Friends and Frauds (An Isle of Man Ghostly Cozy Book 6) Read online

  “Not really. He doesn’t want to see me anymore because I’m not ready to make any commitment to him,” Fenella replied, trying to sound offhand.

  Mona laughed. “Did he actually say that? In those exact words?”

  “I don’t remember his exact words, but it was something like that.”

  “I hope you don’t believe him.”

  “I don’t know what to believe,” Fenella sighed. “Daniel is upset because I found another dead body. Donald seems to want to get more serious than I’m ready for and Peter, well, I don’t even know what’s going on with him, but it isn’t anything good. When I first got here, I had three men all vying for my attention. Now all I have is a ghost and a kitten to listen to my troubles.”

  “Katie and I are far more reliable than any man,” Mona told her. “But you needn’t worry about your suitors. They’ll all be back chasing after you again before you know it. And then you’ll complain about that.”

  Fenella chuckled. “You’re right. I don’t really want three men chasing after me. I really want just one perfect man who understands me and loves me and spoils me and, I don’t know, wants to make me happy.”

  “And any one of the three men you mentioned could be that man. Peter is still in love with his first wife, of course, but you could persuade him otherwise if you were willing to put a bit of work in. He’s too shy around women to do the chasing, though. You’d have to do more of that.”

  “Maybe he and his first wife will reunite.”

  “They probably will, given enough time,” Mona agreed. “Donald could be exactly what you need. He’d definitely spoil you, and in spite of everything I know about him, I’m almost ready to believe that he’d be faithful to you, if you insisted on it.”

  “Of course I would insist on it.”

  “And then there’s Daniel,” Mona said.

  “Yeah, who seems to think I’m going out of my way to find dead people. He’s probably involved with some other woman anyway,” Fenella sighed.

  “So you have to decide if you want to fight for him or just let her win.”

  “I can’t fight for him. I’m here and she’s there, where he is.”

  “You could fight for him if you really wanted to.”

  “I’m not going to start texting him or calling him just to get between him and her,” Fenella said. “You don’t think he thinks I got caught up in another murder case just to get his attention, do you?” she asked as the thought crossed her mind.

  “I would hope you aren’t that desperate to talk to the man,” Mona said.

  “I’m not. And this is all too much to think about. I’m going to bed,” Fenella announced.

  By the time she was ready for bed, Katie was already in place. Fenella pounded her pillow into shape and then switched off the light. Her mind was racing and she quickly fell into a restless sleep.

  “Will you marry me?” Donald asked, holding out a huge diamond ring.

  “Will you marry me?” Daniel asked, showing her a much more modest ring.

  “No, marry me,” Peter said. “I didn’t know I was meant to bring a ring, but I can go and get one tomorrow.”

  “You can’t possibly be thinking of marrying any of them,” Jack said. “You and I are still madly in love.”

  “Fenella? I’ve decided to come back to you,” Chuck said. “I never stopped loving you, you know. I’m sure now, with your support, that I’ll be able to finish my doctorate and get a teaching job. I know you’ve missed me. I’ve missed you.”

  “But she’s mine now,” Donald said, pushing Chuck to the ground.

  “No, she’s mine,” Peter argued, trying to pull Fenella toward him.

  “She was mine first and she’ll always be mine,” Chuck laughed as he stood back up and grabbed Fenella’s hand.

  “Daniel? Are you coming?” a woman’s voice shouted from somewhere.

  Daniel frowned at Fenella. “I need to go,” he said in an apologetic tone. “Ring me if anyone ends up dead.”

  Fenella shook her head. “I don’t want anyone else to die,” she shouted, tears streaming down her face.

  “Don’t cry,” Chuck said. He leaned over and began to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

  “Stop that,” Fenella said, trying to push him away.

  “Meerroow,” Katie said.

  Fenella opened her eyes. Katie was standing on her chest, one paw in the air. “Were you wiping my tears away?” she asked the kitten.

  “Mmmmmeeerreeww,” Katie replied.

  It was nearly six, and Fenella was too shaken up by the dream to try to go back to sleep. Instead, she gave Katie an early breakfast and then started her day.

  11

  Fenella was nervous about her meeting with Doncan, but she knew it was long overdue. When she was escorted into his office, he greeted her with a smile.

  “I should have insisted that we do this some months ago,” he said as she sat down in the comfortable chair in front of his desk. “I wanted to give you time to get settled in before we talked, but I shouldn’t have left it for this long.”

  “I kept meaning to call you, but, well, life kept getting in the way,” Fenella replied. “I wasn’t too worried, as my bank balance always remained quite healthy.”

  Doncan laughed. “You shouldn’t have any worries about your bank balance. I was deliberately vague when you first arrived, as I didn’t want to overwhelm you, but you’ve inherited a considerable estate from your aunt.”

  “How considerable?” Fenella couldn’t help but ask.

  “Well, there’s Mona’s flat at Promenade View for a start.”

  When he told her what the apartment was worth, Fenella could only stare at him. “But that’s crazy,” she said after a minute. “It’s not even that large.”

