Death Comes to Town (A Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery)

by K. J. Emrick

  She waited for him to pick Steve up and, holding him by his shirt and his bound hands, walk him out of the house. “Steve Nelson you are under arrest for the murder of Anna Louis and Jeff Thomas…” Darcy picked Smudge up and held him in her arms as she followed Jon.

  The picture was almost complete. She was just happy she hadn’t ended up as part of it herself.

  ***

  At the police station Jon released Helen. What should have been a happy moment for her was colored black, though. “I had no idea about any of this, Darcy. You have to believe me. Steve and I have been leading almost separate lives lately.”

  Jon, Darcy, and Grace sat around Grace’s desk with Helen and listened to the woman tell her story. “He was acting so strange the night Anna was killed.” Darcy remembered that Helen had said that once before. At the time, she had thought that Helen meant after he found out about Anna’s death.

  Grace said, “Steve has admitted to Anna and Jeff’s murders but not the attack on Darcy. He won’t talk about his motive, either. Anything you can tell us about that, Helen?”

  Helen shook her head as tears fell. “No. I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t know him at all.”

  Jon turned to Darcy and she felt safe when she looked into his eyes. He was looking at her so protectively and he said, “I want to make sure that you’re not in any more danger.”

  Grace cleared her throat and looked pointedly at Jon. “I’ll look into the town’s financial statements,” she said, “and talk to Mark from the bank to see if we can find the mayor’s motive within that.”

  “So,” Darcy ventured, “am I forgiven for Aaron?”

  Grace rolled her eyes. “Just go home, Sis. I think we’ve all had enough excitement in our lives recently.”

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Jon walked Darcy home. “That’s odd,” she said. “It’s still so foggy.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Darcy laughed and said, “It always seems to be foggy when there’s trouble. I just figured with everything over, it would clear away.”

  She expected Jon to laugh along with her but instead he looked serious and upset. “Hey. What’s wrong?” she asked him.

  He stopped at the steps leading up to her porch and turned to face her. “I almost lost you, again. Do you make a habit of putting yourself into danger like this? That was damned foolish what you did tonight.” He paused for a moment and she braced herself for what might come next. “I have very strong feelings for you, Darcy. I couldn’t stand to lose you.”

  Her heart rate skipped a beat with his confession. “You won’t have to,” she said, and then she stepped up onto the first step to put herself even with him, and kissed him. His lips were soft and warm and she felt the electricity course through her at his touch. They pulled apart and she grabbed his hand to lead him into the house. She knew, now, that this was something she wanted.

  The phone started ringing as her hand rested on the doorknob.

  She swore under her breath as Jon pulled her back. “We should just ignore it.”

  “We can’t just ignore it, Jon. What if it’s Grace with news?” She looked around at the tendrils of fog in the moonlight. “What if it’s something else that’s happened?”

  She left him on the porch and went in to grab the phone before the machine could pick it up. Grace was on the other end.

  “Darcy, is Jon with you?”

  She looked over to see Jon stepping slowly inside and mouthed to him that it was Grace. “Yes, he’s right here.”

  “Listen to me,” her sister said, her tone serious and rushed, “I went to Mark’s house to talk to him but his wife said that he was at the bank. So I went there and there was smoke coming out of one of the windows.”

  “What?” Darcy couldn’t believe this. Would this never end?

  “It was Jess, believe it or not. I know I’m having trouble believing it. She’d knocked Mark unconscious and she was trying to burn the bank’s records.”

  “Is Mark okay?” Darcy asked her, all the while praying there hadn’t been another murder.

  “Yes, he’s fine. Tell Jon to meet me down here, okay?”

  “We’ll be right there,” Darcy told her.

  ***

  Back at the police station Jess was sitting at Jon’s desk in handcuffs. “I’m innocent. I didn’t kill anyone, it’s all just a misunderstanding.”

  Jess was dishevelled, her red hair loose around her face, her dark blue dress torn at one shoulder. Obviously she’d been in a struggle of some kind.

  Darcy walked over and sat in the chair next to her at Jon’s desk. “Stop talking and just listen to me.” When she was sure she had Jess’s attention she continued. “Are you having an affair with the mayor, with Steve?”

  Jess was silent for so long that Darcy thought maybe she wouldn’t answer. Finally, though, she nodded.

  Darcy pressed her lips together. There was the final piece, put in its place. She guessed the gossip around town had finally gotten something right.

  Grace was shocked. “How did you know, Darcy?”

  Darcy turned to face her sister. “Jess came into the bookstore and bought a book on how to speak French. I found a ticket to Paris in the mayor’s desk. I’m betting that they were going to run away together.” She turned back to Jess who was sitting with a blank expression on her face, just staring out of the window. It was like she was shutting down. Her dream had fallen to ashes.

  Darcy shook her head and looked back at Grace. “We know that the mayor has been taking money from the town. You know Sue, who works for me? Well she’s been commenting recently on how expensive Jess’s clothes and shoes are, way more than she should be able to afford. I’m guessing that the mayor has been showering her with expensive gifts. That’s why he needed the money. To afford his affair.”

  “If you cooperate,” Jon said to Jess, “things will be easier for you. You may not even have to go to trial.” When she didn’t answer right away he added, “He killed two people, Jess. That’s not a man to lie for.”

  Jess seemed to think that over for a few minutes and then she nodded. “We weren’t running away together, Steve and I, we were just going on a trip. Steve would never leave his wife. That was something I was okay with.”

  Darcy would never understand that. She hoped she’d never have to be in the position that Jess had put herself in. “You were the one who broke into my house, weren’t you Jess? It wasn’t the killer. Steve wouldn’t have been scared off so easily.”

