The Bennett Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Book 2) (7 page)

Janet had
joined her by now and she reached over and pulled the picture off the
wall.
 
Both women gasped.
 
Behind the painting, built into the
wall, was a small safe.

“I suspect we
might have just found what Edward was doing in the library,” Janet said in a
whisper.

“How would he
even know this was here?” Joan asked.
 
“And why didn’t anyone tell us?”

“He and Maggie
were very close, apparently,”
Janet
replied, aware
that she sounded quite cross as she spoke.
 
“And perhaps no one else knew about the safe,” she added.

Joan reached
out and pulled on the safe’s door, but it didn’t open.
 
She spun the dial a few times and then
sighed.
 
“Want to guess the
combination?”

Janet sighed
as well.
 
“We could guess a million
times and never get it right,” she said grumpily.
 
“We don’t even know how many numbers are
in the combination.”

“You could ask
Edward,” Joan suggested.

“No way,”
Janet replied.
 
“We’ll have to hire
someone to open it for us.”

“That will
probably be costly and ruin the safe,” Joan argued.
 
“I’ll ask him if you won’t.
 
I’ll just mention that we found the safe
and wondered if he knew the combination, that’s all.
 
He doesn’t have to know that you saw him
coming out of here last night.”

Janet sighed
again.
 
She couldn’t explain to her
sister exactly how she felt.
 
She
wasn’t even sure herself.
 
The
thought that Edward might know the combination to Maggie Appleton’s safe just
made her feel uncomfortable.
 
It
suggested an even greater intimacy than she’d already assumed they’d
shared.
 
The letters spoke of
physical closeness, but sharing the combination to a hidden safe suggested a
more serious commitment.

Before the
sisters could discuss things further, they heard someone knocking on the front
door.
 

“I’ll tidy up
in here,” Janet told her sister.
 
“You go and see who’s at the door.”

Joan headed
out while Janet quickly rehung the painting.
 
She collected the folders full of
letters and dropped them into the bottom drawer, sliding it shut.
 
After a quick glance around the room to
make sure she hadn’t missed anything, she switched off the light and shut the
door.

“Hardly worth
locking it,” she muttered to herself as she turned the key in the lock.
 

She could hear
her sister’s voice coming from the sitting room, along with a deeper voice that
she didn’t
recognise
.

“I’m sorry,
but I don’t think so,” Joan was saying as Janet entered the room.

Joan was
standing in the
centre
of the room with her hands on
her hips.
 
She didn’t even glance at
Janet, instead keeping her eyes pinned on the man standing across from her.

Janet studied
the stranger.
 
He was another grey-haired
man who looked to be somewhere in his sixties.
 
He was dressed in a dark grey suit that
fit him perfectly and he was clearly trying to smile in the face of Joan’s
upset.

Chapter
Seven

“What’s going
on?” Janet asked.

“Good
morning,” the man said, giving Janet a smarmy smile.
 
“You must be the other Markham
sister.
 
I’ve heard so much about
you both.”

“Really?”
Janet replied.
 
“I hope you didn’t
believe any of it.”

The man
laughed, an annoyingly grating sound.
 
“I only believed the good things,” he said.
 

“Who are you?”
Janet asked, tired of being polite.

“How remiss of
me,” the man said.
 
“I introduced
myself to your sister, of course.
 
I’m William Chalmers.”
 
He
said it as if she ought to know the name.
 
Then he offered his hand and Janet took a few steps towards him to take
it.

“I’m Janet
Markham,” she replied.
 
He held her
hand for a moment or two longer than she felt was necessary.
 
As soon as he let go, she took a step
backwards.

“I’m sorry,
but your name means nothing to me,” she told him, watching him closely.
 
Something like annoyance flashed over
his features before his artificial smile slid back into place.

“I had hoped that
the small business owners of
Doveby
Dale would stick
together and support one another,” he replied.
 
“Perhaps that was overly optimistic of
me.”

“I’m not sure
what your aspirations have to do with us,” Janet said.

“As the owners
of the village’s premier bed and breakfast establishment, surely you are both
deeply interested in the sorts of shops and restaurants that
Doveby
Dale has to offer,” he intoned.

“As we aren’t
actually open for business yet, I suppose the thought had yet to cross our
mind,” Janet replied.
 
Although the
man was hugely annoying, she still had no idea what he’d said to upset Joan.

“Yes, well, I
suggest you start paying attention to what’s happening in the village,” William
told her.
 
“The wrong sort of shops
could be seriously detrimental to your guesthouse.
 
You don’t want to start attracting the
wrong sort of people, now do you?”

