Aunt Bessie Remembers

by Diana Xarissa

  “I was just chatting with the young constable on the beach,” Bessie told John as he helped himself to a biscuit.

  “I hope someone got an umbrella down to him,” John said. “I should check on that, really.”

  “I took him one, and a few biscuits.”

  John chuckled. “That was very kind of you,” he said. “I suspect everyone else has forgotten him with everything else that’s happening.”

  “I was surprised to see him there. Are you stopping people from going in or going out?”

  “Both,” John echoed what the constable had already told Bessie. “Dan Ross from the Isle of Man Times tried to get up the stairs late last night to get some pictures to go along with his story. Luckily, one of my men spotted Mr. Ross before he’d managed to get his camera out.”

  “I don’t like that man,” Bessie complained.

  “I think he does a valuable job, but he doesn’t always do it in the best way,” John said diplomatically.

  “And you need to keep everyone in the house?” Bessie asked.

  “Susan snuck out last night after I’d spoken with her. She went down the stairs and then walked into Laxey. From there, she took a taxi to the airport, where she was arrested,” John told her.

  “My goodness, I suspected she wanted to get away, but sneaking off in the middle of a murder investigation seems odd. Especially when it was her own father who was murdered.”

  “I think we’re going to find out a great deal more about both Susan and her father that will explain why she felt the need to disappear. Anyway, in light of both incidents, it seemed wise to have someone posted at the bottom of the stairs. I’m hoping they won’t have to be there for long. I’d really like to get this case wrapped up quickly.”

  “You’re meant to be taking the children on holiday again, aren’t you?” Bessie asked.

  “I’m hoping to take them away for a few days, just across to a holiday park, but everything is on hold at the moment. Murder takes precedent over holidays, unfortunately.”

  “Well, then, let’s work out who killed Inspector Rhodes, shall we?”

  John nodded. “If you can do that for me, I’d be grateful.”

  “Surely there can’t be many people who had motives for killing the man? Most of us didn’t even know him.”

  “Let’s start at the beginning,” John suggested. “Take me back through the party, minute by minute. I’m hoping I missed something last night.”

  Bessie nodded and then took a sip of tea. “I arrived early, because I’d been told the party started at six,” she began. An hour later, she finished.

  “It sounds as if it was an interesting evening,” John said.

  “I’m not sure I’d use that word. I’m a little bit sorry that I didn’t get to see the rest of the murder mystery play out, though. Susan made such a mess of it, I can’t help but wonder what would have happened next.”

  “From what I’ve heard, I think it would have all simply disintegrated into chaos,” John told her. “Mr. Rhodes was far too intoxicated to conduct any sort of investigation, even a pretend one. From what I’ve been told, I don’t believe that anyone at the party was particularly interested in staying in character or working out what happened to the victim.”

  “Did you find out who was meant to have killed Vivian?” Bessie asked.

  John flipped through his notes. “According to Susan, Vivian was killed by Elizabeth. Vivian was meant to be the illegitimate daughter of the owner of the house, but apparently she didn’t know that. Only Elizabeth was aware of who she really was.”

  “But that doesn’t work at all,” Bessie complained. “Elizabeth wasn’t even in the room when the pretend murder took place. How did she manage to get Vivian to play dead? I thought she was in the corridor the whole time.”

  “Apparently Elizabeth told Vivian to play dead before she went into the corridor with Mr. Rhodes.”

  “So all the walking around the chairs and whatever was a waste of time,” Bessie sighed, “and there was no way that anyone could have solved the crime, because Elizabeth couldn’t have actually done it.”

  John shrugged. “You’ll have to take that up with Susan.”

  “I will do, if I ever see her again,” Bessie replied.

  John nodded. “The lights were out for fifteen minutes. What we need to work out is who left the great room in that time.”

  “Were the lights out all over the house?” Bessie asked, “or did they just switch off the lights in the great room?”

  “They turned off all of the ground floor lights.”

  “So someone had to walk out of the great room into the corridor, open the door to the study, stab the inspector, and the return to the great room, all in the dark and without making any noise.”

  “Except Elizabeth was in the corridor with a torch,” John sighed. “She swears no one left the great room.”

  “So the killer wasn’t someone at the party?” Bessie asked, feeling confused.

  “Or Elizabeth is covering for someone, or she wasn’t really paying attention the entire time,” John replied. “We’re taking a good look at the staff, but Jonathan Hooper insists that none of them were involved.”

  “I know Jonathan. He’s a good man and an excellent butler.”

  “I got that impression. He didn’t want any of his staff to get hurt when the lights were out, so he had them all gathered together in the kitchen. He insists that every member of staff was there when the lights went out and that no one left until the lights came back on and Elizabeth started screaming.”

  “If he’s right, then that leaves Elizabeth as the only person who could possibly have killed the man,” Bessie said.

  “Unless she’s covering for someone,” John added.

  “She wouldn’t,” Bessie said firmly. “Not for murder.”

  “Then someone sneaked past her and got into a locked room under her nose.”

  “Where was the key?”

