The Darcy & Flora Boxed Set

by Blanche Day Manos

  My legs wobbled and threatened to crumple under me. I took a few deep breaths. Now what? True, for the moment my feet were holding me up but they were securely tied together. What should I do? Could I hop out the door and hop my way to freedom? But where would I hide? When Gary and Zack realized I was not in the barn, they would probably find me in no time. After all, I could not go very fast and they would have Zack’s ATV. Gary probably knew every hiding place on his ranch. Could I reach my purse and had they left my gun inside? There was only one way to find out.

  I pushed away from the beam and hopped toward my purse. Dropping down to my knees, I scooted around until I touched it as it lay behind me. I felt the clasp at the top, popped it open, and with the fingertips of both hands, began rummaging through. The gun and cell phone were gone.

  Tears stung my eyes. Now what? Could I hide behind something in the barn and hope that Zack and Gary would not find me? As soon as the idea flashed into my mind, I realized I was grasping at straws. I would have a better chance out in the open. If I could make it to the thick woods, I just might be able to hide. With any luck, Gary was in the house and wouldn’t look out his window to see me. How far was it to the Crowder home? I might have thirty minutes before Zack got back with his four-wheeler. How far could I hop in thirty minutes? Then again, Zack might be back in less time than that.

  My heart beat so fast that breathing hurt. Why had I been so careless as to get caught? The answer came immediately: because I trusted Zack. When he said Gary would be out of town, I believed him. What a traitor!

  My fingers touched a bulge within the zipped-up pocket inside my purse. It wasn’t the gun nor the cell phone. I felt around its shape. It was a knife—Jackson Conner’s knife. Zack and Gary either hadn’t found it or hadn’t thought it was important. After all, what could I do with my hands securely bound behind me? I was about to find out.

  I had often heard someone say, “I could do that with my hands tied behind my back.” I would be willing to bet they never tried unzipping a compartment inside a purse, fishing out a pocketknife, and trying to open the blade of said knife, simply by feeling, and all the while shaking like a leaf.

  After dropping the knife into the bottom of my purse three times, I finally got a firm grip with my left hand. I could feel the indentation where two blades fit snugly inside the knife but which was the long blade and which was the short? I settled on one, slid a fingernail into the groove on the blade and tried to pry it open. It slipped out of my hands and fell. This time it missed the purse and clunked against the wood floor.

  I blindly fished around until once again I had it in my fingers.

  At last I held the knife with my right hand and popped open a blade. I slid the blade under the rope on my left wrist. I sawed back and forth, back and forth, praying that the knives Gary Worth had used as a promotional had good, sharp blades. At last the rope around my wrist snapped and dropped away.

  My shoulders ached and the muscles in my arms felt as if they were going into a full-blown spasm, but my hands were free. I held them out in front of my face and wiggled my fingers. My left wrist had small, bloody cuts but that was okay. The important thing was, my hands were free. Using my left hand, I removed the rope dangling from my right wrist then set to work on the ropes binding my ankles.

  When my feet were free, I felt like dancing; instead, I used one of the old kegs by the door as support and pulled myself up. Hopefully, the feeling would soon return to my legs and arms. Surely, since I had come this far in my fight for freedom, I could slip through that barn door and run toward the road and safety. I had my hand on the door and was about to squeeze through when I heard the sound of a small motor. The noise grew louder. It was unmistakably the roar of an ATV. The motor stopped and heavy footsteps swished through the fallen leaves toward the barn. Cousin Zack had returned.

  Chapter 33

  Where could I hide? Or should I look for a possible escape? A ladder nailed to the far wall reached into the dim recess of the hayloft. Would I have time to dash for the ladder and clamber up out of sight? My answer came when I heard Zack just outside the door.

  “I hope Gary has made himself useful while I was gone,” he muttered.

  My leg bumped into something hard that was leaning against the sliding door. I looked down. A mallet—a heavy, wood maul was once an essential tool for every farmer. Thankfully, Gary had not seen fit to rid himself of this one. I picked it up and my arms sagged with the weight of it.

  Zack stepped inside the barn and squinted toward the back where he had left me. “What the—” he began, but he didn’t have time to finish his sentence.

