A Very Merry Murder

by Cindy Kline

  “That was very forward-thinking of her. It’s probably something we should all do,” Molly said, taking a drink of wine. Keith came and stood at the end of the counter. “But you have to pick out the casket?”

  “Aye, Ma hadn’t done that yet. I can pick any of these eight. What do you think?” He looked at Keith.

  “Well, I didn’t know your mom. What was she like?” He sat down on the other side of Noah.

  “Nice, kind, beautiful, she never yelled at me, ya know?” He looked at Keith. “She and I would talk about things. Any major decision she needed to make, she talked to me about. Even about moving to Dooley. I wasn’t even going to be here much, but we still talked it over, and she told me that if I didn’t want to move, she’d find another job.”

  Molly put her arm around him. “She sounds like she was an exceptional mother.”

  “She was,” he looked back at the brochure. “But none of these are green.”

  Molly grimaced at the thought of a green casket and looked closer at the brochure. “May I see it?”

  “Sure.” He handed it over.

  “Noah, how about you come help me set the table?”

  “Sure, Gran.” Noah hopped off the stool, and Molly and Keith perused the brochure.

  “They’re all very lovely,” Molly said as she began reading the brochure. She got to one specific part and turned to Noah. “Noah, did you read any of this or just look at the pictures?”

  “Just looked at the pictures. Why?”

  Molly went over to the table where he was putting out placemats and showed him the back of the brochure. “Look, you can have different color material put inside the casket. Here are their color choices,” she pointed to a color grid. “They have both a light-green and a dark-green,”

  Molly handed him the brochure, and he looked at it closer. “This is great, Molly. In that case, I like this casket, with the light-green insert.” He pointed to an oak casket with carvings of birds on the corners.

  “I think she would love it, Noah.”

  Over dinner, they discussed the rest of Noah’s to-do list he’d made up with Gran.

  “I saw your mother’s car out there. Did you find out when the repairs on your car will be completed?” Molly took a slice of bread and layered it with butter.

  “Not for another few days. The cost is about four hundred euros, so I’m not sure it’s even worth it.”

  Molly was shocked, “Wow, that’s a lot! Did the lawyer know if your mum’s car is paid off or not?”

  “No, he was going to check on it. If it isn’t, he said she had life insurance, and there should be enough for me to pay for the rest of my education, either pay the car off or sell it and get something else. As much as the car is fun to drive, it isn’t the best car to have in the wintertime when I’m going back and forth to school.” He looked down at his lap. “Not that I have any place to live.”

  Gran had stayed quiet up until now. “We found out the house they were in was a rental. Everything needs to be moved out by the thirty-first of this month.

  “That’s not very long,” Keith said as he helped himself to another serving of stew.

  Molly gave Gran a look, and she nodded her head. “Noah, I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but I want you to know you always have a home with Gran and me,” she smiled. “And Luna, of course.”

  His eyes lit up. “Are you sure?” He looked from Molly to Gran and then bent down and rubbed Luna’s head, who was lying under his chair. “Did you hear that, Luna? I get to stay!”

  “Woof!”

  “Gran, may I show Molly our surprise?” Noah asked, setting his napkin on the table beside his bowl.

  “Of course.” Noah ran from the table and opened the door leading out to the patio from the living room.

  “Keith, can you go help him, please?” Gran asked, sitting back and taking a sip of wine.

  “Sure,” he got up and followed Noah out the door.

  Molly looked at Gran. “What surprise?”

  “Just wait a minute. You’ll see.” She smiled.

  A few seconds later, Noah and Keith brought in an enormous pine tree. Luna trailed them, sniffing the ground as pine needles fell and hit the carpet.

  “Where do you want it?” Keith asked as they set it in the middle of the room.

  “Well, not there,” Molly said, laughing. She looked around the room. “How about in front of the wall separating the kitchen from the living room?”

  Noah laughed. “That’s where I was thinking too. That way, we can see it from both rooms and the dining room too.”

