Aunt Bessie Questions (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 17) Read online

  “The vicar didn’t say to use the side door,” Helen said.

  The little group trooped around the church to the door at the side. There was only a single step here. Pete pulled, but that door, too, refused to open.

  “Maybe we’re meant to meet him at the vicarage,” Pete suggested.

  “We aren’t, because he said we’d go over where everyone is meant to stand tomorrow and the seating and everything,” Helen said.

  “Maybe he’s forgotten we’re coming,” Bessie said.

  “That’s more likely,” Helen said. “Elizabeth said she had a hard time getting him to agree to the meeting.”

  Bessie could hear the panic in her friend’s voice. As she turned towards Helen, Bessie smiled as Pete obviously heard the same thing.

  “It’s okay,” he told Helen, taking her hand. “It will all work out in the end.”

  “Let’s try the vicarage,” John said. “It’s only a few steps away. Maybe the vicar’s housekeeper will be able to help, if he’s not in.”

  The quickest way to get to the vicarage from the church was through the old cemetery at the back of the church. John set off down the narrow path with Bessie right behind him. Helen and Pete followed with Thomas and Amy lagging behind. They already had their electronic toys out and were only half-watching where they were going as they walked.

  When John stopped suddenly, Bessie walked right into him. “I am sorry,” she exclaimed, taking a step backwards. A look at John’s face made her heart skip a beat. “What is it?” she asked quietly.

  John nodded towards a cluster of graves some distance from the path. “Something doesn’t look right,” he whispered. “Take the kids back around to the front of the church, please.”

  Bessie glanced over and then shivered. There appeared to be a foot sticking out from in between the gravestones. “Thomas, Amy, let’s go around the other way,” she said, wincing as she realised that her voice was far too loud.

  Thomas looked up from his game and stared at her for a minute. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “I’d like you and your sister to go with Bessie,” John said firmly. “Wait by the cars, please.”

  “Why?” Thomas demanded.

  “Later,” John said.

  Thomas put his game into his pocket and then looked around. “Is that a foot?” he asked, pointing.

  “A foot? Where?” Amy asked.

  “Please go with Bessie,” John repeated himself.

  “But if it is a foot, you’ll need the crime scene technicians, and we’ll be here for hours,” Amy said. “Let us stay and watch, at least.”

  John shook his head. “I don’t know what we’re dealing with yet, but you’re both too young to be allowed to stay. Please go with Bessie.”

  “Only if you promise to tell us all about it,” Amy retorted, “and I want to see the photos.”

  John sighed. “Just go, please.”

  Amy narrowed her eyes at him and then shrugged. “I suppose we don’t have a choice.”

  “No, you don’t. Bessie, can you ring Doona and see if she can come and get the kids, please. They don’t need to stay here,” John said.

  “I assume you want me to stay,” Bessie said.

  “For the time being, yes. It may turn out to be nothing but a Guy Fawkes effigy or something, but, well, at this stage, yes, please stay,” John replied.

  Bessie turned and followed Thomas and Amy back towards the church. A few minutes later, they found a bench near the car park and settled onto it.

  “I wish Dad would have let us stay,” Thomas grumbled.

  “Tell me about it,” Amy replied. “I want to be a crime scene technician. I could have learned a lot.”

  “Well, I want to be a police inspector, so I could have learned a lot too,” Thomas said.

  “What does your mother think of your plans for the future?” Bessie asked them.

  Thomas looked at Amy, and then they both shook their heads. “She thinks we should both be taking our inspiration from Harvey,” Thomas replied after a moment. “She wants us both to go to medical school and become arrogant oncologists like him.”

  “I understand that he saved your grandmother’s life,” Bessie said.

  Amy rolled her eyes. “To hear Mum tell it, he saves billions of lives every minute of every day. If it wasn’t for Harvey, there would hardly be anyone left in the UK; everyone would have died from cancer by now. He’s only just the tiniest step away from being some sort of god or magician or something.”

