The Stolen Valentine

by K. J. Emrick

  “So what are we supposed to do?”

  They were at their car again now, and Jon smiled at her as he got in behind the wheel. “We’re going to go talk to someone who outranks him.”

  ***

  The Oak Hollow Police Department was a lot larger than Misty Hollow’s. The building they worked out of was three stories high and a line of black and white patrol cars sat out front. Officers going in and out passed Jon and Darcy as they went up to the desk sergeant and introduced themselves.

  “We’ve been expecting you,” the desk sergeant said to them. “Go on in.”

  They were met by a lieutenant, a long-faced man with old eyes in a young face. After going over the same exact information that the sergeant at the scene had given them, the lieutenant led them to a back room where a monitor was hooked up to humming black DVD players.

  They sat and watched as the surveillance video from the bank robbery was played for them. It was time stamped, two days ago, 1:43pm. They watched as a tall man with blonde hair wearing a black knee-length coat entered the bank. Darcy recognized him immediately. “That’s Aaron.”

  The lieutenant nodded, taking notes.

  As they continued to watch, three men in black coats and black ski masks rushed in, pointing guns at the teller and at Aaron. One of the robbers went up to the teller, obviously screaming.

  “There’s no audio?” Jon asked.

  “No,” the lieutenant said with a shake of his head. “We keep suggesting it to all the banks and businesses in our jurisdiction, but no one listens.”

  Suddenly the robber screaming at the teller grabbed the poor guy by his arms and dragged him over the counter. They started struggling, but the robber showed his gun again and the teller wisely went still. Then the three men in their black masks took both the teller and Aaron out the back.

  The teller had messy red hair and a wide, honest face. Darcy could see the fear in his eyes as the robbers led him away. Or, maybe that was her imagination.

  Darcy wasn’t sure when she had started to cry, but the tears were hot on her cheeks now. She wiped at them and hung her head and had no idea what to do.

  Chapter Ten

  It was Jon who came up with their next step. Looking through the reports before they left, he caught the name and address of the bank teller from the robbery. Ray Stephenson, 58 Crescent Circle. He didn’t tell Darcy what he had done until they had thanked the lieutenant and were back out in Jon’s car.

  “Why can’t we just go with the Oak Hollow PD to talk to his wife?” she asked.

  “I don’t want to get into a jurisdictional snarl. Plus, you pointed out yourself that this is personal. There’s only so much official police procedure will let us do.”

  Darcy knew what he meant. She’d seen enough police interrogations now, being with Jon, to know his hands were tied by the laws he upheld. Still, she admired him for doing what he did. How did he deal with things like this every day and not come home angry every night?

  She loved him more in that moment than she had the moment before, and she figured the next moment would bring something new for her to love.

  As Jon pulled up in front of Ray’s house in one of the city’s residential districts, Darcy could see that the home was small but well kept. It had white painted board siding and little shrubs to the sides of the front steps. A little stone walkway joined the house to the sidewalk. Someone had spent a lot of time on it all. It had a very inviting atmosphere and definitely showed a woman’s touches.

  Darcy knocked on the door while Jon stood back by silent agreement. A few moments later, the door was opened by a middle-aged woman with graying blonde hair in a slim blue dress. She had a worried look in her eyes and Darcy knew immediately that this was Ray’s wife. “Mrs. Stephenson,” Darcy said to her with a careful smile. “My name is Darcy Sweet. This is Jon Tinker. Um. My brother-in-law was taken in the robbery. Just like Ray. Do you…could we come in, do you think?”

  The woman blinked and seemed to come back to herself. “Oh sorry, yes sure. Please. Come on in.” She stood back to let them enter and then guided them into the living room. It was a cozy space, small but brightly decorated with knick knacks and stylish lamps and two plush couches that had floral designs on their cushions. She motioned Darcy and Jon to one of these. “Please sit down. I’m…I’m so sorry about your brother-in-law, Darcy.”

  She started to cry, but then caught herself and sat down on the couch across from them. “Now. What can I do for you?”