  Molly started cleaning off the table and taking the dishes into the kitchen while Keith and Noah found the tree stand and worked at getting the tree set up.

  “Gran, did you stop by the manor and pick up ornaments?”

  “We did. I also found some of Mrs. Riley’s upstairs in the attic. We won’t be able to decorate it today, dear. We have to wait for the branches to fall, and we probably will need to buy some lights.”

  Noah heard the tail end of the conversation and said, “Ma and I got some cool lights last year. Maybe we could use those?”

  “That would be wonderful, Noah. And bring any ornaments you’d like to add to it too,” Molly said, smiling at Gran.

  While they were in the kitchen doing dishes, Molly whispered to Gran, “Any word on when the police will release Megan’s body?”

  She shook her head, “Something else the solicitor is going to check on.” She looked to make sure Noah wasn’t paying attention to them. “Did you find out anything interesting during your visit to Imogen’s?”

  Molly filled her in on what they’d discussed and how they’d taken pictures of the plants in Shannon’s bedroom. “Keith took them to Professor Stewart at Listowel University today. He received positive confirmation that one plant is aconite.”

  Gran frowned, “So, Shannon is probably the one who poisoned him?” She handed Molly a plate to add to the dishwasher. She shook her head. “I just don’t understand why she would do such a thing.”

  Molly wiped off the counter while Gran put the remains of the stew in the refrigerator. “Me neither. She should have just stayed out of it and let the two of them figure it out.” Oh, by the way, Imogen mentioned Shannon left to go to Dublin a day later than she did because she had a committee meeting. Any idea? Imogen thought it might have been for the St. Patrick’s Day Festival.”

  “Most likely. That’s our next big program. I couldn’t attend because I had that toothache, remember? I went to the dentist.”

  “That’s right, I remember that. Do you think you could call one of the other committee members and see if she was there?”

  “Sure.”

  “Thanks.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Saturday morning was cloudy and cold, the wind blowing off the Atlantic. It was one of those days when you feel the wind cut through your bones, so Molly dressed in a pair of wool slacks and a heavy Aran sweater. She was the first up, so she let Luna out of her crate, let her outside and fed her before Gran or Noah came downstairs.

  Molly was enjoying her peaceful morning when she received a text message from Liam, asking her if she was free for the evening. Her heart went flippity as she answered. “Yes, but a lot has happened. How about dinner here at six?”

  “Sounds good. I’ll bring wine.”

  She made her tea and toast and was just sitting down at the breakfast nook when Gran came out of her bedroom. “What are you smiling about?”

  Molly laughed. “I didn’t realize I was smiling, but I am happy. Liam is coming over for dinner tonight.”

  “Noah is expecting us to trim the tree tonight,” Gran reminded her.

  “I know. I think it’s time Liam met Noah, as I’m hoping both will be in our lives for a long time.”

  “He is a good kid, isn’t he?” Gran took a cup from the cupboard and poured herself some tea.

  Molly nodded. “I just hope we can figure out who killed his mother.�
�� Molly took a bite of her toast and swallowed. “Oh, I forgot to mention last night that we found a piece of a file folder in the fireplace at the Pierce house. It appears Ronan Moore hired a private detective to find out what he could about the son’s hit-and-run accident. I think it’s the file Henry asked me to destroy. I called the detective to get a copy but had to leave a message.”

  “You know he’s probably not going to talk to you, right?”

  “Why wouldn’t he?” Molly asked, sipping her tea.

  “Why would he, is a better question. You’re just a regular person. You’re not a police officer or a member of the Moore family. Why would he just hand over the information that was in that file?” Gran asked as she went to pick up a piece of Molly’s toast.

  Molly slapped her hand, “Gran, fix your own!”

  Gran laughed. “I will. I just wanted a nibble.”

  “Hey, you two! Can’t a guy get any sleep around here?”

  Molly and Gran looked up to see Noah hanging over the upstairs railing, smiling.

  “Sorry, kiddo. Not used to having anyone else around,” Gran said as she put some bread in the toaster.

