A Darcy Sweet Mystery Box Set Seven

by K. J. Emrick

  “Okay, you. Even your father knew when he’d gone too far. Down you go.”

  She picked Tiptoe up and put her gently on her feet on the floor. When she did, the gray feline rubbed her head up against Darcy’s shin, winding in between her legs, purring softly. It was like she was asking for something, and Darcy thought she knew what it was.

  “Tell you what, little girl. Tonight, you and me will sit down together and I’ll tell you a few stories about your daddy. There’s a few I haven’t told you yet. There’s one about a dog he helped. Oh, yes. Cats and dogs can be friends. Can you believe it?”

  Tiptoe turned her gaze slowly away from Darcy, to where Cha Cha was still munching up kibble from his bowl. Somehow sensing Tiptoe’s gaze he looked up, crunching food bits between his teeth, and cocked a long ear in her direction.

  Tiptoe blinked her eyes and swished her tail. She was going to need more convincing before she ever thought of dogs as friends. Cha Cha was her one and only exception. She could at least tolerate the Bassador hound and maybe a little more than that, even. They might not be friends, but they were as close as a cat and a dog were likely to get when they shared the same roof. Friendship might come later.

  “All right, Tiptoe,” Darcy said, “you and I will have story time later. For now, how about some dinner for you, too?”

  Instead of going over to her food dish, Tiptoe twisted around to face the front door. Then she growled.

  A cat growling sounds completely different from a dog growling. Darcy had heard it before from Smudge. She’d never heard Tiptoe do it, however. With her, it sounded eerie. Like a warning that something bad was coming.

  Cha Cha heard it, too, and backed himself up against the countertop. He wanted to give her space until he knew why she was making that sound.

  Darcy really wanted to know, too.

  The knock on the door startled Darcy. It sent Cha Cha racing for the living room. Tiptoe was faster and got there first.

  Now what had gotten into those two?

  “Coming,” she said to whoever was outside.

  Whatever had her pets so upset would have to wait. Through the window in the door she could see it was the pizza delivery. The guy was holding the boxes carefully with brown gloves. His windbreaker was open down the front. The baseball cap on his head had a cartoon pizza slice stitched on it. Maybe the smell of onions had freaked Tiptoe out.

  She grabbed her wallet off the kitchen table and opened it to find a twenty-dollar bill and a five. That would cover the cost of the pizzas plus a nice little tip for driving it out here to them. It was important to support local businesses, especially when you were a local business owner yourself. Darcy had always known that to be true. Besides, she knew the guy who delivered for Chef Marios.

  Smiling to herself, already tasting the pizza, she opened the door with the money in her hand.

  Then she stopped and stared.

  She was looking at a dead man.

  Chapter 5

  Samuel Huntsman stood on Darcy’s front steps, holding her two pizzas in his hands.

  “Eighteen ninety-five,” he told her with a smile.

  Darcy had seen ghosts plenty of times in her life. Some were scary, some were friendly. Some could pass right through a crowd of people without being noticed. None of them, ever, had brought her dinner. This man standing here wasn’t a ghost, but he was dead. He had to be. This was Samuel Huntsman, the man whose fingerprints matched the severed hand in the water, standing here alive and well.

  That was impossible. It was even more impossible that the dead man they’d been looking for should be standing here in her front doorway, but there he was.

  Darcy looked down at his hands. Two of them, one on the side of the boxes, one underneath. Two hands.

  She looked closer at his face, and it was definitely the face of Samuel Huntsman. Short. Pudgy face. Bald on top with long, curly hair all around like he was compensating for what he’d already lost.

  As surreptitiously as she could, she folded the two paper bills further into her palm before he could see them. “Um. I forgot my checkbook. Can you just wait here a minute?”

  Then she closed the door on his surprised face.

  Racing for the wall phone she grabbed it off its cradle and punched Jon’s number into the dial pad. He answered before the second ring. “Hey, Darcy. I’m driving so I’m on speakerphone can you hear me…?”

  “Jon,” she said in a rush, “where are you?”

