Aunt Bessie Volunteers

by Diana Xarissa

  “How are you?” Bessie asked John as she ushered the pair inside.

  “I’m holding up,” he replied. He glanced at Anna and then back at Bessie. “Today’s visit is not personal,” he added.

  Bessie nodded. If Anna didn’t know about John’s problems, she wouldn’t hear about them from Bessie. She must know that something was wrong, though, as John looked unwell. He was thinner than usual, his brown hair needed a trim, and his gorgeous green eyes were bloodshot. He looked gaunt and exhausted.

  “And how are you?” she asked Anna.

  “I’ve been better,” Anna replied. “It seems the chief constable doesn’t trust me to do my job properly.” Unlike John, she didn’t look unwell, just angry.

  Bessie raised an eyebrow. “Oh, dear.”

  “It isn’t that at all,” John said. “He knows I’ve worked with Bessie on several cases in the past and he didn’t want you using one of my best sources without my involvement. If you’d prefer to speak to Bessie privately, I’ve plenty of other things I could be doing.”

  Anna shook her head. “I’m happy for you to be involved. You’re one of the best investigators I’ve worked with in my career. I simply resent being told that I have to include you in my conversations with Bessie.”

  “How do you feel about all of this?” John asked Bessie. “The chief constable has asked Anna to include me in any conversations she has with you about the skeleton that was found at Peel Castle.”

  “Anna and I have already had one conversation about the skeleton. I’m not sure I understand why the chief constable wants you included, but I’ve no objection. If you weren’t here, I’d probably ring you later and talk you through the whole case anyway. I’m simply used to doing that when it comes to cases.”

  John nodded. “Anna, if you feel that I’m in the way, just let me know and I’ll go.”

  “Thank you,” Anna said. “I may be a touch oversensitive at the moment.”

  “Tea? Biscuits?” Bessie asked.

  “Yes, please, to both,” John replied as he sat down at the table.

  “Can I help in any way?” Anna asked.

  “Oh, no, sit down and relax,” Bessie replied. “It won’t take more than a minute to get the kettle on and put some biscuits on a plate.”

  The two police inspectors talked quietly while Bessie made the tea. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it sounded serious. The conversation stopped as she put the plate of biscuits on the table. When the tea was ready, she served them both before joining them at the table with her own cup.

  “Thank you,” John said.

  “Yes, thank you so much,” Anna added.

  Bessie smiled and took a sip of her drink. As she selected a biscuit and put it on the small plate in front of her, John cleared his throat.

  “As far as I’m concerned, this is Anna’s case. I’m just an interested observer.”

  Anna nodded. “Let’s start at the beginning, then. I told you before that the skeleton belonged to a woman in her mid to late twenties and that she passed away in the late sixties. We’ve learned nothing to contradict that since we last spoke.”

  “I have a list of five women who may have disappeared about the right time. They were mentioned by various friends of mine,” Bessie told her.

  “We’ve been through the missing person reports from nineteen sixty to the present and haven’t found one that matches our skeleton,” Anna said. “I have a constable going through missing person reports from across and further afield, but that’s a good deal more time consuming and complicated.”

  “It sounds complicated.”

  “You mentioned Emma Gibson when I was here last. Is she one of the five?” Anna asked.

  “Yes. No one with whom I spoken seems to know what happened to her.”

  “Tell me about her,” John invited.

  “She was a primary schoolteacher in her mid-twenties. She was unmarried. I remember her as being rather pretty, but I don’t know that that matters. All of my friends and acquaintances said much the same thing. She went on holiday one day and simply never came back to the island.”

  “I have an appointment to speak to her mother,” Anna told her. “She seemed quite reluctant to see me. Any idea why?”

  “None at all. I had a nodding acquaintance with the woman, but not much more than that. It was her mother, Emma’s grandmother, who most often used to bring Emma to play on the beach. I believe Emma’s mother used the time to do some shopping or run other errands that needed doing. I haven’t seen or spoken to her in years.”

