Aunt Bessie Volunteers

by Diana Xarissa

  “You wouldn’t have wanted to have children, though.”

  “No, you’re right about that. I can’t imagine she would have been happy without them, though.” He sighed. “If I had a time machine, I’d go back and try every possible thing, from not marrying her in the first place to agreeing to having a baby with her before I went on that long trip. Maybe, if I did things differently, she could have had a happier life.”

  “I think she’s had a happy life,” Bessie told him. “You’ve made certain of that.”

  “You can tell your police inspector friend that if she wants to talk to Joselyn herself, she’ll have to arrange it with the nursing staff. Joselyn doesn’t like to talk to strangers. She’s afraid everyone she meets wants to take the baby away. It all goes back to an early treatment plan, maybe twenty-five years ago. If the inspector would prefer, we can try to find a way for her to listen into one of my conversations with Joselyn. A few minutes of talk about how the baby is eating more now and getting stronger every day should convince your police inspector that I’m telling the truth.”

  “I’m sure someone from the care facility will be able to reassure Inspector Lambert,” Bessie said, hoping she was right.

  “I should finish the story, really,” Sam sighed. “Joselyn’s doctors rang me a few weeks ago. She has a brain tumour. They don’t think it’s anything to do with her mental health or with the various medications she’s been on and off over the years, but they don’t really know anything for sure. Or rather, the only thing they know for sure is that it’s going to kill her, probably in the next three months or so.”

  “I’m sorry,” Bessie said.

  “I’ve already mourned for her and for the life we should have had together. I’m afraid that when she dies, I’ll feel nothing but relief.”

  “I doubt that. You may be surprised by how much you grieve.”

  “I didn’t intend to tell you all of that, but I feel, I don’t know, lighter somehow now that I have. I didn’t talk about it for years and people had stopped asking. In a way, I’m glad I’ve had a chance to tell her story. When she’s really gone, maybe I’ll tell more people.”

  “If people talked about mental health more, perhaps there would be less of a stigma attached to it.”

  “Yes, I know you’re right. We’ll see. For now, tell Inspector Lambert and anyone else with the police who needs to know. I think I need to go home and lie down for a short while. Please tell Elizabeth that I’ll ring her another day.”

  He got up and marched out of the room without looking back. Bessie wiped away another tear and then swallowed the lump in her throat.

  “What happened?” Elizabeth demanded as she bounced into the room a minute later. “Mum and I were standing at the end of the corridor, waiting for one of you to come looking for us. Instead, Sam simply walked out.”

  “He told me a few things and gave me some information for Inspector Lambert,” Bessie replied. “I need to go and ring her.”

  “I’ll have Charles take you home,” Elizabeth said.

  Bessie didn’t argue. She wanted to get home as quickly as possible. Once back at Treoghe Bwaane, she rang Anna.

  “It’s a terribly sad story,” she said at the end.

  “Yes, it is,” Anna said. “It was particularly difficult for me to hear.”

  “I’m sure it was.”

  “I think we need to talk,” Anna continued. “I know you usually have dinner with John and Hugh and Doona in the middle of investigations. Can you do that tonight, and can I come along, too?”

  “If you can arrange it, everyone is welcome here,” Bessie replied. “Do you want to bring food, or shall I cook?”

  “I’ll bring something. We’ll be there at six, or at least, I will be,” Anna told her.

  Bessie put the phone down and glanced at the clock. She’d missed lunch, but she wasn’t feeling especially hungry. Sam’s story had been heartbreaking. After pacing around the kitchen for several minutes, she headed for the door. Strong winds meant that it was raining sideways. Bessie stared at the rain and then sighed. There was no way she was going out in that.

  She found a book and began to read, but found it difficult to concentrate. Eventually, she dug out some old magazines and flipped her way through them, simply marking time until her friends were due to arrive.

  “I hope pizza will do for dinner,” Anna Lambert said when Bessie opened the door to her a few minutes before six. “This place was on my way here from Peel.”

