Aunt Bessie Questions (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 17)

by Diana Xarissa

  Andy was standing at the cooker, stirring something on top of it. “You’re back just in time,” he told them. “There are three trays of brownies coming out in the next two minutes and I want everyone to try them all and tell me what you think.”

  “That doesn’t look like brownies,” Bessie said, pointing at the pot on the cooker.

  “It isn’t. This is my secret recipe spaghetti sauce,” Andy replied. “I created it while I was at school. It’s fairly quick and easy, but the longer it simmers the better it tastes. You weren’t sure what you wanted to do for dinner tonight, so I thought I’d mix this up while I was waiting for the batches to bake. If you don’t want it for tonight, it will freeze nicely.”

  Bessie crossed to his side and looked into the pot. The sauce was a deep, rich red flexed with fresh herbs. It smelled gorgeous.

  “Here, try it,” Andy urged. He pulled a spoon out of the drawer and scooped up a bit of sauce for Bessie.

  “I want the recipe,” Bessie said after a taste, “or you can just come and make it for me every week. It’s incredible. It tastes really fresh, with just a hint of garlic and herbs.”

  “I’m glad you like it,” Andy grinned. “There should be enough here for you to freeze some, even if you have it tonight for dinner. And I will share the recipe with you, but you must promise not to pass it on. It’s going to be a staple in my restaurant when I open it, and I don’t want everyone on the island duplicating it at home.”

  “In that case, don’t give me the recipe,” Bessie replied. “I’ll just enjoy it when I can get it. The question is, do I share it with my friends tonight, or do I keep it all for myself?”

  “I hope you decide to share,” Doona said, “because it truly does smell delicious.”

  A buzzer saved Bessie from having to make an immediate decision. Andy began to pull trays full of brownies out of the oven. The scents of warm chocolate and vanilla replaced the smells of tomato and garlic in Bessie’s nose.

  “Everyone sit down,” Andy instructed them. “The trays need to cool for a minute or two before I can try to cut the brownies.”

  “When you make brownies from a packet, they tell you to cool them completely before you cut them,” Amy said.

  “Yeah, and who does that?” Andy laughed. “I love my brownies hot, or at least warm, and I don’t mind if they come out in a crumbled mess instead of a neat square.”

  “Me, too,” Bessie and Doona both said at the same time.

  A few minutes later Andy set plates in front of everyone. Bessie was relieved to see that Andy had given them fairly small portions of each type.

  “The one on the left of the plate is a classic chocolate brownie with chocolate chips,” he told them. “It took a long time to work out the ratio of chips to batter, but I think it’s about right now. The idea is to give you one or two chips in each bite, but no more. I don’t want the chips to overpower the brownie, but I do want you to get a soft, melting chip in every bite.”

  “This is the best brownie I’ve ever had,” Thomas said after his first bite.

  “It’s wonderful,” Amy told Andy.

  “It’s very good,” Bessie said. “The texture is excellent. Brownies often dry out, but these haven’t at all. And I did get one or two chips in every bite.”

  “I think I got three in a one of my bites,” Doona said, flushing, “but I was taking rather large bites.”

  “Let’s move on, then,” Andy said. “The brownie in the centre is the same chocolate brownie, but without the chips and with a generous drizzle of caramel sauce baked inside.”

  “I liked the first one better,” Amy said as she scraped up the last of the second brownie.

  “Me, too,” Thomas said.

  “I preferred the caramel one,” Bessie told Andy.

  Everyone looked at Doona. “I just loved them both,” she said with a shrug. “I couldn’t possibly choose between them.”

  “The last brownie is a blonde brownie,” Andy told them. “It’s a vanilla batter with chocolate chips in it.”

  “It’s almost like a chocolate chip cookie,” Bessie said after her first bite, “a very tasty chocolate chip cookie.”

  “I love it,” Amy said, “but I still liked the first one best.”

