Aunt Bessie Remembers

by Diana Xarissa

  John stopped there and waited as gasps and murmurs went through the crowd. “I will need to speak to each of you individually, and I appreciate your patience as I conduct my investigation.”

  “Surely you don’t need to speak to me or my wife,” Leonard Hammersmith said loudly. “We didn’t know the man and had no reason to want to kill him. Anyway, we were both here, playing at the ridiculous murder game, when he was killed.”

  “As I said, I need to speak to each of you, individually,” John replied. “I’ve requested assistance from Douglas CID so that we can get through the interviews more quickly, but for now I’m asking you to be patient with us.”

  “I have better things to do than sit here and wait while you talk to a dozen people, one at a time,” Leonard objected.

  “A man is dead,” John said sharply, “and it’s highly likely that someone in this room killed him.”

  Vivian began to laugh and then stopped abruptly as everyone looked at her. “But none of us would have killed him,” she protested. “We didn’t even know who he was.”

  “Nevertheless, I have to speak to each of you,” John replied. “Mary, if I could start with you, I’d appreciate it.”

  Mary nodded and then rose to her feet. As she began to walk towards the door, George called after her.

  “Do I need to ring for our advocate?”

  Mary shook her head as she kept walking. George settled back in his seat with a sigh. As soon as John and Mary were out of sight, it seemed as if everyone began to fidget in their places. Whenever anyone moved around, however, a police constable followed them. Bessie was grateful when Peter Corkill strode into the room.

  “Good evening, everyone,” he said. “I’m Inspector Peter Corkill from the Douglas CID. Because there are so many of you to interview, John requested my assistance. Miss Cubbon, if I could start with you, please?”

  Bessie nodded and got to her feet. She’d been to the man’s wedding only a month earlier. It felt strange hearing her friend call her Miss Cubbon. They walked into the corridor. Once they were out of sight of the others, Pete gave her a hug.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I’m fine,” Bessie replied. “How are you? I saw your lovely wife in Douglas the other day and she told me all about your fabulous honeymoon.”

  “It was amazing,” he told her. “Everything that we’d hoped it would be and more. We even enjoyed Las Vegas, and Helen won over five hundred dollars playing the slot machines. We were smart, and quit after that, as well.”

  “How wonderful for you,” Bessie smiled.

  “John really wants to talk to you himself, but I know you’ll be our best source of information tonight,” Pete said.

  “I can wait and talk to you both at the same time, after you’ve spoken to everyone else,” Bessie offered. “I know many of the others are eager to get away.”

  “It’s up to you,” Pete said. “I can take your statement now and you can go home, or you can wait until the end.”

  “If I go home, I won’t sleep,” Bessie told him. “I may as well wait.”

  Pete nodded. “Thank you,” he said. “There are some people in there who think they are quite important. The sooner we can deal with them and let them go, the better.”

  Bessie knew he was talking about Leonard and Liz, although she wondered about Michael Higgins as well. Mona had been vague about the man’s occupation, but she’d said something about him working for the government. He’s certainly been quick to take charge earlier.

  Pete led Bessie back into the great room. She returned to her seat near Elizabeth and George and then waited to see which person Pete would take next.

  “Mr. Higgins, if I could speak with you, please,” Pete said.

  The man stood up and then pulled Mona to her feet. “My friend is tired. Perhaps you could talk to her at the same time?”

  Pete hesitated and then nodded. “Come along. I’m sure we can make it work.”

  Mona gave Michael a satisfied smile, and then the pair walked out of the room behind Pete. When John returned a short while later, he took Elizabeth and George away to be interviewed. Bessie sat on her own, trying to guess who would be the next to be summoned. She’d just settled on Leonard when Hugh appeared in the doorway.

  “Mr. Hammersmith, if you could come with me, please?” he said.

  “Why do I only get a lowly constable?” the man demanded. “What are the inspectors doing?”

  “The inspectors are interviewing witnesses,” Hugh replied. “Inspector Rockwell asked me to come and collect you for him while he finishes writing his notes from his last interview. He was hoping that this might save a bit of time, but you’d prefer to wait for him to come to collect you, I can go and tell him that.”

  The man pressed his lips together and then stomped across the room. “You should talk to my wife at the same time,” he said.

  “If you’d like to wait here, I can go and ask the inspector if that’s possible,” Hugh said cheerfully.

  Leonard shook his head. “Let’s just go and get this over with,” he snapped.

  When Hugh returned a few minutes later, he took Liza away. Andy was next, and Norma and Ernest followed him in quick succession.

  “This is boring,” Vivian complained loudly as Ernest followed Hugh out of the room. “We should be allowed to drink at the very least.”

  “You don’t want to be drunk when you talk to the police,” Sean suggested.

  “Why ever not?” Vivian replied. “I’ve nothing to hide and it’s going to be a boring conversation. Maybe if I’m a little bit drunk, it will be more fun.”

  “You really aren’t meant to be talking together,” a young constable that Bessie barely knew said to Vivian.

  “You’re cute,” Vivian replied. “Do you like being in the police?”

  The man blushed and looked at the ground. “Very much,” he replied.

