by K. J. Emrick
“We made you some tea, dear,” Althea said, smiling from behind her glasses.
“You were so nice to us,” Jozelle said, holding the cup out to Darcy.
“So we just wanted to return the favor,” Althea finished.
Darcy looked down at the steaming cup they were offering her. Then she looked at those kindly, wrinkled faces. At the back of her mind, Brianna’s warning whispered to her. Those nice old women in there? Don’t trust them.
She reached for the tea, a thank you on her lips, and then her hand hesitated.
Oh, for Pete’s Sake, she told herself. It’s just tea!
She took the cup, finally, and the sisters both clasped their hands together like they were delighted she had accepted their offer. They were definitely an odd pair, but if Darcy started suspecting every odd person in Misty Hollow, half the town would be locked up. Herself included.
Besides, there were still plenty of other suspects out there. Which reminded her…
“Ladies, thank you for stopping by,” she said to Jozelle and Althea, “but I really need to take care of a few things. I’m going to call Jon and if he’s heard anything about Steve’s murder I’ll be sure to let you know, okay?”
“Thank you, Darcy,” Jozelle said to her with a slow sigh. “I suppose I will never get used to my son being gone for good. I’m just glad our town has good people in it like you to make it easier.”
“Well,” Althea said, taking her sister’s arm in hers. “We should be going. Thank you for the hospitality, Darcy. So are we on for the book club?”
“Absolutely,” Darcy told her, setting the tea aside while she walked with them to the door. “We always love to have new members. It keeps our conversations fresh and interesting. I’m going to schedule something for later this week. I’ll let you know.”
“Wonderful,” they both said, at the same time, and then turned to each other and laughed.
Darcy was almost sorry to see them go. They went out to the Volkswagen, and Jozelle drove them away. She was stereotypically slow about it, to the point where Darcy wondered if maybe Jon should check to see if her driver’s license hadn’t expired twenty years ago.
“Mom!” Colby called to her. “Can Zane and me have another banana?”
Brought back to the present, Darcy stepped into the living room to make sure Zane had eaten all of the first banana, and that Colby had eaten all of her cereal, before promising anything else. She could clean up the teacups and stuff from her impromptu visitors later. After she called Jon, of course.
Based on what Jozelle and Althea had told her—and Millie, too—they needed to find Jess O’Conner. Add that to the list of missing pieces, she told herself. There was so much to do. Just a typical morning in the Tinker-Sweet household.
As it turned out, Jon came home half an hour later, before Darcy even had time to sit down for a minute and call him.
“Hey,” was his single word greeting. He looked tired right down to his bones. He felt tired, too, when she wrapped her arms around him and held him tight.
“Missed you last night,” she told him.
“Believe me, I would’ve preferred to be here. Between Gloria and Cameron and their Wacky Weed Express, and the break in at the Town Hall, and Steve’s murder… let’s just say it’s been a busy night.”
“Dad?” they heard Colby ask. “What’s wacky weed?”
She was leaning into the kitchen, over the safety gate, a curious ten-year-old’s expression making creases in her forehead. Jon frowned at himself. “I guess I’ll have to watch what I say with little ears around.”
“Hey!” Colby said. “I do not have little ears. They’re just the right size.”
“They sure are, honey. Um. Can you give your mother and me a minute? I’ll come right in and explain what’s wacky about this weed when we’re done out here. I promise.”
Colby seemed to consider that. Then she shrugged and ducked back into the living room, her attention already back on her television show.
“Yeah,” Jon said slowly, lowering his voice to a whisper. “I’m really going to have to start watching what I say around the house.”
“Not just the house,” Darcy warned him. “I wouldn’t go around making funny comments like that for the next few days. Guess who’s back in town?”
“Hmm? Who’s that?”
“Brianna Watson.”
His face fell, and he managed to look even more tired than before. “Perfect. It’s been so long I was beginning to hope she’d forgotten all about us back here in Misty Hollow.”
“No such luck. She stopped by here this morning.”
“She did what? Oh, no. That is not going to happen.” Jon tugged out his cellphone from his pocket, stabbing the screen with his finger. “No way. Every reporter around knows my family and my house are off limits. They want to talk to me they go through official channels or they can look forward to seeing the inside of a holding cell until the polar ice caps melt!”
“Whoa. Jon, it’s okay.” Darcy gently folded her hand over his phone. “I didn’t tell her anything about the investigation. She was here to see me, anyway, not the chief of police. She wanted to know if I had anything to say about how the man who murdered my ex-husband was found dead here in town.”
He sighed, but finally put his phone away. “I take it you told her where she could stuff her comments?”
“In so many words, yes. I think she got a few tidbits for her story anyway, since she managed to knock on our front door at the exact same time that Jozelle Nelson and Althea LaCroix were here having tea.”
Now he blinked at her and untangled himself from her arms so he could sit down. “Well. Sounds like you’ve been just as busy this morning as me. Care to share notes?”
They sat at the table together and Darcy made them both a much needed cup of coffee. She almost wished that she’d saved her tea from this morning, but it would have been cold by now. Fresh coffee was much better anyway. It didn’t take long for Jon to tell his side. Darcy got the impression that he was holding a few things back because as busy as he was, it didn’t take him long to run it all down for her.
