A Darcy Sweet Mystery Box Set Five

by K. J. Emrick

  “Fancy car,” Ellen said with a whistle. “Wouldn’t mind having one of these myself. Of course, I’d have to give up my Fiero. Don’t think I could do that.”

  “Maybe when Connor’s old enough you can buy him one,” Darcy suggested, her mood still sour.

  Ellen breathed out a soft laugh. “That’s going to be real soon, too. Thing is, Connor’s a bit more level headed than his mom. He’ll probably get himself something safe and sensible. Like a Prius. Or a Yugo.”

  Darcy knew better. Connor wasn’t as ready to take risks as his mother was, sure, but he was more like Ellen than she cared to admit. “I doubt you’d let Connor drive a Prius.”

  A mischievous grin turned up the one corner of Ellen’s mouth. “I’m thinking… motorcycle.”

  “Wilson,” they heard Kara say, “come take a look at this.”

  She was kneeling down on the other side of the Jaguar, by the front wheel. The rest of them came around to see what she meant and found her crouched down, feeling her hands over the fender.

  Darcy was disappointed. Again. She was still looking for damage, or blue paint transferred over from Jon’s car in the accident. The car looked fine, from bumper to bumper.

  “What is it?” Shane asked, kneeling down beside her. “What do you see, partner?”

  Wilson joined them. “I don’t see anything.”

  “You have to know what to look for,” Kara said, patiently pointing to several spots on the fender. “My dad was a mechanic. I’m kind of a car girl, myself.”

  “Ain’t that the truth,” Shane teased.

  Kara shot him a glance but chose to ignore his little quip. “Look here, and here. This metal’s been beaten back into shape. It’s a quality job, but they obviously didn’t have much time to do the work. The paint job’s been redone, too. See?”

  She turned to Shane when she asked the question, but he just squinted at the frame around the wheel and shook his head.

  Kara sighed. “Thought I taught you better than that.”

  “Guess we need more lessons.”

  He made very sure not to look at Kara when he said it, but Darcy could feel the chemistry between them from where she was standing.

  Wilson cleared his throat. “Kara, why don’t you just tell us what we’re looking at?”

  “Uh, sure. It’s the color. They did a good job of matching it, but unless you get automobile paint directly from the manufacturer’s supply, it’s never exactly the same. This whole section was redone.”

  “So,” Wilson summarized, “the frame has been repaired here, and repainted.”

  “Exactly,” Kara agreed, wiping her hands together and standing up, along with Shane. “This car’s been in an accident. Recently.”

  Wilson turned to Darcy with a determined look. “Well, well. Looks like we have probable cause to ask Adolphos Carino more questions after all.”

  Darcy’s hopes had been up and down so much today that she didn’t dare believe they had finally found something real. Evidence. As they turned around and went back into the Brick Road casino, her heart began to beat faster.

  In a way, they were still no closer to answering this mystery than they had been five minutes ago. Without some sort of admission of guilt from Adolphos, all they had were their suspicions.

  That, and a reason to have his car impounded. It was a start.

  The place was just as busy as it had been before. Darcy knew the constant noise of it would drive her insane. How could anyone think straight with the constant racket of voices and the chatter of plastic chips and the ding-ding-ding of electronic machines? Maybe that was the point. If no one could think clearly among all the noise and flash, then they wouldn’t know when to quit throwing their money away.

  At the registration desk, the girl with the piled-high hairdo looked surprised to see them. She blinked, and stared, and then picked up a phone from the desk. She spoke to someone on the other end while keeping her eyes on Darcy and the others.

  “I don’t think they were expecting us,” Wilson commented. “Let’s get to Adolphos’s office quick, before—”

  “Excuse me, folks.” Two men had stepped up behind them, seemingly out of nowhere, wearing black suits and straight black ties.

  “Before security shows up,” Wilson finished, turning around to face the two men. Obviously, this had been who the front desk employee had just called.

