The Greatest Gift (A Darcy Sweet Mystery)

by K. J. Emrick

  Two suspects. Friends helping each other out, just like Izzy had been talking about.

  Jon counted to five using his fingers, holding them up one at a time.

  One.

  Two.

  "Look," Giattano was saying. "We've already been through this room. Three times. Let's try upstairs."

  Three.

  Four.

  "I just don't know where she would hide that much money," Rita said. "I mean, is it in stocks? Bonds? Silver certificates? What?"

  Five.

  Jon jumped up from behind the couch, surprising both Rita and Giattano, who had their backs to him on the stairs, heading for the second floor. "Hold it, right there. You're both under arrest."

  Speaking of valuable things, Darcy thought with a smile, the look on the two fake ghosts was priceless.

  ***

  Jon called for a squad car to come round up Rita and Giattano. It didn't take long, but by the time it got there Giattano was a blubbering mess, spilling every detail of their crime. He had told Rita about the money left to Belinda by her husband when they had gone on a date. He'd been trying to impress her, he said, but he had no idea that Rita would come up with this scheme. She'd gotten herself employed as Belinda's home companion, running errands or whatever, and used that time to search the house for money or bonds or anything like that, only to come up empty.

  But Giattano, being code enforcement officer and nephew to Belinda, knew there was a basement to the place. He'd gone to Oak Hollow to get the information on the renovations, including how to open the secret door.

  That had allowed them to use the hatchway entrance to come and go as they wanted. Rita had opened it from the inside at first. They didn't want to break in and rouse suspicion, especially after Belinda had terminated Rita's employment. They had managed to make a spare key for the hatch doors at some point, and now they had free run of the place. They could be ghosts, and no one would know the difference. Neither of them had figured on anyone looking into Belinda's crazy stories about a ghost haunting her.

  "I mean, seriously!" Giattano moaned between snuffling sobs. "Ghosts! Who would listen to such nonsense!"

  "Me," Darcy told him. "That's who."

  "It wasn't my fault!" the frail little code enforcement officer whined. "It was Rita! She put me up to it! It was all her idea! And we didn't get a penny to show for it!"

  "Oh, shut up," Rita put in. "I never should have trusted you to help me with this!"

  "You shouldn't have come here by yourself!" he shouted at her. "That's what got us caught! You got greedy! I told you to wait for me! This was a two person job, I said. One to watch and one to search. You never listen to me!"

  "Shut up!" Rita said again. Jon told them both to be quiet and the way he said it, they didn't argue.

  Darcy was glad when they were finally handcuffed and driven away by Officer Wilson Barton. Darcy thanked Wilson, and the beefy man tipped his hat to her like cops on old-time police shows used to do. Just life in a small town, Darcy thought to herself.

  When they were left alone on the sidewalk in front of Belinda's house, the neighbors watching the patrol car roll away into the night, Darcy sighed and folded her arms. Her plan had been something of a gamble. Jon had casually let Giattano know that Belinda was going to be away from her house tonight while Jon and Darcy were going to be out of town, and gee he sure hoped nothing happened while they were gone. Darcy had done the same with Rita. They'd taken the bait.

  So now, all they had to do was let Belinda know that for certain, no one was haunting her house. Darcy didn't know how Belinda would take it, but it was important that she knew the truth.

  She turned to Jon now. "You were about to tell me something inside," she reminded him.

  "I was?" he said coyly.

  "Yes, you were. But let me ask you a question first, and then maybe you won't have to say anything else after that."

  He pursed his lips, considering. "I already lost one bet to you."

  "Trust me."

  "Okay. What's your question?"

  She swallowed and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, suddenly very nervous. More nervous than she had been in the house waiting for burglars to show up. "Okay. Um. Look, I love you. I haven't stopped loving you even with you being so far away. Now, I've been asking you for the last three days whether or not you were going to be able to be a part of my life."

  "Yes, you have," he said, not making this any easier on her. "So, your question is…?"

  She glared at him. Men.

  "My question," she said, "is, do you want to be with me? Like, forever?"

  His expression changed, and she held her breath.

  Chapter Eleven

  "I do."

  The priest smiled and held his hands up, one hand over Eileen Sweet, and the other over James Bollinger. Darcy thought her mother looked stunning in the dress they had picked out for her, and next to her James cut a very impressive figure in his tuxedo. They leaned in to each other, and their kiss was perfect.

  Darcy looked down at herself in the bridesmaid's dress, a peach colored, pretty thing that left her arms and shoulders bare, a white sash at the waist with a huge bow that sat at her left hip. Grace wore the same dress, only with more material at the stomach to cover her baby bump.

