The Ellsworth Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novella Book 5) Read online

  “Never mind, I’ll find it,” William told her. “In the meantime, you can get to know the Markham sisters. Joan and Janet Markham, this is Karen Holmes, my new, um, well, friend.” William blushed and then turned and headed back into the back room.

  Karen smiled brightly at the sisters. “Isn’t he a dear?” she asked. “But it’s ever so nice to meet you both. Do you shop here often?”

  “Only occasionally,” Janet replied. “We own the local bed and breakfast, so we do our best to support other local businesses, but we bought the house fully furnished, so we don’t need to buy much.”

  “What brings you to Doveby Dale?” Joan asked the woman.

  “Oh, I was just passing through,” she replied. “I’ve taken early retirement from the civil service. The stress was too much for me, you see.”

  “You’re awfully young to be retired,” Janet commented.

  “Yes, I suppose I am,” the woman said. “But I was fortunate to come into a bit of money. That is, my husband, well, he passed away and left me a small nest egg. That meant, a short time later, when the pressure of the job started to really bother me, I could simply walk away.”

  “How very fortunate for you,” Joan said dryly.

  “Anyway, I get rather restless, living on my own, so I often just choose a random place and visit there for a day or two. I actually chose Little Burton, but after an hour there I felt I’d exhausted its, um, pleasures.”

  Janet chuckled. The neighbouring village of Little Burton was even smaller than their own tiny village. She couldn’t imagine how the woman had managed to spend even an hour there. There was a small grocery store, a store selling locally made crafts, and a chemist shop, otherwise there was very little else aside from a petrol station.

  “So you drove over to Doveby Dale?” Janet asked.

  “So I drove out to Derby and found a hotel,” the woman corrected her. “That was on Wednesday, last week. On Thursday I decided that I wanted to do some Christmas shopping for friends back in London. Rather than drag myself about the mall and shops in Derby, I decided to try a few small towns, hoping to find little antique shops that might have something special.”

  “And she found me,” William said, smiling brightly as he rejoined them. He was carrying Karen’s missing shoe. “Here you are, my dear,” he said. He handed the shoe to the woman and she blushed and slipped it back on.

  “Thank you so much,” she told William. “I felt quite uncomfortable without it.”

  “So what can I do for you ladies today?” William asked now.

  “We were wondering about that painting,” Joan answered.

  William shook his head. “I haven’t found you anything yet,” he told them. He glanced at Karen and then stared hard at Joan. “I’ll keep trying, but I have rather a lot on my plate at the moment.”

  Joan nodded. “I’ll look forward to hearing from you soon, then,” she said, frowning.

  “Yes, well, as soon as I can,” William said nervously.

  “Also, we found a few coins and we were wondering if you would be able to tell us anything about their value,” Joan added. “There are only a handful of them.”

  She reached into her handbag and pulled out the small bag she was keeping the coins in. Janet watched closely as Joan dug out the coins. Janet knew there were six coins in the bag, but when Joan handed the coins to William, Janet could see that she’d only handed him three.

  William turned the coins over in his hand, giving them a cursory glance. “I don’t really know much about coins,” he told the women. “They aren’t really my specialty. I know a good dealer in Derby, however. I would be happy to send them on to him and get them valued for you.”

  “We can take them up to Derby ourselves,” Joan replied. “Perhaps you could give us the name and address of the man’s shop?”

  “Of course,” he said. He crossed to the small desk in the back of the store that functioned as his office, the coins still in his hand. Karen followed him closely.

  “May I have a look?” she asked quietly. “My husband was something of a collector.”

  “Certainly,” Joan said.

  William passed the coins to Karen, who studied each one in turn. After a moment she walked over to Joan and handed the three coins back to her.

  “If I were you, I’d get them valued rather quickly,” she said in an excited voice. “I think at least one of them is very valuable and the other two are worth a decent amount as well. If you plan to keep them, you ought to have them insured.”

