The Appleton Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novella Book 1) Read online

  “Let’s go,” Joan said.

  “Okay,” Janet replied with forced enthusiasm.

  “Hello?” Joan called as they approached the door. There was no reply. The sisters reached the door and peeked into the garage. A large black car was parked in the space, but no one was around.

  “I think the office is over there,” Janet whispered, pointing towards the back corner of the garage.

  “Why are we whispering?” Joan hissed at her.

  “I don’t know,” Janet replied in a hushed tone.

  Janet took a deep breath and then strode purposefully towards the door. As she got closer she noticed that a small, hand-lettered sign that read “office” was stuck to the door. Stopping when she reached it, she knocked hard. The sound seemed to echo through the large space.

  “It’s open,” a voice shouted from behind the door.

  Janet glanced at Joan and then turned the knob, frowning as her hand encountered something sticky on its surface. She pushed the door open and forced herself to smile at the four men who were looking at her in surprise.

  “I’m so sorry to interrupt,” Janet said. “Only we found some letters in the house and we wanted to give them to you.”

  She addressed her remarks to Gavin, who was sitting facing the door at the large round table that took up most of the office space. The other three men, who looked considerably younger, had glanced at the two women and then turned away.

  “Oh, great,” Gavin muttered, jumping up from the table. “We can talk about that outside,” he said, crossing to the sisters and ushering them out of the room.

  “There isn’t really anything to discuss,” Joan said. She stopped in the middle of the garage and reached into her large handbag and pulled out the folder. “These are the letters we found. They’re all from you to your mother.”

  Gavin frowned. “You didn’t read them?” he demanded.

  “No, of course not,” Janet said indignantly. “I just flipped through them to make sure they were all from you. We didn’t want to give you the wrong letters, now did we?”

  “No, right, well, thanks then,” Gavin said, opening the folder and flipping through it. “Is this all the letters you found?” he asked after a moment.

  “So far, at least,” Janet replied. “Why? Were you expecting there to be more?”

  “Well, yeah,” Gavin said. “I mean, I wrote to mum a lot. I thought there’d be a lot more.”

  “If we find anything else, we’ll be sure to drop it off to you,” Joan said.

  “Yeah, or just ring me and I’ll come get whatever it is,” Gavin told them. “I don’t want you to have to keep coming by here.”

  “It’s no problem,” Janet said. “You’re on our way to the grocery store, anyway.”

  “Yeah, well, thanks, then,” Gavin said. He took them each by an arm and led them out of the garage.

  “Those young men looked very young,” Joan remarked as she dug in her handbag for her keys.

  “I run a sort of apprentice-like scheme,” Gavin muttered. “There aren’t a lot of good jobs around here, but people always need someone to fix their cars, you know?”

  “Indeed,” Joan said. “And how nice of you to help out future generations.”

  The sisters climbed into their car. Before Janet shut her door, Gavin grabbed it.

  “I really want the rest of my letters,” he told her intently. “Why don’t I stop over tonight and see if I can find them myself?”

  “That’s not necessary,” Janet answered. “If they’re there, we’ll find them eventually.”

  Gavin frowned and for a moment Janet felt a flash of fear. Before anyone spoke, Joan started the car’s engine. Gavin opened his mouth and then snapped it shut. He pushed Janet’s door shut and stepped away from the car.

  Joan pulled away, back onto the road, headed for home. For several minutes neither woman spoke.

  “I thought we were going grocery shopping,” Janet said eventually.

  “I was afraid that if Gavin thought the house was empty, he might try to find whatever it is he’s after himself,” Joan told her.

  “Good thinking,” Janet said. “He scares me a little bit.”

  “He scares me a lot,” Joan told her.

  “You don’t think he killed his mother, do you?” Janet asked.

  “We don’t have any reason to believe that she was murdered,” Joan pointed out. “But if she was, he’d be my first suspect.”

  “I guess there’s nothing wrong with them taking a break from working on that black car,” Janet said after a moment.

