by K. J. Emrick
“No, I can tell. I can see it in your eyes. You knew! Darcy, how could you not tell me this? Addison’s my daughter!”
“Shh,” Darcy said, knowing how that must sound to Grace but knowing, too, that they did not want to start talking about how the family could see and talk to ghosts where other people might hear them. Even if it was just Izzy out there in the bookstore. “Look, Grace… yes, I knew that there was a little spark of the gift in Addison. I didn’t know if it was ever going to be more than that. So I waited.”
“For what?? To see if she started doubling over and foaming at the mouth while her eyes rolled back in her head?”
Darcy glared at her. “You’re thinking of Linda Blair in the Exorcist. Have you ever once, in your whole entire life, ever seen me foam at the mouth?”
“You know what I mean!” Grace shouted, not even pretending to care if her voice carried outside the door. “This is my daughter I’m talking about and you should have told me.”
“Okay, okay Grace,” Darcy said, trying to keep this from becoming an all-out argument. “Look, we were going to have a dinner together sometime this week anyway, right? Why don’t you come over tomorrow night? Now that there’s been an arrest in the arson case things should calm down, right? You can let the uniformed officers and Wilson take care of the town for a night. What do you say?”
Grace glared at her. The moment stretched, and Darcy was sure that she saw something else behind her sister’s anger. Her intuition was telling her there was more to this than what Grace had said. Maybe there had been more little incidents with Addison. Something that really upset Grace that she wasn’t ready to talk about yet. She knew to trust her feelings, and right now she felt that her sister wasn’t telling her everything.
Well. Family dinners were a great time for secrets to come out. Food and drink and conversation made everyone feel better. They could have their dinner together, and then Darcy could talk with Addison and see how deep her powers really did run. Colby might even be able to help her in that respect and if Grace saw that Colby was still a well-adjusted little girl even with her gift, then maybe she wouldn’t be so stressed about her own daughter.
Finally, Grace nodded, and got up from the couch. “Sounds good to me. All right. I guess we’d better find that Christmas tree base while we’re here, huh?”
“It’s right here,” Darcy said, reaching underneath the desk and pulling out the green and red metal tripod support. “I saw it on the way in.”
“Heh. That’s my sister. Not just another pretty face.”
“Aw,” Darcy joked. “You really think I’m pretty?”
“Sure. You take after me.”
That allowed them both to laugh, sister to sister, and for a moment the stress lines across Grace’s forehead eased up.
Darcy opened up the office door to find Izzy talking with someone. Probably not a customer, considering the way they were both leaning into each other across the sales counter and whispering. Were they talking about her and Grace, she wondered? They hadn’t been very quiet with their conversation, in spite of Darcy’s warnings. Sisters were like that sometimes. The anxious looks on their faces told her it was something else though.
Besides, she knew the other person standing there. She doubted very much that Helen Turner, her good friend and the town’s mayor, would ever gossip about her.
She might already be in her sixties but Helen had the energy of a woman half that age. Sure, her hair in its ponytail was gray and there were worry lines around her eyes but there were laugh lines around her mouth, too, and she always carried herself with the bearing of a woman in charge. She was the mayor of Misty Hollow, after all, and that meant learning to dodge the things that life threw at you. If Helen had been dodging more than most women her age then it had only served to make her stronger.
“Hi, Helen!” Darcy was glad her friend had come to see her. The way things were stacking up she wasn’t sure when they would have found time to get together otherwise. “Um. I’m guessing that you told Izzy about everything that happened?”
“Pastor Phin got arrested?” Izzy asked incredulously. “I can’t believe it!”
“I was going to tell you,” Darcy told her sheepishly. “I really was, but I got sidetracked with Grace. I’m sorry.”
“That’s all right.” Izzy shrugged. “It sounded like there’s a lot going on.”
She intentionally didn’t look at Grace when she said it. Grace intentionally didn’t look at anyone.
