The Greatest Gift (A Darcy Sweet Mystery)

by K. J. Emrick

  She sighed as she pushed through the door to the deli, making the little bell above the door ring. Would things between Jon and her ever change?

  Today, like on most Sundays, the deli had a moderate crowd in it. Darcy recognized a few people as she scanned around the room for Jon. They waved, she waved back, and hoped they didn't think she was being rude when she didn't take the time to talk.

  She couldn't help the way her breath caught when she saw him. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a black t-shirt that outlined his muscular body. It wasn't very often that he dressed down like this. He was almost always in slacks and dress shirts as if he was expecting to get called into work at any moment. Just the fact that he wasn't dressed like that today meant so much to Darcy. It was like he was saying he was here just for her.

  He had been concentrating on his coffee cup, just sitting and waiting, but when he saw her he smiled. It was that smile that he always gave only to her. His dark hair was gorgeous and his blue eyes pierced her from across the room. She felt like it was the first moment she'd met him all over again. Like none of the stuff since then had happened.

  Only, it had.

  Such a simple thought, but it was enough to bring her back down to earth. Jon was here. He was making the effort. That was a start, but that was all it was.

  She went over to him, sitting in the chair opposite him at the little round table. She'd showered and changed into a slim white summer dress and even put on a little makeup. Not something she did very often, but she had wanted to look nice for Jon.

  Butterflies fluttered through her stomach again. Jon was the only man who could make her feel like a little girl with first date jitters. "Hi," she said to him, hoping her coiled emotions weren't obvious on her face.

  "Hi," he said back. "Sorry about yesterday. That burglary case is really taking up a lot of my time."

  "You always did put everything you had into your work."

  "Not everything." His smile put a thousand different meanings into those two words.

  They ordered lunch, making small talk about things in their lives. Darcy told Jon all about her mother's upcoming wedding, and about how well the book store was doing now, and the other little bits of life here in Misty Hollow that he'd been missing out on. He talked about his new job and his cases. Funny, she thought, but when he talked about this great new job he had left her for, he didn't sound happy. Maybe it was just wishful thinking on her part.

  The waitress came back with their orders—a club sandwich for him and a chicken salad sandwich for her—just as Darcy was starting to tell Jon about Belinda Franco.

  "Oh, Belinda?" the waitress said, breaking into their conversation. "She's such a dear woman, isn't she? So full of life. Especially at her age."

  Darcy was surprised. The name on the waitress' tag was Rita. Darcy knew her from around town but didn't really know her. She'd only been working here at the deli for a few weeks, if Darcy remembered correctly. Rita Casey, a niece or granddaughter to one of the members of Darcy's book club. She was a plump, red-headed woman with far too much blue eyeshadow on and several rings with diamonds and emeralds in their settings. She set the plates down and went to head off to another table.

  "Wait, Rita," Darcy said. "How do you know Belinda?"

  "Oh, that was my job before this one. Be right there, honey." Rita held a finger up, talking to someone who had called for her attention. Then she turned back to Darcy. "See, I was Belinda's house cleaner for about a year. Upstairs and downstairs, too. I absolutely love her to death. Nice woman. She paid me good, too. Enjoy your meals."

  Then she went off to the other table. Darcy watched her for a moment, wheels spinning in her mind. When she turned back she found Jon smiling at her.

  "What?" she asked him.

  "I forgot how much I miss watching you do your thing."

  "Doing my thing?" Darcy arched an eyebrow, the corner of her mouth curling up. "What's that supposed to mean? I have a thing?"

  "Yes, you do. You were always great at investigating without really questioning people. I have officers working under me now who could learn a few things from you." He took a bite of his sandwich, chewed and swallowed it, then added, "I missed you."

  She turned her plate on the table but didn't pick up her sandwich. "You could have come home anytime."

  He nodded. "I know. I was trying to work through some things. Plus, you know, I thought this job would be good for me."

