Aunt Bessie Finds (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 6) (9 page)

“Do you want to see the bedroom or does the lack of a tub make this
flat a definite no?”

“Having come this far, I might as well see the bedroom,” Bessie
said.
 

The room was pretty much as expected, what felt like endless acres
of unremitting beige.
 

“Right, well, that’s that,” Alan said as he led Bessie back to the
front door.
 
“Tell me what you
thought.”

“It’s nice,”
Bessie
said, her tone
noncommittal.
 
“I don’t know that
it’s nice enough to tempt me away from my little cottage, though.”

The man nodded.
 
He
followed Bessie out of the flat and then locked it up behind them.
 
They heard the sirens as they were
waiting for the lift.
 
After a
moment, a fire alarm began to ring and doors began to open all along the
corridor.
 

“What’s going on?” Alan demanded of the elderly man who emerged
from apartment seven.

“Fire in the lift mechanism,” he replied morosely.
 
“Happens all the time.
 
You’ll have to take the stairs.”

Bessie and Alan followed the man down the stairs and out of the
building.
 
A large fire truck was
parked outside and Bessie watched as two men emerged from it in full safety
gear.

“I’ll get the keys back to Nigel later,” Alan muttered.
 
“I’m sure he has his hands full at the
moment.”

“No doubt,” Bessie replied.
 
She spotted Howard and Bahey in the small crowd that was gathering in
the hotel car park.
 
She nodded a
quick greeting, but decided not to try to speak to them.
 

“Right, then, if you want to just follow me in your car, we’ll head
down a few blocks to the next place,” Alan announced brightly.

“I don’t drive,” Bessie told him.
 
“I came in a taxi.”

“Oh, dear,” Alan said.
 
“I suppose you’ll have to ride with me, then.”

“Or we could just call it a day,” Bessie suggested.

“Oh, no, I’m sure you’ll find something you like.
 
I’ve three other flats lined up.”

Bessie shook her head and followed him to his car.
 
Fortunately, he had parked just far
enough away that the fire truck wasn’t blocking him in.
 
Bessie stood by patiently as he cleared
huge piles of paper and rubbish from the passenger seat and foot well.
 

“There you go,” he said finally.
 
“I don’t usually have passengers, you
see.”

“Clearly,” Bessie muttered as she slid into the car.
 
The floor under her feet was sticky with
something and the seatbelt didn’t seem to work properly.
 
She gave it a firm tug, and that finally
released it enough so that she could fasten it around herself.
 
Alan climbed into the driver’s seat and
gave her a grim smile.

“Here we go,” he said.

“What about the other empty flat in that building?” Bessie
asked.
 
“I understand it’s on the
ground floor, so the lift wouldn’t be a concern.”

Alan shook his head.
 
“There isn’t another empty flat, or rather there isn’t any other flat
for sale.
 
If someone owns one and chooses
not to live in it, well, that’s their business and nothing to do with me, or
you for that matter.”

“Why would someone buy a flat and not live in it?” Bessie asked,
trying to keep her tone conversational.

“Perhaps they’ve bought it as an investment and intend to rent it
out at some point.
 
Or maybe they’re
planning on living in it one day, but aren’t ready to move in yet.
 
The possibilities are endless,” the man
told her.

Bessie nodded, letting her mind race through another dozen
possibilities while Alan drove.
 
He
drove only a short distance down the promenade, pulling up in front of a large
building that had once been a hotel.

“They split this building into flats about three years ago,” he
told Bessie.
 
“The one that’s
available is on the penthouse level.”

Bessie sighed and followed him out of the car.
 
The lobby area was clean and looked as
if it had just been redone.
 
The man
sitting behind the desk was wearing a neatly pressed uniform with “Security”
embroidered on the front pocket.
 
He’d buzzed them in and then asked Alan for identification before he
turned over the keys to the unit.

“There are postboxes in a separate room,” Alan told Bessie,
gesturing vaguely towards the back of the building.
 
“We don’t really need to see them,
unless you really want to.”

“I suppose, having seen one postbox, I can imagine what all others
look like,” Bessie told him.

“Right, then, the lifts are through here.”
 
He led her across the lobby and into a
short corridor.
 
The two lifts were
both open and empty.
 

“The old kitchens are back that way,” Alan said, pointing further
down the corridor.
 
“There’s a chef
who comes in five nights a week and prepares meals for the residents who
request them.”

“Is it a building for pensioners, then?” Bessie asked.

“There aren’t any age restrictions, but I believe the vast majority
of the residents are retired and enjoy things like grocery delivery and
prepared meals.”

“Do they have those amenities at
Seaview
Terrace?” Bessie asked as they rode the lift up to the sixth floor.

“There’s grocery delivery and there’s a doctor’s surgery right next
door.
 
I understand the surgery
specialises
in, um, senior concerns.”

Bessie nodded.
 
Bahey
had told her as much.
 
Bahey herself
didn’t choose to use the
neighbourhood
surgery.
 
Out of a sense of nostalgia, she’d gone
back to the doctors in
Laxey
that she’d used as a
child.
 
