The Bennett Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Book 2) (11 page)

“And you’ve
kept in touch ever since?” Edward asked.

“Not really,”
Mary shrugged.
 
“He just seems to
pop up in my life every so often.
 
I
knew he’d been to prison a bunch of times, but he never stole anything from me
and he’s wonderful company, really.”

Stuart coughed
loudly and everyone turned to look at him.
 
“Sorry,” he said.
 
“I just
didn’t find him ‘wonderful’ in the slightest.”

Everyone got
on with eating their breakfast while Joan and Janet kept coffee cups filled.

“Who’s Ethel?”
Joan asked Leonard suddenly.

Leonard
frowned and looked down at his plate.
 
“My wife,” he said, finally.
 
“I figured she’d sent the police to round me up and send me home.”

“You’re hiding
from your wife?” Joan asked.

“Yeah, well,
not really hiding, just having a break, like,”
Leonard
replied.
 
“She’s well, she’s rather
demanding sometimes.”

Joan and Janet
exchanged looks and Janet bit her tongue.
 
She couldn’t imagine what being married to Leonard would be like, so she
thought it best not to comment.
 
Instead, she turned to William Chalmers.

“I do wish
you’d stop throwing accusations around,” she said sharply.
 
“Joan and I most certainly did not call
the police on you.”

The man
flushed.
 
“Sorry,” he said.
 
“I think I should be going.”

Janet didn’t argue
,
she simply walked the man to the door.
 
He handed her a ten-pound note and then
left without saying another word.

“I still don’t
like him, even if he isn’t Peter Smith,” Janet said when she rejoined the
others.

Edward
nodded.
 
“I think Robert Parsons
will be taking a very close look at that man,” he said.
 
“Anyone who’s that bothered about the
police is suspect.”

It was quiet
for a few minutes as breakfast plates were cleared.
 
Janet had a million questions for
Edward, but she didn’t want to quiz him in front of everyone.
 
Finally Stuart and Mary headed for home
with Stuart promising to come back in the afternoon to work on the garden.

“James wasn’t
any help anyway,” he muttered.
 
“He
knew nothing about gardening.”

Leonard and
Michael weren’t far behind.
 
“I
wanted to tell you that Leonard is heading home tomorrow,” Michael told Joan in
the kitchen.
 
Janet was loading the
dishwasher, pretending not to listen.
 
“I was hoping we could have dinner together after he’s gone?”

“I might be
able to manage that,” Joan said after a moment.
 

Michael smiled
brightly, and then he collected Leonard from the dining room and they left.

“Well, I guess
that’s that,”
Janet
said as she pushed the dishwasher
shut.
 
“It was a rather exciting
morning.”

“We were both
wrong about Peter Smith,” Joan pointed out.

“We were
close,” Janet said with a shrug.
 
“And Leonard is leaving tomorrow anyway.”

“That is good
news,” Joan admitted.

“And I’m
leaving today,” Edward said from the doorway.
 
“But I’d still like a few minutes of
your time if you can spare it,” he said to Janet.

Janet felt
less reluctant to talk to him now that she knew he wasn’t an escaped conman.
 

“Let’s talk in
the library,” Edward suggested.
 

She opened her
mouth to argue, but changed her mind.
 
It was as good a place as any, she supposed.

She unlocked
the library door and then went inside, switching on the nearest light.
 
Sinking into a comfortable chair, she
looked expectantly at Edward.

He smiled and
sat down across from her, taking her hand in his.
 
“I don’t want to leave today,” he told
her.
 
“But I don’t have a
choice.
 
You intrigue me and I’d
really rather stay and get to know you better.”

Janet felt her
face turning red.
 
“I’ve enjoyed
getting to know you, too,” she muttered, looking down at the floor.
 

“There are a
few things I need to tell you,” Edward continued.
 
“For a start, Maggie and I were just
friends, although I can’t possibly prove that.
 
She wasn’t really my type.”

“Why not?”
Janet couldn’t help but ask.

Edward
shrugged.
 
“She was loud and flamboyant,
all flash and no substance.”
 
He
shook his head.
 
“We worked well
together, but I never wanted a personal relationship with her.”

“You worked
together?” Janet asked.

Edward
nodded.
 
“I’m not really supposed to
tell you this, but I think you have a right to know,” he said after a
moment.
 
“I am supposed to be
retired, but I guess I really still work for Her Majesty’s government in the
security services.”

“You’re a
spy?”
 
Janet tried not to let him
see how surprised she was, but she was certain she failed.

Edward
chuckled.
 
“I guess you could say
that, but that isn’t how I would have put it.”

Janet pulled
her hand away and sat back in her chair, her mind racing.
 
“Why did you come here?” she asked after
a moment.

“Maggie very
occasionally helped us out by letting people we sent stay here,” he
explained.
 
“When she died so
suddenly, there were some concerns that she might have left information about
that lying around.”

“So you wanted
to go through her papers,” Janet said.

“I did, until
I found what I wanted elsewhere.”

“In the safe?”
Janet asked.

Edward nodded
and then handed Janet a card that he pulled from his pocket.
 
“Here’s the combination,” he told
her.
 
“I’ve taken out everything
that I needed to remove.
 
You and
your sister can go through the rest.”

“What’s in
there?” Janet asked.

