Aunt Bessie Joins by Diana Xarissa

Author:Diana Xarissa [Xarissa, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery
Amazon: B01EBA4YTC
Goodreads: 29930859
Published: 2016-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“Your being here can’t be good,” Bessie said as she crossed the room.

“No, it isn’t,” John replied. He stepped around the table and gave Bessie a quick hug.

“You shouldn’t hug suspects,” Pete said from the doorway.

“And I’ll deny I did it if Bessie ends up being the murderer,” John said with a tight smile.

Bessie forced a smile onto her own lips and then, at John’s invitation, sat down opposite him.

“What’s happened?” she asked.

“Two things,” Pete said as he joined them at the table. “First of all, we’ve made a tentative identification of some of the fingerprints that were found on the inside of one of the smashed ornaments.”

“And they were Michael’s,” Bessie guessed.

“Why do you think that?” Pete asked.

“Because he has a temper, because it seems like something he might have done after a few too many drinks, and because you haven’t arrested anyone else,” Bessie replied.

John and Pete both smiled. “She’s very good,” John said to Pete.

“I know,” Pete replied.

“We aren’t going to be telling the others about that,” John told her. “For now we’re officially leaving the vandalism as unsolved.”

“What happened to Michael?” Bessie asked.

“A body was found in Lonan this morning in a house that was empty and on the market. A neighbour saw lights on in the property late last night and rang the office, but when a constable went to check, the property was dark and everything looked secure. He wrote up a report and the information was passed on to the real estate company handling the sale. They sent someone around to check everything this afternoon and found the body.”

“And it’s Michael,” Bessie said sadly.

“We haven’t had a formal identification yet,” John said. “But Pete’s provided a preliminary one.”

Bessie nodded. “Another murder connected to ‘Christmas at the Castle,’” she said sadly.

“No one has said anything about murder,” John told her.

Bessie looked up at him in surprise. “He killed himself?” she asked, feeling confused.

The two policemen exchanged glances. “It will be some days before we have a proper cause of death determined,” Pete said.

“But it could have been suicide?” Bessie asked. “Or an accident?”

“It could have been one of those,” John agreed. “It’s definitely not as clear-cut as Mr. Hart’s death was, at least.”

“Can you think of any reason why he might have killed himself?” Pete asked Bessie.

She took a deep breath and then sat back, feeling shocked. “He wasn’t happy on the island,” she said eventually. “But he was exploring other job opportunities, not talking about killing himself.”

“His altercation with Christopher Hart was public knowledge,” Pete pointed out. “That might have limited his job options.”

“Even so, Carolyn was standing behind him, at least for the moment. His job here was safe.”

“But he didn’t want to be here,” John reminded her.

“No, but suicide is quite a long way away from being somewhat dissatisfied with your current job,” Bessie replied.

“What if he’d killed Mr. Hart?” Pete asked. “Was he the sort who might have let guilt eat away at him until he took his own life?”

“I barely knew the man,” Bessie said.

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