The Patrone Case Read online

  The Patrone Case

  A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novella

  Diana Xarissa

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Letter to Bessie, part one

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Letter to Bessie, part two

  Glossary of Terms

  Other Notes

  Acknowledgments

  The Quinton Case

  Also by Diana Xarissa

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2019 DX Dunn, LLC

  All Rights Reserved

  Created with Vellum

  Author’s Note

  We’ve reached book sixteen in this series rather quickly somehow. I believe the stories are best read in alphabetical order, as the characters do develop as the series continues, but each story should be enjoyable on its own if you prefer not to read them all.

  Each of these novellas begins and ends with excerpts from Janet Markham’s letters to Bessie Cubbon. Bessie is the protagonist in my Isle of Man Cozy Mystery series. The sisters first met Bessie in Aunt Bessie Decides, and she and Janet have stayed in touch ever since. They do cross paths occasionally, with the sisters revisiting the island and with Bessie visiting them in Doveby Dale, as well. In spite of that, you do not need to read that series in order to enjoy this one.

  As these stories are set in England, I use English spellings and terminology. There is a glossary at the back of the book to help readers from outside the UK with some terms that may not be familiar to them. I also include other notes in the back to help explain other things that might cause confusion. I’ve been living in the US for about ten years now, so it is increasingly probable that American words and phrases are creeping into my writing. I do my best to eliminate them, and I do correct them if they are pointed out to me.

  This is a work of fiction and all of the characters are fictional creations. Any resemblance that they may share with any real person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The sisters live in a fictional village in Derbyshire. Although some shops or businesses may bear some resemblance to real-life businesses, that is also coincidental.

  I’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch with any comments or concerns. My contact details are available in the back of the book. On my website, you can sign up for my monthly newsletter, which provides information about all of my new releases.

  26th November, 1999

  Dearest Bessie,

  It was such a pleasure having you and Doona here last month. Joan and I are still talking about how much we enjoyed your company. You know you are both always welcome, especially this time of year when we have the house to ourselves for the most part.

  After our incredibly busy summer, I was really looking forward to quieter times, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this slow. We had a couple stay for only two nights at the very beginning of November, and then it went quiet again until just recently.

  Having two couples to stay the same weekend kept us surprisingly busy for a few days, and that just happened to correspond with yet more criminal activity here in Doveby Dale.

  Chapter 1

  “I really appreciate this,” William Chalmers told Janet. “I’ve had incredibly bad luck with employees in the past. It will be nice to have someone else’s input into the various applicants.”

  Janet shrugged. “I’m happy to help, but you should remember that I’ve never actually hired anyone before. I was a primary schoolteacher. I spent my days evaluating small children, not adults.”

  “That’s why I’m sure you’re perfect for the job,” William assured her. “After all those years of teaching, I’m sure you’re a much better judge of people’s characters than I am.”

  Janet was flattered, even if she didn’t agree. William had managed antique shops in London for most of his life. Admittedly, a few bad employees had managed to get him arrested and sent to prison through their deception, but he still had a good deal more experience with hiring staff than Janet did. “I’m hoping the choice will be an obvious one,” she admitted.

  “It will be good experience for you, anyway. You might want to hire someone at the bed and breakfast one day, mightn’t you?”

  “I can’t imagine why. Joan and I managed on our own during the summer months, when both guest rooms were full pretty much every single day. This time of year, we’re lucky to have any guests at all.”

  Janet and Joan had purchased Doveby House, an eighteenth-century manor house in Doveby Dale, not much more than a year earlier, after Joan had finally told her sister that her lifelong dream was to own a bed and breakfast. Joan was also a retired primary schoolteacher. The sisters, only two years apart in age, had never married and had worked together at the same school until they’d taken retirement at the same time. Their plan had been to stay in the tiny cottage they’d bought when Janet had finished teacher training and to travel as much as their limited funds would allow.

  A few months later, an unexpected inheritance had opened up all sorts of new possibilities. Janet had assumed the extra money would mean additional travel, but for Joan, it had offered a chance to fulfill a dream she’d never expected could come true. Janet had been reluctant to get tied down to a business she’d never been interested in being part of, but she hadn’t wanted to disappoint Joan. Once she’d seen Doveby House, she’d been happier to agree to try the bed and breakfast idea.

  Doveby House was beautiful. Stuffed full of antiques that were all included in the sale, it also contained a library full of books. Not only did Janet get her own large and airy bedroom, but she now had an en-suite bathroom. In her early sixties, she was happy to finally stop sharing a bathroom with her sister. That her bedroom also came with a ghost was less appealing, but Janet was learning to live with the spirit that she was convinced was Alberta Montgomery’s. In her spare time she was doing what she could to find out more about Alberta, whose parents had once owned Doveby House.