  "Thought it would?" she said, pouncing on those words. "You mean it wasn't?"

  "Oh, no," he protested immediately. "I didn't mean it like that. It's a great opportunity. Senior Investigator. It's a higher rank than I could ever get here in Misty Hollow short of becoming Chief. The work is challenging and I have men working under me. It's a great opportunity. It's not that at all."

  "Then what?"

  "I thought it would be fulfilling," he admitted. "I thought it would help me work through…you know. All that stuff we left between us."

  All that stuff. That was putting it mildly. "Do you remember," she asked him, "when we had just started dating? One of your old cases came back up, the one where the murderer was leaving cryptic poems. Remember?"

  "I remember," he said. "There was a lot of suspicion that I was involved in that. You helped clear my name."

  She smiled at the memory. "Right. Then, when it was over you told me that you didn't have any more secrets in your life. Remember that?"

  His smile soured, but he nodded. "Yes. That's what I told you. I kind of forgot one or two, didn't I?"

  "Yes." She bit into her sandwich now. It tasted good, fresh and tangy, but she hardly noticed. She just wanted an excuse to collect her thoughts for a moment. When she swallowed, she said, "Your sister. Your father. Those were things you should have told me about, if you were serious about being with me."

  Jon played with his fork. "I know. That was one of the things I wanted to talk to you about. Now, I mean. I know I screwed up. The way we left things, that was my fault. I shouldn't have sprung those things on you like I did."

  "It wasn't all your fault." She meant it. She had run the scene over several times in her mind. Their final argument, when he had walked out of her life. "Jon, we could have worked through it. All you had to do was stay and work with me."

  He was staring at his half eaten sandwich, at the table, at the door to the deli. Anywhere but at her. "What if I said I wanted to come back?"

  She was stunned. At first she didn't know what to say. He took the pressure off her as he reached across to hold her hand on the table. "I'm serious, Darcy. I've thought about this every night since we split up, and every night I get more and more certain that I did the wrong thing by taking the job over in Oak Hollow."

  Darcy's fingers tingled where his hand touched her. She was sure her face must be red right up to the tips of her ears. He was saying exactly what she wanted to hear. All the right words in all the right ways.

  Before she could try to put her own thoughts into words, Rita came back over to their table.

  "Anything else for you two?" she asked them. "The sandwiches okay?"

  Jon sat back, taking his hand away, and Darcy wished they had met somewhere more private where they wouldn't be interrupted. Suddenly she was aware of a dozen pairs of eyes around the room, watching. "No, thank you," she said to Rita. "We're good."

  "All righty then." Rita winked at her, then snapped her fingers. "Hey, Darcy, could you tell Belinda I said hi? Maybe mention I'm still available to help her out around the house if she needs it."

  "I suppose I can do that." Darcy managed a smile. A thought had occurred to her. "Why did you stop working for Belinda?"

  Rita leaned in closer in a conspiratorial way. "Oh, she said she was running out of money. Fixed budget, and all that, you know? But I heard different." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Supposedly there was a lot of money that her husband left to her. The man was a real tightwad from what I heard. Had lots of money to pass on. So, when she's ready
to have someone help her out again, you tell her I'm ready to come back."

  Rita certainly sounded eager to get back into Belinda's employment. "I'll tell her," Darcy promised. Rita winked a thank you and went off again.

  That whole thing about Dominic building up a big nest egg to leave Belinda when he died nagged at Darcy. Belinda certainly didn't live like a rich woman. Maybe, she thought, Belinda could be running out of money. Dominic might be haunting her now to make sure his wife was taken care of.

  Or he might want to protect her from someone.

  It all made sense, and at the same time, it didn't. Darcy knew there was something more to all of this. She just didn't know what.

  Jon was watching her again with that same look in his blue eyes.

  Darcy fidgeted and stared down at her sandwich. "Stop it," she said, but with a smile playing across her lips.

