The Chalmers Case (8 page)

“I’ve missed
rather a lot, then, haven’t I?”

“You have,”
Joan agreed.
 
“Are you done working
all those long hours now?” she asked.

“I am,” he
said happily.
 
“The regular chemist
is back from his surgery and he’s doing very well.
 
I don’t know that I’ll take anything
that demanding again.
 
I
’m meant to be retired
and I really don’t miss working.
 
But that’s enough about me.
 
What’s going on over here?”

Janet wandered
into the kitchen and put the kettle on.
 
She could hear her sister and Michael chatting together as she dug out
biscuits and put them on a plate.

“Come and see
what you think,” Joan called after a few minutes.

Janet walked
into Joan’s small sitting room.
 
Joan was in her bedroom, looking happily at her new lamps.
 

“They’re
perfect,” Janet exclaimed.

“They really
are,” Joan said.
 

“I put the kettle
on,” Janet told the others.
 
“Let’s
have tea and biscuits.”

“Just a few
biscuits,” Joan cautioned.
 
“It’s
nearly time to start dinner.”

“I thought
maybe I could take you out,” Michael said to Joan.
 
“To make up for being away so much
lately.”

“We’re doing
evening meals for some of our guests,” Joan explained.
 
“I can’t leave Janet with that much
work.”

Michael looked
so disappointed that Janet almost found herself offering to deal with Harold
and Mildred herself.
 

“Why don’t you
join us for dinner here?” Joan suggested, saving Janet from making an offer she
was certain to regret later.

“I don’t want
to make even more work for you,” Michael protested.

“It won’t be,”
Joan assured him.
 
“I’m making
spaghetti Bolognese.
 
It isn’t any
trouble to throw in a bit more pasta and a few extra tomatoes and herbs.”

“If you’re
sure, I’d love to stay,” Michael said happily.

“I’m quite
sure,” Joan said firmly.

“I’ll leave
you two to get on with the cooking, then,” Janet said.
 
“I’ll take my tea and biscuits to the
library.”

She didn’t
really feel like cleaning, but she wanted to give her sister and Michael some
privacy.
 
After drinking her tea she
cleared another shelf and gave it a half-hearted wipe while nibbling on a
biscuit.
 
While she was dusting each
book to return it to the shelf, she stumbled across a book she’d never read by
an author she knew she liked.
 
Knowing her sister was busy with Michael, she sat down and began to
read.
 
Before she knew it, Joan was
calling her for dinner.

“No sign of
the guests, yet?” Janet asked as she joined her sister and Michael in the
kitchen.

“No, but
everything is ready, so I thought we might as well eat.
 
If they turn up while we’re eating, we
can take turns serving them,” Joan replied.

The food was
excellent and Janet was delighted when they finished without interruption.

“I know you
offered to stay up tonight,” Joan said when Janet had finished loading the
dishwasher.
 
“But Michael and I want
to watch a bit of
telly
and catch up.
 
You can head up to bed if you like.”

Janet thought
about arguing, but there was no point in both of them sitting up until the
guests arrived home.
 
She headed to
bed, curling up with her book until she could barely keep her eyes open.
 
The guests still weren’t back when she
finally switched off her light and snuggled under the duvet.
 

Chapter
Eight

On Saturday, when
Janet woke up to her alarm, her first thought was that their guests must have
stayed out all night.
 
She showered
and dressed quickly and then headed down to the kitchen, where Joan was already
fixing breakfast for herself and Janet.

“Did the
guests come in last night?”
Janet asked, feeling confused.

“They did,”
Joan confirmed.
 
“And Michael
escorted them to their rooms.
 
I
believe they were all a good deal more quiet last night than they had been the
previous evening.”

“They were
indeed,” Janet said.
 
“I never woke
up.”

“That’s good,”
Joan said.
 
“They were both back
fairly early as well, so I got a good night’s sleep.
 
I’m feeling much better today.”

Janet wondered
how much of Joan’s good mood was due to the hours she’d spent the night before
with Michael, but she chose not to tease her sister.
 
She was so happy for Joan that it seemed
cruel to joke about it.

The sisters
chatted about the weather as they ate their breakfast.
 
They were just finishing when they heard
someone coming down the stairs.
 
A
minute later, all four of their guests crowded their way into the kitchen.

“Good morning,
all,” Janet said cheerfully.
 
“I
hope everyone slept well?”

“Yes, fine,
thanks,”
Mildred
replied.
 
“But now I’m starving.
 
Can we have the full English breakfast
this morning?”

“Of course,”
Joan replied.
 
“Why don’t you all go
and sit in the dining room.
 
Janet
can bring in coffee, tea, and juice for you.”

“Full English
for everyone?” Janet checked as she poured coffee for everyone.

