Aunt Bessie Invites (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 9) (24 page)

“Yes, well, I’m not impressed with their
work thus far.
 
Apparently, the man
who used to own the farm where Jacob was found is not right in the head.
 
I gather the police have interviewed
him, but they couldn’t get any sense out of him.
 
Perhaps I should insist that they try
harder.”

“I’m not sure there’s much anyone can do
with poor Niall Clague,” Bessie said.
 
“He’s very ill and his memory is completely unreliable.”

“Or so he says,” Jane retorted.
 
“I’m sure that must be the easiest thing
in the world to fake.
 
If I’d
murdered someone, I’d probably pretend to be crazy in order to avoid answering
questions.”

“He’s been having trouble with his memory
for many years,” Bessie said, keeping her voice steady.
 
“It isn’t like he suddenly started
pretending to forget when the body was found.”

Jane shrugged.
 
“I still think it’s suspicious,” she
said.
 
“And I’ve said that
repeatedly to the two policeman with whom I’ve spoken.
 
Well, one is a policewoman, actually,
but I’ve told her many times that I think that Nigel Clague needs to be pushed
harder.”

“It’s Niall,” Bessie said tightly.
 
“And I’m sure the police have done their
best with him.”

“I wish I had your confidence in their
efforts,” the woman said sharply.
 
“But then, it isn’t your brother’s body that’s been found, is it?
 
It’s all so distressing.”

The tissue came out again and Bessie found
herself peering at it, looking for any signs of wetness.
 
It looked completely dry as the woman
dabbed at her eyes and then slid the tissue back into her pocket.

“Do let me know if you think of any more
questions for me,” Bessie said as she showed the woman to the door.
 
“I wish I could remember more.”

“I’m going home later today,” the woman
replied.
 
“Perhaps you’d be good
enough to give me your number?
 
If I
think of any further questions, I’ll ring you.”

Bessie found a scrap of paper and a pencil
in a drawer and wrote down her number.
 
“Please do ring, if you think I can help,” she said, confident that
she’d never hear from the unpleasant woman again.

“Yes, well, we can but hope,” Jane said.

Bessie opened the door for the woman and
watched as she climbed into the expensive-looking car that was parked
outside.
 
As it pulled away, Bessie
noted that it was from one of the island’s hire car firms.
 
Pushing the door shut, Bessie turned the
lock and then sighed.
 
The
ingredients for shortbread were still spread across the counter, so she decided
to go ahead and bake, even if her guest had already come and gone.
 
Once the shortbread was in the oven, she
reached for the phone.
 
She’d might
as well just ring John and save him a trip later in the day.
 
A knock on the door stopped her hand in
midair.
 

“I’m earlier than I thought I would be,”
John said from her doorstep.
 
“I
hope that isn’t a problem.”

“Of course not,” Bessie assured him.
 
She stepped back to let him in and then
smiled.
 
“The sun is trying to peek
out,” she said as she shut the door behind him.

“The wind seems to be keeping the clouds
moving along,” John told her.
 
“It
rained pretty much all morning, so I imagine we’re due a few hours of sunshine
before sunset.”

“Maybe I’ll get another walk in,” Bessie
said.
 
“It wasn’t exactly walking
weather this morning.”

The oven timer buzzed, interrupting their
chat.
 

“Is that shortbread?” John asked as Bessie
pulled the tray from the oven.

“It is; would you like some?”

John smiled.
 
“I feel like a small child who’s just
been given an unexpected treat.
 
I’d
love some, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course I don’t mind,” Bessie told
him.
 
“I was planning to make it for
my guest, but she turned up before I’d finished.
 
After she left I felt as if I needed a
treat.”

John chuckled.
 
“Does that mean you didn’t get along
well with Mrs. Harris?” he asked.

“We got along fine,” Bessie replied as she
switched on the kettle.
 
“But I
didn’t like her.”

“She didn’t seem to be the most likable
person,” John said.
 
“But she’s not
happy with our investigation.
 
I
thought that might why she was, um, unfriendly at the station.”

“I think she’s pretty unfriendly
everywhere,” Bessie said.
 
“I told
her I was certain you were doing your best, but she didn’t seem to believe me.”

“I’m sure it’s difficult, finding out your
brother was murdered many years ago, but we really are doing everything we
can.”

“She seems to think you should be pushing
Niall more.”

“Yes, she said that to me and Anna when we
met,” John replied.
 
“I don’t think
she believes that he’s really unwell.”
 
He shrugged.
 
“She also
suggested that we should have found the body at some point in the last forty
years.
 
She seems to think we were
negligent in not locating it at some point.”

“Pardon?” Bessie said.
 
“How were you supposed to find the body
of a man who was never even reported as missing?” she demanded.

John shook his head.
 
“She’s upset,” he said.
 
“I don’t think she even knows what she’s
saying half of the time.”

“I’m sorry you have to deal with her,”
Bessie said.
 
She fixed them each a
cup of tea and then put generous servings of the warm shortbread onto
plates.
 

“It’s all part of the job,” John said,
sipping his tea.
 
“Ah, this helps
more than you can know,” he told Bessie.

“So what did you and Jane Harris talk
about?” John asked after he’d finished half of his shortbread.

