The Appleton Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novella Book 1) Page 7

  “That’s very kind of you,” Janet told him, giving him bonus points for being so thoughtful. She looked over at her sister. Joan looked more pleased than Janet had ever seen her look before.

  “I did make sure she’d have something to eat,” Joan told Michael. “I made soup. She just has to heat it up.”

  Michael laughed. “But she’ll miss out on your company,” he pointed out. “Surely that warrants a few flowers.”

  “Whatever the reason, they’re beautiful and I very much appreciate them,” Janet said. “Now off you two go. Have a wonderful time.”

  Janet nearly shoved her sister out the door. Michael took Joan’s arm and escorted her down the steps to the pavement. Janet watched as they crossed the road and Michael helped Joan into his car. Only then did she shut the door.

  For a giddy moment she felt like shouting. From what she’d seen, Michael was a lovely man and he and Joan seemed well suited. She just hoped her sister would get over her nerves and actually enjoy herself.

  In the kitchen, she arranged the flowers in a vase and then heated her soup. She sliced some fresh bread to have with it and washed the meal down with a cup of tea. After washing up, she sat back in her chair, uncertain of exactly what she wanted to do with an evening to herself. Before she’d made up her mind, she heard a knock on the door.

  “Constable Parsons, this is a surprise,” she said when she’d opened the door.

  “I just have a few questions about the box you brought in to me,” the young man replied. “Can I have a few minutes of your time?”

  “Certainly, do come in,” Janet offered.

  “I’m sorry I’ve come by so late,” he said after he’d taken a seat in the small sitting room. “I was rather busy yesterday, and today was one of my days to be in Little Burton. It was only an hour ago that I stopped back at the station and found the box.”

  “What about the missing child?” Janet had to ask.

  “She was at her grandmother’s house,” the policeman replied. “It was all just a big misunderstanding.”

  “And what about the little girl from Clowne?”

  “That child is still missing,” he said with a frown. “It’s quite sad and a very difficult case, but that isn’t why I’m here.”

  “No, of course not, sorry,” Janet said. “What did you want to ask me?”

  “Is your sister at home?”

  “No, does that matter?”

  “I suppose not. Do you mind if I ask where she is?”

  Janet frowned. “I guess not,” she answered slowly, wondering why the man was asking. “She’s having dinner with a friend.”

  Robert nodded. “As you both were parties to finding the box, I’d like to hear the whole story from each of you. I suppose it’s better that she isn’t home. I can interview her separately another time.”

  “So what we found is important?” Janet asked.

  The man shrugged. “I just want to be clear on how you came to find it,” he said. “I haven’t gone through the whole box yet, but at first glance it seems as if some of the contents might be interesting.”

  “Interesting in a criminal context?”

  “Let’s just leave it at interesting, shall we?”

  Janet felt a hundred questions flood to her lips, but she rejected most of them before speaking. “What do you need to know?” was the question that she finally let out.

  “Where did you find the box?”

  “It was in the back of the wardrobe in one of the guest rooms,” Janet answered.

  “Were there other boxes there, or just that one?”

  “There were two others, but they just contained paperwork.”

  “Can I have a quick look at the other two boxes?”

  Janet thought for a moment, but couldn’t think of any reason not to let the man go through the boxes. “Let me go and get them,” she told him.

  They’d left the boxes in Joan’s small sitting room. Janet carried them both into the main sitting room. Constable Parsons was sitting exactly where she’d left him when she returned.

  He quickly took the boxes from her and then set them on the coffee table. He sat down and opened the top box. After only barely glancing inside each box, he was back on his feet.

  “Thank you,” he said. “I think I’ve seen enough for tonight. I’ll probably be back tomorrow to have a better look at what you have there.”

  Janet opened her mouth to reply, but the man was already leaving. She hurried behind him, getting to the door after he’d already pulled it open.

  “Thank you for bringing me that box,” he said as he headed across the porch. “We’ll get everything sorted out tomorrow, I imagine.”

  Janet shut the door behind him and sighed. Get what sorted out? And why tomorrow and not tonight? What had the man seen in the papers that Margaret had left behind?

  Back in the sitting room, Janet flipped through the first box, looking for a clue as to what the policeman had seen. Nothing in the pile of utility bills and correspondence caught her eye. She opened the second box and looked at the first few sheets. The third item in the box caught her eye.

  The paper was thick and felt expensive. It was from “Powell, Brown, Abbot and Grey, Solicitors.”

  Without her sister there to stop her, Janet read the letter, which simply confirmed that Margaret had made an appointment to make changes to her will. The handwritten note in the margin was more interesting.

  “Maggie, I know you and Gavin are not getting along at the moment, but to suggest that he might do anything to harm you seems extreme. We’ll talk on Monday about the changes you want to make. George”

  The letter was signed by “George Abbot” and his signature seemed to match the handwritten note. Janet sat back and tried to think. The appointment mentioned in the letter would have taken place after Margaret’s death, so presumably the woman never made whatever changes to her will she was planning.

