“I hope you find something,” Bessie said. “I’m sure John will feel better when he knows how the killer got access to his or her victim.”
“It was lovely to see you, Aunt Bessie,” the man said as he got to his feet. “I shall have to make a point of visiting you more often. I’m sure we could find more pleasant things to talk about.”
“Definitely. I must ring your mother, as well. I’ve been meaning to do that. How is she?”
“She’s fine and very happy to be back on the island. Let me give you her mobile number as she’s never at home. I know she’d love to hear from you and would enjoy visiting with you.” Jack scribbled a number on a piece of paper and handed it to Bessie.
“I’ll ring her later in the week, maybe once the case is solved,” Bessie said.
“That might be best. Mum hates that I’m wrapped up in a murder investigation. She’d probably complain to you about it for hours.”
Bessie let the young man out, watching as he let himself into a small black car. It looked very like the car she’d sometimes seen Elizabeth driving, so perhaps it was part of the fleet of cars that George Quayle owned. Jack waved as he drove away. Bessie did the washing-up while she thought back through everything that Jack had told her. While it was all very interesting information, none of it seemed at all helpful when it came to the investigation. Still, that wasn’t really for her to decide. She needed to share everything she’d learned with John Rockwell.
“John? It’s Bessie,” she said a short time later when the man answered his office phone.
“How are you?”
“Oh, I’m fine. I just had a lovely chat with Jack, er, Jonathan Hooper. He shared his thoughts on everyone at Thie yn Traie, perhaps telling me things that he shouldn’t have. I wondered if you’d like to hear them, strictly off the record so that Jack isn’t in any trouble for talking about his employers and their friends.”
“I’d very much like to hear what he said. And I’d really like to talk through the case with you, as well. Are you free for dinner? Maybe we could meet at your cottage? I could see if Hugh and Doona are available to join us.”
“That sounds good, but someone will have to bring food. I don’t have anything I could make for four people.”
“I’ll bring pizza and garlic bread,” John told her, “and I’ll have Hugh or Doona bring pudding.”
“Perfect. Six o’clock?”
“Or maybe a little bit later, depending on what time I finish here. I’ll ring you if I’m going to be more than twenty minutes late or if either Hugh or Doona can’t make it.”
Bessie put the phone down and looked at the clock. She had a few hours to fill before her friends would arrive for one of their traditional gatherings. It had been a few days since she’d done any housework, so she cleaned the bathrooms, dusted, and ran the vacuum through the entire cottage. She felt better when that job was done.
The rain had stopped, but it was still overcast. Bessie decided that a walk to the shop at the top of the hill was just what she needed. The local paper was bound to have an article or two about the murder, although she doubted that it would tell her anything she didn’t already know.
The girl behind the till was a stranger. Bessie grabbed a basket and put a loaf of bread and a carton of milk into it. A few glossy magazines of the sort she didn’t normally read made their way into the basket as well. A chocolate bar and the local paper rounded out her purchases.
The total was just under ten pounds and Bessie handed the girl a twenty pound note. She was shocked when the girl gave her a few coins in change.
“I gave you a twenty pound note,” she said sharply.
“Nah, you gave me a tenner,” the girl replied.
“I’m quite certain I gave you a twenty,” Bessie said firmly.
The girl shrugged. “Are you calling me a liar?”
“I’m suggesting that you’re mistaken,” Bessie replied.
“Well, I’m not,” the girl said, shutting the till.
“I’m sorry, do you think I’m just going to leave and let you pocket my ten pounds?” Bessie asked.
“Yep,” the girl smirked.
Bessie raised an eyebrow and then pulled out her mobile phone.
“Laxey neighbourhood policing, this is Doona. How can I help you?”
“Ah, yes, this is Elizabeth Cubbon. I’m at the shop at the top of the hill in Laxey. I gave the shop assistant a twenty pound note and she’s only given me change for a ten pound note. I wasn’t sure whom I should ring about the matter.”
“I’ll send a constable,” Doona said, “and I’ll let the shop’s owner know that there’s an issue. I’m sure he’ll want to come out and help get things sorted.”
Bessie put her phone away and stood and watched the girl closely. There was no way she was going to sneak any money out of the till while Bessie was watching her.
“Rang your answering machine to make me think you’d rung the police, did you?” the girl asked. “You didn’t ring 999, that’s for sure.”
“No, I rang the police non-emergency number,” Bessie explained. “Someone is on the way.”
“Yeah, sure,” the girl said, looking slightly less confident.
A minute later the shop door swung open. Bessie grinned as Hugh Watterson strolled in.
“I understand we have a problem,” he said.
“She’s just a confused old lady,” the girl behind the till snapped. “She thinks she gave me a twenty, but she only gave me a tenner.”
“So let’s count the drawer and see what it says,” a voice behind Hugh suggested.
Bessie didn’t really know the man who owned the shop, but she had reason to dislike him. When he’d purchased the shop, he’d replaced her friend Anne Caine with his grumpy teenaged daughter. At that time Anne had really needed the job and Bessie had stopped shopping there as a show of support.