  Standing in the huge meeting room of the Town Hall, Darcy waited for the cold, jittery feeling she had experienced here while talking to Giattano Franco to repeat itself. It didn't. Whatever spirit had been focusing its attention on her then was silent now.

  "Ladies and gentlemen," the priest said to the small group gathered in the Hall for the wedding ceremony, "it is my pleasure to present to you Mister and Missus James Bollinger."

  Darcy hadn't been sure about how she would feel when she saw this. Her mother, kissing a man in wedded bliss who wasn't her father. She had been prepared for a flurry of emotions from anger to worry or even resentment.

  Instead, all she felt was happy.

  With the ceremony concluded, they went to Helen's café for the reception. A table had been placed along the one wall and loaded with finger foods and drinks and of course the amazing wedding cake. It was four layers high, with white merengue frosting and pink piping made to look like bows and streamers. On the top, a bride and groom stood holding hands and looking into each other's eyes.

  The tables and chairs that usually crowded the place had been removed to clear the white and black tiled floor. With the help of the store's stereo system, music played and everyone danced and laughed long into the night and toasted the bride and groom.

  Jon and Darcy danced to several songs before a slow one came on, and then they danced some more, holding each other very close. She put her head down on his shoulder and let him lead her in a slow circle.

  "This is nice," she said.

  "Yes," he agreed. "It is."

  "You promised to stay forever," she reminded him for the tenth time. Not that she was counting.

  He laughed out loud. Darcy felt the same warmth inside of her that she had felt when he had finally answered her question and told her that yes, he was going to move back to Misty Hollow. He didn't want to be apart from her any more. Those words had been almost as sweet as the wedding vows that Eileen and James had written themselves and recited to each other.

  The only glitch was that he had promised his current chief over in Oak Hollow that he would see the investigation of their string of burglaries through to its end. How long could that take, though? Days. Weeks at the most. She was a patient person.

  No. No she wasn't, but she was going to be this time. Jon would come home to her. It was worth it.

  She remembered her dream, where she and Jon had danced so wonderfully at a wedding. This wedding. The dream had come true, here in this moment, with the two of them holding on to each other and rekindling a love that had never really been gone.

  She made a soft little noise in her throat, expressing the pleasure she felt.

  "What is it?" he a
sked.

  "Nothing," Darcy told him. "This is like something from a dream. That's all."

  "I wish I could have dreams like you do."

  His fingers stroked the back of her neck, gently. "I'm living a dream now," she told him. "You can share it with me. I'll let you."

  He chuckled and kissed the top of her head. "So, I have something to tell you," he said.

  "I swear to you," she grumbled, "if I hear you start one more conversation that way I'll have Smudge claw all of your socks to shreds."

  He laughed, tucking his cheek against her hair. "It's a good something this time. I promise."

  "Really? What is it?"

  He gracefully bent her backward into a dip, and locked his eyes with hers. "You remember how I was going to have my guys check on the Handyman Express people? The Whedons?"

  "Yes," she said, breathless form how he was holding her.

  "Well, they did." Bringing her back up, he twirled her and then pulled her back into his chest, and they danced. "When they ran a proper background check, they found an outstanding warrant for Cassidy. It's from a department that's a long way from here, but they figured it was enough to get him talking. Guess what they found when they went to arrest him?"

  "What?"

  "The stuff from the burglaries that have been happening over there."

  He waited for her reaction. Darcy pushed back to look at him, her eyes wide. "Seriously?"

  "Yes, seriously. Turns out our friends the Whedons were using their business to scout out which homes had stuff worth stealing. Giattano Franco unwittingly gave us the tip we needed to solve those cases."

  "So, wait." Her heart fluttered. "Wait, does that mean what I think it means?"

  He nodded. "It sure does. That was the last thing holding me from coming back here. The chief in Oak Hollow is really happy. He offered me a raise to stay on, but I explained that I had a life to get back to."

  Darcy wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his. That was the best news she'd heard in a very, very long time.

  Her mother came over some time later to point out how the song had ended already. They could stop dancing now. Darcy caught Grace's wink, and all she could do was smile back.

  ***

  The next day, everyone slept in. Everyone except Darcy.

  Belinda had come back not long after Rita and Giattano had been arrested. Darcy had explained to her the whole entire situation, how there were no ghosts in her house and the whole thing had been about the money that everyone suspected Belinda of having.

  She had looked at Darcy in a very straightforward way, the smile on her face sad. "My Dominic always pinched a penny until it screamed. Even so, there is no money. Those two fools are going to get themselves sent to jail for nothing. He left me what little he had. The money got spent up a long time ago. The only real treasure he left me is the one I showed you. The memory of him."

