Aunt Bessie Remembers

by Diana Xarissa

  Bessie nodded. “I’ll ring her in the morning and see if she’d like to come over for a cuppa.”

  “So if we aren’t going to talk about them, who’s left to discuss?” Doona asked.

  “Mona Kelly?” Bessie suggested.

  “As I said earlier, she’s been eliminated from our enquires. She and her friend, Mr. Higgins, have given one another an alibi,” John said.

  “And that’s sufficient for you to cross them both off the list of suspects?” Bessie asked.

  “In this case, yes,” John said firmly.

  “I hope you’ve at least been able to question them both about the evening. Maybe they saw or heard something significant,” Bessie said.

  “I have spoken to both of them, yes,” John replied.

  “What about Susan Haymarket?” Doona asked. “Or is she considered one of Elizabeth’s friends about whom we don’t know enough?”

  “She and Elizabeth weren’t friends,” Bessie said. “I’m not sure where Elizabeth found her, but I believe she was paying Susan for her time and questionable expertise.”

  “Who else knew that her father was going to be at the party?” Doona asked.

  “According to Susan, no one,” John replied. “She’d told Elizabeth that she was bringing an Inspector Rhodes, but nothing more than that.”

  “Knowing Elizabeth, she told everyone,” Bessie said, “but how could anyone have realised that he wasn’t a police inspector at all?”

  “Let’s talk about motive, then,” John suggested. “The things that Clara Rhodes told you were quite suggestive.”

  “Yes, and I didn’t have trouble believing that the man was blackmailing people, either. He didn’t seem like a very nice man,” Bessie replied.

  “So if we assume that he was blackmailing or attempting to blackmail one of the other party guests, we have a motive that could apply to just about any of the guests,” Hugh said.

  “I’m still not sure how they would have known that the man was going to be here,” Bessie said.

  “Perhaps he told someone he was coming,” Doona suggested. “Maybe he rang someone to demand a payment and that person mentioned going away for the weekend. I would imagine Mr. Rhodes would have found it quite amusing to tell the person that he was going to be at the same party.”

  “And maybe they arranged to meet in the study while the lights were out,” Hugh said. “Maybe Mr. Rhodes opened the door to whoever it was.”

  “Except he didn’t have a key,” John said. “There was only one key to the study door and it was in Elizabeth’s pocket. We’ve checked and there’s no way to open the door from the inside without the key.”

  “Jack is still looking for another way into the room,” Bessie said.

  “I’m really hoping he finds it,” John told her. “Otherwise I’m not sure how the murderer got into the study.”

  “If there is a secret door, how would any of the party guests have known about it?” Hugh asked.

  “We’re trying to work out possible connections between the guests and the Pierce family, as well as to determine who might have had a chance to explore the house before the party. I’ve been told that no one was wandering around during the night, but that doesn’t mean someone couldn’t have accidentally tripped over the opening at some point before the murder,” John said.

  “Except if the door was that easy to find, surely Jack or the police would have found it by now,” Bessie said.

  “Maybe, or maybe someone tripped a switch entirely accidentally and discovered the hidden door,” John said. “At this point, we’re simply assuming that the door is there and accessible.”

  “Which takes us neatly to opportunity,” Hugh said. “Since we don’t know which guest Mr. Rhodes was blackmailing, we’ll just have to assume it could have been any of them. Are there any guests who didn’t have the opportunity to get through the secret door, though?”

  “Jack said he could see Elizabeth and Andy while the lights were out, but they weren’t on my list of possible suspects anyway,” Bessie said. “Seeing as how we don’t know how the killer got to Mr. Rhodes, though, I’m not sure we can talk about opportunity, can we?”

  “When the lights first went out, I understand everyone was walking in a circle, saying his or her name periodically,” John said.

  “Yes, that’s right. I can’t even remember why now, but they were,” Bessie replied.

  “I don’t suppose you were paying attention closely enough to have noticed if anyone suddenly went missing from the name calling?” he asked.