  Their sunglasses would have looked out of place, indoors like this, if it weren’t for the bright lights all around them. Even if Wilson hadn’t said they were security, Darcy would have known what their jobs were from the coiled white wires trailing from their earpieces down into the stiff collars of their suitcoats.

  Ellen grumbled under her breath and turned away as Wilson started a polite conversation with the two casino security staffers about how this was a public establishment, and he and all his friends were members of the public, and so they had every right to be here.

  “On any other day,” the taller of the security men answered back, “you’d be right, sir. Today you’ve got two problems.”

  Wilson folded his arms and stood his ground. “Oh? What two things would that be, Mister… Oliver?” he asked, reading the man’s nametag.

  “Well, sir. For one, you aren’t just the public. You’re a police officer.”

  “Our reputation precedes us,” Kara mumbled.

  “And two,” Oliver went on without missing a beat, “our boss has decided you aren’t welcome back inside the Brick Road today.”

  Ellen leaned in closer to Darcy. “This is wasting time. Think we can sneak off without them noticing?”

  Darcy turned around so she could whisper back. There was no way they could get any further without the two casino watchdogs standing right there. “I think…”

  She trailed off as her eyes found Adolphos walking through the crowds over by the blackjack tables.

  “I think we won’t have to sneak anywhere,” she said, before raising her voice to shout. “Mister Carino! We wanted to ask you a few more questions. It’s about your car!”

  They couldn’t just let him walk away. They still needed something from him. They needed an admission of guilt.

  Everyone around them stopped, and then like a giant flash mob they all turned to look at Adolphos. Relative silence descended.

  His gaze found Darcy’s. His eyes were full of hate.

  Then he turned, and ran through a doorway into another section of the casino.

  Running away. That was a pretty good admission of guilt in Darcy’s book.

  Ellen immediately dashed after him. It took Darcy a heartbeat more but then she was following after. The security guards were yelling. She didn’t care. Jon and Grace were on her mind. She wasn’t going to let them down.

  Behind her, she heard Wilson. “Don’t worry, I’ll get them! Shane, Kara, stay here.”

  Smart man, Darcy thought with a smile. He’d just given himself an excuse to come after Adolphos with them, and at the same time made sure that the security people had to stay at the front desk to watch Shane and Kara.

  He really had learned a lot from Jon.

  Rounding the corner Darcy saw Ellen shoulder her weight into Adolphos from behind, knocking the man sideways into a female casino employee carrying a tray of drinks. She yelped and stumbled backward and the drinks spilled all over Adolphos but he kept his footing and kept running.

  The crowd closed in to stare after the chase, blocking Darcy’s path. She had to push her way through them and after she had, she only caught a glimpse of Ellen’s tight, ripped jeans and her bouncing honey-blonde curls. Adolphos was gone. She had to trust that Ellen still had eyes on their target.

  A chase through the inside of a building. Of everything Darcy had done in her life, this might just be a first.

  Patrons stared at her and tried to keep out of their way as she ran through doorways and around gaming tables, and then through a doorway marked “STAIRS.”

  Darcy was still well behind Ellen. At t
he bottom of the stairway she looked up the four flights. She could hear the echoing slap of footsteps above her, and she started to follow.

  Then the sound of it stopped.

  Darcy hesitated. Behind her, Wilson Barton entered through the still open stairway door. He asked her where Ellen was, and Darcy pointed up with an unspoken question.

  A flash of déjà vu caught Darcy, taking her back to a different time when she and Wilson had stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at a killer. A familiar sense of foreboding sparked deep within her core. Something bad was about to happen. She knew it with the certainty born from her sixth sense.

  Ellen’s face appeared over the railing. Darcy relaxed. Maybe her sixth sense had been wrong this time.

  Then Adolphos appeared behind her and Darcy realized that he had Ellen’s arm held painfully behind her back. Something metallic flashed at her throat. It took Darcy a moment to understand what it was. Wilson caught on first.

  “He’s got a knife,” he said, pointing out what was now obvious as he started up the first few stairs, pushing Darcy back to keep her safe.