  “I’m going to see her on Monday,” Anna said. “I’m hoping we might be able to cross Emma off our list after that. What other names have you been given?”

  “Maggie Shimmin reckons it might be Meredith Houseman,” Bessie said.

  “Tell me about her,” Anna invited.

  “She was Meredith Brown before she married Joe Houseman,” Bessie replied. “She was in her early twenties when they married, and a few years later they moved to the Lake District. He came back to the island about a year later, alone.”

  “And no one rang the police?” Anna sounded incredulous.

  “Her parents said they were going to file a missing person report, but I don’t know if they ever actually did. Meredith was the talk of the island for a few days, but then something else happened and everyone seemed to forget about her. I always assumed that she’d chosen to stay in the Lake District otherwise her parents would surely have done something.”

  “I know Joe Houseman,” John said in a low voice.

  “Why?” Anna demanded.

  “He drinks too much at pubs in Ramsey and then tries to drive himself home. He’s been picked up for drink driving at least half a dozen times in the past two years. He’s banned from driving, of course, but that doesn’t seem to stop him.”

  “He won’t stop until he kills himself or someone else,” Anna muttered.

  “The last time he was stopped, he went to prison for six months. I’m told that he’s doing much better since he’s been out,” John told her.

  “I hope so. I’m going to have to talk to him about Meredith. Are her parents still alive?” she asked Bessie.

  “No, they both passed away years ago.”

  “Did Joe have a drinking problem before they moved to the Lake District?” Anna asked.

  Bessie shrugged. “I don’t remember either of them very well, not well enough to answer that question, anyway. Someone told me that Meredith’s parents didn’t like Joe, but I don’t know why.”

  Anna made a few notes and then looked up at Bessie. “Meredith seems less likely to me than Emma. If Joe did do something to her, surely he would have left the body in the Lake District. He had no reason to bring it back to the island.”

  “Unless they fought on the ferry on the way back here or something similar,” Bessie offered. “I do remember that everyone was surprised when Joe returned, though. I’d have expected Meredith to ring her parents and let them know if they were coming back together.”

  “Why didn’t she ring them anyway, to let them know that Joe was returning?” Anna wondered.

  “That’s something you’ll have to ask Meredith if you find her,” John said.

  Anna nodded. “Who’s next?” she asked Bessie.

  “Lauren Bell,” Bessie replied.

  “Her story, please,” Anna said.

  “I can’t tell you much, except that she left the island with a married man. Less than a year later, they were back. He went back to his wife, although why she allowed it is another matter. A few months after that, Lauren disappeared again.”

  “And no one knows where she went?” Anna asked.

  “I took a taxi into Ramsey this morning and my favourite driver, Dave, drove. His wife is distantly related to Lauren. He’s promised to try to find out if anyone in the family knows where she is now.”

  “That would be helpful,” Anna said. “I’m assuming we’ll be able to track down most of the women with
a little bit of effort.”

  “That was what happened with Hugh’s case last year,” Bessie replied. “He was able to find everyone except the man who turned out to be the victim.”

  “It’s difficult for people to truly disappear,” John said. “It gets increasingly difficult every day, as well. The world keeps getting smaller and more connected all the time.”

  “Is there anything else you can tell me about Lauren?” Anna asked.

  “Dave remembers hearing that she ran off with another married man, but he didn’t know any more than that. As I said, he’s going to ring me later.”

  “Please let me know what he says when you speak to him, even if he can’t help,” Anna told her.

  Bessie nodded.

  “That’s three of the five. Who else do you have?” Anna asked.

  “A woman called Hannah Butler may have disappeared about the right time,” Bessie replied.

  “May have?”

  “No one seems to remember what happened to her. She was single and she worked as a shop assistant in Kirk Michael at the village shop there.”

  “And that was thirty years ago, so the staff has probably changed a dozen or more times since then,” Anna sighed.

