Mistletoe’s Kiss

23. Chapter 23

23

Chapter 23

“Instinct is a marvellous thing. It can neither be explained nor ignored.”

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

W hen Maddy and Nolan walked back into the parlour it was quiet. Sara sat with Jude on one of the brightly coloured sofas and they talked softly together. Moira and Priesh were on the sofa across from them. Moira’s head rested on Priesh’s shoulder and they sat in comfortable silence. Maddy wondered if now that Dan was gone they could forgive and forget, maybe make a future together without constantly bumping into the ugly reminder of their past. Michaels still sat in the armchair they’d left him in but some colour had appeared in his cheeks and life had bled back into his eyes.

Maddy walked to the fire and held out her hands to warm them. These old houses were like iceboxes in the winter. She let the scent of pine and cinnamon ground her as Nolan followed, he joined her, facing the guests, she guessed he had a cold ass too…a cold, juicy and biteable ass. To distract herself from ogling the detective’s bubble butt she turned and spoke to the guests, “How’s everyone doing?”

“I think we’re all in varying degrees of shock,” Priesh said. Turning to Nolan, he asked, “Any news on when your colleagues are going to get here? Have they said if we’ll be allowed to go home in the morning? It’s Christmas and we just want to answer their questions and then forget this whole thing happened.”

Helen nodded, agreeing and added “I wonder if the press will get wind of it. If we’re named the publicity could do great things for me!”

Moira shook her head at Helen in disbelief, “That’s insane, the press will just make our lives a misery.”

“I’ll be glad when the truth about how much of a lying piece of shit Dan was comes out. He stole my book and passed it off as another author’s work, then effectively made it so that no other publishers would touch me. Who knows how many others he’s done that to! Maybe if the police look into him and discover what he was like more people will come forward and I can finally put my name to my novel and get paid for it!” Helen spat.

Jude sighed, looking miserable and weary, “I was about to report him to trading standards for wildly unprofessional behaviour. He conned me into buying hundreds of Maddy’s books with the promise of an exclusive signing event and then totally reneged. It’s been the final nail in the coffin for my bookshop, we were already struggling and now we’re going to be forced to close down. It’ll be all over the news, about how I couldn’t handle my finances and I’ll never get another loan to start again.”

“I’d be more worried that the whole world will see that everyone here has a solid motive to get rid of Dan. The public loves to vilify suspects and what’s that saying? Oh yeah, ‘trial by press’…“ Sara said looking curiously at Priesh and Moira. “And what’s going on with you two? Having watched you snipe and bitch at each other for years I’m wondering why you’re suddenly so chummy? But I can’t believe you both have a motive, do you?”

“You first Sara,” Moira said turning her face into Priesh’s chest.

“Okay, it looks like it would have come out sooner rather than later anyway. But I guess it’s my motive and Maddy’s to a degree…is that alright Maddy? If I explain?”

“Sure, go ahead. It’s always a good idea to go over the motives and clues,” Maddy replied.

“For fuck sake! We’re not playing amateur detective here, a real detective is standing right next to you Maddy. This is not a game!” Priesh threw back at her.

Maddy heard a rumble from Nolan at Priesh’s anger but chose to ignore it. “We’ll see, I’m not so sure this isn’t a game. We’re missing something here. We need to try to put the pieces together and get a fuller picture of what we’re dealing with….”

“As I was saying,” Sara continued. “Dan was about to be fired from Cupid for sexually harassing and blackmailing the women who worked there, it’s been going on for years. He’s been propositioning Maddy on and off at events since she signed with us and tonight he was particularly aggressive. I’ve had to step in so many times to keep him away from her. I guess that’s Maddy’s motive, he said that if she didn’t go upstairs and sleep with him tonight he’d make sure that Cupid dropped her. There’s been rumblings on the board about ‘explicit’ content and her books being too smutty for traditional bookshops. And just for the record Maddy, I don’t agree, I love your books!”

Maddy smiled sadly as Sara carried on, “On a more personal note, I got into a relationship with Dan when we first met, he lied to me about being married, then gave me a sob story about being unhappy with his wife. I stupidly believed him and carried on seeing him for a few months before he dumped me for another intern. I was so humiliated when I realised that he’d done this over and over before me and continued to do so since.”

“He was a predator,” Moira said in a quavering voice from the sofa. “I had my own run-in with him twenty years ago and I really don’t want it to come out in the press. I was seeing Priesh at the time and Dan was a friend and flatmate of his. One night he asked me to come over to help with his thesis and then drugged and raped me. He filmed it and blackmailed me into not going to the police.”

Jude grasped in shock and Maddy watched as tears sprung to Sara’s eyes.

