by K. J. Emrick
She didn’t say anything, but Elizabeth did reach out and slowly take the card, holding it in her hands while Grace and Darcy let themselves out.
In a very short while, Grace pulled up in front of the bookstore to let Darcy out of the car. It had been a very quiet ride. Neither of them had much to say. Grace promised Darcy that she would tell Jon he could cross at least one name off their list of suspects. Darcy was glad to hear it, but she knew there were still four other names to go. Was the real arsonist even on the list?
“Darcy…” Grace put the car in park and leaned forward on the steering wheel. “You know I wasn’t actually going to arrest Elizabeth, right?”
“To be honest, sis, I wasn’t sure.” Darcy traced a line of frost along the bottom of the car window with her finger. It hadn’t warmed up like it was supposed to and now it looked like whatever rain had been forecast for them was going to come down as snow again. “You did put handcuffs on her, after all.”
“That’s true,” she admitted, “but I only did it to scare her. Look, I know the things I do don’t always seem fair, but sometimes police officers need to be hard on people to get them to do the right thing.”
“Is that what you were doing?” Darcy asked her. “You were being cruel to be kind?”
“In the right measure,” Grace agreed with a smirk. “I wouldn’t have used a song lyric to describe it, but yeah. That’s the basic concept. Elizabeth’s in real trouble. If she’s in as deep with that bookie as she seems to be, then she needs someone to help her. She wasn’t going to tell me anything unless I scared her. It was for her own good. Look, I’m sorry if it upset you.”
Darcy understood what her sister was saying, even if she didn’t want to admit it. She’d seen Jon use scare tactics on plenty of suspects before. It just hurt seeing it done to a friend.
“It’s all right, Grace,” she decided. “We need to find out who burned the bakery down. And, I agree with you that Elizabeth needs help. Whether or not she’ll take it is another matter.”
“That’s her step to take, sis.”
“I hope she does.”
“Me, too.”
They sat there a moment longer, staring out the windshield at the overcast sky. Down the street was the taped off section of sidewalk in front of what used to be the bakery. As days went in Misty Hollow, this had not been one of the better ones.
“So what now?” Darcy asked after another few seconds had passed.
Grace resettled herself in the driver’s seat. “Now, you go take care of your bookstore, and I go back to the station to see where the investigation is at. You let the police do their job. For a change,” she added with a sarcastic grin. “Hopefully Jon and Wilson have made some progress in finding either the driver of the Iroc or this Edmund guy. I’ll let you know what’s going on. Or Jon will, I’m sure.”
“And you’ll try to come to dinner this week?”
“Sure, sis. Just don’t hold me to that.” She leaned over and gave Darcy a hug. “By the way, have you heard from Mom?”
“No.” Darcy had sent their mother a few text messages in the last week but she hadn’t heard anything back. That wasn’t all that unusual for Eileen. Their mother had a habit of becoming very wrapped up in her own world and ignoring everyone else. “How about you? Have you heard from her?”
“No.” Grace sighed. “Well, I guess we’ll get a call on Christmas, right?” She put the car in gear and switched the signal light on even though there was no other traffic on the street. “That’s what she’s done the last three years. I’ve just been thinking of her recently, and I was wondering… if you had been too.”
Darcy thought she must be wrong, but she really thought that perhaps she’d heard a bigger question behind what her sister had just asked. “You mean, does it signify something if you start thinking about the people in your life just out of the blue?”
“Well… yeah. You’re the one who knows about this stuff, right? Not me.”
She tried to keep the smile out of her voice but it wasn’t every day that Grace asked Darcy to explain things related to her gift. In fact, it almost never happened. “It could just be that it’s Christmas, and we’re all thinking of our family right now. Or, sometimes we think about people when they need our help, or when we’re about to see them, or when—”
The end of that sentence was going to be, when someone had died. Darcy stopped herself from adding that part. Their mother wasn’t dead, and even thinking of such a thing was too upsetting.
“Right.” Grace tapped a finger against the steering wheel. “I’ll try to call her again tonight. If she doesn’t answer, I can always call our step-dad.”
Darcy rolled her eyes. “I’m never going to get used to calling him that.”
“I know, right?” The sisters laughed together, and it felt good to have that moment with each other before getting back to the real world.
“Hey,” Grace called to her as she stepped out onto the sidewalk. “Remember, stay away from Tobias Ford.”
“I will if he will.” Darcy closed the car door, and waved as her sister pulled away.
Inside her shop, the bookstore was full of people. Mostly it was tourists, as near as she could tell, and she was sure they had come into town to gawk at what the fire had done to the bakery and maybe even catch some of the latest gossip about the investigation. In a tourist town, tragedy had its upside. Darcy had figured that one out a long time ago. That didn’t make it any easier to take when it struck.
Izzy was ringing up the sale of books and t-shirts from a short line of customers, smiling and making small talk. Darcy waved until she caught her attention and then motioned to her watch, and rubbed her belly.
Lunchtime. Hungry?