Janet forced
herself to smile.
 
“Thank you for
the advice,” she said.
 
“If that was
all you needed, I’ll see you out.
 
Joan and I are quite busy.
 
I’m sure you understand.”

“Oh, but that
isn’t why I’m here at all,” William replied.
 
“I came to buy some books.
 
I was told that you have a small library
full of old books, and I need some.
 
I’m opening a very exclusive antique shop, you see, and I want to
scatter a few old books among the bookshelves and desks that I’ll have for
sale.”

Well, that
explained Joan’s upset, Janet thought.
 
The library was a large part of the reason why they’d purchased
Doveby
House in the first place.
 
Both women were hugely fond of the
space, even if they had yet to go through the books that had been included in
the sale of the house.
 

“Were you
looking for any particular books or authors?” Janet asked, curious what the man
was planning.

“Oh, goodness,
no,” William exclaimed.
 
“I just
need about eighteen inches worth of old hardcover books, that’s all.”

“You want to
buy books by the inch?” Janet asked, incredulously.

“Sure, why
not?”

Janet
exchanged looks with her sister.
 
“I’m sorry, but we aren’t planning on selling any of the books in our
library,” she said after a moment.
 
“We haven’t been here long enough to even begin to catalogue what we
have.
 
There’s certainly no way we could
just choose a random selection and sell it to you.”

“I won’t be
opening for business for several weeks yet,” the man said.
 
“If you find some books you don’t want,
do let me know.”

He reached
into a pocket and pulled out a silver card case.
 
“My card,” he announced as he handed a
card to Janet.
 
She glanced at it
and then put it down on the closest table.

“If I were
you, I’d start looking elsewhere for books,” she advised as she walked with him
to the door.
 
“I can’t imagine we’ll
want to get rid of any of ours.”

“What an
unpleasant man,” Janet said to Joan after she’d locked the door behind their
unexpected visitor.

“He was worse
before you came in,” Joan told her.
 
“He started out by giving me a lecture about all of the things we’re
doing wrong here and then he demanded that I show him the library.”

“My goodness,
I’m glad I came in when I did,” Janet said.
 
She crossed the room and gave Joan a
hug.
 
“Let’s look on the bright
side, maybe he’s Peter Smith.”

Joan
chuckled.
 
“Now I’m feeling quite
torn,” she replied.
 
“I was hoping
Leonard would turn out to be the conman so that he’d go away, but now I do
rather hope it is William Chalmers.
 
I hate the thought of him having a business in
Doveby
Dale.”

Another knock
on the door interrupted their conversation.

“If it’s him
again, don’t let him in,” Joan told Janet as Janet headed towards the door.

“I definitely
won’t,” Janet said emphatically.

She was quite
happy to see Constable Parsons on their doorstep.
 
“I do hope you’ve come to tell us that
Peter Smith is once again safely behind bars,” she said after they’d all taken
seats in the sitting room.

“Unfortunately
not,” he replied.
 
“I just wanted to
check in on your two.
 
It rather
worries me, the two of you living here on your own.”

“Did you worry
about Maggie Appleton?” Joan asked sharply.
 
“She was completely on her own.”

“Maggie nearly
always had a husband here with her,” he replied.
 
“They never seemed to last long, but she
always had a replacement ready when one left.
 
Anyway, there was no doubt in my mind
that Maggie could take care of herself.”

“And you don’t
think we can do the same?” Janet asked before Joan could start shouting.

“I’m not
saying that,” the young man said, flushing.
 
“But with Peter Smith possibly in the
area, I just thought it would be wise to check on you, that’s all.”

“That’s kind
of you,” Janet told him, shooting Joan a “keep quiet” look.
 
“We’ve been meaning to ring you
anyway.
 
We’ve met a few more men
that could fit Mr. Smith’s description.”

The constable
pulled out his notebook.
 
“We are
still checking, very discreetly, into the two men you told me about last time,”
he told them.
 
“As it’s very likely
both men are exactly who they claim to be, we don’t want to upset them.”

“Yes, well,
perhaps you should do the same with James Abbott, who is staying with the
Longs.
 
He’s meant to be a
step-brother-in-law or some such thing to Mary Long,” Janet said.

Robert made a
note.
 
“Someone mentioned that the
Longs had a guest, but they didn’t have any details.”

“The other man
who bears some investigating is a Mr. William Chalmers,” Joan said.
 
“He claims to be opening an antique shop
in the village, and he’s thoroughly unpleasant.”
 
She handed Robert the card that William
had given to Janet.

“Perhaps he’s
the man who’s leased the old greeting card and gift shop on the high street,”
Robert replied.
 