  “I’m almost home. Give me another five minutes and I’m going to have a story to tell you about what Grace and I found out today.”

  “I don’t have time, Jon. Get here now. Samuel Huntsman is standing on our front step.”

  In the years that they had known and loved each other their relationship had developed into one of absolute trust. He didn’t even question what she had just told him. Over the phone, she heard the engine rev as he stepped on the gas.

  “Be right there.”

  The call ended, and Darcy breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Mom?” Colby asked from the living room. “Was that the pizza guy?”

  “No, it most certainly was not. Stay in there until I say, okay?”

  “I’m kind of hungry. Can I get a snack?”

  “Not right now.” She poked her head around the entryway between the kitchen and the living room and met her daughter’s gaze. “Stay there. Okay? Is Zane upstairs?”

  Colby’s eyes got wider. She could tell from Darcy’s tone that this was not the time to argue. “Uh, yeah. He’s in the bathroom.”

  “Good. Stay here, and make sure Zane doesn’t come out here until I say either.” Tiptoe was on the back of the couch, her tail swishing back and forth, her whiskers twitching. She knew something was up. “You make sure they stay here, okay? Warn me if anything happens.”

  Tiptoe blinked her eyes slowly. Darcy took that to mean You got it.

  With a deep breath, she went back to the front door.

  He was still standing there when she did, still holding the pizzas. His pudgy face was flushed red. “Listen, Miss. I have other deliveries to make and my boss isn’t going to like it if I wait out here forever while you find money. If you can pay for them great, otherwise I’ll take them back and you can give us a call when you’ve got the cash on hand.”

  “Are you new?” Darcy asked, giving him a big smile, wanting to keep him here and keep him talking. If she knew Jon, he’d make good on his promise and be pulling up to their driveway in just a few seconds. “We’ve always had Donnie Akers deliver our food. Do you know Donnie? He’s a nice guy.”

  Samuel Huntsman blinked at her, balancing the pizzas on the fist of his right hand and waving a goodbye with the other. “Yes, I just moved in a few days ago, but I don’t have time to chat. So long, now.”

  He turned away just as headlights came up the street, and a car pulled to a sliding halt on the shoulder, blocking Huntsman’s car in the driveway.

  “Do you have time to chat with my husband, maybe?” Darcy asked sweetly. “He’s the chief of police.”

  “Uh, well,” Huntsman hemmed. “Maybe, I suppose. I mean, anything for the police, right?”

  The pizza boxes were shaking where they balanced on his fist. His other had been reaching for his keys in his pocket but now he didn’t seem to know what to do with his feet. He stumbled sideways, and the pizzas were just about to go flying when Jon appeared, grabbing them out of the air. “Now, we wouldn’t want all this food to go to waste, would we?”

  “Uh, no sir. No. Listen, I was just explaining to the lady… I mean, to your wife, that if she didn’t have the money to pay me, I’d have to take the pizzas back. That’s all. It’s just the way we do things. I didn’t mean any offense. It’s not illegal, it’s just business.”

  “None taken. I promise you we have the money. I’ll give it to you right after I ask you a few questions, Mister Huntsman.”

  Facing Jon, Huntsman’s eyes got wider. “How did you know my name?” />
  “So that is you, then? Samuel Huntsman?”

  Now the color drained out of the man’s face. At the same time, he smiled in an odd, sad sort of way.

  “No, Chief. You’ve got the wrong man, sorry to say. I’m a Huntsman, sure, but I’m not Samuel. Sam is my twin brother. My name’s Charles Huntsman. Call me Charlie.”

  “I don’t know where Samuel is, Chief. He disappeared two years ago, and we haven’t heard from him since.”

  He was sitting at their kitchen table with them, sharing their pizza, answering every question Jon put to him. Colby and Zane were in the living room with half a pizza all to themselves. Darcy could hear the television playing, keeping them entertained while she and Jon untangled this part of the mystery.

  Charles Huntsman—Charlie—was calm about the whole thing, considering they were discussing a brother who he hadn’t seen or heard from in years. He just sat there with one gloved hand in his lap and a slice of pizza dangling from his other. He kept checking the watch, too, anxious about getting back to work.

