Aunt Bessie Invites (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 9) (28 page)

Bessie nodded.
 
“I suppose that’s for the best,” she
said, “especially if you can close the case without mentioning Fenella’s
relationship with Jacob to anyone.”

“I can’t believe she kept it a secret in a
village as small as Laxey,” Doona remarked.
 
“It seems like every time I do anything
everyone on my street knows about it.”

“The farm was far enough out of town that
they were able to meet without being seen,” Bessie said.
 
“And Jacob did take out just about every
other girl in town.
 
If he had been
seen out with Fenella, we all probably would have just assumed that she was his
latest passing fancy, not that there was anything serious going on.”

“I would like to know just how serious it
really was,” Hugh said.
 
“Did he
seem like the type to get married and settle down?”

Bessie thought for a moment.
 
“I don’t know,” she said
eventually.
 
“The man I remember was
loud and flashy and had a different woman on his arm every night.
 
But his sister claims he was definitely
looking for a wife, and she knew him much better than I did.
 
Fenella certainly believes that he was
serious about marrying her, anyway.”

“I’d better get up to the Clague farm and
get my interviews done,” John said after he’d glanced at the clock.
 
“I want to have my report to the boss
before midday tomorrow.”

“I’m not sure Fenella will be up to
answering questions,” Bessie said.
 
“She was very upset when she left here.”

“I have to try,” John told her.
 
“Fenella has already told Anna that she
isn’t welcome on the farm again.
 
I
believe Fenella blames Anna for her father’s sudden death.”

“As well she might,” Bessie said.
 
“I know murder is a terrible thing, but
I do rather feel as if Inspector Lambert pushed poor Niall too far.”

“That’s another matter for the Chief
Constable,” John replied.
 
“I’m just
keeping my focus on doing my own job.”

After John left, taking Doona to drop off at
her home before heading to the farm, Hugh helped Bessie with the dishes and
tidying.

“You must take all the extra cakes and
things,” Bessie told Hugh.
 
“Take
them over to Grace’s tomorrow evening or something.”

“I will,” Hugh said.
 
“Unless I eat them myself tonight.”

Bessie laughed.
 
“Will you ever stop being hungry all the
time?” she asked the man.

“I hope so,” Hugh replied.
 
“But it hasn’t happened yet.”

Bessie let him out and watched as he drove
away.
 
She was tempted to take
another walk, as her mind was feeling unsettled again, but the cold and dark
night felt unwelcoming.
 
As Hugh’s
taillights disappeared up the hill, a heavy rain began to fall.

“I suppose I won’t take a walk,” Bessie muttered
to herself as she shut the door tightly.
 
She locked it and then wandered into her sitting room.
 
Her latest half-finished novel held no
appeal.
 
After a while, she decided
to head to bed with little hope of actually sleeping.
 

Her sleep was restless as Bessie tossed and
turned, unable to direct her thoughts away from Jacob Conover.
 
By five o’clock, she gave up on sleep
and took a long shower.
 
It didn’t
help much, but three cups of coffee seemed to take the edge off of her
exhaustion.
 
All of the caffeine
left her feeling restless though, so she quickly headed out for her morning
walk
somewhat earlier than normal.

The beach was dark, cold, and deserted as
Bessie made her way past the holiday cottages.
 
She’d brought a torch with her, and now
she used it to help her avoid tripping over driftwood and rocks.
 
She walked as far as Thie
ny
Traie and then leaned against the cliff and stared out at
the sea.
 
No matter how hard she
tried, she simply couldn’t see Niall killing anyone.
 
Sighing deeply, she turned and headed
for home.
  
She had to go and
talk to Eoin and Fenella again; she had no choice.

It was far too early to go visiting or even
ring the farm, so Bessie busied herself with little chores around her
cottage.
 
When she found that she
was cleaning her bathroom mirror with furniture polish, she decided that she’d
be better off just sitting still until she was able to make the phone call she
needed to make.
 
She flipped through
a magazine she’d already read, staring at the pages without seeing anything,
until nine.

“Ah, good morning,” she said as brightly as
she could.
 
“This is Bessie
Cubbon.
 
I was just ringing to make
sure that everyone is okay,” she said when the phone was answered at the farm.

“Oh, hello, Bessie.
 
This is Sarah.
 
We’re all doing as well as can be
expected, I suppose,” was the reply.

“I thought maybe I’d come and visit.
 
I could bring some food or something,”
Bessie said.

“Oh, you don’t need to bring anything, but
you’re welcome to come over,” Sarah told her.
 
“I think Fenella would probably like to
see you.
 
She’s taken the news very
hard.”

“I’ll be there in about an hour,” Bessie
promised.

She quickly rang for a taxi and then
wondered what to take.
 
When the car
arrived, with her favourite driver behind the wheel, Bessie instructed him to
take her into the village centre first.

“I need to pick up some sandwiches and
snacks,” she told Dave.

The little café by the police station had
the order Bessie had placed by phone all ready for her.
 
A few moments later, she was on her way
to the Clague farm.
 
Sarah answered
her knock.

“I’ve brought some sandwiches and salads,”
Bessie explained, handing the woman one of the boxes.
 
“Everything can go in the refrigerator
and people can just nibble when they have an appetite.”

