Aunt Bessie Finds (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 6) (11 page)

“It sounds like they need a holiday in Portugal as well,” Bessie
said.

“They had a week across in June, before the school holidays started,
and I think Jenny is going to take little Robert across for a week or two with
her mum either later this month or early next.
 
With Michael working for George, of
course, he doesn’t get nearly enough holiday time.”

“I thought George was retired,” Bessie said.
 
“How can Michael work for him?”

Mary sighed.
 
“George is
‘semi-retired,’” she replied.
 
“But
he’s far too involved in to many things to actually stop working.
 
He keeps investing in different schemes
that his friends come up with and a few mad ideas of his own.
 
Michael is now working full-time just
trying to keep up with George.”

“I didn’t
realise
,” Bessie said.
 
“How exhausting for you.”

Mary smiled.
 
“It is,
rather, not that George sees it that way.”

The waiter interrupted with their tea and treats and the two women
oohed and
aahed
over the delicious-looking cakes and
biscuits.
 

“We should do this more often,” Mary said, after her first bite of
cake.

“Indeed, we should,”
Bessie
agreed.
 

“Anyway,” Mary said, after a sip of tea, “Elizabeth is fine, too.
 
She’s finally dating a man whom George
didn’t hate on sight, which makes a nice change.
 
I don’t think he’s going to be around
for a terribly long time, but he’s pleasant enough and at least he has a
job.
 
If he has any tattoos, they’re
well hidden, as well.”

“Is she working for George as well?” Bessie asked.

“Oh, no, Elizabeth isn’t working at all right now.
 
She’s decided that she needs some time
to find her place in the world.
 
She’s dropped out of university, for the third time, and she’s spending
most of her time in her suite of rooms at our house watching
telly
and complaining about the state of the world.”

“Oh, dear,” Bessie muttered.

“She just needs some time to think,” Mary said.
 
“George is always so driven and logical
and unemotional and Elizabeth is more creative.
 
I’m sure she’ll find a way to make a
difference, hopefully soon.
 
The
boyfriend is on summer holidays from studying medicine.
 
He’s busy working part-time at
Noble’s.
 
I’m assuming he’ll soon
grow tired of Elizabeth’s demands, maybe even before it’s time for him to head
back across to finish his course.
 
They aren’t at all well-suited, but Elizabeth loves making odd choices.”

Bessie laughed.
 
“Sometimes I think I was wise to not have children.”

Mary shook her head.
 
“I
wouldn’t change my three for anything,” she told Bessie firmly.
 
“Even if they can be difficult.”

Bessie ate a tiny chocolate biscuit thoughtfully.
 
“Thank you for having George ring me
back,” she said after a moment.
 

“Oh, it was no problem,” Mary said with a wave of her hand.
 
“He always enjoys talking with you.”

“He didn’t know any more about Island Choice Properties than you
did, really,” Bessie remarked.
 
“He
said the company is Grant Robertson’s.”

Mary made a face.
 
“Yes,
so I gather.”

“I take it you don’t like Mr. Robertson?” Bessie asked.

“Grant’s fine,” Mary said, the expression on her face at odds with
her words.
 
“I sometimes feel like
he takes up too much of George’s time, that’s all.”

“I didn’t even
realise
the two knew each
other until recently,” Bessie told her friend.

“Oh, yes, they go way back,”
Mary
replied.
 
“They used to work
together, many years ago now, of course.”

“I didn’t know that,” Bessie said, hoping more information would be
forthcoming.

“This was all before I met George, of course,” Mary replied.
 
“I gather, from what George has said,
that he worked with Grant at the bank for a few years.”

“I didn’t know George worked in banking,” Bessie said in
surprise.
 
“I thought he’d always
worked in sales.”

“He has since I’ve known him,” Mary said.
 
“And we’ve been married for twenty-eight
years.
 
I guess he was in banking
for a few years after university.
 
After a short time, where he earned a couple of good bonuses, he moved
across and started his first business, selling cars.
 
That’s where we met, actually.”

“You wanted to buy a car?” Bessie asked.

Mary laughed.
 
“No, I
wanted a job,” she explained.
 
“It
was the late nineteen-sixties and I was determined to support myself and be an
independent woman.
 
George needed a
receptionist at the car dealership and I applied.
 
He didn’t give me the job, but he asked
me to have dinner with him.
 
The
rest is history, I guess.”

Bessie chuckled.
 
“Imagine how different your life might have been if he’d given you the
job, instead.”

Mary laughed.
 
“I often
wonder about that,” she confessed.
 
“He hired a really pretty and fairly stupid woman for the job and I used
to tease him that I’d have done it better.
 
He used to tease me that he’d mixed up the applications and meant to
hire me and marry her.”

“Did he ever explain why he hired her?” Bessie asked.

Mary flushed.
 
“She was,
um, she had, well, she had a very generous figure,” she explained.
 
“George used to have her wear short
skirts and low-cut blouses.
 
He
always said she brought in a lot of business.”

Bessie frowned.
 
“Really?” she muttered.

“Things were very different in those days, of course,” Mary
reminded her.
 
“That sort of thing
wouldn’t be acceptable today.”

“And George and Grant stayed in touch all those years when George
was across?” Bessie asked, changing the subject somewhat.

Mary blinked and then swallowed some tea.
 
