Aunt Bessie Invites (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 9) (27 page)

“I’m surprised you don’t remember the man,”
Bessie said, choosing her words carefully.

“It was a long time ago,” Fenella replied.
 

They’d reached the last pasture and several
sheep were standing in the centre of the road.
 
Fenella sighed as she rolled to a stop.

“It was a long time ago,” Bessie
agreed.
 
“I had an interesting
conversation with Jacob’s sister yesterday, though.”

“Did you?
 
She came up to the farm, but I didn’t
really speak to her.
 
Eoin showed
her around a little bit and answered her questions.”

“She has her own theory on why Jacob was
here,” Bessie said, keeping her tone casual.
 
“She thinks he was looking for a farmer’s
daughter.
 
Someone he could marry
that would help him run his farm back home.”

“As I said, I didn’t speak to her,” Fenella
said.
 

Bessie stared hard at the woman, but Fenella
wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“He wanted to marry you, didn’t he?” Bessie
asked quietly.

Fenella looked over at her and then burst
into tears.
 
“No one knows that,”
she said through her tears.
 
“No one
except my father ever knew that.”

Bessie put her arms around Fenella as she
sobbed.
 
She patted her back and
whispered meaningless nothings as the sheep wandered off and the car
idled.
 
Eventually, Fenella lifted
her head.

“I’m sorry,” she said.
 
“I never cry.”

“Then you were long overdue,” Bessie told
her.
 
“I didn’t mean to upset you,
though.”

“I’ve been upset since the body was found,”
Fenella replied.
 
“As soon as I saw
the watch, I knew who it was, but I couldn’t talk about it.
 
Eoin never knew that Jacob and I had had
a relationship.
 
It would break his
heart to find out now, and his health is so fragile as it is, I couldn’t
possibly say anything.”

“So Jane Harris was right?” Bessie
asked.
 
“Jacob was looking for a
wife?”

“I don’t know if he was looking for one,
exactly, but we fell in love,” Fenella told her.
 
“He was, well, special.
 
He was different from any other man I’d
ever met.
 
He swept me off my feet, but
I didn’t want my father to know.
 
He
went out with all those other women so no one would know about me.”

“It was very effective,” Bessie remarked.

“He was supposed to come and get me after he
left the pub that night,” she continued.
 
“I was all packed and ready to go.
 
I’d told my father I was going and we’d had a huge row.
 
I sat outside, with my suitcase, waiting
all night.”

Bessie hugged her again.
 
“I’m so sorry,” she murmured.

“When he never came for me, I assumed he’d changed
his mind and gone back alone,” Fenella said after a moment.
 
“My father never said another word about
it.
  
A short time later Eoin
started taking me out and I decided I might as well marry him and try to be
happy.
 
It worked reasonably well, I
suppose.”

Bessie shook her head.
 
“You poor thing,” she said.

“You can see why I’m feeling so much stress,”
Fenella said.
 
“My father was the
only person who knew about Jacob and me.
 
I can’t believe my father would kill him to stop me leaving, but I can’t
imagine why anyone else would have killed him, either.”

“How angry was your father?” Bessie had to
ask.

“He was furious at first,” Fenella
replied.
 
“But after a while, he
just went really quiet.
 
I was young
and stupid and too wrapped up in my own happiness to think about how much my
leaving would hurt him, of course.
 
I was all he had and he needed me to help keep the farm running.
 
But all I could think about was how much
I loved Jacob.”

“You were eighteen,” Bessie pointed
out.
 
“You had every right to chase
your own happiness.”

“I should have tried to persuade Jacob to
stay here,” the woman said sadly.
 
“I
was so excited about leaving that I didn’t even consider the idea.”

“From what Jane Harris said, Jacob wouldn’t
have agreed,” Bessie said, not sure if she was helping the situation or
not.
 
“He needed to go back and run
his family farm.”

“I can’t help but wish I’d tried.
 
Maybe Jacob would still be alive.
 
Things might have been very different.”

“You need to talk to John Rockwell,” Bessie
said.
 
“What you’ve told me might be
relevant to the murder investigation.”

“I can’t,” Fenella said.
 
“If I tell him everything, it will get
back to Eoin.
 
I don’t want to upset
him.
 
