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

by Diana Xarissa

  “Has Hugh had any luck tracking down Miranda?” Anne asked as she put Bessie’s purchases into a bag for her.

  “Not yet, although he has found Jackson.”

  “Really? Where is he, then?”

  “He’s in prison in the US state of New York. Apparently he and Miranda divorced and he ended up marrying her sister.”

  “So Abigail finally got what she wanted,” Anne said thoughtfully. “I never thought Jackson would actually marry her, you know.”

  “I know you told me that Abigail stayed in touch with Jackson after Miranda moved to the island. Was she always after Jackson, then?”

  “Oh, yes, or at least that’s how it seemed to me. She was a few years older than Miranda, and Miranda was much prettier. I got the feeling that Jackson might have met Abigail first but then dumped her in favour of Miranda, but I might be wrong about that.”

  “And Abigail didn’t mind that Jackson was a criminal?”

  “I doubt it. Miranda minded a lot, but she didn’t think there was anything she could do to change the man. She was probably right.”

  “I wonder why Jackson married Abigail, then.”

  “Did you say they’re in the US?”

  “Jackson is, but Abigail is in Canada. That’s where they moved to after they left the UK, but apparently Jackson was crossing back and forth into the US to do his breaking and entering.”

  “I seem to remember that Miranda and Abigail’s father was Canadian. Maybe he married Abigail because it let them emigrate somehow.”

  “From what Hugh heard, it isn’t a very happy marriage.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me. Of course, Abigail never seemed the type to be happy, no matter what.”

  “Hugh is hoping Abigail might have an address for Miranda.”

  “She might. Miranda was oddly fond of her sister, even though from what I could see, the woman was nothing but trouble. If Abigail has an address for her though, there’s no doubt in my mind she’s shared it with Jackson. If Miranda wants to hide from Jackson, she can’t have stayed in touch with Abigail.”

  “Maybe because they were divorced Miranda doesn’t have to hide anymore.”

  “Maybe. I hope you’re right, actually. And I hope that Miranda is somewhere living happily. Hugh is sure that she and Jackson divorced, is he? She didn’t just disappear?”

  “My goodness, you aren’t suggesting that Jackson killed her, are you?”

  “I was thinking that maybe she just ran away and that Jackson didn’t bother looking for her, but now that you mention it, maybe he did kill her.”

  “If he had, surely her sister wouldn’t have married him.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t know.” Anne sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m getting carried away now with all sorts of wild theories. The thing is, I never liked Abigail and I really didn’t like Jackson. I hope Hugh is able to find Miranda. I’d love to hear that she’s doing well.”

  “If Hugh finds out anything else, I’ll let you know,” Bessie promised. “But now I need to get home and do some baking.”

  With the new book of logic puzzles tempting her, Bessie decided that cookies were simply too much work. She mixed up the brownie batter and poured it into a pan and then slid it into the cooker. While the brownies baked, she made herself a cup of tea and then curled up with her puzzles. Having flown through the first three with very little effort, she’d just started on the fourth when someone knocked on her door.

  A glance at the clock told Bessie that John, Doona, and Hugh weren’t due for several hours yet. The smell of warm chocolate filled the air in the kitchen. The timer showed three more minutes as Bessie went to the door.

  “Miss Cubbon, I’m very sorry to bother you,” Dorothy Marsh said as the door opened. “But I was hoping I might talk to you for just a minute or two.”

  “Of course, do come in,” Bessie invited the woman.

  Dorothy glanced around nervously before she walked into the cottage. “Thank you. I don’t normally drop in on people unannounced, but, well, I needed to talk to someone and you were the first person I thought of.”

  “Would you like a cup of tea?”

  “Oh, yes, maybe that will help,” the woman sighed.

  Bessie put the kettle on and then pulled the brownies out of the cooker. They looked delicious.

  “Whatever that is, it smells wonderful,” Dorothy told her.

