by K. J. Emrick
“Oh, yes.” Althea took a sip of her tea. “He handles all of that. Terry Lucas is his name.”
“Such a nice man.”
“He certainly is. I quite agree.”
“We’ll be opening the will soon.”
“If he doesn’t delay it again.”
Darcy didn’t know how they were able to keep going like that, with hardly a breath. She supposed it was something they had gotten used to after living together for so long, with basically just each other to talk to.
When they paused long enough to take a drink, Darcy asked another question she had on her mind. “Do either of you remember Jess O’Conner?”
“That dreadful woman,” Jozelle said right away.
“She led Steve down the wrong path,” Althea said with a confident nod.
“She’s the reason my son went to prison,” Jozelle grumbled. “If not for her affair with Steve, he never would have stolen all that money and killed those poor people.”
Darcy found herself nodding along. “I remember.” Although, she also remembered Steve being a big boy and doing all of that by his own choice. Including, she might add, two murders. “Did Steve ever mention Jess to you while he was in prison? I mean, he must have sent you letters, right? Did he ever say anything about Jess?”
Jozelle pursed her lips. “He claimed to still be in love with her, if you can believe that. My son had a blind spot when it came to that woman. Nothing I could do or say would convince him otherwise.”
“Not your fault,” Althea assured her. “Men are dumb animals, as you well know.”
“I certainly do, sister.”
“But,” Darcy said, trying to control the conversation again, “did he ever say he and Jess were still in contact?”
“Oh, yes,” Jozelle said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “They were writing to each other as well.”
Darcy put that piece into the puzzle. Steve would have known about his grandfather passing away. His mother would have written to him in prison about that. He, in turn, could very well have written a letter to Jess O’Conner promising he would be rich again, very soon. She would have seen another chance to dig her claws into Steve. Or at least, into his pockets.
It all fit, but only if Steve was going to get money from the will, of course. Otherwise there would be no money for Jess, either. So once again, it all came back to the will.
“You know,” Jozelle said, lifting her teacup, “I do believe that Darcy thought we came over here to find out about Steve’s murder.”
“Oh, my, I think you’re correct,” Althea said. “That’s not right.”
Darcy blinked at them as they went on like that, finishing each other’s sentences and agreeing so politely with each other. “I don’t understand. You’re not here about Steve?”
Another look between them. “I thought,” Jozelle said, “that it was, well…”
“…obvious,” Althea finished. “We wanted to ask you about joining the book club at your store.”
“Exactly,” Jozelle agreed. “We have time on our hands, now that our father has passed away. We’ve been wondering what to do with ourselves and then you showed up at our doorstep. Why, it was like a sign from above.”
“Oh, yes,” Althea agreed. “Two old women, with no family left to them… oh, dear. I’m sorry, Jozelle.”
Her sister had set her cup down, sadly staring at the dark brew inside. “It’s all right, sister. My son is gone. I’ve had a day to come to terms with that, and years to feel his loss while he was in prison.” She sighed heavily. “It was just the way things had to be, I suppose. You’re the only family I have left.”
Darcy’s heart went out to her again. Even though Steve was a despicable excuse for a human being, he was still Jozelle’s son, and he was still murdered and gone.
“You still have your daughter,” she reminded Jozelle. “Gloria is…”
“In jail,” Jozelle said bitterly. “I’ve lost her as well. She never spent a moment on me all these years and I won’t spend time on her now, either. In a way, I’ve been without my daughter longer than I’ve been without my son.”
Darcy was trying to decide what she could possibly say to that, or even if it was her place to say anything, when there was another knock on her door. She was popular today.
At the same time, she heard Colby coming down the stairs. Upstairs she heard Zane calling out for his mother. Now it was a full house. There was no way she was going to make it to the bookstore on time. Izzy had been right.
The knock at her door came again, a rhythmic sort of rapping that was annoying and sort of amusing all at once. It certainly drew her attention. At the table, Jozelle and Althea sipped at their tea and looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to answer it.