  “At least,” Bessie agreed. “She lost both of her parents in a house fire, probably about a year before she disappeared.”

  “Did she have any other family on the island?” Anna asked.

  “Not that I’m aware of, but she may have. You might have better luck with family than with former work colleagues, though. I can’t imagine anyone she used to work with still being employed there,” Bessie said.

  “And the last one?” Anna asked after she’d written several notes.

  “Joselyn Owens,” Bessie replied, spelling the woman’s rather unusual Christian name.

  “As you saved her for last, do you think she’s the most likely candidate?” Anna asked.

  Bessie flushed. While she did think the skeleton was mostly likely to be Joselyn, she hadn’t necessarily wanted the inspector to know what she was thinking. “Hers is the strangest story,” she replied. “All things considered, I can’t quite believe that no one knows what happened to her.”

  “Tell me the story, then,” Anna said, sounding impatient.

  “Joselyn was pretty and fun-loving. Her father, Clifford Caine, owned an import and export business on the island. It was very successful and they lived well. When Joselyn was around sixteen, her father hired a young man right out of university. Sam Owens was handsome and smart and from what I’ve heard, he swept young Joselyn off her feet. Her parents insisted that they wait until Joselyn was eighteen to marry, and they ran off to Gretna Green on her birthday to do just that.”

  “I didn’t realise girls from the island ran away to Gretna Green,” Anna said.

  “Not many did, but Sam was from Scotland, and I think Joselyn thought it would be exciting and romantic. She had her parents’ permission to wed at eighteen anyway, so they didn’t need to run away, but they did.”

  “And she never came back?” Anna asked.

  “Oh, no, she came back. They both came back. Her father bought them a small house in Douglas and they settled into married life together. Sam travelled a good deal for work, often spending several months at a time in China or America. Joselyn usually went with him. She was nominally employed by her father’s company, but she never had to worry about taking time off from her job.”

  “I assume this is all going somewhere,” Anna said impatiently.

  “Sorry, yes, it is going somewhere. In early sixty-seven, Sam went away on an eight-month trip to Southeast Asia. When he returned to the island, Joselyn was six months pregnant.”

  “Ah,” Anna said. “So she had an affair while he was gone.”

  “It certainly seemed that way. The entire island was talking about it, of course. There were a number of different rumours as to who the father might be, but no one seemed to know for sure.”

  “I’ll want a list of everyone who was named as a possibility,” Anna said.

  Bessie shook her head. “At one time or another the list probably included just about every man on the island, from Joselyn’s own father to the eighty-five-year-old man who cleaned the windows at Joselyn’s house. From what I can recall, there were lots of rumours and speculation, but no one name ever seemed more likely than any of the others. Joselyn wasn’t talking, of course.”

  “And then what happened?” Anna asked as Bessie took a sip of tea.

  “About two months later, when Joselyn would have been about eight months along, she left the island. As far as I know, she never came back. No one that I’ve spoken with has any idea what happened to her.”

  “What did her parents say?” Anna asked.

  “They refused to discuss the matter, as did Sam, who still worked for Joselyn’s father.”

  “He did?”

  “Oh, yes, in fact, he worked for the man until Clifford retired in the early nineties. He sold the business and gave Sam a generous early retirement package. Sam wasn’t even fifty yet, I don’t believe. He’s never worked again.”

  “He’s still on the island?”

  “Yes, he still lives in the same house that he and Joselyn moved into when they were newlyweds.”

  “What about Clifford?”

  “He passed away about a year after his retirement. I believe he knew his health was failing. That may be why he was so generous to Sam. Clifford’s wife, Kathleen, had passed away about ten years earlier and Clifford ended up leaving everything he had to charity. It wasn’t all that much, really, I suspect because he’d already given Sam the bulk of his fortune.”

  “Did Sam remarry?”

