“So, uh—” Josie begins.
“So you’re here to accuse me of double homicide.” Maris raises an eyebrow.
The oil rag rubbing against the metal barrel of the rifle sounds sinister.
“Er, well, maybe I misspoke a little bit.” I tap my index fingers together nervously. “I have a lot going on in my life, what with my business partner dying.”
Maris snorts. “Business partner, right. I know how that goes. Taylor Grace made your life miserable, didn’t she?” she asks accusingly. “You have the most to gain from her death.”
“The shop is not profitable. I gain nothing.”
“Except peace of mind.” Josie claps her hands over her mouth.
“Yeah, no shit. Taylor Grace has no object permanence. She’s a big black pit. I know how it was with her.” Maris sets the gun down. “You know when it all clicked for me that she was insane and that she was going to drag me down, use me up until I was a shell of myself? One day, she demanded that I get her a personal business credit card, that she felt like I was hiding things from her and I was being controlling and secretive with the money, and she didn’t like having to ask me to buy things for the business. So I got her a card, and she turned around and racked up fifty K of credit card debt on bullshit, buying stuff for the business, but really it was for herself. We would have these five-hour-long circular discussions that turned into arguments lasting long into the night, where she’d just say the same thing over and over, just angrier, and act like I was the one ruining her life. Then she had the gall to drag me in front of a therapist that it turns out she’s having an affair with?”
“That’s exactly what she did to me.” I have my head in my hands. “I really wish I’d talked to you before getting involved with her.”
“You wouldn’t have believed me. You would have thought I was crazy. And I was. Because Taylor Grace made me crazy.” Maris taps the table emphatically. “I know that you’re not happyabout the shop. Fuck the shop. You’re relieved you don’t ever have to deal with her and her insanity ever again. Sorry.” She lets out a breath.
“Sounds like you need a therapist,” Josie quips.
“Fuck Jonah Merriweather,” Maris scowls. “I’m never going to another therapist. He just enabled her behavior. It sounds like she was worse with you than me.” She takes a deep breath. “Look, I admit, I was sneaking into your shop. Can I have my earring back, please?” She holds out a hand. “I wasn’t trying to frame you. I wanted to help you prove that she had no rights to anything. I was looking for your files, proof that Taylor Grace was screwing you over like she did me. I didn’t want to see you blacklisted like I was around town. I was in there days before Dr. Merriweather’s murder. You can have the Christmas cops check the security feeds if you don’t believe me.”
I purse my lips.
“Trust me. I wanted to see Taylor Grace tried in the court of public opinion, not turned into a martyr,” she assured me.
“You had a bloody coat at the holiday party. Hughes saw bloodstains on your sweater.”
“Yeah, I didn’t realize till I got home that my coat had blood on it from hunting earlier. Melting snow must have bled it out of the fabric onto my sweater. I’ll go get it,” she offers, standing up. “I haven’t gotten around to cleaning it yet. You can’t wash it because it’s yarn.”
We hear her go to the laundry and rustle around.
“I think I believe her,” Josie mouths to me. “I don’t think she murdered anyone.”
Maris comes back out with the sweater. “Go on and test it. It’s turkey blood. Take it to the cops and have them test it.”
Josie sticks it in a bag.
“But the gun, the shooting!” I protest.
“I like real guns, not toys like your boyfriend carries,” Maris sneers. “Anyway. I don’t suppose the Jingle Bites Café needs any turkey, does it? I have several dead ones in the smoke shack.”
“Minced turkey-meat pastries?” Josie rubs her belly. “Yum!”
“Sure, come by the shop. We’ll talk,” I tell her.
“And,” Josie adds, “if you need a part-time job, I think Willow might be hiring! She just got a boyfriend and won’t have as much time to spend at the Jingle Bites Café.”
“Oh, so you’re fucking the brute.” Maris smirks at my expression. “It’s a big, bright, beautiful world out there without Taylor Grace,” she says as she walks us to the door. “Don’t feel guilty. She got what was coming to her.”
“Dammit, that’s another dead end, then.” I sigh when Maris closes the door after us. “Well, let’s go back to the Christmas market. I need to relieve Rose.”
“You can give me all the dirty deets of kissing Santa Hughes under the Christmas tree.” Josie giggles.
“Ugh, there was a dildo.”
“Girl! I can’t believe I’m just now hearing all this. I’m sorry I was a little MIA earlier, though it did let Hughes get into your Christmas stockings.” She links arms with me. “I got wrapped up in Lydia drama.”