  “It’s the largest flat in the building and it’s been done to the highest specifications. I’m giving the value it is insured for, but it may well be worth more if you decided to sell it. I suspect there are a few people on the island who might want to buy it simply because of its connection with Mona.”

  Fenella nodded. “I can almost believe that.”

  “Are you interested in selling?”

  “No, not even a little bit,” Fenella said firmly.

  “Mona’s car is also probably worth more than what it is insured for,” he continued. When he told her the amount, Fenella gasped.

  “I can’t imagine I’ll ever be brave enough to drive it, if it’s worth that much,” she exclaimed.

  “That’s why you have insurance,” he told her. “So that you can drive it.”

  Fenella nodded, but she still wasn’t convinced.

  “Obviously the contents of the flat have some considerable value as well,” Doncan continued. “Nearly all of the furnishings are antiques, for a start. Then there’s Mona’s wardrobe. She had all of her clothes custom-made for her and I’m sure her dresses are worth a considerable amount.”

  “And I’ve just been wearing them,” Fenella said.

  Doncan laughed. “That’s probably for the best. It isn’t as if you’ll ever need the money.”

  “I won’t?”

  “There are plenty of other things for you to sell if you need money. I have a list for you of the various properties that Mona owned.” He handed Fenella a neatly typed sheet.

  She read down the list of addresses. “Are they houses?” she asked.

  “A few of them are houses, some are commercial properties, others are empty plots of land. Let’s just say Mona had diverse interests.”

  “There are a lot here.”

  “There are twenty-five on the list. While I’ve not given you individual prices, I’ve noted an approximate value for the collection at the bottom of the page.”

  Fenella looked at the number and then blinked several times. “Are there meant to be that many zeroes?” she asked in a low voice.

  “There are,” Doncan assured her.

  She sat back in her chair, feeling stunned. “But that’s a fortune.
”

  “As I said, Mona left a considerable estate.”

  “What am I meant to do with all of the money?”

  “What do you want to do with all of the money? You can travel, buy yourself fabulous things, donate the lot to charity, or get your kitten a solid-gold litter tray. The money is yours and the only limit is your imagination.”

  “I don’t have to write a book,” Fenella sighed, feeling mixed emotions. While she’d initially been excited about the idea for her book, she’d found it hard to sustain that excitement. Knowing that she was never going to need to generate any income from the title took all of the pressure off of her. That was both a good and a bad thing, really. Anne Boleyn’s fictional autobiography was probably never going to get written, at least not by Fenella.

  “Mona had two safe deposit boxes,” Doncan continued. “I have the keys here. Just let me know when you want to visit them.”

  “What’s in them?”

  “I believe they mostly contain jewelry, but I’m not certain. Mona was very cautious with her more expensive pieces. Obviously, your flat has its own safe, but Mona felt better keeping the most valuable items elsewhere.”

  “I see. I don’t think I want to do that today.”

  “That’s fine. Just ring and let my secretary know when you do want to have a look. One is here in Douglas and the other is in Peel. We may have to make two separate trips, but I’m sure we can work something out when you’re ready.”

  “Is that everything?”

  “Mona had several bank accounts and a great deal of money in shares. Here’s a list of those assets.”

  Fenella glanced down the list and then looked at the number at the bottom of the page. “I can’t even comprehend that,” she told Doncan.

  He nodded. “I’ve been handling Mona’s investments for years and even I was surprised when I added everything up. She rarely spent any money, as well, which helped her amass her fortune.”

  “I understand the apartment was a gift,” Fenella said.

  “It was, as was the car and probably all of the property. I wasn’t Maxwell Martin’s advocate, but obviously I worked with him. Maxwell moved a great deal of money into Mona’s accounts over the years. When he first began doing so, I worried that he was trying to avoid taxes in some way, by moving things back and forth between himself and Mona, but nothing ever moved back from Mona to Maxwell.”

  “I see. Is that everything?”

  Doncan looked at a sheet of paper in front of him. “We talked about her flat and her car, her other properties, her safe deposit boxes, and her bank accounts and shares. I think that’s about it. If you’re interested, here’s a number that approximates your net worth.” He held out another sheet of paper.

  Fenella looked at the number and then shook her head. “I think I might just try to forget that number,” she said. “It’s so large as to be ridiculous.”

  “Of course, I’m here to work with you if you decide you want to make any changes to anything. House prices have been very up and down in the last ten years, but they’re fairly stable at the moment, should you want to start selling off some of Mona’s properties. We can discuss which stocks and shares you hold and maybe make some changes there. Or you can, of course, move some or all of your money elsewhere for someone else to manage on your behalf.”

  “I’m quite happy to leave everything exactly as it is for the moment,” Fenella said. “I just wish I’d known that I was rich before today. I would have taken more taxis and walked a lot less for the last six months.”

  Doncan frowned. “I am sorry. I thought that I told you that money wasn’t to be a concern for you, but apparently I was too vague. I should have insisted that we have this meeting much earlier.”

  “It’s fine. I was mostly joking,” Fenella said quickly. “It’s just that I’ve been trying to be very careful with my money, not knowing if it might be close to running out.”

