3 From the Ashes

by K. J. Emrick

  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

  About the Author

  COPYRIGHT

  First published in Australia by South Coast Publishing, December 2013.

  Copyright K.J. Emrick (2013)

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and locations portrayed in this book and the names herein are fictitious. Any similarity to or identification

  with the locations, names, characters or history of any person, product or entity is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

  - From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  No responsibility or liability is assumed by the Publisher for any injury, damage or financial loss sustained to persons or property from the use of this information, personal or otherwise, either directly or indirectly. While every effort has been made to ensure reliability and accuracy of the information within, all liability, negligence or otherwise, from any use, misuse or abuse of the operation of any methods, strategies, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein, is the sole responsibility of the reader. Any copyrights not held by publisher are owned by their respective authors.

  All information is generalized, presented for informational purposes only and presented "as is" without warranty or guarantee of any kind.

  All trademarks and brands referred to in this book are for illustrative purposes only, are the property of their respective owners and not affiliated with this publication in any way. Any trademarks are being used without permission, and the publication of the trademark is not authorized by, associated with or sponsored by the trademark owner.

  Chapter One

  Darcy Sweet lifted her face into the cooling breeze that was blowing into the car through the open window. Her long dark hair was flying all over the place but she didn't care. She closed her eyes and just enjoyed the feeling of it.

  She was tired all the way into her bones. It was a good kind of tired. After spending a wonderful long weekend in a cabin in the mountains with her boyfriend, Jon Tinker, she was ready to get back to their regular lives again. They had hiked through the forest and hills every day before collapsing exhausted into each other arms each night.

  Not too exhausted to make the weekend…very memorable.

  The weather had been perfect all weekend but it had been starting to turn cold and there had been a hint of snow in the air just before they had left. Summer couldn’t last forever, she mused while she idly hummed along with the radio. It had been good to get away. They’d certainly earned it after the last few months, where murder seemed to follow them like a stealthy shadow.

  She let her eyes slide shut, and with a sigh, relaxed her body further back into the passenger seat. It had been a long time since she had been that physically active, but it had been fun. It turned out Jon was a bit of a nature lover, very knowledgeable about the native flora and fauna, and he’d shown her a lot of things she’d never known, even living in a rural town like Misty Hollow for a big part of her life.

  After a time she opened her eyes to check on their progress. They slid shut again on their own when she realized they weren’t anywhere near to home yet. It was almost too much effort to keep them open. The road they were travelling was practically deserted this late in the evening. Between the quiet all around her and the drone of the tires on the roadway, she could feel herself drifting toward sleep. She decided not to fight it if it came. She felt safe with Jon driving. She felt safe with him in everything.

  She sighed when she felt Jon’s hand settle on her knee. Lazily, she opened her eyes to look over at him.

  “About another hour, Sweet Baby,” he said quietly to her.

  She smiled at him. “Sweet Baby” was his new nickname for her. It had been something that he came up with this weekend, a long story that had led to his calling her that during a very, very passionate moment. It made her smile and blush to remember it.

  She was disappointed that their weekend had to end so soon. There would be others, she knew, but they would have to work them into their schedule of work and private life. She sighed, wishing there could be more time for just the two of them.

  As if sensing her mood, he squeezed her leg and said, “We’ll go away together again very soon.”

  His hand felt good on her leg. Maybe when they got home, she’d be awake enough to let him put his hands on her some more. She could feel her cheeks heating at the thought. He definitely brought out a side of her that few men had ever been able to. She liked that about him.

  She drifted off to sleep with thoughts of Jon creating vivid dreams to occupy her mind as he drove them home.

  ***

  As Darcy was unpacking her suitcase the next morning her black and white cat, Smudge, jumped up onto the bed and planted himself right in the middle of the clothes she was trying to pile neatly on the bed. He sat and glared at her, his green eyes flashing.

  “Don’t give me that look, Smudge. It’s not like I left you completely alone to fend for yourself. Grace was here every day to feed you and I know she spent time with you, whether you want to admit it or not, so you can just stop pouting.”

  She knew he was upset with her for leaving him for the weekend, not to mention kicking him out of bed last night while she and Jon...said goodbye. Smudge had definitely been a little jealous that she was spending so much time with Jon these days. For a long time now, it had just been her and Smudge in this big old house her aunt had left her. He had been her best friend in the world, the only one that really understood her. He would just need some time to get used to there being someone else in her life.

  Darcy pulled the clothes out from underneath him when he refused to budge. He rolled over with a surprised mewl and with one last dirty look jumped off the bed. He ran out of the room with his tail held high.

  Darcy shook her head and grinned as she threw the last of her dirty clothes in the laundry basket. She heard Jon turn off the shower just as she was leaving the bedroom to head downstairs to make breakfast. She considered peeking in on him, but gave him his privacy instead. For now.

