Aunt Bessie Observes (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 15)

by Diana Xarissa

  “Oh, I suppose I could have one of my maids ring a few people,” she said airily. “I don’t have the time to do it myself, of course.”

  “As the conversations could be rather awkward, I think maybe it would better if someone from the committee did the ringing themselves,” Agnes said.

  “I’ll have Kathryn do it,” Trevor offered. “She’s on the phone all day anyway, when she’s on the island. This way she can put her talking to good use.”

  “So what’s left?” Bessie asked.

  “Decorating,” Agnes sighed. “My least favourite part of the whole thing. Jonathan said he had a number of ideas based on themed events he’d held over the years. I was more than happy to dump the whole thing in his lap. Now, of course, I’m sorry, but it can’t be helped.”

  “Janet should do it,” Joan said.

  Everyone turned to look at her. “We just helped out with a charity event where we live, and Janet did the decorating. She did an amazing job turning a bland community centre into a sophisticated venue.”

  Janet flushed. “I did my best,” she muttered.

  “At this point, I would be grateful for anything you can do,” Agnes said. “I’m still going through all of the ticket orders, trying to get them organised, and preparing the cards for each of the auction items. We have dozens of boxes of decorations from over the years. You’re welcome to go through them and see if you can come up with any ideas. I don’t really have a budget for decorations, though. Or rather, I did have one, but I gave the money to Jonathan. I don’t know what he spent it on, but I suspect he didn’t leave behind any decorations for us.”

  “I’m happy to take a look at what you have,” Janet said. “Hopefully, inspiration will strike.”

  Agnes nodded. “Thank you so much,” she said.

  “I can help with the tickets and the auction cards,” Nicola said. “Hopefully, once everyone has been rung, we’ll have a lot more cards to get done.”

  “Yes, let’s hope,” Agnes agreed.

  “Was that everything?” Jacqueline asked.

  “I believe so,” Agnes said. “Unless anyone can think of anything that I might have forgotten?”

  “If Jonathan did ask a friend to donate the food and drink, who might it have been?” Bessie asked as the idea popped into her head.

  “Jonathan didn’t know anyone on the island,” Jacqueline snapped.

  “He didn’t?” Bessie asked.

  “I don’t think so,” the woman replied. “I tried to get him to tell me who he was going to be asking. I mean, most of the island’s most influential people are already on the committee. He refused to answer, which led me to believe that he didn’t actually know anyone and was just showing off, bragging about his rich friends.”

  “I wish you would have mentioned that earlier,” Agnes said. “When he made the offer, I believed he was going to deliver. If he hadn’t passed away, we might have all turned up on Thursday night to find that there wasn’t anything to eat or drink at our party.”

  “I told him to talk to you,” Jacqueline said. “Anyway, I must dash. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help. Otherwise, I’ll see you all on Thursday.” The woman got up, straightened her dress, and then wiggled her way out of the room on her stilettos.

  As the door swung shut behind her, Bessie sighed. “Anything else she can do?” she muttered. “Has she done anything?”

  “She had one of her maids ring everyone in her address book and insist that they buy a ticket for Thursday,” Trevor told her. “That’s really all you can expect from Jacqueline.”

  “And it is much appreciated,” Agnes said. “Ticket sales make up a large portion of the income from the event. Most of the rest comes from the auction, although a significant number of people will also make donations on the night.”

  “Are we sold out of tickets?” Anthony asked. “I’m pretty sure I can sell a few more, if we still have some.”

  “You should ask Jacqueline about that,” Agnes said. “She took seventy-five tickets from me. She said she’d only sold fifty, so she should have another twenty-five left. We’re sold out otherwise.”

  “Does anyone have any idea who Jonathan might have known on the island?” Bessie asked.

  “As much as I hate to agree with Jacqueline,” Trevor said, “I suspect she’s right. He didn’t know anyone, at least not anyone who would have donated the food and drink for the fundraiser.”

  “Was he responsible for any ticket sales?” Janet asked. “He and his partner were in charge of tickets at the event in Doveby Dale. That was how they managed to get away with all of the money from the tickets.”

  “He and Nathan offered, but most of the tickets are sold to people who come every year. We didn’t think we needed their help selling them. I’ve collected all of the money myself, aside from the tickets that Jacqueline has sold.”

  “Did anyone ever meet Nathan’s wife?” Bessie asked.

  “He mentioned her occasionally, but he never brought her to our meetings,” Mary said. “I asked after her every time I saw him, though. From what he said, her health was very up and down. One time when we spoke, he said she was unable to leave the house, but the next time that I saw him he told me that she was spending as much time as she could sitting on the beach behind the house that they’d rented.”

  “Perhaps he simply couldn’t remember what lie he’d told last,” Janet said.

  Mary sighed. “I still can’t quite believe that he was dishonest,” she said. “He seemed like such a nice man, and so dedicated to fundraising.”

  “He was dedicated to fundraising because he thought the funds he raised would be going into his own pocket,” Janet said.

  “And now he’s gone and killed his partner,” Trevor said.

  “Not necessarily,” Bessie countered. “The police still aren’t sure what happened to Jonathan.”

