Mistletoe’s Kiss

9. Chapter 9

9

Chapter 9

“From now on, it is our task to suspect each and every one amongst us.”

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

S ara tried to push past Maddy, who was blocking the doorway, her face pale. “What do you mean there’s a body? We’re at a murder mystery party—of course there’s a body! That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?”

“It’s a real body!” Maddy’s voice wavered as she struggled to keep it steady. “I swear, it’s a real body!”

Sara’s expression shifted from exasperation to horror. Pushing Maddy aside, she barged into the room, her footsteps echoing off the polished wood floors. Maddy held her breath, knowing a bomb was about to go off.

A shriek pierced the air as Sara stumbled upon the sight of Daniel Scott, slumped over a mahogany desk, a pool of crimson spreading beneath his head. The lifeless corpse, dressed in that expensive tuxedo Maddy had seen earlier, looked too still, too real to be part of the night’s entertainment.

Sara staggered back from the grisly scene, colliding with a figure half-hidden in the shadows, a man muttering incoherently. Michaels, the butler, stood there covered in blood, his hands outstretched in a zombie-like trance. As he shuffled towards her, Sara bolted past Maddy into the hallway where she doubled over and retched.

Maddy gathered Sara up, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, trying to exude a calm she didn’t feel. Her pulse hammered in her ears, but Michaels frail frame and the distant look in his eyes reminded her that he was an elderly man and he looked to be in a state of shock.

“Take deep breaths for me Sara, we have to see if Michaels is alright, then we’ll get out of here and call the police. She kept her voice level, though inside, panic clawed to get out. “If he’s in shock we need to keep him warm until help arrives and you’re not looking too good yourself. On second thoughts, why don’t you stay here and I’ll go back in to get him.”

Sara’s shivers intensified, and her eyes had on a glassy sheen. “Ok,” she managed shakily. “But hurry.”

Leaving Sara slumped against the wall, Maddy edged back into the study where Michaels hadn’t moved. He stood eerily still, his clothes dotted with dark stains. She approached him slowly, hands outstretched in a gesture of peace. “Mr Michaels, it’s Madeleine Montgomery, from the party. I’m going to help you, okay?” She reached for his hand and placed it on her arm. “Just some little steps and we’ll be out of here in a jiffy. We’ll head to the kitchen, nice and slowly…that’s it.”

She coaxed the old man out of the room, his footsteps shuffling against the floor as they made their way down the hall. With Sara’s help, she got Michaels into the kitchen and seated him on a stool, his eyes unfocused. The warmth of the room was a comfort but not enough to dispel the chill that had settled into Maddy’s bones.

Maddy filled the kettle and set it to boil. “Sara, we need to call the police. Mr Michaels, did you already call them?” She kept her tone gentle as she addressed the butler. He looked at her slowly, “yes…yes, the police,” he stammered, his voice hollow.

“Oh, thank fuck!” Sara blurted covering her mouth when she remembered the stiff and proper older gentleman sitting in front of her. But he didn’t react in the slightest.

“Are you sure that was really Dan? All I saw was blood, everywhere!” Sara shuddered. “I mean, he could have been playing a sick joke. It’s just the kind of thing he’d do.”

Maddy handed her a cup of overly sweet tea. “Drink this, it’s good for shock. It was him, Sara, I recognised that suit he was wearing earlier and it was real blood, did you smell it? Like copper pennies. I remember writing about the smell of blood in “Save Me, I’m Yours” but nothing prepares you for it in real life. Disgusting!.”

Sara paled, “Yeah, I just didn’t realise that’s what it was. I swear I can still smell it. Although that might be Michaels, how did his hands get covered in so much blood!”

Maddy didn’t think that Michaels was capable of the level of violence that had obviously taken place in the study. “I don’t know but I’m guessing he came across Dan, maybe he was trying to give him an update on the weather and found him like that? He could have touched him to check for a pulse or to move him and give first aid. His shoes are only bloody on the bottoms which means he stepped into the blood after it was already on the floor. I’m pretty sure that we don’t need to worry that Michaels is our killer. “Isn’t that right Mr Michaels?” The poor man was still huddled on his stool and hadn’t reacted to anything Maddy had said. She was going to clean his hands but thought the police would want them to keep everything as they found it, including the butler.

She sat down next to him and took another sip of the hot tea. “What we need to do is round up the rest of the party, we have another four guests wandering around the house with no idea what’s happened, not to mention the missing staff. Any one of them could walk into the study and accidentally destroy evidence that the police will need to find the killer.”

Sara looked at Maddy frowning, “Um, I know you’ve kind of ruled out Michaels here, and we were together when the murder happened but what about the rest of the guests? We don’t know where they’ve been, any one of them could have killed Dan! Who’s to say that one of us won’t be next? I’m really not sure I want to find them.”

“That’s true, one of them could have murdered Dan but it could also have been a member of staff or someone who came into the house specifically to target him. I mean, we both know he was a nasty man, there must be lots of people who’d like to see the back of him. It’s not safe for everyone to be scattered throughout the house. How about we walk to the foyer, stand at the bottom of the stairs and call them, they should be able to hear us from there. Hopefully, the police will be here any minute now and it’ll be easier for them if we’re all together.” Maddy put her mug of tea back on the counter and rubbed her face with her hands, “I’m so unbelievably tired but we need to go do that now.”

What about Michaels?” Sara said dubiously looking at the elderly man, “should we leave him here or take him with us?” Maddy noted his trembling hands. “I vote we leave him here with his cup of tea, he doesn’t look like he can move at the moment and hopefully there’ll be an ambulance with the police when they arrive.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right Maddy, if it’s taking too long one of us can always pop back and check he’s okay.”