Page 98 of 12 Ways to Kill Your Family at Christmas

‘Daffodil bulbs.’

‘Daffodil bulbs?’ I blinked, trying to understand.

‘She swapped them for the onions.’ Randolf shook his head. ‘Something that might appear on the surface to be a stupid mistake. A mistake that could have got you killed.’

I lay back, feeling the weight of it all. So simple and so deadly.

I frowned up at Miles, his brown eyes incredulous. ‘I know,’ he said bitterly.

‘How?’ I whispered.

‘We found a packet of daffodil bulbs in the kitchen?—’

‘They were mine,’ I gasped at the sudden realisation. ‘Ibought them at the Christmas-tree farm.’

‘Well, they had been opened and several of them had been fried. Your husband says that Mrs Weiss served you all at Christmas dinner?’

‘Yes,’ I agreed.

‘She only put them on your plate. We tried to find the frying pan that they were prepared in, but as everything had been put through the dishwasher, we could find no traces. We found the serving bowl, though. And of course, there’s her confession that you caught on your wires.’ He straightened and looked out of the window, squinting as if something deeply troubled him.

‘Where is she now?’ I asked Miles.

‘She’s in custody,’ he replied, brows knitting together. ‘She’ll be out on bail soon enough, though, I’m sure.’

‘What?!’ I burst out. I couldn’t help myself. My throat burned with the effort and I lowered my tone, rasping, ‘She tried to kill me!’

‘Yes,’ he agreed simply.

I closed my eyes against the nausea that threatened again.

‘And now?’ I asked, panic rising.

‘Well…’ He sighed. ‘Now she knows she failed, so I guess you’d better watch out.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Miles sternly.

Randolf looked him square in the eye and said, ‘Rich people, in my experience… they get away with everything.’

I lay back against the pillow and closed my eyes. I felt Miles squeeze my hand. The anger radiated off him in the form of heat.

‘She won’t,’ Miles said, his voice tightening with resolve.

I didn’t believe that for one second. Randolf sighed, a long-suffering sound. He left us then, slipping out quietly. Miles stayed by my side, his presence holding me together as I drifted in and out of fitful sleep.

EPILOGUE

MINCE PIES AND MOTIVES

‘Ihope you understand, Miles, why I did what I did. I only had your well-being in mind … your future. I had to get that maniac out of your life once and for all. And for Callum and Martha, too. I just couldn’t risk anything happening to any of you.’ Mother’s bottom lip quivered, the crocodile tears in her eyes threatening to spill over.

‘So you tried to kill the mother of my children… for me? To protect us? Or were you protecting your money?’

‘I think it’s gone way past that now, don’t you? This was a matter of life and death,ourlives, Miles… And now I’m in here.’ She said miserably, gesturing to the stark walls and looking down forlornly at her green overalls. Her hair was unkempt, and she wore no make-up, which I had to admit was extremely jarring as I had never ever seen my mother with a bare face or a hair out of place.

She had been in jail for over a week and it might well have been a month. She could never survive in a place like this, let alone going through a trial and going to prison.

‘We are leaving soon,’ I said brightly, ‘for Australia.’