The Zachery Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Book 26) Read online

  The Zachery 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

  The Armstrong Assignment

  A sneak peek at The Armstrong Assignment

  Also by Diana Xarissa

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2020 DX Dunn, LLC

  All Rights Reserved

  Created with Vellum

  Author’s Note

  And so we reach the end of the series. I can’t believe this is the twenty-sixth book about Janet and Joan. When I started the series, I wasn’t certain I would write more than a few titles, but the stories just kept flowing and I greatly enjoyed every opportunity I had to spend time with the Markham sisters and their friends. I always recommend that you read the entire series in order (alphabetically), but each story should be enjoyable on its own if you prefer not to read them all.

  While this is the last Markham sisters novella, early next year I will be launching a new series featuring some of the same characters. You’ll find a sneak peek at the new series at the end of this book.

  I start and finish these novellas with sections from Janet’s letters to Bessie Cubbon. The sisters first met Bessie in Aunt Bessie Decides, the fourth book in my Isle of Man Cozy Mysteries series. The sisters and Bessie continue to cross paths from time to time, but you don’t need to read that series in order to enjoy this one.

  These stories are set in the fictional village of Doveby Dale in Derbyshire. I, therefore, use British English terms and spellings. There are some notes and a short glossary at the back of the book for readers outside of the UK. I’ve been living in the US for more than ten years now and I’m aware that Americanisms are increasingly appearing in my stories. I try to correct them when they’re 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. Some shops or businesses may bear some resemblance to real-life businesses. That is also coincidental.

  I love hearing from readers. All of my contact details are available at the end of the book. I have a monthly newsletter that will keep you up to date on new releases. I’m active every day on Facebook, and you can find out more about all of my books (and a free Aunt Bessie short story) on my website. Thanks for taking this journey with me. I hope you enjoy this last Markham sisters story.

  Letter to Bessie, part one

  15th September 2000

  Dear Bessie,

  I have a great deal of news to share with you this month, which I’m certain won’t surprise you. You knew that I was anticipating Edward’s arrival at the beginning of the month and also adjusting to having both Michael and Stuart staying at Doveby House.

  With everything else happening here, Joan decided that now was the perfect time to start working on turning the carriage house into a self-catering unit. Of course, nothing could be done until we cleared out the piles and piles of boxes that took up nearly all of the space.

  We started work in mid-August, clearing out several boxes every day until we were nearly finished. Our efforts revealed something that we simply weren’t expecting, though.

  Chapter 1

  “Edward will be here tomorrow,” Joan Donaldson said over breakfast on the first of September. “We should finish clearing out the carriage house today.”

  Her younger sister, Janet Markham, swallowed a sigh. Joan was right, of course, but that didn’t mean that Janet had to be happy about it. “I have to get his room ready,” she said.

  “His room is ready. I did that this morning,” Joan replied.

  “Just agree,” Michael suggested in a low voice. “It will be easier for all of us.”

  Janet chuckled and then winked at her brother-in-law. “Yes, okay, let’s get the last few piles of boxes cleared today,” she said with false enthusiasm. “The building already feels so much bigger, I can almost imagine how wonderful it will be when it’s done.”

  Joan nodded. “It feels larger than I thought it might. I just hope we’ll be able to find a way to put a few windows in somewhere.”

  While Joan cleared away the breakfast dishes, Janet headed up to her room to change into clothes more suitable for working in the dusty carriage house. She’d deliberately chosen nicer clothes for the day as a sort of silent protest after having spent hours every day for the last week in the carriage house.

  Joan had always dreamt of owning a bed and breakfast, but she hadn’t shared that dream with her sister until they’d both retired after working as teachers at a small primary school for their entire careers. They had planned to travel and enjoy life after their retirement, but an unexpected inheritance had opened up some other options for them.

  Janet had expected that they’d use the money to do more travelling, but Joan had noticed the listing for Doveby House in an estate agent’s window and booked an appointment for the sisters to take a look at the seventeenth-century manor house.

  The previous owner, Margaret Appleton, had converted the house into a bed and breakfast, turning several small bedrooms on the first floor into three large rooms, each with its own en-suite. She’d added an extension to house a large, modern kitchen and a luxury owner’s suite. Joan, who loved to cook and bake, had fallen in love with the kitchen, while Janet had been completely enamoured with the small library that was tucked away at the back of the property. Fully stocked with books, the library was something Janet had never realised she’d wanted until she’d seen it for herself.

  After their first tour of the house, the sisters had agreed to make an offer on the property and try running the bed and breakfast, at least for a short time. Joan took the owner’s suite, as it was close to the kitchen and she would be responsible for all of the cooking and baking for the business.