Gloria and Cameron were going to be turned over to the Federal authorities on charges of transporting marijuana illegally across state lines. As far as he knew, they had nothing to do with Steve’s murder, but they weren’t ruling it out yet, either.
Steve’s autopsy had been expedited but it still wasn’t done. What the Coroner could tell them so far wasn’t much. There was a lot of trauma to the body. A couple of broken ribs. Somebody had roughed him up pretty good. They were still waiting for the toxicology report, but several of the external injuries, or any combination of them, could have been the cause of death.
As for Nash Fullerton, the maintenance man who had most likely broken into the Town Hall public records room, the officers Jon had sent to his home had turned up empty. He wasn’t there, and no one seemed to know where he was. Neither did his parole officer. A little digging had turned up no connection whatsoever between Nash and Steve Nelson, however. Nash never served time in prison. They didn’t have any mutual associates. There was no reason to believe they had ever had any contact with each other.
Which raised the same question Darcy had asked herself before. How would Nash Fullerton have known about the last will and testament of Merlon Nelson?
“I still have to assume,” Jon said, “that was why Nash broke into that records room. He was trying to find that will. It all comes back to that will. So. Who would have told him about it, and the safety deposit boxes, and all the rest of it?”
“There must be some connection there,” Darcy agreed. “He’s not our only lead, though. Guess who else might be in town? Remember Jess O’Conner? I think she had every reason to know about Steve’s grandfather dying, and his will, too. You remember how she was all about getting whatever money from Steve she could. I think we need to find out if she’s back in Misty Hollow, too.”
Jon nodded approvingly. “Wel
l. You really have been busy. All right, I’ll add Jess O’Conner to our list of suspects, short though it may be.”
“There’s something about the will, too.” She knew he was sleepy, but she wanted to get all of this out now, rather than wait for later. “It should have been opened by now. The sisters said the lawyer held it up. Terry Lucas was who they said. He’s got an office in Meadowood.”
“Right,” Jon agreed. “I know him.”
“Well, if this attorney didn’t release the will until now, he must have had a reason. He must know something about all this, don’t you think?”
“What I think, Darcy Sweet, is that you’re amazing. Okay. So, find Nash Fullerton. Find Jess O’Conner. Find out what, if anything, those two had to do with Steve’s death. Then, talk to the attorney. Not necessarily in that order. Got it.”
He stretched and then yawned. The coffee obviously wasn’t working. He smiled at her apologetically and tried another sip anyway.
“All right, Mister Tinker,” Darcy said to him. “You need to get some sleep.”
“Fine, if you’re going to twist my arm like that.” He yawned behind his hand and then got up from the table, his eyes bleary and bloodshot. “Just a few hours though, okay? I don’t need to go back into the office today unless something happens, but I want to be awake in case someone calls.”
“Want me to get you up at noon?”
He leaned in close and kissed her forehead. “You know me so well.”
“Mmm. Yes I do. So, um, when you wake up would you mind if I went into the bookstore for a little bit? I really should at least show my face there today. With all the tourists in town Izzy’s got a bigger load on her shoulders than usual.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. We were busy enough at the station with the holiday approaching, and that was before Steve Nelson’s murder.” The last few words were almost lost behind another yawn. “Okay. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go explain to our little girl what marijuana is before I go to sleep.”
“Jon, she’s ten. She already knows what marijuana is. We started teaching her about that stuff when she was five.”
“It helps to repeat it.”
Darcy gave him a big hug. “Yes, it does. Go be a good father to our child. I’ll wake you up around noon with some lunch.”
“Like I said,” he yawned. “You know me so well.”
Chapter 6
The sign on the front door of the bookstore was proudly turned to “OPEN a good book today.” The sidewalks had been full of people, all going from little shop to little shop, taking in the scenery, and just seeing what Misty Hollow had to offer. Several of them found their way into the Sweet Read Bookstore, and Darcy couldn’t be happier to see it.
She just wished the marching band tunes didn’t find their way inside every time the door opened. This was the third version of The Star-Spangled Banner that Darcy had heard. Today.
In between her and Izzy selling books to people, Darcy quietly explained about her visit from Jozelle and Althea this morning. She kept it short and concise and made sure not to say anything whenever someone was close enough to hear it. She never knew who might be a spy for Brianna Watson. The reporter for EZTV had used that particular trick before.
“They really are a funny pair,” Darcy told Izzy as they were putting out more digital audiobooks in their sales display. People on long drives liked to have something good to listen to. “Oh, and they want to join our book club.”
“Heh,” Izzy chuckled. “Well, that makes sense, considering all the books they’ve bought here recently. Books on gardening, mostly.”
“Yes, they said they were going to have a lot of time on their hands now that they weren’t looking after their father anymore. A garden is a good way to spend time, for sure. Maybe I can convince Jon to start one when he retires.”
“Whoa, wait now?” Izzy said to her. “Jon’s doing what? Retiring? Since when?”