With a fervent nod of her head, Izzy put her hands together and pantomimed a “please” with her lips. Darcy gave her a thumbs up, and then went back outside to get them both something to eat…
And stopped, because only then did it occur to her that the bakery was where she usually got lunch when she was in a hurry. The La Di Da Deli had always had a better selection of sandwiches and whatnots, but it was further away. Well. She might as well get used to the walk, she supposed. At least until Tobias or somebody else rebuilt the bakery.
She snuggled into her coat and hunched her shoulders against the wind. The Farmer’s Almanac had forecast a short, intense winter, and so far it looked like they were going to be right this time. It wasn’t keeping people away from town though. There were still plenty of people milling around, visiting the shops, prepping the Town Center for the Christmas pageant that was scheduled to take place in two weeks, and yes, snapping cellphone pictures of the ruined bakery. Darcy sighed over that last one. Well. It wasn’t like they could hide it behind a giant curtain or something. People were going to see it.
On her way to the deli she considered stopping into the Town Hall to see Helen, but that would take time, and she’d already left Izzy alone at the bookstore for half the day. It wouldn’t be fair of her to take even longer when she’d just offered to get them both lunch. She would just have to find time to see Helen after work.
Although, she had to be home for Colby when she got dropped off after school. With a deep breath, she promised to find some time to see Helen, and soon. This whole mystery aside, the town had just lost something that had been a big part of Helen’s life for years. If she needed someone to talk to about what happened, then Darcy wanted to let her know she would be there for her.
The deli was even busier than usual during the noon hour. Clara Barstow’s sandwich and meat shop had expanded its offerings over the years and was never at a loss for customers anyway, but now that the bakery wasn’t there for people, all of those customers were coming here. The line was from the counter to the door, with most of the tables and even the stools at the counter taken up.
Well, Darcy thought to herself. This wasn’t going to do at all. She could walk home and make something for her and Izzy out of her refrigerator faster th
an she could get a couple of sandwiches here. There was the pizza delivery place over on Howard Street, too. Oh, they delivered. Perfect.
Clara caught her eye for just a moment from behind the deli counter where she was slicing turkey to keep up with the demand. They waved to each other, and Darcy shrugged apologetically. Clara winked at her. She understood.
Headed back down the street Darcy had a moment to wish she was still bringing her bicycle into town. She had figured once it got cold enough and the snow started to fall that she wouldn’t have any need for her trusty bike anymore, but she was wrong. Today would have been the perfect day for it, even if there was slush all over the roads.
Might also be a good time to rethink not owning a car of her own. Sometimes she worried, if something happened at school with Colby, how would she get all the way from here to Meadowood? Misty Hollow wasn’t big enough to have a school of its own, or at least it hadn’t been in the past. The town had grown quite a bit over the last few years so maybe they would get their own school soon. But for now all the kids from here went to Meadowood. If her daughter needed her during the day, how would she get there?
Grace was right. Now that she was a mother she needed to do things differently. Her daughter came first.
It was a brand new life that Darcy Sweet was living, so changed from when she and Jon first met and she had been free and single with nothing to tie her down. She was thinking about all the things that had happened between then and now, both good and bad, to bring her to this point in her life right here. She was thinking about all of that, when the dark figure of a man stepped in front of her on Main Street.
She had been so wrapped up in her thoughts that she hadn’t been paying attention to where she was going and now she startled backward a few steps. The man planted himself in her path, hands thrust deep into his pockets, a smile on his tanned face that did not touch his eyes at all. What she noticed first was the leather jacket he wore, with its unnecessary belt straps at the waist and the chest, and the zippered pockets. It was about twenty years out of style.
What she noticed next was the mess of chopped red hair, and the heavy sideburns that went all the way down to the bottom line of his square jaw.
When he saw that he had her attention he took his hands out of his pockets. On the back of each was the tattoo of a red, five-pointed star.
“Greetings there, Darcy Sweet,” the man said to her. “You should really watch where you’re going. Hate to interrupt your day like this, really I do, but it seems we need to talk. My name is—”
“Edmund Beres,” she finished for him.
She remembered the vivid description of this highly recognizable man from Bobbi Jo Cameron’s statement. This was the freelance criminal with ties to The Hand who Jon was looking to question. One of the five names on their list of suspects.
Guess she found him first.
He raised his ginger eyebrows. “Oh, so you’ve heard of me? Excellent. Makes things so much easier.”
“It does?” she asked, preparing to run or scream or fight.
“Yes,” he told her, “it certainly does. I just hate all that getting to know you stuff. Takes up so much time. Life’s much too short, know what I mean? So. I’m Edmund Beres. You’re Darcy Sweet. Now we can move on to the important things.”
Darcy tried not to be obvious as she looked all around them. She had walked to the farther end of Main Street, almost to the intersection with her own street, and there was no one else anywhere near them. Edmund had planned his little ambush well.
Not for the first time, she was really sorry she couldn’t carry a cellphone. But, since the choice was between ghosts calling her at all hours of the day or maybe needing to call 911 the next time a criminal thug appeared in front of her on a sidewalk, she’d have to be okay with having to scream her fool head off if Edmund tried anything.