  “I’m not sure it’s strictly legal to be playing poker with your apprentices in the middle of the afternoon,” Joan suggested.

  Janet laughed in spite of her unease at the man’s behaviour. “There seemed to be an awful lot of money on the table. I didn’t know apprentices were that well paid.”

  “So what do you think Gavin’s really after?” Joan asked. “More letters or something else?”

  “He seemed excited when we said we’d found some letters,” Janet replied thoughtfully. “But then disappointed when he saw what we’d brought. Maybe there’s something in one of the letters that gives Gavin a motive for murder. I wish I’d read them now.”

  “Whatever your suspicions of the man, reading the letters would have been wrong,” Joan said firmly.

  “But maybe it would have helped us figure out what Gavin is looking for,” Janet replied.

  “Maybe Stuart will have some idea of what Gavin’s after,” Joan suggested as she pulled into their car park.

  “Why don’t you run to the grocery store while I talk to him?” Janet replied as she too spotted the man, who was busily watering the flowering shrubs along the side of Doveby House.

  “Okay,” Joan agreed. “There are a few little things I really wanted to get today.”

  Janet smiled to herself as she got out of the car. Her sister would be baking up a storm before lunch.

  Chapter Six

  “Another lovely day,” Stuart said as Janet joined him in the garden.

  “It’s so nice to have all this sunshine,” Janet agreed. “I hope it isn’t too much extra work for you.”

  Stuart laughed. “I love watering the flowers,” he told her. “I don’t get to do it very often. We usually have plenty of rain.”

  “Everything looks gorgeous,” Janet told him, taking a moment to truly enjoy the beautiful flowers that seemed to be blooming everywhere in their garden.

  “It’s come a long way in the last few years,” Stuart told her. “When I took over there was nothing here but grass and mud.”

  “Do let us know what we need to pay you for looking after all of this,” Janet said. “I just hope we can afford you.”

  “I’m sure we can come to some sort of agreement,” Stuart said with a wave of his hand. “I love the job.”

  Janet smiled and then tried to think of a way to gradually bring the conversation around to the various things she wanted to ask the man. After a moment, she shrugged. It would be easier to simply be blunt.

  “We found a few letters in the house from Gavin to his mother,” she said.

  Stuart stopped watering the roses and looked at Janet, clearly interested in what she was saying. “Did you now?”

  “Yes, we’ve just dropped them off to him at his garage,” Janet replied. “But he seemed quite disappointed with them. I gather he was looking for something other than those particular letters. Do you have any idea what he might be after?”

  “I never believed it was letters he was after,” Stuart said in a quiet voice. “I think his mother left something really valuable in the house, but only Gavin knows what it is.”

  “Like what?” Janet asked.

  “I don’t know,” Stuart shrugged. “She married a succession of very rich men. Maybe there’s some jewellery or a vase from ancient Egypt or something.”

  “I haven’t seen anything that looks valuable,” Janet said. “Although we haven’t been thro
ugh every drawer in every room yet.”

  “You may not even recognise the thing as valuable,” Stuart suggested. “But I bet Gavin knows exactly what it is. I think his problem is that he isn’t sure where it is.”

  “Has he been in the house since his mother died?”

  “Not as far as I know,” Stuart said. “I’m not exactly sure what happened to Margaret, but the first we knew about her passing was when a man from the trust showed up with a solicitor. The trust had the locks changed and the man asked us to keep an eye out for Gavin in case he came around.”

  “Which he did.”

  “Yes, later that same day he was over there, trying to get in,” Stuart told her. “I rang young Robert and he came and had a word with him.”

  “So he didn’t know about his mother’s death until that day, either?” Janet asked.

  “I guess not,” Stuart said. “He and Margaret had had a big fight about six months before she died and Gavin hadn’t been around to see her after that. Like I said, I’m not really clear on what happened to Margaret.”

  “Surely the trust had someone go through the house and remove anything of great value?” Janet asked.