Helen broke the silence. “It really is hard to believe that a man like Pastor Phin would have done something like this. He was always such a quiet man. Always there for the community. Do you suppose he was trying to make up for the things in his past? But then, why burn down the bakery? That’s what I don’t understand. I just don’t understand.”
Darcy didn’t get it, either. “He wasn’t talking much by the time Jon got around to that question.”
Her gift could only show her there was guilt on Phin’s conscience. He’d done something in his past that had tainted his soul, and she saw the blood on his hands. But her gift couldn’t tell her why he did the things. There had to be a reason.
What was it?
“My bakery…” A choking gasp broke off the rest of Helen’s sentence. She had to take a moment to compose herself before she could continue. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I just put so much of my life into that business and I thought that when we sold it that it was going to be in good hands. I never in my wildest dreams ever thought that I would be standing here today looking at a ruin that used to be my life. I can see right inside those broken windows at all the damage. Oh, Darcy, when I think back to all the memories that were made in my store, and now it’s all gone, and I just want to sit down and cry!”
Darcy wanted to cry with her. The bakery was more than just a building. It had been a centerpiece of the town where everyone could meet and relax and just take a moment out of their day to enjoy good coffee and delicious treats and the warm smile that Helen always had for everyone. She went around the sales counter and hugged Helen, not caring that customers might come in to find them crying and carrying on like this because this was what friends did for each other.
“Oh, I’m such a mess!” Helen said after a moment. She laughed at herself and stepped back from Darcy to blot at her eyes with the corner of her sleeve. “It’s not just the bakery either, but there’s the mess that Elizabeth Archer is in, and Phin, and I just heard about Bobbi Jo Cameron being arrested, too… what sort of a Christmas is this turning out to be?”
“What was Bobbi Jo arrested for?” Izzy asked, and Darcy realized that there was another bit of town gossip that she’d forgotten to tell her friend about. She was going to have to start keeping notes.
It was a long conversation that finally shared the knowledge that everyone had about all the things that were going on. The arrests of Bobbi Jo and Phineas. Elizabeth Archer’s troubles. Darcy alluded to there being another suspect they were looking for although she didn’t mention the man’s name or his association with The Hand. Grace knew about that, of course, but Izzy didn’t, and from the way Helen listened to the story it was obvious she didn’t, either.
“It’s the same with that Iroc that you saw on the street, Izzy,” Grace said, sipping at a cup of coffee from the drink station. Darcy had started unfurling the tree, with Izzy’s help, and with a last tug the burlap wrapping came away and branches fluffed out. “Hey, nice tree.”
“Thanks,” Izzy smiled. “When Tom heard what I wanted it for he found me one from the special stock he’s saving at the back of the store. Nice man, Tom. Anyway… what about the Iroc?”
“We can’t find it.” Grace shrugged, and set her coffee aside on the table where she sat. “There’s exactly four blue Irocs registered in our state and each one of them has been accounted for by the police departments in their areas. So we’re nowhere with that. I’m going to try looking… I mean, I have another idea. I can’t say much. Police business, and w
hatever.”
“Oh, well. Like I said, it wasn’t really doing anything suspicious. It was just driving away while the fire was burning. That’s all. I guess it doesn’t matter now that Phin has been arrested, right?”
“Uh, yeah,” Grace said. “Right. So I’ll see you guys later. Darcy, I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m off to work. Hi ho, hi ho, and all that.”
The cold air filtered inside as she left. Darcy felt a breeze caress her cheeks. To her, it smelled like a storm was coming.
“This is a beautiful tree,” Helen said, agreeing with everyone’s opinion. She spread out the branches with Izzy as Darcy screwed the supports on the base into place to keep the trunk straight. “I’d like to be the first to put a present under it. Do you need anything with the gift? A description of what’s in it, whether it’s for a boy or a girl, or anything like that?”