A chorus of
“yes, please” sent her back into the kitchen.
 
Joan was hard at work.
 
Janet started making toast and filling
toast racks.

“Thank
goodness we already ate,” Janet commented.
 
“Although everything smells so good, I feel as if I could eat it all
again.”

Janet carried
very full plates of food in to their guests and then refilled coffee cups.
 
Back in the kitchen, she helped Joan
with the washing up.
 
When she went
back into the dining room, the guests were all getting to their feet and
collecting their things.

“We’re all off
to see the sights,” Nancy told Janet.
 
“We’re going to show Mildred and Harold a few of our
favourite
places, as they’ve never been to the area before.”

“That’s very
kind of you,” Janet replied.
 
“You seem
to have good weather for it, anyway.”

“Yes, it’s
meant to be sunny all day,” Nancy said happily.

Janet walked
the foursome to the front door and made sure the door was locked behind
them.
 
She jumped when she turned
back around and found her sister standing right behind her.

“I didn’t hear
you there,” Janet exclaimed.

“Sorry, I
didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I was just
wondering if the police station is open today.
 
We still haven’t gone to talk to Susan
about her knitting.”

“I’d forgotten
all about that,” Joan said, shaking her head.
 
“We really ought to do that today if we
can.
 
I need to go grocery shopping
as well.
 
I thought Mildred and
Harold were leaving today, but they asked if they could stay one more night,
which means one more round of dinner and breakfast for them.”

“Let’s go now
and get the errands run,” Janet suggested.
 
“I’d rather be home when the guests get back.”

“Yes, I
agree,”
Joan
replied.

The local
police station was housed in a tiny cottage and going inside always made Janet
feel slightly claustrophobic.
 
She
didn’t know how Susan could work inside the tiny building.

“Ah, the
Markham sisters,” Susan, a curvy forty-something blonde, said brightly when
Janet and Joan walked into the tiny reception area.
 
“Robert said you might be stopping one
day this week.”

Susan put down
the project she was knitting and stood up.
 
“I’ve been sitting still too long,” she confided as she stretched.
 

“We wanted to
talk to you about selling some of your knitted items at
Doveby
House,” Joan said.

“Oh, I wish
you would,” Susan replied.
 
“I loved
the extra bit of income and I have to find some way to get rid of my
things.
 
Poor Robert has had all of
the hats, jumpers and blankets he’ll ever need and far more than he actually
wants.”

Janet
laughed.
 
“I’m sure he appreciates
your hard work.”

“It’s just
that I have so much quiet time while I’m here,” she explained.
 
“There has to be someone in the office
for a certain number of hours each week, but there isn’t enough work to keep me
busy during those hours.
 
I used to
read, but knitting is far more productive.
 
Besides,” she added with a sheepish grin, “I used to hate getting
interrupted when I was reading.
 
The
knitting is much easier to put down.”

“I know what
you mean,” Janet told her.
 
“Everyone always seems to interrupt at the very best part in the book.”

“I have a
couple of boxes of things here for you to look at,” Susan said eagerly.
 
She pulled out and opened several boxes,
lifting out blankets, scarves, hats and sweaters and piling them onto the small
table against the wall.

“These are all
lovely,” Joan said.

Janet
inspected one of the blankets.
 
At
one time she’d done quite a bit of knitting herself, so she knew exactly what
she was looking for.
 
The quality of
Susan’s work was excellent.

“You do
wonderful work,” she told the woman.
 
“I might have to buy one or two things for myself.”

“I’ll give you
a discount,” Susan offered.
 
“Or
maybe you could just choose your
favourite
and you
could have it as long as you tell all of your guests how much you love it.”

The sisters
laughed.
 
“Oh, I’m happy to pay you
for a blanket,” Janet told her.
 
“And I promise to tell everyone who stays with us about it as well.”

“I understand
you have a couple staying with you at the moment,” Susan said as she began
returning items to their boxes.

“Two,
actually,” Joan corrected her.

“Really?
 
I must tell Robert,” Susan said.
 
“Tell me about your new arrivals, then.”

Joan told the
woman about the Harrisons.
 
“They
seem very nice indeed,” she concluded.
 
“Even if they’ve developed a strange relationship with the Stones.”

“What’s
strange about it?” Susan asked.

“That they’re
friendly with each other at all, really,” Janet said.
 
“They don’t seem as if they’d have very
much in common.”

“Perhaps both
couples are just feeling out of place in unfamiliar surroundings,” Susan
suggested.

“The Stones
are meant to be visiting with William Chalmers,” Janet replied.
 
“I wonder how he feels about them going
off to see the sights with total strangers and leaving him to run his shop on
his own.”

“I don’t think
he needs all that much help,” Susan told her.
 