  “I believe you’d have to work quite hard to get it to run out,” Doncan said. “But I have had clients who seemed bent on spending everything when they’ve inherited money, and I don’t recommend it.”

  “No, I will continue to be sensible,” Fenella replied. “But I will want to travel more and I may want another car. Something more, well, sensible for day-to-day use.”

  “Let me know if you need a check cutting for anything. I’m sure you won’t have any trouble getting credit cards as well, if you’d like some.”

  Fenella nodded. She was still relying on her old US credit cards, but they were a pain to keep track of from the island. Getting credit cards here was a good idea.

  “I think I need to go and lie down,” she told Doncan half-seriously.

  “There is one more thing,” he told her.

  “Oh, dear. What else?”

  “This is less serious, I think. Do you remember Mortimer Morrison?”

  “Not exactly, as I never actually met the man, but I did look after his dog, Fiona, when he disappeared. I remember that.”

  “Yes, and you attended his memorial service.”

  “I did. It seemed like the right thing to do.”

  “And perhaps more importantly, you signed the guest book at the memorial service.”

  “Yes, I did,” Fenella agreed. “You were quite insistent about that.”

  Doncan nodded. “I was quite insistent with everyone,” he said. “And for good reason. Mortimer didn’t have any family left. In his will, he left a large sum of money to be used for looking after Fiona after his death. That sum has already gone to Harvey Garus, as he’s taking care of Fiona now.”

  “How nice for Harvey,” Fenella replied.

  “Yes, but even after that sum was paid out, there was still a considerable amount of money left in Mr. Morrison’s estate,” Doncan said. “According to the provisions of the man’s will, the remainder of the estate is to be divided equally among everyone who signed the guest book at the man’s memorial service.”

  Fenella stared at the man again. “Really?” she said after a moment. “Isn’t that rather odd?”

  Doncan laughed. “It isn’t the oddest idea that Mr. Morrison came up with. Initially, he wanted some sort of random drawing from all of the names of the people who attended the service. One person would have won the entire estate. When I suggested that wasn’t necessarily the fairest way to do things, he came up with a complicated formula for awarding shares in the estate to, well, random people, really. It would have been a nightmare to try to administer, and I told Mr. Morrison he’d have to find another advocate if he was determined to use that scheme.”

  “So he just left it all to be divided among his mourners?”

  “More or less, yes. You’ll each be getting a check in the post from my office in the next six weeks or so, along with an explanatory letter. I just thought, since you were already here, that I would tell you in person.”

  “Can I tell anyone else? Shelly and Peter were at the service with me.”

  “You can tell anyone you like. There will probably be an article in the local paper about it one day soon. No doubt there will be complaints about it as well.”

  “Especially from the people who didn’t go to the service,” Fenella suggested.

  “Exactly.”

  “Should I ask how much we will all be getting?”

  Doncan told her a number that made her raise her eyebrows. “I didn’t realize Mr. Morrison was worth that sort of money.”

  “He made some very smart investments over the years. He also inherited a nice amount from his sister when she passed away.”

  “And now he’s given it all away to random strangers?”

  “Not entirely random; he’s left it to the people who chose to honor his memory by attending his memorial service. Many of them were business associates, of course, but they were probably the closest thing the man had to friends.”

  “That’s sad.”

  “While we are on the subject, if you don’t have a will yourself, you should definitely
think about having one made. You will be leaving considerable assets, after all, and it would be a shame for the government to claim it.”

  “I’ve never really thought about where I’d want my money to go. In fairness, I never had any money to worry about, of course.”

  Doncan nodded. “I know you have four brothers. Presumably at least some of them have families, as well. Start giving some thought to what you might like to do with your estate. We really should meet again in a week or two to discuss things, if that works for you.”

  “I hate thinking about dying,” Fenella murmured.

  “I understand that, but you should hate the thought of the government taking everything and wasting it on whatever the government wastes money on.”

  Fenella nodded. “I’ll have to start thinking about it. I suppose I should leave my brothers something, or maybe their children. No doubt my youngest brother will argue that I should leave him a great deal, or better yet, give him a lump sum now.”

  “That would be James?” Doncan asked.

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “I’ve had some correspondence from James. I don’t believe he was very happy with the contents of Mona’s will.”

  “No, he wasn’t,” Fenella sighed. “He even tried to persuade my other brothers to go in with him to contest the will.”

  “But they didn’t agree?”

  “No, they were all happy for me. Of course, I’m sure none of them had any idea just how much I’d actually inherited from Aunty Mona. They might not have been so disinterested if they’d known.”

  “And how much you tell them about the money is entirely up to you. I can assure you that Mona’s will is uncontestable, or as close to it as it is possible to be. It would cost your brother or brothers a great deal of money to fight the case and I’m nearly certain that they would lose.”

  “And it would cost me a great deal as well,” Fenella suggested.

  Doncan laughed. “It wouldn’t cost you that much,” he told her. “For a start, you’d have the advantage of already being here, with local representation. There isn’t an advocate on the island who would take me on, not on this case. Your brother wouldn’t be able to use an American lawyer, so he’d have to find someone in the UK to take the case. The costs would start to mount before I had to do anything at all.”