  "You think she has something to do with what's going on at Belinda Franco's, don't you?" It wasn't really a question the way he said it.

  She chewed a bite of food and thought it over. "I think she might. She's very interested in getting back into Belinda's house again. I can't imagine what connection she would have to Belinda other than being an ex-employee, though."

  "She would have had access to Belinda's house when she worked there. Right?" Jon asked her.

  "Right. So if there was anything in the house, like say a hidden stash of money, Rita would know about it."

  "Hidden stash of money?" He raised an eyebrow at that. Darcy explained to him what she had figured out so far, about Dominic's spirit telling her he had saved all of his money to buy Belinda the house of her dreams, and about Belinda's poltergeist ransacking her house. Yet, Rita had just said Belinda claimed to be broke. Darcy had to wonder if the rumored money was the key to this whole thing.

  "Couldn't Belinda have spent any money that Dominic left her?" Jon asked.

  "Maybe. But wouldn't Rita know that? Wouldn't the whole town have known it? You know, my mother actually said she remembered Dominic came from money but never acted like he did. So then the real question becomes, where is this money?"

  "If there ever was any," Jon added.

  "Right."

  Darcy was enjoying this give and take between them as they worked together on another mystery. They had always clicked, complementing each other in every imaginable way. Now here they were again, like no time had passed at all.

  She realized, in that moment, how very much in love she still was with Jon Tinker.

  "So what should we do?" he asked.

  The question took her off guard. With her thoughts on the two of them she wanted to answer that they should get back together, throw caution to the wind, make everything like it was before. "What do you mean?" she asked instead.

  "I mean, what should we do about Belinda?" he clarified. When he saw the look on her face he added, "I know. It's not my place to say or do anything. This is your friend you're helping out, and it's completely your decision, but I'd like to help. If that's okay?"

  He had completely misread the disappointment in her eyes. His mind had been on the mystery in front of them, and not on her. She sighed. "I do want your help, Jon. I do. But we were talking about something else, if you remember."

  He reached out and took her hand again. "I won't forget. Not ever again. I missed you, Darcy."

  Those weren't the words Darcy was hoping to hear, but they still sounded sweet.

  ***

  Belinda greeted them with a smile and an offer to make some tea. She was in a dark blue dress today, wearing a string of pearls with matching earrings that dangled and swung with her every move. She practically gushed over Jon. "I was wondering where our handsome detective had gone," she said to him with a wink. "In a town this small someone as handsome as you doesn't just leave without people noticing."

  Darcy thought it was cute the way Jon looked embarrassed by Belinda's compliments. He sat down at the small kitchen table with Darcy and folded his hands together in front of him. "I came over with Darcy to help out with your problem," he said. "I hope you don't mind."

  "Goodness, of course I don't mind." Belinda set the teakettle to boil on the burner and came to join them, lowering herself gingerly into a chair. "Oh, my old bones are getting more and more tired. Take my advice, the both of you. Don't ever get old. You shouldn't call this a problem, though. I'm so happy my Dominic is here. I just need to know why."

  "That's why we're here," Darcy said. "Do you mind if I ask what Dominic left you in his will?"

  Belinda blinked at her. "My husband's will?"

  "I realize it's a very personal question. Is it all right if you tell us?"

  "Why wouldn't it be all right?" Belinda asked, clearly confused. "There wasn't anything much for him to leave me. This house, our old car, and some bills he hadn't paid yet. Dominic and I didn't have very much. We lived very simple lives. His father cut him off when he married me, you know. Oh, that family had more money than God, but they never shared a cent of it with my Dominic when he chose me."

  Darcy exchanged a glance with Jon. That confirmed at least part of what they had found out. "Belinda," she said, "I heard that Dominic was saving all of his money for you. Did he maybe have a bank account that you didn't know about?"