  “In Elizabeth’s pocket. They felt it was important that Mr. Rhodes not have any chance to see the crime scene until the victim was dead, so they locked him in the study and Elizabeth pocketed the key.”

  “How many keys are there to that room?”

  “According to Mr. Hooper, only that one. It was normally kept in the lock, the same as all of the others on that corridor. Apparently the doors were always simply left unlocked and the keys left in place.”

  “Maybe one of the other locks is the same, but only the killer knew about it,” Bessie suggested.

  “That raises the question of how the killer knew something about the house that the butler doesn’t,” John pointed out, “but even if we put that aside, we have the problem of motive.”

  “Someone must have known the man from across,” Bessie said.

  “Yes, but which someone? No one is admitting to it now, of course.”

  “You keep calling him Mr. Rhodes. Susan told me he wasn’t really a police inspector.”

  “No, he wasn’t. He had no connection with the police in any capacity, unless you count being arrested several times.”

  “Oh, dear,” Bessie exclaimed. “The man was a criminal?”

  “He drank too much, and when he was drunk he tended to lose his temper,” John explained. “He never got into fights with other people, but he seems to have had several arguments with inanimate objects.”

  “Such as?”

  “Windows were a particular favourite, it seems. He would have a few drinks too many, get upset about something and then throw a glass through the pub window.”

  “My goodness, what a dreadful man.”

  “I spoke to the landlord at the pub near his flat and he seemed surprisingly fond of the man, actually. He told me that Mr. Rhodes always paid for the damages and was always quite apologetic once he was sober again. After the first few incidents, the landlord had reinforced glass installed at Mr. Rhodes’s expense. Apparently glasses just bounce off of it now.”

  “You said Mr. Rhodes had been
arrested, though?”

  “Not all pub landlords are as understanding as the one at Mr. Rhodes’s local,” John replied. “And Mr. Rhodes didn’t always drink in his local.”

  “He had some nerve pretending to be a police inspector. Surely he could have found himself in a lot of trouble for that.”

  “As it was a private party, he was probably okay,” John said. “If challenged, he could simply have insisted that he was simply staying in character. That’s his daughter’s argument, anyway.”

  “She told everyone he was a police inspector.”

  “To make Elizabeth happy because Elizabeth couldn’t find one here on the island who was willing to take part. At least that’s how Susan tells it. As I said earlier, I suspect there’s more to it than that, but for now I’m taking her at her word.”

  “She’d also told Elizabeth that she’d done this sort of party before, but she told me she hadn’t,” Bessie said.

  John nodded. “And that’s for her and Elizabeth to discuss. I believe it was fairly obvious to everyone at the party last night that Susan didn’t know what she was doing.”

  “It certainly was, and her solution to the case isn’t a proper solution, either. I’m sure I could do a better job with such things, if I wanted to try.”

  “I’m sure you could, but don’t let Elizabeth hear you say that. She’d probably try to talk you into helping her with the next party.”

  “I can’t believe there will be a next party, not like that one, anyway.”

  “You’re probably right about that,” John agreed.

  “So what happens next?” Bessie asked.

  “We’re doing background checks on everyone who was at the party. We’re hoping to find a link between Mr. Rhodes and one or more of the guests.”

  “What about working out how they did it? I mean, if Elizabeth was outside the door the whole time, how did someone get to Mr. Rhodes and then back out again?”

  “I have two constables searching the study for any sign of a hidden door. Beyond that, I simply don’t know. At the moment, I’m working on the assumption that everyone had access because that gives me more to work with than believing that no one did.”

  “Clearly someone did,” Bessie said. “If there is a hidden entrance to the room, how would anyone know about it, though?”

  “As I said, we’re doing background checks on everyone. Maybe we’ll find that someone at the party had previously visited Thie yn Traie.”

  Bessie sighed. “It’s all incredibly complicated. Are you sure fifteen minutes was enough time for someone to leave the party, kill Mr. Rhodes, and return?”

  “We tried timing it a few different ways, and it can be done,” John told her. “The killer had to have moved quickly and also had some measure of luck on his or her side, but it is possible, especially if he or she already had a key ready.”

  “And assuming Elizabeth didn’t notice anything.”

  “Yes, assuming that. She was pacing up and down the corridor, apparently. It’s just possible that she missed someone slipping past her, even though she did have a torch with her.”

  “Whoever it was had incredibly good luck,” Bessie sighed.

  “Tell me what you thought of the different guests. You’ve told me about your conversations with each of them, now tell me your impressions of them. You spoke to them only a short time before Mr. Rhodes was killed. Who do you think was contemplating murder?”

  Bessie shook her head. “I’ve been asking myself that very question all morning. I can’t help but feel as if I should have spotted the killer, but I really don’t have any idea. I didn’t know most of the guests, of course, but none of them seemed strangely nervous or anything, and I didn’t notice anyone paying special attention to Mr. Rhodes, either.”

  “Let’s go through them one at a time,” John suggested. “I’ll give you a name and you tell me your thoughts.” Bessie nodded. “Let’s start with Leonard Hammersmith,” John said.

  “I’ve known Leonard for years. He’s a successful businessman, but not my favourite person.”

  “Why?”

