A Darcy Sweet Mystery Box Set Seven

by K. J. Emrick

  Downstairs, in the kitchen, she found Colby already at the little round table with a bowl of cereal. Zane, on the other hand, was marching around in a circle in the middle of the floor, his little legs pumping up and down and his fists pounding out a rhythm with every step. He was making up a song as he went, ba-ba-di-da-dum-dum-dum, his face tense with concentration.

  Behind him, keeping pace with his every move, a tan Bassador hound trotted on his stubby legs, tongue hanging out one side of his mouth, tail wagging furiously back and forth. Cha Cha was obviously enjoying this impromptu parade, following his boy with the sort of enthusiasm that only a puppy like him could manage.

  On the countertop just to the right of the entryway from the living room, a beautiful gray cat with one black-tipped ear watched the whole thing. Tiptoe’s tail was curled around her paws. Her whiskers twitched as she turned her pearl green eyes Darcy’s way. Then she sneezed.

  Darcy could read that expression easily enough. She didn’t have any of Zane’s gift, but any good furbaby mother knew how to interpret their pet’s nonverbal cues. Dogs, Tiptoe was saying with exaggerated torment. Why are dogs so dumb?

  She reached over and scratched between the cat’s ears, just like Tiptoe liked, and that seemed to make things better. Her cat knew she wasn’t supposed to be up here on the counter, but Darcy had given up trying to stop her. Tiptoe insisted she belonged up there, as the queen of her domain. As long as she stayed away from anything they were making for dinner Darcy had learned to live with it.

  “You hungry, Tiptoe?” Her cat blinked, and Darcy took that as a yes. “Let’s get you some wet food this morning, what do you say to that? Looks like Cha Cha’s bowl could use a top-off, too. Hey, Colby? You didn’t want to wait for me to make pancakes?”

  “You’re not going to have time,” was her daughter’s cryptic response.

  “Oh really? I can whip them up pretty fast. Pancake mix, a couple of eggs, some milk, and then two minutes on each side. Won’t take me any time at all.”

  Colby put another bite of Berry Magic cereal—They’re Magically Fruity!—into her mouth and chewed while she talked. “You won’t have time,” she repeated. “Look.”

  The end of her spoon pointed over to the refrigerator, and Darcy looked over to find a piece of yellow notepaper held in place there by a pig magnet. She took it off, and plopped the magnet back in place, and read Jon’s strong, blocky handwriting.

  Got picked up early. Home for dinner probably. Didn’t want to wake you on a snow day. Love you. Jon.

  Darcy could see where he had added in the “probably” after the fact, writing it over the period at the end of “Home for dinner.” She knew what that meant. He wasn’t sure how long he was going to be out in the storm, out there doing police work in weather that should have had everyone snug in bed and watching reruns of Christmas movies.

  What it also meant was that something had happened. Something that needed the attention of the police chief urgently enough to have him picked up early. That was never good. It always meant trouble.

  And it usually meant another mystery for them to get involved in.

  “But how did he get out?”

  Darcy still didn’t understand. A quick glance out the window showed her that both of their cars were still here, both of them doing a passable imitation of a snowbank at the moment. Nothing but the windshield was visible on hers, and Jon’s was buried up to the hood under massive drifts, with more snow continuing to pile up. She couldn’t even see where the lawn ended and the road started. The big tree out front was holding massive amounts of snow up in its bare branches. If she looked up the definition of ‘snowbound’ on Google right now, there would be this exact image right next to it.

  “What did he do?” she asked herself, letting the curtain fall back into place. “Tunnel out? Fly? He sure didn’t drive.”

  “Vroom, vroom,” Zane said, still marching in his circle. “Daddy went vroom, vroom.”

  “Bark,” Cha Cha agreed.

  “Uh…” Darcy didn’t know what to make out of that.

  “Heard it this morning,” Zane insisted. “Vroom vroom came in, and Daddy left.”

  Colby tapped her spoon against the bowl. “He means a snowmobile,” she whispered to her mother. “I saw it go by earlier. I didn’t realize Dad was on it until I saw his note.”

