Hollyberry Homicide

by Sharon Farrow

  Small wonder a steady stream of townspeople came knocking on my door. All eager for gossip and a peek at the volume of A Christmas Carol that brought Officer Davenport down. I lost count of the visitors who dropped by. It felt like one of Piper’s village-wide events. And everyone expected to be fed.

  Thankfully, Gillian, Suzanne, Odette Henderson, Denise Redfern, and Diane Cleverly brought covered dishes of food to serve. Tess and David picked up rotisserie chickens from the grocery store. Natasha and her charming Russian architect put together remarkably good canapés. A shame I no longer produced cooking shows; I’d hire the pair to star in The Russian Kitchen.

  Even Old Man Bowman came bearing food and drink: dried venison and a crate of home-brewed beer. And Piper and Lionel arrived with six bottles of Dom Pérignon.

  I was just happy to be alive. And to have my parents and Kit with me.

  Because I was the girlfriend of his brother-in-law, Detective Greg Trejo called Kit shortly after his arrival with the state police. When the phone was handed to me, I tried to reassure Kit that I was okay. He didn’t believe me. Probably because I sounded as shaky as I felt.

  So Kit woke his parents and drove them across the state at three o’clock in the morning. And he drove straight to my house. Although thrilled to see him, I had hoped for a different introduction to his parents. But they were the soul of kindness. Even if they couldn’t hide their alarm at the sight of my swollen nose, fresh bruises, and bloodstained pajamas.

  Had I known they were arriving so quickly, I wouldn’t have fallen asleep on the couch, still holding hands with Natasha and Theo.

  At least I showered and dressed before my own parents arrived. They walked through my front door at the exact moment the electricity came back on, which I found fitting. Mom and Dad had always been my guiding lights.

  Of course they were upset to find their only child bearing the marks of a humdinger of a fight. The living room looked as if it had been in a fight as well. The big white tree had been put up again, half the ornaments broken. It was also permanently crooked. Dean claimed it gave him vertigo. None of the fiber-optic decorations worked. Three nutcrackers lay in pieces. And the police trampled over the blue Christmas tree in the front hallway when they half carried Janelle out the door.

  But the newest holiday addition to my living room made up for all that. Because Kit knew how much Christmas trees meant to me, he and Greg went to the tree farm and chopped down a live Scotch pine. The scent of the fresh pine made me swoon, even with my injured nose.

  I had no sooner hugged Kit and Greg for the lovely surprise when Greg’s wife, Ivy, showed up with their three kids. This made sense since her brother and parents were already here. In addition to being adorable, the children insisted on decorating the latest tree. Which saved me a lot of work.

  My greatest pleasure was watching Kit joke and talk with the ever-changing crowd. His parents and sister were as warm and friendly as he was. Even Greg loosened up and seemed to enjoy himself. Such a sharp contrast to my ex-fiancé and his insular clan. Kit and his family made it difficult for me to stand by my resolve not to rush into the next step in our relationship.

  “Merry Christmas, Marlee,” Odette said as she was leaving. “And happy birthday.”

  “I think it’s safe to say my thirty-first birthday ranks as most memorable,” I remarked to my father, who sat beside me on the couch, clutching my hand.

  Dad was still upset. “This birthday was too memorable,” he said softly.

  “Also the most dangerous,” Andrew added from his comfy seat on the club chair. Oscar sat on the floor beside him, eating a piece of birthday cake.

  “Here’s hoping you don’t have another one remotely like it.” Tess handed me a cup of apple cider. “With luck they’ll all be dull by comparison. And safer.”

  She gave me a wink, then went around the living room with her tray of drinks. Because of my ordeal in the wee hours of the morning, Tess and my mom stepped in to play hostess. And they had their hands full. An outsider might assume this was a hundredth birthday. Or a wedding.

  “They are going to put that woman away?” my father asked for the fifth time. “There’s no chance she’ll go free and hurt you again?”

  “Don’t worry. They charged her with the murders of Everett Hostetter and Gareth Holmes. She confessed the whole thing to me.”

