Aunt Bessie Finds Read online

  “If you need something investigating, you should ring Inspector Peter Corkill of the Douglas CID,” Bessie said. “He’s a professional and a rather nice man, really.”

  Several months after their first meeting, Bessie and the inspector were slowly beginning to appreciate one another. Now Bessie had no qualms about recommending the man to her friend.

  “Oh, no, it isn’t anything to worry the police about,” Bahey said insistently. “In fact, Howard thinks it’s all in my head.”

  Howard sighed. “That isn’t true,” he said. “I’m just not as bothered as you are, that’s all.”

  “Well, I’m not sure about any of it,” Bahey said, shaking her head. “That’s why I want Bessie to investigate.”

  “Investigate what?” Bessie asked.

  “The things that keep happening,” Bahey answered. “It’s all just stupid little things, but it doesn’t make sense, like.”

  “What sort of things?” Bessie asked.

  “There’s a mirror in the hallway that keeps moving,” Bahey said. “One day it’s outside my door and then the next day it’s downstairs. It never seems to be in the same place for more than a day or two.”

  “Have you asked the building manager about it?” Bessie asked.

  “I did,” Bahey replied. “He said that sometimes it gets moved when the cleaners come through, but they don’t come through all that often, leastwise, not as often as that mirror goes walkabout.”

  “Is that it?” Bessie asked.

  “No,” Bahey said. “The flat underneath mine is empty and it has been for months, but every once in a while I can hear people talking down there.”

  “Maybe someone has been showing the flat to prospective purchasers?” Bessie suggested.

  “Whenever I ask Nigel about it, he tells me I’m wrong and that no one has been in the flat,” Bahey answered. “And it’s never at the sort of time that you’d expect them to be showing the flat, either. It’s usually in the middle of the night or very early in the morning.”

  “Could it be someone’s television in another flat and the sound just travels strangely through the building?” Bessie asked.

  Bahey shrugged. “That makes more sense than Nigel Green’s explanation,” she said in a frustrated voice. “He told me I must be dreaming.”

  “So the hallway mirror won’t stay in one place and there are sometimes strange noises from an empty flat. What else?” Bessie asked.

  “The post takes too long to get here,” Bahey said, looking sideways at Howard.

  He sighed and shook his head. “I told you the building management has no control over how badly the postman does his job,” he said. “I’m going to have a word with that postman the next time I see him.”

  “Is all your post delayed?” Bessie asked.

  “No, just some of it,” Bahey shrugged. “It’s hard to be sure, of course, but sometimes it takes three days for a letter to get from my sister in Foxdale to here. If I send her a letter, she always gets it the next day.”

  “There could be a lot of possible explanations for that,” Bessie said, thoughtfully.

  “Aye, but it’s just strange, that’s all,” Bahey said with a sigh. “I told you before, it’s lots of little things that just don’t seem quite right. I’m starting to feel like I’m losing my mind or something.”

  “Is there more?” Bessie asked, patting her friend’s hand.

  “The woman next door to me died about three months ago,” Bahey continued. “But she’s still getting post.”

  “Maybe her family never bothered to tell the post office she’s passed away?” Bessie suggested.

  Bahey shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “I told you,” Howard interjected, “it was probably just an advertising circular or something that you saw. Those come to everyone.”

  “What exactly did you see?” Bessie asked.

  “We all get our post in boxes off to the side of the foyer,” Bahey explained. “They’re mostly closed up, like, so we can’t really see what everyone else is getting, but there’s a little window in each one. Anyway, the flat next door has the box next to mine and one day last month I could see an envelope through the little window. It looked like a proper envelope, too, not advertising. There was another one last week. But why would a dead woman get any post?”

  “Are you sure it isn’t just piling up because she isn’t collecting it?” Bessie asked.

  “Whatever was there was gone a few hours later, both times,” Bahey said. “Someone must have collected it.”

