Aunt Bessie Invites (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 9) (10 page)

Upstairs, she found the box that was full of
diaries.
 
It only took a few minutes
to locate the book that started in June 1951.
 
She skimmed through it shaking her head
at her younger self.
 
She found
herself wondering why she’d ever bother to write down so much of the minutiae
of her life.
 
Still, if anyone ever
wanted to know what she’d had for lunch on the 23
^rd
of October 1952,
she’d be able to tell
them
that she’d had a chicken
sandwich.

She’d reached the 10
^th
of May
1956 before she found what she was looking for.

Margaret Hayes has taken in a lodger.
 
Apparently the young man, Jacob Conover,
had been staying in Douglas, but he’s decided to buy a farm in Laxey, so he’s
moved up here to consider his options.
 
I saw him at the market this afternoon.
 
I suppose he’s attractive, but he’s very
arrogant and he was flirting with half a dozen girls who were hanging on his
every word.
 

Bessie smiled as she thought about the daily
market that used to take place in Laxey in the fifties and sixties.
 
The farmers, or more typically their
wives or daughters, would bring fresh fruit and vegetables, and the market
became a sort of central meeting place for the residents of the village.
 
She closed her eyes and recalled many
long hours spent there, catching up with news from around the village.
 
She turned to the next page, but there
was nothing about the new arrival the next day.
 

A week later, though, she found him again.

Jacob Conover is working his way around the
area, trying to persuade farmers to sell their property to him.
 
He’s also working his way through their
daughters, it seems.
 
Margaret Hayes
told me that he’s out every night with a different young lady and several have
been hanging around her house in a most shameful fashion.

Of course, young ladies didn’t chase after
young men in those days, Bessie reflected.
 
Things had certainly changed since then, although Bessie still thought
that women should have better things to do than chase after men.
 
A few days later she found Jacob
mentioned again

I ran into Bahey Corlett in Ramsey
today.
 
She’s back on the island
with the Pierce family, who are holidaying here as they do every summer.
 
She’s ever so worried about her cousin,
Karen.
 
Apparently Karen has fallen
quite hard for that Jacob Conover.
 
I told Bahey everything I know about the man, which isn’t much.
 
Karen’s only seventeen and last week her
father caught her sneaking out to meet Jacob somewhere.
 
I told Bahey that, from what I’ve heard,
the man will probably soon move on to someone else.

Bessie sat back in her chair.
 
Karen Corlett had been a very beautiful
young girl, she remembered.
 
When
Karen had left school, she’d spent some time with Bahey, staying at the Pierce
mansion across.
 
Bessie had a vague
recollection of hearing that she’d married very well and settled in
London.
 
She made a note to ring
Bahey when she’d finished looking through her diaries and moved on.

An hour later, Bessie had a list of an even
dozen women whom she’d seen with Jacob or been told were involved with him during
his time on the island.
 
Of that
number, four were definitely still on the island, three were living across, three
had passed away, and she wasn’t sure about the final two.
 
Fenella’s name wasn’t on the list, but
that didn’t mean much.
 
She would
have been eighteen that summer and she’d been very pretty in her youth.
 
It was highly likely that she’d have
attracted Jacob’s attention, even if they’d not been seen together enough to
stir up gossip.

Bessie read her entry for the 23
^rd
of September that same year.

It seems Jacob Conover has given up on
buying a farm on the island.
 
There
was something of a party for him last night at the pub.
 
He’s going back across to farm in
Cumbria, or some such thing.
 
The
young women of the village are, I gather, nearly inconsolable.
 
I must say, when I met him, I found him
far too fond of himself and his wealth, but apparently that is quite attractive
to the young women in Laxey.
 

Bessie flipped through the rest of that
diary, but the man wasn’t mentioned again.
 
She sat back in her chair and let her mind wander.
 
For several minutes, she thought about
young, handsome, brash Jacob Conover and the women who’d been so flattered by
his attention.
 
With a sigh, she put
her diaries back into their box and returned the box to the spare room.
 
She’d ring John after lunch with her
list and he could decide what to do with it.
 
Of course, he wasn’t in the office when
she rang.

“I can put you through to Anna,” Joan
suggested.
 

Bessie bit back a sigh.
 
She had been hoping for a few words with
Doona, but had reached Joan instead.
 
And now John wasn’t available either.
 
“Just have John ring me, please,” Bessie
replied.
 

She was eager to ring Bahey and ask her
about her cousin, Karen, but she didn’t want to do that without checking with
John first.
 
Curling up with a new
book about Catherine the Great of Russia, Bessie soon found
herself
caught up in court intrigues and political upheaval.
 
She was startled when her phone rang
several hours later.

“Bessie?
 
I’m sorry I didn’t ring you back
sooner.
 
It’s been a busy day,” John
told her.

“I’ve been through my diaries,” Bessie
replied.
 
“I have a list of women
who I’m reasonably certain spent time with Jacob Conover when he was here.
 
I could probably add half a dozen others
that he probably at least asked out, as well.
 
Fenella Faragher would fall into that
category.”

“I’ll stop by this evening around seven to go
over the list with you, if I may,” John said.
 
“I’ll bring Chinese food and something
for pudding.”

