Short Story Summary

The story begins with Mary Maloney eagerly awaiting her husband Patrick, a police officer, to arrive home from work. When Patrick arrives home, Mrs. Maloney observes that he is exhausted. She offers to make him dinner, but he refuses dinner from his pregnant wife. Instead of letting her cook he informs her that he has plans to leave her. Mrs. Maloney ignores him and continues to cook dinner. When Mr. Maloney informs her he is going out she grabs the leg of lamb from the basement. Then she proceeds upstairs and hits him over the head to his death. She then realized the severity and permanence of her actions and covered up the crime scene. She throws the lamb in the oven, and then goes to her grocery store to restock on vegetables. When Mrs. Maloney comes home she “finds” her husband dead and calls 9-1-1. Shortly after the call, detectives are exhausted from investigating, and Mary insists they stay for dinner. The detectives then discuss where the murder weapon could be over their lamb dinner. One cop mentions that the weapon is probably right under their nose and Mary proceeds to giggle.

Persistence Connection

Mary Maloney is very persistent in covering up the fact that she murdered Patrick Maloney, her husband. Mrs. Maloney knows she needs a solid alibi for the time of the murder. After the murder she told a grocery store cashier that “Patrick's decided he's tired and doesn't want to eat out tonight," even though "[they] usually go out Thursdays, … and now he's caught [her] without any vegetables in the house" (4).  Before she went to the grocery store she rehearsed her alibi many times to sound believable. She knew if she talked to someone about her husband and why they did not go out to eat that evening she would have a solid alibi for the time of his murder. Mrs. Maloney murdered her husband with a club of lamb. She knew that she had to get rid of the murder weapon so she fed it to the detectives investigating Mr. Maloney's murder she heard “their voices thick and sloppy because their mouths were full of meat.” (8) Right before Mrs. Maloney went to the store she threw the leg of lamb in the oven. She is the wife of a detective and she knew a creative way to make sure the detectives never found the murder weapon. When the detectives were tired and began to be hungry Mrs. Maloney came to the rescue with a lamb prepared just in time. Most people would be devastated and in shock of their spouse's death but she is persistent and thinks logically to make sure she gets away with it.