Murder Takes a Vacation

When Mrs. Blossom wakes from her gummy-induced nap, Allan tells her they’ve arrived in London, but she will miss her connecting flight to Paris due to a weather delay. This mystifies her, since she thought she had scheduled plenty of time. Allan insists on paying for her room that night and talks her into taking the Chunnel train rather than a plane, saying it’s much more efficient. At Paddington Station, he takes pictures on her phone of her with the Paddington Bear statue to send to her grandchildren, then asks if he can send one to himself.

In her London hotel room, Mrs. Blossom is dissatisfied with the clothes she packed, mostly bright flower prints. If only she could dress more stylishly, maybe Allan wouldn’t look at her with such “sexless affection, as if she were a child, or simple-minded” (19). She feels guilty for wanting more, which seems greedy after almost 40 years of blissful marriage to Harold, but she tells herself a mere “flirtation” can do no harm.

That day, Allan takes her on a whirlwind tour of London, ending with dinner at a fancy Indian restaurant, where Allan confesses that the gummy he gave her was not melatonin but cannabis. He says the other gummies in the vial he gave her are all melatonin, but he brought the cannabis gummy to take on the plane, since it’s illegal to bring into the UK. He gave her the gummy because he thought she needed its calming effect more than he did.

Initially shocked that he drugged her without her knowledge, Mrs. Blossom quickly forgives him, reasoning that he meant well. She tells him that she worked as a “private detective” in Baltimore, a slight exaggeration, since she actually did surveillance for a private investigator. She excelled at surveillance work, she says, because she’s “invisible,” like “most women” her age. Allan disagrees and asks if he can keep in touch, perhaps even have dinner with her later that month at a Baltimore bistro he knows. Mrs. Blossom happily agrees.

That night, Allan asks to share a “nightcap” in her room. To her surprise and delight, he kisses her passionately. Mrs. Blossom realizes how much she has missed physical intimacy after going without it for 10 years. Going into the bathroom to change, she feels groggy from the alcohol she drank that day and Allan’s intoxicating kisses. Deciding she doesn’t need a sleep aid, she drops the salmon-colored gummies he gave her into a secret compartment of her pillbox, so as not to risk detection by customs officers in case Allan accidentally included another cannabis edible among them. Also in the compartment is her prized possession: a pair of diamond studs, a gift from Harold on their 20th anniversary.

Allan stays with her until she falls asleep, but they don’t have sex. Though gratifying, her desire for Allan is mingled with guilt: Highly sexed in her youth, she married the “exemplary” Harold partly as a safeguard against her own desires, and now her attraction to another man feels almost like a betrayal.

On the Chunnel train the next day, Mrs. Blossom notices a man in his forties, staring at her. Guiltily, she wonders if he has somehow intuited her sexual attraction to Allan. The strangeness of her vacation reminds her of how miraculously it all began, with her chance discovery of a lost lottery ticket in a convenience store parking lot. Incredibly, it turned out to be worth $8.75 million, and after several failed attempts to find the true owner, she cashed it in, choosing the lump sum over annuities. It was a timely windfall, as her daughter’s family was moving to Japan, ending Mrs. Blossom’s living arrangement with them in Arizona. She bought a luxurious apartment in Baltimore with plenty of money left over.

Arriving a day late at her hotel in Paris, she checks her watch and remembers that Allan set it to Paris time for her. Realizing that London is an hour behind and she could have made her connecting flight after all, she tells herself that Allan must have forgotten this detail. Leaving the hotel, she sees a man who she thinks is Allan—same silver-gray hair—but when he fails to turn at her call, she assumes she was mistaken. Then, in a nearby restaurant, she notices a man whose plaid suit and tortoiseshell glasses look familiar: It’s the man who was staring at her on the Chunnel train.

Unsure whether his presence is a coincidence, Mrs. Blossom confronts him. The man evades her questions but finally smiles at her and suggests they dine together. He introduces himself as Danny Johnson and remarks on the coincidence of her coming from Baltimore, as his alma mater is the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). He says that he is on vacation and was just in London to catch up on the new musicals in the West End. Hearing this and noticing his “impossibly perfect” clothing and carefully groomed eyebrows, Mrs. Blossom wonders to herself if he might be gay.

Danny eases the awkwardness of their conversation by telling her about himself: His mother was British, and his father was Pakistani. He then offers his unsolicited opinion of her clothes, advising her to buy a new wardrobe, preferably some “beautiful caftans.” Claiming to be a professional stylist, Danny says Mrs. Blossom’s clothes are “antifashion,” as if she’s trying to look like “nothing.” As he escorts her back to her hotel, he adds that he’d like to take her shopping in Paris.

As she enters the hotel, however, waiting police officers tell her that Allan Turner has just died. Apparently, he fell from the balcony of his Paris hotel. They want to know why Allan texted a photo of her, along with her name and the address of her hotel, to an unknown party. Crushed by the news of his death, Mrs. Blossom cannot explain the photo or why he changed his plans and came to Paris without telling her. The police show her the mystifying message he sent along with her photo: “A very nice lady, she has your eyes” (44).

Concerned for her safety, the police accompany Mrs. Blossom up to her hotel room. Danny tags along, taking the opportunity to critique her travel clothes. When the police demand to know who he is, Danny lies that he’s Mrs. Blossom’s son. Too shocked to contradict him, she doesn’t object to his coming with her when she identifies Allan’s body.

Once they’re alone, Danny explains smoothly that he wanted to stay close to her for her own good, in case the police tried to treat her like a suspect; son was the only relationship the police might believe. Though Mrs. Blossom believes that Allan’s death was an accident, Danny suggests that he might have been trying to use her as a “mule” to smuggle something out of the US. She is forced to admit that Allan visited her London hotel room for a nightcap and stayed until she fell asleep, but this is a “tender memory” that she refuses to let Danny tarnish with his suspicions. She says that if Allan slipped something into her luggage, she’d have discovered it while unpacking. Danny counters that Allan (or someone else) might already have broken in and removed it while she was at dinner. Offering to “start over” with her, Danny urges her to accept his services as a stylist, but Mrs. Blossom doesn’t quite trust him and gives him no firm answer.