by K. J. Emrick
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
About the Author
COPYRIGHT
First published in Australia by South Coast Publishing, December 2013.
Copyright K.J. Emrick (2013)
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and locations portrayed in this book and the names herein are fictitious. Any similarity to or identification
with the locations, names, characters or history of any person, product or entity is entirely coincidental and unintentional.
- From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations.
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All information is generalized, presented for informational purposes only and presented "as is" without warranty or guarantee of any kind.
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Chapter One
“Well ladies, what did you think of the book?” Darcy Sweet looked expectantly at the members of the book club she hosted twice a month in her shop. She was anxious to hear their views on the latest book they were reading.
The Sweet Read book store was a quaint little shop located on the main street of Misty Hollow and every inch of it was filled with books. Old books and new books alike stood side by side on the shelves. An odd assortment of books lay around on every available surface and some were even stacked in corners. The whole shop looked like ordered chaos.
There was always a vase of colorful fresh flowers on the counter, usually Darcy’s favorite combination of lilacs and daisies, and their fragrance would permeate all corners of the store. Pretty pale blue curtains with little flower motifs hung in the windows giving the store a real homey feel.
It was late afternoon and the members of the book club, eight in all including Darcy, had just settled down to discuss their latest book choice. They were sitting in a circle of comfortable overstuffed armchairs on one side of the store, each with a cup of something warm to drink. As Darcy looked from one face to the next she felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.
The book club had been reading Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None.” Darcy had known that the other women probably wouldn’t enjoy it but she had been getting so sick of reading the usual sappy romances that the group favored and had decided that a change was in order.
The ladies looked at each other, eyes darting anywhere but in Darcy’s direction. She sighed inwardly. Finally Anna Louis, Darcy’s forty year old neighbor, was the first to speak up.
“Honestly Darcy?” The small dark haired woman paused, her bright blue eyes wide and earnest. Darcy nodded for her to go on. “I didn’t love the book. A bit too suspenseful for me. Kept me up all night long.”
As she spoke Anna fiddled nervously with the front cover of the book, which had a long crease down it. Probably caused by the nervous worrying of her slim fingers, Darcy thought. The other women in the group murmured their agreement as Anna continued, “Sorry Darcy, I know you love mysteries and all those ghost tales. They’re just not for me.”
Darcy wasn’t offended. She had a reputation in the town of Misty Hollow as a bit of an odd duck because she was often involved in strange occurrences. It wasn’t that she sought these odd events out, but ever since she was little she had been able to tap into another world, the world beyond the grave. In this tiny town everything was gossip and Darcy was quite often at the center of it, even if no one but her sister knew her secret.
“That’s fine Anna,” Darcy said in a soothing tone. “I realize that not everyone is going to like the same books. That’s a good thing. It gives us something interesting to discuss.” She smiled at the older woman, and Anna visibly relaxed.
Darcy didn’t try to fight it when the ladies started up a conversation about the latest romance novel by Debbie Macomber. In fact she quite enjoyed it. The ladies could be very high-spirited when they were talking about a subject they all loved. Two hours slipped by very quickly.
“It was a great meeting today Darcy. I really enjoy these book club sessions.” Anna gently patted Darcy on the arm as she was preparing to leave after the meeting had ended.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it, Anna.” Darcy smiled at the older woman and walked with her to the door as Anna shrugged on her coat and gathered up her bag. Anna stopped and pointed out of the window. “The mists are starting to rise again. I’d better hurry home. Bye Darcy.”
Darcy pulled the door open for Anna to leave and watched her friend wave as she quickly rushed away.
Darcy let the door swing shut and stood looking out of the window. She felt a shiver ripple through her. She hated it when the mist rose; it gave everything such an eerie feeling. That same odd sensation was settling inside of her once again, like something was going to happen but she just didn’t know what. She never knew what. She shivered again and absentmindedly started to twirl the delicate antique ring on her finger. It was a habit that she had whenever she got stressed or anxious. It had been her great-aunt’s ring and Darcy wore it to feel closer to her.
The lighting was dim inside the shop and she could see her image reflected in the glass of the window as she stared outside. She took a good look at herself and wondered why she was blessed, or perhaps cursed, with these odd feelings and visions. She looked pretty ordinary on the outside with dark hair framing a heart shaped face, green eyes and petite figure. Ordinary.