“Yes, that’s it exactly,” Darcy told her. “Just write it on the gift tag and then we can—”
The door to the store flew open in a way that made them all turn their heads. Grace was there again, her expression back to its usual bleak mask. “Darcy, you’re going to want to see this. Helen, Izzy, you guys too.”
The three of them grabbed their coats and rushed out after Grace. Down the street they could see a crowd gathered in front of the ruined bakery. It suddenly occurred to Darcy why there hadn’t been many other customers in the bookstore this morning. They were all up there watching a news crew filming in front of the fire-blackened brick building.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Darcy muttered under her breath. She knew the two people standing in front of the cameraman.
One was Tobias Ford, tall and impressive in a long black wool coat, talking loudly and gesturing angrily. His bald head furrowed with every word. Darcy had the sinking feeling that she knew what he was saying even if she was too far away to hear him.
Beside him, holding a microphone like she was born with one in her hand, was television reporter extraordinaire Brianna Watson.
She was without her usual trenchcoat today, standing out in the cold and snow in just her pantsuit and blousy red top that nicely complimented her long brunette hair. She was dressing for the camera, not the weather. Ever since Darcy had known her she’d been a strikingly beautiful woman, her makeup done just so with lipstick and rouge and eyeshadow that had no doubt been tested for its visual affect with real studio audiences. The way the corner of her lips were set in a permanent curl made it look like she was eagerly hanging off every word that Tobias said.
“Now I know why he was gone yesterday.” Darcy was already walking up toward the crowds with Grace. Helen followed with Izzy. “He went to find a news reporter to listen to him shoot his mouth off.”
“Yup,” Grace agreed. “Great men do great things. Little men have inferiority complexes. Aaron doesn’t have that issue, in case you were wondering.”
“Grace!” Darcy was shocked, even as she giggled at the off-color in that comment. Jon didn’t have that particular problem either, she reminded herself, bumping her shoulder against her sister’s. “We can compare husbands later. For now, let’s go see what Brianna is up to this time.”
There were still hard feelings on the part of Darcy and her friends toward Brianna Watson. Izzy knew better than Darcy did, from an incident with Connor and Lilly a few years ago, but Brianna Watson had always been all about Brianna Watson. The only thing she cared about was what made her look good. She’d staked her career on it, working her way up from a newspaper byline to one of the best-known television personalities in the state.
Before they got to the crowd watching news in the making Tobias saw them approaching, and the next thing she knew, Darcy was the center of everyone’s attention.
How did these things always happen?
“There she is!” He advanced on Darcy through the crowds, arm outstretched, finger pointed. “That’s the woman who destroyed my business. She was so jealous of how well I was doing that she had to come and burn down my place!”
Brianna waved for the cameraman to stay on Tobias as she ran in her chunky-heeled pumps alongside him. There was a hungry look in her eyes. She could smell the story unfolding and she was here to gobble it up and spit it back out for her audience.
“You burned my place down,” Tobias insisted. Grace intervened, holding the much bigger man back just by standing in his way. Hard to imagine this ex-football player being stopped midstride by someone so much smaller, like Grace, but Darcy knew her sister could be more intimidating than an entire wall of rushing linebackers all by herself. “Darcy Sweet. That woman, right there!”
“Don’t be a moron,” Grace said to him. “Now step back before you get yourself arrested.”
Darcy would have chosen a much politer way to say it, but for once she appreciated Grace’s directness. Tobias looked like he was out to get his pound of flesh.
“Darcy Sweet,” Brianna said with a wide smile that showed off recently whitened teeth, “how do you respond to the accusations that Tobias Ford has been making this morning? Did you have anything to do with burning down The Bean There Bakery and Café?”
The microphone was stretched out toward her, and the camera was centered on her face, but Brianna smartly stayed on the other side of Grace’s imaginary line in the snow.
Darcy looked into the camera and didn’t flinch. “Tobias has been accusing me of burning down his shop, has he? All morning long?”