  Janet moved into the largest of the guest rooms, and she quickly came to love her spacious room and the generous en-suite that was the first she hadn’t had to share with Joan. The small cottage they had shared from the time Janet finished teacher training until they moved into Doveby House had had two small bedrooms and a single bathroom.

  Two years later, things had changed rather dramatically in the sisters’ lives. They’d worked hard at running the business, with some success, but they weren’t currently accepting guests. Instead, their neighbour, Stuart Long, was staying in one of the guest rooms, and the other was ready and waiting for Edward Bennett, who was due to arrive on the second.

  Doveby House sat on a short road that went nowhere. Across the road from the manor house was a semi-detached property that had been built less than a hundred years earlier. Michael Donaldson, a widower, owned one side of the property, and Stuart Long owned the other.

  Within a few days of the sisters moving into Doveby House, Michael had asked Joan out for a meal. Janet had accepted on her sister’s behalf and, after a shaky start, a romance had developed between Michael and Joan. On Valentine’s Day, Michael had proposed to Joan, and the pair had married in June. After a three-week honeymoon, they were now back at Doveby House and settling into married life together.

  Stuart’s half of the semi-detached
property had burned to the ground while Joan and Michael had been on their honeymoon. While Michael’s house had come through the fire mostly undamaged, every bit of it smelled of smoke and damp, and the house was considered uninhabitable at the moment. It would probably remain so until Stuart’s side had been reconstructed, which meant that Joan and Michael’s plan to spend some of their time at Michael’s had been abandoned.

  In the immediate aftermath of the fire, Janet had offered to let Stuart stay at Doveby House while he was recovering from the injuries he’d received from the blaze. Stuart was a retired gardener and he’d been looking after the extensive gardens at Doveby House since Margaret Appleton had owned the property. The sisters paid him a small salary and gave him unlimited tea and biscuits, an arrangement that suited everyone.

  When it became obvious that it was going to take a considerable amount of time for Stuart’s house to be rebuilt, he’d offered to move elsewhere, but Janet and Joan had agreed that it was best for everyone if he remained at Doveby House. The gardens had never looked better, and Stuart’s insurance was paying for his room, as well. Although Janet was still getting used to Stuart’s presence, she was happier with him there than she’d ever been with random guests.

  Edward Bennett was another complication in Janet’s life. He’d been their first paying guest, arriving before they’d actually opened for business. When he’d insisted that he’d made a booking with Margaret Appleton and offered them a generous nightly rate for a room, the sisters had been unable to turn him away. He’d been both charming and mysterious during his stay, sneaking around the house after dark but also taking Janet to dinner and courting her in a rather old-fashioned manner.

  Before he’d left, he’d confided to Janet that he worked for the government in a secret capacity. When Margaret Appleton had owned Doveby House, he’d sometimes used it as a safe house, and he’d been sent back to make certain that Margaret hadn’t left behind any paperwork that revealed her connection to his agency. He’d also insisted that he was interested in getting to know Janet better, promising that he was retiring soon.

  Over the past two years, he’d visited a few times and kept in touch irregularly. He’d also sent Janet everything from flowers to a large painting to a kitten. He’d also bought Janet a little red coupe that was the first car she’d ever owned independently of her sister. After a recent visit, he’d given Janet the number for a mobile phone that he said was just for her to use. Since then, the pair had spoken almost daily and Janet felt as if she knew Edward somewhat better than she had just a few months earlier.

  She was looking forward to his arrival, but she was apprehensive about what the future might hold for her and the secretive man. He was now officially retired from his government agency, and Janet wasn’t certain how long he was planning to stay at Doveby House. She wasn’t convinced that he was actually going to move to Derbyshire for good, not after a lifetime of travel and adventure, but that was a discussion that the pair would have to have in person, not over the phone.

  As she headed down the stairs in her oldest clothes, she hoped that Edward wouldn’t decide to surprise her by arriving a day early. She knew it was silly, but she wanted to look her very best for him the first time that he saw her again. Her shoulder-length bob was pulled back in a messy ponytail, which was convenient for working in the carriage house, but wasn’t a look she’d ever wear in public.

  She and Joan had both worn their hair in the same style for more years than Janet could remember, but some months earlier Joan had had her hair cut short. The short cut suited Joan’s more angular face, but Janet didn’t think it would suit her at all. Although Joan was the one who did all of the cooking and baking, Janet was the one who had to watch her weight. People often suggested that the sisters resembled one another, but Janet never agreed. They had the same bright blue eyes, but otherwise Janet couldn’t see any similarities, especially now that Joan had cut her hair.