  “It smells wonderful,” Bessie told her.

  “I got four pizzas and some garlic bread. I hope that’s enough.”

  “How many people have you invited?”

  “Just John and Doona and Hugh, but as I recall, Hugh counts at least twice and maybe three times.”

  Bessie nodded. “You’re right about that.”

  John and Doona arrived a few minutes later.

  “How are you?” Bessie asked John as she pulled him into a hug.

  “I’ve been better, but the children are both staying with friends tonight, which gives me less to worry about.”

  “And how are you?” Bessie asked Doona.

  “I’m great,” Doona replied, her smile not reaching her eyes.

  Bessie studied her for a moment. She thought about pushing for more information, but Hugh’s knock on the door interrupted.

  “I’m probably late,” Hugh said. “I thought I would just walk over, but the wind is terrible. I was going forward two steps and then blowing back one. I finally gave up and got the car.”

  “Everyone get food while it’s hot,” Bessie said. “Then we can talk.”

  They chatted about the windy weather and baby Aalish while they ate.

  “What’s for pudding?” Hugh asked as Doona and Anna cleared away the dirty plates.

  Bessie looked at Anna. “Did you bring pudding?” she asked.

  Anna flushed. “I didn’t realise you had pudding at these gatherings.”

  “We don’t always,” Bessie said, lying to be polite. “I have boxes and boxes of biscuits. Those will do nicely with tea.”

  She switched on the kettle and then filled a plate with a selection of biscuits. When everyone was back at the table, Anna cleared her throat.

  “I’m not sure how these things usually go,” she said awkwardly. “I assume everything that is said here is strictly confidential.”

  “Yes, although I never repeat anything that I was told in a police interview to Bessie and Doona. They’re civilians, after all,” John said.

  “Good, so we all understand one another,” Anna said. “Obviously, I won’t be repeating what I was told in interviews either. It seems as if Bessie knows more than anyone else anyway.”

  Bessie flushed. “I don’t know about that. People do seem to tell me things, even things I don’t want to hear.”

  “Originally, there were five possibilities for the woman at the castle,” Doona said. “Some of them have been eliminated, though, right?”

  “Thanks in no small part to Bessie, we’ve found Meredith Houseman and Emma Gibson. Today I spoke to Liam Pearce. He’s the man with whom Lauren Bell took up after she and Harold Newman ended their relationship. After our chat, he had Lauren ring me.”

  “I don’t suppose you can tell us anything she said,” Bessie sighed.

  “I’ll tell that she told me enough to make me confident that she truly was the Lauren Bell who left the island thirty-three years ago. She’s had an interesting life, really, and an unconventional one. She wasn’t able to suggest any additional names for the body from Peel Castle, either.”

  “That’s another name off the list, then,” Bessie said. “I found out where Joselyn Owens is, too. Her husband said that I could share the story with anyone in the police who needed to hear it. I believe you all qualify, therefore, but the story isn’t to leave this room.”

  Doona was crying, and even John and Hugh looked sad when Bessie finished telling them what Sam had told her about Joselyn.
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br />   “I think I feel most sorry for him,” Doona said after she’d wiped her eyes. “She sounds happy enough.”

  “She is happy enough,” Anna said. “I spoke to her just before I came here. Again, she said more than enough to confirm her identity when we spoke. It was an incredibly strange conversation, but it was enough to satisfy me as to who she is.”

  “That just leaves Hannah Butler,” Bessie said. “You said you’d found Daisy. Have you had a chance to speak to her yet?”

  “We talked very briefly. She was on her way out, going to a doctor’s appointment, she said. She’s going to ring me back tomorrow morning. I told her about the body and mentioned Hannah’s name. She didn’t have time to talk at all, though, as her taxi arrived before I’d had a chance to finish speaking,” Anna told her.

  “If we eliminate Hannah Butler, is there anyone left?” Hugh asked.