  “I’m sorry, but I really wasn’t paying attention,” Bessie said. “It didn’t seem to matter, and within a minute or two people started calling out each other’s names and then completely random names. I don’t know anyone’s voices well enough to be sure who was shouting out and who’d gone quiet.”

  John nodded. “Presumably Vivian stopped shouting once she was meant to be dead?”

  “I’ve no idea, but I still don’t understand how that was meant to work. Elizabeth was supposed to be the killer, but she’d left the room before the lights went out. She shouldn’t have been a suspect in the murder, as it happened while she was out of the room.”

  “Clearly Susan didn’t know how to plan a murder,” Doona said.

  “Unless she was distracted because she was planning a real murder,” Hugh suggested. “Maybe the murder mystery game was all just window dressing to distract from the real murder she was planning. Maybe she got it all badly wrong on purpose to make herself look incompetent, even while she planned the perfect crime.”

  “Why would she kill her father, though?” Doona asked.

  “Money, probably,” Hugh shrugged. “If she didn’t know about her father’s wife, she must have thought she was in line to inherit everything.”

  “Why didn’t she know about Clara?” was Doona’s next question. “It seems like something that should have come up in at least one conversation over the past three years.”

  “Clearly her father didn’t want her to know,” Bessie said. “From what Clara said, the relationship was volatile. Maybe he was waiting to see if they were going to stay together before he told his daughter about Clara.”

  “Where was Susan while the lights were out?” Doona asked.

  “I believe she was in the corridor with Elizabeth,” Bessie replied, “or in the doorway into the great room, anyway.”

  “Could Jack see her, then?” Hugh asked.

  “He didn’t mention her,” Bessie said. “He could only see Elizabeth because she had a torch.”

  “Do you have some paper?” Doona asked. “I’d really like to see where everyone was. I’m having trouble visualizing it.”

  Bessie found a sheet of white paper and a pen. She drew the great room with the large dining table and the row of chairs.

  “Mary and I were over here,” she told Doona, adding herself and her friend to the sketch. “There was a bar here, but the man behind it left before the lights went out.”

  “So the party guests were walking in a circle around the chairs here?” Doona asked.

  “It was more like a long oval than a circle, but yes. Here’s the corridor and the study where Mr. Rhodes was waiting.” Bessie added them to her drawing.

  “The study and the great room do share a wall, then,” Doona said. “If there is a hidden door in that wall, it would have been easy for someone to slip away.”

  “Yes, but no one has found it yet,” John said.

  “As far as I know, Susan was here somewhere,” Bessie said, gesturing towards the door that led out of the great room, “and Elizabeth was in the corridor.”

  “And Andy joined her there?” Hugh asked.

  “That’s what Jack said,” Bessie replied. “I didn’t realise Andy had left the great room and I’m not sure how he found his way to the corridor without tripping over anything, though.”

  “From what I’ve heard, he’s been spending a lot of time at Thie yn Traie,” John said. “I gather he’s
learned his way around rather well. You didn’t realise at the time that Andy had left the room?”

  “I had no idea,” Bessie sighed. “As I said, people were shouting all manner of things and I simply wasn’t paying attention to them.”

  “I’m surprised he didn’t trip over Vivian on his way back into the room,” Hugh said.

  “She was here,” Bessie told him, putting an “X” on the drawing to mark the spot where Vivian had been lying when the lights had come back on.

  “So not in the path of anyone coming or going from the circle,” Hugh mused.

  “No, she was out of the way. If anyone had tripped over her, though, they could have explained it away easily enough,” Bessie pointed out.

  “What about means?” Hugh asked. “I don’t suppose the knife was something special?”

  “It came from the kitchen at Thie yn Traie,” John replied. “Mary is insisting that she’s going to start locking up all the knives there.”

  “I don’t blame her,” Bessie said. This was the second time someone had taken a knife from the kitchen there and stabbed someone, after all.

