A Darcy Sweet Mystery Box Set Seven

by K. J. Emrick

  This phone only did text messaging, and allowed her to access the internet, and let her play Candy Crush. No calls in, no calls out. Thankfully ghosts hadn’t figured out how to text. At least, not yet.

  She took out the phone and opened the message immediately when she saw it was Izzy.

  Going to be late. Frozen pipes in the house.

  Darcy winced. She knew what that was like. Both of their houses were old ones, and sometimes copper pipes and stone-walled basements combined for problems like frozen pipes. Especially when the temperature was dipping down below zero at night like they had been. There was nothing you could do about it except soldier on.

  Don’t worry about it, she texted back, changing the autocorrect from “shot” to “about.” My turn to cover for you. Take the day off. Anything I can do?

  After a moment, there was a reply. Not unless you’re secretly a plumber?

  Darcy laughed and tried for a smiley face emoji. She got one with crossed eyes and cat’s whiskers. Close enough. She was getting better with this, but she was still far from perfect. Jon does all of our plumbing. What about your BF?

  Boyfriend’s out of town on business. He’s a klutz with a wrench anyway.

  Lol. Men. Can’t live with them, can’t replace them with a cat. Good luck.

  Ha ha. Thanks. After another moment, Izzy added, Sure you’re okay today?

  Yup, Darcy tapped back. Just me and Zane today.

  Cha Cha barked from over in the children’s book section where she could hear Zane pretending to read a story to his puppy.

  And a puppy, she added. What could possibly go wrong?

  She had to change the last word when autocorrect tried to make it into ‘wine.’

  Setting the phone down on the counter she went to start the coffee. Hopefully, she would have time to both run the store today and read through her aunt’s journals in the office.

  That idea had occurred to her last night as she was drifting off to sleep, after she and Jon had thoroughly exhausted each other in the nicest way possible. Great Aunt Millie had been one of those people who enjoyed putting her thoughts on paper. Over her adult lifetime, she had filled up several different journals with stories about her life, and her personal thoughts, and her understanding of ghosts and what came after death and about using her sixth sense. In fact, Millie had written two books on the subject of spirit divination. In their day, they had been minor best sellers.

  Darcy had read them both. She’d read all of her aunt’s journals, too, and she thought she maybe remembered something in one of them about a jewelry box. If there truly was something special about it, maybe she would learn more from the journals than she had from the nonsense Millie had given her in her dream. Listen to the dog? What was that all about?

  The journals would have to wait, anyway. She hummed while she did everything else to get ready to open the store. There was nothing she could do about the jewelry box at the moment, so she just needed to put it aside in her mind. She might be overthinking it, too. Just because every special object that ever came into her life before had spelled trouble didn’t mean this one would.

  Did it?

  “That’s a horse,” she heard Zane telling Cha Cha. “And that, and that, and that. No, that one’s a little horse. Don’t ‘member what it’s called.”

  Cha Cha barked.

  “Oh. Right. Pony. That’s a pony.”

  Darcy stopped humming, a sleeve of Styrofoam cups for the coffee station held tightly in her hands. She was listening to her son talking.

  “No,” he said to Cha Cha. “Dogs don’t ride horsies. People ride horsies.”

  Cha Cha grumbled something that almost sounded like words. “Rawr rawf rar-uf.”

  “Don’t know. Maybe ‘cause dogs already gots four feet.”

  “Arrafrr urf.”

  “No,” Zane laughed. “I gots two feet. These is hands.”

  Darcy turned around slowly, dropping the cups haphazardly on the table. Zane was doing more than reading to Cha Cha. It sounded for all the world as if they were… talking to each other.

  That was impossible, of course. She could understand Tiptoe from her reactions, and the way she meowed, just the same as she used to ‘talk’ to Tiptoe’s father, Smudge. That was something pet parents did. Was that what Zane was doing now? Just talking to Cha Cha like a real friend?

  She kept listening. Zane wasn’t done with his conversation yet.