  “Perhaps you might want to hire someone to run the place while you and Joan take a holiday,” William suggested, dragging Janet’s thoughts away from Alberta Montgomery.

  “I can’t imagine having anyone else run the bed and breakfast if Joan and I aren’t there. We simply shut when we take holidays.”

  “As far as I can tell, you’ve only taken a single holiday in the past year, and that was only for a week. You and your sister are working too hard.”

  “We were, in the summer months, but as I said earlier, it’s very quiet now. We could probably shut for a month or more at the moment without anyone noticing.”

  “When are your next guests arriving?”

  “We do have two couples arriving either tomorrow or Saturday,” Janet laughed. “Thus proving me wrong, but they are the exception at the moment.”

  “It’s been quiet here, too, but I’ve decided it’s time to hire someone to help with the shop anyway. I’d like to be able to take a few hours off now and again, maybe even an entire day once in a while. I made enough money over the summer to be able to afford someone on a part-time basis, anyway.”

  “That will be nice for you.”

  William opened his mouth to reply, but shut it again when the front door swung open and the loud buzzer sounded.

  “That’s annoying,” the young woman said with an amused smile as she walked into the shop.

  “The buzzer?” William asked. “It helps a lot when I’m working in the back. I’d hate for customers to come in and not find anyone here.”

  The girl glanced around. “They could pocket a lot of s
tuff and simply walk away, couldn’t they?”

  Janet exchanged glances with William. If the girl was here about the job, she wasn’t making a great first impression.

  “Anyway,” she said after a moment, “I’m Wanda Petrone. I have an interview with William Chambers at nine.”

  “I’m William Chalmers,” William told her. “This is my friend, Janet Markham. She’ll be helping me with the interviewing process.”

  Wanda shrugged. “Whatever works for you, I suppose.”

  “Shall we sit comfortably?” Janet asked.

  William led them to the centre of the shop where several large couches were on display. He motioned for Wanda to take a seat. She plopped down and then curled her feet underneath her, earning a frown from William as her trainers dragged across the couch cushion.

  Janet sat down opposite the girl, wondering why Wanda had come to a job interview in torn jeans and a well-worn sweatshirt. Wanda blew a bubble with her gum and then popped it loudly as Janet tried to count the earrings in one of the woman’s ears. The ring through her nose was unsettling, so Janet tried not to stare at that.

  “Tell me about your current job,” William suggested. He opened a folder and pulled out some papers as he spoke.

  “I’m between jobs at the moment,” Wanda replied. “I was working at the antique shop in Little Burton, but that didn’t work out.”

  William nodded. “Why not?”

  “The guy that owns the place, he’s weird and sort of creepy. If I’m honest, I don’t think he has any idea what he’s doing. Whenever anyone asks him about the antiques, he just tells them anything, or at least that’s how it seems. He never told any two customers the same story twice, anyway, not that I heard. Last week he decided that he didn’t need three people on staff, and he told me not to come back.”

  “How unfortunate for you,” Janet said.

  Wanda shrugged. “It wasn’t a good job anyway. It was just part-time and the hours changed every week. Besides, we were supposed to get a commission and the entire time I was there, I never sold a single thing. The other two people that worked there did a little better, but really, it was only the owner who sold stuff. That was mostly because there weren’t any prices on any of the items. If someone wanted to buy something, they had to ask us what the price was and then we had to ask the owner. Unless he was with another customer, he’d simply take over at that point and claim the sale for himself after he’d made up a price and then haggled with the buyer.”

  “The job here is also only part-time, and the hours will vary sometimes, although I’m happy to agree to a general schedule as long as there is some flexibility occasionally,” William told her. “I will also be paying a commission, but all of the prices here are clearly marked on every item’s tag. If you get the job, you’ll get training on my discount policies so that you’ll be able to take care of closing sales yourself.”

  “That sounds good,” Wanda told him. “When do I start?”

  “I have several other candidates to interview. I hope to make a decision in the next week or so and expect to be making an offer to the best candidate before the end of the month,” William replied.

  “How many people are you interviewing?” she asked.

  “Three today. Maybe a few more tomorrow,” he said.

  “I’m surprised you found that many applicants in Doveby Dale,” she said.

  “I had fifteen replies to my advertisement in the paper,” William told her. “Yours caught my eye because you have recent experience in an antique shop.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if the other two shop assistants from Little Burton applied as well. I mean, I answered the advertisement before I knew that I was going to be let go. I’ll bet the other two are looking for other jobs, too.”

  “How much do you know about antiques?” William asked, changing the subject.