  Belinda was shaking her head emphatically before Darcy even finished asking the question. "No. Nothing like that. My Dominic didn't trust banks. He kept all of his money here in our house. I know where every penny of it was, and believe me, I spent all of that in the first year after he passed. If it wasn't for my retirement check I would have lost this place a long time ago." She looked around the room, obviously seeing more than just the house. "That would have been such a shame."

  The look on Jon's face was a mirror of Darcy's own. So much for that lead. If money was the motive behind the strange occurrences in Belinda's house, Belinda didn't know anything about it.

  That didn't mean Dominic's spirit didn't know about it. Darcy decided to try again. "Do you think your husband is trying to tell you there's money here for you? Somewhere in the house you didn't know about?"

  "Now where would my Dominic get money like that?" Belinda laughed. "We never had any money to begin with."

  The teakettle whistled, and Belinda pushed herself back up out of the chair to go tend to it. Jon took the opportunity to lean over and whisper to Darcy. "Maybe they didn't have any money because Dominic was saving every extra dollar and hiding it from his wife."

  "I thought of that, too," Darcy said.

  "Maybe," Jon added quickly, "he was hiding money because he was using it for things he didn't want Belinda to know about. Gambling? Women?"

  Darcy looked at him sharply. "Put away your suspicious mind, Senior Investigator. Dominic told me that he loved Belinda. He wanted to save up to buy Belinda a house. That's a nice gesture, don't you think?"

  "You've never had a ghost lie to you?"

  Darcy frowned. Ghosts usually told only the truth, or the truth as they saw it. Apparently in the afterlife there wasn't any reason to lie. Especially during a communication, where Darcy was basically compelling the spirit to communicate. But that fact aside, there had been a few ghosts who had told Darcy a lie. It wasn't impossible. She remembered the look he had given Belinda in the vision, though, and she knew it had been the real thing. Love.

  Just like how Jon used to look at her.

  She studied Jon, wishing that instead of discussing another mystery in the sleepy town of Misty Hollow, they could go back to talking about them. Where did they stand with each other? What happened next? She knew that something was happening between them, a rekindling of a spark that maybe hadn't ever gone out, strong emotions coming to the surface again. That was what they should be talking about instead of how to help Belinda.

  But, helping out her neighbors was part of who Darcy was. She'd been like that long before she'd met Jon. That would never change.

  Belinda came back with matching blue ceramic cups for Darcy and Jon. When she set
them down Darcy asked the next question on her list.

  "Do you think you could show us the door that leads downstairs?"

  Chapter Five

  Belinda had picked up the living room since Darcy had been here yesterday. Everything was back in its place, the picture frames back in order, the furniture arranged perfectly again. The poltergeist had not struck today.

  They went to where the stairs leading up to the second floor started. This was where the door had been in her vision. Instead, it was a wall. Darcy looked but saw no seam, no joint, no hinges. Nothing that would let anyone know there had ever even been a door here. Belinda smiled at her confusion and put a finger up to her lips. "This is a secret, you know. I had this built just two years ago now. I wanted to keep my real treasure safe and hidden."

  Aha, Jon's expression said. Darcy knew what he meant. They had been asking about money, and Belinda had said there was none, but that didn't mean there wasn't something of value in the house.

  Belinda reached out to the paneled wall beside the stairs leading up to the second story. It looked just like any other part of the wall, but Belinda put her hand against a certain spot and pressed here and there with her ring finger and thumb. Darcy blinked. Those two points had blended into the pattern on the wall panel but Belinda had found them with practiced ease. When she pushed and held them the panel released with a soft snick and a narrow rectangular door opened toward them. It was right where Dominic had shown Darcy the door in her vision. The door that led downstairs.

  Reaching into the exposed space behind the hidden door, Belinda flicked a switch and lights came on, revealing a finished stairway with hand railings on both sides, leading down. The walls were painted blue. Light brown carpeting softened their footsteps. Obviously, someone had spent a lot of time on this.

  Belinda smiled and waved them on. "Come on down. Let me show you the only treasure my Dominic left me when he died."