Aunt Bessie Provides (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 16)

by Diana Xarissa

  “It’s not very busy today,” she remarked to the girl behind the till when she’d finished making her selections.

  “It’s normally pretty quiet, but today has been exceptionally slow,” the girl agreed. She yawned. “I don’t really mind, as it means I can just sit here and read, mostly, but I do wonder how long we’ll stay in business if we don’t start getting more customers.”

  “I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Bessie said. “Douglas needs a bookshop.”

  “You and I seem to be the only ones who think that,” the girl replied.

  Bessie headed for the door and then stopped as it swung open in front of her. She smiled at the familiar face. “Bahey Corlett, how are you?” she asked.

  “Oh, Bessie, how wonderful to see you,” the other woman replied. “I’m fine, but I was just thinking about you.”

  “I’ve been meaning to ring you, but I never seem to remember,” Bessie told her.

  “I keep telling Howard that I need to ring you, but, well, you know how it is.”

  Bessie did indeed know how it was. She gave her friend a hug and then stepped back and studied her. Bahey was in her late sixties and did nothing to disguise her grey hair. Bessie had known her for many years, although Bahey had spent most of her adult life working across for the Pierce family. The two had stayed in contact when Bahey had spent summers on the island with the family at Thie yn Traie, but they’d not been close friends.

  Bahey had retired back to the island, buying herself a small flat just off the Douglas promenade. When odd things began happening in her building, she’d asked Bessie to investigate. Since then the two had done their best to see one another regularly, but Bessie was very aware that she hadn’t seen the other woman in some weeks.

  “How is Howard?” she asked.

  “He’s good,” Bahey replied, blushing slightly. Bessie hid a smile. As far as she knew, Bahey had never had a boyfriend in her younger days. When her attractive neighbour had first asked her out, she hadn’t been sure what to do. Now the pair seemed to have fallen into a comfortable relationship, and Bessie was happy for her friend.

  “And how is his grandbaby?” Bessie wondered.

  “Oh, lovely. We go across nearly ever month to spend time with Howard’s daughter and the baby, and I would go more often if I could,” Bahey told her. “But I was going to ring you, actually. Do you have a minute?”

  “Of course,” Bessie replied. She glanced back at the shop assistant who was making no effort to hide the fact that she was listening to their conversation. “Maybe we should go and get a cuppa or something.”

  “That sounds good,” Bahey agreed. “The café next door is good.”

  Bessie followed her friend to the café, where they found a table in a quiet corner. They ordered tea and Bahey waited for it to arrive before she spoke.

  “I hear that Hugh Watterson is looking for someone,” she said in a low voice.

  “Hugh is reopening a cold case or two, but I can’t tell you any more than that,” Bessie replied.

  Bahey nodded. “I heard he’s looking at disappearances from around twenty years ago.”

  “He may be,” Bessie said.

  “Joney rang me last night. She’d heard the same thing and she was wondering if he’s looking for Craig Fox.”

  “That name keeps coming up when I talk to people,” Bessie said, hoping to duck the question as to exactly what Hugh was looking for. “Did Joney know him?”

  “Oh, aye. She worked with him. And she worked with Miranda, too.”

  “I thought Joney was always a teacher.”

  “She was, but she sometimes took temporary jobs over the summer holidays, when she and her husband needed some extra money.”

  “Oh, I didn’t realise that.”

  “Anyway, one summer she went to work at one of the banks and met Craig and Miranda.”

  “I see.”

  “She told me all about it last night. She met Craig first and she thought he was a nice man. Then Miranda arrived and, well, ruined him.”

  “I would hope that she made him happy, at least for a short while,” Bessie said.

  “I suppose so, but not for very long. Once she’d moved her whole family over here, Craig knew that he’d been tricked into marrying her. All she wanted was a steady income, and Craig was able to provide it.”

  “I was always surprised that he didn’t just leave.”

