by K. J. Emrick
Darcy felt let down. It looked like their line of questioning was going to dead end. It was Jon who saw the opening she missed.
"That was how she said it?" he asked. "That she had to get away? Just like that?"
"Man, I don't know," Nielson complained. "That was three days ago. I've been high like twenty times since then. How'm I supposed to remember exactly what she said."
Jon leaned forward on his elbows, his fingers steepled and pointed at Nielson. "Try," he suggested.
Swallowing hard, his lip trembling, Nielson took a few moments to search his memory. "Yes. That was what she said. She said she needed to get away."
"Not that she needed to get away for a while? Not that she needed to get away from Blair?"
Nielson thought again. "Yeah, man. Just that she needed to get away."
"And you gave her a gun?"
This time Nielson's mouth clapped shut.
"Look, Mister Daye," Jon said, folding his arms down on the table, making himself less threatening. "I've already told you. I can't arrest you for something you say you've done without any proof. You could tell me you assassinated President Kennedy, and I couldn't arrest you for it just on your say so. Now, tell me why Megan wanted a gun."
"Why should I?"
Darcy hadn't expected that. Apparently, Nielson had found a little of his backbone again.
"Because," she told him, knowing that all the threats in the world wouldn't make him open up about this, "we're trying to help Megan. You know we are. And I know, even though you're angry and upset with her, you want to help her too. This will help her. You need to trust us."
His eyes wavered, and he cleared his throat more than once before looking at Darcy directly. "You're sure this will help her?"
"I really am, Nielson."
Then he looked at Jon. "And you're promising me, like really promising me as a cop, that you won't arrest me for anything that happened with that gun?"
"I'll put it in writing for you if you want," Jon told him.
He nodded, looking down at his hands again, playing the short chain of his handcuffs back and forth through the metal ring on the table top. He was quiet for so long that Darcy thought maybe they had misjudged their approach and that they weren't going to be able to get Nielson to talk about the gun, but then finally, he drew a deep breath.
"Okay. Okay, look. I don't make a habit of handing my guns out to people. I've only got a few myself and plus I don't want any trouble coming down on me if someone gets stupid with them and, like, shoots someone. Only, Megan was so scared. She begged me, crying and talking about how she didn't know who else to trust. I had to do something to help her, didn't I?"
"That's what good friends do," Darcy said, hoping to keep Nielson talking.
"Right! Right, that's what good friends do. So I was being a good friend to Megan. God knows she was a lousy girlfriend, man. To me, I mean. 'Cause, she was like, not really into guys I guess. Whatever. So, she comes to me, and she's scared to death, man. She said someone was after her. Someone was going to, like, hurt her. She couldn't tell Blair about it and she didn't have anyone else. Since she and I had hooked up when she first came to Misty Hollow she knew me, you know? And it was good, like while it lasted. She knew the kinds of things I was into and that I could get a gun…"
Nielson ran out of words, and then sat there, just breathing and thinking about the past.
"It's why she left me," he said after a long moment. "Because she couldn't stand the things I was into. The drugs, the trouble, all of it."
Darcy knew better. Megan hadn't stayed with Nielson because he wasn't her type. He didn't have the…right equipment to interest her. Blair did. If it made Nielson feel better to think differently, and if it got the information they needed out of him, she didn't see any reason to argue about it.
Nielson definitely did not seem like their killer. He didn't even seem to know she was dead, and whoever killed her would definitely already know she was dead.
The same something that had nagged at her before nagged at her now. She just couldn't put her finger on it. Something to do with what Nielson had just told them? Something. She'd have to puzzle it out later.
"I don't blame her, I guess," he was saying. "I mean, I blame her for leaving me for a girl. I can't just take that lying down, you know?"
"Who did she need protection from?" Jon asked, turning the conversation back on track. "Who was she so scared of that she needed to get a gun?"
Nielson shrugged both shoulders, the motion making the chain on the table rattle. "I don't know."
"Mister Daye, don't start holding out on us now."