“That’s right!” Tobias would not ease up. “You were jealous that I bought your friend’s bakery. You wouldn’t even accept my simple business offer when I came to you with it. You threw me out of your little bookstore over there and then you waited for me to be gone before you burned down my store!”
Brianna jumped right in a split-second later before Darcy even had a chance to answer that ridiculous accusation. “Darcy,” she said, “I see the mayor is here with you today, along with one of the senior officers of the Misty Hollow Police Department. Do any of you have a statement for my viewers at home? What do you say about the accusations by Tobias Ford that you burned down his bakery?”
“I say,” Darcy said with a sweet little smile, “that Tobias should pay more attention to the town he claims to love so much. The police department here in Misty Hollow arrested a man for the arson not two hours ago.”
Tobias went perfectly still, his mouth hanging open, ready to throw out more insults that instead died in his throat. His finger wavered in the air.
“I’d also like to ask him,” Darcy continued, “if he recently took out any big insurance policies on his building?”
The camera swiveled, and now the focus was on Tobias.
It was a page out of Jon’s playbook, a total shot in the dark asking a question they knew had to be true even though they had no proof of it. Tobias’ eyes went wide, and he clamped his jaw closed tight. “I got nothing to say to this woman.”
Grace stared him down. “Darcy didn’t do anything to you, Tobias. We’ve got the man who burned your store down behind bars right now, being questioned before formal charges are laid. You’re welcome.”
Brianna’s eyes sparkled as she followed the conversation back and forth. The mention of a suspect under arrest would be just what her story needed. Darcy could feel how she was chomping at the bit to wrap things up here and get down to the police station where the real story was unfolding. No doubt about it.
On the other hand, Tobias looked like he just wanted to disappear. He’d been accusing the wrong person this whole time and now, live on a popular television news program, he’d been made out to look like a fool because of it. That question about him taking out an insurance policy just before the bakery burned down hadn’t settled right with him, either. Darcy’s instincts went into overdrive. There was definitely more to this mystery.
“Tell you what,” Helen said, stepping up to stand beside Darcy on her right side and Izzy on her left. “Why don’t you come down to my office, Mister Ford? We can discuss my… I mean your b
akery and why you haven’t done anything to cover up the broken windows before the snow gets in and ruins everything. That would be the actions of a responsible business man. If he really cared about the business he was screaming about on a public street, that is. How much was that insurance policy for, anyway?”
Lightning flashed in Tobias’ brown eyes, but he had nothing to say.
“And… cut,” Brianna told her cameraman. “That’s perfect, Scott. Do me a solid and go get some more exterior shots of the bakery. It’s going to make for great television with it all broke up like that. Then we’re heading down to the police station. Mister Ford, you were spectacular, great stuff, watch for your piece on the six o’clock news tonight. We’ll be in touch.”
She turned her back on Tobias like he didn’t even exist anymore. Darcy was sure that in the world of Brianna Watson he didn’t. He’d served his purpose. Instead she clapped her hands dramatically as she sidestepped Grace to get closer to Darcy. “You,” she said gleefully. “You always bring me the very best news stories. I swear to you I’m going to convince the executives at my network to let me put in a branch office right here in Misty Hollow. Maybe right here on Main Street. Know any good places?”
“Brianna, I really don’t want to talk to you right now.”
“Oh, come on, Darcy.” Brianna rubbed her hands up and down her arms to warm them in the cold air. “You know I love you. Every story I’ve ever done you’ve always come out smelling like a rose, haven’t you?”
“If you say so.”
Helen squeezed her arm. “I really have to get back to work, Darcy. There’s a problem with the stage for the winter pageant and our usual Santa Claus has the flu. Too many fires to put out, too little time. You going to be okay here?”
“I should get back to the bookstore too,” Izzy said. “Some of this crowd is filtering that way. Guess having Tobias scream about it on the news is going to be a boost for business.”
“See?” Brianna insisted. “I’m good for you, Darcy. Always have been. You and me are a good team. Scott! Bring my jacket!”