  “But what if she doesn’t confess to the police? She could hire a clever lawyer, and they might get her off. Convince the jury you were lying.”

  “I’d like to see them try. But she was also charged with three more deaths, men involved in a local drug ring. Kit was working on the triple homicide and they’d begun to make arrests. This morning, two suspects gave up names, as Kit predicted. One of those names was Janelle Davenport. And they have proof.” I squeezed my dad’s hand.

  My mom heard this as she walked past. “Are you sure, honey? She won’t go free?”

  “Charged with five murders? With evidence she was a dishonest cop?” I shook my head. “Janelle will go to prison for the rest of her life.”

  “Thank God,” my mom murmured, then went to the kitchen to fill her tray with more food.

  Although happy and relieved, I also felt sad for Janelle’s young sons, currently with their father in Milwaukee. Chief Hitchcock spoke to her ex-husband this morning to relay the news of Janelle’s arrest. I hoped their father was more decent and honorable than Janelle, because those children would need a lot of emotional support.

  As for emotional support, I had a marvelous excess. I smiled at the friends and family around me. Their warmth was greater than that of the gas fireplace, which had been crackling for far too many hours.

  “Not another birthday cake,” I said to Gillian, who set down a decorated cake on the coffee table before me. “We’ve already sung ‘Happy Birthday’ over the cake my parents brought.”

  Gillian laughed. “That was eaten long ago. This, and the one Theo is icing right now, should hold us until these people go. Some of them you barely know.” She lowered her voice. “They must have their own Christmas Eve celebrations to go to.”

  “We can only hope,” Oscar said. Since dating Andrew, Oscar counted himself among my inner circle of family and friends.

  I sat forward and read HAPPY 31ST BIRTHDAY on the latest cake’s buttercream frosting. “Tell Theo to hang up his pastry bag. We don’t need any more cake.”

  Gillian shrugged. “You know Theo. He prefers being in the kitchen when there are this many strangers around.”

  “I feel bad he’s still here.” I turned to my father. “Theo planned to spend the holiday with his father, but missed his train yesterday. I promised to take him early this morning, but—”

  “But a homicidal maniac broke into your home,” Dean finished. He sat on the loveseat across from us.

  “I still would have driven him, but he refused. Theo feels terrible he slept through most of what happened down here. He thinks he could have protected me.” Although I cringed at the idea of Theo caught in Janelle’s cross-fire.

  “Marlee had to call his dad and arrange for him to take the train here instead,” Gillian said. “And he’ll be here in time for your actual birthday dinner. Which, by the way, I have to miss if I’m going to make my own family celebration.”

  “Then let me see you on the way. And give you a big hug.” I looked at my father. “I need my hand back now. But I’ll be close by. I promise.”

  With a reluctant expression, he released my hand. “Maybe you should move to Chicago. Your mom and I could keep an eye on you there. Make sure you’re safe.”

  I kissed him on the cheek. “Haven’t you read all the cakes? I’m thirty-one now.”

  It took another hour of pointed hints, but finally only my so-called inner circle remained: my parents, Kit and his family, Natasha, Tess, David, Theo, Dean, Andrew, Oscar, Piper, Lionel, Old Man Bowman, Suzanne, and Alexei Fermonov, who never took his eyes off Natasha. I didn’t blame him. Natasha looked especially fetching
in a red skirt and sweater; the sweater, of course, trimmed with fur. Diane Cleverly was about to leave, but I asked her to stay behind.

  We all assembled back in the living room. The Trejo children were safely tucked away in the sunroom, playing with the animals and watching a DVD of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

  Diane seemed uncomfortable. “Marlee, you should be with your family and close friends. I only wanted to stop by to make sure you were all right. And to thank you for catching Everett’s murderer. At the risk of your own life, too.”

  “Janelle didn’t leave me much choice,” I said. “Besides, I had a little ghostly help.”

  “Mary Cullen?” my mother asked. “Our kitchen ghost helped you?”

  Those unaware of the existence of my ghost looked confused, so I explained. Oscar and Greg wore skeptical expressions, but everyone else seemed impressed.