“Dan told me that it was consensual, that she cheated on me and he showed me the video. I’ll never forgive myself for believing him,” Priesh said stroking Moira’s hair in a bid to comfort her. “I also had an internship set up with Cupid but he stabbed me in the back, took it for himself and annihilated any chance I had at a career in publishing. You could say he ruined my life twice over, is that enough motive from me?!”

They all remained silent for a few moments, unable to say anything in the face of so much unhappiness caused by such a horrible human being. Maddy felt like pieces of the puzzle were finally coming together for her. Like her favourite detective novels, the very ones that inspired her to write her books, it was often only when you got all of the suspects together in one room and looked at their motives and movements that you could see the truth behind the mystery. Thinking out loud she said, “Don’t you think it’s too much of a coincidence that all of us invited here tonight had clear a motive for killing Dan? We all hated him, either had a past grievance or were being threatened. All of us had the means to do it and none of us have solid alibis.”

Deciding to play devil’s advocate Maddy gestured at Jude and said, “Jude for instance says that she was upset, had too much to drink and passed out but she was in the library which was very close to the study Dan was found in, there’s no one to corroborate her story and let’s not forget she conveniently stumbled across the murder scene. Those screams could have served as misdirection, trying to make us believe that she was horrified by the murder when she actually committed it.”

Jude looked terrified at Maddy’s reasoning but she chose to move on to the next suspect and carried on. “Moira and Priesh were together.”

“Together?” Helen said, whipping her head around to stare at the couple.

“Yes ‘together’, so technically they can give each other alibis, that is unless they were also working together. Their motive is a shared one after all and two people overpowering a man like Daniel would have been easy.”

“Oh, come on, you don’t actually believe that do you?” Priesh said glowering back at her.

She shrugged, “I’m just trying to figure things out.” Maddy looked at her friend with an apology in her eyes. “Now, myself and Sara were together apart from about fifteen minutes when Sara disappeared to go to the loo but met up with Dan in the book nook to threaten him into leaving me alone. We don’t know for definite that she ever went there, she could have met him in the study and fifteen minutes is more than enough time to stab someone and clean up if you’re careful about it.”

“Lastly, we have Helen who like Jude was alone after dinner and has no one to give her an alibi. She just wandered the hallways, getting ‘lost’ while the murder occurs.”

“And what about you, Ms. High and Mighty amateur detective, throwing accusations at everyone,” Helen glared. “You had just as much reason to want Dan dead. He was harassing you and threatening to destroy your career. Do you think he would have let you move to another publisher? Believe me, he would have made sure no one would sign you. And you’re the expert in all things murder! If I were going to point the finger it would be at you, it would be a complete doddle for you to come up with a plan to kill Dan and get away with it.”

“You’re right, I had the motive and I had the means, when Sara actually went to the bathroom after talking to Dan I could easily have slipped out of the kitchen to the nearby study and killed him. The only witness to me leaving the kitchen would have been Michaels who was too out of it to take notice of anything going on around him.”

“You’re accusing yourself?” Nolan laughed.

“I’m just reasoning it out, looking at all of us as suspects, just like you and your fellow detectives are going to do when they arrive here in the morning.”

“We all have a motive and the means to commit the murder. The other thing that points to one of us being the killer is knowledge of the plot of my novel. The murderer killed Dan in the exact same way that the victim is killed in Blood Under the Mistletoe. I found bunches of Mistletoe in the kitchen but all of the berries were missing and Dan, although he appeared to be drunk had all the signs of Mistletoe poisoning. He was slurring his speech, sweating, unsteady on his feet and Sara said that he was complaining of stomach pain when she last saw him. In the novel, the victim is given the poison in a cocktail and I’m positive that’s what happened here tonight. The toxins running through his system meant he was too weak to defend himself against his attacker, so really any one of us would have been strong enough to stab him, regardless of age or gender.”

“You’ve all read the book and I wrote it so everyone here knew that Mistletoe was poisonous and exactly how to use it to incapacitate Dan.” She looked sideways, narrowing her eyes at Helen, “Actually, let’s make that everyone apart from Helen. You haven’t read it, have you? You seemed surprised when I mentioned that Mistletoe was poisonous earlier, even though it’s a central part of the plot.”

“What the fuck!” Sara said looking at Helen with something akin to disgust. “You don’t read the books?!”

“Shit, I just didn’t get a chance to finish it before the party. You have no idea the number of books I read each week! It’s very rare that I don’t finish one. You should take it as a compliment Maddy. Your books are usually so good that I felt safe recommending it without finishing,” she said with a wince.

Maddy shook her head, “the other theory I have is that maybe there was no poisoning and Dan was just drunk. You could have killed him while he was passed out in the study. ” She said with a little smirk at Helen.