  “They did, that’s why I reckon whatever Gavin’s after is either hidden or doesn’t look valuable, but is,” Stuart told her. “I don’t know how careful the trust was, anyway. They were so excited at getting the house, I don’t think they gave much thought to the contents.”

  “What does the Doveby Trust do, anyway?” Janet asked.

  “As I understand it, they run a scholarship programme for kids from the Doveby Dale area,” Stuart told her. “They encourage young people to go to university and then come back to the area to work. Doveby Dale is too small to give jobs to all of them when they finish, but they try to get the kids to come back to somewhere in Derbyshire anyway, rather than seeing them all move to London or some other big city in the south.”

  “And Margaret supported what they’re doing?”

  “I didn’t know Margaret even knew they existed,” Stuart replied. “I’ve no idea why she left them anything, let alone her entire estate.”

  Janet frowned. The more questions she asked, the more complicated everything became. “Did you hear someone screaming last night?” she asked, changing the subject completely.

  “It was the full moon, wasn’t it?”

  “The full moon was screaming?”

  “No,” Stuart smiled at her. “Which bedroom are you using? I bet I can guess. I bet you’re in the purple bedroom, aren’t you?”

  “I am, yes,” Janet admitted.

  “Every time there’s a full moon, the ghost in that bedroom screams twice right around two in the morning. At least that’s what Margaret told us. After a while she stopped renting that room when the moon was due to be full. She said it wasn’t worth the bother.”

  “There’s a ghost in my bedroom?” Janet felt a strange mix of fear and excitement.

  “Oh, there are ghosts all over Doveby House,” Stuart replied cheerfully. “It’s been there for a long time and lots of things have happened within its walls. You have to expect a ghost or two in a house that old, don’t you?”

  “I guess I’d never thought about it,” Janet said slowly.

  “And the estate agent wouldn’t have mentioned it,” Stuart said. “He wouldn’t have wanted to risk putting you off the place.”

  “So is the ghost in my bedroom going to scream every time there’s a full moon?” Janet asked.

  “Apparently so. As long as you don’t paint.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Margaret tried painting that room blue once, and apparently the ghost cried every night until she covered the blue with purple again.”

  Janet shook her head. There was a part of her that didn’t believe a word Stuart was saying and a part of her that was keeping an open mind. She did hear the screaming, after all.

  “We aren’t planning on painting the room, at least not for now.”

  “Good, so you only have to worry about full moons,” Stuart said with a grin.

  “What about other ghosts?” Janet asked.

  “Oh, well, there’s one in the coach house, of course,” Stuart replied. “And one in the library.”

  “Stuart? Aren’t you done yet?”

  Janet spun around and forced herself to smile at Mary, who was quickly crossing the grass towards them.

  “I thought we were going into Sheffield for lunch,” she said crossly to her husband. “You said you just needed five minutes.”

  Stuart flushed. “Sorry, love, but I got busy chatting with Janet and lost track of time. Give me two more minutes and I’ll be ready to go.”

  He gave Janet an apologetic smile and turned back to the flowers. Janet walked back towards the car park with Mary.

  “Sorry about that,” she told the other woman. “Joan and I had just been to see Gavin and I was curious if Stuart had any idea what Gavin might want in our new home.”

  “I expect he’s got some drugs hidden in there somewhere,” Mary told her. “You need to look out for things that look like medicine or strange powders.”

  “Really? Gavin does drugs?”

  “I expect so,” Mary replied. “He seems like the type and he and his mum had a huge fight about something. I reckon she found his secret stash in her house and got mad.”

  “Surely if she found it, she would have made him get rid of it,” Janet suggested.

  “Maybe she only found part of it,” Mary said with a shrug. “Or maybe she was using it to keep Gavin in line or something.”

  “Okay, I’m ready to go,” Stuart came up behind them. “I’ve left the hosepipe out,” he told Janet. “I’m going to have to water more later.”