  “Mrs. Stephenson—“ Darcy began.

  “Please call me Heather,” the woman said with a weary smile.

  Darcy nodded. “Heather. Could you tell me more about Ray? Anything that might help us understand what happened to Aaron?”

  “Aaron? Is that your brother-in-law?”

  Darcy nodded. “Yes. We’re very worried about him. Just like you are for Ray. Maybe we can help each other. Can you think of any reason why the robbers would take Ray hostage?”

  Heather’s eyes widened. “I never thought of…no. There’s no reason for it. Ray wasn’t into anything dangerous. He didn’t gamble. He didn’t even go out to drink! What are you saying? Are you saying that this is my Ray’s fault?”

  Darcy knew she had offended Heather with her question even though she hadn’t meant to. Jon leaned forward to take over. “We know it wasn’t Ray’s fault, Heather. We’re just trying to figure out anything we can. Aaron is a good man, too. He has a baby on the way and his wife is worried sick.”

  “Oh my,” Heather said, putting her hands to her mouth. “I didn’t know. Ray…Ray was my whole world. Without him, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” She couldn’t hold the tears back anymore, and they started falling down her cheeks.

  As Jon continued to ask questions, getting little or no answer, Darcy stood up and quietly began walking around the living room. There were several photographs hung on the wall, and she recognized Ray in several of them. He smiled in most of them, his green eyes a good match for his red hair. He seemed so happy. A good man caught in a bad situation. On a corner table where one of the lamps stood, there was a little bowl full of loose change and other things. Among them, a plastic nametag with Ray’s name on it.

  Checking quickly over her shoulder to make sure Heather wasn’t watching, Darcy palmed the nametag and stuffed it into her pocket.

  Jon looked up at her as she came back to the couch. With a look, Darcy told him it was time to go. He smiled back at her, catching on. “Well, thank you for talking with us, Heather. Really. We have to go, but we’ll keep in touch. Can we get your phone number? Maybe we can call each other if we hear anything?”

  Heather was only too happy to do so. Darcy was glad when they were finally walking out of Heather’s house and getting back into Jon’s car. The stolen nametag with its little pin on the back was burning a hole in her pocket. She hated stealing it from Heather, especially when the woman was going through the same grief that she and Grace were, but she needed something personal of Ray’s.

  Her abilities worked in very specific ways, and she had the feeling she was going to need them if they were going to find Aaron.

  ***

  The car ride back to Misty Hollow was miserable for both of them. They had decided not to call ahead to Grace. This was the kind of news that you had to tell someone in person.

  Everything had hit Darcy at once as they drove away from Heather’s house. All of the emotion she had worked so hard to keep hidden for Grace’s sake filled her now like lead in a balloon. She felt weighed down and useless.

  “I don’t get it,” she said as they neared the town limits. “If Aaron is still with the bank robbers, why are they holding on to him? If they let him go, then where is he? Why hasn’t he called?” She wiped a hand over her face and stared out the car window.

  “Everything will be all right,” Jon said to her after a moment.

  Darcy wished she could believe it. “You don’t know that.”

  “Okay,” he ad
mitted. “I don’t know that for sure. But Grace is a strong woman. Aaron’s a good man. You and I have solved harder things than this.”

  The tears were threatening to come again. “Sure. But this one is personal.” She thought of the cases that she had helped Jon with, the murders and the deceits involved in them, and she thought too about how they’d had to get past his accepting her abilities. He was right when he said they’d solved harder things before. They would work together on this one, and she wouldn’t stop until they’d solved it.

  “We will get Aaron back,” he said to her, as if he could read her mind.

  She reached over and took his hand in hers while he worked the wheel one-handed. She knew they would do everything they could together to solve the mystery of what had happened to Aaron.

  And she would do everything she could. Her abilities had helped her in the past. They had to help her now.