  “He was too nice to do that to her,” Bahey replied. “He would have stayed forever if he hadn’t caught her with her husband. When the whole story came out, I suppose he didn’t feel as if he had any choice but to leave.”

  “And Joney doesn’t know where he went?”

  “She knows he was definitely planning to leave. He made a trip to Foxdale especially to tell her he was going. He told her that he’d sold everything he could and that he was going to move far away to start a new life where no one knew what had happened to him.”

  “He wasn’t any more specific than ‘far away’?” Bessie asked.

  “Joney said that she asked him, and he said he was going to start in London and just go whatever way the wind blew him until he’d found somewhere that made him happy.”

  “And he’d never talked about wanting to move to Australia or anything like that?”

  “Not as far as Joney could recall. At the time she didn’t think he’d get as far as London. She thought he’d take the ferry to Liverpool and then simply settle there. He didn’t have much sense of adventure, really. Marrying Miranda was the only impulsive thing he’d ever done and that hadn’t gone very well for him.”

  “I can’t argue with that.”

  “Yes, but now that twenty years have passed, Joney has a different idea,” Bahey said. “Now she thinks that Miranda and her husband probably killed him.”

  “Why does she think that now?”

  “Craig told her when he left that he’d keep in touch with her. She didn’t expect much more than a postcard or two, but she never heard anything from him again.”

  “Maybe he lost her address.”

  “Maybe, or maybe he was murdered,” Bahey said ominously. “Miranda could have taken his body with her when she went back across. She and her husband could have thrown it in the Irish Sea on the crossing.”

  Bessie nodded slowly. What Bahey was suggesting made sense. The only question was why no one had identified the body as Craig’s when it had washed ashore all those years ago. She opened her mouth to ask Bahey that very question and then remembered that she wasn’t meant to talk about the body yet.

  “I hope Joney is wrong,” she said instead. “I hope he’s living happily somewhere.”

  “If he is, Hugh should be able to find him, right?”

  “Probably, if he goes looking. But Craig may have nothing to do with the cold case Hugh is working on.”

  Bahey shrugged. “Maybe we should report Craig as a missing person. If we did, Hugh would have to look for him, wouldn’t he? Poor Joney is very upset, you know. She’d not thought about Craig for years, but now she can’t stop thinking about him.”

  “I don’t know if you can report someone missing after this many years,” Bessie said. “But I’d like to see Craig found myself. I’ll ask Hugh about it the next time we speak.”

  “After I’d talked to Joney, I got to thinking about Christopher Marsh,” Bahey said. “He seemed to have disappeared, too, and around the same time. But I’m sure his mother knows where he is. Craig didn’t have any family left on the island.”

  “That was another name that came up recently,” Bessie said. “I remember Craig better than Christopher, though.”

  “I remember the family. Agatha and Aaron Marsh had a market stall in Douglas for many years. It mostly sold junk that Aaron found at car boot sales. He was always insisting that everything he sold was antique and valuable, but most of it was tat.”

  Bessie nodded. “Now that you mention it, I remember that. Their children used to help out sometimes. There were four of th
em, weren’t there?”

  “Yes, and Agatha named them alphabetically,” Bahey said. “The first was Adam, and then almost exactly two years later came Brian. Two years after that she had Christopher, and then after another two years she had Dorothy.”

  “Do you know if the other three are still on the island?” Bessie asked.

  “Last I knew, they all were,” Bahey replied. “I see Brian once in a while. He and his partner have a flat in Douglas. Aaron passed away in the early eighties, but Agnes is still here as well. I believe she moved into a care home in Ramsey about a year ago.”

  “Maybe you should ask Brian about Christopher the next time you see him,” Bessie suggested. “I wonder what ever happened to him.”

  “He moved across not long after his father died. Then he came back for a year or two before leaving again. As I said, I’m sure his mother knows where he is, but I don’t know about asking Brian. As I recall, Christopher and Adam had a huge fight about something just before Christopher left. He may not have stayed in touch with his siblings.”