  “It’s just a tray of brownies. You’re welcome to try one once they’ve cooled a bit.”

  “Oh, I don’t want to be any bother. You’re already making tea for me.”

  “It’s no bother,” Bessie insisted. She poured the tea and then carefully cut through the still hot brownies. While they were a bit crumbly, she managed to cut a few squares of the treat, which she put onto a plate. “Here we are,” she said brightly, handing her guest a small plate for her brownies.

  “Thank you so much,” Dorothy said. She put a square of brownie on her plate and then took a sip of tea.

  Bessie sat down opposite her and helped herself to a brownie as well. Dorothy seemed upset. A bit of sugar and chocolate would probably make both women feel better.

  “I’m breaking ranks, coming to see you,” Dorothy said after a minute.

  “Are you?”

  “The official family line is that the body can’t possibly be Christopher’s and that no one will ever agree to a DNA test.”

  “Yes, I got that from your oldest brother.”

  “I don’t like to argue with Adam. He’s, well, he’s my brother, for a start. He’s also the head of the family and head of the family business, roles he took on even before our father died.”

  “I remember you all as children. Even then, Adam always seemed to be in charge.”

  “He was. He’s six years older than me, of course. When we were children that seemed a tremendous amount. He was already in school before I was born, and I can remember thinking of him as almost one of the adults rather than one of the children for many years.”

  “But you don’t agree with him about the body?”

  “I wouldn’t say that, necessarily.” Dorothy took another sip of tea and then sighed. “Adam and Christopher had a huge fight all those years ago. Christopher said he was going back across, but then he didn’t go, at least not right away. At the time I thought he was waiting for something, but I didn’t know what it was. The next thing I knew, he was gone. I’ve never really understood what happened in that week or so after his fight with Adam.”

  “Did you ever ask Adam about it?”

  “Oh, yes, but he always tells the same story. He wanted Christopher to stay here and help with the business and Christopher wanted to move back to London. They fought. Christopher left. That’s it.”

  “What did Christopher tell you?”

  “That’s part of the problem. He never told me anything. Adam told me about their fight, but when I rang Christopher’s flat to get his side of the story, he didn’t answer. I tried ringing him a couple more times, but he never answered my calls. I saw him in Douglas once or twice during that week before he left, but he always managed to avoid talking with me. If I’d known he was just going to disappear, I would have gone to visit him or kept ringing or something, but I didn’t think it was a big deal. I didn’t think he’d leave without saying goodbye.”

  “And you never heard from him again?”

  “No, I didn’t. Mother told me that he’d talked to her before he left, but she was always strangely reluctant to discuss it with me. I asked her for his address several times, but she always said no. She said she didn’t want Christopher to get between Adam and me. I should have pushed harder, but I had to work with Adam every day and, I’ll admit it, I was angry that Christopher had left without telling me. I thought that if he didn’t want to stay in touch that I shouldn’t bother.”

  “But at the time you never thought the body might be his?”

  “I wasn’t on the island that July. Anna, Adam’s wife, and I went on a trip together not long af
ter Christopher left.”

  Bessie sipped her tea and tried to think. There was something about the trip that seemed odd to her, but she couldn’t quite work out what it was. “You and Anna were friends before she married Adam?” she asked eventually.

  “No, not at all. I barely knew her, really. She worked for Adam, you see. She’d had some sort of upset. I think it was something to do with a man, but Adam was already crazy about her. I’d just had a falling-out with the man I’d been living with for over a year and Adam suggested that Anna and I might have fun going away together for a fortnight. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “Did you have fun?”

  “Oh, goodness, yes. Anna is great fun, especially when she’s away from my brother,” Dorothy laughed and then flushed. “I shouldn’t say that, but it’s true. Adam isn’t exactly fun, but he loves Anna almost obsessively. Anyway, we went to Tenerife and drank too much and flirted with unsuitable men and whatever. When we came home, Adam proposed almost immediately.”

  “Were you surprised when Anna said yes?”