  “How should I know? I can ask Mommy. She knows lots of stuff.”

  He came around the row of bookshelves with a very serious expression, his picture book in his hands, and Cha Cha close at his heels. “Cha Cha wants to know,” he said, “if our family is from Texas.”

  Heh, Darcy laughed silently. There was her answer. Zane was just making things up for his dog to say. “Oh, does he now? What in the world made you… I mean, made Cha Cha ask that?”

  Zane looked down at the pup, who blinked and shook his floppy ears. Then he shrugged. “Dunno why. He says Grape Aunt Millie said we came from somewheres else.”

  “Great,” Darcy corrected automatically. “Great Aunt Millie said…”

  But then she stopped, because she remembered Millie saying exactly that in her dream. She’d told Darcy that their family hadn’t always lived in Misty Hollow. They’d come from somewhere else. Cha Cha had been there in her dream, too, listening to everything that was being said, but there was no way Zane could know any of that. He couldn’t be making it up, either. It was much too specific to be his imagination.

  She looked down at the dog. He held her gaze, and then broke into a wide doggie grin with his tongue hanging out one side of his mouth. Like he knew what she was thinking.

  “Zane,” she said carefully, “why did Cha Cha ask if we came from Texas?”

  “Um. I think ‘cause that’s the furtherest away place he knows. Maybe I should read him a book ‘bout the moon. That’s a way farer away place.”

  He smiled, obviously liking that idea, before telling Cha Cha to follow him because they were going to the moon.

  Darcy was left standing there, speechless. Zane was talking to Cha Cha. Like, really talking to him. Now how on Earth…?

  The family gift.

  That thought bubbled up abruptly in her mind. She felt lightheaded, like the floor had been pulled out from under her. This was crazy. So completely crazy. Catching hold of a chair around one of the tables, she sat down before her legs could give out. The gift was only in the women of their family. There had never been a recorded instance of a boy with the gift. Not once. Not in all of Millie’s journals. As far as Darcy knew, it was impossible.

  But what if it wasn’t? What would the sixth sense of theirs look like in a boy?

  For her, and her Great Aunt, and her daughter Colby, the gift allowed them to speak to ghosts. To see spirits and communicate with the dead. To know things about the future, and the past that people liked to keep secret. It was stronger in Colby than it had ever been in Darcy and it continued to get stronger, day by day. When she became a grown woman, there was no telling what Colby might be able to accomplish with her talents. Something completely new, maybe.

  So then, what if this was something new with Zane? Something not even Millie had ever seen. Something no one could have predicted.

  She put her hand over her mouth, wanting to laugh, and scream, and maybe even cry a little because she had no idea how to handle this new development. Their son could talk to animals. Well, to Cha Cha at least. Could he do it with other dogs? Cats? Insects and God alone knew what?

  Lions and tigers and bears… oh my…

  A loud knocking made her jump in the seat. It was Jackson Little and Eleanor Daby and two other people from the book club, peering through the glass of the front door with hands cupped around their eyes. Jackson pointed to his watch, and then at the sign that was still turned around to read “CLOSED, THE END.” Darcy had been sitting here thinking for so long that she’d missed opening the store on time.


  She got up now with an apologetic smile and unlocked for them. They all said good morning and she told them the coffee was fresh and to help themselves and there might have even been a little small talk in there about the big murder over in Meadowood, but Darcy couldn’t remember anything that was said specifically.

  Her son could talk to animals. It seemed Misty Hollow wasn’t done handing out surprises just yet.

  Shortly after ten o’clock, when the bookstore quieted down, Zane went for his midmorning nap. Laid out on the couch in the cramped back office, breathing deeply, he looked super cute with Cha Cha curled up against his side. Darcy spent a very long moment watching him, contemplating what it meant that he had some manifestation of the family gift in him. What would this mean for Zane, and for her, and for the whole entire family?

  Behind her the store was empty. The book club members had left about an hour ago. There’d been maybe ten customers all morning and for now, the customers were gone as well. It was just her, and Zane, and Cha Cha.