“How incredibly thoughtful of you,” Sarah
said.
 
“That’s exactly what we
need.
 
Please come in.”

Bessie followed the woman into the kitchen,
carrying the other box of food.
 
Together they managed to fit everything into the refrigerator.
 

“That was very kind of you,” Sarah said.

“Do you think Fenella would like to see me?”
Bessie asked.

“I can go and see,” Sarah offered.

Bessie sat down at the table while she
waited.
 
She didn’t want to upset
Fenella any further, but she also didn’t want the wrong person blamed for
murder.
 
A moment later, the door
behind Bessie swung open.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were here,” Eoin said
from the doorway.

Bessie turned and gave him a sympathetic
smile.
 
“How are you?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” he said.
 
“Niall was like a second father to me,
you know.
 
I’m going to miss him,
although he’s been gone a long time already, really.”

Bessie nodded.
 
“It’s such a shame his health was so bad
these last few years,” she said.

“Aye, it was hard on Fenella, going to see
him and him not remembering her,” Eoin replied.

“And that made it hard for you, because you
love her,” Bessie said.

“I do,” Eoin nodded.
 
“I’ve loved her since the first time I
laid eyes on her, when she was only about twelve and I shouldn’t have been
looking at her.”

Bessie smiled.
 
“You had to wait a long time before you
could tell her, then,” she suggested.

“I did,” Eoin nodded.
 
“I waited until she was eighteen to
start courting her properly and it took me nearly two years to win her
heart.
 
It was worth it all,
though.”

“You would have been devastated to lose
her,” Bessie said softly.
 
“If she’d
found another man before you’d spoken up, for example.”

Eoin sat down next to Bessie at the
table.
 
“I knew you’d worked it all
out,” he told her.
 
“But you mustn’t
tell Fen.
 
I’ll be dead soon.
 
It can all come out after I’m gone.
 
It won’t hurt anything, waiting a little
bit, will it?”

Bessie stared at the man, feeling an
uncomfortable mix of anger and compassion.
 
“You killed Jacob Conover,” she said softly.

“He was going to take her away,” Eoin replied
softly.
 
“She was my whole world,
even if she didn’t know it then.
 
I
had everything planned out.
 
We were
going to get married and have a dozen kids and run the farm and look after
Niall.
 
It was going to be perfect.”

“And then Jacob came along and swept Fenella
off her feet.”

“That man,” Eoin said bitterly.
 
“He didn’t really care about her.
 
He just wanted a hard worker to help run
his father’s farm.
 
All while he was
filling her head with nonsense, he was going around with every other girl in
Laxey.
 
I tried to warn Fenella
about him, and I warned Niall, too, but neither of them paid any attention.”

“How did you know about them?
 
Fenella thought no one knew.”

“He used to sneak up here every night, or
nearly every night,” Eoin said.
 
“They would meet in different places and sit and talk about their
plans.
 
I was nursing a sick cow one
night in the cattle barn.
 
They
didn’t even know I was there.”

“And you told Niall?” Bessie asked.

“Not right away.
 
I started watching Fenella more closely
after that.
 
It had never occurred
to me that she might meet someone else, but now I realised that I needed to
keep a close eye on her.
 
It was
almost like a game, watching her and trying to work out where she might meet
the man next.
 
They had a sort of
routine, anyway, and Fenella always had chores to do as well, so that made it
easier to work out where they might be.”

“So you heard all about their plans,” Bessie
said.

“I did.
 
He was going back across, back to his farm.
 
His father wanted him to start taking
over after his extended holiday.
 
Fenella was going to go with him.
 
He said he was going to marry her as soon as they arrived in Cumbria,
but I don’t know if that’s true.
 
He
seemed like the type to just take her along and then discard her when he grew
tired of her.”

“You wanted to protect her,” Bessie
suggested.

“Of course I did,” Eoin nearly shouted.
 
“I loved her, even if she was involved
with another man.
 
I’d have done
anything for her.”

“So what happened?”

“I was at the pub that night,” Eoin said,
his eyes unfocussed as he remembered.
 
“I had a few drinks and I bought him a few as well.
 
I told him that I really liked Fenella
and asked him to leave without her.
 
He laughed and told me that he wasn’t going to give up a good thing like
Fenella without a fight.”

“So you fought him?”

“No, I laughed and told him he was crazy,
that Fenella wasn’t worth fighting over, then I offered to give him a ride up
to the farm.
 
He’d already sold his
fancy car, and he had his suitcases with him, all ready to get on the boat.”

Bessie didn’t want to hear the rest of the
story.
 
She stood up.
 
“I think maybe I should go and see
what’s keeping Fenella,” she said, trying not to sound as anxious as she felt.

Eoin shook his head.
 
“I may as well tell you the rest.
 
It’s such a relief, telling
someone.
 
I’ve been keeping it a
secret for so long.
 
It’s the only
secret I’ve ever had from Fen.
 
We’ve been through a lot together, but I don’t know how she’d feel if
she knew what I did that night.
 
I’d
like to think that our years of happiness prove that I made the right choice,
getting rid of Jacob, but I don’t know if she’d agree.”

“Maybe you should talk to her about it,”
Bessie suggested.