Mistletoe’s Kiss

15. Chapter 15

15

Chapter 15

“If people do not choose to lower their voices, one must assume that they are prepared to be overheard.”

At Bertram’s Hotel by Agatha Christie

T hey paused just outside another room as Maddy finished recounting the events from earlier in the evening. As she reached out to open the door, Moore grabbed her hand before she could touch the handle and motioned for her to lean in closer to where he was pressing his head against the cold wood. She did as he asked, bending slightly, so close that she could feel his hot breath against her forehead and his hair brush her cheek. He held a finger to his lips and they both stilled, listening to the muffled sounds that Maddy had missed on their approach. She tried to focus in on the noises coming from the room but failed, overwhelmed with the electric tension running through her body at Moore’s nearness. When she finally got herself together it took a moment to process what she was hearing, breathy moans and what sounded like a sharp slap!

“That’s enough of that,” Moore said with a snicker and pushed the door open quickly.

Priesh Mukta stood there, trousers round his ankles, ass muscles flexing as he pumped in and out of a flushed, half-naked Moira Walsh. She was bent over the arm of a sofa with her dress hiked up around her waist, breasts spilling out and her jiggling ass painted red, presumably from the slap they’d heard.

“I knew it! Hate fucking for the win!” Maddy yelled causing Priesh to pull out of Moira in surprise. As he turned towards them the detective shoved a hand over her eyes.

“You do know I write explicit romance for a living, right? There’s absolutely no need to protect my delicate sensibilities.”

“Yeah, but I don’t need you seeing another man’s hard cock! I mean, no one needs to see that! Put it away Mr Mukta and please both of you put some clothes on. We have a very serious situation here,” Moore said to the partially naked couple.

“Another man’s cock?” Maddy said under her breath. She heard the rustling of clothes and managed to tug Moore’s hand from her face.

“Who the fuck are you?” A red-faced Priesh spat at Moore. Maddy tried not to look as he tucked his cock back into his trousers but it was like a car crash, she just couldn’t look away. He was still wearing that ridiculous moustache! Her eyes pinged from Priesh to Moira and back again, unable to believe she’d actually been right the whole time.

“Maddy, what’s going on? Who’s this?” Moira whispered as the men continued to glare at each other. She seemed to be trying to gloss over the fact that she’d been caught getting railed on the knob of her arch nemesis! Oh, hang on, her lipstick was all smeared and was that… eww!

“Moira” Maddy whispered back scrunching up her face, “you’ve got a little something…” she said pointing to the side of her mouth.

Moira quickly wiped her face with the sleeve of her dress, “Shit, this is so embarrassing!”

It looked like the evening’s entertainment had already been well underway when they barged in. Maddy wanted to giggle like a schoolgirl but managed to squash that thought when she saw the anger and confusion on Priesh’s face.

Maddy managed to reign in her glee at the surprising turn of events and tried to keep her expression serious. She gestured to her companion, this is Detective Moore. I’m afraid there’s been a murder in the house and he’s here to hold the fort until the local police can get through the snow.”

“Wow! That’s great! I mean the timing sucks…” Priesh grimaced glancing at Moira’s mouth “…but I can appreciate the dedication to the whole murder mystery night thing.”

“Wait, I was supposed to be murdered,” Moira said rifling through her bag. “Here, see.” She handed her character card to the detective and Maddy could clearly see the words ‘murder victim’ at the bottom. “The wealthy widow is supposed to be bumped off, so someone’s made a mistake. She glanced at Moore, “Where did Dan hire him, Maddy? He doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing…”

Moore ran a hand through his already messy hair in frustration and muttered, “This is so fucking annoying,” and then in a louder voice, “…sorry, you’ve misunderstood, I really am a detective and there really has been a murder. About an hour ago Maddy and Sara found Mr Scott in the study downstairs. He’s been killed, rather violently as it happens.”

“Brilliant!” Priesh scoffed. “Just like Dan to take over the whole evening and make himself the centre of attention. He always was a complete twat! I don’t know how you can work with him, Maddy. I think it’s time for me to head off anyway, not sure I can take any more of Dan’s egomaniacal nonsense.”

Wide-eyed at his outburst Maddy replied, “Priesh, it’s not a joke. Dans dead! I found his body in the study, covered in blood and the poor butler is in shock in the kitchen. We’ve been trying to find you guys so we can all go back downstairs and figure out what happened.”

Moira looked at them both in shock and Priesh stumbled back until his legs hit the edge of the bed, forcing him to sit. “You’re fucking serious? Dans really dead? Shit!…Doesn’t surprise me. If anyone deserved to be murdered it was that poor excuse for a man.”

