The Donaldson Case (5 page)

Michael and
Janet exchanged doubtful looks, but neither voiced their thoughts.
 

“If you want a
hand with breakfast or anything, let me know,” Michael said.
 
“Now that I’m not covering at the shop,
I have lots of free time.”

“I’m not sure
we have money in the budget for staff just yet,” Joan told him.
 
“But we’ll keep it in mind.”

Michael
laughed
 
“I
wasn’t necessarily looking to get paid,” he told her.
 
“I’d be happy enough just getting fed
some breakfast of my own after the guests were taken care of.
 
I was really just trying to find a way
to spend a bit of time with you because you always get so busy when you have
guests.”

Joan
flushed.
  
“We’ll see,” she
said evasively.

Michael
nodded.
 
“I suppose you might not
want to spend time with me while I’m being investigated by the police,” he said
sadly.
 
“I understand.”

“Don’t be
ridiculous,” Joan snapped.
 
“I know
you’ve not done anything wrong.
 
I
just, well, that is, I mean, we don’t have guests until Monday.
 
Maybe we could have dinner tomorrow or
something?”

Michael smiled
and Janet felt relieved to see him looking better than he had since they’d
arrived.
 
“I’d really like that,” he
said eagerly.
 
“ Do you want to go
somewhere fancy?”

“Oh, good
heavens, no,” Joan replied.
 
“I’ll
cook and we can just relax.
 
With
all the cleaning and everything that needs doing before Monday, I won’t have
time to get all dressed up for something fancy.”

“A quiet night
in sounds wonderful,” Michael replied.

“And my
women’s group has a meeting tomorrow night, so you can have the house to
yourselves as well,” Janet said.
 
She’d recently joined the
Doveby
Dale Ladies’
Club, a small group of retired women who got together once a month to discuss
everything that was wrong with the world.
 
Sometimes Janet found the other women a bit annoying, but she did enjoy
having an evening out without her sister.

“Oh, I’d quite
forgotten about that,” Joan said.
 
When she looked away from Janet as she spoke, Janet knew she was
lying.
 
Clearly her elder sister had
deliberately planned the evening, wanting to be alone with Michael.
 
Janet smiled to herself as she stood up
to go.
 
She liked Michael and
thought he and Joan were
well-suited
.

“Let us know
if you hear anything more about the, well, unpleasantness at the shop,” Joan
said at the door as Michael showed them out.

“I will,” he
promised.
 
“And I’ll see you around
seven tomorrow.”

“Perfect,”
Joan replied.

The sisters
walked back across the road to their door, both lost in their own
thoughts.
 

“It’s getting
late,”
Janet
remarked when she saw the sitting room
clock.

“It is, and we
have a busy day tomorrow,” Joan replied.

“Let me
guess,” Janet said without enthusiasm.
 
“We have to start cleaning for our guests.”

“Oh, maybe,”
Joan said airily.
 
“But more
importantly, we have to start investigating the goings-on at the chemist shop.”

Chapter
Five

“We what?”
Janet asked, staring at her sister.

“I’m sure
Robert is going to do his best,” Joan said, flushing.
 
“But I did think that maybe we could, I
don’t know, ask a few questions here and there.
 
Just to see if we can find out anything
useful.”

“You never
want to stick your nose in,” Janet reminded her.

“I’ve never had
a good reason to stick my nose in,” Joan retorted.

“But now you
want to help clear Michael’s name,” Janet suggested.

Joan flushed
again.
 
“It just seems a shame that
the police are considering him a suspect.
 
He’s such a wonderful man.
 
I
just want to help get everything cleared up as soon as possible.”

“So where do
we start?” Janet asked.

Joan shook her
head.
 
“You’re the one who reads all
those stories about murder and mayhem.
 
You tell me.”

“I think the
first thing we need to do is get a good night’s sleep,” Janet said after a
moment.
 

Joan looked
disappointed.
 
“I’m not sure I’ll
sleep very well,” she muttered as Janet headed towards the stairs.

“The shop is
shut now anyway,” Janet pointed out.
 
“We can’t very well go knocking on people’s doors at this hour of the
night with nosy questions.
 
We’ll
have to work out how to approach the suspects and work from there.”

“I just hope
we can help Michael,” Joan said anxiously.

Janet was on
the bottom step, but now she crossed over to her sister and gave her a
hug.
 
“I’m sure it will all be
okay,” she murmured.
 
“Robert’s very
good at his job, and with us poking around as well, I’m sure the culprit will
be behind bars in no time.”

“At least one
of us is optimistic,” Joan said, stepping back from Janet.
 
“Go and get some sleep.
 
I’ll have breakfast ready at eight.”

Janet nodded
and then climbed the stairs.
 
