K.J. Emrick - Darcy Sweet 13 - Ghost Story

by K. J. Emrick

  A few more turns brought them to a short side street where Helen’s sprawling two story mansion sat on three acres of land. Helen came from one of the founding families of Misty Hollow and the house and the land both had been passed down through the generations to her. Darcy’s family was one of the older families here, too. People tended to stay in Misty Hollow. It was just that kind of place.

  Helen put a lot of pride into her family home. Hedgerows marked the edges of the property line. Lower shrubs with purplish flowers budding all over them had been trimmed to evenly flat tops, and then behind those was a row of ones taller than Darcy that sprouted white blossoms. Flowers had been planted artistically in circular patterns up closer to the house in autumn colors of orange and yellow. In the middle of the lawn a ceramic birdbath jetted a fountain of water from its center. A little pretentious for Darcy, but very pretty.

  The house had been recently repainted a light blue with a white trim around the doors and windows. The last time Darcy had been here the whole thing had been white. After her husband had been arrested and sent to prison, Helen had apparently wanted a change. Somehow that little difference made coming here that much easier.

  “Hey, look who else is here,” Jon said to her, pointing at the driveway.

  A yellow sedan was parked up near the house. Darcy recognized it immediately as the one Grace and Aaron had only just bought. Darcy made fun of her sister for buying something so practical, but Grace had only growled at her and said she had to think of her baby now.

  “I didn’t realize Helen was inviting them, too.” Darcy wondered what Helen might have up her sleeve. She knew that she and her boyfriend Andrew Lansky had been dating for a few months now but she doubted they would have any big announcement to share. Not this soon. It was always possible that she had just wanted to have a get-together with friends, but just out of the blue like this?

  “I guess it’s going to be a real party.” Jon shrugged. “Maybe I should have worn something besides jeans.”

  “I like you in your jeans,” Darcy said as they parked behind Grace’s car. “I hardly ever get to see you dress down. Besides, I’m in my jeans too.”

  “Sure, but you look better in yours than I do in mine.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that,” Darcy said coyly. “Come on. We can ask my sister who looks better.”

  They were both laughing as they got out and went up to ring the front doorbell. Jon balanced the cake box in the crook of his left arm, and they waited.

  A middle aged man answered the door to them with a smile. His hair was dark and thick and Darcy was fairly certain that it was still its natural color. He was wearing a baker’s apron with the words “Bean There Bakery and Café” printed on the front, over a comfortable flannel shirt and dark blue slacks. Helen’s boyfriend seemed very comfortable in her house, Darcy thought to herself.

  “Hi there, guys,” Andrew greeted them. “Come on in. I’ve got everything ready and Helen’s just putting it out on the table now.”

  “Thanks Andrew.” Darcy gave Andrew a quick kiss on his cheek. He’d been working at Helen’s café for about eight months now and Darcy had gotten to know him pretty well. It was nice to see Helen had moved on after her divorce from Steve and could be happy again.

  Jon shook Andrew’s hand, still awkwardly holding the cheesecake. “Uh, maybe you should take this,” he said, offering the box to Andrew.

  “Ah, excellent!” Andrew said as he caught sight of the logo on the cake box. “Helen likes it when her friends shop at her bakery. What kind did you get?”

  “Blueberry cheesecake,” Jon told him. “Hope that’s all right?”

  “Definitely. It’s one of my favorites, I know that. Grace and Aaron brought a lemon meringue with them so we’ll have plenty of dessert for after lunch.”

  “We could have brought more with us if you guys had let us know you were planning a lunch party,” Darcy said, sliding her feet out of her sneakers to leave them at the door. Helen had carpeting through most of her house and she liked to keep them clean.

  Jon did the same with his shoes. “Why did she decide to have us over, anyway?” he asked. “What’s the occasion?”

  Andrew shifted his weight and his smile turned a little sheepish. “I’m not really sure. We went to bed last night after watching a movie and she didn’t say anything about it at all. Then this morning she woke up insisting that I start cooking a lunch for all of us.” He shrugged. “I try not to ask questions when she gets an idea in her head. You know how insistent she can be.”

