Aunt Bessie Volunteers

by Diana Xarissa

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Exactly, you aren’t telling me anything. Did something happen in Castletown that led to her being transferred?”

  Hugh sighed. “Officially, she was moved to Peel to better redistribute the island’s inspectors. One of the men in Peel moved to Kirk Michael and the inspector from there moved to Foxdale. Lastly, the inspector in Foxdale took Inspector Lambert’s place in Castletown.”

  “How does all of that redistribute anything? It sounds as if people just moved around.”

  “Aye, that’s right.”

  “And Inspector Lambert was the impetus for all of the moves?”

  “That’s what I heard. I was told she wasn’t a very good fit for Castletown.”

  “Why?”

  “I shouldn’t tell you any of this. I could probably get into trouble if anyone finds out that I told you anything.”

  “I don’t want you to get into any trouble. Don’t tell me anything.” Bessie sat back in her seat. She had other sources. She’d have the whole story by the end of the day anyway.

  “You’ll find out anyway,” Hugh said after a moment. He pulled his car into the parking area next to Bessie’s cottage. “Just don’t tell anyone who told you.”

  “You know I won’t.”

  “Allegedly, Inspector Lambert became too friendly with one of the other inspectors in Castletown.”

  “Too friendly?”

  “Too friendly, as in the male inspector in question was stringing her along just for his own amusement. I was told it was limited to flirting and innuendo, but whatever it was, it was out of line. Again, this is all hearsay, but I was told that when Inspector Lambert discovered that he had no intention of actually getting involved with her, she had something akin to a breakdown. She took a short medical leave and then requested a transfer.”

  “The poor woman,” Bessie said. “I don’t care for her, but I do feel sorry for her.”

  “You know I don’t care for her after, well, after everything that happened when she was in Laxey, but I feel sorry for her, too. I know the inspector involved and I like him even less than I like her.”

  “It’s all quite unpleasant.”

  “It is, yes. At least the chief constable was able to find her another position. I suspect she’ll be keeping her head down and working incredibly hard to prove to him that he was right to give her another chance after her medical leave.”

  “So she’ll be determined to work out whom we found today and what happened to him or her.”

  “No doubt. If I were you, I’d expect Anna Lambert on your doorstep pretty regularly until the case is solved.”

  With that unpleasant thought running through her head, Bessie climbed out of the car. Hugh followed her to her door.

  “I’ll just take a quick walk through the cottage and make sure everything is okay,” he told Bessie.

  “Everything will be fine. You get home to Grace and Aalish.”

  “They’ll wait another minute. It won’t take more than that.”

  Bessie didn’t want to waste any more time arguing, so she opened the door and let Hugh into the cottage. While she hated it when people fussed over her, she knew that Hugh did it because he cared. He’d been with her the day she’d come home to find that someone had broken into her cottage, as well. Mostly, the intruder had simply made a huge mess, but the incident had left Bessie more willing to allow her friends to check her cottage when they brought her home.

  “Everything’s fine,” Hugh announced as he walked back into the kitchen.

  “I knew it would be,” Bessie said as she handed him a bag that she’d filled with homemade biscuits while he’d been stomping around above her.

  “Ah, thanks, Aunt Bessie,” he told her, pulling her into a hug. “And now I’d better get home to my girls.”

  He looked so pleased at the idea that Bessie couldn’t help but smile. She followed him to the door and then locked it behind him. It was late and she hadn’t even had dinner yet. After putting a portion of cottage pie from her freezer into the oven to reheat, Bessie paced back and forth across the kitchen.

  Walking on the beach was generally her preferred way of dealing with everything that life threw at her, but having spent a large portion of the day outdoors and on her feet, she found that she was too tired for a walk tonight. Her mind was racing too quickly in too many directions for her to settle with a book or Onnee’s letters, so she finally bundled herself up in her warmest coat and went outside. Not wanting to walk far, she sat for a while on the large rock on the beach behind her cottage. The sea air worked its usual magic, calming her mind and clearing her head. When she went back inside to eat her dinner, she felt much better.

  Chapter 3

  The cottage pie was exactly the sort of comfort food that Bessie had needed. Once she’d eaten it and a few biscuits, she was ready to curl up with a good book. She loved cozy mysteries and had been gifted with several new titles for Christmas. Three chapters into one of them, the phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “It’s Doona. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Bessie assured her closest friend.

  Doona Moore was forty-something, and people were often surprised by the friendship that she shared with the much older Bessie. They’d met years ago at a Manx language class and they’d bonded as they’d struggled with the difficult language. Bessie had helped Doona through some of her darkest days during the break-up of her second marriage, before Doona found herself helping Bessie cope through a series of murder investigations. When Doona’s second husband had been murdered before the divorce had been finalised, it was Bessie’s turn to support her friend again as Doona appeared to be the chief suspect. Now Bessie thought that she should have rung Doona hours ago to assure her that she was okay.

  “John said the body had been there for many years,” Doona said.

  “It wasn’t so much a body as a skeleton. I’m sure it must have been there for a very long time.”