  “But neither of them knew anyone on the island,” Trevor argued. “Nathan was the only one with a motive.”

  “Unless someone from across tracked them down and killed him,” Anthony suggested. “I’m sure they both had a lot of enemies.”

  “Maybe someone who is here on holiday simply spotted him on the beach or somewhere and confronted him,” Janet mused. “They might not have meant to kill him.”

  “All possibilities, but the whole thing is for the police to work out and not our concern,” Anthony said. “Was there anything else for today?” he asked Agnes.

  “I don’t think so,” she replied. “If you and Trevor and Scott can work out the drinks, I’ll be hugely grateful.”

  “Consider it done,” the man said as he rose to his feet. “I’ll ring you tomorrow with an update on our progress, just so you know we haven’t forgotten.”

  Agnes grinned. “At this point, I’m a little obsessed with the details, so I would appreciate it if you’d ring.”

  “Speaking of ringing, whom do you want Kathryn to ring?” Trevor asked.

  Bessie went back over the list of donors and noted down the ten or twelve who were based in the south of the island. “Here you are,” she said. “I’ve noted what they’ve each given to the auction in past years as a guide for your wife.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “What do we do if someone agrees to help?”

  “I need the donated items here by midday on Thursday,” Agnes said. “If you can let me know what’s being donated before that, though, it would help. We need to make signs for each item, and include them on the master list for the auctioneer.”

  “I thought it was a silent auction,” Bessie said as Trevor left the room.

  “It usually is,” Agnes replied. “Jonathan and Nathan encouraged us to do both a silent auction and a traditional auction this year. We’ve had a couple of donations that we’ve already earmarked for the traditional auction, larger items than we usually get. Jonathan secured them for us.”

  “He’s good at that,” Janet told her. “Or rather, he was. Those large items often raise a lot of mon
ey on the night, too, especially if you have a good auctioneer.”

  “Anyone want to volunteer to do that?” Agnes asked. “I didn’t think about it earlier, but Jonathan was meant to be acting as auctioneer.”

  “I can ask George,” Mary offered. “He’d probably enjoy it.”

  Bessie grinned. George was physically large, and he had a larger than life personality. He’d worked in sales for his entire career, selling everything from second-hand cars to insurance, and he’d been enormously successful at it all. His loud booming voice and nonstop sales patter would be perfect for a charity auction.

  “He’d do a wonderful job,” Agnes voiced Bessie’s thoughts. “If he’s willing, I’d be delighted to have him.”

  Mary nodded. “And whom am I meant to be ringing?” she asked Bessie.

  Bessie wrote down the names and details for twenty-five to thirty Douglas-based businesses that had previously donated. “There are a lot here,” she said apologetically as she handed the list to Mary.

  “I’d better get home and start ringing people,” Mary said in a determined voice.

  Bessie knew that the woman was incredibly shy. Ringing all of those people was going to be difficult for her. As Mary headed for the door, Bessie stood up and gave her a hug.

  “When can I take a look at the decorations?” Janet asked as the door shut behind Mary.

  “The sooner the better, I suppose,” Agnes said. “They’re all in the storage room at our offices in Douglas. I don’t know what your plans are for the afternoon, but I can meet you there whenever you like.”

  Janet looked over at Joan. “We were talking about going over to Peel Castle this afternoon,” she said hesitantly.

  “But this is more important,” Joan said. “We’ve been to Peel Castle before and it will still be there tomorrow. Let’s go into Douglas and take a look at what you have to work with.”

  “Before we do that, I need to look at the space we’ll be using here,” Janet said.

  Agnes nodded. “The good news is, it’s right across the hall,” she said.

  Agnes led Bessie, Joan, and Janet out the door and into the large space opposite.

  “It’s rather uninspiring,” Joan said, looking around at the bland rectangle.

  “It’s a blank canvas,” Janet countered. “Did the invitations say anything about a theme?”

  “No, not at all,” Agnes told her. “We usually just do something with colour, rather than an actual theme. Last year we did black and gold.”

  “And it was lovely,” Bessie recalled.

  “How will the room be arranged?” Janet asked.

  “I have photos from the last three years,” Nicola offered from the doorway. “I brought them from the office in case we needed them.”

  “Nicola, you’re a lifesaver,” Agnes said.

  Janet looked through the photos and then took a slow walk around the room. “Do you want to do anything differently because of the different types of auctions this time?” she asked after a moment.

  “No, I don’t think so. We’ve always had a podium where we’ve announced the winners in the silent auction. That will do for the actual auction as well,” Agnes replied.

  “There were three tables for auction items in the photos,” Janet said. “Is there a chance we’ll need more or less this year?”

  “We may only need two all of the ringing around doesn’t generate many more donations,” Agnes said sadly.

  “Or we could use one table for the big items that are being sold in the traditional auction,” Nicola suggested. “We have enough smaller items for two tables for the silent auction, if we spread them out a bit.”

  “If we spread them out a lot,” Agnes muttered. “But yes, I think that would work. Let’s plan on three tables again.”

  Janet went through the photos again and then went back across the hall for some paper and a pen. She sketched out the room, adding in large rectangular tables for the auction, for the food, and for the bar. Then she added smaller round tables for guests to use while eating and socialising. “Have I missed anything?” she asked Agnes before she went through the pictures another time.