  “I think we’re just talking in circles,” Hugh said, “and making a lot of assumptions. I think you should take a closer look at Susan Haymarket.”

  “She was rather desperate to get off the island as soon as the body was found,” Bessie said. “I have the impression that the police are still at Thie yn Traie mostly to make sure she doesn’t leave.”

  “They’re there for many reasons,” John said. “Including keeping track of all of the guests.”

  “Did she tell you why she wanted to get away so badly?” Bessie asked.

  “You know I can’t repeat what she said in her interview,” John replied.

  “She said something to me that made me think she’d lied to Elizabeth. Maybe she was just worried about getting caught in her lies,” Bessie speculated.

  “From what you’ve said, I think it’s pretty clear she lied to Elizabeth,” Doona said.

  “Yes, but maybe she lied about more than just her experience at party planning,” Bessie replied.

  “She’s at the top of my list of suspects,” Hugh declared. “I didn’t like her at all.”

  “If she did kill her father, I think Clara should be worried,” Doona said. “I can’t imagine Susan was very happy when Clara turned up.”

  “No, she wasn’t,” Bessie agreed. “I was there and it wasn’t pleasant.”

  “Where is Clara staying?” Doona asked John.

  “Somewhere safe and secure,” he replied. “She’s agreed to stay for a few days in case any additional questions come up as the case unfolds.”

  “That was nice of her,” Hugh said.

  “I believe she sees it as a free holiday, rather than anything else,” John said dryly.

  “So where do we go from here? I don’t know that we’ve ever had a less productive session than this one,” Bessie said.

  “As much as I hate to say it, I’m thinking about staging a reconstruction like we did for the New Year’s Eve party,” John said.

  “That’s probably a good idea,” Bessie said.

  “It will be a lot of work and it might not help, but it should give me a chance to see how the murder mystery evening functioned. Like Doona, I’m having trouble working out who was where, when,” he replied.

  “Can you find an excuse for me to be there?” Doona asked. “I hate that I missed all the excitement.”

  “We’ll see. Maybe you can come as my assistant or something,” John said. “But if you do, you’ll have to work, not just sit around and watch.”

  “Of course I’ll work,” Doona said quickly, “and I’ll pretend that I’m not just there because I’m nosy, too.”

  Bessie chuckled. “You could go in my place, if you’d like,” she said. “I was just sitting quietly in the corner, anyway.”

  “Which means you were perfectly placed to observe everything,” John said. “You managed to spot the one little thing that was the key to solving the New Year’s Eve murder. I’m hoping you might do the same again for this one.”

  “That’s hardly likely,” Bessie said, “but you know I’ll do my best.”

  The foursome chatted about the guests at Thie yn Traie for a while longer, but no one felt as if the conversation was actually useful. Eventually Hugh looked at the clock.

  “It’s later than I realised,” he said, jumping to his feet. “I need to get home to Grace.”

  Bessie put some shortbread into a bag. “Take this home for your wife,” she told him, “and don’t think I won’t mention it to her the next time I speak with her. You can’t eat it on the way home.”

  Hugh looked so disappointed that Bessie cut another square of the sweet buttery treat for him to eat on his drive. While she was doing that, Doona and John cleared the table and got started on the washing-up.

  “I can get that,” Bessie told them after she’d let Hugh out.

  “But you shouldn’t have to,” John said. “You were kind enough to open your home to us. The least we can do is clear up our mess.”

  “A few dishes and cups isn’t a mess,” Bessie said. “You brought dinner, as well.”

  While they were talking, John finished washing the last of the plates. He handed it to Doona, who dried it quickly and put it away.

  “And we’re done,” John said. “It didn’t take much time at all, anyway. You should see the mess at my house, or rather, you shouldn’t. I don’t know what the kids are doing all day, but it seems to dirty just about every plate, bowl, and glass I own.”

  “I did the washing-up last night when I was there,” Doona said.

