The Appleton Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novella Book 1) (2 page)

“Well, we’d
love to have them,” Joan said.
 
“Didn’t Mrs. Appleton have any family to leave things to?”

The man
frowned.
 
“She has a son called
Gavin,” he said after an awkward pause.
 
“I gather they didn’t get along well and she decided to leave everything
to
Doveby
Trust instead of him.”

“Does he live
nearby?” Janet asked.

“Not far
away,” Henry admitted.
 
“But he
won’t be any bother.”

That Henry
didn’t meet her eyes when he said that had Janet wondering if he was lying to
them.
 
She couldn’t help but worry
that Gavin Appleton might want all of the lovely books and that he might find
some way to claim them.
 

“I suppose we
should look at the rest of the property,” Joan said after several more minutes
spent inspecting the library.

The sisters
left the room reluctantly.
 

“There’s a
conservatory off the television lounge,” Henry pointed out as Joan opened the
door into the glass-walled room.

It was small,
but it had lovely views of the beautifully kept gardens behind the house.

“Those gardens
will take a lot of work,” Janet remarked.

“Actually,
they’re currently being kept by one of the
neighbours
for a nominal sum,” Henry told her.
 
“I don’t know if you noticed the small semi-detached homes across the
street, but they don’t have very much garden space.
 
I’ve been told that one of the residents
used to be a professional gardener and he enjoys taking care of the gardens
here in his spare time.”

“That’s
handy,” Joan said.

The other door
off of the television lounge opened into a small dining room.
 
Beyond that was a reasonably large
kitchen.

“It’s nicely
up-to-date,” Henry pointed out.

“It is,” Joan
agreed mildly.

Janet hid a smile.
 
The kitchen was probably twice the size
of their current kitchen and much more modern.
 
Joan would love cooking and baking in
this beautiful space.

The owner’s
suite was next door with a small bedroom and equally tiny sitting room.
 
A compact bathroom completed the suite.

“I suppose I
should have the owner’s suite,” Joan said.
 
“As I’ll be one fixing the breakfast every morning, it just makes sense
for me to be nearest to the kitchen.”

Janet
nodded.
 
She’d expected her sister
to claim the owner’s suite; at least she hadn’t used her usual “I’m the oldest”
excuse for demanding the best.

Upstairs there
were two adequately sized guests rooms, each with its own small bathroom.
 
The third guest room was larger, with
its own fireplace and a spacious bathroom with a large and deep bathtub.
 
It had wonderful views out across the
dales from its many windows and Janet sighed with delight as she imagined
herself living in the room.

“This will do
nicely,” she told her sister as they looked around the beautiful room.
 
It was painted a lovely soft lilac
colour
that exactly suited Janet’s taste.

“Oh, we should
use this as a guest room, surely,” Joan protested.
 
“You can have one of the other rooms.”

Janet shook
her head.
 
“As this whole bed and
breakfast thing is your idea, and you’ve already claimed the owner’s suite for
yourself, it’s only fair that I get this bedroom,” she said firmly.
 
“Half the money is mine, after all.”

Joan opened
her mouth and Janet glared at her.
 
After a moment Joan shrugged and walked out of the room.
 
After another look around the space that
Janet was already beginning to think of as “hers,” she followed Joan back down
the stairs into the sitting room.

Chapter
Two

Henry had
stayed on the ground floor while they’d explored the first floor.
 
Now the women found him sitting in the
conservatory, talking on his mobile phone.

“So, what’s
the asking price again?” Joan asked him once he’d hastily ended his call.

“Um, you
haven’t seen the coach house yet,”
Henry
reminded
them.

“Oh, yes, we
must do that, mustn’t we?” Joan said.
 
There was a door to the garden from the conservatory and the sisters
followed Henry out onto the beautifully manicured lawn.

“This is
beautiful,” Janet said after she’d inhaled the scent of the gorgeous assortment
of flowers that surrounded them.

“It is quite
nice,” Joan agreed.

The coach
house was off to the side of the property and Henry opened its side door.

“There used to
be large doors on the front, apparently,” he told them.
 
“But when they no longer needed to store
coaches inside, they walled up those doors and just left this side one.”

Joan and Janet
followed him into the building.
 
Janet found herself blinking in the dimly lit space after the bright
sunshine outside.
 
After a moment,
her eyes adjusted.

“It is rather
a mess,” she said.
 
The building was
essentially a large single room that was poorly lit by a single dangling bulb
hanging from the ceiling.
 
There
were piles of old boxes lining every wall and a few pieces of broken furniture
dumped into the middle of the room.
 

Janet took a
few steps forward and then sneezed.

“Bless you,
dear,” Joan said.
 
She was offering
Janet a tissue before Janet was even sure she was finished sneezing.

