The Chalmers Case (7 page)

“No.
 
I think after these guests leave we need
a bit of a break.
 
We should
probably work our way into this gradually, just an odd guest once in a while
until we get used to the whole thing.”

Janet
laughed.
 
“Now you’re sounding more
like yourself,” she told her sister.
 
“And I’m all ready to suggest that we should push onwards and start
taking bookings on a regular basis.
 
The only way we’ll work out if we like it or if we can actually make a
good go of it is if we jump in with both feet.”

Joan didn’t
say anything for a minute and then she sighed.
 
“Let’s go and do some antique shopping,”
she said.
 
“I’m too tired to think
about our future anyway.
 
I’m really
hoping all of our guests have an early night tonight.”

“Perhaps when
we have guests, we should take it in turns to stay up with them,” Janet
suggested.
 
“You stayed up last
night, so tonight will be my turn.”

“That’s very kind
of you,” Joan said, her tone suspicious.
 
“What’s going on?”

“Nothing,”
Janet replied.
 
“But it is our bed
and breakfast, regardless of whose idea it was to buy it.
 
I should do my fair share.”

“We can talk
about it later,” Joan told her.
 

The pair headed
out to the car.
 
Janet sat in the
passenger seat lost in thought.
 
She
hadn’t mentioned her late night phone call, telling herself that she didn’t
want to worry her sister.
 
Edward
had wanted to know about their guests.
 
That suggested that one of the couples had something to hide, something
that a man who was quite probably some sort of spy was interested in.

Chapter
Seven

Joan had no
difficulty in finding a parking space in
Doveby
Dale.

“Is it ever
busy?” Janet asked as they climbed out of the car.

“Maybe during
the holiday season,” Joan suggested.
 
“Although the shops that are here don’t really have that much to offer
holiday shoppers, do they?”

“Maybe lots of
people will want to buy William’s antiques for their family and friends this
Christmas,” Janet said.

“Maybe,” Joan
replied in a doubtful tone.

The pair made
their way down the pavement towards the antique shop.
 

“Do you know
what sort of car Harold and Mildred have?” Joan asked suddenly.

“I really
didn’t notice,” Janet admitted.
 
“I
don’t know what George and Nancy have, either.”

Joan
nodded.
 
“I suppose that’s something
else we’re meant to be paying attention to,” she sighed.

Janet pulled
open the door at WTC Antiques and the sisters walked in.
 
The buzzer sounded, but no one rushed to
greet
them
.
 
The shop looked empty, but after a moment Janet
realised
that she could hear voices from the back room.

“Everyone must
be admiring my painting,” she said.
 

“I’m not sure
we can afford both of them, my dear,” George was saying to his wife as the sisters
walked into the back.
 

The couple was
standing in front of a medium-sized canvas with a few random squiggles on
it.
 
Next to it was a second
painting done in the same
colours
, but instead of
squiggles there were a handful of very straight lines.
 
Janet shook her head.
 
She hated them both and couldn’t imagine
why anyone would want them.

“They belong
together,” Nancy said firmly.
 
“We
can’t take just one.
 
It would look
all out of place without its other half.”

“I’m sure we
can arrange some sort of price that works for you,” William said ingratiatingly.
 
“But first you should look around and
see if there’s anything else you like.
 
The more you buy, the bigger the discount I can give you, you see.”

Nancy glanced
at her husband and then smiled.
 
“I
don’t think George is going to be very happy if I keep looking,” she said.
 
“But that won’t stop me.”

“I rather love
this one,” Mildred called from across the room.
 
“You should take a look.”

Nancy walked
across the room towards where Mildred and Harold were standing.
 
Janet cleared her throat, causing
everyone to look over at her and Joan.

“Oh, I didn’t
hear the buzzer,” William said, looking flustered.
 
“But it’s nice of you to visit
again.
 
Did you want to talk about
that painting?” he asked Janet.

Janet walked
over and looked at the painting again.
 
If anything, she liked it even better now, but she knew she couldn’t
afford it.
 

“I’ll just
keep visiting it here until you sell it,” she told the man as he joined
her.
 