“I suppose they did,” she said after a
moment.
 
“I’m not entirely sure how
often they spoke, but I gather George did all of his banking through the bank
here, rather than one across.
 
For
the business, as well as his personal accounts.”

“And now they’re buying up local businesses together?”

“I guess so,” Mary shrugged.
 
“George has never been one to talk about his work with me, but I gather
he’s put a lot of money into different schemes that Grant has suggested.”

“Including Island Choice Properties,” Bessie said.

“Yes, although George tried to persuade me to invest in that one as
well.”

“You?” Bessie asked.

“I have some money of my own,” Mary explained.
 
“My parents were quite comfortable and I
was an only child, you see.
 
I
helped fund a lot of George’s early businesses over the years, and, luckily,
we’ve always ended up making money.
 
George is actually very good at making money.”

“But you didn’t invest in Island Choice Properties?” Bessie asked.

“No, I don’t invest in Grant Robertson’s projects,” Mary told
her.
 
“No matter how many times
George asks.”
 
Mary flushed and then
popped a cake in her mouth.
 

Bessie leaned over and patted her friend’s hand.
 
“Nothing you say to me will ever be
repeated,” she assured Mary.
 

“Thank you for that,” Mary replied.
 
“I haven’t any real reason to dislike
Grant, actually,” she told Bessie.
 
“There’s just something about him that makes me uncomfortable.”

“Sometimes we just don’t take to people,” Bessie said.
 
“You can’t force yourself to like
someone if you don’t.”

“No, I know, but George thinks I’m just being stubborn,” Mary said
with a sigh.

“Because you wouldn’t invest in the estate agency or because you
don’t like Mr. Robertson?”

“Both, I think,” Mary said.
 
She shrugged.
 
“I’m pretty
sure he’s over the whole estate agency thing, actually.
 
He found a few other investors to go in
with him and Grant, so that’s okay.
 
He just really wants me to be friends with the man and I simply can’t be
more than polite to him.”

“I don’t know him at all,” Bessie said.
 
“What’s he like?”

“Superficially, he’s very polite and very professional,” Mary told
her.
 
“But there’s an undercurrent
there that bothers me.
 
I just don’t
trust him, even though, as far as I know, he’s always been totally honest in
every dealing we’ve had with him.”

“George suggested that I come to a party you’re having next week so
that I can meet him for myself,” Bessie said.

“Oh, yes, the barbeque,” Mary replied.
 
“I was going to invite you anyway, not
to meet Grant, but because it might be fun.”

Bessie looked closely at her friend.
 
“You’re saying fun, but your expression
isn’t saying fun.”

Mary laughed.
 
“I’m sure
it will be fine,” she said.
 
“George
likes to throw these big parties every few months for everyone he knows or has
ever met.”
  
She shook her
head.
 
“I know opposites attract,
but I hate big gatherings and George thrives on them.
 
If he has to go more than few days
without a social engagement he gets grumpy and starts talking about moving back
across.”

“Oh, I hope you won’t do that,” Bessie exclaimed.

“We won’t,” Mary assured her.
 
“Not if I have any say in the matter, at least.”

“So you’re having a barbeque?” Bessie asked.

“George saw something on
telly
about a
party in Texas where everything was cooked on these huge barbeque grills and
he’s been talking about it ever since.
 
He’s found a local caterer that is willing to have a go at recreating
everything that was at the party on the television.
 
George is beyond excited because there’ll
be fire and smoke and all sorts of food.
 
He’s invited at least half the island, I think.”

Bessie laughed. “Surely you have room for half the island,” she
said.
 
George and Mary lived in a
huge mansion on the outskirts of Douglas, with many acres of land around it.

“I just hope it doesn’t rain,” Mary said.
 
“They’re meant to be setting up a bunch
of marquees for people, in case it rains, but I’m sure everyone will end up in
the house if the weather gets bad.”
 
She sighed. “I don’t mind hundreds of people in the garden, but I’d
rather not have them all in my home.”

Bessie patted her hand again.
 
“I know exactly what you mean,” she told the other woman.
 
With a public beach right outside her
back door, Bessie had long ago grown accustomed to having people in what was
effectively her garden.
 
She was
selective as to whom she welcomed into her home, though.

“You will come to the barbeque, won’t you?” Mary asked.
 
“I won’t know more than a handful of the
guests, well, aside from the children, of course.
 
I’d love it if you could be there.”

“I can’t see why I couldn’t be there.
 
Do you think I could bring a friend?”
Bessie asked, wondering if Doona might like an American-style barbeque.

“Oh, by all means, bring everyone you know,”
Mary
said, a bit desperately.
 
“I can’t
imagine anyone would notice if you brought a dozen friends.”

“I won’t bring that many,” Bessie assured her.
 
“But I might bring one.”

Mary nodded.
 
“When
George first started talking about the barbeque, it was going to be a party for
Mack Dickson,” she told Bessie in a quiet voice.

“For Mack?
 
Why?” Bessie
asked.
 
Mack was a brilliant
archeologist and historian who’d recently been murdered.
 
Bessie knew that George had been
acquainted with the man; indeed, she’d been told that Mack had been
blackmailing George, but Bessie wasn’t sure how trustworthy her source
was.
 
The idea that George had been
planning a party for Mack was surprising to her.