“It’s been empty for
a few years, and I noticed the other day that someone had cleared some of the
mess out of it.
 
I’ll have to stop
by and introduce myself to him.”

“I doubt he’s
doing the work himself,” Janet said.
 
“He doesn’t seem the type to clean anything.”

Robert nodded
and made another note on his pad.
 
“Thank you for the information,” he said.
 
“I do hope you’re both locking your
bedroom doors at night while you have a guest.”

“We are,”
Janet assured him.
 
“And we both
double-check all of the outside doors before we head to bed as well.”

“Modern
security systems are quite useful,” he suggested.
 
“You could track movement around the
inside of the house as well as monitoring the exterior doors and windows.”

“I’m not sure
our guests would feel especially welcome if we told them that they couldn’t
move about the house after a certain time at night,” Joan replied.
 
“Part of the whole bed and breakfast
experience is feeling like you’re staying in a home rather than a hotel.
 
If someone fancies a midnight snack or
wants to watch a bit of
telly
after Janet and I are
in bed, they should be able to move around without ringing alarms or bringing
the police.”

“I suppose
that makes sense,” the man conceded.

“You really
mustn’t worry about us,” Joan told him.
 
“We’re a lot tougher than we look.”

“I’m sure you
are,” Robert replied, but he didn’t look convinced.

“Maybe I
should take some karate classes or something,” Janet said after she’d locked up
behind the policeman.

“I wonder if
we could,” Joan replied, surprising her sister.

“Seriously?”

“It’s
something to think about.”

Joan
disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Janet blinking in astonishment.
 
Retirement was changing her older sister
in all sorts of ways.
 
After a
moment, she followed Joan into the kitchen.

“The coach
house is open, which means Stuart and James are still working in the garden,”
Joan said.
 
“I thought I would take
them some tea.”

“I’ll help,”
Janet offered.

Joan arranged
a pot of tea on a tray, with milk and sugar in tiny containers.
 
She added two cups while Janet piled
biscuits onto a small plate.
 
Joan
carried the tray, while Janet opened the French doors for her.
 
They crossed the garden to the coach
house where Stuart stored some of his gardening equipment.

“Hello?
 
Stuart?
 
Are you here?” Joan called as they
approached the coach house door.

Stuart’s head
popped out of the coach house.
 
“We’re
in here, trying to
reorganise
some hose pipes,” he
replied.

“We’ve brought
you some tea and biscuits,” Joan said.
 
“You’ve been out here all morning.”

Joan and Janet
walked into the coach house, which was dimly lit by a single bulb.
 
Joan set the tray down on a rickety
table near the door.
 

“One of these
days we have to start clearing this place out,” Janet said, looking around the
large, dirty, and cluttered single room.

“We certainly
do,” Joan replied.
 
“We’ve been too
busy with the house thus far.”

“I hope you
aren’t planning to fix it up as a guest room,” Stuart said.
 
“It’s handy having storage space for my
tools and things.”

“We just need
to clear out the junk and then clean the whole room,” Joan told him.
 
“I can’t imagine we’ll ever use it for
anything more than storage.”

“I saw you had
a visitor,” James emerged from a dark corner in the room.
 
“Who was that, then?”

“The local
police constable,” Janet told him.
 
“He was just checking in on us.”

“That was
kind,” the man said.
 
“He’s gone
now, though?”

“Yes.
 
I think he was off to Little Burton,
actually,” Janet said.
 
“He covers
both villages, you see.”

“Hmmm,” the
man mumbled around a biscuit.
 

Stuart and
James quickly finished the plate of biscuits and the pot of tea while Janet and
Joan looked around the coach house.
 
Janet opened a few boxes that were stacked in one corner and found
books.
 

“We should
take these in and go through them,” she said to Joan.

“We still have
to sort out the ones in the library, not to mention the boxes of books we
brought with us from our old cottage,” Joan pointed out.
 
“These have been in here for some time.
 
We can go through them after we’ve
figured out a system for cataloguing what we already have.”

Janet nodded
reluctantly.
 
Joan was right, but
somehow these books, hidden away in the coach house, seemed more interesting
than the ones neatly shelved in the library.

“We’d better
get back to work,” Stuart said.
 
“Thank you for the tea break.”

“Any time,”
Joan told him.
 
She picked up the
tray and she and Janet headed back towards the house.
 
Janet could hear the men talking in low
voices as they walked away, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying.

In the
kitchen, Joan pulled out some cold cuts and bread for sandwiches.
 
“I’ll cook something nice for dinner,”
she said.
 
“I hope a light lunch is
okay.”