“Well, it’s not official yet.” Darcy packed up the rest of the audiobooks into their cardboard box. “Truthfully, he and I haven’t had a real conversation about it because I’ve been avoiding the issue. He mentioned it back before Christmas and ever since… well, I guess I’ve just been scared about how our life would change if he wasn’t a cop anymore.”
Izzy took the box of extra audiobooks from Darcy to put away in the office. “I don’t know what to tell you, Darcy. I really don’t. With my daughter in college, I’m pretty sure that I’ll never be able to retire!”
They laughed at that, but inwardly Darcy cringed. She had two kids who would be going to college pretty much back to back when they got older. Not only that, she wasn’t sure she would ever really want to retire. She loved this bookstore. It was a part of her life she would never want to give up.
A woman was at the checkout counter, smiling over at them patiently with a few books in her hand. Darcy went to check her out as Izzy brought the audiobooks to the back office. The customer had real books to purchase, two on the state’s natural landmark attractions, and an atlas of North America, plus a thick romance book. Darcy had read that one. She chatted with the woman about the author’s other books, and where she was visiting Misty Hollow from, and Darcy recommended stopping at the La Di Da Deli in town for a muffin before she left Misty Hollow. It would be worth her time, she promised.
The woman decided at the last minute that she didn’t want the atlas, because after all she could just pull up the same information on her cellphone. The romance novel was for her, but the other books were a gift. Darcy said it was no problem, she could leave the atlas right here at the counter and she would put it back later. Atlases were almost a thing of the past, or something you kept on a shelf at home for the sake of saying it was there. The woman was right, Darcy had to admit. In an age of cellphones and on-board GPS units, what good was an atlas to anyone?
They waved to each other as the woman walked out smiling with her purchase in a plastic bag with the logo for the Sweet Read Bookstore on it. “The Mysterious Is All Around Us.”
Darcy took a moment after that to look around the store, enjoying the sight of the people browsing through the books. Even the ones who didn’t buy anything were welcome. They were interested in what her store might have to offer, and that was what mattered. As long as they came in, they might decide to buy something, or they might decide to come back again for that book that had caught their eye today. You never knew when someone would be back, or tell their friends about the place, or… or…
One of the people in the store caught her eye. She knew that man. He was average height and really muscular, so that he looked all out of proportion for his size. One ear had an earring dangling from it in the shape of a feather. His hair was spiked in front and shaved down to his scalp everywhere else. He was wearing khaki shorts that went down to his knees, and a blue hoodie sweater with long white strings swinging from the collar. It seemed a little too warm for a sweater, but Darcy supposed everyone had their own style.
She knew she had seen this man before. She just couldn’t place where.
“What’s up?” Izzy asked, back from the office and seeing how distracted she was.
Darcy turned her back to the store, keeping her eyes on Izzy’s face. “There’s a guy over by the travel guides section. See him? In the blue hoodie?”
Izzy flicked her eyes that way and back again, and when she did her mouth parted in a little O of surprise. “Darcy. That’s Nash Fullerton, the maintenance man for the Town Hall. That’s the guy Jon is looking for.”
Darcy turned back around slowly, realizing that Izzy was right. That’s where she’d seen this man before. He wasn’t someone who she ran into very often, but she had definitely seen him around town. Jon and his men hadn’t found him at home, and no wonder, because he wasn’t at home. Here he was right in front of her.
Then he stepped to one side, and Darcy saw the woman who was with him. Ah yes, he was out on the town… and there might have been another reason why he wasn’t at home,
too.
She smiled, but kept her voice down. “Izzy, go back in the office and call the police station, please. They need to come here as quick as they can and make two arrests.”
When Nash looked up and saw Darcy watching him, his entire demeanor changed. Suddenly he wasn’t interested in the books that his female friend kept trying to push into his hands. Suddenly, he was very interested in leaving. He took his companion by the hand and started them toward the door, turning his face away and ducking his head as if he could hide in plain sight. In another minute, at most, he would be out of the bookstore entirely.
He was going to get away.
Darcy didn’t know what to do. If Nash Fullerton got outside before the police got here he could just get into a car and drive away. The man had only recently moved into Misty Hollow from somewhere else. He had no roots here. No reason to stay.
And from what she could see, he had every reason to leave.
As he got closer to the door he passed by the freestanding book shelf that held more of the atlases like the one her last customer had left here. One at the very top started to shimmy, and slide, and push itself over the edge. It tipped over and dropped like a stone… landing right on top of Nash’s head.
Aunt Millie had been watching. Now, she was helping stop the bad guy.
Nash made a very comical “Oof” sound as he crumpled to the floor. The woman with him gasped, looking all around as she tried to figure out what was going on. All she knew was that something had fallen on Nash’s head.
Looking up slowly, she saw more of the heavy volumes at the top of the shelves starting to shift in her direction. She jumped back, and stumbled into a table in the reading section, and nearly tripped over a chair.
Darcy rushed over to where Nash Fullerton was starting to get up off the floor. On her way, she snagged the atlas from the checkout counter that her last customer had left behind. Something Colby had said came back to her and she just knew she was going to need that book.