“Mom,” Colby said, coming straight into the kitchen and wrapping her little arms around Darcy. “Mom, someone’s at the door.”
Thanks, Darcy thought to herself, but she definitely didn’t need her daughter’s sixth sense to tell her that one. “I know, honey. I’m just going to see who it is. Would you be able to go upstairs and get Zane out of his crib? He’s going to be hungry so bring him right down and we’ll have breakfast.”
Colby rubbed at her sleepy eyes, the sleeves of her oversized pink pajamas hanging down past her wrists. “Okay, Mom. You should fix your hair.”
“Oh?” Darcy asked. “Is that so? What’s wrong with my hair?”
Her daughter gave her another quick hug. “Nothing. It’s just what people do when they’re going to be on television. They fix their hair.”
She skipped off through the living room to head for the stairs again, leaving Darcy reflexively running her fingers through her bangs.
“My, what a spirited daughter you have,” Althea told her.
“So full of energy,” Jozelle agreed.
“Takes after her mother.”
“She certainly does, Jozelle.”
“Pass the sugar, please.”
“It’s right in front of you. Why, you’re blind as a bat.”
“I am not!”
“You are so! Put your glasses on.”
“They are on. Put yours on!”
Darcy rolled her eyes and tried to suppress a smile. This morning was turning out to be anything but ordinary. She found herself wishing that Millie was here, still alive, because the thought of her sitting at the table with those two… she was sure Millie would have enjoyed herself.
The knock at the door this time was to the rhythm of Shave and a Haircut without the final two raps. Amusing, but annoying.
Wondering again who would be at the door at this hour, she pulled the curtain back from the window to see.
Her jaw must have dropped to the floor.
When she recovered from the shock of seeing that face again, she dropped the curtain back in place. For a moment, just one single moment, she considered not opening the door at all. No. That wouldn’t work. She couldn’t just leave this woman standing on her doorstep all day. Knowing her, she’d stay right there until the snow flew, if that was what it took to get inside.
So, Darcy took a breath, and steeled herself for whatever was coming next, and opened the door.
The woman smiled, standing there in a smart black pantsuit and a braided gold necklace, strikingly beautiful as ever. Her tight brown curls hung down past her shoulders. She was very tan from the summer sun. Hers was the perfect face for television news, with her pert nose and high cheekbones and perfectly symmetrical features. Her smile had a wattage that would put most LED flashlights to shame. It was a permanent feature.
Brianna Watson had always known how to use that smile to her best advantage. It was one of the things that had taken her from newspaper reporter to featured news anchor for EZTV, Channel Eight.
“Heya Darcy,” she said cheerfully. “Miss me?”
Oh. Now Darcy understood what Colby had said to her. Fix her hair, because that’s what people did when they were on television.
Now here was
Brianna Watson, television reporter extraordinaire…
Great. Just what she needed. She was really going to have to talk to Colby about being more specific with her little premonitions.
She hadn’t seen Brianna—except on television—in years. For a while she was in Misty Hollow every other week, reporting on the bizarre things that always seemed to happen here. The town had always been a magnet for trouble, and Brianna had reveled in every murder and fatal motor vehicle accident and robbery. Not that she liked seeing bad things happen, to be fair, but she certainly knew how to use those events to her advantage. Sometimes, she even reported the whole truth without any embellishment. Sometimes.
No. Darcy definitely did not want her here. There was nothing for it, though, except to politely find a way to tell her to get lost.
“What are you doing here, Brianna?”
There. That was polite. Sort of.
Somehow, she managed to turn up the brightness of her smile. “Now, Darcy Sweet, is that any way to greet an old friend?”
There were lots of words Darcy would use to describe Brianna. She wasn’t sure “friend” was one of them. “Brianna, I’m really busy. As you can see, I’ve got company over, and my kids are in the living room waiting on breakfast, so if you don’t mind—”
“Kids! Plural? As in, more than one? Oh wait, that’s right, I heard you had a second little ankle biter. Boy or girl?”