“She thinks Jacob was here looking for a
wife, rather than a farm,” Bessie told him.

“And what did you think of that idea?”

Bessie shrugged.
 
“I was just turning it over in my head
while I was baking,” she said.
 
“What she said made sense, and it ties in with what Bahey told me, but
it doesn’t fit well with what I remember of the man.
 
He certainly didn’t act like a man who
was looking to settle down.”

“None of the women I’ve spoken to about the
man have said that he suggested marriage or anything other than a few casual
evenings out,” John told her.
 
“I
haven’t talked to Karen yet, although I’ve read Pete’s report on what Bahey
told him.”

Bessie nodded.
 
“From what I saw of him, he was all
about having a bit of fun.
 
Maybe
his sister is remembering what she wants to remember, rather than the truth.”

John shrugged.
 
“I wouldn’t suggest any such thing to
her,” he told Bessie.

“No, I wouldn’t, either,”
Bessie
agreed with a laugh.
 
“Would you
like more shortbread?”

“Oh, I shouldn’t,”
John
said.
 
He flushed.
 
“But I’d love some.”

Bessie cut him another generous piece,
taking a much smaller helping for herself.
 
She told herself that she was just having more so that John didn’t feel
self-conscious about eating in front of her, but she knew that wasn’t strictly
true.

“I’m going to tell you something else,” John
said, after Bessie had refilled his teacup.
 
“It’s going to be in the papers
tomorrow, so I expect it’s probably all over the island already.”

“If it is, I haven’t heard it,” Bessie
said.
 
“I haven’t heard anything new
about the case since the body was positively identified.”

“When we began to clear out the space around
where the body was found, we discovered that it wasn’t simply packed with
Fenella’s mother’s things,” John told her.
 
“At the very back of the space we found Jacob’s suitcases.”

“I suppose that explains what happened to
them,” Bessie said thoughtfully.
 
“It’s also another connection between Jacob and the Clague farm.”

“Maybe,” John said.
 
“Or maybe, having found a good spot to
hide the body, the killer just dumped the suitcases there as well.”

“But that would have taken time,” Bessie
said.
 
“And the longer he was there,
the greater the chances that Niall or Eoin would find him.”

“Unless Niall or Eoin, or both, were
involved,” John added the obvious conclusion.

Bessie nodded.
 
“Poor Fenella.
 
She must be worried sick about her
father.”

“Anna’s going back down to question him
again tomorrow,” John told her.
 
“She’s having his doctor meet her there to help out.”

“Jane suggested that he might be faking his
confusion,” Bessie said.
 
“Anna
doesn’t really think that’s the case, does she?”

“I couldn’t possibly tell you what Anna
thinks,” John replied.
 
“Having a
doctor there will help protect both Anna and Niall, though.
 
Fenella wants to be there as well.
 
I’m not sure if Anna has agreed to that
or not, though.”

Bessie sighed.
 
“It’s all very sad,” she said.
 
“How is Eoin holding up through all of
this?”

“It seems to be taking a toll,” John told
her.
 
“He doesn’t look well, but he
insisted that he’s fine when I asked.”

“Do you have any suspects, other than Eoin
and Niall?” Bessie had to ask.

“We’re in the process of tracking down as
many of the former farmhands as we can,” John replied.
 
“In cold cases like this, the whole
process can be rather long and drawn-out.
 
Many of the people we’re looking for have passed away.
 
Many of those who are still around have
little or no recollection of the man, even if there were here at the right
time.”

“He was only on the island for a short
time,” Bessie said.
 
“I suspect he
made much more of an impression on the young women in Laxey than on the young
men.”

“That definitely seems to be have been the
case,” John agreed.
 
“We’re also
looking at the time he spent in Douglas, but it seems that barely anyone
remembers him from the short time he was there, aside from one woman who went
to dinner with him a couple of times.
 
She’s still a little bit angry at him for dropping her after that, or at
least that’s the impression that Pete got from her.”

“Inspector Corkill is also an excellent
judge of character,” Bessie said.
 
“I suspect he’s right about the woman, whoever she is.”

“I believe I told you that there was an
angry farmer who’d hoped to sell his land to Jacob as well,” John said.
 
“He died many years ago, though, so I
only heard the story second-hand.
 
The disagreement happened some months before Jacob’s death, so I find it
hard to believe that it’s relevant to his murder, but we are trying to look
into it as much as we can.”

“Did the farmer in question have a daughter
about the right age for Jacob?” Bessie asked, thinking about her conversation
with Jane Harris.

“He did,” John confirmed.
 
“But from what she’s said, her father
never let the man get near her.
 
Apparently, the man was very protective.
 
She didn’t marry until after her father
died, when she was nearly forty.”

“Interesting,” Bessie remarked.
 
“Fenella said that her father didn’t
want her to marry young, either.
 
She said Eoin only managed to court her because he was already on the
farm and could do so without her father really noticing.”

“Do you think Niall was happy with Eoin as
his son-in-law?” John asked.

Bessie nodded.
 
“Eoin has always been a very hard
worker,” she replied.
 
“He started
on the farm as seasonal help, but he quickly became indispensible to
Niall.
 
For a while it looked as if
his brother was going to do the same, but then Nicholas made some unfortunate
friends and ended up leaving the island.”