Anne had never held a grudge, though, and now that her son had inherited a small fortune and she didn’t need to work she occasionally helped out at the shop when the man needed assistance. His daughter had gone across and done some work at a bakery. When she’d returned home, she decided that she wanted to bake cakes for a living rather than work at the shop, so she was rarely if ever there. It seemed to Bessie as if every time she came in the shop lately there was a different person behind the till.
“It’ll balance, or nearly,” the girl said firmly. “She’s wrong, that’s all. She’s just confused.”
The man punched a few buttons on the machine and it spit out a long receipt. While Bessie and Hugh watched, he carefully counted all of the money in the drawer.
“It’s a few pennies off, but not ten pounds off,” he told Bessie.
Bessie felt her face flush. “But I gave her a twenty pound note,” she said quietly.
The owner of the shop looked from Bessie to the shop assistant and back again. The girl was smirking as she leaned against the wall.
“Let’s check the camera footage,” the owner suggested.
“Camera footage?” the girl repeated.
“Yes, there’s a camera trained on the till for just such a problem,” the man explained. “Constable Watterson, if you’d like to come with me, we can watch it in the back room.”
Hugh followed the owner through the door marked “staff only,” leaving Bessie alone with the girl. Another customer came in and bought a paper and a few other things before Hugh and the owner emerged. When the girl saw the looks on the two men’s faces, she shook her head.
“It isn’t how it looked,” she said quickly. “I mean, I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You’re going to have to come with me,” Hugh told her. “We’ll talk about what the videotape shows down at the station.”
“But I can explain,” the girl replied.
“Good. You can do that down at the station,” Hugh told her.
He left a moment later with a videocassette and the girl. The owner of the shop looked at Bessie and sighed. “Do you have
any idea how hard it is to get good help?” he asked.
“I’m sure it isn’t easy,” Bessie said politely.
“Here, let me give you your money back,” the man said. He opened the cash drawer and handed Bessie a twenty pound note.
“I should only be getting ten pounds,” she said.
“Take twenty and consider it a token apology and a thank you. I’m sorry she tried to cheat you, and I’m grateful that you caught her at it so that she can’t cheat anyone else.”
Bessie put the note into her handbag and then picked up her shopping and headed for the door. The man followed her out, turning the sign to “closed” and locking the door behind them.
“This won’t be good for business, but I need to go down to the station and give a statement of my own. Maybe it’s time to sell the stupid shop,” he said, mostly to himself, as he walked away from the building.
Chapter 10
Bessie walked home slowly, wondering how anyone could ever think that cheating someone out of money was okay. She was still shaking her head over it as she let herself in Treoghe Bwaane. It was closer to six than she’d realised, so she quickly put her shopping away and refilled the kettle. People would probably rather have cold drinks this time of year, but it was always good to have the kettle ready, just in case.
Doona was the first to arrive. Although she was Bessie’s closest friend, at first glance the pair seemed to have little in common. Doona was in her mid-forties and had been married twice, but was currently single. Her hair was red, thanks to a recent dye job, although she was thinking about going blonde next. Her bright green eyes were mostly due to coloured contact lenses. She’d gained some weight as her second marriage had fallen apart, but that weight had disappeared when her second husband had been murdered and she’d been a suspect in the killing.
“Hugh is probably going to be late. He has a lot of paperwork to get through,” she told Bessie as they hugged.
“And that’s my fault,” Bessie sighed.
“You did exactly the right thing, ringing me,” Doona assured her. “That girl tried to steal ten pounds from you.”
“Yes, I know, but I might have been willing to let her have it if I’d known it was going to make Hugh late.”
“He’ll only be a little bit late, you’ll see,” Doona said, laughing. “John won’t make him finish everything tonight, just the preliminary report.”
John was at the door a few minutes later, laden down with pizza boxes. “The top two have garlic bread in them,” he told Bessie as she and Doona moved the boxes onto Bessie’s counter. “I promised Hugh that I would get extra of everything because he’s going to be a little bit late.”
“I feel guilty for making him late,” Bessie said.
“It’s the girl from the shop who is at fault, not you,” John told her. “Be angry with her, not yourself.”
“Oh, I’m plenty angry with her,” Bessie replied.
“She was very clever, really, or nearly. It was just lucky for the shop’s owner that he had that camera there,” John said.
“So you could see that I gave her a twenty pound note?” Bessie asked.
“Yes, among other things,” John replied.
“Like what?” Doona demanded.
John shook his head. “It will all come out in court, but I can’t say any more for now.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t taking money right out of the till,” Bessie said, watching John’s face closely. “That would explain why the money was right even though she’d shortchanged me.”
John winked at her as someone knocked on the door.
“Hugh, I was worried you’d never get here,” Bessie said as she hugged the young man.
“So was I,” he grinned. “I could smell the pizza from the station.”
“Maybe it was the garlic bread,” Doona suggested. “It’s very strong.”
They all filled plates while Bessie got drinks for everyone. “What shall we talk about?” she asked as she joined the others at the kitchen table.
“We need to talk about the case, but that can wait until after we’ve eaten, if you’d prefer,” John said.