  Jess looked at her with wide, sad eyes. “I overheard you at the party saying that you were close to solving the case. I just wanted to scare you off.”

  “So you knew what Steve had done.” Darcy didn’t say it as a question.

  Slumping into her chair, Jess nodded miserably.

  It made sense to Darcy. “You’re not a killer, Jess. I know that. But you can’t be okay with what happened. Where did you get the gun that you used to scare me?”

  Jess couldn’t look at her as she said, “It was just a toy gun, totally harmless.”

  Darcy shook her head. “Why did you try to burn down the bank?”

  “I wasn’t trying to burn down the bank.” Jess said. Her voice had gotten so quiet. “I just meant to burn the financial records in a trash can, but it got out of control.”

  Jon nodded to Grace as he jotted down the last of his notes from what Jess had said. Then Grace led Jess back out to the holding cells. The woman didn’t even try to resist.

  Darcy turned to Jon, sitting at his desk, tapping his pen against the paper like he did. “I want to talk to Steve,” she said.

  “That’s not a good idea,” Jon argued. “Thank you, for helping us with Jess. But like you said, she’s not a killer. Steve is.”

  “I know. But I need to talk to him. You have to trust me one more time, Jon.”

  She could tell he didn’t like it. He didn’t have to like it, Darcy figured. She didn’t like it herself, but she had to do this. Finally, Jon thr
ew his hands up in the air and led her to the holding cell where Steve was sitting with his head in his hands. Grace stood nearby. She nodded silent encouragement to Darcy.

  When Steve saw Darcy he leaned back against the cell wall. “Hi, Darcy. I’m, um, sorry. I guess.”

  “You’re sorry?” Jon said, his voice rising. Darcy held up a hand to hold him off.

  Darcy spoke directly to Steve. “They arrested Jess. She told us everything. We know that you and she were having an affair.” Steve was quiet. He looked like a broken man. “So we know everything, Steve. But there’s still one thing I can’t figure out, and I need to hear it from you. Why did you kill Anna in the first place?”

  Steve started to cry then. Heavy tears ran down his face and he tried in vain to blink them away. “I never wanted to hurt anyone. Certainly not Anna. She had come to the house that afternoon to see Helen before going to the festival but Helen wasn't there. Instead she walked in on Jess and me together. It was…well it was obvious what we were doing. I never had a chance to explain because she just fled the moment she saw us.”

  He sniffed loudly and swiped a hand across his eyes. “It would have ruined me. Everything would have come out then. The affair, the money I’d stolen, everything. I went to her house after the ceremony to try and talk to her. I brought money with me to encourage Anna to stay silent. At first we just talked, but when Anna made it clear that she was going to tell my wife everything, I got upset.”

  They waited for the rest of it. Now that he’d started talking, he couldn’t stop. Getting up, he began to pace the length of the cell getting more agitated as he spoke. “I just meant to scare her, but Anna fought back and it got out of control. The gun was Anna’s. She grabbed it when she felt threatened. It made such a tiny noise when it went off…”

  “Then why did you take Anna’s book?” Jon asked him.

  Still crying, Steve said, “I needed to get rid of the body. The evidence. All of it. The book had blood on it so I picked it up with the gun, but then I heard someone outside. I had to leave. I even left the money behind. I found out later that it was you that I’d heard, Darcy.”

  He stopped his pacing abruptly and stood still with his head hanging down.

  They weren’t done, though. “Why Jeff?” Darcy asked. She needed to know all of it.

  “He got too close,” Steve explained, gesturing helplessly with his hands. “I had heard that Jeff had talked to Mark, asking for the town’s financial records. Like Anna, I just meant to talk to him. I had brought the gun for protection, but once again it got out of hand.” Steve started to pace again, frantically.

  He stopped and turned to face them, yelling, “I didn’t mean to!” He lunged and grabbed the bars of the cell and Jon pulled Darcy back. “I love Jess so much. I’d do anything for her.”

  “Even kill good people,” Darcy pointed out. Grace looked at her oddly, and she realized that she’d included her ex-husband with Anna as “good people.”

  “Come on, Darcy,” Jon said to her. “We’ve heard enough.”

  Chapter Twenty Four

  It took a few days for life to get back to normal. Darcy was at work in her bookstore that Friday while Sue was out on an errand. She was tidying up, rearranging some books and generally getting rid of the dust that had accumulated. It felt good to have nothing more important than this to worry about. Even the fog and cleared out over the past few days. Misty Hollow was just a sleepy little town again.

  She jumped when she heard the bell over the door ring. She looked up and smiled when she saw Jon walking towards her.

  He came right up to her and with no hesitation pulled her into his arms. His kiss was warm and familiar. They’d had a lot of practice.

  “Well, hello yourself,” she said when he let her go. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at work?”

  “I am. But I missed you.”

  She smiled at him. It felt good, being this happy. Smudge jumped up on the counter between them and purred. Jon laughed and scratched the cat’s ears.

  “I guess we’ll have to share her,” he said to Smudge. “How does that sound to you?”

  Smudge meowed and pressed his head into Jon’s hand. Apparently, Darcy thought with a smile, Smudge was fine with that arrangement.

  The End

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  About the Author

  Strongly influenced by authors like James Patterson, Dick Francis, and Nora Roberts, Kathrine Emrick is an up and coming talent in the writing world. She is a new Kindle author/publisher and brings a variety of experiences and observations to her writing.

  Based in Australia, Kathrine has wanted to be an author for the majority of her life and can always be found jotting down daily notes in a journal. Like many authors, she loves to be surrounded by books and is a voracious reader.

  In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and volunteering at the local library.

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  Table of Contents

  Death Comes to Town - A Darcy Sweet Mystery

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  About the Author