“Maybe I’ll inherit a fortune
between now and then and I’ll be able to buy it myself.”

“We can but
hope,” William said.
 
Janet guessed
that he was trying to sound light-hearted, but the words came out harshly.
 
“If you didn’t come for the painting,
why are you here?” he added.

“I didn’t get
a chance to look around the entire showroom the last time we visited,” Joan
told him.
 
“I’m sure you must have
something that would look perfect in one of our rooms.”

William
glanced over at Nancy who was still talking quietly with Mildred.
 
“If you need anything, come and get me,”
he called to the women.

“We’re fine,”
Nancy assured him.
 
“I’ll just make
a list of all the things I want and then you and George can argue about it.”

William
chuckled weakly and then turned back to Joan and Janet.
 
“Come and have a good look around the
other room, then,” he said.
 
“I
can’t wait to see what you think of it all.”

Janet followed
her sister and William back into the main showroom and then trailed along
behind them as Joan looked around.
 
She
tried to pretend to be interested in the various items Joan inspected, but she
really wanted to go and listen in on the conversation in the back.
 

The two
couples that were their guests seemed like very unlikely friends, and Janet was
really curious what they were talking about.
 
As William’s friends, she supposed
Mildred and Harold were doing their best to sell the others as much as
possible.
 
After what felt like
hours, Joan finally selected a pair of lamps.

“What do you
think?” she asked Janet.

“They aren’t
bad,” Janet replied honestly.
 
They
were one of the few things in the place that she didn’t hate, at least.
 

“I thought
they’d go nicely on the bedside tables in my bedroom,” Joan told her.

Janet
nodded.
 
The lamps were very much
her sister’s style, which made them not really something Janet would care to
own.
 

“While you pay
for those, I’ll just go visit my painting again,” Janet told her sister.

Joan
laughed.
 
“I think I may have to buy
you that painting for Christmas,” she said.

“I wouldn’t
say no,” Janet told her, even though she knew she really would if Joan actually
made such an offer.
 
Both sisters
were quite frugal and that extended to buying one another gifts.
 
Neither would ever dream of spending
that much money on themselves or each other.

Janet walked
into the back room and looked around.
 
Harold was standing in one corner, talking on his mobile phone.
 
Otherwise the room was empty.
 
Janet turned slowly, looking for an
exit, but it seemed as if the only way in or out of the room was the way she’d
just come.
 
Where had the others
gone?

Harold looked
up from his phone and muttered something under his breath.
 
“Oh, I didn’t think you’d be back,” he
said.
 

“Where did
everyone go?” Janet blurted out.

“They’re just
in the loo,” the man replied hastily.
 
He gestured towards the door in the back wall that Janet had opened on
her last visit.

“Oh, is there
a loo?
 
I could do with one,” she
said.
 
She crossed towards the door,
but before she got there it swung open.
 
Mildred emerged with George and Nancy on her heels.

“Ah, still shopping?”
Mildred asked Janet in a bright voice.

“I was just
looking for the loo,” Janet told her.
 
“Harold said it’s through there?”

“Oh, no,
Harold is confused,”
Mildred
said with a laugh.
 
She took Janet’s arm and began to steer
her out of the room.
 
“That’s just a
storage space.
 
I saw a little chest
of drawers in the very back that I thought Nancy might like, and I just had to
show them.
 
Unfortunately, she
didn’t care for it, but I had to try.”

While she’d
been speaking, she nearly dragged Janet back into the main room.
 
Joan was just picking up the large box
that William had packed her lamps into.
 

“Ready to go?”
Joan asked her sister.

“Yes,” Janet
replied, knowing that Mildred wasn’t going to let her do anything but leave at
this point.

“Excellent, perhaps
you can open doors for me,” Joan suggested.

Janet smiled
at Mildred and William in turn.
 
“Thank
you,” she said.
 
“I’ll be back to
look at my painting again soon.”

“I’ll look
forward to it,” William told her unenthusiastically.

Janet grinned
and then rushed forward to open the door for Joan.
 
The box wasn’t large and Joan insisted
it wasn’t heavy, but it was unwieldy.
 