  Joan took the coins and tucked them back in their bag, returning it to her handbag. “Really?” she asked. “That’s good news.”

  “Yes, well, I’m no expert, but I did learn a few things from my dear Lester before his sudden passing. He loved collecting coins, common ones as well as rare and valuable ones. He left me quite a collection, but I’ve sold much of it since I lost him.”

  William walked back across the room as Karen was speaking. Now he handed Joan a slip of paper. “He’ll take good care of you and give you a fair price if you want to sell,” he told the sisters.

  “Thank you so much,” Janet said as Joan added the slip of paper to her handbag. “We should get home, I suppose.”

  “After I take a quick look at that armoire,” Joan told her. She crossed the room, leaving Janet to make small talk with William and Karen. While Joan opened and closed drawers, Janet talked about the weather and the latest news from London. Joan was back by her side a few minutes later.

  The sisters were silent on their walk back to the car. As Janet started the engine, she couldn’t wait to ask a question any longer. “Do you really want a new armoire?”

  Joan shrugged. “It’s really lovely,” she replied. “If the coins are actually worth what everyone thinks they might be, maybe I’ll treat myself.”

  “Or maybe I’ll buy it for you for Christmas,” Janet countered.

  “Only if you find something equally valuable,” Joan retorted.

  Janet laughed. “That sounds fair enough,” she agreed. “But what did you think of Karen Holmes?”

  “She was, well, interesting, I guess,” Joan said. “But in a small town, anyone new is always interesting.”

  “I suppose that’s true,” Janet agreed with a smile. “She seems awfully young for William, though.”

  “I don’t know,” Joan replied. “She may well be older than she appears. Women often are.”

  “She dressed young,” Janet countered.

  “You just didn’t like her dress,” Joan replied.

  Janet had to laugh. “You’re right about that,” she agreed. “I don’t really like floral fabrics for clothing. They always remind me of the curtains our granny had in her bedrooms. You remember?”

  Joan frowned for a moment and then began to laugh softly. “I haven’t thought about granny for some time,” she said. “But now that you mention it, I can just picture her, living in that house all alone with five bedrooms, each decorated in a different colour. All five rooms had floral curtains, and all of the curtains were different, garish and awful patterns, weren’t they?”

  “I remember going to stay with her at Christmas one year. I must have been about six or seven and she put me in the room with the mauve and yellow curtains. I had a bad dream one night and woke up crying. Our parents were too far away to hear me, and I remember lying there for hours, staring at those curtains and sobbing to myself.”

  “You poor dear,” Joan said softly. “I don’t remember you ever telling me about that before.”

  Janet shook her head. “I never told anyone,” she said. “It was so awful that I didn’t want to talk about it. Now, nearly sixty years later, it just seems silly, but at the time, the pattern on the curtain seemed almost to move and I was terrified.”

  “No wonder you don’t like floral prints,” Joan replied.

  Janet looked at her and then sighed. “You know what? I feel a lot better for having told you that story. I guess I never quite recovered fr
om the experience. I must remember not to automatically dislike women who wear floral dresses, though. It is quite unfair to them.”

  “I didn’t like her, either,” Joan said. “And I don’t have any irrational prejudices to overcome.”

  Janet grinned. “She was just a bit odd, wasn’t she? And she and William seemed awfully cosy considering they just met a few days ago.”

  “I’m sure William is flattered by the attentions of a younger woman,” Joan said. “Men usually are.”

  Janet had to agree. Neither sister had ever married, but Janet had dated a great deal in her youth. Regardless, both sisters were keen observers of the world around them and they usually agreed with one another when it came to issues about human nature.

  “But what is she after?” Janet asked.

  “Hopefully nothing,” Joan said. “But I think we should keep an eye on the situation. We don’t want to stick our noses in where they aren’t welcome, but it bothers me that he didn’t want her to know about his paintings.”

