Free 1 Aunt Bessie Assumes by Diana Xarissa Page B

her to take it all in.   The
house appeared spotless and perfectly maintained.   Walls looked freshly painted and carpets
didn’t look as if anyone had ever walked on them.   Bessie tried to peek into as many rooms
as she could as they walked along, but Bahey walked too fast for her get more
than a vague impression of expensively furnished but soulless spaces.
    At the end of the corridor,
Bahey flung open a door and switched on some lights.   “Here we are,” she told Bessie.   “The great room,” she said in a hushed
tone.   She ushered Bessie inside,
turning on more lights as they walked into the space.  
    Bessie turned around slowly
as she studied the room.   It was
huge, certainly larger than the whole ground floor of her cottage, with
massively high ceilings as well.   It
was informally divided into several areas, each containing groups of chairs and
tables.   The back wall of the room
was almost entirely made up of windows that stretched at least two-stories
high.    There was a long bar
covered in black granite just in front of the windows, with bar stools dotted
along in front of it.   While Bahey
had turned on several lights, with the overcast skies outside, the room felt
cold and unwelcoming.
    Bessie turned to Bahey.   “It’s sort of a grim room, isn’t it?”
    Bahey laughed.   “I’ve always thought so,” she
agreed.   “But the family loves it in
here.   Anyway, I’ll just tell Mr.
and Mrs. Pierce you’re here.”
    Bahey disappeared back
through the door and Bessie took another slow look around the room.   She didn’t like it any better the second
time.   Unwilling to choose which
area to sit in, she made her way over to the wall of windows.   She could just about make out her own
cottage, a tiny dot on the horizon.   The police tape still blocked off the beach and Bessie could see a
single uniformed officer walking slowly along the perimeter of the tape.   Whether he was looking for evidence or
just guarding the area, she couldn’t tell.
    Bessie swung around when she
heard the door open behind her.   She
immediately recognised Mr. and Mrs. Pierce from their annual summer
visits.   Mr. Pierce was tall and
grey-haired, with broad shoulders and an almost military bearing.   His wife was petite and looked exhausted
and much older than the late fifties that Bessie knew was her age.   The couple took a few steps into the
room and stared at Bessie.
    “Mr. and Mrs. Pierce, please
accept my deepest sympathies for your loss,” she said as she crossed to them
across the large room.
    Mrs. Pierce looked at her
with unfocussed eyes.   “Do you have
children?” she asked in a shaking voice.
    “No, I was never blessed with
children of my own,” Bessie replied, taking the woman’s hand as she reached her
side.   “I can’t begin to imagine the
pain you’re suffering.”
    “It’s unbearable,” the woman
told her, squeezing Bessie’s hand painfully.   “I can’t bear it.   The doctor has had to give me piles of
pills just so that I can breathe.”
    Bessie nodded.   “I am so very sorry,” she repeated.   “I’m not sure if you even remember me,
but I live in the cottage just down the beach from you.”   Bessie waved her hand vaguely in the
direction of her home.
    “Of course we remember
you.   Everyone who spends any time
in Laxey at all knows Aunt Bessie,” Daniel Pierce, Sr., answered
brusquely.   “It’s kind of you to pay
your respects.”
    Bessie nodded and pulled her
hand away from Mrs. Pierce just long enough to shake hands with the dead man’s
father.   Although Mr. Pierce seemed
steady enough, when she was close enough to shake his hand Bessie realised that
a lot of his strength was currently coming from whisky.
    “And of course you found the
body,” a voice from the door startled them all.   Bessie turned to find a heavy-set man of
about thirty-five staring at her.
    “Ah, Donny, there you are,”
Mr. Pierce waved the man into the room.