He took a step closer, and Darcy forced herself to hold his gaze when what she really wanted was to bolt and run. Jon would be depending on her. Now that Edmund Beres had shown his face, Jon would want to know everything he could. It was up to her to get the man to talk.
Not that it seemed like that was going to be a problem.
“So glad I caught you away from everyone else,” Edmund told her. “I wanted to talk to you. About the fire at the bakery.”
“What about the fire at the bakery?” she asked, wishing she could get the lump that had formed in her throat to go away.
“Come now, Miss Sweet—”
“Mrs. Sweet,” she corrected him.
“Really? My bad, as they say. I thought Sweet was your maiden name.”
“It was. Is. I mean, it’s my name still, yes, but I’m married. To the police chief.”
He looked amused that she felt the need to add that little bit of information. “Yes. Jon Tinker. I was warned about him, I was. You too, actually. Seems if someone wants to step into Misty Hollow to do some business, they best be careful to tread lightly around the two of you.”
Well, well. Darcy didn’t realize she had that much of a reputation. “Did your friends in The Hand tell you that?”
With one more step, Edmund was too close for Darcy’s comfort. She made herself stand her ground and not be intimidated even though her insides were suddenly full of butterflies.
“I am not,” he said to her through clenched teeth, “associated with The Hand. Not any longer. That organization and I parted ways a number of years ago. Yes, I’ve heard about what you and Chief Jon Tinker did to Adolphos Carino and yes, that’s one of the reasons why fine upstanding folks like myself know to stay out of your little town. The kind of business I usually conduct would not meet with your approval.”
“You mean,” Darcy asked him directly, “like burning down bakeries?”
Slowly, his smile returned. This time it lit the corners of his steel gray eyes. “Now, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about, that exact thing.” He stepped back from her finally, stuffing his hands back into his pockets. “I didn’t have anything to do with that fire, Miss… I mean, Mrs. Sweet. I wanted to come and tell you in person so’s you and the Chief would stop looking for me. My business is going to be very hard to conduct if I have the law and some modern day Agatha Christie on my trail.”
That was apparently all he had to tell her. He didn’t have anything to do with the fire. What, was she just supposed to take his word for it? This wouldn’t be the first time someone had lied to her.
He stood there, waiting for her to say something. So she did. “Agatha Christie? I prefer Nancy Drew, actually.”
He measured her with his eyes, from the toes of her boots to the top of her head. “You’re just a bit too old to be Nancy Drew, aren’t you?”
Darcy gasped. Too old to be…? Who did this man think he was?
Oh, right. He was a freelance criminal. That’s who he was.
“Listen, Mister Beres,” she said to him. “I’m sure you have your reasons for detaining me on a sidewalk to tell me all of this instead of just walking down to the police station and telling them in person, but—”
“I do, actually.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Might be there’s a warrant out for my arrest. Might be there’s more than one. Besides. Police stations make me itch. Not in a place I can scratch in mixed company, either.”
Oh, she did not like this man. “Why don’t you and I go there together. I’ll even hold your hand, if you need me to,” she suggested, shifting her feet so she was just a little further away from him. “We can talk to Jon together. You can explain to him why he should cross you off our list of arson suspects.”
“I just explained it to you,” he insisted.
“Actually, um, you didn’t. You just said you didn’t do it.”
“There. Then it’s settled,” he said, his smile turning icy. “Besides. As I said, I may have a warrant or two—or three—out for my arrest. I don’t care to be locked up in one of your police department cages, thank you very much.”
“Well, I could have
Jon meet you somewhere,” she tried, reaching for anything that would help Jon in his investigation. “Sure. You two could meet and talk. Where are you staying in town?”
His eyes held hers. “You’re a crafty one, Mrs. Sweet, is what you are. I was told to watch out for you. Now I see why. Tell your police chief husband to keep his distance from me, and there won’t be any problems. My business in town is almost done. Afterward I’ll be gone. Just like that. No muss, no fuss, no famous Darcy Sweet interference. How’s that sound to you?”
“Like a threat,” she said, without missing a heartbeat.
“As you say.” Shrugging his shoulders again, he started backing away from her. “I’ve had my say. Good day.”
He was several yards away before he turned his back on her. Darcy didn’t want to let him get away but she wasn’t going to try tackling a man who was twice as wide as she was and half a foot taller to boot. By the time she ran to get someone’s help and called the police he’d be gone. All she could do was watch him go.
And, ask one more question. “How are you hiding in our town with that red hair?”
Without stopping, he reached inside of his coat and took out an aviator’s cap, leather on the outside and fuzzy padded on the inside. The flaps came down over his ears and effectively hid his hair and the sideburns, too. With his hands in his pockets to hide the tattoos, he would blend right in with the rest of the tourist crowds. A freelance criminal in their midst, and no one was going to even notice. Even if his clothes were from two decades ago.
Darcy ground her teeth together and turned herself back toward the bookstore. She would order her and Izzy delivery pizza and call Jon from her shop so she could tell him about meeting one of the suspects on their naughty list. She hadn’t learned much, but at least she would have a better description to give him, as well as his message.