“Why don’t I give you a quick run-through of what Jack had to say when he was here?” Bessie suggested. “Then we can talk properly about the case over pudding.”
“Oh, no!” Hugh exclaimed. “I forgot to bring pudding.”
“That’s hardly surprising under the circumstances,” Bessie said. “But never mind. I can throw some shortbread together in two minutes.”
She finished a slice of pizza and then got up and pulled out flour, butter, and sugar. After all of her years of experience it didn’t take her much longer than the two minutes she’d suggested to get the shortbread mixed up and into the oven. While she worked, Bessie told the others about her conversation with Jack.
The shortbread was ready to come out of the oven by the time everyone had finished second helpings of pizza. Bessie cut it into crumbly squares and spooned vanilla ice cream on top of it before serving.
“This is delicious,” Doona sighed. “I shall have to eat nothing but lettuce for the rest of the week, though.”
“Don’t say that in front of Amy,” John said. “She’s already worrying about her weight, and I don’t want her to think that she has to diet.”
“I’m very careful what I say in front of her, actually,” Doona said, “and I keep reminding her that she needs to keep her body healthy and that that is more important than what the numbers on the scale say.”
“You’ve been terrific with both kids, and I don’t thank you enough,” John told her. “Thank you.”
Doona blushed. “I like them both a lot. They’re more fun to spend time with than most adults I know, present company excepted, of course.”
Everyone chuckled. “And now we should talk about the case,” Hugh suggested. “I’d like to get home before it gets too late.”
“How is Grace?” Bessie asked.
“She’s doing well and looking forward to getting into the new house and getting settled before the baby arrives. The whole thing seems a bit unreal to me, but I suppose it feels more real to her since the baby seems to be kicking her constantly.”
“I can’t imagine,” Bessie murmured.
“Me, either,” Doona said. “I think I quite prefer looking after teenagers, really.”
“Every stage of parenting has its own unique challenges and rewards,” John said. “For fathers, pregnancy is the easy part, of course. It’s something of a shock to the system when the baby actually arrives, of course. Then the sleepless nights begin. Poor Grace is probably already having trouble sleeping, though.”
“She is, and her mother told it will only get worse.”
Bessie and Doona exchanged glances. “Does anyone want more shortbread?” Bessie changed the subject.
Of course, Hugh did, and when John decided to have a bit more, Doona and Bessie found that they couldn’t resist, either.
“I found what Jack, er, Jonathan, had to say quite interesting,” John said as Bessie put the second round of puddings on the table. “I think we should talk about each of the, um, witnesses in turn.”
“What about means, motive, and opportunity?” Hugh asked.
“Let’s leave those for last, as they’re possibly the most difficult part,” John suggested. “For now let’s assume that everyone had all three and talk about each of the party guests individually. Let’s start with Leonard and Liza Hammersmith.” John pulled out one of the notebooks he always carried and flipped to a blank page. With his pen ready, he looked at Bessie expectantly.
“I know them both, but only slightly,” she said. “He made his money from buying and selling property around the island. She married him when he was just starting out, although she tries to act as if they’re old money.”
“Do either of them spend much time in London?” John asked.
“Not that I know of, but, as I said, I don’t know them well,” Bessie replied
.
“How well do they know George and Mary?” was John’s next question.
“Jack said that they visit Thie yn Traie regularly. I don’t know if that’s mostly social or mostly business. I believe that Liza is friendly with Elizabeth as well.”
John nodded. “Were they friendly with the Pierce family?”
“We talked about this before,” Bessie reminded the man. “I don’t believe so, but it’s possible.”
“We talked about everyone before, but that was just the two of us. I want Doona and Hugh to have all of the background. Anyway, it helps hearing it all again,” John explained.
“I don’t mind repeating myself,” Bessie said with a grin. “I was just worried that you were testing my memory.”
John laughed. “I’m pretty sure your memory is better than mine. Anyway, does anyone have anything else to say about Leonard or Liza?”
“I knew Liza years ago,” Doona said. “We had some mutual friends, but I didn’t get to know her well. Once she married Leonard and he made a few pounds, she dropped all of her former friends.”
“That’s Liza,” Bessie sighed.
“Let’s talk about Elizabeth’s friends, then,” John said. “Tell me about Sean Rice.”
“I don’t really know anything about him, except that he’s hoping to get involved with Vivian Walker but she doesn’t seem interested. She’s too busy chasing after Richard Long.” Bessie replied.
“Who’s Vivian Walker?” Doona asked.
“I forgot that you haven’t met any of the people involved,” Bessie said. “Vivian is a very beautiful part-time model with family money. She seems incredibly spoiled and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was only chasing Richard to annoy Sean.”
John sighed. “I’m not sure we’re going to get anywhere talking about Elizabeth’s friends. The things that Jack said were interesting, and might help, at least.”
“I simply don’t know them very well,” Bessie said apologetically. “I could ring Elizabeth and see if she’d come down and talk about her friends with us.”
“I’ve already interviewed her,” John said. “I don’t think she’d tell me anything more than what she’s already said in her statement. Maybe you could try talking to her, though. She might be willing to tell you more about her friends than she told me.”
Aunt Bessie Remembers Page 15