  “Would they have taken Adam’s side?”

  “They always did in the past. Adam was the oldest, after all. I remember visiting the market stall and watching Adam boss the other three around. Agatha seemed to think it was amusing, but I did feel quite sorry for the children. Adam was something of a bully, to my mind.”

  Bessie nodded. Now that Bahey had mentioned it, she could recall watching Adam ordering his brothers and sister around at the small stall. Adam liked talking with the customers, and Bessie could remember him always trying to act as if he were much older than he was. He would talk for ages, working to persuade people to spend more money, while his siblings worked hard to polish the silver and keep the stall tidy.

  “Is Adam married?” she asked Bahey.

  “Aye, to a lovely woman called Anna. I always thought she could have found a better man, but I never liked Adam. Anna was a plain child, but sweet and kind, and I’m sure Adam doesn’t properly appreciate her.”

  Bessie was always amazed at how much Bahey knew about island gossip. The woman had lived most of her life across, after all. Of course, her sister, Joney, had never left, and Joney didn’t miss much. No doubt Joney had kept Bahey updated on everything that happened on the island over the years.

  “Do they have children?” Bessie wondered what Adam was like as a father.

  “No, they never had children. Brian doesn’t, either, as his partner is a man called Edward. Neither does Dorothy, actually. She only got married about a year ago. Her husband, Henry, has three children from his first marriage, but he’s about ten years older than Dorothy and his children are in their twenties.”

  “I wonder if Agatha would have liked grandchildren,” Bessie said thoughtfully.

  “Maybe she has some from Christopher,” Bahey suggested. “I don’t suppose she ever sees them, but maybe she gets photos from him.”

  “Marjorie is working on learning more about people who leave the island,” Bessie told her friend. “She’d probably like to talk to Christopher and to Craig.”

  “Agatha might be willing to give her Christopher’s address, but there’s no way she’ll be able to find Craig. I’m sure he’s been dead for years.”

  “I gave her some other names as well. Do you remember Clarence Witherspoon?”

  “Slightly. He was a rather boring banker, wasn’t he? He moved across and, as far as I know, disappeared into obscurity.”

  If you only knew, Bessie thought, hiding a smile as she remembered everything that Dave had told her about the man. “And what about Harry Jensen?”

  “I knew Barbara,” Bahey told her. “Harry was another boring and rather ordinary man. She left first, didn’t she?”

  “She did.”

  “Joney and I thought at the time that he’d follow her eventually. He wasn’t used to being on his own, even though he was close to thirty when she went. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that he’s still living with her, wherever they ended up.”

  “Can you think of anyone else who might have left the island around twenty years ago?” Bessie asked. “I’ve given Marjorie a list already, but I can always add to it if I get more names.”

  Bahey sipped her tea, a thoughtful look on her face. “There are many that left and came back, of course,” she said. “Are you interested in them or just in the ones that stayed away?”

  “Marjorie is interested in both.”

  Bahey listed a number of names and Bessie jotted them all down on the back of a receipt that she found in her handbag. “I think I’ve heard all of these before, but I’ve left my notes at home. I’ll double-check when I get back to Treoghe Bwaane.”

  “Joney and I are having dinner together tonight. I’ll ask her if she can think of anyone else to add to the list,” Bahey promised.

  “I’d really appreciate that,” Bessie said. She hadn’t thought to ring Bahey or Joney, but clearly one or both of them should have been on the top of her list.

  Bahey glanced at her watch. “The day is getting away from me,” she exclaimed. “I told Joney I’d pick up a book for her before I came over, and now I’m going to have to rush. It was really good to see you, though.”

  “Yes, we really must make more of an effort to see one another,” Bessie said. The pair rose to their feet. Bessie gave Bahey a hug and then gathered up her shopping while Bahey headed for the door. Feeling as if she wanted nothing more than to go home and put her feet up, Bessie followed, heading for the nearest taxi rank. As she walked past the newsagents, she impulsively ducked inside and bought herself a handful of the sort of celebrity gossip magazines she usually only read when she was caught up in a murder investigation. When her brain couldn’t focus on a book, stories about famous people she’d never heard of were exactly what she needed. She wasn’t sure why she wanted them today, but she indulged herself anyway.