“Thank you,”
Janet muttered, taking the tissue.
 
“It is quite dusty, isn’t it?”

“Yes, rather,”
Joan replied.

“But it’s a
very large space that you could use for many things,” Henry said brightly.
 

He took a few
steps forward and began to gesture towards the back wall.
 
“You could easily fit an en-suite
against this back wall and turn the main space into a large….”

He was
interrupted when the door suddenly slammed shut.
 
Everyone jumped and spun towards it.
 
Henry walked over and rattled the
knob.
 
The door remained firmly
closed.

“I left the
keys in the lock on the outside,” he told the sisters.
 
“We appear to be locked in.”

“I suggest you
ring someone, then,” Joan said.
 
“In
the meantime, we can spend rather more time than necessary inspecting the coach
house.”

Janet joined
her and they made a slow circuit of the room while Henry made a few phone
calls.

“I have a
colleague on his way with the second set of keys,” he said eventually.
 
“But it will take him about twenty
minutes to get here.”

Joan and Janet
exchanged glances.
 
Janet could see
that her sister was not pleased.

“What did you
say the asking price was?” she asked Henry, hoping to distract her sister.

He named a
price that made Janet wince.
 
“But
of course you’ll have the income from the bed and breakfast to help with the
expense,” Henry added.

“It seems
quite dear, considering the amount of work the house needs.
 
Not to mention the deplorable state of
this coach house,” Joan said.

“That is just
the asking price,” Henry said.
 
“There may be some negotiating room in there.
 
I believe the property has been on the
market for some months, since the previous owner’s unfortunate and unexpected passing.”

“What happened
to her?” Joan demanded.

“Oh, I’m not
quite sure,”
Henry
stammered.
 
“I just know….”

“Hullo?
 
Is there anyone there?” a loud voice
suddenly interrupted.

“Hello, we’re
locked in the coach house.
 
Can you
get us out?” Henry shouted back.

“Oh, aye,”
came a cheery reply.
 
“Hang on a
minute.”
 

A moment later
the door swung open.
 
Henry was
quick to exit and the sisters didn’t delay in following him.

Janet took several
deep breaths of fresh air.
 
She felt
as if she were covered in dust herself after being trapped in the grimy coach
house, even though they’d only been in there a few minutes.

“Thank you so
very much,” Henry was saying to the tall man who had opened the door.

Janet
inspected him as she waited for Henry to stop babbling so she could add her own
thanks.

He had to be nearly
six feet tall, with dark brown hair that was clearly dyed.
 
There was no way he’d managed to get to
his age without going grey, she decided.
 
He appeared to be somewhere in his sixties and his dark eyes sparkled
with amusement as Henry continued to thank him.

“It’s fine,”
he said when Henry paused for a breath.
 
“I was just going to do a bit of weeding and I heard voices.
 
I figured I’d better check things out.”

“I’m just a
tiny bit claustrophobic,” Henry explained.
 
“I was feeling quite, um, unhappy in there.
 
I don’t understand how the door came to
blow shut, though, it isn’t windy.”

“No doubt it
was the ghost,” the man told him.
 
“I shouldn’t worry about it.”

“But where are
my keys?” Henry demanded, looking around on the ground outside the coach house
door.

“I didn’t see
any keys when I got here,” the man said.
 
“Luckily I have my own set.
 
I store some of the gardening things in the coach house, you see.”

“I’m Joan
Markham,” Joan inserted herself into the conversation.
 
“My sister Janet and I are considering
purchasing this property.
 
I take it
you’re the
neighbour
who is currently looking after
the garden?”

“Yes, that’s
right,” he said, smiling as he shook Joan’s hand and then Janet’s.
 
“I’m Stuart Long and I live across the
road with my wife, Mary.
 
I’m very
fond of the gardens here and I hope to continue looking after them once the new
owner has purchased the place.”

“As far as I’m
concerned, if we end up buying the property, you’d be more than welcome,” Janet
said firmly.

Joan frowned
at her.
 
“Of course, nothing has
been decided yet,” she said sharply.

“Yes, well, if
you have any questions about the
neighbourhood
or
anything, I’m happy to answer them,” Stuart said.

“That’s kind
of you, but I don’t think we have any questions at this point,” Joan answered
before Janet could say anything.
 
“We have a lot of talking to do between ourselves.”

“In that case,
I shall walk you back to your car,” Henry said.
 
“I have a sheet with all of the
particulars of the property for you, if you’d like it.
 
I also have some information about other
bed and breakfast properties in the area, if you’d be interested in seeing what
else is out there.”

Joan nodded
and the sisters fell into step with Henry, walking through the gardens back to
the property’s small car park.
 
Henry handed Joan an envelope and she handed it to Janet before the
sisters climbed into the car.
 