  “It still must have been unsettling for you. Do you want some company?”

  “Not really. I was reading a good book, but I’ll probably take myself off to bed soon.”

  “It can’t be that good of a book, then,” Doona laughed.

  Bessie chuckled. She and Doona shared their love of reading. “It is good, but not gripping. It won’t keep me from getting to bed at a reasonable hour, although I will look forward to finishing it tomorrow.”

  “I’m home tonight, if you need me,” Doona told her.

  “What does that mean?” Bessie asked.

  Doona had been spending most nights in the spare room at John Rockwell’s house. His former wife, Sue, had gone to Africa on a honeymoon with her new husband, leaving her and John’s two children, Thomas and Amy, with John. The newlyweds had been expected to return in August, but they’d kept pushing back their return date, causing difficulties regarding schooling for the children. In late December, Sue’s husband, Harvey, had rung to inform John and the children that Sue was ill. He’d suggested that she was beyond treatment and for several days John and the children waited to hear that she’d passed away.

  Several weeks later, Sue was still hanging on, talking to the children most days via an unreliable telephone connection. Doona was doing her best to support the children and John through the ordeal. She and John were more than friends, but John had been married when they’d met. As his marriage had been falling apart, Doona’s husband had been murdered. Once life had begun to settle, Sue had announced her intentions of remarrying and leaving the children with John for the summer. Bessie knew that Doona cared deeply for John’s children and that she was in love with John, but Sue’s illness was complicating an already complex situation.

  “It’s just difficult right now,” Doona sighed. “I want to be there for John and the children, but the tension in the house is almost unbearable. The children didn’t want to go back to school after their break for the holidays
and I don’t blame them. Sue and Harvey are ringing at all hours of the day and night, interrupting everyone’s sleep and upsetting the children even more.”

  “Poor John, although I feel terribly sorry for Thomas and Amy, too.”

  “It’s going to sound terrible, but if Sue is going to die, I hope she hurries up and does it. I don’t know how much more of this John and the children can take.”

  “How are they doing?”

  “Thomas is trying to be brave and act as if he doesn’t much care. He’s sixteen and he keeps saying he doesn’t really need mothering any longer anyway.”

  “Oh, dear.”

  “Exactly. And Amy, at fourteen, well, she definitely needs a mother. She won’t talk to me about how she’s feeling, and she won’t talk to John, either. Mostly, when she’s home, she locks herself in her bedroom with her phone. We just have to hope that her friends are being supportive, because she won’t let us help.”

  “And John?”

  “Still has complicated feeling for Sue. He loved her very deeply, you know. That she’d never stopped loving Harvey, even after marrying him and having his children, was difficult for him to accept.”

  “I still don’t see why she married John if she was in love with Harvey.”

  “Harvey didn’t want children. At least that was the excuse she gave John. I’ve never met Harvey, and from everything I’ve heard about him, I don’t want to meet him, either.”

  “He’s said to be a brilliant oncologist.”

  “That doesn’t make him a good human being.”

  “No, I suppose not. Is Sue recovering, then?”

  “Harvey just keeps saying that he’s cautiously optimistic. He did hint the other day that even if she has some sort of recovery, she’ll never get back to her old self again. John hasn’t told the children that.”

  “I don’t blame him. What a horrible thought.”

  “Apparently, she’s suffered from a number of very high fevers and possibly even seizures as a result. She’s definitely confused when she talks to the children. She seems to know who they are, but she doesn’t always seem to know where she is or how old the children are, things like that.”

  “How very sad. That must be upsetting for Thomas and Amy.”

  “It’s horrible. John was considering telling Harvey not to ring again until Sue’s well enough to have a proper conversation, but he didn’t because he was worried that she might never recover. He doesn’t want to keep her from talking to the children if every conversation could be their last.”

  “What a mess.”

  “There’s more to it than that, as well,” Doona added. “You know the police have been investigating Sue’s illness very discreetly at John’s request. They aren’t telling him anything, but the investigation is still ongoing, which suggests that they’ve found something suspicious somewhere.”

  “Oh, dear.”

  “The kids don’t know about that, either.”

  “Should I ask why you’re at home tonight?”

  “John thought it would be best to try to get things back to normal, or at least as close to normal as we can under the circumstances. He’ll ring me if he hears anything from Harvey or Sue, but he’s hoping the children might relax more if I’m not there.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Oh, I’m fine. I want to do what’s best for John and Thomas and Amy. If he thinks that they’ll be happier if I’m not there, then that’s what’s best.”

  Bessie could hear repressed tears in Doona’s voice. “I’m sure he didn’t mean it quite that way.”

  “I’m not sure what he meant. We haven’t been able to have a proper talk in ages because the children are almost always there. Even when they aren’t around, Sue’s ghost looms large, although she isn’t a ghost yet. Whatever she is, she’s keeping me and John apart, even from thousands of miles away.”

  “I am sorry.”

  “In a way, it may be for the best,” Doona surprised her by saying. “Relationships go through difficult times. If we can get through this and still be friends, let alone anything more, then we’ll be a lot stronger for it.”