  “Yeah, and Thomas used three bowls for breakfast this morning,” John laughed. “I actually thanked Amy for only using two, when anyone sensible would use a single bowl. I don’t know what they’re thinking.”

  “They’re thinking they can do what they please because someone else will take care of the mess,” Bessie told him. “If they had to do the washing-up themselves, they’d quickly learn not to use so many things.”

  John sighed. “I know you’re right, but they’re meant to be on their summer holidays.”

  “Which means they have all the time in the world to wash a few bowls and glasses,” Bessie said. “They’re both more than old enough to have a few chores.”

  “Apparently their mother doesn’t make them do anything. Harvey had a maid service that comes in twice a week,” John said, his tone bitter.

  “All the more reason for them to do chores here, then,” Bessie suggested. “When they move out on their own they won’t have a maid service. They need to know how to look after a home.”

  John nodded. “I just hate making them work on their holidays.”

  “I’m not suggesting you make them spend all day working around the house, but if they spend an hour each day doing chores, the house will be clean and they’ll learn a lot. That still leaves them a great many hours of leisure and it means you don’t have to clean and tidy after putting in a long day at work,” Bessie told him.

  “I told you that they’re taking turns preparing dinner for all of us, didn’t I?” John asked.

  “You did. I’m sure they’re using a lot of pots and pans while they’re doing so, as well,” Bessie replied.

  “They seem to use every pot and pan I own, just to boil water,” John said, shaking his head. “You’re right. They should be doing the washing-up.”

  “Don’t tell them that the idea came from me,” Bessie said as she walked her friends to the door. “I don’t want them angry at me.”

  “But it’s okay if they’re angry with me?” John asked.

  Bessie grinned. “They’ll be angry at you for lots of things over the next sixty or seventy years.”

  “I suppose that’s true,” John sighed. “Parenting is hard work. It’s a good thing Hugh doesn’t realise what he’s in for.”

  “The species wouldn’t survive if parents knew what they were in for,” Be
ssie said. “I’m always amazed when people have more than one child, though.”

  “They’re so cute and cuddly when they’re babies,” John said. “Thomas was just starting to toddle when Sue started talking about having a second one. I couldn’t possibly have said no at that point.”

  “And now they’re home alone, probably eating everything in the house,” Bessie said. “Take them some shortbread from me.” She handed the man a bag with the rest of the shortbread in it. “Do you want the ice cream, too?”

  “We have ice cream,” he replied. “In fact, we have a lot of ice cream and chocolate and biscuits, but not much real food. I need to go shopping tomorrow or else Amy will be making us ice cream sundaes for dinner.”

  “That sounds yummy,” Doona said, “and I’m sure you’d be very popular with both children if you let her do it, too.”

  “It’s more important that they be healthy than I be popular,” John replied.

  “Having ice cream for dinner once in a rare while won’t hurt them,” Doona suggested. “They’ll feel as if they’re getting away with something special, too. Don’t you ever just have pudding for dinner?” she asked.

  Bessie stared at her for a minute and then shook her head. “Pudding for dinner? Never.”

  “I’m with Bessie on this one,” he said. “I might have done when I was younger, but I’d never admit to it now.” He looked at Doona and winked.

  “I have never had pudding for dinner,” Bessie said firmly. “It simply isn’t right.”

  “I think we should leave,” Doona told John. “Before we get a lecture about healthy eating.”

  “Maybe we should stop for ice cream on the way home,” John suggested. “All this talk about pudding has made me hungry for something sweet.”

  “I don’t know where we’d get ice cream at this hour,” Doona said, looking at the clock.

  “There’s lots in my freezer,” John told her. “Why don’t you come over for a short while? I’m sure the kids would love to see you.”

  Bessie shut the door behind the pair, still shaking her head at the notion of having sweets instead of a proper meal. It was nice to see John and Doona spending time together, though. Bessie had hopes that their friendship might turn into more, but she wasn’t about to say anything to either of her friends about it, at least not yet.