  “I just don’t much like him,” Bessie said, waving a hand. “He’s arrogant and demanding and I wouldn’t go out of my way to spend time with him, although I wouldn’t avoid him at a party, either.”

  “And his wife?”

  “Liza is worse. She seems to think that every pound her husband makes moves her another notch up in social standing. Her I would avoid at parties.”

  John smiled. “Any reason to think that either of them might have known Mr. Rhodes or had any previous connection to Thie yn Traie?”

  Bessie shook her head. “They may have gone to summer parties there when the Pierce family had the estate, but I doubt it. When Mr. Pierce first had the house built, he and his wife used to have lots of parties each summer, but over the years they had fewer and fewer. Leonard and Liza probably weren’t wealthy enough in those early days for Mr. Pierce to have noticed them. I could be wrong, of course, but if they had been invited to parties when the Pierce family had the house, I can’t imagine that they’d lie about it now, no matter what the circumstances. It seems as if that’s something that could easily be checked and they wouldn’t want to be seen to be lying to the police.”

  “What about Mona Kelly?”

  Bessie smiled. “I’m sure you’ve heard of her,” she replied.

  “I have, yes,” John agreed. “She’s on the short list of men and women about whom I was briefed when I arrived.”

  “There’s a short list?”

  “It’s very short.”

  “So I’m not on it.”

  “No, you aren’t, although you should be on the Laxey-specific version. It’s really a list of very wealthy individuals, many of whom have the ear of the lieutenant governor or other politically connected individuals.”

  “And Mona is on the list?”

  “Yes, I understand she’s a personal friend of the chief constable, among others.”

  Bessie nodded. “She’s a personal friend of a great many men,” she said dryly.

  John grinned. “I take it you don’t like her?”

  “On the contrary, I like her a great deal. It isn’t my place to approve or disapprove of the choices she’s made in life. She’s lived an interesting life, that’s for sure, and she’s done so with considerable style.”

  “Would she have been at Thie yn Traie before?”

  “Oh, undoubtedly. I’m sure Mrs. Pierce wouldn’t have approved of her, but I’m sure she would have been taken along to parties on several occasions.”

  “How much time does she spend in London? Would she have had an opportunity to meet Mr. Rhodes somewhere?”

  “I imagine she used to travel to London regularly, no doubt in the company of one wealthy man or another. I’ve no idea where she might have met Mr. Rhodes, though. He doesn’t seem the type to have spent time in the same sorts of places that Mona haunts.”

  “What did you think about Ernest and Norma McCormick?”

  “I barely met them. They both seemed nice enough. Neither mentioned having been on the island before or knowing Mr. Rhodes, but that doesn’t mean anything.”

  John nodded. “What about Sean Rice and Richard Long?”

  “Again, we barely spoke. Sean was quite attracted to Vivian Walker. She was just about the only thing he talked about over dinner.”

  “Yes, you mentioned that. And Richard?”

  “He said something about finding the island nice, which suggests he hadn’t been here before. Beyond that, I simply don’t know. I understand both men work in London, though, so it’s possible they may have met have met Mr. Rhodes before last night.”

  “Tell me about Madison Fields.”

  “Who?” Bessie asked, frowning. “I mean, I know who you mean, but really, she was barely there last night. I don’t think I spoke to her at all and I don’t remember anything about our conversation.”

  “Perhaps that was deliberate on Madison’s part,”
John suggested.

  “It could have been, I suppose. If it was, she was very good at being vague. I can’t tell you anything about her.”

  “And Vivian?”

  “She wanted to make sure she made an impression. I’m not sure why, as she didn’t seem particularly interested in any of the men at the party.”

  “Did she seem to know her way around Thie yn Traie?”

  “I’ve no idea. I was already in the great room when she arrived there. She went off to find her friends and was back fairly quickly, but that may be because they were already in the corridor behind her, for all I know.”

  “I won’t ask you about Elizabeth, Mary, or George. I’m pretty sure I know what you think of all of them.”

  Bessie grinned. “And you should know that you can eliminate them from consideration. None of them will have had anything to do with Mr. Rhodes’s untimely death.”

  “I assume you’ll say the same about Andy Caine?”

  “Of course I will. Andy wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

  “That just leave Susan Haymarket,” John said. “What did you think of her?”

  “I thought she was terrible at event planning, and that she behaved oddly after her father’s death.”

  “Do you think she could have killed him?”

  “I don’t know. I’d hate to think that a child could kill his or her own parent, but they didn’t seem particularly close, even if she did break down when she found out he was dead. She was angry at him for drinking so much, I know.”

  “She is the only susp, er, witness that we know knew the man before last night,” John said. “For that reason alone, we’re taking a very hard look at her.”

  “And then she tried to run away,” Bessie added.

  “Yes, that was a mistake on her part.”

  “She seems the most likely to have had a motive, but she didn’t seem like a killer to me,” Bessie said. Before John could speak, she held up a hand. “I know, I know, very few of the murderers I’ve met in the past year or so have seemed like murderers, at least when I’ve first met them, but that’s how I feel, anyway.”

  “If you had to choose one or two likely suspects, whom would you choose?” John asked.