  “That’s very true.”

  “I just wish I could help the children more. I can’t begin to imagine what they’re going through.”

  “It all makes my problems seem quite insignificant.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  Bessie grinned “Nothing, really, aside from being tangled up in another police investigation.”

  “Oh, that. I have to ask, how is Inspector Lambert?” Doona was a part-time receptionist at the Laxey station and had worked with Inspector Lambert when she’d been stationed in Laxey. Doona hadn’t liked the older woman, and the feeling had been mutual.

  “Not much different to when she was in Laxey,” Bessie replied. “I hadn’t realised she’d moved on from Castletown.”

  “Yes, there were issues there,” Doona replied. She cleared her throat and then spoke in a low voice. “I’m not meant to repeat any of this, but she was very badly treated by one of the other inspectors there. He played with her feelings, flirting and even taking her out a few times. Of course, it wasn’t long before Inspector Lambert found out that he was just playing with her, but it was long enough that she’d fallen quite hard for him, or so I’m told.”

  “My goodness.”

  “Inspector Lambert ended up having to take medical leave. She went across for a few weeks to recover. When she came back, the chief constable moved her to Peel. I’m sure she’ll be anxious to solve this case. It’s her first big assignment since she’s been back.”

  “She’s definitely eager to solve the case. She wants me to start making lists of whom we might have found.”

  “That’s going to be difficult without knowing how long the body has been there, isn’t it?”

  “More like impossible, but I didn’t want to tell the inspector that, not in so many words.”

  “As much as I don’t care for Inspector Lambert, I hope you can help her. She didn’t deserve to be treated so badly.”

  “And the other inspector got to keep his job?”

  “Yes, but he’s been warned about his behaviour. I believe he still thinks it was all just a bit of fun. I don’t think he had any idea that Inspector Lambert took him seriously. If she’d asked me about him, I’d have warned her. He has quite the reputation, really.”

  “Another sad mess.”

  “Yes, it is rather. Anyway, Inspector Lambert is doing everything she can to put the whole thing behind her and make a good impression in Peel. This case she’s been given looks almost impossible, though.”

  “I can’t imagine it will be easy, working out who was found and how he or she died.”

  “Can you think of anyone off the top of your head that you might have found?”

  “I’ve been trying to do just that, but no, I can’t. So many people have left the island over the years, and I don’t know where many of them have gone. Surely, if this person was murdered, he or she must have been missed over the years. Perhaps Inspector Lambert will find a missing person report for him or her.”

  “When you were helping Hugh with the same sort of case last year, there weren’t any missing person reports for any of the most likely candidates,” Doona reminded her.

  “No, not even the victim, because the family covered up the murder. I hope this isn’t another case like that one. That was very sad.”

  “If the body has been in there for twenty or more years, I’m pretty certain whatever happened to him or her is going to be a sad story.”

  “I suppose you’re right. Maybe it was just a very old person who wandered into the tower one day and died of natural causes. Maybe the door had been left unlocked accidentally and when someone found it open, they shut it and locked it without noticing the body inside.”

  “I hope whoever it was died before he or she was locked in.”

  Bessie shivered. “What a horrible thought, being locked inside the damp and dark towe
r all alone.”

  “It would be enough to give someone a heart attack, I reckon.”

  “We need to stop,” Bessie said firmly. “I don’t want to think about such awful things.”

  “You’re right. Maybe the whole case will be solved by morning. Maybe there was a suicide note or maybe someone from MNH will remember that someone who loved the castle asked to be buried in there, or something similar.”

  “We can but hope.”

  “Are you certain you’re okay?”

  “I’ll be fine. I’m going to read a few more chapters of my book and then get some sleep.”

  “I’m working all day tomorrow, but I’m free in the evening if you want to do something.”

  “Let’s have dinner somewhere nice. I haven’t seen you in ages. You’ve been rather busy.”

  Doona agreed to collect Bessie at six the following evening before they ended the conversation. As Bessie put the phone down, she sighed. The conversation with Doona had put all sorts of grim ideas into her head. Her book held little appeal, but she forced herself to read another chapter before giving up and taking herself up to her bedroom.

  Tonight the bright pink walls made her frown. She’d loved the colour when she’d seen it in the shop, but it had been a good deal brighter than she’d expected once she’d actually painted the room. Occasionally she considered repainting, but that seemed to be far too much effort. Just about every spare surface in the room was covered in cuddly toys. For decades small children had gifted them to their “Aunt Bessie” for Christmas or her birthday. Now she picked up a large brown teddy bear and gave him a hug.

  “Sometimes the world is an unpleasant place,” she told the bear. He smiled back at her. She set him on the bed and went to brush her teeth, shaking her head at her foolishness. “Talking to cuddly toys is probably a bad sign,” she told her reflection.

  “And now you’re talking to yourself,” her mirror image said back.

  Knowing that the world would look brighter in the morning, Bessie pulled the covers around herself and tried to sleep. It took her several minutes to drift off, and when she woke up she was vaguely aware that she’d had multiple nightmares about being locked in small, dark spaces.