  “No. I believe he and Joselyn are still married, unless she’s dead. I’ve never heard any gossip linking him with any other woman, though.”

  Anna made a few more notes. “That one seems simple enough. Sam must know what happened to his wife.”

  “You’ll just have to hope he’ll talk to you,” John said.

  Anna nodded. “If this were a straight forward murder investigation, I could push people a good deal harder. As it is, I’m asking them about events that happened over thirty years ago and that might have nothing to do with the skeleton that was found.”

  “Do you even know for certain that the woman was murdered?”

  “No, we don’t,” Anna sighed. “We also aren’t certain if the body was moved or not after death. It’s possible, although it would be odd, that she simply died of natural causes. What she was doing at Peel Castle and why it’s taken so long to find the body are questions that need answering still.”

  “What sort of natural causes kill a woman that young?”

  “Cancer, maybe,” Anna replied. “Although young people do sometimes have heart attacks or strokes. She may have had heart problems or some other life-limiting condition that can’t be determined from the remains.”

  “Even if she did die of natural causes, surely someone would have reported her missing?” Bessie asked.

  “You’d expect so. It’s unusual for a woman so young to not be missed, but maybe we aren’t looking in the right place for the missing person report. Maybe she was reported missing in Devon or Belfast or wherever she actually lived. Perhaps she was simply on holiday here, visiting the castle as a tourist.”

  Bessie shook her head. “There are simply too many possibilities.”

  “It does feel that way at the moment,” John replied “Your list gives Anna a starting point, anyway. By the time she’s tracked down those five women, you may have come up with a few other names for her to try. Alternatively, the searches that are being done through old missing person reports across might yield some positive results. I find it difficult to believe that no one missed our victim.”

  “Did she appear to have been in good health?”

  “The coroner couldn’t tell us much,” Anna said. “He’s sending the skeleton to experts in London so that more testing can be done. That could ta
ke quite some time, though.”

  “If you had to pick one name off your list for Anna to focus on, which would it be?” John asked.

  “Joselyn,” Bessie replied.

  “Why?” Anna demanded.

  “Her disappearance bothers me. I feel as if we should know what happened to her, but we don’t. Sam should be able to tell you where to find her, which would take her off the list quickly, but if he won’t talk about her, then I think there must be more to her story than we know,” Bessie explained.

  “He kept working for her parents, which suggests that whatever happened, they didn’t blame him,” Anna said.

  “Yes, I always wondered about that,” Bessie said. “The whole situation was odd, but they were all perfectly pleasant people. Clifford and his wife did a lot of charity work. Sam was on a fundraising committee at Noble’s for a great many years. When Joselyn first left, it was strange, but over time people stopped talking about her. I hadn’t thought about her in years before the skeleton was found. Was there any sign that the woman was pregnant when she died?”

  “None,” John replied.

  Anna made another note and then looked at Bessie. “Which woman do you think is the second most likely, then?”

  Bessie sipped her tea while she tried to think. “Lauren Bell, maybe. She and Emma Gibson both seem equally likely in my mind, although I’m not sure I can explain why.”

  “And the other two seem less likely why?” Anna wondered.

  “I simply don’t know enough about Hannah Butler to have an opinion on her,” Bessie admitted. “As for Meredith Houseman, Maggie was the only one who mentioned her name. It doesn’t feel right, but I’m not sure why.”

  Anna nodded. “I’m going to start with Joselyn. You said she wasn’t left anything in her father’s will?”

  “No, she wasn’t mentioned at all. Everything went to charity. Her mother didn’t leave her anything, either.”

  “Was there anything else?” Anna asked John.

  “Not on this case, anyway,” John replied. “I do need to talk to Bessie about some other issues, but that can wait until you’re finished.”

  Anna nodded slowly. “I’ll go and get started on the list, then. Please ring me if you get any additional names, or hear anything else about any of these women. I’ll probably come back to see you again in a few days, maybe Tuesday.”