  “Do the dead woman’s relatives have her keys? Maybe they are still coming and collecting her post,” Bessie suggested.

  Bahey shook her head. “The flat’s been up for sale for over two months. The woman was from across and her family came over, cleared out the flat and then put it on the market.”

  “And no one has purchased it yet?” Bessie checked.

  “No, and I’m starting to worry about how long it’s been for sale,” Bahey told her.

  “I thought the housing market was very competitive right now,” Bessie said. “I’d have thought a nice flat in a central location would go quickly.”

  “It should have done,” Bahey agreed. “We don’t have that much turnover, but the last couple of flats in the building that have gone up for sale have sold within a few weeks. The one underneath me isn’t even on the market, as far as I can tell, which I don’t understand either. It’s all very strange.”

  “Or maybe not,” Howard said with a chuckle. “Who understands the property market? I certainly don’t.”

  Bahey nodded. “I told you that Howard thinks I’m making something out of nothing,” she reminded Bessie.

  Bessie smiled. “Each thing is a little thing, but when you add them up, well, it does seem like maybe something strange is going on.”

  “So you’ll investigate?” Bahey asked excitedly.

  “I was thinking maybe you should ring the police,” Bessie replied.

  “No point in that,” Bahey said. “It’s all just little things. If I tell them that I have a bad feeling about it all, they’ll either laugh or lock me up.”

  “Inspector Corkill would listen and take your concerns seriously,” Bessie told her. “I’m not sure what you want me to do, anyway.”

  “Well,” Bahey flushed and looked down at the table. “I was sort of thinking that maybe you could take a look at the flat next door. Maybe you could pretend that you’re thinking of moving down to Douglas, like, and then you could see if there’s something wrong with the flat or whatever, so we’ll know why it isn’t selling. Maybe you could even find out about the flat underneath mine, why it isn’t on the market, like.”

  “I suppose I could do that,” Bessie said. “Having a look around an empty flat isn’t a big deal, and I am curious, in a way, what it could cost to move to Douglas. Sometimes I think it would be nice to be so centrally located.”

  “It’s brilliant,” Bahey told her. “We can walk to all the shops and restaurants and the beach is only a few steps away. I know you have the beach on your doorstep, but you have to admit that shopping is a lot of trouble for you.”

  Bessie laughed. “I wouldn’t say ‘a lot of trouble,’” she replied. “But the only shop I can walk to is one that I’d rather not shop at, which is frustrating.”

  “So you’ll take a look at the flat?” Bahey asked.

  “I suppose it can’t hurt,” Bessie answered. “I shall feel bad wasting some estate agent’s time, of course, but it shouldn’t take long.”

  “I tried asking to see the place myself,” Bahey told Bessie. “I was going to pretend to be someone else, but the estate agent who’s handling the sale wanted all sorts of information before he’d make an appointment. I finally gave up. I couldn’t persuade Joney to take a look, either. She thinks I’m trying to trick her into moving in here, and she wouldn’t listen when I told her about all the weird things going on.”

  “It would be nice for you both if she wa
s closer, though,” Bessie said.

  “Ha, I think my sister being in Foxdale is just about right,” Bahey said stoutly. “She’s close enough that we can see each other regularly, but we aren’t on top of one another. I definitely wouldn’t want her in the same building as me. Maybe I didn’t try to persuade her to do the investigating all that hard because I was afraid she might fall in love with the place and move in,” Bahey admitted sheepishly.

  Bessie laughed. “Well, there’s no danger of that for me,” she told Bahey. “Even if I love the place, I have no intention of moving away from Laxey. It’s been home since I was eighteen, and it will be home until I die.”

  “But you won’t tell Nigel and the estate agent that, right?” Bahey asked.

  “I won’t tell Nigel or the estate agent that,” Bessie agreed with a chuckle. “Now you’ve made me curious about the place, I’m almost eager to have a look at it.”

