Hiding From Death

by K. J. Emrick

  Darcy told Jon everything that Izzy had told her, not leaving anything out. “Now, I know the State Police have a warrant out for her arrest, but something doesn’t add up. Where is Chip’s body? Why would some guy be after her? He broke in here with a gun and was going to shoot her, Jon. What does that mean?”

  He lowered his head in thought. “I admit there’s a lot going on with her case. More than the State Police are aware of, obviously. That doesn’t mean we can just ignore the fact that there’s a warrant for her arrest.”

  Darcy put a hand to his chest. She could feel his heart beating. “Please, Jon. Don’t turn her in. Not yet. There has to be something we can do for her. I don’t think she did this thing. I can feel it. Have I ever steered you wrong before?”

  He blinked at her. “Uh, yes. I’m pretty sure I arrested Helen Nelson, future mayor of Misty Hollow, because you were positive she was a murderer. And let’s not forget how we arrested your own brother-in-law in that same caper. Or how about the time—”

  “Okay, okay, I get it.” Darcy was annoyed that he could bring up all of those different mistakes of hers by memory. “I’m not perfect, Jon, but don’t forget that my gift has helped you solve cases before, too. Right?”

  He shifted from foot to foot. “Yes it has. I don’t understand it, not completely, but I can’t deny how it’s helped us in the past.” He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “You really think she’s innocent?”

  “I don’t know yet. Yes. I think so, but I need to do a few things first. What’s more important right now, I think, is that she’s in danger. We need to help her.”

  “Help her how?” Jon asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

  This was the part that she was worried about. If Jon said no… “We need to bring Izzy and Lilly over to our house. Kind of protective custody for them.”

  “Are you insane?” The words burst out of him and he suddenly realized how loud his voice had gotten. He shot a look back toward the kitchen, then took them a few steps further into the living room, lowering his voice back to a whisper. “Darcy, I can’t harbor a fugitive in my home! I’ll lose my job!”

  “Only if someone finds out,” Darcy argued. “Plus, if you solve the larger case here, who would say anything?”

  “The Chief would, that’s who.” He paced back and forth, quick and short steps that led him back to her. “No. We have to turn her in.”

  “Jon, we can’t turn an innocent woman over to be arrested for something she didn’t do.”

  He pushed his hands back through his jet black hair as he clenched his jaw. Darcy knew she’d asked a lot of him in the past, and this was more than she’d ever asked, but she felt very strongly about this. Helping Izzy and her daughter was the right thing to do.

  She took his hands in his and waited for him to look at her again. “What if I can prove her husband is still alive?”

  His expression didn’t change, but the lines around his eyes softened. “Then that would give me something to go to the State Police with, at least. Darcy…I love you and I trust you. But I can’t just ignore my duty.”

  “Does anyone know you’re here?” Darcy asked. “Do they know who Izzy is?”

  “No, they don’t. You called my cell phone when you scared that guy off and I didn’t want to tell anyone where I was going, because…well, you know why.”

  “Okay,” she said, “then that gives us a little time. Just let me try something, all right?” She pushed up on her toes and kissed him gently on his forehead. “Just keep an open mind.”

  She could tell he was worried, both about his job and about what they were getting themselves into. He didn’t say a word as they went back into the kitchen. Darcy sat down across from Izzy, her tea now cold and forgotten. “I need to try something, Izzy. I told you that I have a gift. I can see things, and I can communicate with people,” she hesitated, looking over at Lilly’s wide eyes. “People who aren’t with us anymore,” she decided to say.

  From the corner of her eye she saw Jon’s eyebrows shoot up. She hadn’t told him about her letting Izzy in on her secret.

  Izzy shook her head. Her eyes hadn’t left Jon and they were full of mistrust. “I don’t trust psychics. I don’t need my fortune read.”

  “It’s not like that. Look, I don’t need you to believe, but Jon here has seen me do it. He knows.”

  She looked over at Jon for confirmation. He pressed his lips together, but nodded his head.

