The Bennett Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Book 2) (6 page)

“And you were
good friends with Maggie Appleton?” Janet asked.

“We knew each
other for a long time,” Edward said, not really answering the question.
 
“But I travel a lot.
 
I spent the last year in America,” he
added in an exaggerated American accent.
 
“I guess that’s how I missed hearing that she’d passed away.”

“I don’t
suppose you have any photos of her,” Janet said, trying to sound uninterested.

“I doubt it,”
Edward replied.
 
“Maggie didn’t like
having her picture taken.
 
In
fact….”

He was
interrupted by the arrival of their starters and for the next hour and a half
Janet found herself forgetting all about Maggie Appleton as she enjoyed the
delicious meal.
 
She drank well over
half of the bottle of wine, as well.

“I’m driving,”
Edward reminded her when she pointed out that he wasn’t drinking his fair
share.

The food was
fabulous and Edward spent the meal telling her many stories about his travels
over the years.
 
He switched accents
along with locations and Janet found herself laughing frequently as he talked
of strange wildlife encounters in Australia, odd people encounters in the US,
and freak weather happenings in Canada.

By the time
she’d eaten the last bite of her chocolate mousse, Janet couldn’t quite
remember why she hadn’t like the man.
 
He was charming and erudite as well as quite handsome.
 
She held his arm a little more tightly
as he escorted her back to his car.

“It’s a lovely
night for a drive,” Edward said after he’d climbed into the driver’s seat.

Janet burst
out laughing.
 
The wind had picked
up and it was raining heavily.
 
The
sentiment was romantic, but it was a crazy idea.

“Yeah, okay,
maybe not,”
Edward
said with a chuckle.
 
“I’m just having such a wonderful time,
I don’t want the evening to end.”

“It’s getting
late,”
Janet
said, glancing at her watch.
 
“I have to get up early to help Joan get
breakfast for our guest.”

Edward
frowned.
 
“Don’t worry about
breakfast for me,” he told her.
 
“Not
if it means you have to get up early.”

“I always get
up early,” Janet told him.
 
“Joan
and I have always been morning people.”

“I’m a night
owl,” Edward replied.
 
“And right
now I’d like nothing more than to sit up all night getting to know you better.”

Janet
blushed.
 
“I’m flattered, but I’m
also very tired,” she said.
 
“I
think I need to call it a night.”

“I guess I
shall have to simply extend my stay,” he said as he put the car into gear.
 
“I was only going to stay one more night,
but that isn’t nearly enough time to get to know you properly.”

Janet sat back
in her seat and thought about his words.
 
She’d enjoyed the evening far more than she thought she would, but
thinking about getting to know Edward better was worrying.
 
Not only was he rather more sophisticated
than the men she had dated when she was younger, there was also still the
remote possibility that he was the escaped fugitive Robert Parsons was
chasing.
 

She thought
about their conversation and the ease with which the man used various accents.
 
Was it possible that he hadn’t heard
about Maggie’s death because he’d been in prison for the last year?

Chapter
Six

Once Edward
parked the car, Janet climbed out quickly.
 

“Thank you for
a lovely evening,” she called, heading towards the house before he’d even
finished getting out of the car.

“You’re very
welcome,” he answered smoothly, catching up to her with a few long
strides.
 
He took her arm and helped
her up the steps to the front door.

Before Janet
could find her keys, the door swung open.

“There you
are,” Joan said.
 
“I was just
heading to bed and saw the car lights.”

Janet grinned
and then stepped into the house.
 
“We had such a wonderful meal,” she told her sister.
 
“Come up to my room with me and I’ll
tell you all about it while I get ready for bed.”

Joan locked
the front door and the two sisters headed for the stairs, leaving Edward
standing in the middle of the sitting room.

“Thank you
again,” Janet said with a small wave as she exited the room.

Upstairs,
Janet told her sister about the evening,
focussing
on
the food but also repeating a few of Edward’s stories about his travels.

“So do you
think he’s Peter Smith?” Joan asked when Janet had finished.

“I don’t
know,” Janet answered anxiously.
 
“I
suppose he could be, but he’s so very charming as well.”

“But con men
have to be charming, don’t they?” Joan countered.

“I guess that
rules Leonard Simmons out, then, doesn’t it?” Janet asked, giggling.

“You could be
right,” Joan said with a smile.

 
After Joan left, Janet locked her door
and got ready for bed.
 
She climbed
into bed and grabbed the book that was on her nightstand.
 
Feeling far too restless to sleep, she
decided to read a few chapters before she turned out the light.
 
Ten minutes later she was fed up with
the book and feeling even more unsettled than she had before she’d crawled into
bed.

