’ll have a lawsuit on their hands.”
Bessie looked desperately towards the window as Donny advanced towards her, but she could see nothing but sea and sky.
“This will be easier if you don't struggle.”
Donny set down the knife and picked up one of the pillows that Doona had so thoughtfully arranged for Bessie.
“I'm not interested in making things easier,” Bessie told the man.
As Donny lowered the pillow, Bessie lashed out, clawing desperately at his face and hands.
“Ouch!” Donny shouted as she dragged her nails down one of his cheeks. “Cut that out before I get really cross,” he told Be
ssie.
He pushed the pillow over her face. Bessie tried to kick him, but her legs were tangled in the blanket that was tucked around her.
This was not in the plan, Bessie thought as she struggled against the man. Slowly, the world went dark.
Chapter Fifteen
“This is all your fault,” a loud male voice was shouting. “I told you this was a bad idea.”
“It isn't all my fault,” a second voice, this one female, responded. “You were supposed to be back here in ten minutes.”
“I got an emergency call,” the man answered. “I had to answer it.”
“Enough.” The third voice was also male. It was quieter, but authoritative. “Shouting at each other isn't going to help.”
Bessie sighed as she opened first one eye and then the other. She was flat on the floor in her own sitting room, with an oxygen mask pinching into her face. She pulled the mask off and breathed deeply.
“Ma'am, you really should leave the mask on,” a man wearing a white uniform and sitting next to her on the floor said.
“Nonsense,” Bessie answered. “I'd rather breathe sea air anytime. Help me up, please.”
The man frowned. “We have a doctor on his way to check you over,” he told her. “Apparently you had a bad fall yesterday and now I’ve been told that today someone's tried to kill you.” He looked a bit incredulous as he spoke.
Bessie glared at him and struggled into a sitting position without his help. She looked over at Doona, Hugh and Inspector Rockwell who were still arguing and hadn't noticed her return to consciousness.
“I can just about understand how Doona came up with this crazy scheme,” Rockwell was saying to Hugh, “but I can't believe that you were foolish enough to go along with it.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Bessie exploded at them. “I went along with it as well, you know.”
Aunt Bessie Assumes: An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Page 21
