A Killer Christmas Party Read online

  A Killer Christmas Party

  A Jill Andrews Cozy Mystery

  Nicole Ellis

  Copyright © 2018 by Nicole Myers

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  1

  I ran my fingers over the glossy plastic cover of the binder I’d used to corral all of the details for the Pearson Company’s Christmas party. My mother-in-law, Beth, had told me that they had a big to-do every year and she’d asked me to plan this year’s event at the Boathouse Event Center. I’d met with their human resources manager and Harry Pearson himself a few times to discuss their ideas.

  After many hours of hard work, I had put together a party I thought they’d love. I set the binder down on my desk and clicked on my computer’s calendar to make sure I’d recorded all of the pertinent dates.

  From outside of my closed office door came the high-pitched whine of little girls and then crashing as they ran amok in the hallway. A ribbon of irrational fear ran through me. They were here and I had no chance for escape. I’d hoped to be done with work for the day before my brother-in-law Will arrived with his wife and three girls, but the binder had taken me longer than I’d thought it would.

  I frantically surveyed my desk. The nameplate reading Jill Andrews, Events Coordinator would be fine, but having a cup of coffee so close to my computer was asking for trouble. I moved the coffee onto a high bookshelf out of reach of small children, then closed the lid of my laptop before shoving it into a desk drawer for safety. The binder was too thick to fit in my file drawers, so I set it on top of the file cabinet. When only unbreakables remained in view, I opened my door and peeked into the hall.

  Like velociraptors, they sensed the open door. Two of my nieces ran toward me, their feet slapping against the hardwood floors with each step.

  “Auntie Jill!” yelled Maya with her long dark hair flying behind her. She and her younger sister Claire came to a screeching halt in front of me.

  “Hi, girls.” I looked down the hall, but didn’t see Will or Tania. “Where are your parents?”

  “Daddy’s in Grandma Beth’s office and Mommy went to the spa. She said she was tired after the long trip.” Claire bounced on the balls of her feet in front of me, her short bobbed haircut swirling around her thin face.

  “Ah.” I nodded. “And where is Bella?” When I’d seen her a year ago, my ten-year-old niece had been bouncing off the walls along with her younger sisters.

  Claire sighed loudly. “She’s reading.”

  “Again,” said Maya. She nudged past me. “Is this your office? Can we see it?” She walked in before I even had a chance to answer.

  “Uh, sure.” I did another quick visual search of the room. “Go ahead. It’s not that exciting.”

  They ran into the room, bumbling around behind the desk. Maya sat on my ergonomic swivel desk chair and spun it around until I was dizzy from watching her.

  Claire immediately spotted the rubber bouncy ball I kept in a basket in the corner for Mikey and Anthony to use when they came to visit. They loved throwing the ball down the empty hallway outside my office. She grabbed the ball and chucked it at her sister, who was now standing behind my desk.

  Maya ducked and the ball ricocheted off of the file cabinet and onto the top of the bookshelf—directly at my coffee cup. The cup wobbled, then fell, spilling its contents over the edge of the top shelf and crashing to the ground where it broke into pieces.

  I gasped and ran over to the binder I’d set carefully on top of the file cabinet. Dark brown coffee had sprayed over the shiny plastic surface and dripped onto the pages inside, staining them a lighter brown. I touched the soggy paper. All of that work for nothing. I couldn’t show my client this.

  Claire’s eyes widened, but she said nothing. Maya giggled and threw the ball at her sister, who caught it mid-air. They both ran out into the hallway, their feet thundering against the floorboards with every move.

  I had a little boy and I knew how quickly kids could make messes, but this was ridiculous. I stood there, staring at my ruined binder before I turned my attention to the glass shards of what used to be my favorite coffee cup. I picked up a large piece that contained only half of Thumper on it. Adam had bought it for me when we took a pre-kids trip to Disney World, and I’d loved it ever since.

  I threw some paper towels down on the mess to sop up the liquid and walked to the Boathouse’s linen closet to get something to mop up the rest of it. On the way there, I could hear the girls’ voices bouncing down the hallway, followed closely by the rubber ball, which flew through the air and banged into my head. I pressed my lips together and tried to think rationally. It worked somewhat, and I retrieved the ball from the floor, tucking it under my arm.

  “Hey, we were playing with that.” Maya’s mouth formed into an unbecoming pout.

  I smiled sweetly at her. “Not anymore.” I looked around. I still hadn’t seen their dad, but he was probably with Beth in her office, which was near the kitchen.

  When I walked past her office, I ducked my head in.

  “Jill, hi.” Will rose from his seat and came over to the door to hug me. It always amazed me how much he and Adam looked alike, with their sandy-brown hair and lanky statures. He peered at me. “You look frazzled.”

  I stepped back. He was acting differently than usual—nicer, maybe. Not that he’d ever been rude to me in the past, but his usual demeanor was closer to sleazy used-car salesman than a caring relative.