  Izzy didn’t know what to say. She stuttered and stopped and then blew out a breath. “Fine. At this point, I’ll try anything. What is it you want to do?”

  “It’s very simple,” Darcy said. “I want to contact Chip.”

  Chapter Seven

  Jon agreed to get the things that she needed. She kept her supplies in the downstairs closet now so that she had the candles and matches and incense altogether in one place. When it had been just her in the house, then it hadn’t mattered where she put her things. With Jon’s stuff mixing in with her own she had to be more organized.

  Now she sat in the middle of Izzy’s living room floor, cross legged, in a circle of five thick, white candles. Their flames flickered and raised small tendrils of smoke. Outside of the circle, a stick of incense burned in its holder, lending a nutty, earthy smell to the room.

  In her hands Darcy held a set of keys. They had been Chip’s set, the set he’d used to drive him and Izzy to their motel room where he was killed. Izzy had taken them to get out of there, had kept them with her even though they didn’t do her any good now. Attached to the ring was a little tag with a pro football team’s logo on it. Darcy didn’t know enough about football to know what team it was. It didn’t matter, though. All that mattered was that it was important to Chip.

  Darcy cleared her mind, breathing slowly and deeply, blocking out the room around her.

  Lilly’s whispering broke her concentration. “Mommy, what’s she doing?”

  With a smile, Darcy went back to what she was doing. Breathe in, breathe out. Clearing her mind, she pictured the mist, the same mist that slinked through the town. It billowed and swirled in her mind and gave her the blank screen she needed to project her thoughts onto. Concentrating on the feel of the keys in her hand, on the person who had owned them, she cast outward, looking to talk to the soul of Charles McIntosh.

  When nothing happened, she centered herself and tried again. This wasn’t anything unusual. Sometimes the spirit of the person she was calling on didn’t want to be contacted. Sometimes she almost had to force the departed person to have a conversation with her.

  Breathe in, breathe out.

  She called out to him in her mind. Chip? Are you there? Searching, waiting, she concentrated harder on the mist. In a corner of her mind the billowing shapes darkened and almost formed into something but then they folded in and around themselves and spilled away.

  Nothing.

  Breathe in, breathe out.

  After a long time, she gasped and opened her eyes. Her mouth was dry and pasty. Her muscles ached. With an effort, she unfolded one leg and held it out straight to work out a cramp that had settled into it. “I couldn’t do it,” she said to Jon and Izzy. “I couldn’t contact Chip.”

  Jon held his hand down to her and helped her up. “Doesn’t that mean…?”

  Darcy nodded as she settled her weight onto that one foot. “He’s not dead.”

  “He’s not…?” Izzy looked like she was about to faint. “What do you mean? Of course he’s dead. I saw his blood.”

  “Momma?” Lilly asked, unshed tears in her voice.

  “Shh, baby,” Izzy said to her daughter. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. But Darcy, I saw it. I know what happened.”

  “But you don’t, do you? Can you remember anything from that night?”

  Izzy shook her head miserably. “I’ve tried to remember. I’ve tried and tried. All I can remember is waking up with him gone and covered in his blood.”

  “The State Police f
orensics team checked the blood on the bed, too,” Jon said to Darcy. “It was definitely his.”

  Frowning, licking her lips to get some moisture back in them, Darcy frowned. “I don’t understand it, either, but I can tell you without a doubt that Chip is not dead. Izzy, can I get a glass of water, please?”

  Jon was still looking at her in that conflicted, sort of angry way. “I believe you, Darcy. I want you to know that. But I can’t just not do my job because you had a vision.”

  “Jon, it’s more than that. She’s an innocent woman. Isn’t part of your job to protect the innocent?”

  “Darcy you know it’s not that simple. She’s wanted for murder.”

  “A murder she didn’t commit.”

  From over by the sink, Izzy cleared her throat. She held out the glass of water to Darcy. “If you two could stop arguing for a minute, maybe you could ask me what I want to do?”

  Jon shook his head as Darcy took the water. “I’m sorry Izzy. I know we’re not making this any easier on you. I don’t think you get a say in it, though.”

