A Very Merry Murder

by Cindy Kline

  “She was clumsy back then, too, was she?” Keith asked, smiling.

  Gran smiled. “Oh, was she. She hasn’t gotten much better since she’s been back, either.”

  Molly couldn’t retort because just then, they heard steps coming down the stairs. They all turned to see DI Elliott and Noah come into the room.

  He spoke to Rory next, and when he finished, gave him permission to leave. “Noah, do you want a ride home?”

  Callum spoke up and said, “I’m sorry, Noah, but your house is an active crime scene. Is there somewhere else you can stay?”

  Rory piped up and said, “You can stay at my house if you’d like.”

  Noah hesitated, so Gran added, “Or you are welcome to stay here. We would love to have the company.”

  He nodded, “I think I’d like to stay here if you’re sure you wouldn’t mind. I won’t be any trouble, I promise.”

  “I’m sure you won’t be. Would you like some more hot chocolate?” Gran asked.

  DI Elliott looked at Molly. “Ms. McGuire, it’s your turn.” He looked at Callum. “Sergeant, you take this fellow,” he pointed to Keith.

  “Hey, wait a minute, I’ve had nothing to do with this. I just came into the country a day ago. I’ve got nothing to do with this.”

  “Keith, just go with him, okay?” Molly tried not to smile at the act Keith was putting on. As he left with Callum, he winked at her.

  “Come on, Typhoid Mary, you’re with me.” DI Elliott said, walking in front of her.

  “Hey, I resent that remark.” Molly followed him upstairs and into the room she used as an office.

  “You’re right, I shouldn’t have made that remark, but you have a, shall we say, knack—for finding bodies.”

  “Yes, but Typhoid Mary caused those deaths, and I was not the cause of these.” What she didn’t say was she did still feel guilty about Mrs. Riley, but she would keep that thought to herself.

  He pulled out his pen and wrote something in his little black book.

  Molly always kept a cup of mints on her desk, so she reached over and took one. DI Elliott looked up from his pad. Molly handed it toward him, “Would you like one?”

  “No, thank you.” His head went down, and he continued to write. When he finally looked up, he asked, “Why did you kill her?”

  “What? Why would I kill Megan? I hardly knew her.”

  “Because she was Henry’s mistress, and you wanted him for yourself.”

  Molly looked at him, shaking her head. “I do not want now, nor have I ever, had any designs on Henry Pierce.”

  He leaned in closer to her. “All I know is I have two deaths that appear to be connected, and you found both bodies.”

  “It was just a coincidence—”

  He hit his table with his fist so hard the pad of paper and his pen jumped, “There is no such thing as a coincidence in a murder investigation!”

  Under her breath, Molly started to count. 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 –

  “Well?”

  5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10. She took a deep breath. “DI Elliott, this is the last time I’m telling you this. I had NOTHING to do with either Henry or Megan’s death. Now, if you don’t mind, there is a young man downstairs who just lost his mother, and I’d like to check on him.” Molly stood up.

  “Ms. McGuire?”

  She stopped and turned around. “Yes?”

  He held up his notepad. “Do you see this pad of paper?”

  Molly’s brow lifted, “Yes.”

  “It was practically empty until I met you. Now I’m probably going to get another one, so please, don’t find any more bodies.”

  Molly opened the door and slammed it shut, then stomped down the stairs to the living room. Keith and Callum, along with Gran and Noah, were all sitting around talking. Luna was on Noah’s lap.

  Keith asked, “Where’s your father, Noah?”

  “He died when I was a baby. It was just me and my ma.”

  Molly’s heart hurt for the young man, and she could tell Keith was just as upset as she was that Noah had no place to go. Molly was determined to help him get through this, and more importantly, find out who killed his mother.

  A few minutes later, DI Elliott and Constable Mills came downstairs, said their goodbyes and left. Callum left a few minutes later after making it clear to Molly, she wasn’t to find any more bodies. Molly told him she’d do her best.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The evening passed by quickly with playing several games of euchre, each team winning three games apiece. Gran finally had to call it quits, saying it was time for her to go to bed and suggested Noah call it a night too. Gran took Noah upstairs and came down a little while later.