  Downstairs she got the box of powdered pancake mix out along with the quart of milk. She mixed everything together and poured it out into the pan and then waited for it to bubble. She was happily whistling a little tune as she flipped the pancakes when Jon finally came down into the kitchen. It was still before eight o’clock, but it was a Monday and both of them had work to get to today.

  He came up behind her as she was cooking and wrapped his arms around her from behind. He dropped a kiss on the slope of her shoulder as she leaned into him. “Good morning beautiful,” Jon’s voice trembled along her neck.

  “Good morning to you too,” she said. “Careful, you’ll make me burn these.” She didn’t try to move him away though as she took up the last pancake and stacked it onto the plate. Turning in his arms, she kissed him quickly.

  They sat down at her small dining room table with cups of coffee and
plates of pancakes. Pouring syrup on hers in random patterns, Darcy sighed loudly.

  He looked at her with those bright blue eyes and raised his eyebrows in a question. “So, did you think about my question?”

  Yes. She certainly had. He was so darn cute with an errant lock of his dark hair flopping down over his forehead and she couldn’t squelch the urge to reach across the table to push it back into place.

  He grinned at her as he captured her hand. “Don’t try to distract me,” he said to her. “What do you think about us moving in together?”

  Darcy shrugged and said, “I’m not avoiding the question. Believe me, I thought about it a lot this weekend. I’m just not sure how it would work with our two schedules and you having to do your police detective things and, I mean, what would everyone think?”

  "That I'm a lucky guy?" She thought he was trying to lighten the mood but it fell flat. He looked at her intently and she couldn't work out what he was thinking. After a long moment he sighed and said, "That sounds a bit like an excuse to me." His eyes bored into her while he waited for her to respond.

  She took a deep breath and said, "Okay, you're right. I'm just not sure about it. Don't get me wrong I like the idea of living with you but I'm also a bit apprehensive about such a big commitment." She screwed her face up as she tried to get her point across without offending him. "You know I was married and that relationship didn't turn out so great. I guess I just want to be sure this time. We haven’t really known each other that long.”

  She could see he was considering her words. His eyes softened as he quietly said, "Feels like I’ve known you forever…” Darcy’s heart stuttered at his words but before she could say anything he continued, “But okay, I admit the idea was spur of the moment. Things are going really well with us though, don’t you think?” He said as he finished off the last of his pancakes.

  “Of course I do. We’re…we’re good together.” She couldn’t quite meet his eyes. After she had divorced her ex-husband, there had been nights that she wondered if she’d ever find a man to share her life with again. Or ever want to, considering how she and Jeff had parted company. With Jon, though, it was like everything worked. They’d had their problems, to be sure, in a big way. They’d worked through it all, though, and they knew everything about each other’s lives. It was as solid a foundation for a lasting relationship as she was ever likely to find.

  “Okay, so then what’s worrying you?” he pressed. “We’ve been through murder together. Literally.”

  “I know, and now everything is settling back to normal life and I love that about us, Jon, I really do.” She stood up and took both their plates to the sink, bending down to kiss his ear as she passed him and whisper, “Just give me a little more time with it, okay?”

  She hoped that would be enough for him. True, the little town of Misty Hollow had become a nightmare for weeks on end. That was all past them now, and even the trouble that always seemed to follow Darcy around had let her be for a while now.

  Somewhere in the back of her head, though, that little voice kept nagging at her: “Yeah, but for how long?” Trouble seemed to find her even if she wasn’t looking for it.

  ***

  Darcy unlocked the front door to the Sweet Read bookstore and swung it open as she went inside. She flipped the sign over from “CLOSED, THE END” to “OPEN a good book today” and then dumped her purse and tote bag on the desk small office near the back of the store. She had closed the store for the long weekend while she was away and even though it had only been four days it felt like forever. There was so much to do to get the place back to how she wanted it. She grabbed a duster and walked all around, cleaning and making sure everything was in order.

  It was very peaceful inside the store at this time of morning and she soaked it up. There had been too much upheaval in the last few months and she was glad it was finally back to normal, or as normal as it could be for her. She reminded herself that Jon coming into her life had been part of that upheaval. So it hadn’t been all bad.

  A little while later Darcy was busy rearranging a display shelf of books, bringing out ones that dealt with Halloween and Christmas, when her one and only employee Sue Fisher arrived at work.

  The young girl gave Darcy a quick hug. “How was your weekend? Did you and Jon get up to anything exciting?” Sue took off her Fall jacket, smoothing out the wrinkles in her blue top, her blonde head bobbing up and down. Sue was a college student on a break from her studies for a year while she decided whether she wanted to continue with her law degree or not. Darcy was glad that Sue had decided to spend the time working in the bookstore, which she seemed to love doing. Sue had proven invaluable as an employee on more than one occasion. She was a whirlwind of energy and could often brighten up the darkest day.