  “I’m sure she’s just very proud of what he does. Becoming a doctor requires a lot of hard work and dedication, and I understand that he’s one of the best in his field,” Bessie replied.

  “Yeah, we know,” Thomas said. “Mum tells us that every single day.”

  Bessie thought about arguing further, but she needed to ring Doona and get the children away from what was probably about to become a crime scene.

  “Doona, it’s Bessie. I’m at the Laxey Church with Thomas and Amy, and John was hoping you might be able to pop over and collect them. There’s a bit of a problem here.”

  “What sort of problem?” Doona asked.

  “I’m not sure yet, but, well, let’s just say John’s probably going to be working for the next several hours.”

  “Oh, dear, that doesn’t sound good. I’ll just change and be on my way.”

  “Doona will be here in a few minutes,” Bessie told the children after she’d dropped her phone back in her bag.

  “Do you think she and Dad are a couple?” Amy asked.

  “I know they’re good friends,” Bessie replied. “As they’re both single, they may become more than just friends one day, but as far as I know, they’re just friends now.”

  “She’s really nice, but I’m not sure I want Dad getting married again,” Amy said.

  “You’re being selfish,” Thomas told her. “We’re both going to be off to uni in a few years, and Dad will be all alone. It would be good for him to find someone special.”

  “I suppose so,” Amy sighed. “I still don’t understand why he and Mum couldn’t just stay together.”

  “Adult relationships are complicated,” Bessie said. “Even though I’m an adult, I rarely understand why people do the things they do in their relationships.”

  “Dad told us that you’ve never been married,” Amy said.

  “No, I haven’t. I was deeply in love once, but the man I loved passed away before we could marry. Now, looking back, I wonder if our relationship would have worked, but at the time I was sure we were perfect for one another.”

  “That’s very sad,” Amy said. “You never found someone else to love?”

  “There was another man, but he wanted me to move to Australia and I wasn’t prepared to leave the island for him,” Bessie replied.

  “Aren’t you lonely?” Amy asked.

  Bessie smiled at her. “When Matthew first died, I felt incredibly alone, but not lonely, if you see the difference. That was a great many years ago, and I’ve lived a full life since then. I have many friends, including your father, and I’ve acted as something of an honourary auntie to many generations of Laxey children. I enjoy living on my own, and no, I’m not lonely.”

  “Do you think…” Amy stopped as a car turned into the car park.

  “There’s Doona,” Bessie said. “Wait here a minute, won’t you?”

  She stood up and crossed to the car that had just parked. Bessie’s closest friend, Doona, climbed out a moment later.

  “What’s going on?” Doona asked, glancing from Bessie to the children and back again.

  “We were walking between the church and the vicarage, and John spotted something in the graveyard,” Bessie said softly. “It looked very much like a leg sticking out from between the tombstones.”

  Doona sighed. “And if it had been anything other than a dead body, John would have let you know by now that everything is fine.”

  “Yes, I suspect so,” Bessie sighed.

/>   “I hope the kids don’t mind staying at my house tonight,” Doona said. “I’d be surprised if John gets finished here before the wee small hours of the morning.”

  “Can you manage?”

  “Oh, yes. John and I talked about it a lot before the kids arrived. I stocked up on extra food and drinks, and John gave me overnight bags for each of them, just in case. He wanted to be prepared in case work got in the way, as it usually does.”

  “It does indeed.”

  Doona crossed over to Thomas and Amy while Bessie followed. Doona Moore was forty-something and seemed an unlikely friend for a woman of Bessie’s age. They’d met three years earlier in a Manx language class and had bonded over their struggles to learn anything other than the basics. Doona had just ended her second marriage and spent many nights crying on Bessie’s shoulder about the man she still loved, who had cheated on her. Bessie gave her tea, sympathy, and tough love, and Doona was still hugely grateful to her friend for helping her through the difficult time.