  Swinging the mallet up and over, I brought it down on the head of this despicable human being. He dropped like a rock and sprawled full length at the door of the barn.

  He didn’t move when I nudged him with my foot. “Oh, dear Lord, I hope to goodness I haven’t killed him,” I whispered. But I’d worry about that later. I didn’t have time right now. Gary would be coming out soon. He and Zack had planned to decide what to do with me when Zack got back. I didn’t want Gary to see Zack knocked out cold on the floor of the barn.

  Would Gary see me if I made a run for it? Maybe that wouldn’t be wise. What I had done to Zack I could also do to Gary as he came through the door but I was going to have to get Zack out of sight. Then maybe while Gary was bending over Zack, I could knock him out, too.

  Somewhere in the back of my mind I realized I wasn’t thinking clearly. How long would Zack stay unconscious? If Gary could see Zack’s prostrate body before he got into the barn, he would be on guard.

  I grabbed Zack’s boot and tugged. He moved a couple of inches. I pulled again and Zack slid another two inches. Grunting and sweating, I moved him inch by slow inch. At last, the full length of Zack Crowder lay out of sight of anyone standing outside the open doorway.

  Dropping Zack’s foot, I ran back to get my mallet. At least with it, I wouldn’t be defenseless. I planned for Gary to lie there beside his partner in crime very soon.

  An arm reached through the door and grabbed me.

  “Not so fast,” Gary growled.

  In my fervor of moving Zack and the scraping noise he had made across the floor, I hadn’t heard Gary’s approach. I mentally kicked myself for letting this happen a second time.

  Adrenalin was pumping and I found a strength I didn’t know I had. “Let go of me, you vermin! You worm!” I yelled. I twisted and turned but he pinned my arms down to my side.

  Gary kicked my feet out from under me and I sat down abruptly. He stood over me, a pistol pointed directly at my head.

  His face contorted into something that reminded me of a wild animal. “I should have done this in the first place,” he snarled.

  I rolled to one side and felt the breath of the bullet as it hissed past my face. Gary was leveling the gun for a second shot but that shot never came. Another explosion echoed throughout the barn and Gary dropped to the floor, his weapon flying off into the shadows.

  Grant appeared in the doorway, his gun drawn. He looked down at Gary who was moaning and holding his leg. Jim Clendon came in behind Grant. He unhooked some handcuffs from his belt and knelt down beside the wounded Gary.

  “I’m bleeding,” Gary moaned. “I’m bleeding to death.”

  Clendon grinned at him. “Probably not. But then, you can’t ever tell about these bullet wounds.”

  Grant sheathed his gun and walked toward me. “Darcy, did they hurt you? Are you all right?”

  I ran into his arms and clung to him as I tried to stop shaking.

  “Oh, Grant, I’m all right now. Thank God you came.”

  Chapter 34

  “At least I know where Andrea is now,” Sophie said. “I know that she is at peace. I am going to have her buried at home, at Inglenook.”

  “That’s the right thing to do,” I said. “Andrea would not want to be anywhere else.”

  “Do you need your cup filled, Grant?” Mom asked, bustling around the ta
ble with her old yellow coffee pot.

  He put his hand over the top of his mug. “No, thanks, Miss Flora. I’m pretty well stocked up on my supply of caffeine for a week or three.”

  “I agree, Aunt Sophie. It’s Andrea’s ranch and, by the way, I had a talk with Tom last night, by telephone. I decided to take your advice. If he had been kinder to Andrea, who knows? She might still be alive. I don’t want Tom Mott after all.”

  For the first time I noticed that Charlene’s left hand was devoid of that big diamond.

  Mom put the coffee pot on the table and sat down next to Jackson Conner.

  “You know, Charlene, that ranch really should be yours by rights. It certainly makes sense. Jackson, do you think you could look at the legalities and see what we can do?” Sophie asked.

  Jackson Conner nodded. “I’ll be glad to look into it.”

  “What about Earlene, Mom? Have you talked to her since Zack was arrested?”

