by Issy Brooke
“You don’t have to come out tonight,” he said. “I would still be happier with you far away somewhere. Sorry, that sounds wrong. But you know what I mean.”
She smiled at him. “Thank you, yes, I know. But this is important for Ariadne, and the community, too. And maybe … don’t laugh at me, but maybe the attacker will have another go at me, and then the police can catch them.”
“The police? They’ll have to drag me off him first,” Drew said.
Penny quivered, but in a good way. They walked briskly down the road, although their hips bumped and they made awkward progress. “When I was a teenager, walking like this was very easy,” she complained. “What’s happened?”
“Age,” Drew said shortly.
“Huh.”
“Oh, by the way, you know that plant that Cath brought to me?”
“Oh yes, do you know what it is?”
“Yeah, I knew as soon as she showed me. It’s wolfsbane, also called monkshood. It’s native to Britain.”
“Is it a common garden plant?”
Drew laughed. “No. It’s a horrible weed and it doesn’t really grow around here. It’s more of a mountain plant. I think some varieties can be grown in gardens but it’s not that common on our soil.”
“It smelled odd.”
“Yeah, it’s a nasty little thing. Don’t eat it! It’s very poisonous.”
Penny shivered. “I don’t intend to.”
All thoughts of poison and plants were pushed out of her mind as they crossed the road and entered the magical winter wonderland of the Upper Glenfield Christmas Market.
The whole central open air market area was transformed. It was late afternoon, but already getting dark. At the far end, Santa’s grotto had been set up. It was actually a well-decorated large garden shed, open all along the side, and festooned with shining lights and fake snow. Outside was the reindeer created by the pupils at The Acorns, and next to that was the nativity scene. There was also a profusion of elves, snowmen and sheep, all made by the local primary schools and the High School. There was a sound system set up to play a succession of merry Christmas carols. It was guaranteed to send any retail worker into furious rage, as they had been exposed to those songs on a loop for the last five weeks, but everyone else was thoroughly enjoying it.
There were stalls set up along the edge of the market. Everyone was wearing red hats or was covered in tinsel and baubles, and there was a relaxing holiday feeling.
“Penny! Drew!” Ariadne pushed forward out of the crowd, waving madly. She was wearing the promised reindeer ears, and had a bright red scarf with knitted snowflakes shapes all up it. Her cheeks were rosy and her smile was broad and genuine. She thrust a pair of antlers at Penny. “Put them on.”
“Go on, auntie Penny,” chorused the children.
She had no choice. She clipped the headband over her hat and scowled. “How do I look?”
“Ridiculous!” everyone laughed.
They bunched together, Drew included in the family group, and began to move around the market, looking at the crafts for sale. Penny kept an eye out for Cath, expecting to see her with the pager that she had offered. She spotted a few police officers in uniform but there was no sign of Cath.
“Mulled wine!” Ariadne declared and dragged them all over to a stand where a woman was dishing out hot, spiced alcohol from a metal cask.
“Mum, you’ve already had two,” Wolf said sternly.
“It’s Christmas,” Ariadne declared.
“Leave her be,” Destiny said.
They gathered around the stall, lightly bickering. Penny was standing at the edge, trying to decide between mulled wine and mulled cider, when she was tapped on the shoulder. She was instantly alert, and grabbed Drew’s elbow before she turned around.
“Ah, Penny!” Ginni said. “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Sorry; I wasn’t expecting it to be you.”
“Who were you expecting?”
Oh, a mass murderer, that sort of thing. The usual. “No one. Cath, maybe. Are you enjoying the market? It looks wonderful! You’ve all worked so hard.”
“We have worked hard. You’re part of the committee too, remember. And, er, about that…”
“Oh no.”
Ginni smiled but without humour; she was trying to look friendly and approachable, but she had a job to do. She didn’t beat about the bush. “We need to call upon your services, I am afraid. Poor Jared has been taken ill. You’re the stand-in Santa.”
“Oh, you are joking.”
“I do not joke,” Ginni said. “It would be very poor taste. The man is unwell.”
Penny looked desperately at Ariadne, but one glance showed her that her sister was too tipsy to be relied upon. Drew threw up his hands and shook his head. “Absolutely not. But I will stay with you,” he said. “I could dress up as an elf.”
“Steady on, now. This is supposed to be a happy occasion not Nightmare on Elm Street.”
“Charming. But seriously; I won’t leave you alone.”
Ginni patted Penny on the shoulder in a proprietorial way. “Oh, she’s a big girl. I am sure she can look after herself. Come along.” Of course, she didn’t know about the second attack on Penny’s life.
Penny was towed away from the mulled wine, and Drew followed behind, laughing and smirking.
* * * *
Ginni led her to the storage area which was now designated as the Santa-changing-room. She left Penny and Drew alone. Penny thought she caught a wink from Ginni as she retreated, but it must have been her imagination.
Ginni would never wink.
Penny turned to the bright red costume and sighed. The oversize trousers and jacket were laid out on a chair. There were also two cushions and a long belt, which she assumed were to make the wearer into a suitable Santa-shape, and on top of the cushions were the hat and the beard.