  Over the past year or so, Doona had been able to repay the kindness by supporting Bessie through a number of murder investigations. It had been Bessie’s turn to provide support when Doona’s second husband ended up as a murder victim, though. Bessie suspected that Doona and John had feelings for one another, but they were taking things slowly, which Bessie felt was a good thing. That John was relying on Doona to help with his children made Bessie happy, though.

  “We’ll head off, then,” Doona said brightly. “I have microwave popcorn and a dozen new movies that your father probably won’t want you to watch. Let’s go.”

  The children both stood up. “What movies?” Thomas asked.

  “American police comedies,” Doona replied, “and some scary thriller-type detective dramas. Movies that your dad would say aren’t realistic.”

  Amy laughed. “He’s always complaining about the police procedures when we try to watch that sort of thing with him.”

  “Yeah, I’ve told him I won’t watch anything on telly with him anymore if there are police in the show. It’s rather limited what we can watch, but it saves him complaining,” Doona laughed.

  Bessie gave each of the children a hug and then squeezed Doona tightly. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how grateful John will be to know that the children are being looked after,” she said as Thomas and Amy climbed into the back of Doona’s car.

  “Are you staying here, or would you like a ride home?” Doona asked as she pushed the door shut behind Thomas.

  “John wants me to stay,” Bessie told her. “I suppose I’m a witness or something.”

  “And being that we’re in Laxey, you probably know whoever it is,” Doona added. “You know everyone in Laxey.”

  “Not quite everyone, but nearly,” Bessie replied. “Anyway, you go and enjoy your movie night with the children. I’ll let John know that they’ve gone.”

  “Thanks. They’re really good kids, and I like spending time with them. I just wasn’t expecting to have to start looking after them the day after they arrived. I’m sure John was hoping to get to spend some time with them before a big case came up.”

  “Maybe this will be something simple in the end,” Bessie said hopefully. “Maybe whoever it is died of natural causes.”

  “We can hope,” Doona said. She opened her door and slid behind the steering wheel. Bessie took a few steps backwards and then waved as Doona drove out of the car park.

  Bessie walked back over to the bench and sat down. A moment later Helen walked out from behind the church and joined her. She’d obviously been crying, and Bessie quickly dug around in her handbag for a tissue.

  “I don’t normally cry,” Helen said after she’d wiped her eyes. “I’m a nurse. I’ve seen lots of really sad things, and I’ve never once broken down. I’ve seen dead people before, too, lots of them.”

  “I’m sorry,” Bessie said, rubbing the woman’s back.

  “I don’t even know why I’m crying,” Helen said, “or rather, I think I do know, and it’s so awful that it makes me cry more.”

  “I’m not sure I understand you.”

  “No, I don’t suppose I’m making sense. John had me take a look at the body, just to see if there was anything anyone could do. But he’s well and truly dead. And I’m afraid I’m only crying because now that the vicar is dead, I don’t know if Pete and I can get married tomorrow or not.”

  Chapter 2

  Bessie put her arm around Helen. “You’ve had quite an upset,” she said soothingly. “You were already under a great deal of stress, anyway. Just have a good cry, and then we’ll see what we can come up with to sort things.”

  Helen sobbed for a minute or two on Bessie’s shoulder and then drew a long, shaky breath. “I’m okay,” she said. “I’m sorry as well. I’m not usually so emotional.”

  “As I said, you’re under a lot of stress. Don’t be so hard on yourself. It’s okay to be emotional sometimes.”

  “Yes, but please don’t tell Pete that I was crying. I gather his first wife used to cry at just about everything. That was one of the things that caused difficulties in their relationship. I’d rather he continue to think of me as stronger than that.”

  “It won’t do him any harm to find out that you’re human,” Bessie said stoutly. “Seeing a dead body is upsetting under any circumstances.”

  “John didn’t want to ask me to look, but, well, I insisted, just in case I could do something. As it happens, John was right, though. I shouldn’t have looked. I’ll probably have nightmares for weeks about what I saw.”