  “Uh, uh!” Adolphos called down to them. “That is most definitely far enough. You are trespassing, Detective. As are you, Miss Sweet,” he added with a decidedly unfriendly edge to his voice.

  Darcy took a single step up, despite Wilson urging her to stay back.

  When Adolphos pushed the knife tighter against Ellen’s throat, Darcy stopped. So did Wilson.

  “Far enough, I said!” Adolphos’ voice was tense. “Now. You are trespassing, and you’re going to leave.”

  “And give you time to run and hide?” Darcy snapped at him.

  “I excel at hiding, Miss Sweet. You should know that. I survive. I told you that last time we met. Even if you arrested me for attacking Jon and your poor sister, I’d find a way to work the situation to my advantage, because I always survive.”

  “Then why don’t you come on down?” Wilson asked him. “We’ll arrest you and see what happens.”

  “Uh, no. I’m afraid not, Detective. I don’t want to spend any more time in jail than I have to, after all. Now. Here’s my deal for you. I will let this woman go, although I know some people who would pay a lot of coin to me if I could deliver her to them. Mmm. Very tempting.”

  His body moved in closer to Ellen’s when he said it, and her face twisted with disgust. Adolphos seemed to enjoy her reaction.

  “After I let her go,” he said, “the three of you will leave, and you will take the other two out there with you.”

  “Can’t do that,” Wilson said, shaking his head, folding his arms behind his back like he planned on staying right here in this spot until the world came to an end around him.

  “Not only can you leave,” Adolphos threatened, “but you will. I am entirely within my rights to kick you off this property!”

  “Well, you were,” Wilson agreed, pursing his lips in that way he had when he was being nice, but not really. “But then you threatened a woman with a knife. Now I have to arrest you.”

  Adolphos laughed at that. “You have no jurisdiction here, Detective! Or did you forget that small detail?”

  “Again, you would have been right. If you hadn’t threatened to kidnap and hurt my friend Ellen here while holding a knife to her throat. That’s a crime, Mister Carino. Actually, it’s several different crimes, but let’s not argue that point. The thing is, a police officer has jurisdiction anywhere in this state when a crime’s being committed in front of them.”

  Darcy smiled as Adolphos’ eyes widened. He suddenly realized that he’d boxed himself into a corner, with nowhere to go.

  Rats were most dangerous when they were cornered.

  Darcy was well aware of that fact. Wilson was, too. As they saw Adolphos’ muscles tense, preparing to do something stupid, Wilson moved faster.

  His hands came around from his back, where they had slid the small revolver from its concealed holster. He aimed, and fired off one single round.

  The loud reverberation of the gunshot turned into a high-pitched squeal in Darcy’s ears. She’d heard guns go off before. She knew how loud they were. It would have been nice if Wilson had given her some warning so she could cover her ears. She knew there hadn’t been time. It just would have been nice.

  When she opened her eyes again from their involuntary flinch, Darcy saw that Ellen had turned the tables on Adolphos. Now, she was the one holding his arm behind his back. His other arm hung limp. Blood poured down his otherwise impeccable suit from the bullet hole through his shoulder.

  “Nice shot!” Darcy said. She knew she was shouting but she could only just barely hear herself over the ringing in her ears.

  “I’ve been practicing,” he told her.

  “Practicing to shoot people in their shoulders?”

  “Sure. I live in Misty Hollow.”

  They met Ellen on the higher landing of the stairway. Wilson took out a pair of handcuffs from a pouch next to the concealed holster and put them in place around Adolphos’ wrists. He put them on gently, because of the shoulder wound, but Adolphos still winced and cried out in pain.

  So did Darcy.

  Below, the door to the stairs swung open again. Shane and Kara burst in, followed by the two security men. Kara had her gun out. Ellen hung her arms off the railing and waved down at them. “Hiya guys. What took you so long?”

  Shane blocked the security guards from going up to help their boss with his body and threats of being arrested right along with Adolphos.