Drew picked the beard up and sniffed it as he looked at the outfit she had to wear. “So, this gets used every year?”
“Yup.”
“Lovely. It doesn’t smell too bad.”
“It all gets cleaned, you know. They spray alcohol on it to lift the bad odours away.”
“Alcohol? What a waste of a drink.”
“It’s neat. It’s more of a solvent,” she said.
He put the beard down. “Right. So, how are you going to do this? Do you need help, or … privacy?”
This was not the time to get flirty. She assessed the costume. “I’m just going to take my coat and jumper off, and then layer up from there.”
She put her outerwear on another nearby chair and Drew helped her to strap the cushions to her body. She only used one, at the front. When he had pulled the belt tight, he stepped back and pulled out his smartphone.
“You are not going to–”
“Too late,” he said as the camera snapped a photo.
“I’ve gone right off you, you know.”
He shrugged. “It was too good an opportunity for later blackmail purposes. Okay, are you ready for the trousers?”
It was a struggle to get the trousers pulled up, but with braces securing them in position, they looked all right, at least according to Drew. He held the jacket out for her, and she twisted her arms back to get into it.
Drew was laughing as he looked at her. “That is a magnificent sight.”
“I’m sure.” She looked down at her bulging red belly and had to smile. “This is insane. Will you go and fetch my sister and the kids? They will love this.”
He agreed.
As he left, she was struck by the unwelcome realisation that she needed to visit the lavatory. She may as well go now, before she pulled on the beard and hat and gloves. She went to the door just as Drew was disappearing into the crowd.
There was a jolly, thronging mass of people pushing and pulling. She called out, “Drew, wait, I need to –”
She heard him speak, but not to her. “I thought you were ill,” he was saying, then a grou
p of giggling teenage girls cut off her view.
One of them caught sight of Penny and screeched, holding up her phone. “Can I get a selfie with you? Oh, can I, can I…”
“I need the loo,” Penny said crossly, and waddled off.
Chapter Nineteen
I should have thought of this before I got dressed, she told herself angrily as she attempted to pull the braces down without removing her jacket. This is a nonsense. She fought the costume, banging her elbows on the walls of the narrow cubicle. By the time she had emerged from the toilets, she was a sweaty mess of disarray.
She paused to catch her breath and look around for Drew. He should be back by now with Ariadne and the others.
A small child was dragged past by his mum, and he stopped to stare. “It’s Father Christmas!” he said in wonder.
“Later,” the mother said without even turning to look.
Penny had a job to do. She went back to the storage cabin, but it was empty; no Drew.
A cold revelation stole over her.
I thought you were ill, he had said as he disappeared into the crowd.
Jared!
It all fell into place.
It must be Jared.
He was on the list of suspects. After all, she had rejected him. The two attempts on her life came after that.
Could Jared have also killed Clive? Was it somehow connected?
She wondered how long Jared had been secretly obsessing about her. Obsession, she realised, was what it had been.
What it was now.
She cast her mind back further. She had argued with Clive; he had insulted her at that meeting. It seemed long ago, now.
Jared had been there.
Had he …
Oh no.
Her cold fear was alternating with rushes of hot sweat, now. The thought was too horrible for her to fully form but it was there.
Had Jared killed Clive … for her?
The police had lacked the motive and that had hampered their investigation. Penny realised that she was the motive.
And Jared was here at the market – and Drew, her protector, had not returned after speaking to him.
She stood in the centre of the storage room, alone, staring at the open door. Outside in the darkness, there was festivity and laughter. Inside, though she was in an orange-lit cabin, she felt as if she lurked in the shadows. Everything was wrong, topsy-turvy. A man who had professed love for her was out to kill her. The man who vowed to protect her was missing.
She grabbed her phone and hesitated. Did she have any real, hard evidence? Cath and the police knew all of this already. They were clever people. If there were connections to be made, they would have made it.
Evidence.
And then she had it, the crucial missing part of the jigsaw and the thing that tied Jared to the attack with the bicycle pump that night. Cath had seen it, too.
But had she seen the significance of it?
She called Cath. “Are you here yet?” Penny said breathlessly as soon as Cath answered. Penny clutched the phone to her ear in her right hand, and picked up the beard in her left hand, dangling it from the elastic that would go around the back of her head. The whiff of alcohol still rolled off it. She peeped out of the doorway. She could see the side and back of the grotto, and already a queue of kids and their parents was lining up outside.
She still had a job to do, she reminded herself.
“Yes, I’m here,” Cath said. “I was a bit delayed because the pager needed batteries but I’ve sorted it now. I need to come and give it to you. Are you in the grotto yet? I’ve just seen Ginni who said she went to the storage area but you weren’t there. I’m not saying she’s a bit annoyed but she’s left scorch marks in the concrete.”
“Oh, no. I’d popped to the loo. After all, it’s the kids who are supposed to wet themselves, not Santa himself. I’m going over there now. But listen, Cath. It’s about Jared. It’s him! He did it! He did it all.”
“Ahh,” Cath said. “Yes. We had some suspicious as to that…”
“What? What are you going to do about it?”