  “Oh, a snowmobile. Okay, that makes sense.” She’d been joking last night about how the police officers must be on foot patrol. Apparently they were a little smarter about it, and were using vehicles designed for the snow instead. Well that must be interesting.

  “I guess that makes sense,” she said, mostly to herself. “No one could get through all this snow unless they—”

  There was a knock on the door, interrupting the rest of what she was going to say. Apparently, people were getting around all over, no matter how much snow was out there.

  “See?” Colby said as she pushed the rest of her cereal around in milk that had turned pink. “You won’t have time to make pancakes.”

  Darcy smiled. Her daughter really was getting comfortable with her gift. “Don’t suppose you could tell me who’s out there?” she teased.

  “Mo-o-om, I’m not psychic. I’m just me.”

  “’Just you’ is plenty for me,” Darcy told her. “Can you get your brother some cereal for me, please? And then get the furries the food I promised them?”

  “’Kay. Can I have a cellphone?’

  Darcy was partway to the front door when that question brought her up short again. “I’m sorry, a what now?’

  “A cellphone. Everyone in my class has a cellphone of their own. Audrey has one, and she keeps asking me to Snapchat with her at night and I can’t because I don’t have one and yours doesn’t do anything but get texts.”

  “And take photos.”

  “Well, sure.”

  “And go on the internet.”

  “But you don’t have snapchat.”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  Colby huffed. “Mom. Nobody uses their phone as a phone anymore.”

  “So what do people use it for?”

  “Hanging out and stuff.”

  “Huh. In my day, we hung out with people, not our phones.”

  With a sigh, her daughter rolled her eyes. “You’re so old.”

  “Yes, I am. Breakfast now. We’ll talk about phones later?”

  That made Colby perk up at least. She’d never been told ‘maybe’ about getting a phone before. She didn’t dare say anything more for fear her mother would change her mind.

  This wasn’t the first time Colby had asked about getting a phone. No way would it be the last, either. Darcy had to admit, she was old enough now to have one. There was nothing to say she would have the same problems that Darcy had with hers. Ghosts kept finding her number and calling her. That might not happen to Colby.

  Or it might.

  Well. She’d talk to Jon about it later, whenever he got home. For now, she wanted to see who was knocking on her door.

  When she opened it, there was an immediate blast of cold air and whipping snow. The front steps were buried in white drifts. She blinked her eyes against the weather and pulled in the person standing there in a big puffy coat, heavy gloves and a full ski mask knitted with pink flowers.

  It took both of them to close the door against the wind.

  Darcy knew who it was behind that mask. She should have known that it would be her neighbor, even if Isabelle McIntosh was never one to wear a heavy jacket in the winter. She was ‘cold blooded,’ in her words, and she loved it when the temperature dropped. Apparently she’d found her limits.

  “For Pete’s sake, Izzy, get in here where it’s warm.”

  “Brr,” she said as she stripped off the mask and the gloves and stamped her heavy boots on Darcy’s welcome mat. She fluffed her hair, tipped purple now in her current ombre style. “I swear, that is the worst winter storm I’ve ever seen. Like, ever. Colby, did you order all this weather?”


  Colby giggled as she wrestled the dog food bag out of the cabinet. “I wish! I’ve never had so many days off from school.”

  “Snows days!” Zane said, sitting up at the table now, thumping his spoon next to the bowl of cereal his sister had poured for him. “Snows days! Snows days! Snows days!”

  “That’s right big guy,” Izzy told him, with a wink for Darcy. “Snows day all around.”

  “Uh, it’s ‘snow day’ actually,” Darcy said with polite sternness. “We want him to say things the right way. Don’t we Zane?”

  “Yes, Mom.” Her son sounded disappointed about goofing, again, and started eating his cereal with an intense concentration.

  Izzy unzipped her jacket, now that she was inside. “Oh, come on, Darcy. He’s only going to be young once. Youth is the time to make mistakes. When you can still enjoy them.”

