1 Death Comes to Town (4 page)

There was something wrong.

Smudge bolted off the porch and quickly sprinted part way across the pasture that separated Darcy’s property from Anna’s. When he got to the edge of the flashlight’s beam he stopped and looked back at her. “Lassie’s got nothing on you, huh Smudge?”

Darcy followed him through the fog to Anna’s house. He was a black and white shadow moving just at the furthest reach of her light. When she got to Anna’s front door it was open. That wasn’t right. Not this late at night. Darcy hesitantly pushed the door open a little wider. She really didn’t want to see what was on the other side. Her instincts were screaming at her. She knew it wouldn’t be good.

As the door swung inward, seemingly in slow motion, her searching flashlight fell across Anna, lying on the floor. Darcy raced over to her and carefully felt for a pulse in her neck. There wasn’t one. Behind her, Smudge meowed again.

He was right. Anna was dead.

Chapter Four

Darcy tugged the police jacket tighter around her body. The night had turned cold, and not just from the mist settling in like a thick blanket. Inside Anna’s cozy little home, death had visited. She had waited there for the police, for the rescue squad personnel who were too late to do anything, for her sister to come and hold her as the reality of it set in and then tell her she had to come down to the station. She sat now in a hard wooden chair off to the side in Misty Hollow’s police department and watched as her sister went about the professional efficiency of death.

Darcy had to blink a few times to try and remove the fuzzy edges of tears from her vision. She could see her sister talking on the telephone and knew she was talking to someone from Anna’s family, breaking the news of her death to them. How awful for them all. Darcy knew that Anna had been particularly close to her brother and wondered how he would cope with the news. Poor man.

Taking a couple of deep breaths Darcy closed her eyes for a moment and tried to calm herself. Instead, she found herself remembering the moment she had found Anna lying on the floor and the sheer horror of realizing that Anna was dead. And then images began flashing through her mind, like scenes from a movie, of herself running to the phone and calling the police. She could see the police arriving and Anna’s body being taken away. She remembered how her body had looked…

Darcy jumped and her eyes popped open when she felt a hand on her arm. She was surprised to see Jon bending over her with a concerned look on his face.

“Here,” he said. “I thought you could probably do with some coffee.” He held a cup out to her. In slow motion, she took the cup from him and took a sip. It tasted awful but she felt the warmth seep through her body and chase some of the chill away. Jon sat down on the chair beside her.

“Thanks. I needed that.” She gave Jon a half smile. He was still gorgeous, and she still noticed. “Do you want your jacket back?”

“No you keep it for a while.” There was a small pause as he cleared his throat. “I’m really sorry for your loss. Grace told me how close you were to Anna.”

“Thank you.” She didn’t understand his change in attitude, his suddenly being nice to her like this. They sat in silence then and waited.

Grace soon came over to where they were sitting. “I was finally able to reach Anna’s brother. He’s going to inform the rest of the family.”

Darcy saw the look that passed between her sister and Jon before Grace looked back at her. She knew something was up. “What?” It came out sharper than Darcy meant. She blamed it on how frayed her nerves were at the moment.

Grace put a hand on her shoulder and said, “It’s nothing to worry about Sis. We just need to ask you a few questions about what happened. Um, where you were before you found Anna?”

Darcy sighed. She knew this was just another part of the process, like the endless paperwork had been when they first got to the station. So she went on to tell them how she had been at the festival and Anna had come up to her saying that there was something important she should know about. How Anna had suddenly looked spooked right when Grace had found Darcy again, and then rushed off to go home.

Darcy frowned. It hadn’t just been Grace that walked up to her at that moment. It had been Grace and Jon, both.

Before she could mention that tidbit her sister sat down on the other side of her and prompted her, “What happened then?”

What happened then was my cat told me something was wrong, Darcy thought to herself. Aloud, she said, “When I got home I had a funny feeling that something wasn’t right so I went to Anna’s house and, well, you know the rest.”

“What do you mean, you had a funny feeling?” Jon asked.

Grace put a hand up with a knowing look at Darcy and said, “That’s fine, we have all we need right now. Thanks, Sis. I have a few more calls to make.” Smiling, she turned to include Jon. “Maybe you could walk Darcy home?”