  “I’ve tried but she won’t speak to me. You know, she sat right by her son’s bed all the time he was in the hospital and she wouldn’t see anybody. Now that he’s in jail, she keeps all the curtains drawn in her house. I guess she and J. Lee are grieving in their own way.”

  “I’m glad I didn’t hit Zack hard enough to kill him.”

  I looked at these people sitting around my mother’s table on this autumn morning and felt a warm rush of affection for each one. Two days had passed since I opened my eyes and found myself a prisoner in Gary Worth’s barn. I shivered and lifted my coffee cup.

  “Cold, Darcy?” Grant patted my shoulder.

  “No, just thinking of some ‘what ifs.’ I’d like to propose a toast.”

  “Hear, hear,” Jackson said.

  “I want to thank all of you, my family and friends, for caring and for helping and for gathering here at Mom’s table. You are special and dear to me. So I want to drink to all of you.”

  Mom lifted her cup. “I add my thanks to Darcy’s.”

  Sophie wiped tears from her eyes. “Words can’t express how grateful I am for your help, Darcy and Flora, and Grant. You didn’t give up, even though your own lives were in danger. And I’m very thankful that we have all come through this ordeal together.”

  Cups lifted and clinked together over the table.

  “Grant,” I said, “if you hadn’t come into the barn when you did, this wouldn’t be happening now. Gary and Zack might still be scot-free instead of in the Ventris County jail. And I might be . . . might be . . . .”

  “But you’re not,” Mom said. “And I don’t know how to say thank you, Grant, for giving me back my daughter.”

  “How did you know where to find me?” I asked him.

  Grant rubbed the side of his nose. “We had been keeping an eye on Gary for a while. We suspected he was bringing in drugs but we could never catch him. And, we suspected Zack Crowder knew more than he should about it. Jim Clendon was staked out at Zack’s, watching his place. When Jim saw Zack take out his ATV, he phoned me and we followed him.”

  I smiled across the table at Jackson Conner. “I’m glad you left your pocketknife on the kitchen table, Mr. Conner. If you hadn’t, well, I don’t know . . . .”

  “The point is, I did, Darcy. No use dwelling on all those ‘what ifs.’”

  Mom scooted the yellow coffee pot across the table. “Grant, I just know you need some more.

  Grant shrugged, picked up the pot and poured a cupful.

  “Grant, did you ever find out who it was at Spirit Leap that night? Or maybe it was my imagination.”

  “Never found a thing, Darcy. Sorry.”

  Sophie scooted back from the table. “Charlene and I need to go back to Amarillo. I’ve got to talk to some of Andrea’s friends. They will want to come to her memorial service.”

  She was interrupted by a knock at the door. Mom looked at me questioningly.

  “I’ll go, Mom,” I said. “Just sit still.”

  Jasper Harris stood on the front porch, twisting his ball cap round and round. “Miss Darcy, may I come in? I need to tell you all something.”

  “Well, sure. Of course, Jasper.” Was he well? Jasper hid away from people. He wouldn’t even come home if he saw a car in his own driveway. And now he was here, when he could plainly see there were three extra cars in front of my mother’s house? I would have to circle this date on the calendar.

  Everyone at the table looked up as Jasper followed me into the kitchen. His face grew red and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

  Mom smiled at him. “Jasper, would you like some coffee? I have cookies on the counter. I’ll bet you are hungry.”

  “No, thanks, Miss Flora,” he mumbled. “Sheriff, I reckon it’s just as well you’re here, too, ’cause I got something to confess. I hope I ain’t broke no laws but, well, I just gotta get it off my chest. I’ve been worrying about it.”

  Grant looked sharply at him. “Go ahead, Jasper.”

  I had wondered what Jasper knew about Andrea’s burial. Maybe he was going to tell us that he saw who put her under Pat’s garage floor.

  Jasper cleared his throat and ran a finger under the collar of his blue-checked shirt. “There’s actually a couple of things I gotta confess. I was out in the woods two years ago when Zack brought Andrea down that trail back of Worth’s house. He was on his ATV and he had her in a little trailer thing behind him. It was dark and I didn’t know it was Andrea, but after I heard she was missing, I . . . well, I just put two and two together.”

