Aunt Bessie Goes (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 7) (2 page)

“I’m sorry,”
Bessie said again.

“As I said, it’s
been a long time coming.
 
Sue and I
had a whirlwind romance and got married only three months after we met.
 
By the time Sue
realised
that she wasn’t really over her previous boyfriend, Thomas was on the way and
we decided to try to make it work anyway.
 
We’ve had our ups and downs over the years since, but the last couple of
years have been more downs than ups, especially since her mother got sick.”

“How is her
mother?” Bessie asked.

“She’d doing
okay and she’s thrilled that Sue and the kids have moved back,” John
replied.
 
Bessie could hear a great
deal of sadness in his voice.
 
“You
know that ex-boyfriend of Sue’s that I mentioned?”

Bessie nodded.

“Well, he’s
one of the top oncologists in the country and he’s Sue’s mum’s doctor, so they
see each other quite regularly.”
 
John sighed again and then rubbed a hand across his face.
 
“She never stopped loving him, and he’s
never married.
 
I don’t suppose it
will be long before they start dating again.”

Bessie bit her
lip before she said the first thing that came into her mind.
 
John must have read something in the
look on her face, however, and he shook his head.

“No, they
haven’t been seeing each other behind my back,” he told Bessie.
 
“Sue’s a really good person and she
wouldn’t do that to me.
 
He’s is a
good guy, too, actually.
 
I’m sure
they’ve been tempted, but I know I can trust Sue to do what’s right.
 
She always has, but she can’t help how
she feels.”

Bessie nodded
slowly.
 
“It must be difficult for
her as well,” she said after a moment.
 

“It is,” John
acknowledged.
 
“We both feel guilty
about breaking up the family, and I feel like I should move back across so that
I can at least be closer to them.”
 
He shook his head.
 
“For now
anyway, we’ve decided that I’ll stay here, in the place I love, doing the job I
also love.
 
The children will come
over for weekends and holidays when I can arrange my schedule to have time
off.”
 

He shrugged
again.
 
“It isn’t ideal, but we’re
going to make it work.
 
With the
long and variable hours that the job requires, I didn’t see all that much of
them or Sue anyway.
 
I’m sure it
will all work out, eventually.”

Bessie
nodded.
 
“If I can do anything to
help, please ask,” she said.

Rockwell smiled.
 
“I was hoping you’d say that.”

“I’d better
make some tea,” Bessie suggested.

“I hope I’m
not asking for that much,” Rockwell protested.
 
“Although I wouldn’t say no to a
cuppa
.”

Bessie put
fresh water in the kettle and switched it on.
 
While she waited for it to boil, she
found some fancy chocolate-covered biscuits in the cupboard and piled them onto
a plate.
 
Passing John a small
plate, she set one out for herself as well before fixing the tea.
 
Once they both had tea and biscuits, she
sat back in her chair and smiled.

“Okay, what
can I do for you?” she asked.

“Can you, I
don’t know, talk to a few people in for me?” he asked.
 
“I don’t want to discuss what’s going
on, but there are a lot of people who probably want to know.
 
I was hoping you might share the news
with one or two people so that I don’t have to go over it all again.”

Bessie
nodded.
 
“I assume you mean Doona,
first of all,” she replied.
 
“What
about Hugh?” she asked, referring to Hugh Watterson, a young constable who had
also become a friend.

“Doona
definitely, and Hugh,” Rockwell told her.

“Was there
anyone else?”

Rockwell
shrugged.
 
“Not specifically,” he
answered.
 
“But there isn’t any
reason to keep quiet, either.
 
If
anyone asks if you know anything, I’d rather you told them what was really
going on, rather than have everyone speculating.”

“On an island
this small, you can bet there will be plenty of speculating anyway,” Bessie
said with a chuckle.

“I know, but
at least this way I don’t have to say anything and I know that someone is
telling the real story.”

“That’s easy
enough,” Bessie assured him.
 
“Surely
there’s more I can do?”

“There was one
other thing,” he said in an uncertain tone.

“Which is?”

“I need to
find a little house here in Laxey,” he told her.
 
“There’s no point in my living in Ramsey
by myself, since I’m stationed here.
 
Anyway, we’ve put the house in Ramsey on the market.
 
I need something with at least three
bedrooms for when the kids visit and I’d like to be fairly centrally
located.
 
I was wondering if you’d
be willing to go house hunting with me?”

Bessie sat
back in her chair, surprised by the request.
 
“Of course I can,” she said after a
moment.
 
“Although I’m not sure why
you’d want me to.”

Rockwell
flushed.
 
“I really just want a
second opinion,” he explained.
 
“And
you’ll know more about the history of the houses here than I will, as well.”

Bessie
nodded.
 
“That’s certainly true,”
she said.
 
“And there are a few
places you’ll want to avoid, actually.
 
Some of the builders over the years have cut corners here or there on
various projects.”

“That’s the
sort of inside knowledge I need.”

“And I’m happy
to share it with you,” Bessie replied.

“I’m supposed
to be going around a few properties on Saturday,” John told her.
 
“If you can come with me for the
morning, I’ll buy you lunch at
La
Terrazza
to thank you.”

“You don’t
have to do that,” Bessie replied.
 
“But if you insist, I’m always happy to eat there.”

The inspector
left just before nine, looking slightly less miserable than he had on
arrival.
 
Bessie decided that she
couldn’t do much more for him than that at the moment.
 
He was going to pick her up on Saturday
morning at nine for house hunting, which gave her several days to talk to Doona
and let her know what was happening in John’s personal life.