  Before Bessie could reply, a police car, lights flashing and sirens blaring, pulled into the car park. Bessie smiled as she recognised the man who climbed out of it.

  “I don’t think you needed the sirens,” she told Hugh Watterson, a young constable who was also her friend.

  “John said to hurry,” Hugh replied. “The crime scene team is behind me, and I need to get the scene ready for them.”

  “How are you?” Bessie asked as the man rushed past them.

  “I’m fine and so is Grace,” he called over his shoulder. “The morning sickness is finally getting better, but she still has one or two days a week where she’s ill. She’s taking it in her stride, though.”

  Hugh disappeared behind the church before Bessie could reply.

  “Grace is pregnant?” Helen asked. “I hadn’t heard.”

  “She is. They’re very excited,” Bessie confirmed.

  “And now I’m sad again,” Helen sighed.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “I’m nearly forty, and the chances of my getting pregnant are pretty slim, at least without help. I always thought I’d have children, that’s all. I mean, I always thought I’d find the perfect man, get married, and then have a few kids, all before I got anywhere near forty. Instead, it took me all of this time to find a good man who I actually think I might be able to spend the rest of my life with, and now it’s probably too late for me to have kids.”

  “What does Pete think about children?”

  “He doesn’t mind either way, or so he says. He and his first wife were planning on having some, but then things didn’t work out. After they split, he told me he thought he’d never find anyone else, so he stopped thinking about having children one day. Now, if they arrive, he’ll be happy, but if they don’t, he won’t be disappointed. Or at least that’s what he’s telling me.”

  “There are all sorts of ways to become a parent without having your own children,” Bessie pointed out.

  “Oh, I know. I read happy adoption stories all the time. I read about the various medical treatments that can help, too, but I don’t know. I suppose we’ll get married and then see what happens. It’s too soon to start thinking about medical intervention or adoption.”

  “All I can do is wish you luck. If you ever need someone to talk to about everything, you know where I am.”

  “Thank you. I may take you up on that. I feel as if all of my
friends have babies, and they simply don’t understand.”

  A police van pulled up next to Hugh’s car. “Do you know where we’re going, Aunt Bessie?” one of the crime scene technicians asked as he walked away from the van.

  “Behind the church, in the graveyard,” Bessie told him.

  “That’s a bit creepy,” the man replied. “At least we’ll have daylight for a while longer. If it were January, we’d have to work in the dark.”

  Bessie and Helen sat and watched as the three technicians unloaded various pieces of equipment and then headed off along the path behind the church.

  “You said it was the vicar who was dead?” Bessie asked after a moment.

  “Yes, and I don’t know what that means for tomorrow,” Helen replied. “It’s awfully short notice to get someone else to marry us, if the police will even let us use the church.”

  “At least it happened in Laxey, so it’s John’s jurisdiction and not Pete’s,” Bessie pointed out. “Were you able to tell what had happened to the man? Did it look like a heart attack?”

  “Only inasmuch as there was a giant knife stuck in his heart,” Helen replied, her voice quavering slightly.

  “Oh, no,” Bessie exclaimed.

  “I’m probably not meant to be telling people that,” Helen said, frowning.

  “I won’t repeat it,” Bessie promised, “but who on earth would want to kill a vicar?”

  “I’ve no idea, but then I barely knew the man. I met with him once or twice to discuss the wedding, but I’m not sure I would have recognised him on the street if I’d seen him in Douglas or elsewhere.”

  “I only met him a few times myself,” Bessie said thoughtfully. “He’d only been on the island for a short time.”

  “He did mention that he’d only been appointed recently, but I wasn’t really paying that much attention. Elizabeth did most of the talking.”

  “I wonder if we should ring her. Maybe she could start looking around for another vicar.”

  “We probably need to wait until John or Pete says it’s okay,” Helen replied. “I’m sure they don’t want people knowing about the murder until they’re ready to release the information.”