The Santa Slaughter - A Very Merry Murder Mystery

Chapter 12

I try to move but I'm not quick enough. Ivy grabs me by the elbow, her fingers digging into my arm.

"I would have got her too, if only you hadn't rushed onto the scene." She smiles, maniacally. "Not that I meant to. I was going to live and let live. She isn't the first woman to be taken in by Bill's charms and she probably wouldn't have been the last." Her smile fades and her gaze is fixed, unseeing, on some point in the middle distance. "But when I saw her bustling out of her cafe back to her other business, I thought, why should her life get to carry on as if nothing's even happened? I was going to lose everything - I will lose everything - and she's going to be just as happy without Bill as she would have been with him.

I'm struggling to process all this, numb with shock. My mind feels like it's working through treacle but I slowly manage to make sense of Ivy's rambling. Bill and Maggie were having an affair - and Bill was going to leave his wife for her. Until Ivy stopped him. I try to wrench my arm free but Ivy's grip is like a vice and she pulls me closer to her, desperation making her voice shake.

"You understand, don't you? You know how humiliating it is when your husband...and then he said he wanted to leave me!" She laughs. "As if I could bear that. At least the previous affairs were quiet. I could ignore them and we could carry on as if nothing had ever happened. But now - now! - he decides it's different, and he wants a fresh start. Well, I wasn't about to let that happen." She nods toward the unsigned divorce papers. "He kept telling me to sign, but I'd told him I just wanted one more Christmas together. Nobody gets divorced at Christmas!"

My stomach turns over as I recall saying those exact words to Jeremy only a few days ago. But I wouldn't use them as an excuse to commit murder!

At last, Ivy lets go of me and I watch her pace around the room like some kind of caged animal. She's between me and the door, so I have no way of getting out of here. I sit, trying to think up a way out and watch her closely, straining to hear her as her voice drops to an agitated whisper.

"Of course, I guess it's worked out for the best that I didn't manage to do any serious damage to Maggie. People might have started to ask questions. But now I can continue to be the grieving widow, devastated by my actions...yes, that will certainly win me some sympathy." She smiles, but there's no trace of light in her eyes. "And if I stick close to Maggie as she recovers there's no telling how many other opportunities might come my way. I can wait to get my revenge. I waited twenty years for Bill's." She shakes her head. "If only I'd done it before he squandered all our money."

"Your money?" I ask, almost without meaning to. She glares at me and I shrink into my chair, fumbling together an argument that might placate her enough that I stand a chance of getting out of here. I'd underestimated Ivy. The bruises that I can already feel forming on my arm attest to the strength the small woman possesses. "My husband...ex-husband...Neil." I draw in a shaky breath. "He left me in the lurch with our money, too." I kick out one of my feet so that the bell on my elf-slipper jingles. "Why do you think I had to take this humiliating job?"

"Yes, yes, it's very tragic." Ivy's sympathy for our shared predicament is fleeting. Her gaze hardens as she looks at me. "But you're young enough that you can start over. Bill left me with nothing."

There's a miaow and we both look towards the door as a large, fluffy cat strolls into the living room, looking entirely unfazed by the fact that his mistress is in the middle of confessing to murder. Ivy turns back to me, her expression folding into a frown.

"Of course, now you know, I'll have to deal with you, too..." She speaks more to herself than to me, and I change the subject, hoping to keep her talking.

"Is this Snuffy?" I ask, leaning forward in my chair and holding my hand out to the cat. "Is he doing better now? I was talking to Rob - Rob Castle, the vet - about how unwell he's been..."

She softens a little at the mention of her cat and turns away from me just long enough that I manage to get to my feet and make a lunge for the door. She's quicker than I am, though, throwing herself into the doorway before I can pass through it, and blocking me. Her gaze is triumphant, but there's a hardened look in her eyes.

"I knew you didn't care," she spits. "Trying to be all sympathetic, acting as if we have anything in common when it was just a ploy to distract me. Well, I'm sorry, Meredith, but -"

Before she can say a word, the doorbell rings, and we all - Snuffy included - turn towards it. Ivy relaxes her position for just a moment and I reach for the closest thing I can use as a weapon. In one swift movement, I bring down Bill's Man of the Year award hard on Ivy's head, holding my breath as she crumples to the floor.

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A/N - I hope you are enjoying this fun little Christmas mystery! I will be updating chapters regularly here but if you want to read the whole thing in its entirety for free it is available on my Ream page (see link on my profile page) - sign up as a follower (for free) to keep reading and find out about all my other projects :)