  Darcy picked a piece of pepperoni off her own slice and popped it into her mouth. “I thought twins were supposed to be really close to each other?”

  “Don’t believe everything you read in books,” Charlie said to her. “Twins fight just like all siblings do. They get mad at each other, and they drift apart, and sometimes they don’t even speak to each other for years.”

  Jon had barely touched his food. Elbows on the table, hands held together in a templed arch, he regarded Charlie closely. “So you and he fought a lot, did you?”

  “No, not a lot. Just, like I said. We fought like brothers.”

  “I fight with my sister sometimes,” Darcy told him, “but we always make up. We don’t stop talking to each other for years.”

  He put his pizza back on his plate and shrugged. “Our last fight was pretty bad. We parted on bad terms and I haven’t heard from him since. I figure when he’s ready to reach out to me again he will.”

  Darcy looked over at Jon. His face had the same expression she felt herself wearing. It was pretty unlikely that Samuel would ever again be in touch with anyone, not ever again.

  “Charlie,” Jon said to him, “can you tell me how it is you came to Misty Hollow? Darcy and I don’t know you, and yet here you are living and working in our hometown.”

  “It’s a nice place to live,” Charlie said honestly. “It’s away from the big areas where there’s too many people, and I like all the trees all over the place. It’s nice to just walk through them, sometimes.”

  Darcy couldn’t agree more, but she wasn’t sure that answered the question. “Your brother’s girlfriend was supposed to be living here in Misty Hollow, too. I’ve never met her, either.”

  “Annie Pellegrino?” He cleared his throat and checked his watch again. “Well, she’s actually the reason for the fight that ended my friendship with my brother. Um. It’s kind of embarrassing.”

  “That’s okay,” Jon told him. “I’m the police chief. I hear embarrassing stuff all the time.”

  “Yeah, I guess. I mean, this isn’t exactly a new story, what happened with me and Samuel. We loved the same woman. There. It’s just that simple. Samuel was dating Annie first, and then she fell for me instead. Their breakup hit him pretty hard. We fought, we yelled, and we screamed, and then he stormed off. I haven’t heard from him since. Me and Annie needed to start over, so we moved here.”

  “And started delivering pizzas?” Jon asked him.

  “Everyone’s got to make a living, I suppose. I used to drive for Uber but there really isn’t that much business out here. Not like I thought there would be. I figured, an area this rural where everything is so far away from everything else, people would jump at a ridesharing service. No such luck.”

  Darcy knew why, too. Misty Hollow had its own private taxi driver. Donnie Akers wasn’t just their usual pizza delivery guy. He’d been doing what Uber did way before anyone had even heard of Uber. He was good at what he did, and he was a local. Born and raised right here in Misty Hollow. Nobody in town would ever dream of hiring someone they didn’t know to take them anywhere. There were far too many stories in the news nowadays of unsuspecting people being assaulted by drivers they didn’t know.

  It was no wonder Charlie couldn’t make it as a ride share driver. The income from working at a pizza place, baking pizzas and delivering them around town, would definitely be more money. Just not a lot more.

  “So you’re dating Annie Pellegrino?” Jon asked him.

  “Yes. More than dating. We lived together like we were already married. What we have is fantastic. The best relationship I’ve ever been in. She’s perfect.”

  “That’s fantastic to hear.” Jon actually sounded sincere when he said it. “The thing is, I and one of my officers were over at Annie’s house earlier. Well, your house too, I guess. We were there to talk to her about your missing brother.”

  “You were? Why?”

  “Because she was the one who reported him missing. You knew that, right?”

  Charlie blinked at him. “I… no. I didn’t know that. She never told me.”

  He looked honestly surprised at that. Surprised that a woman he’d described as ‘perfect’ would still have had strong enough feelings for her ex-boyfriend—his brother—to call the police. Without, Darcy had to add, telling him anything about it.

  “Seems Annie wasn’t quite over Samuel,” Jon pointed out. “She was worried about him when he didn’t turn up. More worried than you.”

