Aunt Bessie Yearns (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 25) by Diana Xarissa

Author:Diana Xarissa [Xarissa, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

“Work out who killed Harrison by the end of the day,” Bessie echoed as the door slammed shut. “What a ridiculous notion.”

Doona laughed. “I’m sure Dan doesn’t really expect you to solve the case by the end of the day. He was just teasing.”

“It wasn’t funny. I knew I didn’t like that man.”

“Perhaps you should…” Doona was interrupted by her mobile phone. She pulled it out of her bag and then frowned at it. “I really need to take this,” she told Bessie as she stood up.

“Use the sitting room,” Bessie suggested.

Doona nodded and walked out of the room, already talking into her phone.

Bessie did the washing-up and then tidied the kitchen. While she heard an occasional monosyllable from the sitting room, she had no idea who Doona was speaking to or why they’d rung. Eventually, she began to poke through her cupboards, looking for inspiration for dinner. Nothing sounded good, and she thought that she would probably need to walk up to the shop at the top of the hill before she could eat.

“Sorry about that,” Doona said as she walked back into the kitchen.

“Is everything okay?” Bessie asked, taking in Doona’s frown.

Doona shrugged. “That was my solicitor across. He and Doncan have been working to get Charles’s estate settled. It should have been done ages ago, but that’s another matter. Anyway, he was ringing to tell me that things are finally falling into place. Now I just have to decide what I want to do with everything.”

“Define everything,” Bessie said.

“Charles owned partial shares in a number of hotels across the UK. In many cases, he only owned a tiny percentage of the property. Herbert Howe gave the shares to him whenever he hit particular financial targets in the business. It looks as if I’ll now own something like two per cent of a hotel in Birmingham, four per cent of a hotel in Brighton, et cetera. My solicitor has been working with Herbert to establish a fair market value for each hotel and they’ve arrived at a number. Herbert has offered to pay me that amount to buy out all of the shares.”

“That seems sensible, unless you wanted to keep them for some reason?”

“Not really. I mean, I suppose I’d be entitled to a share of the profits from each property if I kept them, but it all sounds as if it would be an accounting nightmare. I’ve never really had any interest in owning hotels and I certainly don’t want any part in managing them.”

“Fair enough. Did you tell your solicitor to agree, then?”

“Not yet. I want to talk to John first and I want some time to think. Once I’ve agreed, I can’t go back and change my mind, so I need to be sure.”

“Of course.”

“Then there’s the holiday park,” Doona added. “Once everything is settled, I’ll own half of the holiday park.”

“That has to be worth a great deal, doesn’t it?”

“Yes and no. The business isn’t doing all that well, really. Harold Butler is a lovely man, but he isn’t the best manager in the world.

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