  “The poor lad, his head barely hit the pillow, and he was out.”

  “What took you so long?” Molly asked, moving her laptop from the end table where she’d sat it last, to the dining room table where they’d played cards, and Keith was currently playing a game of solitaire.

  “We were talking about death, actually. He wanted to know about the funeral and such. I told him I would help him plan it.”

  “Are you sure, Gran? That’s a lot to take on,” Molly asked as she booted up her computer.

  “Yes. I still have the information from your grandfather’s funeral, so it shouldn’t be too hard.”

  Keith looked up and said, “He seems like he’s a good kid. It’s too bad about his mother.”

  “It is. I didn’t know Megan very well, but other than her decision to get involved with a married man, she seemed to have it together.”

  “What are you doing there?” Keith asked as she typed.

  She looked up at him briefly before putting her head back down and continued to type. “Trying to remember everything I’ve learned so far about the two incidents and writing it down before I forget.”

  “Is this how you solved the murders this past summer?”

  Molly smiled. “Yes, and no. Yes, I used this same method, but no, as in I figured it out more by sheer luck than anything.” She looked at Gran. “Did you have time to visit with Mrs. Moore today?”

  Gran pulled out a chair and sat down. “I did, and there was no love lost between her and her son-in-law.”

  Molly opened up a new document and put Shannon’s Moore name at the top. “As in, she hated enough to kill him, or just hoped he would be run over by a bus?”

  Gran smiled. “Somewhere in between, I think.”

  “Then why was she living with them?” Molly typed.

  “I asked her the same thing, and like I thought, Shannon’s in the same boat I was, as in either a retirement village or live with a relative. The only difference is, I happen to like you, where she cares little for Henry.”

  Keith looked up from his card game. “I think I’m lost. Remember, I came in after this Henry person’s accident. Fill me in, please?”

  With a few interruptions from Gran, Molly filled Keith in on everything that had happened since Tuesday night. She got to the part about finding out Henry had been hurt when she stopped, then looked at Gran.

  “What is it, honey?” Gran asked her.

  “That just reminded me of something. On Tuesday night, when I took Henry home, all he told me was his medicine was upstairs.”

  Gran looked at her with one eyebrow raised.

  “He didn’t tell me which bedroom, so I had to open a few doors to figure it out. One room had a bunch of plants growing in a bay window, and I think one of those plants may have been aconite.” Molly got up and went to get her book of poisons. “Darn it. DI Elliott took my book. I forgot.”

  Keith laughed. “You have internet. Check it there,” he said as he gathered all the cards into a pile and started shuffling them.

  Molly went back to her computer and typed. While she was searching, though, Keith said, “What happened after that?”

  Molly pulled her attention from her laptop and said, “What? Oh,” and continued the story.

  When she finished, Keith
’s reaction was, “Wow.”

  “Did you find anything?” Gran asked Molly, and then looked at Keith and tapped a card, “You can play that on the seven of clubs.”

  Molly smiled behind her computer, knowing how much Keith hated assistance, figuring he’d say something to her, but he didn’t, he just played the card, so Molly ignored it and answered her.

  “I think one of those plants could be aconite, but without looking at it closer, it’s just a guess.”

  Keith nodded at her computer again. “So, what exactly are you doing there?”

  “Well, I write each person’s name and the reason they would have to murder our victims.”

  “Oh, kind of like one of those murder boards you see on television,” added Keith.

  Pointing to another move Keith could make in his game, Gran said without looking up, “I think the poisoning is something separate from the other incidents.”

  Molly nodded. “I think so too. I think Shannon hated the way Henry treated her daughter and was trying to make him ill. For what purpose, I’m not sure.”

  Giving Gran a dirty look when she pointed out another play he’d missed, Keith scoffed and said, “Maybe a lame attempt to get them back together?”