  It hadn’t escaped Darcy’s attention that Andrew had spent the night here with Helen. Apparently their relationship had gotten more serious than she realized. Good for Helen, she thought to herself. Still, it was odd to just wake up and decide to have a lunch party on the spur of the moment.

  Andrew excused himself back to the kitchen, telling them that everyone else was in the dining room already. Jon turned to Darcy and took her by the hand. “Stop it,” he whispered.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I know that look on your face. I can almost see the wheels turning in your mind. This is just a lunch. Nothing mysterious about it at all. Don’t go looking for trouble where there isn’t any. We get enough of it all on our own without having to do that.”

  Feeling silly, Darcy rolled her eyes and squeezed Jon’s hand. “I know. Sorry, I guess I just can’t help myself.”

  He kissed her forehead and pulled her after him down to the dining room. “That’s just one of the many reasons why I love you, Darcy Sweet.”

  Chapter Two

  “Hey, sis.” Grace waved with one hand from where she sat at the dinner table.

  Darcy loved seeing Grace this way. Motherhood definitely agreed with her. She had her feet kicked out in front of her and her arm protectively around the baby sleeping soundly in the sling carrier she wore over one shoulder and across her chest. She was letting her dark hair grow long again and she was more relaxed than Darcy could remember seeing her in a very long time.

  The fact that she hadn’t gotten back to work at the police department didn’t even make her upset anymore. Her life, for the moment, revolved around her baby and the family she had started with Aaron.

  Darcy’s brother-in-law stood behind Grace, hands massaging her shoulders, already completely at ease in his role as a father. The baby had been unplanned, but neither of them would want it any other way. Little Addison Darcy Wentworth would always have a lot of love in her life.

  The little baby girl was asleep, lulled by the warmth of her mother’s body and the sound of her heartbeat, and Darcy was careful not to wake her as she gently pulled back the soft blue fabric of the sling to get a better look at her adorable face. “I think she’s going to look just like you, Grace.”

  “Better her than me,” Aaron agreed. “If she grows up beautiful like her mom then I figure I’ve done something right.”

  “Looks like you did something right already,” Jon told him, clapping him on the shoulder.

  Darcy looked up at Jon with a smile. He would never know it, but sometimes he had a knack for saying just the right thing at just the right time.

  “How’s my replacement doing?” Grace asked Jon. “I hope you didn’t give him my desk.”

  “Of course not.” Jon shook his head and sat down across the table from her. “Wilson isn’t your replacement. Chief Daleson is going to keep three detectives from now on. You, me, and Wilson. He’s doing all right. I have to coach him through a few things but for the most part he knows his stuff. Of course, his new girlfriend is taking up a lot of his time.”

  A sad smile crossed Darcy’s face. She couldn’t help it. Wilson’s new girlfriend was actually his old girlfriend from back when they were both in school. Lindsay had run off and gotten married to someone else and then come back to Misty Hollow only to have her husband killed. Now, with the killer behind bars, Wilson had been spending a lot of time with Lindsay and their relationship had rekindled. It was
nice to see something good come from that tragedy.

  “So where’s our hostess?” Jon was asking. He waved a hand to indicate the dining table already set with plates and spoons and forks and knives, pink cloth napkins folded just so next to each setting, a small bouquet of late season flowers in the very center. “The only thing missing is the food. And Helen.”

  “Here’s both!” Helen called out with a little chuckle, pushing her way through the swinging saloon-style doors that separated the dining area from the kitchen. She was holding a blue ceramic cooking pot by the side handles, both of her hands inside floral print oven mitts. She wore the same kind of apron that Andrew had, straight from her own café, over her blue dress. Her graying hair was tied into the ponytail she had taken to wearing all the time whenever she wasn’t performing her duties as mayor.

  Andrew appeared behind her with a large wooden bowl of salad in one hand and a smaller bowl of steaming rolls in the other. He and Helen shared a look between them that Darcy knew very well. It was the same look she and Jon had for each other.