  Dorothy shrugged. “Yes and no. Anna never talked to me about her problems. In fact, when I asked about them, she insisted that nothing had happened, that everything was good. I got the feeling that she’d had her heart broken somehow, though. Anyway, she made a few comments over the course of the fortnight about giving up on childhood fantasies about happily ever after and settling for a man who would look after her for the rest of her life.”

  “The poor woman,” Bessie exclaimed.

  “I don’t think she’s been unhappy for the last twenty years,” Dorothy said quickly. “And I do think that she’s come to love my brother. I’m just not sure that she was in love with him when they got married.”

  “Did she know Christopher?”

  “He was working for the company as well, so I’m sure they knew one another.”

  Bessie wondered if she was putting things together that didn’t belong together, but she couldn’t help but suspect that the man who’d broken Anna’s heart might have been Christopher. While it was tempting to suggest the idea to Dorothy, Bessie wasn’t sure she wanted to complicate an already difficult situation.

  “We’ve wandered rather far off topic,” she said instead. “We were talking about Christopher.”

  “Yes, and about how I missed hearing about the body when it was discovered. If I had been on the island, I might have made a trip to the police station to have a look at the remains, I suppose. The description that was in the paper did sound a lot like Christopher.”

  “But it could also be a number of other men,” Bessie said.

  “Yes, of course. I did think that the sketch looked like him as well, the one in the paper on Monday. I just can’t work out why my mother or Adam didn’t identify the body twenty years ago if it was him.”

  “Did you ask Adam about it?”

  “I asked my mother when I saw the local paper. She just repeated that she knew where Christopher was and it wasn’t any of my concern. I haven’t mentioned Christopher to Adam in many years. He doesn’t like to talk about him.”

  “You know there is one way to find out for sure whether the body is his or not,” Bessie said gently.

  “I can give the police a DNA sample,” Dorothy said softly.

  “Yes, you can.”

  “Adam would be very upset if I did that,” she sighed.

  “If the results are negative, maybe you wouldn’t have to mention it to him,” Bessie suggested. “If they’re positive, surely he’ll want to know?”

  “That’s just it. That’s what I keep coming back to. Surely he should want to know as much as I do. Christopher was our brother. I know he and Adam didn’t get along, but they were still family. He should want to know what happened to him.”

  “Maybe your mother told Adam more than she told you.”

  “If anything, I’d think she’d have told Adam less. He was the one who’d fought with Christopher. Brian and I didn’t have any problems with Christopher leaving. He could actually have handled the London end of the business for us. That probably would have been a good thing, actually, as we had to hire a manager in London who ended up being less than honest.”

  “Maybe Christopher didn’t want to do that.”

  “Maybe, but I didn’t much care what he did. He took all sorts of odd jobs when he left the first time. He said he wanted to experience everything life had to offer. But he stayed in touch. I got cards for my birthday and at Christmas and he rang once in a while as well, always at odd times and usually to ask for money.” Dorothy chuckled at the memory. “After he left the second time, I kept expecting the phone to ring and for him to be on the other end, broke again.”

  “Maybe your mother was supplying his needs,” Bessie suggested.

  “That would surprise me. She certainly didn’t help him out the first time he went. Our parents didn’t believe in supporting adult children. They gave us jobs in the family business, but we had to work hard to keep them. We were expected to earn every penny that we were given. I can’t imagine Christopher ever asked either of them for help.”

  “Would you like me to arrange for you to meet with someone from the police so that you can provide a DNA sample?” Bessie asked.

  Dorothy took a sip of her tea and then put her head in her hands. “I feel as if I’m betraying Adam and Mother if I say yes, but I feel as if I have to know the truth,” she said in a choked voice.

  “I don’t want to push you into anything you don’t want to do, but I’m sure you’ll feel better knowing one way or the other.”

  Dorothy took a deep breath and then sat up straight in her chair. “Yes, I think I’d like to give a DNA sample to the police,” she said in a firm voice.