  I wanted to scream at him that his kids had done that to me, but I refrained. “The girls were in my office and broke a mug filled with coffee, so I’m in search of cleaning supplies.”

  A frown crossed his face. “I’m so sorry, Jill. I’ll talk to them about it. Maybe they can help you clean it up.”

  I was glad that he turned then toward the door so that he couldn’t see the expression of horror that I knew was covering my face. He walked out of the room, leaving me alone with Beth.

  “Isn’t it great that Will and the kids are here?” Beth beamed at me.

  “Yeah, it’s really great.” I tried to put some enthusiasm into my voice but I feared it fell flat. “It amazes me though how they can become little tornadoes.”

  She sighed. “I know. The girls have a lot of energy.”

  “Where’s Bella anyway? She wasn’t with her sisters.”

  “I think she’s reading a book in the main room.” Beth shook her head. “She’s changed a lot since I last saw her. I can’t believe she’ll be a teenager soon.”

  I grinned. “Not for another few years.”

  “It goes fast.” Beth sighed again. “I wish they lived closer to us. I hate not seeing them more than twice a year.”

  I knew the feeling. It seemed like just yesterday Mikey had been a baby, and now he was four and a half. Even Ella had recently turned a year old. Where had the time gone?

  I jutted
my thumb at the door. “I’d better get back and clean up the mess before the coffee permanently stains everything.”

  She nodded. “Don’t forget we’re scheduled for dinner with everyone tonight. I’m making roast chicken—Will’s favorite.”

  “I haven’t forgotten.” I wished I could “accidentally” forget, but I knew Adam would insist that we attend dinner with the whole family.

  I retrieved the rags to wipe up the spilled coffee and glass and returned to my office. I was now behind in my work because, in addition to cleaning up the mess the girls had made, I’d have to redo the client binder. That was several hours of my life that I’d planned to use for Christmas shopping, but now I’d have to put that off until later.

  I loved Christmas, but I was getting to the point in the year where it couldn’t come and go fast enough. We always spent Christmas Eve with Adam’s family as it was their big family get-together, but Christmas Day was spent with my family. My sister, Becky, who lived in Portland, Oregon, had called me the night before to inform me that she’d be coming up to visit us on Christmas Day and to ask if it was ok if she stayed a while afterward. She and her husband had recently split up and she wanted to spend the holidays with us.

  Of course, I’d felt obligated to invite her to stay with us, but now I was struggling to figure out where I’d put everyone. My parents were planning on staying with us from Christmas Day through New Year’s too, and although we had a nice-sized house, it would get crowded with three extra people in it for a week.

  As I threw the shards of glass into a paper sack and then into the plastic trash bag, I reflected on how quickly things could change. Last Christmas, Ella had only been a few months old and she’d been bewildered by our holiday celebrations. Less than a year later, she was toddling around, Desi had given birth to a little girl too, my parents had almost gotten a divorce, Becky had separated from her husband, and Adam and I had both started new jobs. Nothing stayed the same and I wasn’t sure whether I liked that or not.

  I tied the bag and set it next to the door to take out to the outside garbage dumpster, then opened the metal rings on the white binder. Page by page, I laid the materials out on my desk and when that was filled, I set some on the bookshelf. About half of them were damaged, but the other half would be fine. I breathed a sigh of relief. If I hurried, I might be able to fix everything before we needed to leave for dinner at Beth’s house that evening.

  Two hours later, the project was salvaged, and I drove home to change out of my work clothes and get ready for dinner. As I threw on a pair of jeans and a sweater, Goldie, our golden retriever, stared at me forlornly from the bed where he lay stretched out with his head on his front paws.

  “I’ll try to take you for a quick walk when I get home, ok, boy?” I smoothed the long green knit sweater down over my hips and ruffled the fur on his head. He lifted his head briefly, then set it back down. I hadn’t been home as much lately as I used to be, and even the dog was getting in on the guilt trips. Ordinarily, Beth would let me bring him over to her house when we went there for family dinners, but with all of the extra people staying there, I didn’t think it was a good idea. Besides, I wasn’t sure how my sister-in-law Tania felt about dogs. I had a hunch she wasn’t fond of them.

  “Honey,” Adam called up the stairs. “Are you ready yet? We were supposed to be there five minutes ago.”

  “In a minute,” I shouted back. I swiped some concealer under my eyes to hide the bags that were forming there and brushed my hair until it gleamed like a copper penny. My sister-in-law always looked like she’d stepped out of the pages of a magazine, and although I’d never be able to compete with her, or want to for that matter, I didn’t want to look like a complete mess either.

  I grabbed my coat from where I’d tossed it on the ground when I’d rushed upstairs and took a deep breath while looking in the mirror. I’d make it through this dinner somehow.