As
Janet began to open it, Joan pulled carefully away from
Doveby
House.

“Well, that
was an interesting way to spend a morning,” Janet said after a moment.
 
She’d given up on the
envelope,
not willing to risk the inevitable car sickness she’d experience if she tried
reading while the car was moving.

“It was
indeed,” Joan agreed.
 
“What did you
think of the house?”

“It was very
nice and I loved the library.”

“Can you see
us running a bed and breakfast?” Joan asked.

“What’s put
this idea into your head?” Janet had to ask.
 
Joan had announced the previous day that
she’d made the appointment to see a bed and breakfast property that she thought
they ought to consider buying, but hadn’t been willing to answer any questions
from Janet.
 
Now that they’d seen the
place, Janet figured it was time for some answers.

Joan
sighed.
 
“I don’t know really,” she
said after a moment.
 
“We’ve had
that bit of money from Great Aunt Mildred and we’ve no idea what to do with
it.”

“I thought we
were going to travel and just enjoy being retired,” Janet replied.

“I know we
were both looking forward to retiring,” Joan said, “but I guess, well, I
suppose I’m just the tiniest bit bored.
 
Travelling is all well and good, but we can’t simply travel all the
time.
 
I just started thinking about
trying something completely different.
 
I’ve always loved cooking and baking, so I thought about opening a
restaurant, but they’re very hard work with very long hours.
 
I thought a bed and breakfast would be
easier.”

“Except that
you’re essentially on call twenty-four hours a day when you have guests,” Janet
pointed out.

“Well, yes,
but we could be very careful about who we would accept as guests,” Joan
replied.
 
“We wouldn’t absolutely
need paying guests all the time, or even most of the time.
 
Most of the time we could use the guest
rooms for our friends, but once in a while we could extend that to friends of
friends or others who’ve been recommended to us.
 
We could still plan various holidays for
ourselves and just shut whenever we want to get away.”

“I think it
will be much harder work than you
realise
,” Janet
said.

Joan
laughed.
 
“This is quite odd,” she
said.
 
“Usually I’m the one trying
to talk you out of doing silly things, but this time it’s the other way
around.”

“Give me some
time to think,” Janet said after a moment.
 
“Let’s listen to some music and relax for the drive home.”
 

Neither sister
was worried about maps and directions for the journey back to their
cottage.
 
Joan had an excellent
sense of direction, so simply reversing their earlier journey was easy for
her.
 
Janet was okay with finding
her way to and from most places, but she sometimes found that her mind wandered
and she missed turning at the right junction or drove right past her
destination.
 
Either sister was
happy to drive their shared car, but Joan usually drove when they went anywhere
outside of what was familiar territory to Janet.

Now Joan
turned on the radio, tuned to a station they both liked.
 
Classic hits from the sixties filled the
car for the next twenty minutes.
 
They were nearly home when the news began.

“
Here are the headlines.
 
A man’s body has been discovered in a
flat in Derby.
 
Police are on the
scene.
 
Reports of stolen cars are up
twenty-five per cent throughout the county.
 
Police are reminding everyone to keep
their cars locked whenever they are parked.
 
A three-year-old has gone missing from
her child minder’s home in
Clowne
.
 
Police are investigating.
 
The weather will….”

Joan turned
the car off and shook her head.
 
“Why is the news always bad news?” she asked Janet.

Janet figured
it was a rhetorical question.
 
She
climbed out of the car that Joan had parked in front of their cottage and
headed towards the front door.
 
It
was nearly time for lunch and she was starving.

Half an hour
later Joan had lunch ready.
 
Janet
sat down at their kitchen table and frowned.
 
It looked as if Joan had prepared all of
her
favourites
.

“What’s for
pudding?” she asked suspiciously.

“Apple crumble
with custard,” Joan answered.

“You really
want to buy that house, don’t you?” Janet asked.

“I certainly
want to discuss it,” Joan replied.

“You don’t
make my
favourite
pudding for discussions.
 
You only make apple crumble when you
want something.”

“That’s not
true.
 
I make apple crumble a
lot.
 
It’s quick and easy and
delicious and almost good for you, with all those oats and apples.”

“Do you think
we should look at a few other bed and breakfast properties that are for sale?”
Janet asked.

“I really
liked
Doveby
House,” Joan replied.

“But there
could be other places that are just as nice,” Janet said.

“But
Doveby
House has a library.”

Janet opened
her mouth to reply and then shut it again.
 
Joan was right; the library was a powerful attraction.

“I’ve been
going over the numbers,” Joan said after she’d served the crumble.
 
“If we get a decent selling price for
this house, we can afford
Doveby
House and have
enough left over to paint and redecorate, on a small scale anyway.”