Mardzheri Allingem - Mystery for Christmas and Other Stories

WHO KILLED FATHER CHRISTMAS? by Patricia Moyes The toy department is the scene of this diabolically clever crime, where telling Santa what you want for Christmas becomes something to scream about.

I SAW MOMMY KILLING SANTA CLAUSE by George Baxt A little boy sees Mommy committing murder... but it takes him forty years to find out how she got away with it and where the missing weapon really went.

MYSTERY FOR CHRISTMAS by Anthony Boucher Hollywood throws the best holiday bashes... and this California Christmas party includes a crime, a frame-up, and a director with an Academy Award-winning talent for detection.

AND EIGHT MORE TALES TO SAY, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MYSTERY FANS... AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for their permission to reprint their copyrighted material:

Christmas Cop by Thomas Adcock, copyright 1986 by Davis Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission of the author

On Christmas Day in the Morning by Margery Allingham, copyright 1952 by P. and M. Youngman Carter Ltd., reprinted by permission of the Estate

I Saw Mommy Killing Santa Claus by George Baxt, copyright 1990 by Davis Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission of the author

Mystery for Christmas by Anthony Boucher, copyright 1942 by Anthony Boucher, reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown Ltd.

The Marley Case by Linda Haldeman, copyright 1982 by Davis Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission of Cherry Weiner Literary Agency

Dead on Christmas Street by John D. MacDonald, copyright Dorothy P. MacDonald Trust reprinted by permission of Diskant Associates

Kelsos Christmas by Malcolm McClintick, copyright 1984 by Davis Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission of the author

Who Killed Father Christmas? by Patricia Moyes, copyright 1980 by Laura W. Haywood & Isaac Asimov, first appeared in WHO DONE IT?, reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown Ltd.

The Plot Against Santa Claus by James Powell, copyright 1970 by James Powell, reprinted by permission of Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc.

The Christmas Bear by Herbert Resnicow, copyright 1989 by Davis Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission of the author

Santa Claus Beat by Rex Stout, copyright 1953 by Rex Stout, reprinted by permission of the Estate

Whatever Became of Ebenezer Scrooge? by Tom Tolnay, copyright 1988 by Davis Publications, Inc., reprinted by permission of the author.

All stories previously appeared in Alfred Hitchcocks Mystery Magazine or Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine, published by Davis Publications, Inc.

The stories in this collection are from the pages of Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcocks Mystery Magazine. They were chosen primarily because, as the title suggests, each story takes place at Christmas time, but also because they are gift wrapped in entertainment and suspense. What distinguishes this particular anthology from others of this kind is that all the stories are mysteries with a conscience a moral underlies each story, which each author conveys with masterful subtlety. It is this conscience which gives these stories their true Christmas spirit.

Our cast of characters is quite a lively bunch ranging from Christmas bears and bright-eyed children to a jaded Manhattan cop and a murderous Mommy to criminals with big hearts. There are new twists to our classic Christmas tales which feature our old-time favorites: Marleys Ghost, Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit. And what would Christmas be without Santa Claus?

The time is past, present and future and the settings move from small town U.S.A. to big city streets. More importantly, the message is clear nothing is as it appears to be because no matter what the nature of the crime, each story contains that special sparkle that we all recognize as the magic of Christmas.

Cynthia Manson

March 1990

Up there, Grandma, Debbie pointed, all excited, tugging at my skirt, in the top row. Against the wall. See? Im not really her grandma, but at six and a half the idea of a great-grandmother is hard to understand. All her little friends have grandmothers, so she has a grandmother. When shes a little older, Ill tell her the whole story.

The firehouse was crowded this Friday night, not like the usual weekend where the volunteer firemen explain to their wives that they have to polish the old pumper and the second-hand ladder truck. They give the equipment a quick lick-and-a-promise and then sit down to an uninterrupted evening of pinochle. Not that theres all that much to do in Pitman anyway were over fifty miles from Pittsburgh, even if anyone could afford to pay city prices for what the big city offers but still, a mans first thought has to be of his wife and family. Lord knows Ive seen too much of the opposite in my own generation and all the pain and trouble it caused, and mine couldve given lessons in devotion to this new generation that seems to be interested only in fun. What they call fun.

Still, they werent all bad. Even Homer Curtis, who was the worst boy of his day, always full of mischief and very disrespectful, didnt turn out all that bad. That was after he got married, of course; not before. He was just voted fire chief and, to give him credit, this whole Rozovski affair was his idea, may God bless him.

Little Petrina Rozovski shes only four years old and shes always been small for her age her grandfather was shift foreman over my Jake in the mine while we were courting. We married young in those days because there was no future and you grabbed what happiness you could and thats how I came to be the youngest great-grandmother in the county, only sixty-seven, though that big horsefaced Mildred Ungaric keeps telling everybody Im over seventy. Poor Petrina has to have a liver transplant, and soon. Real soon. You wouldnt believe what that costs, even if you could find the right liver in the first place. Seventy-five thousand dollars, and it could go to a lot more than that, depending. There isnt that much money in the whole county.

There was talk about going to the government as if the governments got any way to just give money for things like this or to make somebody give her babys liver to a poor little girl or holding a raffle, or something, but none of the ideas was worth a tinkers dam. Then Homer, God bless him, had this inspiration. The volunteer firemen they do it every year collect toys for the poor children, which, these days, is half the town, to make sure every child gets some present for Christmas. And we all, even if we cant afford it, we all give something. Then one of them dresses up as Santa Claus and they all get on the ladder truck and, on Christmas Eve, they ride through the town giving out the presents. Theres a box for everyone, so nobody knows whos getting a present, but the boxes for the families where the father is still working just have a candy bar in them or something like that. And for the littlest kids, they put Santa on top of the ladder and two guys turn the winch and lift him up to the roof as though hes going to go down the chimney and the kids eyes get all round and everybody feels the way a kid should on Christmas Eve.

We had a town meeting to discuss the matter. Raffles are no good, Homer declared, because one person wins and everybody else loses. This year were going to have an auction where everybody wins. Everybody who can will give a good toy it can be used, but its got to be good in addition to what they give for the poor kids. Then the firemen will auction off those extra toys and the idea of that auction is to pay as