Not now.”

“But John needs to know,” Bessie argued.

“That Anna Lambert already thinks my father
killed Jacob,” Fenella argued.
 
“This would just give her more ammunition.”

“I can’t keep what you’ve told me a secret,”
Bessie said, feeling miserable.

“Please, please, please, if you have to tell
him, beg him not to tell Eoin,” she said, sobbing again.
 
“I think finding out might kill him, even
before the cancer can.”

Bessie sighed.
 
“I’ll do my best,” she promised.
 

“And please don’t tell Anna Lambert
anything,” Fenella added.
 
“That
woman already hates me and my father.”

“I don’t have any intention of speaking to
her,” Bessie said emphatically.
 
“But I can’t promise that John won’t talk to her.”

Fenella sighed.
 
“I’m hoping to persuade Eoin to go back
across with Nicholas and Sarah,” she said.
 
“Maybe you could wait to talk to the police until he’s off the island?”

“I don’t think this should wait,” Bessie
said.
 
“Hasn’t Jacob waited long
enough for justice?”

Fenella laughed bitterly.
 
“If I thought the killer was anyone
other than my father, I’d agree with that sentiment,” she said.

Before Bessie could reply, Fenella held up a
hand.
 
“Never mind,” she said.
 
“You do what you have to do.
 
I’ll deal with Eoin and my father.
 
That’s what I’ve done my whole life.”

The pair was silent as Fenella drove Bessie
home.
 
At the cottage, Bessie turned
to her.

“I’m really sorry,” she said, “but John
needs to know.”

A sudden burst of noise interrupted
Fenella’s reply.
 
“My mobile,”
Fenella said.
 
She reached into her
bag and found the phone.
 
Bessie
watched the woman’s face as she spoke.

“Hello?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ll be right there.”

Fenella disconnected the call and then
stared at the phone in her hand.

“What’s wrong?” Bessie asked after a minute.

“That was Eoin,” Fenella said.
 
“Douglas Gardens just rang the
house.
 
My father’s gone.”

Chapter Fourteen

“What can I do to help?” Bessie asked
quickly.

Fenella shook her head.
 
“There’s nothing,” she said softly.
 
“We made all of the arrangements a few
years ago, while my father still had some good days.
 
He wanted to be buried next to my mother
and he wanted…” she trailed off and began to cry.

“Come inside,” Bessie said as she hugged the
woman again.
 
“I’ll make tea.”

“I have to go home,” Fenella said.
 
“Eoin needs me.
 
He’ll be more upset than I am.
 
My father was like a father to him, you know.”

“I do know,” Bessie said.
 
“But I don’t think you should be
driving.”

“I’m fine,” Fenella said.
 
“It isn’t that far.”

Bessie wanted to argue, but she couldn’t
think of any easy solution to the problem.
 
If she rang for a taxi for Fenella, the woman would have to leave her car
at Bessie’s cottage.
 
For the first
time in a long while, Bessie was sorry she’d never learned to drive.

“It’s okay,”
Fenella
said now, her voice stronger.
 
“It
isn’t exactly a shock.
 
And with
everything that could be coming, it might be a blessing.”

“Please drive carefully,” Bessie told
her.
 
“And ring me if you think of
anything I can do.
 
I’ll ring you
tomorrow morning to see what help you need.”

“Thank you, Bessie,” Fenella said.
 
She gave Bessie another hug.
 
Bessie walked to her cottage door, conscious
that the woman was watching her.
 
After she opened the door, she turned and waved.
 
Fenella nodded and then drove slowly
away.

Inside her home, Bessie paced around the
kitchen.
 
She knew she needed to
ring John and tell him what she’d learned, but she didn’t want to add to
Fenella’s troubles.
 
Before she’d
made up her mind what to do, her phone rang.

“John was wondering if we could all come
over tonight,” Doona said when Bessie answered.
 
“He wants to discuss the case with you
in light of today’s sad news.”

“That’s fine,” Bessie said.
 
“But I haven’t any food.”

Doona laughed.
 
“We’ll bring something with us,” she
assured her friend.
 
“John and I
will be there at six.
 
I’m not sure
if Hugh’s coming as well or not.
 
He
might already have plans.”

“I hope he does,” Bessie said.
 