“What about Doona and Hugh?” Bessie asked.

John hesitated for a moment.
 
“Sure,” he said eventually.
 
“Why not?”

There were a few hours to wait before
Bessie’s guests would arrive.
 
She’d
lost interest in Russian history for the moment, so Bessie sat down with her
lists and copied them neatly, making notes about each woman where she
could.
 
She was about half-finished
with the project when the phone rang.

“Bessie?
 
It’s Bahey Corlett.
 
How are you?”

“I’m fine.
 
How are you?”

“Oh, I’m doing well,”
Bahey
told her.
 
“Howard and I are so
looking forward to your Thanksgiving feast next week.
 
After that, we’re heading across to
spend some time with his daughter and the grandbaby, which will be wonderful.”

After working for the Pierce family her
entire life, Bahey had retired some years ago.
 
She’d never dated in her youth and she
and Bessie had both been surprised when she’d met her attractive neighbour,
Howard Mayer, and begun a relationship.
 
The pair had been together for several months now and Bessie wondered
sometimes if Howard might be thinking of proposing at some point in the near
future.

“That will be nice for you all,” Bessie
said.
 
“It will be the baby’s first
Christmas.
 
Are you going to be staying
that long?”

“We’re only going for a week this time,”
Bahey replied.
 
“But then we’re
going back over in the middle of December and staying through the
new year
.”

“How fun,” Bessie said.

“Yes, well, Carla didn’t really like it when
her father started spending time with me, but she’s come around.
 
It might just be because I’m a big help
with the baby, having been a nanny to the Pierce boys, but whatever the reason,
she seems as happy as we are that we’re coming.”

“I’m sure you’re a huge help,” Bessie
said.
 
Bahey had always been a very
hard worker, even if she was somewhat inclined to complain.
 
Actually, she’d been much happier since
she’d met Howard, and aside from some concerns about strange happenings in her
building of flats, Bessie had heard far fewer complaints from the woman when they’d
spoken recently.

“But I didn’t ring to talk about that,”
Bahey said.
 
“I saw the photograph
in yesterday’s paper and it brought back a lot of bad memories.
 
I’m sure you know exactly what I mean.”

“Which photograph?” Bessie asked, not
wanting to start the wrong conversation.

“That watch of Jacob Conover’s,” Bahey
answered, spitting the name out bitterly.

“I did see that picture,” Bessie said.
 
“I hope you rang the police to tell them
you recognised it.”

“Oh, aye, I rang Inspector Corkill and he
came and took a bunch of notes,” Bahey replied.

Inspector Peter Corkill was head of the
Douglas branch of the CID.
 
He and
Bessie had met over a dead body and had taken some time to come to appreciate
one another.
 
Now they’d become
something like friends and Bessie had included him in the Thanksgiving
invitations as well.

“I don’t really remember much about Jacob
Conover,” Bessie said.

“I remember him all too well,” Bahey
answered.
 
“And I’m sure poor Karen
does, as well.”

“I did recall that your cousin Karen went
out with him for a while,” Bessie said.
 
“But she’s happily married and living in London, isn’t she?”

“She is, but she had her heart well and
truly broken by that man, and I won’t forgive him for it.”

“It looks as if someone murdered him,”
Bessie said quietly.

“Probably the father of one of his victims,”
Bahey said sharply.

“Would you like to suggest a likely candidate?”
Bessie asked.

“I could probably come up with a few.
 
Why don’t you meet me for lunch tomorrow
and we’ll talk?” she suggested.

“I’d like that,” Bessie said.
 

“I’ll invite Joney,” Bahey added.
 
“You haven’t seen her in a while, have
you?”

“I haven’t,” Bessie replied.
 
“And I’d really like to.
 
She might be able to add to your list of
suspects, as well.”

“She might,” Bahey said.
 
“Although she was already in Foxdale
when that man came over.”

“Well, I’ll enjoying spending time with you
and your sister, either way,” Bessie said.
 
“I’ll be there at midday and I’ll bring pudding.”

“No, no, let me bake,” Bahey said.
 
“Howard and I are both watching what we
eat at the moment.
 
We’ve both
gained weight since we’ve been together.
 
Let me bake something nice for our luncheon.
 
I’ll enjoy having an excuse to make
something and then eat it.”

Bessie laughed.
 
“If you insist,” she said.

After she’d hung up, Bessie went back to her
list.
 
There were a handful of women
about whom she was uncertain as to their current whereabouts.
 
She reached for the phone and then
stopped herself.
 
While she could
ring around and track some of them down, that job might be best left for the
police.
 
If John asked for her help,
she’d be more than happy to provide it, but after her call from Bahey, it was
clear that at least some people on the island had far from pleasant memories of
Jacob Conover.
 
Perhaps it would be
best if Bessie didn’t stir those up unnecessarily.

She sighed and walked slowly through her
cottage.
 
Reading didn’t appeal and
she was just thinking about baking something when someone knocked on her door.

“Doona, I wasn’t expecting you until closer
to seven,” she exclaimed when she opened the door.

“I was just sitting around my house, feeling
bored and restless,” Doona told her.
 
“I thought I’d come over early and let you entertain me.”