“Uh, boy,” Darcy said, disarmed by the sudden change in the conversation. “His name’s Zane but he isn’t a little baby anymore. He’s just over a year and a half old now.”
“Wow. That is simply amazing. Can I come in and meet him? Where is the little rascal?”
She took a step to go around Darcy, and Darcy moved with her, like a pro football player blocking the quarterback.
“Brianna, I asked you a question. Why are you here?”
“Oh, chasing a story, like usual.” Brianna folded her arms, leaning over to look past Darcy’s shoulder again. When she saw Jozelle and Althea her eyes flashed with keen interest. “Well, hello there. You must be Darcy’s company.”
“You see, Jozelle!” Althea beamed. “I told you I knew her. That’s the Watson woman from the Channel Eight news.”
“I never watch the news,” Jozelle said. “It’s all so depressing.”
“She’s not depressing. Just look at her. She’s such a pretty woman.”
“I was that pretty, when I was young.”
Althea chuckled. “In your dreams, old woman.”
Brianna glowed under the compliment. “Why, thank you both. That’s so nice of you to say. Mind if I join you?”
“Oh, please do,” Althea said. “Darcy has just made us the most wonderful tea. I’m sure she won’t mind making you some, too.”
“Wonderful!” Brianna exclaimed. “Tea all around, Darcy. There’s a good girl.”
Barely holding her temper at that comment, Darcy went to the stove and turned the burner on under the kettle again. She felt like she was losing control of the whole entire day. What she wouldn’t give for Jon to walk through the door right now. Wishing didn’t make it so, however.
“Mom?” Colby called in from the living room. “Can we have breakfast now? Zane’s hungry.”
Darcy closed her eyes for a moment and counted to ten. Her children had to come first. So, Brianna Watson had gotten herself into the house, and she was here, and there was nothing to be done about that. Breakfast first.
She got out Colby’s favorite cold cereal and poured out a bowl, putting in slices from half a banana. Zane would get the other half of the banana, and more of his cheerios. Sometimes she would make pancakes for the kids but with everything going on today that was out of the question. Jozelle and Althea were talking almost nonstop with Brianna. They were laughing and sipping tea as Darcy brought the breakfast out to the other room. Darcy tried to eavesdrop, but it all seemed like unimportant small talk to her.
She got Zane set up in his highchair and clipped the tray in place. He laughed as he attacked the cheerios and fruit with both hands.
“Thanks, Mom,” Colby said, not taking her eyes off the cartoon show on the television. “You should ask her to leave. She’s a bad woman.”
“This I know, kiddo.” Darcy ruffled Colby’s auburn curls. “She’ll be gone soon, promise.”
In fact, when she went back to the kitchen, Brianna was already standing up from the kitchen table. The kettle had started to whistle, and she was over at the stove, turning the burner off. “Oh, hey there Darcy. Listen, thanks for the offer of the tea but I’ve got to run. Wanna walk me out?”
Did she ever. “Well, if you have to go, I suppose,” she said sarcastically.
Brianna gave her a sideways glance. “You’re all heart, Darcy Sweet. That’s one of the things that I’ve always liked best about you. Come on. My car is parked out on the road. You really should consider getting a longer driveway. Hey, you ever take that Honda Civic of yours out for a spin? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you drive. Like, ever.”
She kept going on and on like that while they went outside, into the warm morning sunlight. When they got to the road, right next to Brianna’s new electric vehicle, she finally stopped talking. Folding her arms across her chest, she leaned a hip against her door. “Nice old ladies. Turns out they were just exactly who I needed to talk to.”
“What do you mean? Why are you here, Brianna?”
“I’m here for a story, like I told you.” She used a finger to stroke one perfect eyebrow. “A man who was just released from prison for murdering two people here in Misty Hollow turns up murdered here himself. Then, his sister is passing through at the same time and gets arrested on some pretty serious drug trafficking charges? Wow! That’s news. Like, big news. Any chance the sister killed Steve? I mean, that would make a killer angle for the story. No pun intended.”