  Then she had smiled at Darcy as she turned away. "You're wrong, though. He is here. He's watching over me."

  Darcy hadn't had the heart to argue with her.

  Now, more than a week later, Belinda had called her at the break of dawn. Darcy had grabbed the phone off the bedside table before it could wake up the entire household, careful not to disturb the snoring Jon Tinker lying in bed next to her. When Darcy mumbled a sleepy hello, Belinda answered with just six words.

  "I want to show you something."

  So, tired and wishing the world could just stop for one day, Darcy had put on the first pair of jeans she came to and a long-sleeved t-shirt and her sneakers, and borrowed Jon's car keys. She left a note that didn't say much. She had no idea what Belinda could want to show her, or how long it would take.

  Traffic had been almost nonexistent and it had only taken Darcy a few minutes to get to Belinda's house. She was waiting at the front door when Darcy arrived. "Come on in, dear. I knew you'd want to see this."

  Darcy followed her to the secret door, the two of them not saying anything at all. She couldn't help but notice that the television stand had a fine layer of dust on it, and that some of the photographs on the walls were just a bit crooked. No need for Belinda to clean up night after night anymore, with no one breaking into her house to mess it up.

  Belinda worked the complicated lock, and the secret door opened.

  Down in the basement, Darcy was struck again at how amazing Dominic Franco's life must have been. All of these articles and playbills and newspaper photos to commemorate what he loved doing best. An amazing tribute to an amazing life. No wonder Belinda called these her treasures.

  "Here," she said to Darcy, standing with her hands clasped together, her eyes riveted to one picture in particular. She might have been a statue standing there in a long white dress, except for the way her lip twitched in a smile and a tear rolled down her cheek.

  Darcy followed Belinda's gaze. It brought her to the one picture that wasn't from Dominic's storied Broadway career. The photograph of him dancing with Belinda in their younger days. Even in black and white, their expressions radiated love and happiness.

  The picture was moving.

  She blinked her eyes several times to be sure she actually was seeing what she was seeing. Inside the confines of the rectangular photograph Belinda and Dominic moved in time to silent music, around and around the dance floor, her dress flowing, his one arm wrapped around her waist. It was like a window back on time.

  "How is that…?" she started to ask. That's when she felt it. A presence. A warm, comforting feeling, like having an old friend coming to visit. Before this moment, whenever Darcy had tried to reach out with her sixth sense to look for a ghost in Belinda's house, there wasn't any to be found.

  There was one now.

  "Dominic," Belinda whispered, putting a name to the spirit in the room with them. "My Dominic."

  Slowly, so slowly that Darcy didn't notice it at first, the framed picture began pushing out from the wall. She reached out for it just as it fell, catching it, saving it from crashing to the carpet below. Belinda took it gently from Darcy's hands, staring at the old photograph even though it had stopped moving again. It had become just a snapshot of a memory once more. Maybe in Belinda's mind she could still see that dance from so long ago, when she had been with the love of her life and they'd had all the time in the world.

  Behind where the picture had hung a moment before, the paint on the wall bubbled. A long, oval blister formed with a sound like a whispered sigh. Then it split and cracked and crumbled into pieces so small they might as well have been dust.

  The fractured paint misted down to the floor at their feet. Behind was a square panel of the wall that was different than the rest. Plain wood instead of sheetrock. Maybe ten inches square. At the top of the panel was a hole no bigger around than a finger.

  Whether it was Dominic guiding her or her own intuition, Darcy suddenly understood. The hole was a handle. Using her index finger she pulled the piece of wood away. It gave slowly. It had been sealed in place for years, most likely. Once removed, it revealed a cubby hole.

  And in that, was exactly what Darcy had expected to find.

  Dominic had indeed been saving his pennies. A lot of them, by the looks of it. He'd saved it all for Belinda in the form of twenty dollar bills. A small fortune sat before them. A fortune that Dominic had hidden away here until the time was right. Apparently, he'd run out of days in his life before he'd found the right moment to show Belinda what he'd done.

  So he was showing her now.

  Darcy brought out a stack of twenties still in their bank wrapper. She handed it to Belinda, who took the time to kiss the photo in her hands before accepting her husband's parting gift.

  "Thank you, Dominic," she said, her voice shaky with emotion and tears. "I love you, too."

  --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.

  Her goal is to become a bestselling author, regularly producing noteworthy content and engaging in a community of readers and writers.

  To find out more please visit the Kathrine's website at kathrineemrick.com or her Amazon author page.