  “I learned a little bit at the other shop, but not much. As I said earlier, I don’t think Mr. Hamilton-Burke actually knows anything about antiques himself, so he wasn’t much of a teacher.”

  “Are you interested in learning more?” Janet asked as William made a few notes.

  “Sure, I mean it goes with the job, right?” She leaned over and picked up a glass bowl that was on the table in front of her. “See, this is good,” she exclaimed. “You’ve put all sorts of information on the tag, so I wouldn’t need to know anything, really.”

  William sighed. “I would expect you to learn a good deal more about the items in the shop than what’s on the tags. Not all right away, of course, but over time, certainly.”

  Wanda made a face. “As long as you aren’t going to give me a bunch of books to study, I suppose I could do that. I’m not much of a reader.”

  Janet tried to bite her tongue, but failed. “Reading is one of life’s greatest pleasures,” she blurted out. “You can travel the world or get lost in incredible places that your own imagination would never have been able to create. If you don’t like to read, perhaps you’ve never tried reading the right sorts of books.”

  Wanda stared at her for a minute and then looked at William. “Was there anything else?”

  He made another note and then smiled at her. “According to your CV, you spent a year travelling after school. Where did you go?”

  “Oh, just around the UK, really. I didn’t have much money, so I couldn’t go too far. My boyfriend and I started down in London and just went anywhere we felt like going for the year.”

  “What places did you most enjoy visiting?” Janet asked.

  The girl frowned. “There was a good shopping mall in Milton Keynes,” she said after a moment. “Edinburgh had some neat shops, too, but everything was really expensive there.”

  “What did you think of Edinburgh Castle?” Janet wondered.

  “That’s the one on the hill, right?”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “It looked neat, but we didn’t go inside or anything. Are you even allowed to go inside?”

  “Yes, you can go inside,” Janet replied, trying not to sound as frustrated as she felt. Imagine going to Edinburgh and not visiting its iconic castle, she thought.

  Wanda shrugged. “We didn’t do any of the touristy things. We wanted to see what places were like for real people, not for tourists.”

  “You must have missed out on a lot, then,” William said.

  “As I said, we didn’t have much money,” Wanda told him. “Otherwise, we might have done more.”

  William nodded and then got to his feet. “I think that’s all I need for today,” he said. “Thank you very much for your time. I’ll be in touch in a week or so, once I’ve had a chance to complete my interviews.”

  “Yeah, great,” the girl replied. She got up slowly and then stretched. “If I get another job before I hear from you, I’ll try to remember to ring you and let you know.”

  “That would be appreciated,” William said. He walked the girl to the door and then stood in the doorway for a moment before rejoining Janet.

  “What did you think?” he asked her.

  “I think I should reserve judgment until I’ve met the other candidates. Whatever I thought of her, she might be the best you get.”

  William shook his head. “I certainly hope not. I wasn’t at all impressed with her. I don’t think she’s the sort of motived self-starter that I was hoping to find.”

  Janet nodded. “When is the next candidate meant to be here?”

  “Ten o’clock,” William told her. “The third isn’t until two, though. That’s why I told you to plan to be here for most of the day.”

  “And I have done. Joan isn’t expecting me back until late. Maybe I should look over the letters and CVs that you received while we wait. I’m curious now why you selected the three you chose for interviews.”

  William handed her the folder in his hands. “The top three are the candidates I invited for interviews. If any of the others catch your eye, I can always ring them to see if they’re available today o
r tomorrow.”

  Janet settled back and began to read Wanda’s CV. After a moment she looked up. “I’m going to guess that she had some help writing this. I can see why you interviewed her. She sounds much more interesting and dynamic on paper than she was in person.”

  William nodded. “Let’s just hope the other two candidates aren’t the same.”

  Chapter 2

  Janet was still reading when the shop’s telephone rang a short time later. She didn’t pay much attention as William answered it. He sat down next to her after the call ended.

  “That was our ten o’clock interview,” he sighed. “He’s rescheduled for three because of unforeseen circumstances.”

  “Really?”

  “If I had to guess, I’d suggest that he has a hangover and wasn’t ready to get out of bed yet,” William told her. “That’s just based on how he sounded on the phone, though. I really shouldn’t prejudge the man.”

  “That means we’ve nothing to do until two, then, right?”

  “I’d like to think that we might have a few customers between now and then,” William laughed, “but nothing beyond that.”

  “I forgot this is an actual shop with customers,” Janet told him. “We haven’t had any yet today.”

  “Sadly, you’re right about that. I suggest we close up at half eleven if it stays this quiet. We can go and get something nice to eat at the café before the afternoon interviews.”

  “That sounds good, although I do hope we get a little busier. This is your livelihood, after all.”