  “We had a great weekend,” Darcy answered her now. When Sue smiled in that coy way she sometimes did, Darcy swatted at her shoulder. “Not like that. Well. Mostly not like that. Actually, I have something to show you.”

  Darcy went to the desk in the office and grabbed her bag as Sue followed her in. She carefully removed a couple of old looking books with dark, worn leather covers and placed them gently onto the desk. Their pages were a faded and mellow off-white, and other than the wear on the corners and around the spine, they looked to be in quite good condition.

  Darcy enjoyed books for their own sake. In a world where the printed word was being rapidly replaced by mass-produced e-books, finding treasures like these here was getting harder and harder to do. “I visited a rare book store while we went out for lunch on Saturday and found these.” She indicated the books lying on the desk. “I’ve been searching for something like these for quite a while now.”

  Sue was looking at the books with interest. “What are they?” She picked one of the books up carefully, like she was handling fine china, reading the faded gold lettering along the spine, then opening the cover to the title page.

  “Histories,” Darcy said with a smile. “They are histories of the old towns in this area and Misty Hollow is mentioned in them a few times. I haven’t had time to read them yet, but I hope to soon.”

  “Oh yeah?” Sue asked her, that coy look in her eyes again. “What kept you from reading them? Hm?”

  “Sue,” Darcy emphasized her friend’s name, laughing as she did.

  “What? I like to live vicariously through other people.” She humphed and carefully placed the book back down on the desk. “Randy and I broke up. Again.”

  “Oh, Sue.” Darcy didn’t know what else to say. She knew that Sue and her on-again off-again boyfriend were never going to work out their troubles, but it wasn’t her place to say so. “Want to go over to Maxy’s after work and talk about it?”

  Sue thought about it. Maxy’s had recently opened and was the only bar in Misty Hollow, a nice place with low lighting over tables that served red wine more often than it served domestic beer. Finally she shook her head, though. “No, that’s all right. I was just going to have an early night. Some other time though okay?”

  Darcy nodded. The bell over the door jangled as it opened announcing the arrival of a customer. Sue took the opportunity to end their conversation about Randy as she went to see what Beatrice Miller, one of a group of elderly women living in the town’s assisted living complex, might want to buy today. Beatrice waved at Darcy. She was one of her book club members and a good friend. Sue was already lost in conversation about what book Beatrice might like to try today.

  Darcy shook her head and made herself realize that Sue’s life was her own and that Sue needed to make her own decisions about her love life. She shrugged and turned to pick the books up to put them back in her bag.

  The one closest to the edge of the table shifted suddenly like it had been shoved and started to fall to the floor.

  Darcy lunged to catch the fragile book, managing to save it in midair before it hit the floor. She let out a quick relieved breath. Just then she caught a ghostly whisper of a playful laughter ech
oing through the store. “Millie,” she said under her breath. Aunt Millie had left her the bookstore, too. She just hadn’t gotten around to leaving the place after she’d died.

  Darcy tsked at the woman’s shadow, knowing that her aunt had always loved to play pranks. She put the bag with the two books in them on the floor where there was no place for them to go. Unless Millie decided to pick them up and move them somewhere else.

  “Good to see you, too, Aunt Millie,” Darcy whispered as she went to help Sue.

  Chapter Two

  Lunch time came around very quickly. Darcy had plans to go and get something to eat with her friend, Linda. She found Linda walking down the street toward the book store and waved in greeting. Linda was a tall woman, graceful, and always quick to smile. Her red hair bounced in tight curls as she came toward Darcy in a flowing pink dress.

  Linda wasn’t alone. “Hi Darcy,” she said. “Hey, welcome back from your vacation. Um. I hope you don’t mind, but I was wondering if we could talk over lunch? This is Sarah Fender.” Linda held a hand out towards the girl as she introduced her.

  "Hello Sarah," Darcy said. The girl gave her a quick, shy nod. She had the smooth, flawless skin of the young. Darcy was a little envious of her beautiful shiny dark hair and deep blue eyes. Her clothes were very simple and plain. She was probably all of eighteen or nineteen, and very nervous about something if the constant twisting of her hands around themselves was any indication.

  "Sarah is nineteen,” Linda explained, meaning Darcy had been right. “She lives with her dad, Louis. You know him don't you Darcy? He owns the Hometown Real Estate Company here in town.”

  Darcy did know Louis. By sight, anyway, but she’d never had any real reason to have anything to do with him. She nodded. “So, is everything all right? This was just a lunch date, right?”

  Linda sighed. "Well, Sarah and her dad are really good friends of mine. I wouldn’t usually do this, you need to understand, but for them…” Linda chewed on her lip, maybe trying to decide upon the right words. "We have a favor to ask you," she said at last.