Janet walked in front of her sister as they made their way back to the
car.
 

“I do feel a
bit selfish,” Joan said once they were on their way back to
Doveby
House.
 
“Perhaps I should have
purchased something for the house instead of for myself.”

“Don’t be
silly,” Janet told her.
 
“We’ve
spent a fortune on the house and anyway, you need lamps in your bedroom.
 
Mine came with such nice ones and I’ve
felt just the tiniest bit guilty about that ever since we moved in.”

Joan
laughed.
 
“I don’t believe you’ve
given it a single thought, but I appreciate your telling me that to make me
feel better.”

Janet
grinned.
 
Her sister knew her too
well.
 
She’d never thought about the
bedside lamps that were already in her almost perfect bedroom when they bought
the fully furnished house, but if she had thought about them, she would have
felt bad that Joan didn’t have a similar set.

“I hope you
aren’t too sad about that painting,” Joan said.
 
“Maybe, if we can keep the guest rooms
filled for a few months, you can buy it in the new year.”

“Maybe,” Janet
said with a shrug.
 
“I’m not going
to lose sleep over it.
 
There’s just
something about it that I like, that’s all.”

“I know. You
visited it twice in ten minutes,” Joan teased.

“I went back
the second time to see what our guests were up to back there,” Janet
countered.
 
“And they weren’t even
there.”

“What do you
mean?
 
Where else could they have
gone?”

“Harold was
there, on his phone, but the other three weren’t in the back.
 
Harold tried to make excuses, but after
a moment they came out of the storage room.
 
You know, the one where I saw all those
half-finished canvases.”

“So maybe they
were looking at something back there,” Joan said.

“Or maybe
they’re all part of the art forgery scheme,” Janet said excitedly.

“You must stop
reading crime fiction,” Joan
tutted
.

“Edward rang
last night,” Janet said as casually as she could.
 
“He was quite interested in hearing all
about our guests.”

“Which
suggests that he’s quite interested in what’s happening in your life,” Joan
said.
 
“I hope you aren’t suggesting
that he suspects them of something criminal?”

Janet flushed
and looked out the car window.
 
“I
don’t know,” she said after a moment.
 
“You have to admit you can see Harold and Mildred being mixed up in
something unpleasant.”

“Just because
I don’t like them doesn’t mean I think they’re criminals,” Joan said
firmly.
 
“I don’t like William
Chalmers, either.”

“And I’m just
as suspicious of him,” Janet exclaimed.
 
“Remember how upset he was when he thought we’d sent the police to talk
to him?”

Joan
nodded.
 
“I do, but that doesn’t
prove anything.
 
Robert Parsons will
have investigated him thoroughly, I’m sure, after that.
 
You just have an overactive
imagination.”

Janet
laughed.
 
“I’ve been accused of
worse,” she told her sister.

After a
moment, Joan laughed as well.
 
“Anyway, whatever you think of our guests, you must treat them nicely,”
she said.

“I will,”
Janet promised.

“And no
snooping,” Joan added.

As they were
just pulling into the parking area in front of
Doveby
House, Janet was saved from replying, which was fortunate, as she had every
intention of snooping if she got the opportunity.

Joan opened
the boot of the car and was pulling the box out of it while Janet headed toward
their door.

“Let me help,”
a voice shouted from across the road.
 

Janet smiled
as Michael Donaldson,
their
other across the street
neighbour
, rushed across to help Joan.
 
He had been rather busy filling in as a
chemist in a shop in Derby for the last week, and Janet knew her sister had
missed the man.

Joan had never
dated when she was younger, while Janet had dated a great deal, but had never
become very serious about any one man.
 
Now Janet was enjoying watching her sister taking baby steps into her
first relationship.
 
Michael seemed
like a genuinely nice man and Janet couldn’t have been any happier for
Joan.
 
Now she opened the door for
him as he carried Joan’s box into the house.

“Where would
you like it?” he asked Joan.

“Oh, just put
it in my sitting room,” Joan replied.
 
“I’ll come and unlock the door.”

“You’ve taken
to locking your room?” Michael asked.

“We have
guests,” Joan told him.