  “Now hold on a second. That’s not fair.”

  “We have the police report that she made to the Boston Police,” Jon explained. “That’s where you and she and your brother were living before you moved here to Misty Hollow, right? That’s what you meant about Misty Hollow being a better place to live than the big areas where there were too many people. There’s a lot less people here.”

  “Well, sure. I just never knew that Annie had… My brother has turned his back on me and Annie, Chief Tinker. He’s not in danger or anything, he’s just being stubborn. I mean, I could call him now if you like but he’s not going to answer. What’s Samuel got to do with anything, anyway? Why did you go to see Annie about Samuel?”

  There was no doubt about it now. Charlie was definitely worried about something.

  Jon took his elbows off the table and leaned forward in his seat. “It’s funny to me that you haven’t asked me what Annie said. Why is that?”

  “What? No reason. I just… I just haven’t gotten to that yet. You invite me in here and you feed me pizza and then you start asking me all these questions about my brother who I haven’t seen in a couple of years… it kind of threw me, is all. Plus, I’m supposed to be working and my boss is going to be mad if I don’t get back soon.”

  Jon sat where he was, and didn’t say anything, until Charlie swallowed and shifted uneasily in his chair.

  “Okay, um.” Charlie shrugged. “What did Annie tell you?”

  “Nothing,” Jon told him. “She wasn’t home. In fact, we can’t find her. We talked to your neighbors, and they haven’t seen her in about a week. Funny you haven’t mentioned that.”

  Ah. Darcy saw the way Charlie reacted to Jon’s words. That was what he’d been nervous about. At least, that was part of it. This must be what Jon was telling her over the phone, what he and Grace had found out.

  Hmm. A missing brother back in Boston whose hand had turned up in a river just outside of Misty Hollow, and now a missing girlfriend. There was a lot of trouble swirling around Charlie Huntsman. That was far too much coincidence for Darcy’s liking.

  Charlie pressed his lips tightly together, maybe finally realizing that the town police chief didn’t just randomly invite pizza delivery guys into his home for a little chat. There was a reason why Jon was asking all these questions. A very sinister reason that was beginning to look more sinister with every question Jon asked.

  And he wasn’t done yet.

  “Mister H
untsman,” he said directly, “where is Annie Pellegrino?”

  But Charlie was obviously done cooperating. “This was fun, Chief. Really it was.” The sarcasm in his voice was thick enough that Darcy could have cut it with the pizza wheel she’d discarded in the sink. “Let’s do dinner again real soon. You know. When I’m not working.”

  He swiped up the money Darcy had set aside for the pizza as he left the table and stuffed both fists into his windbreaker.

  Darcy watched Jon, waiting for him to say something, do something to make Charlie stay. He didn’t, though. He just sat there smiling as the man walked out the front door. Then he picked up his slice of pizza and took a big bite.

  “This is really good. We should get dinner from there more often.”

  “For Pete’s Sake, Jon. You’re not going to just let him go, are you? His brother is missing, and probably dead considering I found his hand in the river. His girlfriend is missing now, too, and he was acting like everything is fine! If that doesn’t scream ‘Hi I’m a suspect’ then I don’t know what does!”

  “I agree,” he said around a mouthful of pizza.

  “Then why didn’t you arrest him?”

  “Because, if you remember…” He took a moment to chew off another bite. “This isn’t my case.”

  Darcy gave him a look, tipping her head to one side. “You’re really going to let the state police handle this one? Even with all of the players living in your town?”

  “Not all of them.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well,” he chewed, and swallowed. “You said all the players are living in our town. The main player in this little story, Samuel Huntsman, is actually dead and so far, the only part of him we’ve found was outside the town. So.”

  “Jon!”

  “I know, I know,” he told her, sitting up a little straighter to show that he really was taking this seriously. “Listen, I’m sure Maxwell will have you and me help him out, but the hard work is going to be all him. I’ll call him and let him know what we found out at our little impromptu dinner party here.” He waved his crust at her. “After dinner.”