“We need evidence. We’ve got no evidence.”
Penny put the beard under her arm and picked up the hat with her free hand. She couldn’t put the beard on while she was talking on the phone. She stepped out of the cabin. “You’ve seen the evidence,” she said. “The photos. The photos on the community website the night I was attacked. I wasn’t the only one who had taken some great shots that night; Jared had, too. That was his username. WhiteDeer. The date stamp on the photos were the same so he was out at the same time.”
“Bingo!” Cath shouted. “You are a star! Thank you. I’ll be over to the grotto right away.”
“Wait – have you seen Drew?”
“Hang on.”
“I can’t. Oh my, there is a crowd waiting for me. I’m late! See you there.”
Penny pushed her phone under her jacket into her jeans pocket. The line of kids was staring at her expectantly and some of them looked confused.
“Er, you’re not properly dressed,” a man hissed.
She turned her back, embarrassed, so she could finish off getting ready, and stepped back towards the cabin before too many kids saw her. She didn’t want to spoil the illusion.
She took the beard in her hands and began to lift it up to her face. The back of the beard was a fine mesh, and looked like it was going to be itchy. It was a full and bushy affair that would cover most of her face, sticking to her skin.
Reluctantly she pulled the elastic over the back of her head.
“The beard!”
She paused.
Drew burst out of the crowd, and people turned to stare as he launched himself towards Penny. “THE BEARD! The beard is poisoned!” he shouted.
And then another figure appeared from the side and slammed into Drew, knocking him to the ground. In an instant, the second figure was on his feet; Jared.
Jared grabbed at the beard and pulled, hard, snapping the elastic so that a stray end hit Penny’s cheek.
“Hey, that’s my beard,” she called, clawing at it.
Somewhere a child started to sing, “Go, Santa, go San-ta, go San-ta…” and another child was clapping. Soon they were encircled by a ring of children, egging them on like a playground altercation.
Penny faced Jared.
Jared crouched down, his fists raised. Behind him, Drew was being helped to his feet, but he looked temporarily dazed and Penny guessed that he had hit his head.
Jared was gripping the beard in his hand, and his eyes were wild. He breathed heavily, phlegm glistening on his lips. “You ruined everything. I would have done anything for you. Anything. But you were always too independent,” he hissed.
And then he sprang towards her, and Penny opened her arms and flung herself forward to meet the attack, using the full force of her well-padded body to slam into him. Like a scary Santa sumo wrestler, her impact tumbled him backwards. His legs skittered as his knees bent and he lost his balance, half-dancing, half-falling his way into the display next to the grotto.
As he hit the ground, the reindeer toppled forward, and pinned Jared firmly in place between its antlers.
Jared screamed and kicked in frustration but he was securely held by the wicker arrangement; it had been weighted down internally to stop it blowing away.
Somewhere in the crowd, someone tutted. “I knew the health and safety of that thing wasn’t up to scratch.”
In the distance, they could hear sirens approaching.
Chapter Twenty
“It’s a waste of money, that’s what it is.”
It could have been Clive Holdsworth himself speaking. But it wasn’t some ghostly apparition; his sister, Linda, had been grumbling about the expense of the New Year celebrations ever since the day after Christmas.
There was a light drizzle of rain falling over Upper Glenfield but it hadn’t put the residents off from attending the midnight countdown. Penny nestled close to D
rew, unashamedly seeking both warmth and comfort from him.
He held her tightly. Even though Jared was finally in custody, and all the evidence was being stacked up neatly against him, Drew had remained firmly in “protective cave-man” mode since the events at the Christmas market.
Cath and her backup officers had wrestled Jared free from the fallen reindeer, and hauled him off to the station. More officers had descended, insisting on talking with Penny.
She had pointed at the waiting children. “I have a job to do,” she had informed them.
No officer wanted to be the one responsible for ruining Christmas for the under-eights, so they had stood to one side while Penny got on with her task, albeit beardlessly. The beard had been whisked away for testing. She used a fluffy white scarf that a passer-by handed to her, and it was enough for the kids.
Jared had ranted and raved enough to seal his fate even without the confession that came later.
When the beard came back from the lab, the results revealed that it had, indeed, been poisoned. Drew had been very smug about that. He knew that the active ingredients in wolfsbane could be dissolved in alcohol, and that it was a well-known contact poison. She didn’t need to eat it to be affected by it. When Penny had told him how the Santa costume was cleaned from year to year, his suspicions had been raised, and seeing Jared out in the crowd that night simply confirmed what he thought. He had raced off to raise help. Jared had grabbed the beard from Penny when Drew had called out, because he wanted to prevent the police getting the evidence that he was trying to harm Penny.
That evidence, along with the bicycle pump and Jared’s photos which placed him at the time and place of the second attack, were enough.
But what of the original murder? It had been as Penny had begun to suspect; Jared had seen the way Clive treated her, and he had left the Christmas planning meeting with the intention of confronting Clive about it.
Clive had been up the ladder, just as everyone thought; he was trying to bring the Christmas lights down. Jared had begun an argument with Clive, but things had taken a sinister turn.