  “Wouldn’t you rather do something more exciting that pays better?” she asked.

  The man shook his head. “I’m quite happy where I am,” he said.

  When Hugh walked back into the room a moment later, the young constable crossed over to him and said something. Hugh frowned and then nodded. “Ms. Walker, you’re next,” Hugh announced.

  “Ha, you’re just trying to stop me from chatting up the other constable,” she said as she rose to her feet. “He’s awfully cute, but so are you. Are you single?”

  Hugh shook his head. “I’m married and we have a baby on the way,” he said proudly.

  Vivian sighed. “And I so love a man in uniform,” she simpered as she followed Hugh out of the room.

  Bessie looked over at Sean, who was watching the girl leave with a sad expression on his face. When Bessie caught his eye, he shrugged and then flopped backwards on the couch. Bessie found that she could no longer be bothered with guessing who might be next. The evening was dragging on, seemingly endlessly, and she was beginning to regret telling Pete that she’d wait.

  “Has anyone seen Susan?” Hugh asked from the doorway a minute later.

  Bessie looked around the room. Everyone was staring blankly at Hugh. “She hasn’t come back in here,” Bessie told him.

  “I was afraid of that,” he sighed, pulling out his mobile phone.

  After a few minutes, Hugh returned to collect Madison. Richard and Sean weren’t far behind, which left Bessie on her own in the great room with three uniformed constables. Unusually for her, Bessie didn’t feel up to making conversation with the men, even though she was acquainted with two of them. When Hugh finally came in to collect her, Bessie was more than half-asleep in her seat.

  “Bessie? John and Pete are ready for you,” Hugh said.

  Chapter 5

  Bessie struggled to her feet, shaking her head to clear the cobwebs. What she really needed was some strong coffee. A chocolate biscuit or two wouldn’t have gone amiss either. Thinking dreamily of chocolate biscuits and sleep, Bessie followed Hugh down the corridor and into yet anothe
r small room that she’d never noticed before. It appeared to be an office, with a large desk that stretched nearly the entire length of the room. John was sitting behind the desk in a huge well-cushioned chair. Pete was in one of the two chairs opposite John. Both men got to their feet as Bessie entered.

  “I’m sorry that you had to wait so long,” John said as he came around the desk to give Bessie a hug.

  “I offered,” Bessie reminded him. “I was hoping you might get a confession from someone before you got around to me, anyway.”

  John smiled tightly. “That would have been nice,” he said as he returned to his chair.

  “Knock, knock,” Jonathan Hooper said from the doorway. “Mrs. Quayle sent me,” he told them as he carried a large silver tray into the room. He set it on the desk and then bowed before exiting the room.

  “Coffee,” Bessie said excitedly.

  “And biscuits,” Pete added, his eyes lighting up like a small child’s.

  “I needed this,” John admitted as he poured himself a cup of the hot, dark liquid.

  “Don’t we all?” Bessie asked as she took her turn with the pot. She added a tiny drop of milk to her cup and took a sip. Even though she knew the caffeine couldn’t possibly work that quickly, she felt better immediately. The first bite of chocolate biscuit also improved her mood dramatically.

  “So let’s start at the very beginning,” John said after he’d washed several biscuits down with two cups of coffee. “Tell me about your day, starting with the time you got up.”

  “I think it might be better if I start with Thursday and work forward,” Bessie told him. “That was when I first heard about tonight’s little gathering. I don’t know that any of that is relevant, but it might be.”

  John nodded. “Start with Thursday, then,” he said, sounding a little tired.

  “I’ll condense it,” Bessie promised.

  She told both men about her conversation with Elizabeth and her subsequent talks with both Elizabeth and Mary about the party. Then she told them everything that she’d done that day, starting with when she’d woken up and moving through the party. When she was done, she sat back and took a long drink of coffee.

  “So who killed Inspector Rhodes?” Pete asked her.

  Bessie blinked in surprise. “I’ve no idea,” she exclaimed.

  “I was hoping you might have a guess,” he told her.

  “Was he even an inspector?” Bessie asked. “From what Susan said, I got the impression that he wasn’t.”

  “No, he wasn’t,” John told her. “Of course, no one was who they were pretending to be at the party, isn’t that right?”

  “Yes and no,” Bessie replied. “Mary and I weren’t playing, and Susan wasn’t either, from what I could see. As I already told you, when I talked to people at dinner, I told them all that I wasn’t taking part. No one bothered to try to stay in character with me once they knew that.”

  John yawned. “I’m too tired to think straight,” he said. “I’ve taken statements from everyone. I think it’s time for all of us to go home and get some sleep. Who knows, maybe the technicians will find fingerprints on the murder weapon or something useful like that.”

  “What was the murder weapon?” Bessie asked.

  John glanced at Pete and shrugged. “I’m sure it will be all over the papers tomorrow, anyway. It was one of the knives from the kitchen here. From what I can tell, everyone in the house had access.”

  Bessie sighed. “Why aren’t these things ever easy?”

  John nodded. “It would be nice, for once, to turn up and find someone still standing over the body holding the knife or something like that, but I’ve never known it to happen.” He yawned again. “I’m going to come and see you some time tomorrow, and I’ll warn you now that I’m going to want to go back through the party in greater detail. I’m afraid if we try to do it tonight I’ll miss something.”