  “Ready?” Joan asked brightly when Janet walked back into the kitchen.

  Janet nodded and then glanced at Michael. He had the same look of resignation on his face that she assumed was on hers. Joan was right, of course. The work needed doing, but both Janet and Michael would have preferred to spend the day doing just about anything other than clearing out the carriage house.

  “We’re all the way at the back now,” Janet said as they walked through the garden together. “We aren’t going to find anything worth keeping in the last few boxes.”

  “I’d be very surprised if we find anything other than ruined books and paperwork from decades ago,” Joan replied. “But we still need to go through every box.”

  And that was why everyone, even Joan, hated working in the carriage house. They’d been through hundreds of boxes, finding everything from vases and picture frames to books and magazines. Most of the boxes, though, had contained piles and piles of old papers, and Joan always insisted that the papers needed to be gone through, sheet by sheet, just in case there was something important hiding between old electricity bills and shop receipts.

  Joan unlocked the carriage house door and opened it. “Here we go,” she muttered.

  “I have a torch,” Janet said, patting her pocket as she switched on the light.

  Although Joan refused to believe in ghosts, the sisters had found themselves locked in the carriage house in the dark on more than one occasion. Janet wasn’t certain how the wind could shut and lock the door and also switch off the lights, but Joan refused to consider any other explanation for the regular occurrence.

  “I have the key,” Joan said, sliding it into her pocket.

  “And I have the spare key and a torch,” Michael laughed.

  Janet wasn’t certain if Michael believed in ghosts or not, and she wasn’t about to ask him and risk causing an argument between him and Joan. She was fairly certain that there was a ghost in the building, and she was curious as to who was haunting it. Her efforts to learn more about previous residents of Doveby House had yet to answer the question.

  “Let’s see what we find today,” Joan said, reaching for the first box on the top of the pile. “Books,” she said a moment later. “Water-damaged and mouldy books.”

  Janet sighed. “I hate when books get ruined.”

  “These appear to be maths textbooks,” Joan told her. “Differential equations and calculus, mostly.”

  “Those can go,” Janet laughed. “Maths was never my strong suit.”

  Michael carried the box outside, starting a pile of boxes that were rubbish.

  An hour later, they’d cleared away nearly a dozen boxes and were ready to start on the very last row.

  “We’re nearly there,” Janet said happily as she moved a box from the last row onto the small table they were using for sorting purposes. “Papers, lots of old papers,” she said with a sigh. Nearly every box thus far had been full of old books. This was the first box of papers for the day.

  “I’ll put it by the door,” Michael offered. “We can sort through it later.”

  Janet nodded and then moved over to pick up the next box. Joan was still going through a box that seemed to be mostly full of cups and glasses. Each piece had been carefully wrapped in layers of newspaper, which meant Joan had to unwrap each item in order to see what she’d found.

  As Janet slid the next box off the top of the pile, she noticed that this particular pile of boxes was about a foot away from the outside wall. Everywhere else along the row, the boxes were right up against the wall.

  “That’s odd,” she muttered as she switched on her torch. “Why would they leave a gap?” She peered over the boxes that were stacked to her chest height and then gasped.

  “What have you found now?” Joan asked.

  Janet took a step backwards and then turned and looked at her sister. “A skeleton,” she replied shakily.

  Chapter 2

  Joan frowned. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes, but I didn’t take a good look. Maybe it’s from a dog or a cat or
something,” Janet replied, feeling as if that would be sad, but less upsetting.

  “Let me see what I can see,” Michael suggested.

  Janet was more than happy for him to take a look. Michael had been a chemist before he’d retired. He’d have a better idea of whether the skeleton was human or not.

  As Janet and Joan watched, Michael pulled out his torch and switched it on. He leaned over the boxes and stared down into the space behind them.

  “Someone needs to ring Robert,” he said eventually.

  Janet sighed. “Oh, dear.”

  Robert Parsons was the local constable responsible for policing both Doveby Dale and the neighbouring village of Little Burton. In the years that Janet and Joan had owned Doveby House, they’d worked with him on a number of investigations ranging from arson to fraud to counterfeiting. A dead body was a very different matter, though.

  “I didn’t bring my mobile,” Joan said apologetically.

  “I have mine,” Janet told her. She didn’t go anywhere without it, just in case Edward rang unexpectedly, although she’d never have admitted that that was why she carried it everywhere. She rang the local station’s nonemergency number.

  “Doveby Dale Police, this is Susan. How can I help you?” the friendly voice that picked up said.

  Janet knew Susan well. The woman was Robert’s civilian assistant in Doveby Dale and she spent most of her time at the station knitting.