  The table was set and food was passed around. The main dish turned out to be a chicken stew of Helen’s own recipe, tender grilled pieces of chicken in a gravy with carrots and pearl onions and tiny slivers of celery accompanied by hunks of biscuits worked right in with everything else. Darcy made a mental note to remind herself to get the recipe later. Not that she was any kind of cook. She’d inherited her mother’s gene when it came to cooking. But maybe she could get Jon to make this for them sometimes. He seemed to do better than she with the cooking related chores.

  Small talk ranged from the current cases Jon was working on, to the construction of the new dollar store set to begin in the spring, to the weather, and of course Grace’s baby. Wine was served with the meal. Darcy noticed how Jon made sure to only have a few sips from his glass before drinking water. He was driving, after all.

  Finally, salads and bread and awesome chicken stew devoured, Helen clapped her hands together and declared that she hoped everyone had saved enough room for dessert.

  “Oh, Helen,” Aaron said, patting his belly. “I don’t know. That third helping of stew really did me in.”

  “Nonsense, Aaron,” Helen teased him. “You’ve got plenty of room there. I, for one, can’t wait to try that cheesecake you and Jon brought, Darcy. I think Elizabeth made that, and she is such a wonderful baker. That was one of the reasons I hired her, you know.”

  Getting up from where he sat next to Helen at the head of the table, Andrew leaned over and kissed her cheek. “So why did you hire me?”

  “I thought you looked cute in an apron,” was her answer. Andrew rewarded her with another kiss.

  Jon quirked an eyebrow at Darcy, with a smile to match. He liked seeing their friend happy, too. Darcy might have been the main reason Helen’s ex-husband had been arrested for murder, but it was Jon and Grace who had made the arrest. If Andrew could make Helen happy again, that would ease a lot of bad memories for everyone.

  “So,” Andrew said to them, “I’ll go and get the desserts ready to serve. Excuse me.”

  He headed off into the kitchen, the swinging doors slapping at each other as he passed through them. The conversation lagged a bit at that point. Everyone was full of good food, comfortable in their silence.

  Helen began humming to herself, nodding her head every so often, staring down at the table. She picked up the cloth napkin from her plate and began twisting it back and forth in her hands.

  Across from Darcy, Addison began to fuss and stir in her carrier. Grace rocked her back and forth gently and cooed softly until the baby settled again.

  “Thanks again for the invitation,” Jon said to Helen. “What made you decide to have a party?”

  She looked up, her eyes going through Jon for just a moment before focusing again. “Oh. I, uh, needed to talk to all of you. All of you. You need to know.”

  “Hm?” Jon said, confused. He leaned forward in his chair, looking at Darcy and Grace and Aaron to see if maybe they knew what Helen had meant. “You need to tell us something? Is it serious?”

  “Yes.”

  Darcy noticed the faraway tone in Helen’s voice. Her eyes lost their focus again. It was like their friend was here at the dinner table in her house with them, but at the same time, she wasn’t.

  Addison fussed again, making little upset baby noises in her sleep.

  “Helen, what’s wrong?” Jon asked her. He was sitting on Darcy’s left, closest to Helen, and he reached out like he was going to shake her awake.

  She pulled back into herself, crossing her arms over her chest, hugging her shoulders. Blinking rapidly, shaking all over, she twisted her head back and forth, back and forth. “No. No, no, no. No, he wants me to tell you. You need to know.”

  “Helen?” Andrew had come back in from the kitchen, glass serving trays holding perfectly sliced pieces of cheesecake and lemon meringue pie. He hesitated, sensing that something had happened in his absence but not knowing what. “Is something wrong?”

  Helen’s chair crashed loudly to the floor as she sprang up to her feet and turned on Andrew, arm extended, her finger pointing accusingly. “You!”

  Andrew took a step back from her. Jon and Aaron both got up from their chairs slowly.

  Addison cried out, once, and then began pushing with all of her infant strength against the sling.

  Helen swung back to the table and Darcy saw the way her face had gone slack. There was no emotion there at all. None. Her lips pulled back from her teeth harshly. Her eyes rolled back into her head.

  And she spoke to them.

  “You! All of you! Listen to me. The spirit of Nathaniel Williams commands you to listen! You have taken for yourselves that which is mine!”