“It doesn’t seem to me that he’s all
that busy.”

As the row of
shops that included the antique shop wasn’t far from the police station, Susan
would have easily been able to keep track of the customers who were coming and
going.

“I hope
business improves,” Joan said.

“I just hope
Mr. Chalmers can keep himself out of trouble,” Susan replied.

“What do you
mean?” Janet asked quickly.

Susan
flushed.
 
“I shouldn’t be talking
about that,” she said, shaking her head.

“Should we be
worried about Mr. Chalmers?” Joan demanded.
 
“If he’s doing something criminal, I
think we ought to know about it.”

“He got
himself into some trouble in London,” Susan said, clearly reluctant to discuss
the issue.
 
“All of this is public
record, if you know where to look.
 
Apparently
some of his antiques weren’t exactly as described.
 
He claimed it was all a big
misunderstanding, and anyway, he paid his fines and did a short stint in
prison.
 
He came up here to start
over.”

“And we should
do whatever we can to support him,” Joan added.

“Yes, indeed,”
Susan replied faintly.
 
“I really
shouldn’t have said anything.
 
Please don’t repeat what I’ve told you.
 
As I said, it’s all public record, but
it isn’t exactly common knowledge.”

“We won’t say
anything,” the sisters said in almost perfect unison.
 

Joan and Susan
talked their way through pricing the knitted items and agreed that the sisters
would get ten per cent of the sale prices.
 

“I hope we’ll
be back soon to get more from you,” Joan said as Susan helped them load several
boxes of her work into their car.
 

“I hope so,
too,” Susan said.
 
“Although Robert
will just be glad that those are out of the office.
 
I’ve many more boxes full of finished
items at home, anyway.
 
Let me know
if you need more.”

“We’ll let you
know
when
we need more,” Joan
corrected her.
 

Susan smiled
at the words and then went back into the police station while the sisters
climbed into their car.

“We should
have told her about the paintings in the back of the antique shop,” Janet said.

“Why?”

“Because then
Robert could investigate.”

“The man sells
artwork,” Joan said.
 
“It doesn’t
seem strange to me that he has a few unfinished paintings in his back room.”

“But someone
was working in there,” Janet said.
 
“Even though he told us he doesn’t sell work by local artists.”

“Just because
someone was working in his back room, doesn’t mean they are a local artist,”
Joan pointed out.
 
“I think you’re
just looking for a bit of excitement like in all the books you read.”

“Bessie seems
to get caught up in murder investigations all the time.
 
I don’t see why you don’t think William
might be doing something criminal.
 
I haven’t accused him of murder or anything like that.
 
Just a little bit of art forgery.”

Joan shook her
head.
 
“Bessie is a dear woman who
has had a terrible run of bad fortune lately.
 
I can’t imagine how terrible it must be
to keep finding dead bodies and discovering people you know are murderers.
 
But sometimes I think you’re just
looking for something out of the ordinary so you can tell Bessie that our lives
are just as exciting as hers.”

Janet opened
her mouth to reply and then shut it again while she thought about what Joan had
said.
 
She didn’t envy Bessie
Cubbon
, the friend they’d made on a recent trip to the Isle
of Man.
 
There was such a
thing
as too much excitement, and it seemed as if Bessie was
having rather more than was good for one person at the moment.
 
But Janet didn’t think she was being
unreasonable in suspecting William Chalmers of doing something illegal in his
new shop.
 

“I still don’t
like the man,” she said loudly.

“I don’t like
him either, but that doesn’t mean he’s a criminal.”

“Susan told us
he’s a criminal,” Janet reminded her sister.

Joan shook her
head.
 
She’d driven them back to
Doveby
House and now she parked the car.

“There was no
point in going grocery shopping with the car stuffed full of Susan’s things,”
she told Janet.
 
“Let’s unload them
and then one of us can go back out.”

Janet pulled
the first box from where it was tucked in the backseat.
 
Joan was doing the same on the other
side of the car.
 

“Here, let me
help,” Janet heard Michael calling from behind her.
 

“I’ll lend a
hand as well,” Stuart added as he appeared from the garden.
 
“I was just looking for an excuse to
take a break from trimming hedges, anyway.”

The women were
happy to let the men carry the boxes into the house for them.
 
It took them several trips, and Joan had
the kettle on before they’d finished.

“Come and have
a
cuppa
, then,” she told them after they’d brought in
the last box.

“Just a quick
one,” Stuart said.

“I was just
heading out to do some grocery shopping,” Michael told Joan.
 
“So I’ll want to make it quick as well.”

“Why don’t you
go with Michael and do the shopping and I’ll start figuring out where we want
to display Susan’s items,” Janet suggested after they’d all enjoyed tea and
biscuits.