  Colby laughed. She tried to hide it behind a cough, but Darcy caught it. She reminded herself to talk to her very grown-up young daughter later, so she could clarify just what mistakes were acceptable and which ones weren’t.

  “Yes, Zane is young,” she said to Izzy, “but I need to prepare him to be a grownup, which includes using the right words at the right times. I don’t want Zane to be the only kid in kindergarten who doesn’t know when something is plural and when it’s not.”

  Zane chewed his cereal. “Mom? What’s, um, plerro?”

  “Plural,” Darcy told him. “Plural. It means, when there’s more than one of something. When something is plural you add the letter ‘s’ to the end of it. Like, you can see one tree, but when there’s lots of them there’s tree-suh,” she said as an example, emphasizing the ‘s’ sound.

  “Ooooh,” he said, although he sure didn’t look like he understood it.

  “It’s like this,” Colby told him, sitting next to Tiptoe on the floor and stroking her fur as the cat ate. “We have one cat, but some people have lots of cats. Uh, one shoe,” she said, pointing to her left foot, and then to her right, “two shoes. One hand,” she said, waving her left hand, then waving both, “two hands.”

  Zane nodded like the whole world suddenly made sense. “Okay. So there can be one snow, or lotsa snows. We have lotsa snows out there, don’t we?”

  Izzy had to put her hand up over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Her eyes danced with humor at the logic of a little boy.

  Darcy cleared her throat. “No. When there’s lots of snow, it’s still snow. Just lots and lots of snow.”

  Looking out the window at the swirling flakes falling from the sky, Zane scrunched his eyebrows down tight. “That don’t make sense. I see lotsa snows.”

  “Hard to argue with that,” Izzy whispered to Darcy behind her hand.

  “Fine, I relent,” Darcy said with a sigh. “I guess part of being a parent is knowing when to back off, too. Snows it is. Snows, as far as the eye can see. Speaking of mothers and their children, Izzy, how’s Lilly doing?

  “She was supposed to have two weeks off from her new job to come home for Christmas. Connor couldn’t come but she was excited to come back home. But, then I got a message from her this morning saying something came up and she might not make it.” She looked so disappointed. “If I don’t hear from her by tomorrow, I’ll assume she isn’t going to make it.”

  “How long’s it been since you saw her?”

  “Too long. But, what can you do? That’s why I say enjoy the time when they’re young.”

  Izzy and her daughter were as close as close could be. They’d been through something terrible together when Lilly had been young, and it had sent them into hiding here in Misty Hollow. Izzy would never admit it, but it was killing her to be separated from Lilly now. Darcy knew her friend well enough to recognize the tension around her eyes, or the way her hands fidgeted whenever she mentioned her daughter having her own, separate life.

  Lilly had a new job, and she was sharing an apartment with the love of her life, Connor Gless. She would always be her mother’s daughter, Darcy had no doubt of that, but her life was taking her far away from her hometown.

  Just like Darcy’s own children would do someday.

  “Well, it’s good to see you Izzy, but how’d you even get over here?” Darcy folded her arms and leaned her shoulder against the door. It was cold against her shoulder. “It’s not a fit day out there for woman nor beast.”

  “I skied over,” she said with a grin, holding up one foot to show Darcy that what she had thought was a normal boot was actually a ski boot, with a molded plastic bottom designed to slip into the binding on the skis. “I usually prefer downhill skiing, but cross country is fun too. Especially when it keeps you from sinking into snow that’s up to my hips. I left the skis leaning up against your house out there.”

  “So what brings you over here? If you’ve got a way to get into town wouldn’t you rather be out there checking things out? It must be quite the sight with all the snow covering things.”

  “Um. Well.” She looked at Darcy, a little sheepishly. “Turns out my old house couldn’t take the weather. The power went out sometime this morning. I don’t mind it when it’s cold but dear God… it’s cold over there. You don’t mind if I wait over here for a while, do you? Please?”

  “Oh, Izzy, of course not. Hang out with us as long as you want. Have you tried calling the power company?”

  “Mm-hmm. I was listening to Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto for fifteen minutes on hold before I gave up. I have to believe they’re overwhelmed with calls today. Maybe it’s not just me who lost power.”