  “Yeah, sorry, Noah,” Molly added. “Would you like some breakfast?”

  “Nah. I’m not hungry. I think I may go into work today, if you think that would be okay.”

  Molly and Gran looked at each other. Gran shrugged her shoulders. “Sure, if you think you’re up to it,” Molly answered him.

  “Aye, all they have me doing is working in the warehouse. All I do is sweep up messes other people make, like broken pallets and dried coffee. I’ll be down soon. I’m going to take a shower.”

  Molly had just taken a bite of toast when her phone rang. She swallowed quickly and then answered, coughing as she almost choked.

  “This is Molly McGuire.”

  “Yes, thank you for calling me back.”

  “I’m hoping you can help me.” She looked at Gran. “I’m working with the Garda out of the Dooley branch. We seem to be in a predicament here. You prepared a file for Ronan Moore. As I’m sure you’re aware, Ronan Moore passed away a few weeks ago, and the file then reverted to his son-in-law, Henry Pierce.”

  “Yes, and that’s why I’m calling. Mr. Pierce had called us up as he was deeply concerned with what he found, and now that he’s unable to communicate with us, we’re concerned the file might be of some interest to the case. Would you be able to send us a copy via email?”

  “There were two files?” She raised her eyebrows to Gran.

  “Oh, you sent him an addendum recently?”

  Her eyes widened, and she looked at Gran. “You would? That would be wonderful.”

  “The email address for the DI in charge?”

  “Of course, I totally understand. That would be DI Callum Murphy.” She looked at Gran as she gave the investigator Callum’s email address.

  “Thank you so much,” and she disconnected the call.

  “Since when has Callum become a DI?” Gran asked.

  “I couldn’t give him DI Elliott’s email, now could I? I’m just lucky I know Callum’s office email address. Now I just need to get Callum to release them to me.”

  Gran just shook her head and smiled.

  Molly’s next call was to Callum.

  “Hey, Callum. How are you?”

  “Good. I’m good too. I need a favor.”

  “No, I don’t always just call you for favors. Okay, sometimes I do, but I call you just to see what you’ve been up to or to see if you want to go get a beer at the pub.”

  “Well, yes, I know it’s too early to go for a beer now,” Molly frowned at Gran, who was laughing as she buttered her toast.

  “Okay, yes, this time I’m calling for a favor.”

  “You’re really keeping track?”

  “Oh, this is my sixth favor? Well then, I owe you six beers, okay?” She shook her head. Men!

  “My email isn’t working, and so I asked a friend of mine to email you some files. I was wondering if I could come to the station and print them off.”

  “Well, they’re personal, and I don’t want you to see them.”

  “Because I didn’t think about giving them Fiona’s email address.” She rolled her eyes.

  “Callum, please?”

  “Thank you. I’ll be over shortly,” and she hung up the call. “Geez, Louise, you’d think I asked him for favors all the time.”

  A laugh came from behind her. “Geez, Louise? Where did you pick that up from? It sounds like something a Yank would say,” Noah said as he slid onto the stool next to her.

  “Okay, yes, that is something I picked up in America, but sometimes, it’s just a ‘Geez, Louise’ situation.”

  Gran poured a glass of orange juice and set it in front of Noah, who automatically took a drink. “Thanks, Gran.”

  Noah turned to Molly. “May I ask you a question?”

  “Of course. What is it?”

  “You’re trying to find out who hurt Mr. Pierce, right?”

  Molly held out her cup to Gran, who refilled the cup, letting her avoid looking at Noah directly. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

  “I was wondering if you might figure out who killed my ma, too.”

  Molly stood up and put her arms around him, “Of course, I’ve already started,” and she kissed the side of his head, then sat down again.

  “Have you thought of anyone who might want to hurt her?”

  “I did, actually,” he took a sip of orange juice.

  “What is it?” Gran asked, slipping some toast in front of him.