  Janet paced around the room, wondering what Margaret had been intending. Had Gavin known about the appointment and killed his mother to prevent her keeping it? Perhaps Gavin didn’t realise that his mother had already cut him out of her will. Perhaps he thought she was going to do that with this appointment. Would that have led Gavin to murder her?

  When she couldn’t answer any of those questions, Janet switched to thinking about the box of car parts. Was Gavin doing something illegal or unethical at his garage? Was it possible that his mother was threatening to go to the police with the box of parts?

  Janet sighed and sat back down on the couch. Joan was on her mind at least as much as Gavin and his mother. Was her sister having a good time? Janet could only hope that Joan and Michael would find things to talk about and have a good meal. She looked at the clock.

  It was only half eight and way too early to think about heading to bed. She wandered into the library and pulled down a book at random. It was an old detective story and Janet flipped through the pages, unable to actually concentrate on the story. A passage caught her eye.

  The police don’t seem interested in anything I tell them. I think it’s time to do some of my own investigating.

  Janet read the lines again and then frowned. Such behaviour was always a bad idea in these sorts of books. She shut the book and slid it back onto the shelf. There was no way she was contemplating such an action herself. She didn’t even know what she ought to investigate. She couldn’t very well tell the police that she thought Gavin might have murdered his mother when she had no idea how the woman had died.

  In the kitchen, she fixed herself a cup of tea. She pulled out a box of biscuits and frowned. Digestives just didn’t sound good. She wanted custard creams. She dug though the cupboard, but there weren’t any custard creams hiding at the back. As she sipped her tea, she nibbled her way through a digestive, but it wasn’t the same.

  Five minutes later she found herself in the car, heading to the nearby grocery store. It wasn’t like her to be out and about at nearly nine o’clock, but she wouldn’t
sleep until her sister was home anyway, and she’d feel much better once she’d had a few custard creams.

  She slowed down as she passed Gavin’s garage, wondering to herself if driving past the garage was the real reason she’d come out. She pushed the thought from her mind and drove on to the grocery store. As she had no idea where the man lived, she couldn’t snoop any further than she had, pointlessly driving past the garage that had been dark and shut up tight.

  She pulled out a trolley and made her way through the store, randomly selecting everything that sounded good. Ten minutes later, at the tills, she giggled to herself. Joan would have a fit when she saw all of the unhealthy food Janet had picked out. Janet knew that Joan would eat her fair share of the crisps, cakes, chocolate and biscuits, however much she complained.

  “Having a little party?” the cashier asked as she packed everything into bags.

  “Just a small one,” Janet answered, hoping she wasn’t blushing as much as she felt she was.

  “I love these, “ the girl said, holding up a box of cakes. “I could eat this whole box in one sitting.”

  “At my age, if I did that, I’d gain ten pounds,” Janet told her with a rueful smile.

  “Oh, I know. My mum keeps telling me that I won’t be able to keep eating like I do in a few years,” the young girl said cheerfully. “I’m studying to be a dietician at university, anyway, so I do try to eat healthy most of the time. It would easier if fattening food didn’t taste so good.”

  Janet laughed. There was no way she could argue with the girl.

  “Let me get Jack to walk you out,” the girl insisted. “He can load up your car.”

  Janet protested, but the girl had already buzzed the office for assistance. Jack turned out to be a tall and gangly young man who looked no more than sixteen. He blushed bright red when the cashier spoke to him.

  “Jack, can you please help this lady to her car and load everything into her boot?” she asked

  “Sure,” he muttered. He walked ahead of Janet out of the store, pushing her trolley for her.

  She unlocked the car and then opened the boot for him. It only took Jack a few moments to load the bags into it.

  “Thank you kindly,” she told the boy.

  “You’re welcome,” he mumbled.

  “My sister and I have just bought Doveby House,” Janet said. “I suspect you’ll be seeing a lot of us here in the future.”

  “Doveby House? From Gavin Appleton?”

  “Well, from his mother’s estate,” Janet replied. “Do you know Gavin?”

  “Not really, but I know a few of the guys who work for him,” Jack said. “I’d advise you to stay away from them, really. They aren’t nice guys.”

  “They aren’t?”

  “I thought about applying there. Gavin seems to pay really well, but he hired some old schoolmates of mine that I’m not eager to spend time with,” Jack explained. “This place doesn’t pay nearly as well, but I like everyone I work with.”

  Janet wanted to ask the boy a dozen more questions, but he glanced back at the store and then grabbed the now empty trolley.

  “I’d better get back to work,” he said. “I guess I’ll see you around.”

  Janet nodded. “I’m sure you will.”

  She climbed into her car and sat behind the wheel for several minutes, thinking about what Jack had said. She was surprised to hear that Gavin paid well. The garage didn’t look as if it were that successful. Shaking her head, she started the engine. She’d met some of Gavin’s staff, and she had to agree with what Jack had said. They didn’t seem like nice young men.

  She headed for home, eagerly anticipating not only custard creams, but a few other little treats while she waited for her sister. Almost unconsciously, she found herself slowing down slightly as she approached Gavin’s garage. She was startled to see one of the overhead doors open and lights on inside the building. Slowing down even further, Janet tried to see who was at the garage and what they were doing.