She sighed. As she was about to turn away from her reflection she felt her black and white cat “Smudge” rub up against her leg causing her to startle a little. Shaking her head at herself Darcy absentmindedly bent down to scratch his ears and hoped that the mist wouldn’t last too long.
***
Darcy flipped the sign from ‘OPEN a good book today’ sign to ‘CLOSED, THE END’ and pulled the front door of the book shop closed behind her. She locked up for the night and started for home. Not owning a car meant that she had to walk everywhere she needed to go. In fact there weren’t that many cars in
Misty Hollow as the town was small enough that you could walk from one side to the other in about fifteen minutes.
Darcy didn’t mind the lack of a car though. The exercise did her good. She had contemplated, more than once, getting a bicycle to use as transport, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
Pulling her coat tighter around her to keep the damp mist out she set off along the main street with Smudge following along behind her, occasionally darting in between her feet and nearly tripping her up.
The sun was slowly setting and Darcy liked this time of day when the main street was quieter. She loved this town with its quaint shops and lovely town square complete with a gazebo in the center. Beautifully trimmed grass flanked the gazebo on all sides and several regal red maple trees stood tall and proud. Darcy loved those trees. They brought glorious color to the town center all year round. She loved to spend time in the town square and often ate her lunch there when the weather was fine. Tonight as she walked past, the mist gave it an almost otherworldly quality.
As she walked she imagined that everyone was home already in their cozy houses. On her way she strolled slowly along Main Street with its lovely evenly paved sidewalks. She even did some leisurely window shopping as she passed the lit windows of those shops still open at this hour.
As she came to where the town Library stood on the other side of the street she saw her friend Linda come out through the double glass front doors. Poor Linda, it looked like she had scored the closing shift again. Her boss, Marla, was always making her work the odd hours of the day and usually Saturdays as well.
Linda looked up and when she spotted Darcy she smiled and lifted her hand in a happy wave. Darcy smiled and waved back but didn’t stop to chat. Once Linda got started it was very hard to get away from her and Darcy was looking forward to getting home.
As Darcy left Main Street and stepped onto the path that would take her home she stopped and turned to look back on the town. The sun was settling below the horizon now and there were lights twinkling in all of the windows. The beautiful scene spread out in front of her somehow made her feel melancholy. She turned away and continued walking, hands in her pockets, feet dragging slightly.
As she walked along the path to her home, she thought about her life, as she so often did. She didn’t think she was doing too badly for a twenty nine year old woman. She owned her own business and house. She had inherited both of them from her great-aunt Millicent Carlisle or Millie as she was known about town, when she’d passed away eight years ago, but she had made them her own.
Darcy’s home life hadn’t been that great when she was younger. Her ‘sixth sense,’ as she liked to call it, had been somewhat of an embarrassment to her upper class mother. Darcy always felt like her mother wished she would disappear. So eventually she had, kind of. Darcy had left home at fifteen to come here to Misty Hollow and live with her aunt.
Millie had been more of a mother to her than her real mother had ever been. So much so that Darcy was still connected to her now, even after her death. Of course, she hadn’t told anyone that little detail. Not even her sister Grace, who now lived in Misty Hollow also, with her husband Aaron, and worked for the Misty Hollow police force. She hadn’t told her friends either, who already thought she was a little nuts. She didn’t need to give them any cause to think she was completely mad.
She sighed at the sudden thought of going home to an empty house once again. She shook herself. This wouldn’t do. Just because she was alone didn’t make her lonely, and she did have Smudge after all. She looked around for her cat but couldn’t see him anywhere. There was only so much comfort a cat could give, she supposed. He was probably home by now wondering where she had got to. He would be demanding his dinner as soon as she got to the house. She smiled at the mental picture. “I love you too,” he would say if he could talk. “Now where’s my food?”
The melancholy mood refused to budge, though. She figured it was probably because she lived further away from the town than most people. The only neighbor she had was Anna and there was quite a big pasture between their two houses. It wasn’t like they could talk over the fence or anything.
As she rounded a bend in the path and could see her house she felt a little better. She loved this house. She loved how it sat among some tall pine trees that gave wonderful shade when it was hot. She loved the big porch and the big lawn. She sighed. It did feel like she was a little isolated sometimes. Though most of the time she enjoyed the solitude.
When Darcy reached her front porch she stopped short. Her front door was slightly ajar. That was odd. She could have sworn that she’d shut it properly when she’d left for the book shop that morning.