  Darcy looked at him sharply. He shrugged, and then sighed. “I tell you what. Let’s get them over to our house, and then we can talk more. You haven’t told us anything that can really help you.”

  “She said Chip isn’t dead,” Izzy said, pointing to Darcy. “If you believe her then why would you want to turn me in?”

  “How did you wake up with blood on you?” Jon asked. “Where is Chip? What happened in the cabin? Can you answer any of that?”

  Izzy folded her arms around herself. “No. I can’t. You think I don’t want to?”

  “But there is something you’re keeping from us, isn’t there?” Darcy said to her. “I can feel it.”

  When Izzy didn’t answer Darcy touched Jon lightly on his shoulder. “Let’s get her over to our house, before whoever that was comes looking for her again. Okay? Then maybe we can all talk more.”

  Absolutely no one looked happy with that idea. So Darcy figured it must be the right thing to do.

  ***

  Over on her own porch, Darcy pulled out the keys and unlocked the front door. The smoky tendrils of mist had thickened in the late afternoon sun. It swirled around the front steps, disturbed by their footsteps.

  “Let’s get inside quick,” Jon said, scanning all around them. “We don’t know if that guy is still out here.”

  Darcy pushed the door open and let Izzy and Lilly go in first. Reaching around for the light switch she turned it on and stepped in after them, Jon coming in close behind her. “The living room is through there,” she said. “Why don’t you and Lilly sit down and get comfortable?”

  She dropped her keys on the table and was taking off her coat when the lights went out again.

  Behind her Jon grunted loudly. A loud thump scared her just before something large and heavy bumped into her and knocked her down. She was on the floor, looking up at everything from an angle. In the weak daylight coming through the windows Darcy saw a large man in a dark coat rush into the living room.

  “Where is the money? Where did he hide it?” The man was yelling. Darcy knew it was the same man who had attacked Izzy before. He’d followed them to her house.

  “Please, I don’t know anything!” she heard Izzy say.

  Disoriented, Darcy tried to get up, to get to Izzy and help them. Jon was faster. He was already racing past her, shouting at the top of his lungs. “Police officer! Stay where you are or I’ll shoot!”

  There was the sounds of a scuffle and then Darcy heard the lamp topple over and something else that might have been the endtable crashing over onto its side. She got into the living room just in time to see Jon falling backward over the couch as the dark man ran for the back of the house. Jon was up and after him a moment later.

  Darcy went to Izzy where she huddled in a corner with Lilly. “Are you two all right?” she asked.

  Lilly nodded and sniffed, her little eyes wide. Izzy rocked her daughter back on her lap. “We’re okay, Darcy. Thank you. I’m…I’m sorry I brought this into your house.”

  Darcy sat down next to them. “I told you we would help you and I meant it. You need to tell us everything, though. I know you’re trying to keep something back but I don’t think that’s going to do anyone any good. Do you?”

  Slowly, Izzy shook her head. “You’re right. I’ve just been running for so long that I don’t know how to trust people any more. I’m sorry.”

  When Jon came back in, out of breath, his gun out and in his hand, Darcy had Izzy and Lilly sitting back on the couch again. “He’s gone,” Jon told them. “I couldn’t see where he went. He broke in our back door, Darcy, and it looks like he cut the power on the outside of the house. Pretty gutsy. A person can get electrocuted that way.”

  He put his gun back in its holster, looking from Darcy to Izzy and back again. “What’s going on?”

  “You should sit down for this,” Darcy told him. “Izzy has something she wants to tell us.”

  Jon gave her a puzzled look, an expression that she was getting used to seeing on his face, and sat down next to her. They faced Izzy and waited, not rushing her, letting her get it out in her own time.

  “My husband was an accountant. He made good money at it, too, giving us enough to live on and then some. That’s how come I had as much in my savings as I did when I went on the run. Well. I thought Chip was making his money honestly, anyway.” She took a shaky breath before continuing. “It turned out, he was making some shady deals with some people from the city. Very rich, very powerful people.”

  “The mafia?” Jon guessed.