  “I suggest we stop back in to see him again tomorrow. We’ll have to find some sort of excuse, but I’m sure we’ll come up with something,” Janet said.

  They had arrived back at Doveby House now and Janet pulled the car into their car park. Another car was already parked there.

  “Isn’t that Robert’s car?” Joan asked as they shut their car doors.

  “I think it is,” Janet replied, wondering what their local police constable could possibly want.

  “Do you suppose he’s checking up on us again?” Joan asked with an indulgent smile.

  “I do wish he wouldn’t worry about us so much,” Janet said. “We can take care of ourselves, after all.”

  “Maybe we should have a word with him about Karen Holmes,” Joan suggested. “I wouldn’t mind if the police took a little look at her.”

  “You think she’s some sort of criminal?” Janet asked in surprise.

  Joan sighed. “Not really,” she admitted. “But a lot of strange things have been going on around here since we arrived. I guess I’m suspicious of everyone now.”

  Janet thought back over the last few months and then nodded. “Things have definitely been different from our teaching days, haven’t they?”

  Joan nodded. “In both good and bad ways.”

  The pair walked around to their front door. Robert Parsons was sitting on one of the cushioned chairs they had recently added to the small front porch. His brown hair needed a cut and his brown eyes looked worried. He was only in his mid-twenties and he was responsible for policing both Doveby Dale and Little Burton. Janet often thought it was a heavy burden for such a young man, although she also thought he did an excellent job of it. He quickly rose to his feet. Janet was always surprised that he wasn’t taller, but she guessed he was at least a few inches shorter than six feet tall. For some reason, he seemed taller to her, at least when he was sitting down.

  “Ah, ladies, I was hoping you’d be home soon,” he told them. “I took advantage of your absence to enjoy your lovely view and your very comfortable chairs.”

  “You’re always welcome,” Joan assured him. “I do hope nothing is wrong.”

  “I’d like a moment of your time,” he said. “And if you can spare it, a cup of tea would be a real treat.”

  “Of course,” Janet replied as Joan unlocked the house and the trio entered. They made their way to the kitchen. Robert sat at the small kitchen table while Janet put the kettle on. Joan quickly filled a plate with biscuits.

  “We have guests, so I have a nice selection,” she told Robert as she put the plate on the table.

  “You seem to have guests quite regularly now,” he commented.

  “We have been rather busy,” Joan agreed. “The couple that is here now is leaving in the morning, but we have two other couples arriving tomorrow afternoon.”

  “I hope you’re taking some time off over Christmas,” Robert replied.

  “We don’t have any guests booked after the fifteenth,” Joan told him. “And I haven’t even started looking at room requests for the new year.”

  When the kettle boiled, Janet fixed the tea, and then the sisters joined the man at the table.

  “You never just stop by for a chat,” Janet said, keeping her tone light. “Whatever is the matter this time?”

  Robert took a sip of tea and the set his cup down. “I don’t want you two to worry unnecessarily, but I thought I ought to bring something to your attention,” he said.

  “What something?” Joan asked.

  “It appears that someone in the area is passing around counterfeit currency,” Robert replied.

  Chapter Three

  “Counterfeit currency?” Janet echoed. “Notes or coins?” she asked, thinking immediately of their small cache of coins.

  “Notes,” Robert replied. “Specifically twenty-pound notes. I wanted you to be aware, in case any of your guests wanted to pay in cash.”

  “How can we tell the counterfeits?” Joan asked.

  Robert pulled an envelope out of the small folder he was carrying. Inside were two twenty-pound notes. He set them on the table in front of him. “Care to guess which is the fake?” he asked the women.

  Joan picked up the notes and studied them intently, passing them each to Janet as she finished.

  “I can’t really see a difference,” Janet admitted after she’d looked over them both.

  “This one seems wrong to me,” Joan said. “I’m not sure why, though. Something just doesn’t seem right about it.”