  Gran continued, “Shannon said she had a talk with Henry about a week ago. She told him to either stop the affairs and work on his marriage or give her a divorce, that it wasn’t fair to keep doing this to her.”

  Molly’s brows raised. “Interesting. He didn’t mention that to me, but he said how he was sorry he’d gotten involved with Megan in the first place but was at a loss about what to do.”

  Gran smiled. “And I’m sure you gave him some advice, didn’t you?”

  She thought back to her relationship with Keith. Did she really ever love him, or did he just happen to come along at a time in her life when she thought she was ready to get married? She looked at him now. Was he really sitting across the table? She pulled herself back to the conversation, “Yes, I told him he should break things off with Megan and take his wife on a long holiday.”

  “Would that have worked for you and me?” asked Keith.

  “Not in a million years,” Molly answered.

  “What did Henry say to that?” Gran asked.

  “That it was a good idea, but how he didn’t want to lose her as his assistant because she was great at her job.”

  Keith nodded, “I can relate to that. Good assistants are hard to find.”

  “Ow!” Keith rubbed his arm after Molly punched him.

  “Not as hard to find as a devoted wife,” Gran added, grinning.

  “So true, so true,” Keith said, then looked at Gran. “Molly was a wonderful wife. I was the one who screwed that up.”

  Not looking up from her computer, Molly repeated, “So true, so true.”

  “Henry also had a good relationship with Noah. I wondered why. I guess maybe it was because Noah grew up without a father.”

  Keith slapped Gran’s hand as she went to move a card, “So, what do you have so far?”

  Molly looked up, “Well, let’s assume the poisoning is separate from the two incidents. I think we all agree that Shannon probably did the poisoning. She’s the only one who had means, motive and opportunity, right?”

  Gran and Keith nodded. She read aloud what she’d already written, then what she added concerning Megan’s death.

  Imogen Pierce—Victim’s wife. She was aware of Henry’s past discretions as well as his current affair with Megan. Maybe killed Megan, so she’s out of the picture if/when Henry recovers.

  Craig Wilson—Everyone thought he would get the promotion instead of Henry. If Henry doesn’t survive, who will become president? Could he have been angry enough, or wanted it enough, to attempt to kill? Would he have any reason to kill Megan? Also, why would Megan call him to pick her up if Noah was on his way home with her car?

  Keith interrupted. “Would Craig being gay have anything to do with it?”

  Molly looked at him with wide eyes. “What do you mean?”

  Keith shrugged, not lifting his head up from his card game. “I just got the impression he was gay. I could be wrong.”

  Gran added, “Only if Ronan knew. From what I’ve heard from Shannon, he was quite the bigot. She had mentioned to me one of her nephews was gay, and he wouldn’t have anything to do with him after that.”

  Molly added it to the list, revising Craig’s information:

  Craig Wilson—Everyone thought he would get the promotion instead of Henry. If Henry doesn’t survive, who will become president? Could he have been angry enough, or wanted it enough, to attempt to kill? Would he have any reason to kill Megan? Also, why would Megan call him to pick her up if Noah was on his way home with her car? Could Craig be gay? Did Ronan know? Would it matter that much if it came out?

  Shannon Moore—Didn’t like Henry, wanted Imogen and Craig together. Would she have tried to kill Henry to get him out of Imogen’s life? Did she know about the affair(s)? Most likely, the culprit who poisoned Henry, but why kill Megan? Unless, of course, to get her out of Henry’s life.

  Megan Hill—The mistress. Why would she kill him? She didn’t know Henry was going to break things off with her, and the poisoning had to have begun prior to Molly’s conversation with Henry. Just how old were those pills? Did Megan pick up the prescription or did his wife?

  Samantha West—Didn’t want Henry to tell Reanna he was her biological father. Would this be enough for her to try to kill Henry? She couldn’t have poisoned him, but could she have hit him over the head with something? Didn’t have any reason to kill Megan, as far as we know, unless she wanted back in Henry’s life.