  Izzy shrugged. “The mafia, drug dealers, I’m not really sure. Chip referred to them as ‘The Hand’ once. I just know it was illegal. A few weeks before he…disappeared, some men came to the house. They were not nice people. One had a scar on his face, the other looked at me in a way that made my skin crawl. They went into my husband’s private office but I could hear them yelling at him. They threatened his life if he went to the police. They said he had to keep making their books, or bad things would happen to him. And to us.”

  Darcy thought again of the man from her vision, the man who had attacked them twice now. “That man today, he was one of the men who came to your house that day, wasn’t he Izzy?”

  She nodded, wiping at the moisture that was collecting in the corners of her eyes. “The one with the scar under his eye. Yes. I don’t know how he found me.”

  In halting sentences, Izzy went on to explain that even before she found out about Chip cheating on her, this trouble with “The Hand” was breaking their marriage apart. She had every intention of leaving Chip, but then he begged her to go to the motel with her, to try to fix things. She’d believed he was honestly trying to save their marriage. Now, she wasn’t so sure.

  “If he’s not dead, then where is he?” she asked. “How could he just abandon me and his daughter like this?”

  “I don’t know,” Darcy said. There was no way her gift could find someone who was still alive. As much as it had helped her and others over the years, sometimes it felt like it was just a burden. “We will help you, somehow. I promise you that.”

  Darcy turned to Jon, who nodded, his face carefully neutral. She could tell he was still mad at her for making him choose between her and his job. She just hoped he could forgive her. Soon.

  “One thing’s for sure,” Jon said, standing up. “We can’t stay here. I’ll call someone to fix the power line, but it’s obviously not safe here. Let’s see if we can get Grace to meet us at the station. I’m sure she won’t mind staying a little later if it means doing some real police work. I think we’re going to need all of the help we can get.”

  ***

  Grace stood up from behind her desk as Darcy and Jon with Izzy and Lilly came in. Darcy hugged her sister. “Wow, Grace. You can really feel the baby bump now.”

  “You should feel it from my side.” She grumbled when she said it, but Darcy saw the smile on her face. “So.
I got as much information on this Hand group as I could while I was waiting for you. It turns out they’re known for racketeering and money laundering. They’re on every known gang list in the state. Loosely associated with the mafia, but independently run. I found a list of known members from the State Police. Here.”

  She turned her computer screen around for the others to see. On it were a series of photos, with names and vital statistics listed for each person.

  “You’ve been busy,” Jon said to her.

  “I’m pregnant, not permanently disabled,” she snapped at him. “I keep telling you guys I can do more than shuffle papers.”

  Jon raised his hands in a mock indication of surrender. “Okay, okay. I believe you. You tell the Chief about this?”

  “Not yet.” Darcy sat back down, carefully balancing herself on the chair. “I didn’t know what you had, or what you wanted me to tell him.”

  She looked meaningfully at Izzy and Lilly, then back to Jon. “Maybe you should tell him something? Soon?”

  “My next phone call,” Jon promised. “There’s just been a lot going on—”

  “That’s him!” Izzy exclaimed, pointing at one picture among dozens on Grace’s computer screen. “That’s the man!”

  They all crowded around the computer. The picture Izzy had indicated was of a muscular white man with thinning black hair and piercing gray eyes. A crescent shaped scar curved out along his cheek under his left eye. “Adolphos Carino,” the name read, along with his age and his height and his weight.

  When Darcy looked at the photograph, her vision of the night Izzy ran away from Cider Hill flashed through her mind. She saw the dark man again, yelling after Izzy. “You can’t run forever!”

  “Well.” Jon rubbed at his jaw. “That gives us a name to put to our attacker. I have an idea I know who’s been stealing cars in town, too.”

  “You think it was our friend Adolphos here?” Grace asked him.

  “I do. It makes sense. The first car was stolen from Meadowood, and then dumped here, where another one was stolen from Garret Hobbs driveway. We’ll have to tell our patrols out looking for that car to be careful. If this Adolphos has it, then there’s no telling what he’ll do if he’s stopped.”