None of the same staff were
there, but they were still in the same building, and she’d told Bessie that it
reminded her of her youth.

On the top floor, Bessie followed Alan down a short corridor.
 
He stopped and unlocked the door to the
last flat on the left and motioned Bessie inside.
 
The flat was much larger than the one on
Seaview
Terrace, with a sleek and modern kitchen,
three bedrooms and two bathrooms, one of which was en-suite to the spacious
master bedroom.

“It’s lovely,” Bessie told Alan honestly.
 
“But
it’s
far
more space than I need and I’m sure it’s out of my budget anyway.”

Alan told Bessie the price and she laughed.
 
“Definitely out of my budget,” she said.

“Well, the next flat on our list is less expensive,”
Alan
told her.
 
“Let’s see what you think of it.”

Bessie followed the man back down through the building and
reluctantly climbed back into his car.
 
“You know, I really need to think about things,” she said.
 
“I’m not sure I’m ready to move to
Douglas.
 
I’ve lived in
Laxey
for a very long time.”

“Yes, well, at least this way you’ll have a good idea of what’s
available, should you decide to relocate,” Alan replied.

Unable to argue with the logic in that, Bessie sat back and waited
to see where they were going next.
 
Alan drove slowly along the promenade and then headed away from the
water.
 

“The next place is in
Onchan
,” he told
Bessie.
 
“It’s a little further from
the sea and downtown, but that makes it much more reasonably priced.”

“How reasonably priced?” Bessie asked.

The figure he gave her was about halfway between the two flats
she’d already seen.
 

“It’s bigger than
Seaview
Terrace,” Alan
continued.
 
“But not as large as the
one on the promenade itself.”

“I’m not sure about the location,” Bessie said doubtfully, as Alan
pulled into the building’s car park.
 
They were some distance from the Douglas city
centre
.
 
“I’m not sure this would be terribly
convenient for me, as I don’t drive.”

“This is a senior living development,” Alan told her.
 
“They run shuttles into town and to the
grocery store every day.
 
They also
have grocery delivery and a full medical suite in the administration building
at the back.”

Bessie looked around at the cluster of buildings.
 
There were three of them, although only
two looked like apartment buildings.
 
Those two buildings were each three stories high and had been built on
the hillside overlooking the sea.
 
Behind them was a smaller and shorter building that Bessie now assumed
was the administration building.

“All of the postboxes for the complex are in the administration
building as well,” Alan told her.
 
“And there’s a hairdressers, a dental surgery and a convenience store.”

“I’d never have to leave the site,” Bessie mumbled to herself.

“Exactly,” Alan said happily.
 
“This place has everything you need, all in one place.”

“Oh, goody,” Bessie said, this time making sure that Alan didn’t
hear her.

“If you want to just wait here,” he said now, “I’ll run over and
get the keys.”

Bessie thought about arguing, but she had no interest in seeing the
administration building, and it was a lovely day for a short stroll.
 
“You go ahead,” she said.
 
“I’ll just walk around the front of the
buildings and enjoy the view.”

The view was spectacular, Bessie admitted to herself as she came
around the corner of the apartment block.
 
From this spot, high above the sea, with nothing to interrupt them, the
views seemed endless.
 
Bessie
watched as an electric train slid into the station below her.
 
For a brief moment she was tempted by
the view to think seriously about a move.
 
  

“Ah, there you are,” Alan said.
 
“I was afraid you’d wandered off.”

Bessie swallowed a sigh and turned to follow him into the nearest
building.
 

“The flat that’s for sale in on the ground floor.
 
This is it.”
 
The man stopped at a door only a few
steps inside the building and turned the key.
 
Bessie stepped inside and frowned.

“There’s no view,” she said.

“Well, no, or rather, this flat has land views rather than sea
views.”

Bessie laughed out loud.
 
“No offense to the lovely town of
Onchan
, but
I’m not moving out here to be able to look at it all day and night.”

She moved through the flat quickly, noting the modern appliances in
the kitchen and the boringly neutral décor.
 
There was nothing especially attractive
about the place and the views were primarily of the short and squat
administration building and the massive housing estate behind it.
 

“I’m afraid this one is out of the question,” Bessie told Alan as
she rejoined him near the front door.
 
He’d been flipping through paperwork while she’d taken herself around
the flat; now he frowned at her.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said.
 
“I’m afraid our last showing of the day
has had to be cancelled.
 
Apparently, the flat sold on Friday, so I guess that’s all I can show
you today.”

“That’s fine,” Bessie assured him.
 
“I’ll go home and have another look at
the particulars you sent me and have a good think.
 
I’ll be in touch if I need more
information.”

“I’ll give you a ride home,” he told her.
 
“I can have a quick look at your cottage
and give you a rough idea of what it’s worth, if you’d like.”

“That isn’t necessary,” Bessie replied.
 
“If I decide I want to move, we can
worry about it then.”

The man smiled tightly.
 
“Let’s go, then,” he said, leading Bessie back to his car.
 
She fought the seatbelt into position
and then gave the man directions to her cottage.
 
It was quickly obvious that he’d never
been to
Laxey
before.

“How long have you been on the island?” she asked.