  “Would you like to meet with someone here? Hugh Watterson and John Rockwell are visiting me later tonight. You could talk to them and provide the sample without having to go to the station.”

  “That might be a good idea. Maybe Adam won’t know I’ve done it if I do it here.”

  “They’ll be here at six,” Bessie told her. “We’ll be having fish and chips for dinner. You’re welcome to join us.”

  “Oh, no, I couldn’t do that,” Dorothy protested. “I’ll come around seven, maybe, if I can get away. I shall have to tell Henry something, but I don’t know what.”

  “Why not tell him the truth?”

  “Oh, he and Adam are good friends. If I tell him what I’m doing, he’ll try to talk me out of it. I will tell him, but only after it’s done.”

  As Bessie had never married, she didn’t fully understand how marriages worked, but she couldn’t help but feel as if Henry ought to support his wife no matter what. Biting her tongue before she could tell Dorothy what she thought, she stood up. “More tea?” she asked.

  “Oh, no. I should be going. I need to get home and make dinner and then work out an excuse for going back out again. I should be here around seven, anyway, unless, well, if I don’t come back, I’ll ring you tomorrow.”

  Bessie let the woman out and then tidied away the teacups and plates. After their conversation, she was starting to think that the body probably was Christopher Marsh’s, no matter what Agatha had insisted. Her logic puzzles had lost their appeal, so Bessie headed out for a walk. She didn’t have long before her guests were due, but she really needed to clear her head.

  As the beach behind the holiday cottages was crowded, Bessie turned and walked in the other direction. She didn’t usually do so, as when the tide was in there was barely any beach at all, just rocks and a cliff face, but the tide was out and she didn’t feel up to dealing with people. She walked for twenty minutes or so and then turned back towards home. After a few steps, she was surprised to hear her name being called.

  “Miss Cubbon? I didn’t expect to see you out here,” the voice said.

  Bessie turned back around and smiled at Anna Marsh, who was making her way down one of the paths that ran up a less steep part of the cliff. “Hello,” she s
aid brightly.

  “Hello,” the woman smiled. “But what brings you here?”

  “I walk on the beach every day,” Bessie explained. “But usually in the opposite direction. There isn’t always beach here to walk on.”

  “Yes, that’s why I love it here so much,” Anna told her. “I never think to check the tide tables, so I never know if there will be any sand or just water at the bottom of the cliff.”

  “Do you come out here a lot?”

  “Not a lot, but occasionally. It was a special spot for me and a dear friend, once upon a time,” Anna replied, looking away.

  Bessie wanted to ask a dozen different questions, but she knew she needed to tread carefully. If her theory was right, Anna probably wasn’t going to want to talk about it. “It’s a lovely spot to come and think,” she said after a minute. “I like to sit on the rock behind my cottage sometimes.”

  “Of course, you’re just down the beach from here, aren’t you? I wasn’t thinking. Now I’m surprised that I haven’t seen you here more often.”

  “As I said, I don’t usually walk this direction. I never think to check the tide tables, either, and I’m always afraid of getting caught out here and stuck.”

  Anna nodded. “The climb back up the cliff isn’t easy, but I’ve done it so often now that it doesn’t bother me.”

  “From the looks of the paths, you aren’t the only one,” Bessie said.

  “No, I suppose I’m not, but I never seem to see anyone else when I’m here.”

  “I’m sure the solitude is helpful when you’re dealing with loss.”

  “Loss? Oh, you mean Agatha? She wasn’t my mother, though, and we, well, we weren’t close.”

  “I hope Adam is okay.”

  “He’s fine. He loved his mother, obviously, but she’d been ill for such a long time. I hate to say it, but I think her passing is a relief to him, really.”

  “That’s often the case,” Bessie nodded. “All this talk about Christopher probably isn’t helping, though.” Bessie was sure she saw a shadow pass over the other woman’s face when she’d said Christopher’s name.