  Sophie made a choking sound and covered her face with her hands.

  Grant frowned. “Jasper, you should have come to me right away. You know that, don’t you?”

  Jasper nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  Grant’s chair scraped the floor as he pushed away from the table and stood up. “You may have to testify in court, Jasper. Don’t you go running away anywhere, you understand? If you do, you’ll be in trouble, too.”

  Jasper bit his lip and looked at the floor. “There’s something else. You remember, Miss Darcy, when you were out at Spirit Leap? Fact is, I was there, too. I didn’t think you saw me. I was back in the timber. You see, I’d been trailing a mountain lion. I saw one sneakin’ around our house and I was afraid he was going to get poor ole Murphy, my hound dog. So I got my rifle and I started trailing him. He came right through your pasture, Miss Darcy.”

  I put up my hand. “Wait, wait a minute. Was that you that I heard back in the woods when I was sitting out at Spirit Leap?”

  He nodded and dropped his head. “’Fraid so. But you weren’t in danger from me. You were in danger from that big cat. I think he may have been watching you, Miss Darcy, and I scared him off when I came. I guess you heard him or me. You jumped up and ran like a jackrabbit to the house. I watched until I knew you were safe back at Miss Flora’s.”

  “Jasper, do you have a knife?” I asked.

  “Yep, one I got from Gary Worth quite a while back. He was givin’ them out for free but I lost it somewhere around. Why? Did you find it?”

  Grant nodded. “She found it by that big boulder she was sitting on. Did you happen to be over there?”

  “I guess so. I walked around some after I saw Miss Darcy was safe from the mountain lion. I’m sure glad you found it. It’s a good knife.”

  I put my arms around Jasper and gave him a hug. “You’ll never know how happy I am that you told us this. Thanks, Jasper. You’ve been a good friend.”

  He stood stiffly enduring my hug and turned even redder.

  “Stop by the office tomorrow, Jasper,” Grant said. “I’ve got your knife and I’ll be glad to give it back.”

  Jasper nodded and grinned. Then he bolted for the front door. We heard it slam behind him.

  Mom sighed. “Well, I guess the last part of the mystery is solved now; all the loose ends tied up.”

  Sophie pushed back her chair. She and Charlene stood up. “For some reason, I feel stronger than I’ve felt in a long time,” she said. “Maybe it’s just
because this horrible nightmare is over.”

  Nightmares. Hopefully, they would quit plaguing my dreams one of these nights. After hugs and handshakes, Sophie and Charlene went out the door and climbed into Charlene’s little sports car.

  “Mom, when you got that letter from Sophie we had no idea what reading it would get us into. But I’m grateful that Sophie knows now that her daughter is at peace.”

  The phone rang. Not good timing on the part of the caller, but I excused myself and hurried to answer it.

  “Got that info for you, Darcy.” Max Sutton was always direct and didn’t mince words.

  “I’d know your voice anywhere, Maxie. What did you find out?”

  “Gary’s dad, the senior Worth, was in the residential construction business for many years and evidently did good work and had a solid business reputation. Then the old man got sick and Gary took over. He changed the name of the business to Cobblestone Homes and changed everything else about it too—used cheap materials, did shoddy work, and soon became blacklisted in the construction business. His dad died right before Gary did all that. I guess Gary inherited his dad’s money.”

  “How long ago was that, Maxie?”

  “Probably seven or eight years. Everybody expected him to go through his wad and go bust but suddenly, although he was putting up fewer and fewer buildings, his financial situation looked like it improved. There were speculations as to why this happened. Then rumors began to circulate about Gary and drugs. Just rumors, mind you. Nothing he could be arrested for.”

  “Thanks, Maxie. I believe you are right. Gary was heavily involved in drug traffic. But right now he’s in jail and we’ve found his wife. He killed her, Maxie, to keep her quiet.”

  There was silence on the Texas end of the phone call. Then I heard Maxie draw a deep breath. “Well, keep me posted,” he said. “I’d love to break that story.”

  And on that note I replaced the phone and rejoined Mom, Jackson, and Grant.

  “An important call?” Mom asked.