"No, I really don't know," Nielson insisted. "All I know, she said whoever it was, it was someone she knew from that place she grew up in."
Darcy sat forward in her chair. "You mean Cider Hill?"
"Right! That place." Nielson nodded his head over and over. "Cider Hill. She said they were from Cider Hill, but then she clammed up and wouldn't tell me anything else. So I let her crash on my couch for the night, kind of hoping she might want to sneak into my bedroom, you know? Woke up in the morning, and she was gone."
Darcy looked at Jon, silently mouthing the name of Megan's hometown. That place she had grown up in. Cider Hill.
Where Megan's parents lived.
***
"I know you want to drive out to see her parents now," Jon said to Darcy. They were turning off Main Street onto their quiet little road, heading home. "I want to get out there now, too. But it's already after five o'clock. With the driving time it takes to get out there we'd have to wake them up out of bed to talk to them. It's a five hour trip, four if I stretch the speed limits. No one is cooperative when they get woken out of bed."
"I know, I know," Darcy told him. "It's just so frustrating. I like it better when your cases involve people right here in town. There’re no long drives involved with those."
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye with an amused smile. "So…you like it better when the killer is someone we know?"
"Jon!" She couldn't help but laugh, even as she tried to sound offended. "For Pete's sake, that is not what I meant!"
"It's what you said. You said, you like it better when—"
"I know what I said," she said, reaching over to tickle that spot on his side that always made him squirm. "You're just trying to be difficult."
"No, no no!" He tried to pull away while keeping his grip on the steering wheel, helpless against her playful attack. "Don't tickle the driver! Don't tickle the driver! Hey, wait. Who is that on our porch?"
Darcy stopped trying to unbutton Jon's shirt and looked up. Sure enough, there was the outline of someone in their open doorway. Two someone's, actually. JoEllen stood there, inside the house, talking to…
Izzy McIntosh and her daughter Lilly.
Jon said a few choice words under his breath that would have made Darcy's ears ring if she wasn't thinking the very same thing. Not that she thought JoEllen would ever do anything to their neighbors, but letting Izzy know that JoEllen was staying with them could be risky. For them, for JoEllen, and especially for Izzy.
Jon parked the car in the driveway and took a moment to school his expression before getting out and walking casually up to the front porch of their house. "Hi, Izzy. Hi there, Lilly. What brings you two over?"
JoEllen was leaning in the doorframe, her arms crossed in front of her, for all the world like she was the owner of the house and not just a questionable guest. "I was just telling Lilly here that I have a son about her age," JoEllen explained to Jon. "Your neighbors saw the lights on and people inside and assumed it was you and Darcy."
"I didn't know you had houseguests," Izzy said apologetically. Her pretty face was pinched with curiosity, almost suspicion, at finding these people in Darcy's house. She and Darcy had become very good friends ever since she'd come to town, and there wasn't much they didn't know about the goings on in each other's lives. Except this, of course. The wind caught at the he
m of Izzy's short dress below her heavy coat, and at the strands of her long blonde hair, pulling them into her eyes. Eyes that asked Darcy a thousand questions.
"Uh, yes," Darcy said, managing a smile. "This is JoEllen. She's a friend from Bear Ridge. She and her son Connor are going to be staying with us for a few days."
That was close enough to the truth that she didn't feel like she was lying to Izzy. She would hate to start breaking the trust she had built up with her.
"I go by Ellen now," JoEllen corrected Darcy without making it obvious. "You know, we haven't had dinner yet. If you wanted to join us I'm sure I could spring for some pizza. Lilly could meet my Connor, too. I'm sure they'd hit it off."
"Can we, mom?" Lilly asked, looking up at her mother hopefully, almost bouncing from foot to foot in her fuzzy winter boots. Her pixie face framed by her long brown hair made her look so much like a little cherub that Darcy knew Izzy would give in. Any mother would. "Can we, please?"