  “It should be almost identical to this,” Bahey told her. “All of the flats in the building are meant to be the same. The building was purpose-built, you know, and every flat is the same size with the same layout, except the ones in the back are mirror images to the ones at the front. I gather keeping the layouts the same made it easier for the builders; they just had to keep doing the exact same thing, over and over again.”

  “Easier, but probably quite boring,” Howard said. “I can’t imagine how tedious it must have been building and decorating twelve identical flats.”

  “Of course, the end units have a few extra windows,” Bahey said. “And the flats at the front of the building that face the sea are worth a bit more than the ones at the back that face the car park.”

  “But all of the interiors are the same?” Bessie asked.

  “They were meant to be,” Bahey told her. “But apparently a few of the original owners who bought off-plan made some modifications. I guess a few of the flats have better quality materials and things like mixer taps and fully tiled walls in their bathrooms, rather than the half-tile I have. I’ve only ever been in my flat and Howard’s, so I’m not sure how true that is, though.”

  “I’ve been in a few of the others,” Howard said. “And there are minor cosmetic differences, but nothing that seemed important to me.”

  “Whose flats have you been in, then?” Bahey demanded.

  Howard laughed. “When I first moved in, I was invited into nearly all of them,” he told her. “At least where the occupants are female. There are a lot of widowed women living in the building.”

  He addressed the last remark towards Bessie, who nodded. Bahey was frowning.

  “So they all invited you around for a cuppa?” she asked, clearly upset.

  Howard took her hand. “Most of them invited me around for a cuppa,” he said. “You were the only one who didn’t. That’s why I’ve been chasing after you ever since.”

  Bahey blushed. “I never thought to ask you in for tea,” she muttered.

  “Exactly, and that made me curious about you,” Howard told her.

  Bessie grinned at the pair. Bahey reminded her of a teenager, working out how relationships work for the first time. “So as far as we know, all the flats are more or less the same, even if a few have slightly nicer details?” Bessie checked.

  “Except for Nigel’s, of course,” Bahey said. “The flats are all meant to have one bedroom, and one bathroom, but Nigel told me that he’s built up a few extra walls in his to make a second bedroom, and added an extra bathroom as well. His mother lives with him, you see, and he wanted to give her some privacy.”

  Bessie looked around the flat. It was spacious, but not enormous. She wasn’t sure where someone could fit an extra bedroom and bathroom into the floor plan. “Is it okay if I take a look around?” she asked.

  “Oh, sure,” Bahey said. “Let me show you the rest.”

  Bessie stood up and followed Bahey through the room, back towards the entryway to the flat. The kitchen was tucked up in the corner that made a sort of L-shaped room out of the living space. One door opened up next to the kitchen, and Bahey pushed it open to show Bessie the modern bathroom. At a ninety-degree angle from that door was the second door that Bahey now opened.

  “Here’s the bedroom,” she announced, standing back to let Bessie peek inside.

  Bessie didn’t want to appear too nosy, so she simply glanced quickly into the fairly large and comfortable-looking bedroom. It too was furnished with a mix of modern and antique pieces with a large bed in the centre of the space.

  “It’s bigger than I expected,” she told Bahey. “But I can’t see how anyone could divide it into two.”

  “I guess he moved the kitchen to the opposite wall and then put up a wall there for a bedroom. That bedroom has access to the bathroom that was originally in place. Then he added a tiny bathroom next to the main bedroom. He had to knock a hole in the wall for a door between the bathroom and bedroom, and take away space from his living area, but I guess it works for them,” Bahey said.

  “You seem to know a lot about our building manager’s living arrangements,” Howard said.

  “He’s forever talking to me about something,” Bahey replied. “He wanted me to come in and have a look, but I couldn’t care less about his flat.”

  “Maybe he was flirting,” Howard suggested. “Is he less friendly now that we’re a couple?”

  Bahey frowned. “Now that you mention it,” she said after a pause. “He has been less friendly lately. I didn’t make the connection, though.”

