her not to fix him any supper because he was going out.  Mary felt nauseated. Without much thought,  Mary picked up the large frozen leg of lamb, hit Patrick on the head, and killed him. 

Why did Mary go ahead and make supper?

Mary ran the possibilities through her mind of what might happen to her.  She was not going to be punished for this crime. She decided to put the meat in the oven.  Needing to make an alibi, Mary went to the local grocery store to get peas and potatoes and tell Sam, the grocer, what she was doing. 

When she returned to the apartment, Mary acted like she knew nothing; then, she spotted her husband on the floor and called the police telling them that she found her husband dead when she returned from the grocery store.

Playing the part of a bereaved and devastated wife, Mary gave a great performance.  The police investigated with two detectives, a photographer, and the doctor.   They asked her many questions but treated her with respect.   

After searching the apartment, the primary detective told Mary that her husband had been killed by a blow to the head with a heavy blunt instrument.  They looked everywhere in the apartment for a possible weapon.

“It’s the old story,” he said. “Get the weapon, and you’ve got the man.”  They did not have any heavy metal vases, she said.

One of the policeman reminded Mary that her meat was still in the oven cooking. Mary asked the detectives and policemen if they would do her a small favor.

“We can try.” “Well, here you all are…Patrick would never forgive me, God bless his soul…Why don’t you eat up that lamb that’s in the oven?” As they ate the leg of lamb, the woman [Mary] stayed where she was, listening…their voices thick and sloppy because their mouths were full of meat.

As they ate, the policemen discussed what kind of weapon could have been used to kill Patrick Maloney.  Mary giggled.

Mary provided the meal for the policemen for two reasons: to show that she had been preparing a meal for her husband which was part of her alibi; and to get rid of the weapon so that nothing could ever be proven about her killing her husband.  What a clever woman!

Irony

The irony comes in to play because the reader knows about the lamb being used to kill the husband.  Thus, the eating of the weapon is dramatically ironic and sardonically funny.  The situational irony comes from the use of the leg of lamb to kill her husband.  This was supposed to be enjoyed as a family meal; instead, it is used as a murder weapon.

Mary Maloney has done the unthinkable because she has faced unthinkable circumstances. After eagerly awaiting her husband's return home from work, she has endured the realization that he plans to leave her. Even worse, he asks her not to make a big "fuss" about his decision, as that wouldn't be good for his job. Mary is dazed and tries to continue with their typical evening routine, insisting that she should make dinner for Patrick anyway. Her husband then insults her once more, chiding her for her efforts and telling her that he is "going out," presumably to meet the woman he is leaving her for.

This is too much. Mary takes the leg of lamb that she had planned for Patrick's dinner and swings it down on his head, killing him in a single blow. But this creates a new complication. Mary is six months pregnant and doesn't want to face the death penalty as a pregnant woman; therefore, she needs a quick alibi.

Mary goes shopping, making sure to have conversations along the way that will place her outside the home at the time of Patrick's death. She calmly purchases things she will need for dinner and then returns home with her purchases. Once there, she makes a phone call to report Patrick's death, which she claims happened while she wasn't home.

As the detectives arrive, Mary still needs to get rid of the murder weapon—that leg of lamb. So she insists on being a gracious hostess to this house full of Patrick's coworkers and prepares food for them as they complete their work. In the end, the detectives cannot find the murder weapon, because Mary has fed it to them.

At first, the reader thinks that perhaps Mary continues with the dinner plan out of shock at the murder she has just committed.  Or perhaps she does so because she simply doesn't know what else to do.  While her crime was one of passion--she killed her husband when he said he was going to leave her, in the middle of her pregnancy--she still cried genuine tears for his death, as she knows she loved him at one time.

As the story develops, it seems Mary has a pretty good idea what she is doing. She goes to the grocery and buys extras for the dinner, including dessert, so she might be cooking the dinner anyway so that she has an alibi for the crime.  She also cooks dinner since dinner was the leg of lamb she hit her husband over the head with.  That is, she is getting rid of the murder weapon in the perfect way.  To add to the irony, the police detectives in her home eat the leg of lamb Mary has cooked, helping her to get rid of it.