Mistletoe’s Kiss

8. Chapter 8

8

Chapter 8

“The wicked should not go unpunished.”

Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie

M addy sat on a stool in the kitchen staring out of the frosted window at the snowflakes lazily drifting down from the night sky. The light from the kitchen illuminated a garden blanketed in a sea of shimmering white, so still and beautiful. She felt a quiet peace settle over her, a calmness she desperately needed after the utter shit show of the tarot room.

Sara handed her a mug and Maddy moaned as the rich taste of chocolate and the warmth of cinnamon hit her tongue, “what is this?”

“That my dear girl is my mother’s secret hot chocolate recipe, she only ever makes it at Christmas, it’s so comforting, like a hug in a mug….and I could use one of my mum’s hugs right about now.” Sara was stuffing mince pie number three into her mouth, they’d found a tray of freshly baked pies and gingerbread cookies on the kitchen counter and helped themselves, reasoning that baked goods always improve any situation. “Can I just say how creepily empty it is in here, where did the staff go?” Sara said, spitting crumbs everywhere. “There was a chef and those guys who served the dinner, now they’ve just disappeared.”

“Maybe Michaels sent them home because of the snow, they don’t have fancy cars or taxis picking them up and you know what it’s like in England, the first bit of snow and public transport just stops completely. Not that I think there’s likely to be a bus stop nearby; it feels like we’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“He’s supposed to be watching the news for weather updates, I bet that’s what he’s doing now. Hopefully, he’ll come find us if the car arrives early or the snow gets worse. While we’re waiting have you spotted any clues in here?”

“Well, I was just thinking we should have a look in that pantry behind you, there’s a rather suspicious footprint on the floor just in front of the door,” Maddy said with an amused smile.

“What! How did I miss that? I’ve walked past that door three times for mince pies! You’re a much better detective than me!”

“I should hope so, to quote the great Hercule Poirot ‘It is my business to know things, that is my trade.’ I literally make my living plotting murders and then solving them and let’s not forget this party is supposed to be based on Blood Under the Mistletoe, so I do have a bit of an unfair advantage. Anyway, let’s have a look at this print” she said, grabbing her notebook and pen.

She knelt on the kitchen floor and peered down at the dirty footprint. Ripping out a few pieces of paper she placed them alongside the print until she could roughly gauge the size. “I’m a size seven shoe and this is quite a bit bigger, around a ten or eleven, so most likely belonging to a man. What do you think?”

“Yep, I concur detective.”

Maddy’s face lit up, “I’ve always wanted to hear someone call me that. Now, I’m just going to do a quick sketch of the tread in case we get a chance to have a look at any of the suspect’s shoes later.” As she got to work drawing the pattern into her notebook she caught Sara staring at her. “What?” She said.

“I don’t know, it’s just that even with what happened with Dan earlier you seem happy, I mean you’re enjoying this” Sara replied. “It’s great seeing you with a big smile and a sparkle in your eyes. I never really see you having fun at the book events and parties. But sitting on the cold floor of a country house looking for clues is most definitely your thing.”

“That’s because you don’t see me writing, I love writing and I’m sure there’s usually a crazy happy glint in my eyes when I’m outlining a devious plan and don’t get me started on how much I enjoy living out my detective fantasies through my characters,” Maddie said with a smirk.

“Right that’s done, whoever made the footprint was facing into the pantry so we’d better check it out. Let’s hope there’s a light,” Maddie said, pulling the stiff wooden door open. She fumbled around in the dark, feeling the wall to her right until she felt a switch. “Et Voila! Can you see anything interesting or out of place?”

“Apart from an unhealthy amount of tinned vegetables and the usual dry cooking ingredients, there are lots and lots of cobwebs and where there are cobwebs there must be spiders,” Sara said with a shiver. “I absolutely hate spiders! Oh wait, hang on, there’s a knife and some herbs or plants or something on the side there” she said pointing at a shelf.

The knife looked sharp and was sitting next to a pile of Mistletoe, not herbs as Sara had thought. Maddy picked up the Mistletoe and looked closely, “Does this seem strange to you?” She asked Sara.

“No, I don’t think so, it’s not really a clue, right? Just the leftovers for the cocktails tonight?”

“If it was just leftovers that the chef or someone chopped up it wouldn’t have been sitting here on a shelf, it would have been in the kitchen, on the counter, this looks like it was hidden in here… but why? Also, the cocktail garnishes were fake. If real mistletoe like this,” she said holding it up for Sara. “… had been decorating the glasses and we’d ingested it we would have had one hell of a party. The plant contains viscotoxins, it’s essentially poisonous, one or two berries or a few of the leaves would cause vomiting, blurred vision, stomach pain, heart palpitations and even hallucinations. Not something you want to fall into your drink.” She looked back down at the leaves in her hand, “Oh! That’s it! No berries! That’s what looks so weird, someone removed all of the berries from this bunch and left the leaves.”

“Okay, I’m with you, but why take the berries?”Sara said, grabbing the mistletoe from Maddy and placing it back on the shelf.

“Do you even read my books? Maddy laughed. “The victim in Blood Under the Mistletoe is given a Mistletoe’s Kiss cocktail at the Christmas party, the murderer having squeezed the berries into the drink. They’re then rendered unable to defend themselves due to the poison and meet a horrible end later on that night. I assumed that’s why we were given the cocktails earlier, to tie in with the book but thankfully without the toxins! Why on earth would I know so much about Mistletoe poisoning if I hadn’t already researched it!”

“Amazing!” Sara said, looking impressed. “That is a fantastic clue, aren’t you glad I got peckish and we started here? So, we know that the suspect is most likely a man with size ten or eleven feet and we seem to be following your novel to the letter so I’m guessing the victim will have also been given the mistletoe berries in a drink at some point. And I have read your book, I promise, wouldn’t be a very good publicist if I didn’t but I read it months ago and I’ve read about twenty more manuscripts since then so my brain is a bit fuzzy on all the details. Now that we’re armed with our first clues, where should we head next? Do you want to stay down here for a bit or potter about upstairs, see what everyone else is up to?”

“Hmm, difficult choice but I’m thinking upstairs, I’m dying to explore the bedrooms. But I don’t want to bump into Dan, so if we see him, swiftly move on and don’t engage.”

They left the kitchen and were about halfway up the creaking wooden stairs when they heard a loud crash and a shout from below. “What was that!” Maddy yelled…

Sara paused at the noise with a foot in the air, she turned and started heading back down the stairs, “Let’s go have a look….this is so fucking creepy, I love creepy shit… just, you know, be careful.”

They reached the entrance hall and followed a low muttering sound along the main hallway until they came to a room with its door partially ajar. Maddy stepped forward and gently pushed the door further open. She froze and then yanked Sara away from the door. “Shit! Don’t go in Sara. There’s a body in there!”