  “I got a ghost in my hunting cabin up north,” Old Man Bowman announced. “He don’t do much besides whistle on rainy nights. And hit me on the head if I snore too loud.”

  Since no one knew how to respond to that, Andrew said, “Well, I’m shocked to learn our local policewoman was a killer. Granted, she had a lousy personality and no fashion sense. But murder? She sure had me fooled.”

  “Marlee never like policewoman,” Natasha reminded him. “Even before old man is killed. Shows Marlee has good instinkty about people.”

  “Especially murderers,” Dean said with a grin. “She can smell ’em a mile away.”

  “Let’s hope there won’t be any more murderers for her to sniff out,” Kit said.

  Old Man Bowman lifted a glass of his own beer. “Here’s to Marlee, one of the best trackers I know. She’s so good, I might take her with me on my next hunt for Bigfoot.”

  “Marlee does not look for the Bigfoot.” Natasha frowned at Old Man Bowman. “Is too dangerous. He may kidnap her.”

  “Okay, we can talk about me and Bigfoot later,” I said. “Right now, I want Diane to hear what was in Everett Hostetter’s will.”

  “Did he leave everything to her?” Dean whistled.

  Diane turned white. “He couldn’t have. I have no right to all those millions. He had a nephew.”

  “Who will be charged with identity theft and credit card fraud,” Greg said. “As well as the crimes his business partner went to prison for. We found those metal boxes in the burned ruin of the barn. The ones Marlee said held information about Anthony, Janelle, and Katrina. Lucky for us, they were made of fireproof metal.”

  “Unlucky for the trio,” Kit added. “Everett had proof that Janelle and Anthony not only committed crimes years before they moved to Oriole Point, but that they continued to do so afterward. Janelle is already in custody. And the sheriff’s department arrested Anthony two hours ago.”

  Diane looked stunned.

  “What about Katrina May?” Piper demanded. “I hope there’s a warrant out for that ghoulish liar.”

  “What is this ghoulish?” Natasha asked Alexei. Since he shrugged, I guessed Alexei’s English was as spotty as hers.

  “They can’t arrest Katrina,” I said. “She didn’t commit any crimes.”

  “But she used her so-called psychic gifts to coerce clients into giving her things,” Lionel protested. “Jewelry, paintings.”

  “And handbags!” Piper said. “Now she’s snagged another rich man. One she only caught because she and her spirits ratted out his wife.”

  “Unethical, but not criminal.” I shrugged. “Sorry. Katrina remains free to pass on ghostly messages and convince clients to do her bidding.”

  “You’ve ruined Christmas for me now,” Piper fumed. “I have to figure out a way to run her out of here. Maybe a few well-placed rumors.”

  Kit groaned.

  “Leave her alone, Piper,” I said. “Now that Katrina hasn’t inherited the Hostetter fortune, I’m sure she’ll marry this rich guy in Grand Rapids. You’ll probably never see her again.”

  “I better not.”

  “Marlee, I can’t accept all that money.” Diane shook her head. “It isn’t right.”

  I smiled. “You didn’t let me finish, Diane. There was no single beneficiary in his will. Instead, Everett divided his money among every institution and charity in Oriole Point. The churches, the schools, the library, the hospital, the Green Willow Players—”

  Suzanne let out a jubilant cry.

  “Yes, Suzanne. Everett left your theater group twenty million dollars. More than enough to rebuild the barn and put on productions of A Christmas Carol forever. Only make sure the new barn meets every fire code.”

  This was too much for Suzanne, who collapsed in Dean’s arms. He looked to his brother to help him out.

  “He left the historical museum thirty million dollars,” I told Diane.

  Diane swayed on her feet. “I have to sit down.”

  My dad led Diane to the couch.

  I looked out over the group. “There won’t be a single person in Oriole Point who won’t benefit from his largesse. Everett bequeathed money to everything, from clean-water groups to the Fourth of July fireworks fund to the local Audubon Society.”

  “He wanted to help the birds, too?” Theo asked me.

  “It looks like Everett wanted to help everyone in Oriole Point. By the way, Piper, he left your Visitor Center a hefty amount of money as well.”