  Chapter Eleven

  Darcy and Jon headed straight for Grace and Aaron’s apartment when they got back to Misty Hollow. The skies had darkened as they travelled home and a few flakes of snow had fallen. The air was very chilled. On the cold breeze that blew through town, wisps of mist floated. They were thicker and heavier than they had been even this morning.

  Grace met them at the door and the look of hope in her eyes nearly did Darcy in. When they sat her down and gave her the news about Aaron being kidnapped there was a horrible moment when Darcy saw her sister break down completely. She cried hysterically, clinging to Darcy, while the two sisters held each other in silent support.

  When Grace could pull herself together again she sat up straight and rubbed angrily at her eyes. “So what are we doing? What are we doing to get him back?”

  Jon looked at Darcy. They’d been expecting that question. “Grace,” Jon said to her, “we’re going to let the boys over in Oak Hollow do their job. They know the players over there like we never could. We’d be in the way.”

  “I can’t accept that!” Grace yelled. “I will not sit here and do nothing while my husband is in the hands of those…those…!”

  Darcy felt Grace trembling with anger. “We aren’t going to just sit here. I promise. I know what I’m about to say is a long shot, but I’m going to try to track Ray and Aaron. I stole something personal from Ray Stephenson’s house. We’ve got plenty of Aaron’s stuff here. I’ll find them. I’ll find Aaron.”

  Grace looked terrified. Darcy knew how much stress this was putting on her sister, and that couldn’t be good for the baby. “Darcy, you can’t find them. They’d have to be dead. Aaron is not dead, you hear me. He isn’t!”

  “I know, I know,” Darcy said quickly. “I don’t think that Aaron’s dead. I promise. I just have to try, though. I’ll push myself as far as I can. I’ll make it work, somehow.”

  Grace looked at her then with dull eyes, all the fight gone out of her. “You just try anything that you think will work, Darcy.”

  ***

  Smudge came running to greet her when Darcy got back to her house. Jon had let her borrow his car, even though she could have walked home in under an hour. They didn’t want to waste any time. Besides, it was getting colder out. Winter wasn’t done with them yet.

  Closing the door behind her, she bent down to rub Smudge behind his black and white ears. “I’m going to need your help,” she told him. “We’re going to try something a little different this time.”

  Smudge meowed back at her. He sounded a little doubtful.

  It didn’t take her long to gather together the things that she needed from around the house. She brought them to the living room, where she would have a wide and comfortable space of floor to sit on, then she stood there, wondering. Twisting the ring on her finger and chewing her lip, she wished now that she’d let Jon come with her like he wanted to. She’d asked him to stay with Grace, though. It was more important that her sister had someone with her. Darcy had done this before. It shouldn’t be any problem.

  She hoped.

  Darcy went around and closed all the curtains tight across the windows in the living room, casting it into darkness. She arranged the six thick, white candles in a circle on the floor and lit them in order, one at a time. Then she lit two incense sticks and placed them in their burner on the coffee table. The incense didn’t really do anything for her purposes. She just liked the smell. It relaxed her.

  She picked up the two objects she had brought with her. Ray’s nametag from work, and Aaron’s favorite book. She’d never read “The Bell Broke,” but she’d seen Aaron reading it through more than once. That would be more than good enough to make a connection with him. She grimaced as she thought that. She didn’t want her brother-in-law to be dead. At the same time, she didn’t know if she could make a connection strong enough to find him still alive.

  Smudge raced over to her and climbed into her lap and made himself comfortable. “Thanks, Smudge,” she said to him, gently stroking his fur until she was calm enough to proceed.

  She started with Aaron first. She held the book tightly in her two hands, and concentrated. In her mind, she pictured the mists of the town. She let them swirl and twist, trying to make a connection through them. Time passed. She didn’t know how long she sat like that, but finally she popped her eyes open and took a deep breath and admitted to herself there was no connection to be made to Aaron.

  It almost made her smile. That was good news. Right? It meant Aaron was still alive.

  She hoped.