  “Well we’ve still got lights and heat here. You can be our guest for the day. I’m afraid you just missed breakfast.”

  “Cereal!” Zane declared, whipping his spoon up in the air and accidentally tossing little circles of brightly colored cereal everywhere. Cha Cha was quick to jump on each one and slurp them down, looking up at the table in case any more were coming his way.

  Tiptoe sniffed at him, finding his lack of manners distasteful. Tail in the air, she sauntered out of the kitchen, off to do whatever cats did on days when they were going to be trapped inside their house.

  That was when a thought occurred to Darcy. Yes, her house still had power, but if Izzy’s didn’t, then what about the rest of the town? Was the snow proving to be too much for the rest of her friends? Or her family, for that matter?

  “Hey, Izzy? Maybe we should take a run into town and see if everyone’s okay. There might be other houses where the power is out, and the people might need help.”

  “Hmm. Good idea,” she said, but then shrugged helplessly. “But how are we going to get there? It would take us all day to walk to Main Street at this point.”

  “We’ll ski,” Darcy said brightly. You’ve got your set and we’ve got a pair tucked away at the back of the closet. Me and Jon haven’t gone up to Bear Ridge Ski Resort in years now but we’ve still got the pairs we used to use. We can just ski our way there and back again. It should only take an hour or so to check all around town and see if lights are on in the houses, right?”

  “Well, yeah, I suppose it would. Sounds good to me. Let’s do it!”

  Misty Hollow was a small town, with everything within walking distance if you didn’t mind taking a little time. A car could go from end to end in ten minutes or less. So, yes, they should be able to ski out to check on everyone no problem, up one street, down the next, up and down, up and down. Anywhere there wasn’t lights on they could stop, and knock, and see if people were just conserving power, or if the power had failed them.

  She found she was actually looking forward to going out in the weather, now that she had a reason to get out there, and now that she was going to be spending time with Izzy. She’d have to bundle herself up good but once they got their blood pumping and their arms moving, she knew they’d heat up quick.

  “Cha Cha and Tiptoe are all fed, Mom,” Colby told her, coming over to stand at her elbow.

  Darcy wrapped her arm around her daughter’s shoulders and pu
lled her closer. “Thanks, Starshine. Hey, can you and your brother hang out here for a couple of hours while me and Izzy check on the rest of the town? You guys can watch TV or play some videogames but no going out until I’m back, all right? I don’t need either of you digging a tunnel and getting trapped under the snow until the spring thaw.”

  Colby rolled her eyes. “Aw, Mom. Me and Zane have been home alone before. I know how to watch him. We’d be fine outside.”

  “Uh-huh. It’s not that I don’t trust you. I just don’t want to worry about you and Zane turning into popsicles while I’m gone. Okay?”

  “’Kay, Mom. We’ll play hide and seek or something. Inside, I mean. There’s nothing good on Netflix anyway.”

  “And no trying to go over to Audrey’s. If she wants to come over here, you have to ask your dad first. Hear me?”

  “As if I could get there if I wanted to. What am I supposed to do, fly?”

  “I’m still telling you it’s a rule, okay?”

  “Yes, Mom,” she said, in that same way she always did whenever Darcy reminded her of something she’d heard a thousand times before.

  “Good girl. You’re going to have to call your dad if anything goes wrong, okay?”

  “Mm-hmm. You know,” Colby added with a sly grin, “this would be a lot easier if I had a cellphone of my own. I could text you if the snow starts coming through the roof, or if we run out of milk, or…”

  “Okay, okay.” Darcy ruffled her hand through Colby’s long hair. “You’ve made your point, daughter of mine. I’ll talk to your dad about it. I promise.”

  Colby’s face lit up like she could already feel the cellphone in her hand. “Come on, Zane. Let’s go check out the TV just in case they put something good on. Then we can play hide and seek.”

  “Yay!” Zane cheered. He quickly drank down the milk from his cereal bowl and then pushed himself out of his chair to run for the living room. His footie pajamas slapped softly on the floor as he went.