  Somewhere among the shelves of books, from different locations, three books fell to the floor. Thud, thud, THUD.

  She quietly closed the door to the office before turning around and planting her fists on her hips. “I hear you, Aunt Millie. Say, thanks so much for the heads-up about Zane. That was super helpful. I think you and me have to have a talk. About a lot of things.”

  The circular rack of shirts carrying the store’s logo spun a half turn around. Millie’s ghost could let Darcy know when she was around, but she couldn’t speak. Not outside of her dreams. It was kind of frustrating, actually.

  “Fine, but tonight when I go to sleep, there’s going to be some questions answered!”

  The shopkeeper’s bell over the front door jingled before Millie could do anything in response and to her surprise in walked Jon, rubbing his hands together against the cold, a curious look on his face. “Please tell me you’re talking to Aunt Millie, and you haven’t actually gone crazy.”

  Darcy sighed. “Why can’t it be both?”

  He pursed his lips. “Well, if you’re going crazy then I’m coming with you, because I’ve got more questions than answers myself.”

  He came over and folded her into a hug, kissing her cheek as he did. She sighed happily against his neck. Even good days were made better with him around. This hadn’t been a bad day, really. It was just unnerving.

  “So,” she said, thinking how best to broach the subject of their son’s new ability. “Um. Oh, you said you had questions. Is this about your case over in Meadowood?”

  “Mm-hmm,” he said with a long breath. Letting Darcy go, he went over to the coffee pots and poured himself a cup. After his first taste he frowned. “Ew, this is… not great. Who made this?”

  “Jackson, from the book club. When the first pot of the morning runs out, he likes to make it himself. Problem is, he keeps putting too many scoops in the filter and then he runs it through twice. I know, it’s definitely not from Dunkin, but the book club members like it that way so I let him do it. Now, what’s going on with your case?”

  He shook his head and took another sip of the coffee, then grimaced as he remembered it wasn’t worth a second taste. He set the cup down on one of the tables and turned a chair around to sit in it backward. “I’m at a complete loss with this one, Darcy. We’ve got a murder with no suspects, and apparently no way for anyone to get into the room where the murder happened. In, or out for that matter. It’s impossible, and yet it happened.”

  Darcy was intrigued. It must be serious, if he was willing to talk about an ongoing case so freely with her. Not that they hadn’t done that in the past, but in all of those cases Darcy had been somehow involved herself. Not this time.

  “I know this is none of my business,” she told him, “but we’ve always worked good as a team. I might be able to help if you let me know more about it.”

  “Just like you said last night. Yeah, I was thinking about that on the way over.”

  “Exactly like I said last night,” she agreed. She took the chair next to his and shuffled it over closer. “So if you didn’t want to talk about it then, and now you do, something must have happened this morning.”

  Jon reached out and put his hand over hers on the table. “That’s why I married you. Nobody outsmarts Darcy Sweet.”

  “Oh, really? I thought you married me because of how cute I looked in those halter tops I liked to wear.”

  “And those wide belts. And the way you filled out your jeans. Yup. I think you’ve still got a few of those outfits in your closet. I’ll bet they still fit.”

  “Well, I could always do a fashion show for you later at home. Maybe just the shirt… and the belt. If,” she emphasized, “you tell me about your case now.”

  He didn’t even hesitate. “Deal. After the kids are in bed, of course. Speaking of which, is Zane sleeping?”

  “Yeah, him and Cha Cha both. I figure we have another twenty minutes or so before they wake up. Oh, and Aunt Millie’s hanging around somewhere, but she won’t mind if we talk. So, spill. What’s up with this amazing, bewildering case of yours?”