  2

  My feet were full of lead as I walked out to the car with Ella. Mikey was skipping along next to us, excited to see the cousins he barely knew. His cousin Anthony, Desi’s son, would be there too, but Mikey got to see him almost every day at preschool, so he wasn’t a novelty like Will’s kids were. Rain had started to fall, speckling the cement sidewalks with an array of dark spots.

  “Maybe we could claim that Ella isn’t feeling well?” My earlier resolve was failing already and I crossed my fingers that Adam would consider my excuse to miss dinner at his parents’ house. I didn’t think he’d go for it though as he’d been talking lately about wanting to spend more time with Will. They hadn’t been close since they were children, but Adam hoped to fix that. Will and Tania had never been overly friendly to me, although when I’d seen him earlier that day, he’d surprised me.

  Adam shot me an icy death glare as he opened the door so I could place Ella in her rear-facing car seat. “We’re going.”

  I sighed. “Fine.”

  He softened a little. “Look, I know the girls are a bit much, and Tania can be prickly, but they’re my family and I haven’t seen Will in over a year. Can you please put up with them for a few hours?”

  I instantly felt guilty. After all, the girls were just little kids. “I will. I’m sorry. I know they didn’t mean to break my mug or ruin my binder.” I’d given Adam a quick rundown of my day when he’d checked on me while I was getting ready for dinner.

  He laughed. “They probably did, but they’re still family and we’re stuck with them, like it or not.”

  We drove to Beth and Lincoln’s house and pulled up behind Desi’s car and what appeared to be a late model luxury rental car. The lights were on in the living room and I could see people moving around. We were definitely last to arrive.

  Adam rang the doorbell with Mikey beside him and I trudged up the sidewalk behind them while carrying Ella.

  “Remember, be nice,” he whispered.

  “Yeah, Mom, be nice,” Mikey echoed helpfully.

  At that very moment, the door opened and Will appeared. Had he heard Mikey? My face grew warm and to hide it, I leaned down to set Ella on the ground.

  “It’s good to see you, baby brother,” Will said, hugging Adam affectionately.

  Adam hugged him back. “It’s been too long.”

  Will crouched down to be eye to eye with Ella. “And this must be Ella? You were just a little baby last time I saw you.”

  She eyed him with suspicion and clung to my leg for dear life.

  He laughed. “Mikey, the girls are looking forward to seeing you.” He gestured behind him. “They’re downstairs in the family room.”

  Mikey bounded off and I heard his cousin Anthony shout an excited greeting to him.

  “It’s so nice that you were able to be here for Christmas this year,” I said to Will.

  He hugged me for the second time that day. I was starting to wonder what alien had taken over my brother-in-law’s body. “I wanted the girls to be around family.” His face turned down. “We love Arizona, but I want them to grow up around relatives.”

  Adam caught that. “Are you thinking of moving back to Washington?”

  Will started to walk down the hallway toward the living room. “I’m thinking about it, but we haven’t made any decisions yet.”

  I groaned inwardly. Having the girls around full-time would change the dynamics of our family and I kind of liked it the way it was. They need their family too, Jill, a little voice said. It was true. I loved having relatives close by us and they deserved the same.

  “That would be great,” I said. “Your parents would love it.”

  He didn’t answer because we’d entered the living room where my in-laws and Tania were seated.

  Beth jumped up. “Do you want something to drink? We’ve got beer, wine, soda, or water, of course.”

  Adam grinned. “I’m fine, Mom. Since when am I a proper guest in your house?”

  “Well, Jill might want something,” she said defensively.

  “A glass of water wo
uld be great.” I smiled. Beth seemed anxious to do something, perhaps to avoid talking to Tania.

  Beth left and I sat down in a chair that was diagonal from Tania.

  “How was your flight out here?” I asked.

  “Horrible.” She slugged back her wine, draining the glass. “The kids were awful, the flight was bumpy, and now I’m here in Seattle and it’s raining.” She looked out the window at the drizzle. I think she was trying to scowl, but her skin was so frozen with Botox that I couldn’t tell for sure. “I hate rain. So depressing.”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond. I hadn’t interacted with Tania much in the past, but when I had, she hadn’t been quite so negative. I’d never seen her happy though, except maybe at her wedding, and even then she’d spent the day ordering Will around. Having the wedding at the Boathouse hadn’t been her first choice, but Will had insisted they have it there. To retaliate, she’d made all the staff miserable with her demands.

  Beth re-entered the room, saving me from talking to Tania. “Dinner’s almost ready,” she announced as she handed me a glass that was filled to the brim with ice and water.

  I took it from her, my fingers instantly becoming chilled from the cool glass. “Thanks. What are we having for dinner? I know you told me earlier, but my mind is like a sieve lately.”

  She laughed. “It’s Christmas mom-brain. We’re having roast chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, a side salad, and homemade rolls. It’s Will’s favorite.” She beamed at her oldest son. “I made the potatoes with only half of the usual amount of butter, because I know how healthy Tania likes to eat.” She wrinkled her nose. “I hope they taste ok.”