  Owen West—Did he know Reanna’s biological father was, Henry? May have had a reason to try to kill Henry, but why would he kill Megan? And Reanna’s an adult. It’s not like either he or Samantha could stop Henry from seeing her, well, other than killing him.

  She didn’t like to add this one, but she had to:

  Noah Hill—Henry was his mentor, a father figure. Could he have attempted to kill Henry? He was supposedly at school until this morning. Why would he kill his own mother, especially if she was all he had?

  After she finished reading them aloud, both Gran and Keith were shaking their heads. “There is no way that child upstairs would have killed his mother. You take him off that list right now,” Gran stated.

  Keith added, “I agree. People usually kill for love or money. Are either of those a motive?”

  “There are numerous reasons people kill, Keith. Jealousy, hatred, greed…”

  Gran added, “Revenge, power…”

  Molly added, “Fear, or control.”

  Keith added, “Betrayal,” and had the decency to keep his eyes on his cards.

  Molly typed them all as they were mentioned.

  “So which ones apply here?” Keith asked.

  Love—Shannon for Imogen, Imogen for Henry

  Jealousy—Imogen over Megan

  Hatred—Shannon for Henry

  Greed—Craig for Moore Plastics

  Revenge—Something having to do with Patrick’s hit-n-run? Need to ask Liam or Callum if she can see the file, Samantha for Henry

  Power—Craig for Moore Plastics

  Control—Shannon over Imogen

  Betrayal—Imogen for Henry and Megan

  After Molly read the list, they all looked at each other. Finally, Keith said what Molly was thinking, and probably Gran too. “Isn’t the most likely suspect the spouse?”

  “Usually, but I hate to think it was Imogen. If it was her, why would she ask me to find the killer?”

  Gran answered, “A red herring, deary. How many times do we see that in mystery movies?”

  Molly reluctantly agreed. “So, we need to find out if she really spent as much time as she claimed in Dublin, or if she was already here when she got the call about Henry,” Molly said as she closed the document and shut down her computer, then yawned. “I am ready to call it a night,” She looked at Ke
ith. “Come on. I’ll give you a ride back to Shenanigan’s.”

  # # #

  Molly woke up Friday morning to the sound of her squeaky oven closing. She put on her slippers and robe and was halfway down the stairs when the aroma of something with cinnamon hit her nose. She quickened her step, memories flashing through her mind of past Christmas mornings when she was a child, and her grandparents would spend Christmas Eve night with their family at the manor. She would wake up to this same smell—fresh-baked cinnamon rolls.

  She was still breathing the delicious aroma when she arrived in the kitchen, where she tripped over Luna. “Do I smell cinnamon rolls?” Molly bent over to pick up the puppy. “I’m so sorry, Luna. I didn’t mean to trip over you.” She gave her a quick kiss and set her back down.

  “See, Noah, nothing gets past our girl.” Gran winked at the young man as she scooped a roll out of the pan, placed it on a plate and handed it to her.

  “Gee, Mrs. Kennedy, these are fantastic. They don’t taste nothin’ like you buy in a tube at the store.”

  Gran smiled. “I’m glad you like them. Would you like another one?”

  He nodded fervently.

  “You haven’t even finished the first one, Noah,” Molly said as she poured herself a cup of tea.

  Gran scooped another one out of the pan and set it on his plate. He swallowed. “Thank you.”

  “Molly, Noah and I were talking this morning, and he was wondering something.” Gran looked at him, but his eyes were downcast, concentrating on cutting his roll with his fork.

  Molly looked at Gran, then at Noah. “What is it, Noah?”

  He took a drink of his milk, wiped his face with his napkin, then looked at Molly. “I was wondering, I mean, if it’s not too much trouble, if I could stay here until I go back to school.” Before Molly could say anything, he continued, “I won’t be any trouble, I promise, and I could help you with Luna. I could walk her and feed her for you.”

  Molly’s heart broke at the childish plea that yesterday portrayed himself as a young man. It’s amazing how quickly your life can change on a dime. “Of course, you can, Noah. We must go to your house though and pick up some clothes.…”