  “I like it, but the first was my favourite,” Thomas added.

  Bessie looked at Doona, who shook her head. “It’s wonderful and I love it, but I loved them all,” she said.

  Andy laughed. “Let’s hope I only ever get customers like you at the restaurant when I open it,” he said.

  “You’ll definitely get me,” Doona replied.

  Bessie got up to let Doona and the children out so that Doona could take Thomas and Amy home. Andy packed up a large box of brownies for them to take with them.

  “Some of them won’t be as good as the ones you tried,” he said as he piled the treats high. “They were all test batches, so some have more or fewer chocolate chips or too much caramel sauce. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “We don’t mind,” Amy said emphatically as she took the box from Andy.

  Bessie shut the door behind the trio and then sighed. “I’m not going to want any dinner after all those brownies,” she said. “It was worth it, though.”

  “What time are your friends coming over?” Andy asked.

  “Around six.”

  “You have a few hours to get hungry again, then,” Andy pointed out. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to pop home while they’re here. I’m going to put a lot of this stuff through Mum’s dishwasher, for one thing.”

  “I can help with the washing-up,” Bessie offered.

  “I’d rather let the dishwasher do it,” Andy replied. “It gets everything spotlessly clean. Anyway, the dishwasher needs to be run occasionally to keep everything working properly, and Mum never uses it. I thought it would be a big help for her, but she won’t even touch it.”

  Bessie helped Andy pack all of his bowls, pans, and utensils into a large box. “I’ll just wait for your friends to get here and then I’ll go,” he told her.

  “You can go now,” Bessie replied. “I’ll be perfectly fine. It’s the middle of the day. No one is going to bother me.”

  Andy shook his head. “I’ll wait. I don’t want you here alone unnecessarily.”

  Bessie opened her mouth to argue further, but someone knocked on her door.

  “Hugh? You’re very early,” she said, smiling at the young man on her doorstep.

  “I had an odd shift at work today, so I finished early. I thought maybe I could just come here and wait for the others rather than going home. Grace is spending the day with her mother, shopping for baby things, so the flat would be empty if I went home.”

  “You know you’re always more than welcome here,” Bessie said, stepping back to let the man into the cottage.

  “Doona did tell me that you had brownies too,” Hugh admitted sheepishly.

  Bessie and Andy both laughed, and then Andy cut Hugh a piece of each of the three types.

  “Not too much before dinner,” Bessie chided as Andy worked.

  When he’d finished serving Hugh, he smiled at Bessie. “As long as you aren’t going to be alone, I’ll pop home now. I should be back before your friends leave for the night.”

  “I’ll wait for you,” Hugh said around a mouthful of brownie.

  “Excellent. You can tell me what you thought of the brownies when I get back,” Andy said to Hugh.

  “I will,” Hugh promised.

  “You and your friends are welcome to eat them all,” he told Bessie. “After baking and tasting all day, I don’t think I’ll want brownies again for months, if not years.”

  Bessie laughed. “You’ll change your mind,” she said, “but maybe not for a week or two.”

  After she let Andy out, Bessie sat down next to Hugh. “Is everything okay?” she asked the man.

  “Everything is wonderful,” Hugh replied. “Grace is doing great with the baby. I can’t even imagine how it feels, b
ut she’s taking it all in her stride and just carrying on is if she weren’t actually growing a whole tiny person inside of her.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.”

  “And we should be able to start moving into the house soon too. It’s taken a while, but I think everything is finally ready. We had the carpets taken out and replaced and had everything painted as well. Grace’s parents insisted on paying for it all as a housewarming gift. They aren’t all that happy about our buying a house that someone was murdered in.”

  “But you’re getting it for a wonderful price,” Bessie reminded him. “It’s a much larger house than you could afford otherwise and in an amazing location.”

  Hugh nodded. “I never imagined that we’d be able to afford a property on the beach, right down from your cottage. And as we’ve been living in flats, we don’t even mind that the neighbours are quite close by.”

