The Santa Slaughter - A Very Merry Murder Mystery

Chapter 2

"Serving hot chocolate."

Maggie is completely unfazed by Peter's thinly-veiled rage and he is momentarily stunned into silence.

"Are you sure you don't want any? It's very good!" Maggie is pushing her luck, now, and I'm watching in horrified fascination until she catches my eye. "Isn't it, Meredith?"

"Oh! Yeah. Yes." I take a quick sip and promptly choke on it. It takes me a minute to stop coughing but eventually I manage it and croak out a proper answer. "Very good."

"I'm sure it is." Peter has managed to regain his equilibrium. He shoots me a look and turns back to Maggie, folding his arms across his front and glaring at her. "But why do you have to do it right in front of my store?"

Ah. Light dawns and I finally grasp what's got him all riled up. He raises his voice and says each word slowly just to make sure that everybody hears him and understands how difficult our being here is making things for him.

"You're blocking people's view of my store. Nobody is going to fight their way past this place to get to my front door. Every hot chocolate you serve is costing me book sales."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Maggie says. Her smile doesn't drop for a second. "Perhaps you'd like to advertise a few of your books here? We could dedicate a table to you and encourage people to step inside to view more of your stock."

"You want me to display my books outside?" Peter shakes his head. "And who will pay for the copies that get damp, or - or -" He looks at the thick, dark hot chocolate and pulls a face. "Sticky."

"I guess you're just going to have to trust your customers will still manage to find their way past us to your door, in that case." Maggie's smile is still in place but I can tell from the tense note in her voice that she's getting tired of this argument. I finish my drink - now only really lukewarm chocolate - and look around for somewhere to stash my empty mug. I sneak past them, exchanging a look with Maggie that I hope Peter doesn't spot. He doesn't, but the movement does make him notice me, and he does a swift double-take, before theatrically rolling his eyes.

"And as for that thing!"

Ouch.

I freeze in place, ready to argue that I certainly don't look that bad when a noise stops me. A weird, snorting, snuffling noise. I turn my head, realizing that Peter wasn't talking about me at all, but something I hadn't noticed until that moment.

"Oh, wonderful!" Maggie beams, thrusting her tray at Peter who's so surprised he takes it, before shaking his head and placing it noisily down on a nearby table. "You made it!"

Maggie strolls right up to the reindeer - that's what Peter meant by that thing - and throws her arms around its neck. The animal snorts and tries to pull out of her embrace and that's when I see he has a slim rope leash around his neck that's held tightly by a tall, good-looking man standing about two feet away.

"Careful!" he jokes, stepping closer and rubbing the animal on its long nose. "Fred hasn't had his dinner yet."

Maggie steps back and we all watch as the reindeer handler reaches into the back pocket of his jeans and pulls out a handful of reindeer treats. He holds his hand out and the animal noses into it, greedily chomping away.

"What a good boy you are!" Maggie says, and the reindeer handler grins.

"Why, thank you, Ma'am!"

"Oh, you!" Maggie giggles and pats him lightly on the shoulder, and I hear the whispered oh, please! from Peter that perfectly echoes my thoughts on this little interaction.