  Kara, on the other hand, came running up the stairs, putting her gun away when she saw that things were under control. “What happened?” she asked.

  “Long story.” Wilson stood Adolphos up. “For now, we need to take Mister Carino here into custody and turn him over to the State Police. Looks like we’ve got our guy, after all. Attempted murder. Two counts.”

  Adolphos laughed, and then winced, and then laughed again. Thin strands of his hair fell forward across his balding scalp to hang loose across his forehead. “I don’t know what it is with you people from Misty Hollow. Every time I am forced to deal with you, I end up in handcuffs!”

  Darcy glared at him in utter contempt. “Then maybe you should learn to stay away from our people!”

  His eyes met hers in defiance. “Your people, Darcy Sweet? Your petty little townsfolk are nothing compared to my people. The Hand, Miss Sweet. You remember them, don’t you?”

  Wilson cranked Adolphos’ arm, just a bit, and the man hissed between his teeth. “That’s enough.”

  “No, by God,” Adolphos nearly screamed. “It’s not! You do what you want with me, Detective. You’re already too late.”

  Everyone stopped at that. Darcy only half noticed that Mister Oliver and the other security man had disappeared. Maybe they didn’t want anything to do with their boss being arrested for attempted murder, or maybe they were leaving to go make a call to The Hand.

  Too late, Adolphos said.

  There wasn’t much time. Darcy felt it in every bit of her being.

  “A shame I won’t be there to take care of the last bit myself,” Adolphos said, the pain in his arm beginning to make him shake. “Then again, what’s the sense of being part of a group if you can’t reach out for help now and again?”

  “What are you talking about?” Wilson asked him, anxiously. “What’s going to happen? What did you do?”

  Adolphos lifted his bound hands with a twinge of pain etched across his face, and wagged a finger in front of his lips. He wasn’t going to say any more.

  But what he had said already…

  Pay attention to what she’d already seen…

  That’s what Aunt Millie had told her to do. So…

  Two people already hurt by this man. Jon and Grace. For Adolphos to take a personal interest in those two, there had to be something linking them together. The only thing Jon and Grace and this madman had in common was the incident years ago with Izzy…

  And Adolphos had said he
was keeping tabs on his old friends in Misty Hollow.

  Izzy.

  Adolphos was going after Izzy!

  Darcy’s heart was hammering so fast that she couldn’t do anything more than stand and watch for several long seconds that seemed to stretch out forever.

  Darcy’s daughter… Colby was with Izzy.

  There wasn’t much time…

  Wilson and Shane were still trying to get Adolphos to talk. It wasn’t working, and they were going to have to get the man to a hospital soon to take care of that wound. The same hospital that Jon was in, most likely. Darcy soured at the thought of having to help him now. If Wilson decided to dangle Adolphos by his toes until he talked she wouldn’t argue. No. Adolphos might handle things that way, but Wilson would never go to those lengths to make a man talk.

  He wouldn’t have to.

  “It’s all right,” Darcy told him. “Take this… slime to the hospital. I know what he’s talking about.”

  “Darcy?” Ellen asked uncertainly.

  She shook her head, tears starting to streak from the corners of her eyes. “Wilson, you’ll need to call the department. Send them to Izzy’s house. Send them now.”

  Chapter 11

  The drive back to Misty Hollow was the slowest ride she’d ever taken in her life. For once, she didn’t complain when Ellen broke every speed law known to man.

  Darcy was beating herself up inside. She’d been wrong about the motive behind the attacks on Jon and Grace. It wasn’t just revenge. It wasn’t that simple. There was something more going on here. Now Adolphos’ people were going after Izzy.

  And Colby was with her.

  The thought of her little girl in danger plagued her the whole way there. She tried really hard not to let fear turn her into a hysterical, sobbing ball of tears in the passenger seat. It didn’t help that when Ellen tried to call Izzy there wasn’t any answer.

  Then Wilson called, and he told them that his officers in Misty Hollow had gone directly to Izzy’s house. Only, no one was there.