  “No problem,” Janet replied. “Thank you both for taking the time to talk with me. I’m sure I’ll see you soon. Have fun in Sheffield.”

  She watched the pair walk back to their house, wondering what her sister would make of the different ideas about Gavin that they’d shared with her. She didn’t have long to wait to find out. Joan pulled into the car park only a few minutes after Janet had gone inside. Now she rushed back out to help Joan unload the car.

  “Any sign of Gavin?” Joan asked as they worked together in the kitchen, unpacking the groceries.

  “No, although Mary and Stuart both had different theories about what Gavin might be after,” Janet replied.

  “Such as?”

  Janet told her sister everything that the Longs had said, except for what Stuart had said about the ghosts. Joan always said she didn’t believe in such things and Janet was reluctant to bring the matter up, at least for now when they had other things to worry about.

  “So they both think there’s something hidden in the house that Gavin wants, even if they don’t agree on what it might be,” Joan concluded. “I think after lunch we need to search the place. Maybe we can find what Gavin wants.”

  Joan made a light lunch and the pair ate quickly. Janet wasn’t convinced that they would find anything, but they really should have taken the time to go through the whole house as soon as they took possession. With the lunch dishes washed and put away, Joan headed to the owner’s suite, while Janet climbed up to the first floor.

  She did a quick tour of her room, fairly certain that she’d inspected it thoroughly when she’d moved in. There was nothing under the bed. The wardrobe was full of her clothes, and she was positive it had been empty when she’d unpacked. There were no obvious hiding places in the bathroom, but she poked around anyway, checking the empty medicine chest and even lifting off the back of the toilet. There was nothing hiding there.

  Across the hall, she checked the smaller of the two guest rooms. There were a few hatboxes in the back of the wardrobe, and Janet felt her heart racing as she peeked inside the first one. The large black hat that occupied the box wasn’t worth the excitement she’d felt. The other two boxes were also, disappointingly, full of ugly old hats. A quick look around the en-suit
e bathroom revealed nothing and left only the final guest room to check.

  This time Janet started with the bathroom, fairly certain that she would find nothing, which proved to be the case. In the bedroom, the small chest of drawers and the bedside table were both empty. The wardrobe, however, had a few small boxes piled up in the back of it. Janet pulled the boxes out one at a time. She was about to open the top one when she heard her sister calling.

  “Janet? Have you found anything interesting?”

  “I’m in the larger guest room,” Janet called back. “We really do have to give these rooms names or something.”

  “Yes, well, I’ll leave that to you,” Joan told her as she walked into the room. “You’ll come up with something far more interesting than I would. I’d probably call them the blue room and the green room or something.”

  Janet frowned. “I’m sure we can do better than that,” she told her sister. “I just need to do some research. Maybe someone famous once stayed in one of the rooms or something.”

  “I rather doubt that,” Joan replied. “I’m sure the estate agent would have mentioned it when he showed us around, if that were the case.”

  “Maybe he didn’t know,” Janet answered, unwilling to be discouraged.

  “Anyway, I found a few boxes in the back of one of the cupboards downstairs,” Joan told her. “What have you found?”

  “A couple of boxes as well,” Janet replied. Joan crossed to her and Janet opened the first box.

  “Are they car parts?” Joan asked as they stared into the box.

  “I’ve no idea,” Janet answered. The box was full of metal plates in various sizes as well as assorted screws, washers, and other metal parts that the sisters couldn’t identify. Janet poked around inside the box, but recognised nothing.

  They set the box to one side and opened the next one. It seemed to be full of old papers. Janet flipped through the pile. “Gas bills, electricity bills, car registrations, receipts for big-ticket items, notes from former guests, and the like,” she told her sister. “I don’t see anything especially interesting here, do you?”

  Joan glanced at the top couple of sheets and shook her head. “It all looks to be at least a couple of years old, as well as uninteresting. We should go through the lot though, at some point, just in case there’s something important in the pile.”