  “It looks right to me,” Agnes said.

  “Why can’t we just do gold and black again?” Nicola asked. “No one will be expecting anything more.”

  “We may be able to,” Agnes replied. “But I know some of the table covers were torn or stained and had to be thrown away. That’s the problem every year. We probably have enough of any one colour of decorations to decorate about a third of the room. I’m afraid if we use three colours, it will just be too busy, though.”

  “Let me see if I can come up with anything better than just colours,” Janet said. “If I don’t, maybe we can use red and black and gold, if you have all of them. It could be a Manx flag theme and it might not look too busy, done right.”

  “Whatever you want to do is fine with me,” Agnes told her. “Are we done in here?”

  Janet looked around one last time and then nodded. “Yes, let’s go before I start obsessing over the details before I’ve even seen what we have for decorations.”

  Still chatting about ideas for decorating, the little group made their way back into the building’s foyer. Bessie waved to the girl behind the ticket desk as she followed Janet and Joan out of the building. A few minutes later, they were back in the sisters’ car, on their way to Douglas again.

  CHAPTER 7

  “Bessie, can you suggest any possible themes for the party?” Janet asked as they drove. “I mean, themes that would mean something to island residents, that I might not know about.”

  Bessie shrugged. “Mannanan’s mist?” she suggested.

  Janet nodded. “That might work. We could use lots of gauzy fabric in white and grey all over the room, maybe even suspend some from the ceiling and cover the tables with it.”

  “That could be really interesting,” Bessie said.

  “Or it could just look messy and odd,” Janet sighed. “Maybe I need to wait and see what we have. If there isn’t any gauze, that won’t work anyway.”

  “We could always go and buy some things, if you need them,” Bessie said. “I don’t mind contributing a little bit towards decorations, and I’m sure Mary will help out as well.”

  “I don’t know that we have time to do much shopping,” Janet replied. “The party is the day after tomorrow. Depending on what we find in Douglas, I’d really like to start decorating tomorrow. We may have to just use what we have, whatever that is.”

  “Maybe we can get the caterer, whoever that ends up being, to theme the food in some way,” Bessie said thoughtfully. “Maybe around herring fishery or something like that.”

  Janet made a face. “I’m not a huge fan of herring,” she said apologetically. “I know it’s a very Manx thing, but I’m not sure I’d want the entire menu based on it.”

  “What about some sort of Celtic theme?” Joan asked. “Or a Viking one?”

  “Viking might be fun,” Janet said. “I wonder if we have time to make the room look like the interior of a ship?”

  “I doubt we’ll have the materials for that, even if we have the time,” Bessie said. “Although I do think it’s a brilliant idea.”

  They were still discussing other, less complicated ways to use the Viking theme when they arrived in Douglas. Bessie directed Joan to the small car park next to the building that housed the offices of Mannanan’s Kids.

  “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this,” Agnes said as she led the others to the storage room at the back of the building. “Please don’t feel as if you have to do something amazing. The party is the day after tomorrow. Any decoration is better than nothing at this point.”

  She opened the door and switched on the light. “Here you go. Good luck.” She disappeared into her office as the others walked into the room.

  Janet, Joan, and Bessie looked around. There were dozens of boxes, all neatly sealed and labeled.

  “Decorations, blue,”
Bessie read off of the box nearest to her.

  “Decorations, green,” Janet said.

  “They all just say decorations and a colour,” Joan said. “If we want to know more than that, we’re going to have to open them all.”

  “I’ll get some scissors from Agnes,” Bessie said. “We’ll have to open a few, at least, otherwise we’ve no idea what we have.”

  An hour later, they’d taken a rough inventory of the boxes.

  “We have a lot of black table covers, but not much else in black,” Janet said, studying the list. “We have some gauze, but it’s blue and green. And then we have boxes and boxes full of other things in a rainbow of colours. I’ve no idea what to do with any of this.”

  Bessie sighed. “Maybe we should just do colours, as Agnes suggested. We could cover the tables with the black and do the rest of the room in blues and greens. It might end up looking very sea or watery, mightn’t it?”

  “Wasn’t the island known for smuggling in the eighteenth century?” Janet asked.

  “It was, yes,” Bessie agreed.

  “What about a smuggling theme?” Janet asked. “We could use the gauze to make one wall look like the water and then decorate the room to resemble the quayside. All of the tables could be covered in black and we could put big a few empty wooden crates around the room, assuming we can get some from somewhere. We could put all of the auction items on top of boxes decorated to look like crates, as well. It would take some doing, decorating all those boxes, but I think it might work.”

  “It’s a good idea,” Bessie said. “I don’t know how to decorate a box to look like a crate, but if you can show me, I’m happy to help. And I’m sure someone will have half a dozen crates they can lend us for scattering around the room. Let me talk to Agnes about that while you sort out which boxes you need.”

  Janet began reorganising the boxes, returning the ones she didn’t want to the shelves and stacking the ones she did want neatly by the door. While she was doing that, Bessie stuck her head in Agnes’s office.