  “Not on the short list,” Anna sighed. “I have a few other names, of women who disappeared from various places around the world, but they’re all unlikely candidates. It’s almost impossible to imagine how someone from India could have arrived on the island and then died at Peel Castle, for example.”

  “So if it isn’t Hannah, it’s someone who was never reported as missing,” John said. “Perhaps someone who was alone in the world.”

  “Or someone like the women we’ve been discussing. None of them were ever reported missing, but they all disappeared from the island,” Bessie said.

  “It was more difficult to stay in touch with people in those days. No one had mobile phones or email. If someone moved away, you had to wait for them to write to you in order to get their new address,” Anna said.

  “But we’re talking about a fairly young woman. Surely she would have had family and friends who would have noticed that she’d gone,” Doona said.

  “We could start ringing other constabularies and asking them to make lists in the same way that Bessie made our list for the island,” John said. “No doubt the police in Liverpool could come up with at least a dozen names of women who’d moved away at around the right time, women that no one has seen since. It would be an endless job, though, trying to track them all down and then moving on to the list from the next village, town, or city.”

  “So, if it isn’t Hannah, do we just give up?” Hugh asked.

  “I’m not giving up,” Anna said. “I’ll start in Liverpool and see if anyone there can come up with the sort of list John suggested. Travel was more expensive and more difficult in those days. It seems most likely that she came to the island by ferry. That suggests some ties to Liverpool, or maybe Dublin.”

  “I know someone in Dublin who would probably enjoy helping with the case,” John said. “He loves trying to solve impossible cases.”

  “If Daisy can’t help, I’d be grateful if you could ring him,” Anna said.

  John nodded. “We need national newspaper coverage, as well. Maybe Dan Ross can try his hand at writing an article about our mystery woman that could get picked up and published in some of the bigger cities across. I’m sure hundreds of people would ring in with tips if the story was carried in a London paper.”

  “I’m not sure we want hundreds of tips,” Anna said with a sigh. “I’m working on my own on this case, aside from all of the help you’ve given me,” she added, nodding at John.

  “Let’s see what Daisy has to say,” John suggested. “We can have another meeting after that to work out what to do next.”

  Anna nodded. “On that note, I suppose I should go. I haven’t done laundry all week and I’m nearly out of clean clothes. My flat looks as if a bomb went off in the sitting room, as well. I need to spend some time with my vacuum cleaner and a duster.”

  Bessie walked the inspector to the door. “I don’t feel as if we’ve been any help at all tonight,” she said.

  “I appreciate your time anyway,” Anna replied. “Good night.”

  As she shut the door behind Anna, Bessie blew out a long breath. The atmosphere in the cottage seemed to lighten as Bessie turned back to her friends.

  “I still don’t like her,” Doona said emphatically.

  “Let’s not worry about that for tonight,” John said. “I’m afraid she’s taken on an impossible job with this case. That skeleton could be anyone.”

  “I’m more interested in how the skeleton got into the tower wall at Peel Castle,” Hugh said.

  “She must have been murdered, and then the killer hid the body there,” Doona said. “He or she has been very lucky up to this point, what with the body not being found for all those years.”

  “If it is Hannah Butler, I don’t believe anyone had a motive for killing her,” Bessie interjected.

  “Maybe she was out taking one of her late-night walks and someone accidentally ran her over,” Doona said. “Maybe they were drunk or somewhere they weren’t meant to be, so they hid the body at the castle.”

  “That’s one possibility,” John said. “We could spend all night making a long list of possibilities, though. The only limit is your imagination. I believe we’d be better served waiting until we have more information.”

  “What if we never get more information?” Doona demanded.

  “Then the case will remain unsolved,” John replied.

  Chapter 14

  Doona made a few other suggestions for ways that the body could have ended up where it was found, but they grew increasingly implausible as she talked. When she mentioned aliens, Bessie had had enough.

  “I don’t think it was aliens,” she said firmly.