  “Okay. Well.” He picked up the coffee to drink again, stopping the cup just before it touched his lips. “Ooh, don’t want to do that again. Let me just put that over there. Okay, I told you that the murder took place in a locked room, right? The room is at a hotel, so you can imagine that a gunshot in a place like that was noticed pretty quickly. The police dispatch in Meadowood got several calls from other guests, all at once. They sent units out immediately. Their officers got there within five minutes, and it was another minute tops before they got to the room and got inside. Now, ordinarily I’d say that’s plenty of time for a killer to disappear but when the officers arrived they had to break the door in, because the security bar was engaged from the inside.”

  “Which means the killer couldn’t have gotten away. He had to still be in the room.”

  “Exactly. Only, he wasn’t. The officers went inside, found the victim dead on the floor, and immediately called for the detectives to respond and process the scene. There was no one else in there.”

  “And you’re sure the security bar was in place?”

  “They are, yes. We did some experimenting today and there’s absolutely no way to engage that bar from the outside. It had to be locked from the inside.”

  Darcy tried to picture it. A dead man in a locked room, and no way in or out. “The room has windows, right? Maybe someone shot him through the window?”

  He smiled but shook his head. “We thought of that. All of the windows were closed, and locked from the inside, and there weren’t any holes in any of them. The room is on the second floor, too. No access from the outside. No holes in any of the walls, either. Based on the angle of entry the victim was facing his killer from inside the room, impossible as that sounds.”

  “Wow. Okay, then… what about cameras in the hotel? Were there security cameras in the hallway?”

  “Yes, there were.” He made a circular motion with his fingertip on the table. “The recording loops itself every twenty-four hours, and we watched that hallway second by second for that whole time. Nobody went into the room during that timeframe except for the victim, Mister Fred Harris.”

  Darcy was at a complete loss. Jon was right, this made no sense. Somebody had to be in the room to commit the murder, but no one but the victim was in the room. This Mister Fred Harris couldn’t have locked the door after he died, so it had to be locked before that.

  “I don’t suppose,” she said, “that the killer could have crawled through an air vent from an adjoining room?”

  “Not unless the killer was a leprechaun,” he chuckled, but Darcy didn’t get the joke. “Sorry. See, modern air vents are about a foot and a half wide and less than half that tall. Nobody’s getting in or out that way.”

  “Oh. Well, then I’m out of ideas.”

  “Don’t feel bad. So am I.” He shrugged and leaned on his elbows, giving the coffee cup ano
ther scowl. “The thing that’s got us puzzled now is what we found out this morning.”

  “What did you find out?”

  “Who the victim is.”

  Darcy tried to remember. “You said his name was, um, Fred Harris. Who’s that?”

  “A distant relative of the hotel owner. Kind of a black sheep in the family. His parents are both dead, no brothers or sisters, but he’s connected enough that he’s in the owner’s will.”

  She was starting to see the problem now. “So that’s your motive? The inheritance?”

  “Well, it would be if it was the owner of the hotel who was killed. That would give Fred Harris a reason to commit murder, so he could inherit. But killing Harris doesn’t seem to benefit anyone.”

  “So, no motive.”

  “Exactly. You’ve got no ideas either?” He waited, but all Darcy could do was shrug. “All right. I think what we need to do is figure out how someone committed this one, before we can start looking at who might have done it. The guys at Meadowood agree with me, too. Well, let’s put that aside for now and maybe our brains will come up with something when we aren’t trying so hard. So, what’s new with you?”

  “Um, well…” She’d almost forgotten about her big news. Almost. “I learned something new about our son today.”

  “Really? What’s that?”

  “He can talk to animals.”

  Jon stared at her for a long moment, and then picked up the awful coffee and downed it all in one swallow.

  Chapter 5

  “You’re sure your pipes are fine?” Darcy asked Izzy near the end of their phone call. “You’re going to be all right?”

  Izzy promised her for the third time that everything was good at her house now and she really didn’t need to come over to spend the night with Darcy and Jon and the kids. With her daughter in another state, Izzy was used to staying by herself. Especially with her boyfriend travelling.

  “Okay,” Darcy told her. “Well, remember our offer if you need anything or just want to come over for supper. Mm-hmm. Right. I’ll see you tomorrow.”