  “I’m really pleased that everything is working out for you and Grace,” Bessie said, “and I’m terribly excited about the baby.”

  “We are, too, most of the time. Everyone once in a while, I feel terrified instead, but I’m told that’s perfectly normal.”

  “I’m sure it is. But now I should start thinking about dinner, I suppose.”

  “Those brownies were wonderful,” Hugh said, pushing his empty plate away. “I liked them all.”

  “Andy will want to know exactly what you liked and didn’t like,” Bessie told him. “He’s trying out new recipes for the restaurant he wants to open one day.”

  “Are we having spaghetti for dinner? I could smell the sauce as soon as I walked in. It smells really good.”

  “Andy made it, so it’s wonderful. Yes, we’ll have spaghetti. I know I have everything I need for a salad and I think I can make some garlic bread as well.”

  “What can I do to help?” Hugh asked.

  Bessie gave him a few little jobs as she pottered around the kitchen, getting everything ready for her friends. The water for the pasta had just come to a boil when someone knocked on the front door. Hugh let John and Doona in while Bessie added dried pasta to the water. When they were all sitting together, enjoying their meal, Bessie told them about her conversation with Constance.

  “So she thinks that Dawn killed Walter,” Bessie concluded.

  “I think it’s interesting that she claims she told Brandon that she and Walter were here,” John said. “That’s not what she told me in her interview, and Brandon denied having any knowledge of where Walter was when I spoke to him, as well.”

  “He was hardly going to tell you that he knew that Walter was here, though,” Bessie retorted. “He’d have to know that that would make him a suspect.”

  “He’s a suspect anyway,” John replied. “It’s more a question of whether the murder was premeditated or spontaneous. I’m going to have to speak to both him and Dawn again.”

  “Let’s talk about the suspects, then,” Hugh suggested. “Is Dawn at the top of the list?”

  “She’s on the list, but maybe not at the top,” John replied.

  “She didn’t seem angry to me,” Bessie said. “She was crying over Walter when I first met her. I simply can’t see her killing him.”

  “Killers do cry over their victims,” John said softly, “but in this case, I’m inclined to agree with you. I’m more interested in whether she knew he was here or not and whether she planned to see him while she was on the island.”

  “She can deny it, and you’ll struggle to prove otherwise,” Doona pointed out. “Constance hasn’t exactly been an honest and trustworthy witness thus far, either. If I had to believe one or the other, I think I’d believe Dawn.”

  “We know Dawn had the means and opportunity, even if her family is providing a loose alibi for her,” Hugh said.

  “I still think it was Brandon,” Bessie said firmly. “I didn’t like him when I met him and I still believe he was behind the break-in here.”

  “We haven’t found any usable fingerprints from the cottage,” John told her, “but we’ll talk about the break-in after we finish with the murder.”

  Bessie nodded and then got to her feet. She and Hugh cleared away the dinner dishes before Bessie brought the three trays of brownies to the table. “Everyone can choose a favourite or try them all,” she said as she put them down.

  “They all look wonderful,” John said.

  “Doona, Hugh, and I have all tried all of them,” she admitted. “Maybe you should start with a small piece of each and then go from there.”

  Once everyone had pudding in front of them, John brought the conversation back to the murder. “Brandon is certainly a possibility,” he said, “as is Lucas.”

  “I don’t really feel as if I’ve met him,” Bessie said. “He doesn’t talk much, but he watches everything.”

  “That was my impression as well,” John told her. “I’m convinced that he knows something, but I’m sure he won’t share it until he feels the time is right.”

  “If ever,” Hugh muttered.

  “What about the two friends?” Doona asked.

  “They both had means and opportunity, if we discount the alibis provided by the others in their party, which I’m inclined to do,” John replied. “I’m not aware of any solid motive for either of them, though.”

  “Horace is in love with Dawn,” Doona said. “That’s enough motive for some people.”