Darcy glared at her as she waited for an answer. “No comment.”
“Figured as much. Anyway, my producers wanted me here soon as we heard about it.”
Great, Darcy thought to herself. It was like a shark smelling blood in the water. “Fine, but why did that bring you to my doorstep?”
“Oh, Darcy, come on now.” She laughed in a way that wasn’t exactly mocking. “I thought you were smarter than that. This murder affects you, personally. I mean, this Steve Nelson guy killed your ex-husband. He killed your neighbor. If I remember correctly, he tried to kill you. I mean, that whole mess was before I came into your life, but hey we all have to wait for the sun to shine, am I right?”
Darcy sighed. She got it now. Brianna was here looking for an angle to her story. “I’m not giving you a quote. You’ll just have to do your story without me.”
Brianna titled her head to one side. “I don’t know why you have to do me like that, Darcy Sweet. Every story I’ve ever done with you in it has made you look like a superstar, and you know it.”
“That’s a matter of opinion, I guess. I’m still not giving you a quote. Now, I have to get back to my kids, so if there’s nothing else?”
“How about Mister Man, that husband of yours? Think he’d give me a few minutes for an interview?”
“Not likely.” Darcy shook her head. “He’s in the middle of the investigation, and you know how that goes. No press until they have something to say.”
“Wow, you said that like an old pro. Well, sure you did. You’ve seen stuff like this even more than I have.” She shrugged and dug into her suitcoat pocket for her keys. “Not that it matters. Turns out those women in there are the mother and the aunt of Steve Nelson. It was really nice of you to let me sit and talk with them. They had some really interesting things to say about Steve. Couple of things about you, too. They really like you.”
“Good to know. I like them, too. I feel bad for Jozelle, losing her son and her father in just a matter of a few months like this.”
Brianna’s eyes got bigger. “Her father? So, Steve’s grandfather died too? Hmm. They didn’t say anything
about that. Good to know. See how helpful you’re being for me, Darcy Sweet?”
Darcy ground her teeth together. Somehow, Brianna always managed to work a little morsel of information out of her. She was good at her job, Darcy had to give her that. There had been several stories she’d uncovered that no one had known anything about until she was there to shed her journalistic light on them. Darcy wasn’t saying that Brianna didn’t deserve her spot on network television. She just wished that spot would stay far away from her.
“So, I’m gonna go,” Brianna said, swinging the keys around her finger. “But since you helped me out, I’m gonna help you out too. Those nice old women in there? Don’t trust them.”
“What?” Darcy was so surprised by that, she forgot how much she wanted Brianna to just leave. “Hold on, what are you talking about?”
Brianna smirked. “I had an aunt who acted just like them. All dowdy and cute. Know what she was doing behind closed doors? She was selling her prescription medication. Hand to God, true story.” Dramatically, she raised one hand like she was actually swearing on the Bible. “I know the type, Darcy. Those two are up to something.”
Darcy had seen the sort of judge of character Brianna was in the past. Not so great, for someone who was an investigative journalist. She smiled anyway, and she nodded, and turned back toward her house. Behind her, she heard Brianna opening her car door.
“You remember what I said!” she called after Darcy. “Sweet old ladies or not, everybody’s got something to hide!”
Darcy tried her best to ignore everything that had just been said. For as long as she had known Brianna, the woman had never done her or her family any real harm, but she’d steered them wrong a few times. There was no reason to listen to anything she was saying now.
Still, when she went inside she found herself wondering. Could this all be an act for Jozelle and Althea? Did they maybe know more than they were saying?
Or was Brianna just putting ideas in her head?
Jozelle and Althea weren’t at the table anymore. They were standing at the stove, one holding another ceramic mug from the cabinet, the other bobbing a teabag in the steaming water.
“Oh, there you are, Darcy,” Jozelle said cheerfully.