  For the first time, Piper was struck silent.

  “Amazing, isn’t it?” I said. “Everett sought to redeem himself just as Ebenezer Scrooge did at the end of A Christmas Carol. And he did it by giving his money away to help whomever he could. It’s a shame Everett could only bring himself to do this after his death. He was never able to make the complete transformation Scrooge did.” I sighed. “Some part of him remained Jacob Marley.”

  Diane burst into tears. “Poor Everett. He tried. At least he tried.”

  “Like Jacob Marley, he wanted to stop Janelle, Anthony, and Katrina from making the same mistakes he did,” Tess remarked.

  “Since Everett held so much store by A Christmas Carol,” Kit added, “he probably thought they would reform their ways, like Scrooge had.”

  I walked over to my Tiny Tim corner and picked up the volume of A Christmas Carol. With a smile, I held it up. “We should drink a toast to Mr. Dickens. Not only did this book literally save my life a few hours ago, but it inspired our own Jacob Marley to better our town. And everyone in it.”

  Before people could raise their assorted glasses of cider, beer, and water, Lionel said, “Wait. This toast calls for Dom Pérignon.”

  So it was that we ended this Christmas chapter with raised glasses of expensive champagne. And a sense of wonder that Everett Hostetter had been such an unexpected and generous benefactor.

  Although Piper still held a grudge. “If only we could punish Katrina.”

  “Don’t spoil things.” Tess gave her a warning look. “We’re all in a good mood.”

  “And I have dream two days ago about pigeons,” Natasha said. “Means Katrina will move away.”

  All eyes turned to me for an explanation. “Don’t ask,” I told them.

  Piper let out an exasperated breath. “A shame this isn’t the sixteenth century. We could have burned Katrina as a witch.”

  “Christmas means goodwill towards all,” Lionel reminded his wife.

  “Indeed it does.” I raised my glass. “To Everett Hostetter!”

  “To Everett Hostetter,” the group echoed back.

  “And may God bless us everyone!” I added.

  Theo smiled. “Even Piper.”

  Recipes

  NO-BAKE HOLLYBERRY CLUSTER COOKIES

  After Theo points out the lack of holly pastries in the shop, Marlee searches on Pinterest for a recipe that incorporates a holly theme. This easy, no-bake recipe seemed perfect. Variations of this recipe call for shaping the batter into wreaths. Since the leaves and berries of holly are poisonous, real holly is not included. What you will find included is a lot of flavor.


  ½ cup butter or margarine

  30 large marshmallows

  ¼ teaspoon teaspoon green food coloring

  4½ cups cornflakes cereal

  ⅓ cup mini red cinnamon candies, such as Red Hots

  1. Heat butter in large saucepan or pot until melted. Add marshmallows.

  2. Stir until all the marshmallows are melted. Mix in the green food coloring.

  3. Stir in the cornflakes cereal, until all pieces are coated.

  4. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper. Press 3 cinnamon candies into each cornflake cluster.

  5. Let cool until set.

  Makes approximately 24 cookies.

  STRAWBERRY-GLAZED BAKED DONUT HOLES

  Here are the strawberry donut holes that Marlee and Theo whipped up. Instead of berry-flavored candy canes, Marlee gave these away to the children who came to see Santa at The Berry Basket. You can see why this was a much better choice. A shout-out to alattefood.com for the recipe.

  For the batter:

  1 cup flour

  1 teaspoon baking powder

  ¼ teaspoon cinnamon

  ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

  ⅓ cup white sugar

  2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

  ¼ cup almond milk (or any milk you prefer)

  ¼ cup Greek or regular yogurt

  1 egg

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  1 teaspoon almond extract

  For the glaze:

  cup strawberries, pureed (about 3 big

  strawberries)

  1 tablespoon heavy cream

  2–3 cups powdered sugar

  1. Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 24-cup mini-muffin tin.

  2. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and sugar together.

  3. In a second bowl, mix melted butter with milk, yogurt, egg, and vanilla and almond extracts.

  4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour the wet ingredients into the well.