  “I’m just babbling,” Doona sighed. “It seems preferable to admitting that we may never know whom you found or how she got there.”

  “I didn’t find her,” Bessie said flatly.

  “I know, sorry,” Doona told her. “I think we’re all just out of sorts because we didn’t get any pudding.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “I should have made an apple crumble or something,” Bessie said apologetically. “That would have taken time, though, and I was oddly eager to get through everything we needed to discuss.”

  “You don’t feel the same way now that Inspector Lambert is gone, do you?” Doona asked.

  “I always enjoy spending time with you three,” Bessie told her. “I do think that this case has been a sad one from the very beginning, though. I’ve been told too many unhappy stories and I’m not anticipating hearing anything good about Hannah Butler, either.”

  “Emma and Meredith were both fine,” John pointed out. “I’ve seen Anna’s report on Lauren, and she’s fine, too.”

  “But she caused a lot of pain for others,” Bessie said.

  “I can’t argue with that,” John replied.

  “The baby is smiling now,” Hugh said.

  Bessie gave him a grateful smile. “That’s good to hear. I needed some good news tonight.”

  He patted her hand. “She slept for six solid hours last night, which was pretty wonderful, too,” he said. “Grace is starting to feel better, physically and mentally. She told me that she might not go right back to work after all. She’s starting to enjoy spending time with Aalish.”

  “It just keeps getting better,” John said. “The more they learn to do, the more fun they are to be around. Then they get even older and you can spend time with them almost as friends. Thomas will be thinking about university in another year or two, and it seems wrong that he’s just starting to be great company and he’ll be leaving.”

  “I can’t imagine letting Aalish go away to university. I know I have eighteen years to get used to the idea, but she’s never going to seem like an adult in my eyes,” Hugh said.

  “You’ll be surprised,” John told him. “Enjoy the baby stage, though. It’s much shorter than it feels when you’re in the middle of it all.”

  Hugh nodded. “She’s already looking less like a newborn and, I don’t know, older, somehow.”

  A loud ringing noise made everyone jump. Hugh pulled out his mobile. “It’s Grace
,” he said, looking worried. The conversation was short and Hugh was on his feet as he put the phone back in his pocket.

  “The winds have caused a power cut at home,” he told them. “Grace just wanted me to know so that I wouldn’t worry if I came home to a totally dark house. I need to go and make sure everything is good.”

  “Of course,” Bessie said. She walked him to the door and gave him a hug. “I’m sure the power will be back on soon.”

  “I hope so. The house will get quite cold without any central heating,” Hugh replied.

  The wind was howling as Bessie shut the door behind the man.

  “I’d better get home as well. The children are both out, but if there are widespread power cuts, one or both of them might want collecting. Knowing my children, they’ll want me to bring their friends to our house, too,” John said.

  “Assuming you have power,” Doona suggested.

  “There is that,” John frowned. He got to his feet and then looked at Bessie. “Thank you for talking to Andrew Cheatham about Sue. He’s definitely making things happen in Africa, although I’m not entirely certain what is going on. That’s no different to before, though.”

  “I hope he can help,” Bessie said.

  “I’ve been told that Sue has been moved to the nearest hospital. A doctor there rang me to inform me as to her location. I haven’t heard anything from Harvey in days.”

  “Let’s hope she can get the care she needs,” Bessie replied.

  John nodded. “Thank you again,” he said before he let himself out.

  “And then there was one,” Doona laughed. “I should go, too, but I’ll help with the washing-up first.”

  It only took the pair a few minutes to take care of that job.

  “Thank you,” Bessie said.

  “Not a problem,” Doona replied. “I wanted to give John plenty of time to get away before I left, anyway.”

  “Why?”

  She shrugged. “We’re sort of avoiding one another at the moment. Things are, well, awkward and uncomfortable. Until the situation with Sue is sorted, I think it’s probably best if we see as little of each other as possible.”