“There’s a
whole library full of books just downstairs,” a little voice in her head
whispered.
 
Janet told the voice to
be quiet and read another paragraph, but it was no good.
 
The book was one she had read before and
it couldn’t hold her interest.
 
All
she could think about was the shelves and shelves of books on the floor below
her.

“It’s my
house,” she said loudly to no one.
 
“If I want to go and get a book, I can.”

She opened her
door as quietly as she could and then looked up and down the short
corridor.
 
Nothing was moving, so
she slipped out of her room and shut her door behind her.
 
She locked it carefully and then crept
to the stairs.
 
Stepping carefully
to avoid making any noise, she made her way down to the ground floor.
 
It was dark, but there was enough light
from the moon streaming in various windows that Janet felt fairly confident
that she could move through the house without turning on any lights.
 
She reached the television room without
incident and was relieved to find it empty.
 

Just as she
was about to cross to the library door, she heard a faint creaking noise.
 
Stepping back into the sitting room, she
slipped behind the door between the two rooms.
 
The library door opened slowly, creaking
again as it did so.
 
A moment later
Edward emerged from the room.
 
He
turned and did something to the door that he’d closed behind him.
 
After glancing left and right, he made
his way through the television room and then through the sitting room.

Janet held her
breath as he walked past her and then headed up the stairs.
 
She listened to his footsteps on the
stairs as they faded away.
 
Making
her way to the library, she checked the door.
 
It was locked.
 
Did Edward have his own key or had he
somehow broken in and then managed to lock up behind himself, she
wondered.
 
She stood at the door,
debating what to do, for several minutes.
 
The sound of a car driving slowly past the house spooked her just enough
to send her back up the stairs to her bedroom.
 

She climbed
the stairs as quietly as she could, slipping into her room.
 
As she pushed her door shut, she was
certain she heard the door to the west room across the hall opening.
 
Turning her key in the lock as quietly
as she could, Janet stood for several minutes listening.
 
When she heard nothing at all, she
sighed to herself and headed for bed.
 
It seemed only a few moments later that the alarm she’d actually
remembered to set for a change woke her.

 
Joan was already working on preparing
breakfast when Janet joined her at half seven.

“I thought you
might lie in after your late date,” Joan said as a greeting.

“I didn’t
think you’d approve,” Janet replied.

While Joan did
the cooking, Janet went out in the light rain to cut some flowers for the
table.
 
She was just arranging them
into vases when Edward came into the kitchen.

“Good morning,
ladies,” he said with a bright smile.
 
“I hope everyone slept well.”

“Very well,
thanks,” Joan answered.

“Yes, very
well,” Janet muttered as she slid bread into the toaster.

“Excellent,”
he replied.

Joan and
Edward chatted about nothing at all over breakfast.
 
Janet ate her share of everything, but
she felt tired and out of sorts as she did so.
 
Joan had made both tea and coffee and
Janet found herself drinking cup after cup of coffee, hoping the caffeine would
make a difference.

“Are you
okay?” Edward asked, his voice full of concern, as Janet began to clear the
dishes from the table.

“I’m fine,”
Janet replied.
 
“Just a little
tired.”

“Does that
mean you don’t want to have dinner with me again tonight?” he asked quietly.

Janet glanced
at her sister, but Joan was busy at the sink, running water for washing
up.
 

“I think I
need an early night,” Janet replied, hoping he would accept the excuse.

“Perhaps we
should have lunch together instead,” he suggested.

“I have to
help Joan with things most of today,” Janet said, desperately trying to think
of a more believable pretext to offer.

Before Edward
could reply, a chime sounded.

“What’s that?”
Joan asked.

“It’s the bell
on the conservatory door,” Edward told her.
 
“You have a visitor.”

“I didn’t know
there was a bell on those doors,” Joan said.
 

Janet headed
for the French doors, eager to get away from the conversation she’d been
having.
 
Stuart was standing outside
the French doors with another man Janet had never seen before.

“Hello,
Stuart, how are you?” she asked after she’d opened the door.

“I’m very
well,” Stuart replied.
 
“I just
wanted to introduce you to someone.
 
This is James Abbott.
 
He’s
Mary’s brother-in-law and he’s just here visiting for a few days.”

Janet smiled
and shook hands with the man.
 
He
looked to be somewhere in his sixties, with short grey hair in an almost
military-style cut.
 
His eyes were
brown.
 
He was around Stuart’s
height, and looked similarly fit and healthy.

“You’re Mary’s
brother?” Janet asked, not sure she’d understood Stuart.