  “It’s better to let the technicians finish before we go too far, anyway,” Pete said. “They may not be able to solve the crime, but they may well be able to narrow the field for us.”

  “I certainly hope so,” John replied. “Right now there are far too many suspects.”

  John had Pete give Bessie a ride home. “I have a few more things to do here and then I’ll be going home as well,” he promised Bessie before she left. “I know I’m better off getting some sleep tonight and tackling the case in the morning when I’m fresher.”

  When Pete pulled up to Treoghe Bwaane, he insisted on parking and going inside with Bessie. “After what happened last month, I’m not just dropping you off and driving away,” he said firmly when Bessie tried to protest.

  “The man who broke into my cottage is safely tucked away in prison,” Bessie reminded him as she opened her cottage door.

  He nodded, and then, as she switched on the lights, he walked across the kitchen and into the sitting room. Bessie stood by the door and listened as he climbed the stairs and stomped around the first floor. When he came down, she smiled.

  “Did you find anyone hiding in my wardrobes?” she asked.

  “Only a few stray cuddly toys who must have wandered off from your bedroom,” he replied. “I rounded them up and sent them back where they belong.”

  Bessie grinned. Her bedroom was bright pink, a colour she’d thought she would love when she’d selected it in the shop. She’d been far less thrilled with it once she’d painted the walls, but she’d decided to give herself time to get used to it. Many years later, she was still waiting for that to happen. One day she’d get around to repainting, but that day hadn’t come yet. To go along with the pink walls, Bessie’s bedroom was filled with piles of cuddly toys. Many of Laxey’s children seemed to believe that cuddly toys were the perfect present for their honourary auntie, and the more toys Bessie had accumulated the more children seemed to appear with further new additions.

  She let the man out of the cottage and then carefully locked the door behind him. As she climbed the stairs, she admitted to herself that she was grateful that he’d checked over the cottage for her. Last month’s break-in had made her home feel slightly less safe and it was taking her a while to feel at ease there again. In spite of that and the amount of coffee she’d recently drunk, Bessie was asleep as soon as her head hit her pillow. Her dreams were a confused mix of friends and strangers, and when she woke at six the next morning she was happy to leave them all behind her and get out of bed.

  After tea and toast, Bessie headed out for her morning walk. It was overcast but not actually raining as she made her way past the holiday cottages. An unhappy-looking police constable was standing at the foot of the stairs to Thie yn Traie.

  “Good morning,” Bessie greeted the man. She remembered seeing him at Hugh’s wedding, but she didn’t think they’d ever been introduced.

  “Good morning,” he replied.

  “How are you this morning?” she asked.

  “I’m fine, thanks. Just hoping the rain holds off until I finish my shift.”

  Bessie chuckled. “When do you finish?”

  “I just got here,” he sighed. “I’ll probably be here all day.”

  “You can’t complain about the view,” Bessie pointed out.

  “You’re right about that. It’s somewhat less attractive in the rain, though.”

  “Do you have an umbrella?”

  The man shook his head. “Someone is meant to be bringing one out to me, but they haven’t yet. I was assigned to patrol today, but got pulled to do this. I hadn’t expected to be outside.”

  “I’m going to go and get you an umbrella,” Bessie told him. “You can’t stand out here in the rain without one. Perhaps once you have it the rain will hold off.”

  The man laughed. “That’s usually how these things work, isn’t it.”

  Bessie walked back to her cottage and picked out one of the sturdiest umbrellas in her collection. There was already a stiff breeze blowing, and that was sure to pick up if it did start to rain. While she was at it
, she slipped a few biscuits into a bag for the man as well.

  “Here we are,” she said as she rejoined him on the beach below Thie yn Traie. “An umbrella and a little snack for later.”

  “Thank you so much,” the man said. “I hope I don’t need the umbrella, but I will definitely need the biscuits.”

  “You can drop the umbrella back off at my cottage or simply give it to John or Hugh,” Bessie told the man. “I have several, so I don’t need it back in a hurry.”

  “If you don’t mind, I might let my replacement use it as well. I believe the inspector wants someone here for a day or two.”

  “By all means, pass it along to whoever follows you,” Bessie said. “Are you here to keep people in or out?”

  The man shrugged. “A bit of both, I think. A reporter tried to get up the steps last night to get some pictures of the house and its occupants, but then someone from inside the house snuck out and climbed down to the beach to get away, as well. I’m meant to stop both things from happening again.”

  Bessie knew better than to ask any more questions. The young man probably shouldn’t have told her that much, really. She wished him a good day and then turned and headed back towards home. As she walked, a light rain began to fall. She increased her pace and then walked even more quickly when she spotted John Rockwell’s car outside her cottage.

  “Good morning,” he called as he climbed out of the car.

  “Good morning,” Bessie replied. She didn’t stop at the car, but headed straight for her door. The rain was getting heavier and she didn’t want to get any wetter than she already was. A few minutes later she and John were sitting together at Bessie’s kitchen table with steaming cups of tea in front of them.