  “Well, she’d taken the day off the day she, um, died, but then she called me and asked me if I could bring the car home at lunch, and she’d take me back afterward because she needed to pick up something for someone she was meeting later.”

  “Did she mention who she was meeting?” Molly asked.

  “No, and I didn’t ask her. She was always meeting with people for Mr. Pierce. I just figured it was something to do with Mr. Wilson, who she said was her temporary new boss.”

  “That was probably it. But thanks for telling me.”

  “Do you think it will help?”

  “Maybe, Noah. You never know.” She smiled, hoping it did.

  They chit-chatted for a few minutes, and then Molly received a text message. She looked at it as she made her way to the closet to get her coat. “That’s Callum. The files have arrived, so I’m going to pick them up.”

  “Noah, don’t forget we’re decorating the tree tonight. We’re also having a guest for dinner. What time will you be home?”

  “I usually get out around four,” he said as he slipped Luna a piece of his toast.

  “I saw that!” Molly yelled as she walked out the door to giggles coming from the kitchen.

  # # #

  The Garda station was downtown, so Molly drove the few miles, her mood as gloomy as the gray skies. Would these files give her the answers she’s looking for, and when Callum figures out what they are, will he let me take them, or will he make her give them to DI Elliott?

  Molly found a parking space a block away from the station and bundled up for the short walk, the fierce wind off the ocean fighting her the whole way. When she finally arrived at the brick building and walked through the glass doors, it thrilled her to see a fire in the fireplace. She walked up and stood next to it, trying to get warm. The thought of the fireplace reminded her of something, but before she could latch onto it, she heard her name.

  “Hey Molly, is that you?” Callum’s voice yelled from the other side of the counter.

  “Yes. I’m just trying to get warm. It’s wicked out there today.”

  Callum appeared at the counter, where he opened the half-door to let her in the back where only “authorized personnel” were allowed.

  Molly left the warmth of the peat fire and walked through the door. “I appreciate this, Callum. I really do.”

  Callum pulled a file off his desk and held it up, “Are you going to tell m
e the truth about this?”

  She looked at him, her eyes wide, “Whatever do you mean?” She batted her eyelashes a few times.

  He smiled, shaking his head, then stood with his legs apart and his arms over his chest. “Just when did I get promoted to a detective inspector?”

  She went for the file, but he moved it out of reach. “I’m sure it’s just a matter of time, Callum. You’ll make a wonderful DI someday.”

  “Molly, these are from a private investigator in Dublin.”

  “Okay, so I may have called a certain someone and pretended to be working with a certain department of the government and asked for copies of some files. Nothing illegal.”

  “Molly, it’s all illegal.”

  “Really? Hmm…well then, I certainly won’t do it again,” she said, grabbing the file out of his hand and kissing him on the cheek. She turned around to leave but stopped when she saw a stout man with big black eyebrows and thick glasses.

  “Sergeant Murphy, what is Ms. McGuire doing here?”

  Molly immediately hid the file behind her, and she felt Callum take it out of her hand. She turned just in time to see him set it on his desk and throw some other papers on top.

  “DI Elliott, and how are you this fine day?” Molly asked, trying to inch her way around him.

  “Well, you showing up here saves me the trip of having to come and arrest you.”

  “Arrest me?” Molly swallowed hard.

  Callum added, “For what?”

  “The poisoning of Henry Pierce.”

  She let out a deep breath, “Oh, that. That wasn’t me. That was Shannon Moore.”

  “Shannon Moore?” DI Elliott echoed.

  “The mother-in-law? I can see that,” Callum added.

  “And just how did you come to that conclusion, Ms. McGuire?” DI Elliott asked, his arms folded in front of him, his suit as rumpled as ever.

  “She had the means, motive and opportunity, that’s how, DI Elliott,” she held out her hand and started counting on her fingers. “One, Shannon Moore is the one who picked up the prescription, two, she was alone with Henry all day on Friday, three, she hated her son-in-law, oh, and four…”

  “Yes?” DI Elliott asked, and Callum waited.