"Actually, Izzy, I could use your help," Jon said, completely dashing Darcy's hopes that she could get Izzy to leave in some polite way. "We have a case that involves people from Cider Hill. Your hometown. Mind if I pick your brain for a bit?"
"Well," Izzy said, looking more at her daughter than Jon, "I suppose if there's pizza involved that it's all right with me."
"Yay!" Lilly exclaimed, running past all of the adults to dash inside the house.
Jon walked Izzy inside, beginning to explain the basics of his current case. Darcy noticed he was careful to keep himself between Izzy and JoEllen. After they were gone inside, Darcy pulled JoEllen out onto the porch and let the door swing shut behind them.
"What are you doing?" Darcy asked in a tight voice. "Asking them to stay for supper? Seriously? Do you remember how you're supposed to be in hiding?"
JoEllen's smile fell away from her face. "Darcy, I very nearly pulled my gun on them when they came knocking on the door. I couldn't be sure, you know? I couldn't be sure Izzy wasn't the killer hired to get me. I didn't know what to do so I just kept her talking until you got here. When you said you knew her, I knew she was legit."
"The fact that she had a little girl with her didn't give you a clue?" Darcy asked incredulously.
"Well, sure, but some of the best contract killers bring kids with them when they scope out a target. It puts everyone at ease and gets them to let their guard down."
Darcy just stared. She could not imagine living day after day being afraid of everyone she met. Not knowing if the next smiling face would put a bullet between her eyes.
Slowly, JoEllen nodded. "That's the life I live. Or, used to live anyway. I don't want that for my son. I want Connor to grow up with as normal a life as possible, not looking over his shoulder every time he hears a footstep, or his phone ringing. Having a normal life means having friends. I meant what I said. I think he and Lilly will like each other."
From inside the house, as if on cue, came the sound of two kids laughing loudly. Darcy had to admit it was a nice sound. She understood why JoEllen would work so hard to give that to her son.
"All right," she said, relenting. "I do like pizza. No mushrooms on mine, okay?"
"Deal."
Darcy was halfway through the door when something occurred to her. "So, wait," she asked JoEllen in a whisper. "You have a gun on you?"
"Yup. A little snubnosed thirty-eight. I never leave home without it."
Of course, Darcy thought to herself. So now, not only did her neighbor and good friend Izzy know that JoEllen was here, but the fugitive they were hiding had a gun.
How could anything possibly go wrong?
The only place in town that delivered pizza was a small business that had opened just last month. Waldo's Pizza and Wings was making a good effort so far, but Darcy had to figure they wouldn't last long. People in Misty Hollow preferred to eat at Helen's café, or to make the drive over to places like Meadowood or Oak Hollow where there were lots of restaurants to choose from.
For now, they had a quick place to get their dinner for tonight.
Waldo's closed at six so they just made it with their order. While they waited for their food to be delivered the adults sat around the kitchen table talking. Lilly and Connor went upstairs to play. Darcy heard them running back and forth, yelling "tag" at each other between peals of laughter.
"I remember the Bortchowskis," Izzy was saying. "Braun and Evita. I didn't know them very well, you understand. They kept mostly to themselves. I sort of remember Megan. She was a few years behind me in high school, but to tell you the truth I'm not sure if I'd recognize her if I tripped over her in the street. We ran in different crowds."
"Do you think she might have recognized you?" Darcy suggested. "Maybe she saw you here in town?"
Izzy thought about it, then shook her head. "I mean, I knew her name from the gossip but it was a pretty big high school. There's no reason she'd even know who I was."
"Did she have a girlfriend back then?" Jon asked her.
She sipped at the tea in her oversized green mug, shaking her head. "No. She had a steady boyfriend in high school, but we all knew it was just a matter of time. Talk around the school indicated that she was always more attracted to women than men, but her parents were putting a lot of pressure on her to be what they wanted her to be. The boyfriend was pretty rough on her, too, from what I heard. Bruises. That sort of thing. It was big gossip in the girls' locker room my senior year. But," she added with a sigh, "that was years ago."