She didn’t
wait, of course, ringing Doona as soon as John’s car’s lights disappeared up
the road behind her house.

“So what’s
going on?” Doona demanded after they’d exchanged pleasantries.

“John and Sue
have split up,” Bessie told her.

Doona
gasped.
 
“I thought as much,” she
exclaimed.
 
“But John wouldn’t
discuss it with me.”

“He doesn’t
want to talk about it with anyone,” Bessie said.
 
“That’s why he told me that I could tell
you.”

“The poor
man,” Doona said.
 
“Is she moving
back to Manchester, then?”

“I gather she
already has.”

“So what about
John?
 
Is he staying here, then, or
moving back across?”

“For now, at
least, he’s staying here, thankfully,” Bessie assured her.

“Indeed.
 
I’m sure I’d have to find a new job if
Inspector Kelly took back over at the station for good.”

“Well, I
gather that isn’t happening, at least not for now.
 
John wants to stay here, but he wants to
be able to spend time with his children as well.
 
I hope they can make it all work.”

“I don’t
suppose you know any of the juicy details,” Doona remarked.
 

“I….” was all
that Bessie managed to say before Doona interrupted.

“No, don’t say
anything.
 
Even if you do know all
the details, I don’t want to hear them.
 
John can tell me more if he wants me to know more.
 
Not that you were going to tell me
anyway.”

Bessie
laughed.
 
“It doesn’t matter, if you
don’t want to know,” she said.
 
“He’s
suggested that I talk to Hugh as well,” she told her friend.
 
“I suppose it’s too late to ring him
tonight, though.”

“I can talk to
him tomorrow morning,” Doona offered.
 
“We’re both working the early shift and John isn’t due in until ten, so
we should have plenty of time to talk.”

“That sounds
good,” Bessie agreed.
 

The rest of
the week passed quickly.
 
Bessie
spent a few minutes one afternoon looking over the most recent brochures from
the island’s three main estate agencies.
 
There seemed to be very little available in Laxey at the moment and much
of what was for sale seemed to need a great deal of work.
 
Bessie couldn’t see the busy inspector
finding time to do the work himself or even to supervise others who could be
hired to do it for him.
 
The prices
were something of a shock as well, although she knew from her recent house
hunting tour in Douglas that property prices on the island were going up
rapidly.

Friday night
Doona came over for dinner.
 
Bessie
greeted her friend with a hug.

“I feel as if
I haven’t seen you in a long while,” Bessie said after Doona had settled in at
the kitchen table.

“We had brunch
on Sunday,” Doona said.
 
“But that
does seem quite a long time ago, for some reason.”

“How was your
week?” Bessie asked as she pulled a cottage pie from the cooker.

“It was busy,”
Doona replied.
 
“We’re still getting
back into proper routines now that most of the staff have had their summer
holidays.”

“You never did
take any time off,” Bessie said.

“I might take
a few days in October,” Doona said with a shrug.
 
“I really love my job, so I don’t feel
like I need a holiday all that badly.”

“How’s John?”
Bessie asked, feeling as if she were holding her breath to hear the answer.

“He’s, well, I
guess he’s better,” Doona said thoughtfully.
 
“He was obviously miserable when he got
back from his holiday, but he wouldn’t talk to anyone about it.
 
Now that we all know what’s going on, he
seems more relaxed.
 
No one has had
the nerve to ask him any questions yet, but the atmosphere at the station is a
little lighter.”

“That’s good
news.”

Bessie served
generous helpings of cottage pie with roasted vegetables on the side.
 
Doona jumped up and grabbed cold drinks
for them both and then they settled in to enjoy the meal.

“That was
delicious,” Doona said as she finished her last mouthful.
 
“I don’t even have room for pudding.”

Bessie
laughed.
 
“I made brownies from that
American recipe book I got a few months ago.
 
I’m sure if you let things settle for a
bit, you’ll find some room.”

Doona
groaned.
 
“I love those brownies,”
she said.
 
“I’ll just have a small
one with a
cuppa
, I guess.”

Bessie made
tea while Doona cleared the table and did the washing up.
 
The pair sat back down with tea and
brownies with vanilla ice cream.

“I’m going
house hunting with John tomorrow,” Bessie told her friend.
 
“He wants to find a place here in
Laxey.”

Doona smiled
 
“That’s good news.
 
I noticed that they’d put the house in
Ramsey on the market and I was worried he was just going to keep renting up
here until he was sure he was staying.
 
If he’s buying here, he must be pretty sure he wants to stay.”

“Whether he’s
staying or not, buying makes good sense.
 
Prices are going up rapidly.
 
If he waits a year or two he might not be able to afford anything.”

“That’s true,”
Doona said.
 
“I’m really glad I
bought my house when I did.
 
I’m
sure I couldn’t afford much of anything now.
 
Of course now I’m starting to get
tempted to remortgage and use some the equity to treat myself, but so far I’ve
resisted.”

Bessie
laughed.
 
“What would you treat
yourself to?” she asked.

Doona thought
about that for a moment.
 
“I’d love
a holiday,” she said eventually.
 
“I’ve always wanted to visit America.”

“We should
both start saving our pennies.
 
We
could go and visit my family there,” Bessie said, only half teasing.

“And I’d like
to make over my master bathroom,” Doona continued.
 
“I want a big huge bathtub with jets and
a heater so I could take baths for hours.”

Bessie
wrinkled her nose.
 
“I like a bath
on rare occasions, but it’s never as enjoyable as it ought to be.
 
The water gets cold too fast and it’s
hard to read without getting your book wet.
 
I end up getting bored and getting out rather
quickly, usually.”