Jon looked at them both, knowing he was missing something, but not knowing what. “Sure. If it keeps me from doing the paperwork.”

Grace turned back to Darcy and said, “I’ll call you later.”

Darcy nodded and took the hand that Jon offered to help her up. Home sounded good right now.

***

An awkward silence descended upon Darcy and Jon as they walked along the path off Main Street to Darcy’s house. Jon had offered to drive her but she had insisted she wanted to walk. There was too much on her mind. She needed the air. Jon had shrugged and said he’d walk with her.

Halfway to her house Darcy realized she was still wearing Jon’s police jacket. Even though the mist seemed to be letting up as dawn approached, she felt chilled and pulled the jacket around her body tighter. She saw Jon notice but he didn’t say anything. Not long afterward they reached Darcy’s front porch.

“Are you going to be alright alone?” Jon looked at her with concern and she wondered again why he was being so nice to her.

“I’ll be fine,” she said to him, standing on the porch with her arms crossed, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

“I can stay with you if you need someone to be here with you,” he said. “I think it’d be quite understandable after the ordeal you’ve just had.  I mean, it’s not every day that you see a dead body. Right?”

Right. Who sees dead people all the time? “No, no you go. I’ll be fine on my own. Thanks for the offer though.” She quickly pulled off his jacket and handed it back to him. “Here. You’ll want this back, I’m guessing.”

“Thanks. You’re sure you’ll be all right? We’ll have extra patrols in the area, and you can always call your sister if you need to, I suppose.”

He smiled at her. She caught her breath at the way his eyes lit up when he smiled.

She was so caught off guard that she almost missed the implication in what he had said.  “Extra patrols? Why? Anna just died, it’s not like…” She felt her eyes get wide. “You don’t think this was an accident, do you?”

His smile locked in place, he shook his head. “I’m sorry. I really can’t talk about that.”

That cinched it. They thought there might be more to this than just Anna dying. And maybe she did, too. Why had Smudge felt the need to bring her to find Anna? Why had Anna’s door been open? What was it that had made Anna so upset at the festival?

She stood there now, eyes downcast, her mind trying to lock onto any one of these questions and answer them. When Jon cleared his throat, she realized how foolish she must look.

Jon looked at her intently for a moment. His scrutiny made her feel uncomfortable. “Are you sure you don’t know anything else about this, Darcy? It’s very odd that you just had a feeling and went to check on her and then she ends up dead.”

Oh, so that was what all the being nice was about. Buttering her up so that he could squeeze information out of her. She should have known. Darcy’s meter went from annoyed to angry in a split second. “Are you serious? I can’t believe what you are implying. Anna was my friend. My friend!” She turned her back on him and threw the door open, slamming it shut behind her.

Without turning on the light she pulled back the corner of the window curtain to make sure he was leaving. She saw him still on the porch, staring at the closed door, the expression on his face concealed in shadows. She shrunk back away from the window when she saw him take a step and lift his hand as if he was going to knock on the door. At the last minute he shook his head, turned, and walked away.

Feeling completely drained Darcy went into the kitchen. Dirty dishes were set in the sink. She had planned on getting to them later. Well. It was later. Trying to keep her mind busy and off what had happened she filled the sink with hot, sudsy water and set to doing the menial task. She didn’t realize she was crying until she felt the tears running down her cheeks. Sensing her distress Smudge appeared from wherever he’d been hiding to rub up against her leg.

“Hey there, Smudge. Want some dinner?” He meowed and she imagined she could hear a question in it. “Oh I’m fine. I’m just so upset about Anna. I just don’t know how something like this could have happened. And I just let her go home when she told me she was upset. If only I’d made Anna talk to me. Maybe she might still be alive. You know?”

Smudge meowed again and shook his head energetically. It made her laugh. “Yeah. You know.”

Darcy finished washing the dishes and went up to bed. As she got comfortable under the covers Smudge jumped up onto the foot of the bed. He sat there looking at the bedroom door like he was on guard, protecting her.