“Look at you, I think you’re enjoying this!” Helen snapped.

Maddy had to admit to her shame that she was having fun. The thrill of possibly being in a room with a murderer just did it for her, she was almost turned on by the danger and excitement. Not to mention that her lifelong dream had always been to follow in the footsteps of her detective idols.

“We’re just going round in circles and I know you’re all upset,” Nolan said solemnly as he looked around at the gathered guests. “I’m truly sorry for everything that Daniel Scott put you all through. I know I shouldn’t say this but I’m sure that whichever person here tonight murdered him did you all a favour. I’m positive that when my colleagues get here tomorrow they’ll figure out pretty quickly who the killer is and the press will be focused on Dan’s crimes, not on his victims. You just have to get through tonight and everything will be okay.”

At Nolan’s mention of the police, they heard a squeak from the armchair next to the sofa. Shouting “Fuck!” Sara pulled Jude in front of her. They’d all completely forgotten that Michaels was sitting in the armchair, it was easy to do as the old man had remained silent while they talked.

“The police,” he said in a wobbly voice. “We need to call the police,” he repeated trying to struggle up from the chair.

“You already called them, remember Mr Michaels? You called them from the study when you found the body. They just haven’t arrived yet, only Detective Moore here,” Maddy gestured at Nolan.

Michaels stared at Nolan in complete confusion. “I don’t understand…why are you still here? You shouldn’t be here!”

“Poor chap, I’m not sure he really understands what’s going on,” Nolan said to the group. “Mr Michaels, everything’s going to be okay. My colleagues will be here first thing in the morning as soon as they manage to clear the snow from the roads.” He watched as Michaels silently nodded his head, still looking confused and sank back down into the chair.

“I think the best thing for everyone, but particularly Mr Michaels, is to try and get some rest. You’ve all been through the wringer tonight and I think tomorrow’s going to be a long day. I’m happy to stay up and keep watch.”

“Yeah I’m exhausted, we could all catch some sleep in here and there’s a sofa in the book nook. I brought in those blankets earlier in case anyone gets cold,” Sara said, pointing to a soft pile on the arm of the sofa.”

There were various nods and murmurs of agreement but Maddy felt too wired and didn’t think she’d be able to sleep. As everyone settled down, she made herself comfortable in a chair across from Nolan and tried to quieten her mind. It didn’t work, something about all of this just didn’t add up.

Once again she thought about the fact that everyone at the party had a motive to kill Dan. It just didn’t make sense! The sheer likelihood of that happening by chance was astounding. She remembered at the beginning of the evening saying to Sara that she already knew everyone here, she’d met them all at various events so wasn’t surprised they’d been invited. However, it could just as easily have been a completely different guest list, with different buyers, bookshop owners or social media influencers. She met so many vendors that were just as important to sales. Why these particular people if not for the one thing they all had in common, their hatred of Dan? It couldn’t be a coincidence but did that mean it was a setup?

The other thing that was niggling at her was something Michaels had said when he finally came back to reality. The same thought just kept going round and round in her head, over and over again until other little things she’d noticed tonight started to join in creating a tornado of doubts and worries twisting her inside and out.

Her anxiety rising, Maddy bit at her lips and felt the skin split. She slowly sat up, blinking at the light and reached down beside the sofa for her clutch. She rummaged around for the chapstick she remembered throwing in earlier but gave up and tipped the contents onto her lap in frustration. Out tumbled her phone, keys, purse, lipstick and the character card she’d brought so she could re-read tonight’s instructions. No chapstick. Sighing she started to stuff everything back into the bag until she came to the card, it had landed face up and staring back at her was not the bespectacled famous author she’d expected.

An idea began to take root in Maddy’s mind. The thought of it hit her like a punch to the gut. She was connecting the dots with sickening dread. Could it be true? She needed to find out… she could not, would not, condemn without proof. So she steeled herself, pushed aside the emotion twisting inside her and made the decision. Maddy had to find indisputable evidence, to either prove or disprove her theory and she could only think of one way to do that.

Nolan was busy doing something on his phone. Maddy stretched and yawned to catch his attention. “I’m so tired but I’m not going to be able to get to sleep without going to the loo. My bladder feels like it’s going to burst after all that coffee earlier.” Getting to her feet she turned towards the door, “I’ll only be a few minutes, no need to come with me.”

He looked up at her through those dark lashes, eyes scanning her face. “Okay Maddy, just be careful and don’t be gone too long.”

As soon as she was through the door, instead of taking a right to the toilets she took a left towards the study and hoped that she had enough time to figure out if her theory was correct or if she was making a huge mistake.