“What the hell are you crying for?” He said, turning to focus on Moira who had tears streaking her face. “He ruined you, he ruined us! Thank fuck it’s over, maybe now you can put that disgusting piece of trash behind you.”

Maddy narrowed her eyes at Priesh, her voice edged with suspicion. “You don’t exactly seem upset that Dan’s dead. I didn’t realize you knew him beyond business. Sounds like you’ve both known him for a lot longer. I get that he wasn’t a nice man, but what did he do to you?”

Priesh stiffened, glancing at Moira before meeting Maddy’s gaze. “Dan and I go way back. We were friends once, or at least, I thought we were.” His voice grew sour. “But he had a habit of ruining things for other people. I was just one of many.”

Moira stepped forward, crossing her arms. “It wasn’t just business between them. Dan… manipulated people. He had a way of getting what he wanted, no matter who he hurt.”

Priesh’s jaw tightened, his eyes darkening as he spoke. “I learned that the hard way. I thought he was a friend, someone I could trust.” He let out a humourless laugh. “Turns out he was just using me.”

Maddy’s curiosity sharpened. “So, what happened?

Priesh looked over at Moira’s hunched form and sighed, “I didn’t kill him if that’s what you’re getting at. I hated him, absolutely hated the man and most of all the fact that I still had to see him at this kind of thing, that we both had to see him. He enjoyed the effect he had on us, and got off on seeing us argue and snipe at each other.” He got up and walked over to Moira, pulling her into his arms. “I’ve got to tell them, love, they need to understand what kind of man Daniel Scott was…”

Moira’s lips tightened, and she gave a small nod. “Go on, Priesh,” she said quietly.

Priesh took a breath, his voice trembling at first but gaining strength. “Moira and I met during our first year at university. We were both English lit majors and sat in the same lectures. It wasn’t long before we fell in love. We even started making plans, small ones, but we dreamed big. Moira wanted to go into editing, and I had my eye on marketing. We’d get some experience, then start our own publishing house. Lofty dreams, I know.”

He paced a few steps, then stopped. “Things were going great… until I had to move into a new place. I answered an advert to share a house with a guy studying journalism, with an interest in publishing. That’s where I met Daniel.” He scoffed bitterly. “Handsome, funny, a ladies’ man, always bringing a different girl home, usually pretty and in their teens. I never saw the same girl twice. Quite often they left in tears but I just thought he was telling them it was a one-night-only kind of thing. I was a young bloke and actually kind of admired what I thought was Dan’s way with women.

Moira shook her head. “He was charming back then. Before the drinking got to him. I was young, naive, and when he flirted… I thought it was just friendly banter.”

Priesh nodded. “I never thought anything of it either, at first. I trusted him. And I trusted Moira. But then I started noticing how Dan would linger whenever she came over. Staring, making excuses to hang around.”

“I just laughed it off,” Moira said, her voice tight. “I thought he was joking. Priesh was my first boyfriend. I’d never dealt with anything like… like what came next.”

Priesh’s expression darkened as he turned to Moira, his voice soft. “Tell them what happened.”

Moira wrapped her arms around herself. “It was near the end of our final year. Dan asked for help with his thesis, and since I’d already finished mine, I agreed. I assumed Priesh would be there, but when I showed up, it was just Dan. We sat down to go over his writing and he handed me a beer, he said Priesh would be home soon.”

Moira’s hands began to shake, and she rubbed them together. “I took a few sips. That’s all it took. The room started spinning, and I remember Dan sitting down beside me, his arm around my shoulders. He said… he said I was a tease, but it was okay now because he’d give me what I’d been ‘asking for.’

She paused, squeezing her eyes shut as if willing herself to stay composed. “I woke up hours later. I didn’t even know where I was at first… but then I saw the tripod, the camera set up by the bed.” Her voice cracked. “I was a mess. I was missing the lower half of my clothing, my underwear was gone And I couldn’t remember anything. I wrapped myself in a sheet and ran to the bathroom to throw up. It was dark outside so I’d been at the house for hours but it seemed to be empty. I cleaned myself up, grabbed some joggers to wear from Priesh’s room and went home. I guess I was in shock, it hadn’t yet hit me that I’d been raped.”

Priesh clenched his fists. “I came home that night, thinking Moira had stood me up for a date we’d planned. I was worried. But then Dan told me she’d been over… and that they’d slept together.” His voice broke. “He even showed me a video when I said I didn’t believe him. He went to his room and came back with a camcorder, he pressed play and handed it back to me. I watched him fucking Moira in his bed and my whole world shattered.”