Her
mind was racing as she tried to work out how she could help her sister in her
quest to aid Michael.
 
She was sure
she’d have a good idea if she slept on it, or at least that’s what she told
herself as she climbed into bed.
 
When her alarm rang the next morning, she was disappointed to find that
no wonderful idea had come to her in the night.

After a quick
shower, Janet got dressed and combed her hair.
 
Neither sister generally bothered with
makeup.
 
Now Janet stared at herself
in the mirror. It seemed as if everyone they met thought the sisters looked a
lot alike, but Janet couldn’t really see it.
 
While Joan was slender and always looked
slightly disapproving, Janet was curvy and smiled almost constantly.
 
Today the smile looked a bit forced as
she thought about Michael’s problem.

“I think the
first thing we should do is head into town and see what’s going on at the
shop,” Joan announced after she’d set the breakfast plates on the table.

Janet sat down
and picked up a fork.
 
She frowned
down at her plate.
 
Joan was an
excellent cook, but today’s breakfast was not up to her usual standards.
 

“Sorry about
breakfast,” Joan added.
 
“I can’t
seem to concentrate on cooking.”

Janet ate
without complaining, but where before she had been interested in getting
involved in Michael’s case because of her inherent nosiness, now she was
determined to get the matter resolved for far more selfish reasons.
 
While she didn’t mind cooking for
herself once in a while, there was no way Janet wanted to take on cooking for
the bed and breakfast when they had guests on the way.
 
If Joan was too upset to cook properly
for their guests, Janet wasn’t sure what they’d do.

Janet washed
burnt toast down with bitter coffee, trying to pretend that she hadn’t really
noticed anything unusual.
 
“What do
you think we can accomplish by stopping at the shop?” she asked as she loaded
the breakfast plates into the dishwasher.

“I want a word
with this Matthew Rogers.
 
He’s the
one who’s stirring up all the trouble, after all.”

Janet nodded.
 
As she hadn’t come up with a better
idea, she couldn’t argue.
 
“Maybe,
while we’re there, we should stick our heads in at the bank and see if the key
we found is for one of their boxes,” she suggested.

“I suppose,”
Joan shrugged.

Janet could
tell that Joan didn’t want to spend any time on anything other than helping
Michael, but the key intrigued Janet.
 
She really wanted to find out what it opened.

A few minutes
later the pair were heading into
Doveby
Dale with
Joan at the wheel.
 

“Of course
Owen is laid up in hospital,” Joan said, swerving back into the correct lane
when she noticed the approaching car.

“Why don’t you
let me drive?” Janet suggested.
 

“I’m fine,”
Joan snapped.
 
“Just a bit
distracted.”

The loud
honking of a car horn told both sisters that Joan had just missed a stop
sign.
 
Joan sighed.
 
“Okay, maybe I’m too distracted to
drive.”

Luckily it was
only a short distance into the small city
centre
of
Doveby
Dale.
 
Janet sighed with relief when Joan slid the car into a parking space.

“I’ll drive
home,” Janet said firmly as they exited the car.

“Yes, I think
you should,” Joan agreed.
 

Joan had
parked across two spaces, but as the car park was nearly empty, Janet didn’t
think it mattered overly much.
 
The
pair walked quickly towards the short row of shops.
 
It seemed very quiet as they strolled
past the newsagent.
 
The chemist
shop had a sign in the window.

Closed due to unforeseen circumstances.
 
We will reopen on Monday at nine.

“Well, that’s
that, then,” Janet said.
 

“I wonder if
William knows anything?” Joan replied, walking past the chemist and down to the
end of the strip.
 

WTC Antiques was owned by William Chalmers
, a somewhat
disagreeable man with a shady past.
 
Strangely, it seemed as if the sisters were becoming something like
friends with the man.
 
Now Joan
pushed open the door to his shop.

Janet winced
at the loud buzzing noise that filled the room as they walked into the
shop.
 
A moment later William
appeared in the doorway to the back room.

“Ah, Janet and
Joan Markham, what a pleasant surprise,” he said in an artificially bright
tone.
 
“To what do I owe this
pleasure?”

“We were just
in the
neighbourhood
,” Janet said, wrinkling her nose
as she
realised
her own tone was just as false
sounding as his had been.

“I do hope you
are enjoying your painting,” he replied, smirking at her.

Janet
flushed.
 
She’d fallen in love with
a painting in the store when it had first opened, but it was far too expensive
for her.
 
Edward Bennett had
purchased the painting and had it sent to Janet as a gift.
 
As Janet didn’t really know what to
think of Edward, she wasn’t sure how she felt about the expensive gift.
 
She’d not had a chance to speak to
Edward since the painting had been delivered, and the subject was somewhat
uncomfortable for Janet.