“I’d love to see him, but he needs to be
spending time with Grace.
 
She’s
going to give up on him if he doesn’t get around to proposing before too much
longer.”

“I’m keeping my mouth shut on that matter,”
Doona said firmly.
 
“I’ve made such
a mess of my own personal life, I don’t feel as if I should comment on anyone
else’s.”

Bessie laughed.
 
“As a middle-aged spinster, I probably
shouldn’t comment, either.
 
But they
do seem so very well-suited.”

“They do,” Doona agreed.

The conversation and the plans made Bessie
feel better.
 
John was coming over,
but she hadn’t actually invited him.
 
Of course, she’d have to share what she’d learned with him, but at least
Doona, and maybe Hugh, would be there as well.

With nothing to do but wait, Bessie took a
short stroll down the beach.
 
It was
cold and growing dark, but it was dry, which was about all you could hope for
on the island in late November.
 
Very occasionally Bessie thought back to the long, cold, and snowy
winters of her childhood in Ohio.
 
Somehow it always made Christmas feel more special when there was a
fluffy white layer of sparkling snow covering the outdoors.
 

Of course, it was hard work for her parents,
but Bessie had never been asked to help with the shoveling or tried to drive on
snow-covered roads.
 
Now she
couldn’t help but feel as if a light dusting would make her Thanksgiving feast
even more special.
 
She’d checked
the forecast, though, and Saturday was meant to be cool and rainy, typical Manx
winter weather.
 

She arrived back at her cottage at the same
time as John’s car pulled into the parking area.
 
“Goodness, I was enjoying my walk so
much I almost missed you,” she laughed as John and Doona got out of the car.

“We’d have waited for you,” John assured
her.
 
“Or come looking.”

Bessie unlocked her cottage and the trio
went inside.
 
“No Hugh, then?”
Bessie asked after switching on the lights.

John started opening food containers as
Doona found plates and cutlery.
 
“He’s on his way,” he replied.
 
“I sent him to pick up pudding.”

The words were barely out of his mouth when
someone knocked on the door.
 
Bessie
opened it and greeted Hugh with a hug.

“Come in out of the cold,” she instructed
him.
 

He handed Bessie a bakery box and removed
his coat.
 
“I couldn’t decide what
would be best,” he said in an apologetic voice.
 
“So I got a little of everything.”

“That sounds about right,” Doona told him,
laughing.

They all fixed plates and then settled in at
the kitchen table.
 
While they ate,
they chatted about the weather and the plans for Saturday.
 
Bessie was very aware that everyone was
avoiding the very topic that they’d come to discuss.

After Doona cleared away the plates, Hugh
put the bakery box in the centre of the table.
 
He opened the lid and everyone looked
inside.

“You weren’t kidding,” Bessie said
happily.
 

Inside the box were chocolate and vanilla
fairy cakes, thick and gooey brownies, a selection of cream cakes and a handful
of tiny fruit tarts.

“I can’t believe they fit it all into one
box,” Doona said.

“I’m not sure we’ll be able to get anything
out,” John remarked.
 
“There isn’t
an inch of space left.”

They ended up taking the box apart in order
to get to the treats inside.
 

“We’ll just have to start with the things on
the outside and eat our way into the centre,” Hugh said, grinning widely.

“Maybe we should just attack it with forks,”
Doona suggested.

Bessie tutted her
disapproval.
 
“I shall give you all plates and you
shall put what you want on them,” she said sternly.
 
“There’s more than enough to go around,
even with Hugh here.”

As everyone dug into his or her own
favourite, Bessie looked at John.
 
He was nibbling at his fairy cake, but seemed distracted.

“Is it time to talk, then?” she asked with a
sigh.

“I think so,” John told her.
 
“I have to go and see Fenella and Eoin
later and I’d like to talk everything through with you before I go.”

“I was going to ring you, anyway,” Bessie
told him.
 
“I spent an hour at the
farm this afternoon and had an interesting conversation with Fenella on the
drive home.
 
She was here when Eoin
rang to tell her about her father.”

John sighed.
 
“I wish the circumstances were
different,” he said.
 
“I’m sure they
aren’t going to want to talk to me.”

“What do you mean?” Bessie asked.