“Wait and
see,” Edward told her with a wink.

“But Maggie
died months ago,” Janet suddenly recalled.
 
“Why did it take you so long to visit?”

“Her
connection to my office was a closely held secret,” he replied.
 
“A bit too closely as it happens.
 
I was busy in America and no one thought
to notify me about her death until quite recently.
 
I came up as soon as I could, once I
heard the news.”

“And now
you’re leaving,” Janet said.
 
She
was annoyed when she heard the sadness in her voice.

“I am,” Edward
agreed.
 
“But I can come back and
visit again, if you’d like.”

Janet
shrugged.
 
“I’m not sure,” she said
truthfully.

Edward
nodded.
 
“I know.
 
The nature of my job doesn’t lend itself
to relationships,” he said.
 
“But I
am meant to be retired.
 
I’m hoping
I’ll be rushing around the world a good deal less in the future.”

“Well, if you
find yourself with some free time, it would be nice to see you again,” Janet
said after a moment.

Edward
smiled.
 
“I’ll write,” he
suggested.
 
“And I’ll call when I
can.
 
I’m off to Madrid, though, so
calling might be difficult.”

“Did you often
write to Maggie?” Janet had to ask.

“Maggie?
 
I never wrote to Maggie, why?”

Janet
struggled to find an answer, but before she spoke, Edward began to laugh.
 

“I didn’t
write the letters in the desk,” he said eventually.
 
“That was a different Edward
altogether.”

“You read
them?”

“I was looking
for my paperwork,” he said.
 
“I just
skimmed through every sheet of paper I found.”

“You could
have asked us to let you search the library,” Janet said.
 
“You didn’t have to break in in the
middle of the night.”

“I wasn’t
supposed to tell you who I really am,” he reminded her.
 
“I’m only doing it now because, well,
because I want you to understand.”

“I’ll tell
Joan,” Janet warned him.

“I figured as
much,” Edward said.
 

“Sorry to
interrupt,” Joan said in the doorway, “but there’s a man at the door asking for
you,” she told Edward.

He frowned and
got to his feet.
 
“That’s probably
my ride,” he said with a sigh.
 
He
offered a hand to Janet.
 
“Walk me
out?”

Janet took his
hand and they walked to the door together.
 
The man in the doorway looked as broad as he was tall, and Janet had no
doubt every inch of it was muscle rather than fat.
 
He had short black hair and he was
wearing a black suit and very dark sunglasses.

“Sir, I’m here
to take you back to London,” the man said.
 
“Danny is coming for your car later today.”

“I’ll leave
the keys with you, if I may?” Edward asked Janet.
 
“When Danny arrives, you can give them
to him.”

“How will I
know
it’s
Danny?” Janet asked as she pocketed the
keys.

“He looks just
like me,” the man in the doorway told her.

Edward grinned
and then leaned over and gave Janet a quick kiss.
 
“I’ll be back,” he whispered in her
ear.
 

So you see, Bessie, we had a rush of
gentlemen in the
neighbourhood
, and only one of them
was a wanted criminal.
 
I’ve taken
to the calling the entire episode “The Bennett Case” in
honour
of our first paying guest.
 
Joan
thinks I should call it “The Abbott Case” or “The Smith Case,” but I ignore
her.

Joan is in much better spirits since Leonard
left.
 
I can only
sympathise
with poor Ethel who has to live with him.
 

We haven’t seen William Chalmers since he
had breakfast with us, but I hear he’s been busy making enemies of just about
everyone he encounters in
Doveby
Dale.
 
If he ever does get his business up and
running, I can’t imagine anyone will want to shop there.

As for Edward, I’ve had one quick note from
him.
 
His handwriting is nothing
like the handwriting on Maggie’s letters from the other Edward.
 
He’s hoping to come and visit again
soon, but “things keep cropping up,” apparently.

I wasn’t sure about telling you about his
job, but he agreed that I could tell Joan, and I decided telling you
was
much the same thing.
 
As you are far away on the Isle of Man,
you’re unlikely to ever meet the man, so I can’t imagine it will hurt anything.

Meanwhile, it seems having our first guest
has inspired my sister.
 
She is now
insisting that we get the business up and running before the end of this
month.
 
I hope you can come and stay
soon.
 
We’d love to see you!

With all good wishes,

Janet Markham

P.S.
 
The combination that Edward gave me doesn’t open the safe after all.
 
Hopefully he will be back soon to give
us the correct combination.

Glossary of Terms

Other
Notes

In the UK
dates are written day, month, year rather than month, day, year as in the
US.
 
(May 5, 2015 would be written 5
May 2015 for example.)

In the UK when
describing property with more than one level, the lowest level (assuming there
is no basement; very few UK houses have basements) is the “ground floor,” and
the next floor up is the “first floor” and so on.
 
In the US, the lowest floor is usually
the “first floor” and up from there.

When Janet
says she might be “brewing something,” she means she thinks she might be coming
down with a cold or flu.

When telling
time, half six is the English equivalent of six thirty.

A double-glazing
salesman would be going door-to-door trying to get people to purchase new
windows for their homes.

A “full
English breakfast” generally consists of bacon, sausage, eggs, grilled or fried
tomatoes, fried potatoes, fried mushrooms and baked beans served with toast.