“No, I’m her
brother-in-law from her first marriage,” he explained in a soft voice.
 
“Actually, I’m more like her
step-brother-in-law or something like that, but we’ve never worried about the
finer details.”

Janet
laughed.
 
“Today’s modern families,”
she said.

“Exactly,” the
man replied with a grin.

“James will
probably be helping me while he’s here, just so he has something to do,” Stuart
told her.
 
“He worked in the gardens
of a few stately homes over the years, so he’s very well qualified.
 
Anyway, I didn’t want you to see him poking
around behind your house and worry about
who
he was.”

“That’s very
kind of you,” Joan said from behind Janet.
  

After everyone
had been properly introduced, the two men turned towards the garden.
 
“We’re just going to check on those
weeds,” Stuart told the sisters.
 
“They might need a second treatment.”

The light rain
had stopped and the sun was at least trying to dry things out.
 
Janet and Joan headed back inside.
 

“Another man
around the right age to be the missing criminal,” Joan remarked.

“Surely he
can’t be if he’s Mary’s brother-in-law,” Janet replied.

“It seemed a
tenuous relationship, from what he said,” Joan said.
 
“If they aren’t close, maybe she doesn’t
know about his criminal history.”

“Or maybe
Edward is the man the police are looking for,” Janet suggested.

“Or Leonard,”
Joan added.
 
“Don’t forget to add
Leonard to the suspect list.”

Janet
laughed.
 
“You don’t like him much,
do you?”

“Michael
called this morning and said he was going to take Leonard into Sheffield for
some sightseeing and lunch.
 
They’re
going to some sporting event later and having dinner at some pub.
 
He did invite me to join them for the
latter two things, but I politely declined.”

“He’s only
here for a few days, right?” Janet asked.
 
“I’m sure Michael will make things up to you once Leonard has gone.”

“If I give him
the chance to do so,” Joan said grudgingly.

“But where is
Edward?” Janet asked, suddenly noticing his absence.

“He was right
behind me when I followed you to the door,” Joan replied.
 
“I don’t know what happened to him.”

Janet walked
into the sitting room just in time to watch Edward’s car driving away from
Doveby
House.

“I guess he
changed him mind about lunch,” Janet said, feeling hurt.

“Maybe someone
rang him or something,” Joan suggested.
 

“Maybe.”
 
Janet shrugged.
 
“I told him I was busy, anyway.”

“Why?”

“He makes me
nervous,” Janet replied.
 
“And he
could be a conman.
 
And he was in
the library last night.”

“What do you
mean, he was in the library last night?” Joan demanded.

Janet told her
what she’d seen when she’d come downstairs in the middle of the night.

“Do you think
he took anything?” Joan asked.

“I think we
should check,” Janet replied.

In the
library, Janet headed straight to the desk, while Joan scanned the
shelves.
 

“There don’t
seem to be any gaps anywhere,” Joan said after several minutes.
 
“But I suppose he could have switched
something on our shelves with a different book and we’d never notice.”

“I will
organise
the books one day,” Janet said.
 
“I wasn’t expecting guests, remember.”

Joan
nodded.
 
“Let’s not argue about
that,” she said.
 
“I assumed we
didn’t need to worry as we can lock the library.
 
I don’t know how Edward managed to get
in, but clearly the lock wasn’t able to stop him.”

Janet had been
going through the desk drawers, but nothing seemed to have been touched.
 
She opened the bottom drawer and pulled
out the file folders inside it.

“What do you
have there?” Joan inquired.

“Some very
personal letters that Maggie Appleton received from various suitors,” Janet
told her.
 
“I haven’t read them, but
I did glance through them all.
 
One
set came from a man named Edward.
 
Maybe that’s what he was after.”

Janet flipped
through the folders, but nothing seemed to be missing.
 
The letters from Edward were still
there.

“Is anything
missing?” Joan asked.

Janet
shrugged.
 
“I didn’t count the letters
or anything.
 
He could have taken a
few, I guess, but from what I remember everything is here.”

“So why was he
in the library?” Joan wondered.

Janet sat in
the desk chair and looked slowly around the room.
 
Nothing looked any different to the last
time she’d been in there.

“Once he’s
gone, we need to make sure we take a proper inventory of the whole house before
we have any more guests,” Janet said.

“That painting
is crooked,” Joan pointed out.
 
She
walked over to the small painting that Janet had barely noticed.
 
It was hanging on the wall, sandwiched
between shelves, not just on either side of it but also above and below it.

Joan pushed up
on the bottom right corner of the picture, causing it to swing
off-centre
in the other direction.
 
She tried again, gently attempting to
straighten the artwork, but again she failed.