Darcy turned her coffee mug around in circles on the table. Everything seemed to come back to Megan's parents and what they didn't like about Megan's life. She had plenty of experience with her own mother not accepting her for who she was. It just wasn't anything she would ever be able to understand. A parent's love should be unconditional.
Next to her, Jon put his hand over hers, his thumb stroking little circles around her knuckles. "Sounds like talking to Megan's parents is going to be our priority tomorrow."
"I could come with you," Izzy offered. "The people there might be more willing to talk to me, since I'm from that town. Oh, wait. That wouldn't leave anyone to watch the store."
"I don't want to leave the bookstore closed if I can help it," Darcy said quickly. "If we come up with someone for you to talk to we'll call you, okay?"
It was as good an excuse as any. Darcy didn't have the heart to mention that the people in Cider Hill might actually be less willing to talk to Izzy since she had been under suspicion for murder there, once upon a time. She'd been cleared, of course, and the real killer put in jail, but Darcy knew from experience that people didn't ever forgive that easily.
When the pizzas came, they ate together in the kitchen while Connor and Lilly ate in the living room, laughing at some show Darcy had found for them on the television. She listened to them, and thought how good it sounded to have children in her house.
Jon caught the look on her face and smiled at her. Children were a topic they had discussed only in passing. They both felt they wanted kids of their own, but like everything else it was a discussion for another time.
Right now, there was another mystery to solve, a wanted fugitive to help, and Christmas to plan.
Life was definitely full.
Chapter Nine
Cider Hill was another of the small towns in the area around Misty Hollow. Darcy had always liked being in a rural area where people could live and work among the beauty of divine creation. The dense growths of trees along the roadsides were buried in snow, patches of it caught in their branches and piled around their trunks. As Jon drove them she caught glimpses of trails in the deeper drifts where deer and other animals had scurried away for shelter.
"I wish we hadn't had to leave so early," She complained with a yawn. They had watched the sun come up on the drive over, stopping at a convenience store on the way for gas and coffee. Big cups of coffee.
She had left a note for JoEllen before they left, careful to write her name as "Ellen," after peeking in on
her and Connor in the spare bedroom. Both of them were asleep. After staying up until almost eleven o'clock playing with Lilly, Darcy wasn't surprised that Connor was sleeping so soundly. The note reminded JoEllen, without coming right out and saying so, that she needed to stay inside. There was food in the fridge and books to read and TV to watch. The wanted contract killer would just have to deal with being a homebody. For now.
"Five hour trips are better started at five in the morning," Jon said. "I was hoping we could make up some time but the roads are still too slick. Maybe if it hadn't snowed last night. I want to catch Megan's parents early in the day in case they give us something useful."
"Or if they turn out to be suspects?"
"To tell you the truth, they're already suspects." He covered a yawn with the back of his hand. "At least in my books. Everything points to them. Plus, we've pretty much eliminated Nielson and Blair. Doesn't leave us too many options."
Darcy muttered something that wasn't quite agreement. He was right, of course. Someone from outside of Misty Hollow, someone who Megan knew, had spooked her in the park. Scared her enough that she went to Nielson for a gun. Add in what Blair had to say about how Megan's parents didn't like them being together, and that could easily mean that one or both of Megan's parents were to blame for her death.
They listened to the radio the rest of the way. The traffic was light for a Monday morning, or maybe there just wasn't that much reason to come to Cider Hill. It was a close-packed town with a smaller population than Misty Hollow, even, with its short Main Street packed with shops that had simple names like Bill's Hardware or Sunday Flowers. Darcy had never been here before in person, but she'd seen it in a vision. It looked exactly like she remembered it.
"There's not much here," Jon remarked as he checked streetsigns, finally turning onto Pumpkin Lane next to the barbershop. "Just one more small town waiting to disappear off the face of the map."
"That's kind of cynical, isn't it?" Darcy asked him. "Sometimes these towns come back to life. Look at Misty Hollow."