  The taxi ride back to Laxey didn’t take long, even though the driver got lost twice. Bessie was always a little surprised when island residents didn’t know the way to Laxey Beach, but her driver had only moved over from Liverpool in March.

  “It’s lovely down here,” he remarked as Bessie paid him. “I’ll have to bring the wife down for a walk on the sand.”

  “It’s crowded in the summer,” Bessie replied, nodding towards the beach in front of the holiday cottages where blankets and beach chairs seemed to occupy nearly every inch of space. “But you’ll have it all to yourself, or nearly, once September gets here.”

  After putting away her shopping, Bessie reheated some shepherd’s pie for her dinner. When she was finished eating, she checked the list that Bahey had given her against her own notes and was oddly pleased to find that Bahey hadn’t named anyone new. Feeling as if she’d had a very busy day, Bessie curled up with her stack of magazines in her favourite chair. After a few minutes, she got up and put a few chocolate biscuits and truffles onto a plate and then took them back with her into the sitting room.

  The evening passed quickly as she enjoyed her treats and read endless articles about the love lives of total strangers. Occasionally she would recognise a name or a face from the movies she’d sometimes attended in her younger days, but for the most part she had no idea who any of the so-called celebrities were. When she began to yawn every time she turned a page, she decided she should head to bed.

  Tutting softly to herself over a B-list celebrity whose name she did recognise, who’d had very aggressive cosmetic surgery, Bessie climbed the stairs. “You don’t look too bad, really,” she told her reflection. “And it’s much better to look your age than to try to hide it.” She crawled into bed feeling grateful that she’d never been particular interested in her appearance and feeling sorry for her contemporary who’d felt the need to try to turn back the hands of time.

  Chapter 6

  Even though it wasn’t much after six the next morning when Bessie headed out for her walk, the beach was already getting crowded, at least in front of the holiday cottages. B
essie walked along the water’s edge again, stepping carefully around small children lugging buckets full of water up and down the sand. Once she’d reached the stairs to Thie yn Traie, however, she had the beach to herself. While she was tempted to keep going, just to enjoy the solitude, she knew she’d have to fight her way back through the crowd to get home. With a taxi booked, she couldn’t afford to be back late.

  Her favourite driver, Dave, was right on time to collect her. “I was nearly late, “ he told her as she climbed into the car. “There were several cars trying to get up the hill when I was trying to come down.”

  “The holiday cottages are full now that summer is here,” Bessie told him. “Not everyone will want to sit on the beach all day. I imagine a lot of the guests will want to see at least some of the island.”

  “Yes, I suppose so. I always forget how busy the summer gets,” Dave replied. “It’s good for business, but I much prefer driving around the island when it’s quieter.”

  “At least TT is behind us,” Bessie said.

  “Oh, yes, that’s always a challenge. The road closures are hard enough to deal with, even without the population of the island doubling.”

  Bessie nodded. She knew that the Tourist Trophy, or TT, races were good for the island’s economy and that most of the island’s residents enjoyed the fortnight when motorcyclists from around the world arrived to race, but the thirty-seven mile-long course went along a huge portion of the island’s road network. While Laxey wasn’t on the course, during practices and races it was difficult to get anywhere else on the island.

  “At least we had good weather this year,” Dave added. “It usually rains, and that makes it difficult for all the people who come and camp.”

  “I can’t imagine,” Bessie said. “I’ve never been camping in my life and I don’t feel as if I’ve missed out on anything.”

  Dave chuckled. “We used to go camping in Wales when I was younger. It always rained, but that was part of the fun when I was ten or eleven. I’m sure it wasn’t nearly as much fun for my parents, but it was affordable, anyway.”