  Nathaniel Williams. Darcy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The Pilgrim Ghost. Helen was talking about the Pilgrim Ghost.

  No. Not talking about him. Talking like she was him. Her voice had changed. It was more masculine, stronger, and there was a strange accent layered over the words. Not quite British. That wasn’t Helen’s voice.

  “Darcy…?” Jon said slowly, keeping his eyes on Helen.

  “I know. It’s not Helen.” Darcy understood why Jon had asked her for an explanation. He knew when things had taken a turn into the weird, and Darcy was the expert on all things bizarre and strange.

  Something else was controlling Helen.

  She was possessed.

  Make it stop, came the words in Darcy’s mind. Make her stop. I’m scared!

  Darcy couldn’t place the source of the whispered plea. She thought at first it was Helen, connecting with her somehow through Darcy’s sixth sense. That wasn’t it, though. She could feel the speaker in her mind, could sense them, and it didn’t feel like Helen. It was the feeling of someone very, very young. Someone Innocent.

  Mouth falling open, she looked down at Addison in her mother’s arms.

  “One of you will pay!” Helen demanded in that other voice, slamming the flat of her hand down on the table, yanking Darcy’s attention back. Saliva drooled out of the corner of Helen’s mouth. “One of you will be my tool. My weapon. I will hold you in my hand and I will use you to take my town back. It shall be mine once more!”

  Not wasting any time on how impossibly crazy this all seemed, Darcy stood up, standing close to Jon. They were depending on her. Everyone, including Helen. No one else knew how to relate to spirits. “You are the ghost of Nathaniel Williams?” she asked, her mouth dry.

  “Aye,” Helen answered in the ghost’s voice. “I am he. You are trespassers. This land is and always has been mine. All of you will leave, down to the last woman and child, or else you will suffer. Suffer!” The ghost added a special emphasis on that word, wracking Helen’s body into a hard spasm. The sight of it twisted Darcy’s stomach in knots.

  “How?” she made herself ask. “How will we pay, Nathaniel? Tell us what you want.”

  “I want you to leave!” Helen shrieked. Her fingers
clawed at the table, digging into the wood, leaving trails of her blood as she tore her nails. “You will leave my town, leave me alone, or you will pay the price!”

  “Okay,” Darcy said, wanting to keep the ghost calm, wanting to keep him talking, but scared for what this conversation might be doing to Helen. “All right, Nathaniel. We’re listening. Tell me how we will pay. How will we suffer?”

  Darcy, please, make her stop!

  The force of a tidal wave built up in Darcy’s brain and she was suddenly doubled over, holding onto the edge of the table for dear life, the nice meal she had just eaten rising up in her gorge. She grabbed on to the back of Jon’s chair with both hands and made herself stay in control.

  “How, Nathaniel? How will we pay?” Darcy had to raise her voice to be heard over the roar in her ears.

  She saw Jon and Aaron down on their knees, Aaron holding his head in his hands, Jon clutching his throat like he couldn’t breathe.

  “Tell us how!”

  Grace huddled protectively over Addison as her baby screamed and cried and shouted in the background of Darcy’s thoughts.

  Into that ballooning pressure Helen drove words like spikes.

  “ONE OF YOU WILL BE CONDEMNED TO KILL!”

  Darcy’s ears popped and her mind exploded into buzzing silence, and everything went black.

  ***

  “Darcy? Darcy, wake up.”

  She did, but she regretted it.

  When she had been asleep, blissfully unaware of anything around her, she hadn’t felt the hammer blows her pulse kept striking against the inside of her skull. She sure felt them now.

  “Ow,” she said. “Ow. Ow.”

  “There you are.” Jon smiled down at her as she opened her eyes. She was on the floor, looking up, and he was kneeling over her. A dinner table was next to them. She could see where plates and glasses and trays of desserts had fallen, scattering everywhere. Oh. Oh that’s right, she thought. We were at Helen’s for lunch, and she…

  “Where’s Helen? Is she—?” She broke off midsentence as she snapped herself up into a sitting position and nearly passed out all over again. Stars swam in front of her eyes. Her stomach rose and then fell and then rose again. “Oh, that does not feel good.”