  Howard shook his head. “You don’t make it easy for us men,” he told her with a sigh. “There he was, trying to chat you up, and you thought he was just telling you about his flat.”

  “Well, it isn’t like I wanted him to chat me up,” Bahey said, indignantly. “He’s kinda creepy and strange.”

  Howard laughed. “I guess I don’t have to worry about him, then,” he said.

  “How old is he?” Bessie asked. “I don’t mean to insult anyone, but he looked to be somewhere in his fifties to me.”

  “By which you mean too young for me,” Bahey said, laughing.

  Bessie flushed. “I didn’t necessarily mean that,” she said, although that’s what she’d been thinking. “I just wondered at his age.”

  “He is in his fifties,” Bahey confirmed. “And that’s probably why I just assumed he was just being friendly. I’m way too old for him.”

  “I heard he had a little romance with Linda,” Howard said.

  “Really?” Bahey demanded. “Why didn’t I hear about that?”

  “You don’t really talk to the other residents,” Howard replied.

  “They don’t talk to me, either,” Bahey snapped back.

  “Yes, well, they do talk to me, sometimes,” Howard said. “And one of the ladies told me that Nigel and Linda were dating.”

  “Linda seemed like such a sensible woman,” Bahey tutted. “What on earth did she see in him?”

  “I think she was flattered by the attention,” Howard told her. “She was very lonely with her children across. Her husband died quite suddenly while they were in the middle of planning their move over here. She told me more than once that she was sorry she went ahead with the move.”

  “So why did she?” Bahey demanded.

  Howard shrugged. “I guess moving over here was always her husband’s dream. They’d sold the family home, anyway, so she had to go somewhere. I think things were too far along in the move for her to feel like she could change the plans, but once she got here, she was sorry.”

  Bahey shook her head. “She should have just gone back,” she said. “Why stay here and be unhappy?”

  “I gather her children were happier with her here,” Howard said, dryly.

  “And once more I’m glad I never had any of the little dears,” Bahey said with a satisfied smile. “Your daughter seems okay, from what I’ve heard, but most of them don’t seem worth the bother.”

  “My daughter is lovely and she misses me, which means she appreciates me
when I visit. Once the grandbaby gets here, I might be sorry to be a bit further away than I used to be, but I love this island and my little flat as well,” Howard said.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re here,” Bahey said. She flushed and then turned and headed back towards the main living space. “Why are we standing around talking? We could be sitting comfortably,” she muttered.

  Bessie followed her friend across the space and sank down on a sofa across from the chair Bahey had claimed.

  “You don’t think that Linda’s death was suspicious, do you?” she asked the other woman after Howard joined them.

  “Oh, good heavens, no,” Bahey said. “She was one of the fatalities in that bus crash back in May. The police report reckoned it was just an unfortunate accident.”

  Bessie nodded. She’d heard all about the crash, of course. Tragic events received a lot of press coverage on the small island. An elderly man, out walking his dog, had rushed into the path of an oncoming Douglas bus when the dog had suddenly slipped off its lead. The driver had slammed on his brakes and slid sideways into a lamp post and a row of parked cars. Two bus passengers were killed, and three others suffered serious injuries. The driver was still recovering, three months later. The man and his dog had both escaped without harm.

  “So is there anything else I need to know about this place before I take a look at the flat next door?” Bessie asked her friend.

  Bahey shrugged. “I can’t think of anything,” she replied. “It’s probably all just my imagination, anyway. I’ll just feel better if I know there isn’t anything weird about the flat next door. There’ve only been a few showings.”

  Bessie nodded. “I’ll ring the estate agent first thing tomorrow and see about getting an appointment to take a look,” she promised. “We can talk again once I’ve done that.”

  “That sounds like a plan,” Howard said.

  A sudden crashing noise startled them all.

  “What was that?” Bessie asked.