Chapter Five

She should have stayed home from work the next day. She said it to herself over, and over, every time a customer asked the same question.

“Oh Darcy, isn’t it awful about Anna? And I heard you found her. Poor you. Oh my, the whole town is talking about what happened to Anna. They’re saying she was murdered. Is that true?”

It figured that the whole town was talking about what had happened. The town was filled with people ready to gossip about any little thing. Something this horrifying would never go un-discussed.

The bell over the door jingled to announce the arrival of a customer so Darcy left Sue with the unpacking of their shipment of new books and went over to the counter. Mark Cameron, who worked just down the street at the bank, was standing there jumping from foot to foot.

“Oh D-Darcy. I-Isn’t it awful about A-Anna?” He peered at Darcy, taking a second to concentrate. Mark had been a stutterer since he was a little boy. Excitement made it worse. “I-I heard that y-you were th-the one to f-find her. Th-that must have b-been awful f-for you. W-what d-did you s-see?”

“Yes it was awful, Mark.” That was all she gave him. She wasn’t going to help turn her friend’s death into gossip. She avoided answering any more of his questions by changing the subject. “Um. Did you want to buy a book today?” He nodded and when it looked like he was going to keep going on about Anna, Darcy called for Sue to come and help him choose a book. 

As she went back to unpacking the boxes and making a mark in pencil on the inside cover of each new book to show they belonged to her store, she could hear Mark chattering on to Sue, who was a willing participant in the conversation. Darcy could tell he was getting more excited by the minute as his stutter got worse and worse. Shaking her head with annoyance she ripped another box open with more force than was needed. It did make her feel better though.

Mark and Sue finally came back to the counter with a book that Mark had chosen. He was still going on about the murder of Anna and Darcy snapped, “Really, Mark. Can’t you think of anything better to do today than gossip about someone we all knew?”

Sue raised her eyebrows in surprise. Darcy suspected that Sue was a little scared of her when she got like this. At that moment she really didn’t care; she just wanted Mark to shut up.

Sue rang up Mark’s purchase herself on the cash register and he paid for his book and walked away with a sheepish look. As he was about to leave another customer came in to the sound of the bell over the door ringing. Darcy looked up to see Jess O’Conner, who worked at the bank with Mark, entering the shop. Great another person come to gossip about the events of the previous evening.

Sue quickly greeted Jess, probably sensing that Darcy didn’t want to deal with anyone else today. “Hi Jess, what can I help you with today?”

“Oh, I’m not here to buy a book. I’ve come in to get Mark. There’s a customer who will only deal with him so he’s needed back at the bank.” She looked at each of them curiously. Okay so I was wrong, Darcy thought.

Mark looked like he was about to launch into the whole discussion of Anna’s death. Darcy quickly said, “Mark was just leaving, weren’t you Mark?”

Mark looked a little sheepish again. “Uh yes, I g-guess I was. M-my b-break is over anyway. Um. R-right.”

Darcy watched the pair of them leave the book shop with relief. Out the window, she could see Jess animatedly talking with Mark, grilling him about what he had learned about Anna’s death, no doubt. Jess was a tall woman with bright red hair and a quick temper. Mark was a shorter man, even more so next to her. Darcy almost felt sorry for him.

Sue sighed and went back to their stack of new books. “I wish I had Jess’s job.”

Darcy looked at her employee, a bit surprised by what she had just heard. “What makes you say that?”

The young woman shrugged. “I don’t mean that I don’t like working here. I love my job. But Jess’s job must pay so much more. Did you see those expensive high heels she was wearing?”

Darcy rolled her eyes. Sue was always talking about the latest and greatest fashion. It must be nice to have enough time in your life to worry about things like that.

***

Desperately in need of a break that afternoon Darcy headed to the Bean There Bakery and Café. She was looking forward to having a leisurely coffee by herself. She should have known better.

“Oh Darcy, my goodness, are you alright?” Helen was working at the bakery like she always did even though she was the owner. She had rushed over to Darcy as soon as she entered the shop. “I heard you were the one to find poor Anna. That must have been simply awful for you. I hope you’re okay.”