“It’s a lovely
picture,” Joan said now, clearly trying to help her sister during the awkward
pause.

“It is, yes,”
William agreed.
 
“But I have a few
paintings coming in soon by local artists, if you’re still interested.”

“Oh, yes,”
Joan said.
 
“Do let us know when you
have something.”

William nodded
and then looked expectantly at them both.
 

“We were
hoping to get a few things from the chemist,” Janet said.
 
“That’s why we came into town.”

“Oh, I did see
that it was shut.
 
I wonder why,”
William said.

“I can’t
imagine,” Janet lied, feeling relieved that William obviously hadn’t heard
anything about the missing drugs yet.

“I know Owen
had some surgery or something, didn’t he?” William asked.
 
“But I thought your
neighbour
was covering for him.”

“We’ll have to
ask Michael what’s going on,” Janet said with a shrug.
 
“Anyway, we won’t bother you any further
today.
 
Do ring us when you’ve
something for us to see.”

She turned and
pulled Joan out of the store.
 
On
the pavement, Joan shook her head.
 

“How do you do
that?” she demanded.

“Do what?”

“Lie, that’s
what,” Joan replied.
 
“You pretended
that you didn’t know anything about why the shop was shut.
 
I was afraid if I opened my mouth I
would say something I shouldn’t.”

“It’s probably
best if only one of us is a good liar,” Janet muttered.
 
“Anyway, he didn’t seem to know
anything.
 
That’s the good news.”

“I was hoping
he might say that he’d seen someone stealing drugs from the store,” Joan
replied.
 
“That would have been
better news.”

The pair
were
walking slowly away from the short row of shops, down
the pavement towards the small local bank.
 
“Still determined to find out about that key?” Joan asked as they
reached the entrance.

“I am,” Janet
replied.
 
“You can wait here if you
want.”

Joan sat down
on a small bench just outside the door, while Janet made her way inside.
 
A moment later she was back, a frown on
her face.

“No luck?”
Joan asked.

“Honestly,
when did they start hiring twelve-year-olds to work behind bank counters?”
Janet demanded.
 
“She glanced at the
key and said ‘nope, not ours,’ and then went back to gossiping with the girl at
the next window.
 
I’m awfully glad
we don’t bank there.”

“So where to
now?” Joan asked her.

Janet
sighed.
 
They’d made their way to
the car and she simply couldn’t think what they could do next to help Michael.

“Derby’s a
long drive, if we want to visit Owen in hospital,” Joan said, thoughtfully.

“We should
talk to Michael before we drive all that way.
 
The poor man might not even be allowed
visitors,” Janet pointed out.
 
“And
we don’t know where to find the other two men at all.”

“Michael might
be able to help us out there as well,” Joan said.
 
“Maybe we should head back to
Doveby
House and see if he’s home.”

“Maybe, since
you’re having dinner with him, we should do some work around the house before
he comes over,” Janet suggested.
 
“Robert
is meant to be stopping by and we have guests arriving on Monday, after all.”

Joan
flushed.
 
“Of course you’re right,”
she said.
 
“But lunch with Michael
would be better than dinner.
 
I’d
really like to get his troubles sorted out before the guests arrive, if we
can.”

Janet drove
the pair back to
Doveby
House.
 
As soon as they were in the front door,
Joan rang Michael.
 
She hung up with
a frown.

“No answer,”
she said.

“And you didn’t
leave a message.”

“I didn’t know
what to say,” Joan replied.
 
“Anyway, let’s do a bit of cleaning and then I’ll try again.”

Janet started
on the public spaces, dusting and vacuuming her way from room to room.
 
She hadn’t finished the deep cleaning in
the library yet, but she ran a duster over the shelves that she’d yet to tackle
and then vacuumed the space.
 
If
their guests had any interest in seeing the library, it was at least
presentable.
 
When she finished,
Janet shut and locked the library door, hoping that their guests wouldn’t even
notice the small room.

“Tomorrow I’ll
finish cleaning the upstairs,” Joan said over a lunch that wasn’t much better
than breakfast had been.
 
“Then
Saturday we can go and do the shopping for the beginning of the week.
 
I don’t want to buy too much until we
find out what our guests are going to want for breakfast each day.”

“That sounds
good,” Janet replied.
 
“Maybe Sunday
we can head into Derby and visit poor Owen in hospital, then.”

“We’ll have to
work out a good reason for doing so,” Joan mused.
 
“It isn’t like we actually know the man,
after all.”

“Maybe Michael
will have some ideas,” Janet suggested.

“I don’t
really want, that is, I’m not sure,” Joan took a deep breath and then shook her
head.
 
“I’m not sure I want Michael
to know that we’re doing a bit of, well, snooping,” she said eventually.