  Robert nodded. “That is the counterfeit, but you’re right that it is hard to pinpoint exactly what’s wrong about it. The only thing I can tell you for sure is to watch the serial numbers. All of the counterfeit notes have the same serial number.” He pointed to the number on the note.

  “I’ll just write that down,” Janet said, getting to her feet. She quickly found a pen and a sheet of paper and jotted down the number.

  “Our guests often pay in cash, especially if they only stay one or two nights,” Joan said thoughtfully.

  “Perhaps you can find ways to discourage them from doing so,” Robert suggested.

  “We’ve set up with the bank to accept credit card payments,” Janet said. “But we haven’t actually encouraged people to use them. I must say I was quite concerned about people trying to use stolen credit cards. It never occurred to me to worry about them using counterfeit money.”

  “Twenty-pound notes are the most copied of any notes in circulation,” Robert told them. “We have odd ones turning up all the time, but this time the exact same fakes have been appearing all around the Derbyshire area.”

  “So it isn’t just a Doveby Dale problem?” Janet asked.

  “We’ve actually only seen one of the notes in Doveby Dale,” Robert said. “And it was used quite innocently by a woman who’d received it with her change at the big grocery store up the road. Of course, they do so much custom that they weren’t sure who’d used the note to pay for their groceries. They went through every other note in the store, though, and they were all fine. I suspect the problem is in Derby and we’ll just see a few that trickle through.”

  “Well, we appreciate the warning,” Joan said. “Though I’m not sure what we’ll do if a guest hands us a pile of them.”

  “Take them politely and then ring me,” Robert replied. “Don’t say anything to the guests. They could be innocent victims or they could be quite dangerous.”

  Joan nodded. “We’ll do that,” she said. “Now, do let me pack up a few biscuits for you for the afternoon.”

  Robert put up a token protest, but Joan insisted on wrapping up a considerable number of biscuits for him. The sisters walked him to the door.

  “Thank you again for the information,” Joan said at the door.

  “You’re very welcome. I’ll stop back in a few days with an update, assuming I learn anything further,” he said.

  “Stop back either way,” Janet suggested. “We have more guests
coming, so Joan will still be baking too much. You can help eat up even more biscuits.”

  Robert looked delighted with the idea. The sisters watched him walk back to his car and drive away.

  “Well, I guess the first thing we should do is check any notes we already have,” Joan said as she swung the door shut.

  “We probably should have done that while Robert was here,” Janet said. “Why didn’t we think of it?”

  “It all just seems so unlikely,” Joan replied. “I can’t imagine spending money that I knew was counterfeit. I’d be too nervous.”

  “I would as well,” Janet agreed. “I wouldn’t make a very good criminal, I don’t think. I’d feel too guilty and end up turning myself in or something.”

  The sisters both picked up their handbags and found their money.

  “I only have two notes anyway,” Janet said. “I really should have taken some out of my account when we were at the bank.”

  “I have more than you, but, luckily, none of them have the wrong serial number,” Joan told her. “I’ll just go and check the money in the safe.”

  There was a small wall safe built into the wall in the library, hidden by an inconspicuous picture. Thus far the sisters had been unable to figure out the combination to open it, and the man who claimed to know it had seemingly given them the wrong numbers. As they welcomed more and more guests, Joan and Janet had decided that they needed a safe for valuables that they would rather their guests couldn’t access. Robert had provided some advice and they’d eventually bought a small, freestanding safe that they’d hidden in the wardrobe in Joan’s bedroom. They didn’t keep much in it, but Joan had insisted that a small amount of emergency money be secured there.

  Janet took her handbag up to her bedroom on the first floor. As she set it on the dresser, she glanced at the calendar, mentally counting down the days until the next full moon. As they’d just had one a few days earlier, she didn’t have to worry again about her resident ghost until the new year. Maybe next time she’d manage to sleep through the screams that woke her around two in the morning with every full moon.