“Anna spent an hour with Niall this
afternoon,” John told her.
 
“She
questioned him extensively and she’s convinced that he confessed to killing
Jacob Conover.
 
She wasn’t able to
work out a motive, but she’s prepared to close the case with him on record as
having confessed.”

“He wasn’t in his right mind,” Bessie
argued.

“His doctor was with him the entire
time.
 
He said that he thought Niall
was more lucid than he’s been in years,” John replied.

“Please don’t tell me that Anna gave the
poor man a heart attack,” Bessie exclaimed as the idea crossed her mind.

“According to Anna, he was fine when she
left,” John said.
 
“Apparently, a
short time later his heart simply stopped.”

“Maybe, having confessed, he was finally at
peace,” Doona suggested.

“What did he say, exactly?” Bessie demanded.

John shook his head.
 
“I haven’t seen Anna’s report yet.
 
She’s submitted it directly to the Chief
Constable and he’s going to rule on whether the confession is valid or not.”

“Poor Fenella,” Bessie said.

“But what happened at the farm today?” John
asked.
 
“Did Nicholas remember Jacob?”

“He claimed he didn’t, at least not really,”
Bessie replied.
 
“But I think he was
lying.
 
Perhaps, now that Niall is
dead, everyone up there will start being more honest.”

“They all think Niall killed him, then?”
John asked.

“Fenella does,” Bessie said, feeling
sad.
 
“She even supplied a motive.”

“Did she now?”
 
John pulled out his notebook.
 
“Go on.”

“You know how Jane Harris said that her
brother was looking for a wife?
 
Apparently he was planning on taking Fenella back with him,” Bessie
said.
 
“He was going to collect her
at the farm after he left the pub, but he never arrived.”

“And her father knew about it?” Hugh wanted
to know.

“Yes.
 
She said he was very upset.”

“Maybe just upset enough to get into a fight
with the man,” Doona suggested.
 
“Maybe he killed him accidently in a fight.”

“I don’t think we’ll ever know exactly what
happened that night,” John said.
 
“But I like that scenario better than cold-blooded murder.”

“Fenella doesn’t want anyone to know about
her and Jacob,” Bessie said.
 
“She doesn’t
want to upset Eoin.
 
He isn’t well.”

“I’m not sure how we can keep that a
secret,” John said.
 
“But maybe,
with Niall dead, it doesn’t really matter.”

“If he did confess, and the confession is
valid, then maybe everything else can be kept quiet,” Bessie suggested.

“I’ll make sure I talk to Eoin and Fenella
separately,” John told her.
 
“I can
try not to mention motives to Eoin.”

“I’m having a hard time with this,” Bessie
said.
 
“I knew Niall for a great
many years.
 
I can’t see him killing
anyone.”

“Jacob was going to take away his precious
daughter,” Doona said.
 
“And maybe
he didn’t trust the man to actually marry Fenella.”

“That’s an interesting point,” Bessie
mused.
 
“If he did want to marry
Fenella, why couldn’t they get married here, before they went across?”

“Would it have been a huge scandal?” Hugh
asked.
 
“If she’d run off with him
and they’d not ended up getting married?”

“Oh, yes,” Bessie replied.
 
“Girls didn’t travel unaccompanied with
men in those days.
 
Fenella would
have been taking a huge risk, going with him like that.
 
If he’d ended up casting her
aside
 
later
,
goodness knows what might have happened to her.”

“Surely she would have just come home,” Hugh
said.

“If her father would have let her,” Bessie
said.
 
“Some parents would disown
daughters that behaved in such a immoral way.
 
She may have been too embarrassed to
try, though, as well.
 
She might
have ended up alone somewhere across, maybe even pregnant.
 
It could have been a very sad
situation.”

“I’m glad those sorts of attitudes have
changed,” Doona said.

“It seems like a valid motive to me,” John
said.
 
“Whatever Niall told Anna,
this certainly increases the case against him.”

“So what happens now?” Bessie asked.

“The Chief Constable is going to go over
Anna’s report and make a decision about the confession.
 
I’ll have to add my report after I’ve
spoken to Fenella later tonight, but it seems likely, if she confirms what
you’ve told me, that the Chief Constable will accept Niall’s confession and
close the case.”