  Next, Darcy picked up Ray’s nametag. She concentrated again, on picturing Ray’s face among the mists in her mental picture. She stroked Smudge’s fur idly, unable to disconnect fully from the world around her. She could always delve deep into the world of the other side when there was someone to contact.

  She guessed that was good news, too. Ray Stephenson was still alive.

  It was hopeless. She couldn’t feel him in any way. Gently nudging her faithful cat off her lap she stood up and blew out the candles. She racked her brain for anything else she could do. Nothing was coming to her and she was getting more and more frustrated.

  As she was putting the candles away the phone rang. Darcy’s skin crawled with icy prickles, and she had the feeling that something wasn’t right. Rushing to the phone she answered it to hear Jon’s voice. “Grace is in a lot of pain. The ambulance will be here any minute. We’ll be going to the hospital over in Meadowood. Meet us there, okay?”

  The baby, Darcy thought to herself as she ran to get her coat and the keys to Jon’s car. She was in a near panic as she gunned the accelerator, making the car fishtail out to the road. Grace could not lose this baby. It would just be too much.

  Chapter Twelve

  Darcy had risked more than a few traffic tickets on her way to Meadowood. Rushing through the doors of the hospital Darcy headed for the information desk. “Can you tell me where they took Grace Wentworth, please,” she asked the woman at the front desk.

  The woman, short and squat with dark hair and a perpetual frown, looked up at her. “That depends, honey. Are you a relative?”

  “I’m her sister. Darcy Sweet.”

  The woman nodded, her eyes turning kinder. “They told me to expect you. Hold on, now.” She tapped a few keys on the computer in front of her. “Yes, still in the Emergency Department. Go through them doors right there, okay? I’ll buzz you through.”

  The swinging doors opened to her as the woman unlocked them with a touch of a button, and Darcy hurried through into a brightly lit space dominated by a rectangular desk. Behind that desk, doctors and nurses in different colored scrubs and white coats stared at computer screens or scribbled out orders. Doors leading to different rooms stood lined up along three sides of the Emergency Department, all of the doors closed to protect patient privacy.

  Jon was standing outside of room six, and he held his arms out to Darcy as she rushed over to him. “It’s okay, everything is going to be all right. The doctors say it’s likely just stress. There’s going to be a few more tests, but
they aren’t worried. Grace is more embarrassed than anything else.”

  Darcy was so relieved that she practically collapsed into his arms. She started to cry and hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go. “Everything is so overwhelming right now, Jon. What are we going to do?”

  Jon hugged her back and kissed the top of her head. “It’s okay, I’m going to make sure that everything works out.” He kissed her again.

  She wanted to believe him. She just wanted to be held and protected right now. She knew that must be all that Grace wanted, too. “Thank you for being here for me,” Darcy said to him as she stood up on her toes to kiss him full on the lips. She didn’t care who was watching.

  He palmed her cheek and smiled at her. “I will always be here for you.”

  She hugged him one more time and then stepped back. “Can I see Grace?”

  “Not yet. The doctor is in there with her. He said we can go in as soon as he comes out to get us.”

  ***

  They went out to the hospital waiting room and Jon got them both cups of coffee from the vending machine. It was lukewarm and disgusting. Darcy hardly tasted it as she sipped at it, worrying about Grace, and Aaron, and their baby. As they sat side by side in plastic chairs, Darcy felt the same icy tingles crawling across her skin that she had felt when Jon had called to say Grace was going to the hospital.

  She sat up straighter and looked around. Something felt off to her again. She couldn’t place what. “Do you feel anything?” she asked Jon.

  “No. Like what?”

  Instead of answering him Darcy stood up and said, “I’ll be right back.” He gave her a look with raised eyebrows but didn’t try to stop her. He was used to her odd little behaviors now. He didn’t even find them that strange anymore. Or, at least that’s what he told her.

  She felt herself being pulled in a certain direction. The tingling along her skin drew her down the hallway into the hospital, to the right and up a set of stairs to the second floor. It was all patient rooms up here. The nurses at their station smiled at Darcy politely, then ignored her.