  “I’m not sure Horace feels that strongly about her,” John replied. “I can’t see Dawn getting involved with him in any case. I suspect he knows she isn’t interested, and I can’t imagine he thought that he might win her heart by killing her husband.”

  “What about Constance?” Bessie asked. “I know she has an alibi, but could she have hired someone else to do it, or something like that? What have you found out about her friends from across?”

  “At this point I’ve nothing to connect them to the murder,” John replied. “I’ve spoken to them all and they all tell the same story. One of the women planned the trip initially and invited the others to join her. The original plans were made before Walter and Constance moved to the island. They came as foot passengers on the ferry and none of them had access to a car, aside from Constance.”

  “Maybe she killed him and the camera footage was faked somehow,” Doona suggested.

  “It’s been gone over very carefully,” John told her. “There’s a gap of about eleven minutes where Constance can’t be seen, but that isn’t enough time to get to Laxey and back, let alone kill anyone along the way. There are other gaps without her, but they are even shorter than that.”

  “Isn’t it odd that she managed to be on camera all the time?” Bessie asked. “Are you sure it’s the same woman who came back after the gap?”

  “I’m not, but our video expert is,” John replied. “It never looks as if she’s trying to stay on camera or is even aware that the camera is there. When we questioned her, she was surprised to hear that we had her on videotape.”

  “Pleasantly surprised, no doubt,” Bessie said, “otherwise she’d be the main suspect.”

  “Her friends are in and out of the video a bit more frequently than she is, but none were gone long enough to have gone to Laxey and back,” John added. “If she did hire someone, it wasn’t one of her friends.”

  “Maybe she arranged it with Brandon,” Hugh suggested. “She told him where to find Walter and then got herself out of the way while he did the dirty work.”

  “That sounds possible,” Bessie said. “She said they’d been very close. I’m not clear on why she rang him to tell him where she was, actually. Maybe she and Walter were having problems and she wanted to get back with Brandon.”

  “All possibilities,” John sighed, “but there are others as well.”

  “Are there?” Bessie asked.

  “Tomorrow’s paper is going to have an interview with a man called Herbert Dunkin,” John told her. “He was cheated out of several thousands of pounds by Walter Gray about ten years ago.”

 
“He’s on the island?” Doona wondered.

  “He is. He and his wife moved here to get away from everything that had happened to them in the UK. They live in Peel,” John replied.

  “If he wanted to get away from it all, why did he give an interview to the local paper?” Hugh asked.

  “Dan Ross tracked him down and threatened to write his own version of events unless Mr. Dunkin cooperated,” John said. “Oh, not in so many words, but that’s basically what he did,” he added before Bessie could react.

  “The poor man,” Bessie said.

  “Is he still angry about what happened?” Doona asked.

  “As I understand it, he said something in the interview along the lines of, ‘If that man weren’t dead, I’d kill him myself,’ or something similar,” John said.

  “I don’t suppose he has an alibi?” Bessie wondered.

  “He was with his wife at home in Peel. They’ve alibied each other, which means very little. His wife is also quite bitter, actually, but she has mobility issues that make it very unlikely that she was involved,” John told them.

  “What you need to know is whether or not they knew Walter was here,” Bessie said.

  “They say they didn’t, but they would, of course,” John agreed. “From what I’ve been told about the pair, they rarely leave Peel, but that doesn’t prove anything. Walter might have been in Peel for some reason, or they could have crossed paths in Douglas, or anywhere, really. It’s a very small island when you get down to it.”

  “Is he the only other suspect?” Bessie asked.

  “I have a constable working his way through the lists of people we know were victimized by Walter,” John told her. “I’m not sure how Dan Ross got onto Mr. Dunkin so quickly, but I suppose I should be grateful that he saved us having to track the man down.”

  “Of course, Walter may have had a number of victims that the police know nothing about, and any of them could be living on the island,” Bessie said.