  Without giving herself time to think, Janet indicated and then turned into the car park for the garage. She drove to the far end of the lot, pulling into a space as far from the building as she could get. None of the light from inside the garage reached this far and there were no streetlights along this stretch of road. Janet turned off her car’s engine and sat in the darkness, trying to figure out what she was going to do next.

  Chapter Nine

  After watching the garage for several minutes, she didn’t see anyone moving around inside it. Rather quickly, she began to get bored. The sensible voice inside her head told her to go home and eat biscuits. Janet chose to listen to the other voice that suggested she should check things out.

  She opened her car door and stepped outside, shutting the door behind her as quietly as she could. The noise felt loud to her, and she waited for someone to come rushing out of the garage to investigate, but no one appeared. She walked quickly from her car towards the edge of the building, trying to keep to the shadows. Feeling somewhat ridiculous, she crept along the building’s side wall, stopping to listen every few seconds.

  When she reached the open garage door, the third one, that was furthest from the office end of the building, she stopped and listened carefully. She couldn’t hear anything except the pounding of her own heart. The sensible voice told her to go home.

  “Hello?” she called softly, stepping into the garage. A couple of cautious steps later, she called again. “Hello? Is there anyone here?”

  The bay with the open door was empty, but there were cars parked in the other two spaces. Janet knew very little about cars, but they both looked relatively new. Janet wondered what was wrong with them that they were in the garage for repair.

  After a moment’s indecision, she headed towards the small office where they’d found Gavin the last time they’d visited. The door was open, but the room was dark. Janet didn’t dare turn on any lights, but she had a quick look around. There was no sign of the poker game they’d interrupted. In fact, the table in the centre of the room was completely bare, as was the top of the desk along the back wall. Janet thought about seeing what was in the desk drawers, but she wasn’t brave enough.

  She sighed and headed back towards the open garage door. If she wasn’t brave enough to snoop properly, she might as well go home. She’d only taken a few steps when she heard the sound of a car engine. Without thinking, she dashed back into the office, hoping she would be out of sight there.

  A car swung into the last empty bay. Janet watched as someone switched off the engine and climbed out. In the rather dim lighting, Janet thought she recognised the man as one of young men who had been playing cards with Gavin on her last visit to the garage.

  He stood quietly, looking out the door for a few moments, as if waiting for something. Then Janet could hear another car approaching. She watched as the man walked to the door of the garage and then disappeared through it. After a moment, she saw someone pull down on the overhead door.

  Janet suddenly realised that she was in danger of being shut up inside the garage. Now she hurried towards the closing door, but she was torn between shouting and not wanting to be found. She felt helpless as the door banged into place, leaving her standing between two cars. She heard a car engine race and listened to the sound as it got further and further away.

  There has to be a way to open the garage doors from the inside, she told herself, ignoring the part of her that was panicking completely. She walked towards the door, looking all around for some handle or something that could be used to open it. A sudden noise behind her had her jumping. Her heart beat faster as she stood still, uncertain of which was to go next.

  Another sudden noise startled her. It was the loud click that indicated that the overhead light had just switched off. Janet froze in place as the entire garage was plunged into darkness.

  For several minutes, Janet didn’t move. Her heart was racing and she felt terrified. As her eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness, her fear
was replaced by anger at her own stupidity and embarrassment at the predicament she now found herself in.

  With a deep sigh, she dug into her handbag and found her mobile phone. It lit up as she tapped in her pin code, the bright light making her blink in the otherwise dark space.

  “Joan, it’s me. I’m awfully sorry to interrupt your date, but I’m afraid I need a bit of help.”

  Janet explained the situation and then leaned against the closest car as her sister launched into a lengthy lecture about her foolishness. When Joan paused for a breath, Janet jumped in.

  “Why don’t you wait and yell at me when you see me?” Janet suggested. “For now, I’d much rather you find a way to get me out of here.”

  Janet heard Joan sigh deeply. “Hold on,” she instructed her sister.

  “Like I’ve any choice,” Janet mumbled. She could hear her sister talking with Michael. After what felt like at least an hour to Janet, Joan’s voice came back down the line.

  “I’m afraid we can’t come up with anything besides ringing Robert Parsons,” Joan said. “We’ll ring him and I’ll let you know what he says.”

  Joan hung up before Janet could speak. She pressed the disconnect button on her phone and watched as the handset went dark. She very nearly began to cry in the silent blackness.

  Later Janet would discover that Joan, Michael and Constable Parsons arrived less than twenty minutes after that call ended. If you’d asked Janet, she would have said it was more like five or six hours. All Janet could think about what how stupidly she’d behaved and the custard creams that were sitting in her car just outside.

  The next time I go snooping, I’m going to bring snacks, she decided as she waited. Of course, I’m never snooping again, she added. After a short time she tried walking carefully around the parked cars, but it was too dark and there were too many obstacles along the floor to make it safe for her to move around. After tripping over something unseen for the second time, Janet decided to stand absolutely still and wait to be rescued. She heard the car before she heard voices.