She pushed on the door carefully and stuck her head around to have a quick look inside. She could usually sense when something was off and she wasn’t getting anything right now. Only that squirmy feeling from earlier that she couldn’t shake. Deciding it had nothing to do with her home she entered the house. It was as she was taking off her coat that she heard a kind of rustling noise coming from the living room.
That feeling might have been trying to warn her after all. There was definitely someone, or something, in her house.
Settling her coat on her shoulders again she grabbed the nearest heavy object, which happened to be an old umbrella of her aunt’s that had been hanging from one of the coat hooks in the entryway, the one with the heavy plastic end shaped like a diamond. Not much of a weapon, but it wasn’t like she kept a shotgun by the door.
Darcy carefully tiptoed along the passageway to the living room doorway. Craning her neck, she looked around the edge of the doorjamb. She could just make out the figure of a man riffling through the drawers of the computer desk that sat flush against the far wall.
She entered the room as quietly as possible and raised the umbrella with the heavy end up over her head in a defensive pose. Then she screamed as loudly as she could to hide her fear, “What do you think you are doing?!”
The man jumped back and dropped the papers he had been holding. He turned to face Darcy with his hands held in the air.
Then he saw what she was holding, and his eyes popped. He started laughing loudly. “What were you going to do with that thing? You Mary Poppins or something?” He pointed to the makeshift weapon she was holding with a sneer on his lips.
Now that was an expression she’d seen him wear any number of times.
“Jeff! What on earth are you doing in my house?” She was shocked to see her ex-husband standing there in her living room. They didn’t associate anymore. They really didn’t have anything to talk about. And he definitely didn’t have any right to be in her house going through her things.
He began laughing so hard at her that he was bent over double. Reluctantly she dropped the umbrella with a clatter to the floor. She would much rather have hit him over the head with it. Repeatedly.
“Oh for Pete’s sake!” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms under her breasts. “Will you stop laughing and tell me why you are skulking around inside my house? My house, Jeff! And why are you going through my personal things?”
Jeff calmed himself down enough to be able to talk to her. “Stop assuming the worst, will you? I came here to get an old box of pictures that my mom wants.” He was wiping the tears away from his eyes as he spoke. “Not get hit in the head with a stupid umbrella.”
“So, what, you just decided to come on in and help yourself?” Darcy considered calling her sister at the police station. Maybe she could talk some sense into Jeff.
His laughter evaporating, Jeff set his face in a scowl. “Always hospitable, aren’t you?”
Darcy felt her blood start to boil. Jeff always brought out this reaction from her. No matter how she told herself she wouldn’t rise to his bait, rise she did. That was one of the reasons they were now divorced and had been for three years. Divorced that long, and still he thought he could come and go in her life just as he pleased.
Taking a deep breath she said, “I don’t
want to argue with you Jeff. I want you gone. That’s why I divorced you.”
“Excuse me,” he said to her with that same sneer, “but I think you’ve got that backwards. I divorced you.”
Taking a deep breath to settle her nerves she said, “Whatever Jeff. You believe that if it makes you happy. Spin it however you want. I think those photos are in the basement. I’ll get them. Then you’ll leave. Okay?”
She didn’t wait for him to answer as she turned and headed for the door to the basement steps off the kitchen. He followed behind her, grumbling under his breath as he did. Served him right, she thought to herself.
She kept the basement of her aunt’s house clean and organized. The ceiling was low and most of one corner was taken up by the furnace, leaving little space for storage anyway. There were metal shelves set up along one wall where she kept bits and pieces of her life that she didn’t have much use for anymore. It didn’t take long for them to locate the box of pictures from their marriage among everything else.
“There you go, Jeff,” she said to him in a stiff voice, shoving the box into his hands. “Now if you wouldn’t mind leaving? I want to get my dinner and relax a bit.”
“Aww Darcy. You’re always trying to get rid of me.” His smile was full of ideas she had no interest in. “I could stay and have dinner with you.”
Was he for real?
Darcy gave him a dark look. “Why on earth would you want to do that? You can’t stand me and I can’t stand you. Why don’t we just leave it that way?”
He grinned at her and winked. “Yeah, you do have a point there. Well, I’ll be going then.”
She followed him all the way to the front door to make sure he actually left. As he opened the door she said, “Oh and Jeff…”
He stopped and looked back at her. “What?”
“Don’t ever come in my house uninvited again. Got it!”
He screwed up his face as he slammed the door shut dramatically. She made sure to lock it and throw the deadbolt as well.