Moira flinched, her face pale. “He said nobody would believe me. That if I went to the police, it would just look like I was enjoying myself. And Priesh… he already believed him. That weekend I gathered enough courage to go back to the house to see Priesh, he wasn’t answering my calls and I hadn’t been going to lectures. He opened the door looking wrecked and when he saw it was me he slammed it in my face without any explanation. He didn’t talk to me again for five years.”

Priesh’s eyes filled with regret as he looked at Moira. “I was a fool. I should’ve known something was wrong with Dan’s story, I should have seen it but I was too angry to think straight. I blamed Moira instead of myself and cut her out of my life.”

He let out a bitter laugh, pacing the room. “I thought Dan was looking out for me back then. I was an idiot,” he said, shaking his head. “But then he stabbed me in the back…again.”

Maddy’s brow furrowed. “What did he do?”

“I had finally started to put my life back together,” Priesh continued, his tone sharp with frustration. “I’d landed an internship with Cupid, starting the following week. Sasha Collins, in marketing, was looking for an intern, and she happened to be friendly with my English lecturer. It felt like a chance to finally move on. I was ready.” He stopped pacing, his fists clenched. “Then, the day before I was supposed to start, I came down with this ‘mysterious’ stomach bug. I was throwing up for three days straight, completely out of commission. And Dan? Nowhere to be found.”

Maddy’s eyes widened slightly. “You think Dan had something to do with it?”

Priesh gave a sharp nod. “He told me he’d called Cupid on my behalf, and explained I was sick. But when I finally got well enough to phone them myself, they said the internship had already been filled.” He paused, his jaw tightening. “It was Dan, of course. He’d called them up, charmed Sasha, and talked his way into my spot. He was a jealous prick!” Priesh’s voice was rough with old resentment. “It was the final blow. I left London for a while and went back to my parents’ place. Eventually, I found work in book buying. And then I got a letter from Moira.” He glanced at her, his expression softening slightly. “That’s when I learned the truth about what really happened with Dan. This time, I was ready to believe her.”

Moira shook her head, “It took years of therapy before I got to the point where I could send that letter. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want to renew our relationship then, I had so much anger inside, the man I loved hadn’t believed me and threw me away on the word of a rapist.”

At Priesh’s wince, Moore, who had been silently absorbing the story, took a step forward. “So, neither of you went to the police?”

Moira shook her head, tears glistening in her eyes. “I was too ashamed. Too scared. Dan kept the video as leverage, and every time I saw him at an industry event, he’d just tap his phone and give me a smug smile. I thought about just giving up my job so I wouldn’t ever have to see him again but I love my career. I worked hard to recover from what he did to me and I couldn’t just let him win.”

A tense silence filled the room before Maddy spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. “Did you know Dan’s been harassing me too? And the other women at the office?” She shuddered, hugging herself as if trying to shield against the reality of it. “I didn’t realize he was capable of something this horrible. Now, I’m worried about what else he may have done.”

Moore’s hand rested gently on Maddy’s shoulder. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.” He turned to Priesh and Moira. “Did either of you leave the room between the tarot reading and when we found you?”

Moira blushed. “No… we were… preoccupied.” She glanced at Priesh, who nodded, his jaw set in a grim line. “There’s a whole lot of hate and resentment between us but as you’ve also seen this evening there’s still love and attraction there too. We only ever meet at industry events and can’t keep our hands off each other. As soon as the tarot reading was over we slipped away and hid in here. Neither of us wanted to see Dan for the rest of the night. He’s nasty on the best of days but dangerous when drunk.”

“Fuck!” Maddy whispered, blinking back tears. She’d been both riveted and terrified listening to the couple’s account and jumped when Moore put an arm around her shaking shoulders. She’d had a lucky escape tonight, a rapist had tried to get her alone in a bedroom and who knows what could have happened if someone hadn’t taken matters into their own hands and killed the bastard.

Moore rubbed a hand up and down her back and turned to the couple. “Listen,” he said, his tone firm. “You two head downstairs, help Sara move Mr. Michaels to the parlour. It’s warmer there. We’ll keep looking for Jude and Helen.”

Moira’s eyes widened. “Wait, why is Maddy staying with you? Shouldn’t we all stick together?”

Maddy glanced at Moore, then back at Moira. “It’s okay. He’s a police officer. Besides, Jude and Helen might be more likely to listen to me.”

Moore nodded. “And we can’t rule out that someone set this up to mirror Maddy’s book. For all we know it could be some kind of obsessive stalker who wants to get her attention and figured this was the way to do it. She may be able to help me work out who’s behind it.” His gaze met Maddy’s, a silent question in his eyes. “You’re safe with me.”

Maddy bit her lip. Could she trust Moore enough to tell him about the emails she’d been getting?