by K. J. Emrick
“Aunt Millie…” Darcy back turned toward her aunt but she was gone also. So was the chair and parasol. Darcy was now completely alone.
The sky turned dark and the wind whipped up. Darcy wrapped her arms around herself to try and keep warm. Lightning split the sky followed almost immediately by the deafening boom of thunder.
The beautiful spring day was gone. Fat raindrops started pelting down and Darcy got to her feet looking all around her for some sort of shelter. There was nothing. Only miles and miles of grass all around. Where was she? It looked like the middle of nowhere. Soon she was soaked to the skin and shivering uncontrollably.
In the distance she saw a dark figure walking toward her. She couldn’t see who it was, couldn’t see his face, but recognized him from her previous dreams. He walked closer and closer. Darcy tried to move but was rooted to the spot and couldn’t. He was advancing on her now and as he got closer she watched in petrified fascination as he slid his hand into his coat pocket.
Darcy watched as he drew his hand out so slowly. She tried to move, to run away but still couldn’t. All she could do was watch helplessly as he pulled his hand out and in it she saw…
A clock.
What?
Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
The next morning, with the odd dream still weighing on her mind, Darcy made her way into town to the book store to begin her work day. Before she got there though she saw the mayor, Steve Nelson, talking to Pete Underwood. Pete and Anna had dated a long while ago, and had broken it off at least a year ago. She wondered what the two men had to talk about.
Darcy tried to make out what they were saying but they were too far away for her to hear them. She saw Pete shake the Mayor’s hand and then Steve walked briskly away towards town ahead of her. Darcy quickened her pace trying to catch up to him.
“Steve!” she called out to him. He stopped and waited for her to reach him. “Uh. How are you doing today?”
“Hi Darcy. I‘m okay. Thanks.” Steve ran a hand through his short dark hair as his eyes darted about looking anywhere but at Darcy. She used to think that he was up to something, whenever she saw him do that, but it was just a nervous tic he had. “I’m so very sorry for your loss. I know that you and Anna were very good friends. So many people have told me how sad they are that she’s gone.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.” Darcy studied the mayor for a few moments. Steve was such a quiet man. In fact, it seemed like an odd sort of profession for him to choose, what with the speeches and personal interactions he had to do. He was so different from his wife. Helen was such an outgoing person.
He looked down at his watch and Darcy realized she’d better find out what he was up to quick before he made some excuse to walk away. “How is Pete doing?”
“Pete? Oh. Right. Saw us talking, did you?”
He smiled and nodded and didn’t offer anything else. She found that strange. Before she could figure out a way to ask him more without being obvious, he said goodbye to her and hurried off. Darcy watched him walk briskly away.
There were all these little things happening around town that she probably wouldn’t have paid any mind to before Anna’s death. Now, they all seemed to be pieces of the same puzzle, scattered across a table and ready to be put together if only she knew what the picture was supposed to look like.
She slowly walked toward her store, deep in thought. Not sure what she was going to do but knowing that she needed to do something. The vivid dreams she was having had to have something to do with all of this. If only she could decipher their meaning.
As she was busy working around the store later her sixth sense began to percolate. Her skin tingled and her vision sharpened as a blurred, barely there figure appeared in front of her. It was Millie. Her great-aunt floated over to the book shelf and knocked a book off onto the floor, just like the other day. She quickly disappeared.
More confused than she was annoyed, Darcy walked over to where the book lay on the floor. The cover showed a picture of an island with a castle shrouded in mists. “And Then There Were None,” by Agatha Christie. The same book that Millie had knocked down before. How strange.
Darcy bent down and picked the book up. She was immediately catapulted into a vision.
She found herself suddenly in Anna’s house. Everything was blurred and moving way too fast, a whirlwind of colors. She couldn’t tell what was happening but she heard a scream and saw a shifting image of Anna falling to the floor.
Darcy opened her eyes to find herself sprawled on the floor of the book store, panting. She looked up to find Smudge watching her. “Well. That was strange.”
Smudge meowed in agreement.
“Like you would know,” she muttered as she got up to her knees. She tentatively touched the book again and when nothing happened she picked it up and shelved it. She thought about it for a moment, then took it down again to bring home with her. If Millie thought this book was important enough to drop not once but twice, maybe there were even more clues within its pages.
She knew this was only the beginning. There would be more visions. In a way she almost welcomed them. Maybe they could give her the missing pieces to this puzzle.
Chapter 10
That night Darcy sat on her couch, her feet curled up under her, a cup of cocoa steaming hot on the coffee table. She was no closer to finding out who killed Anna. She had written everything down that she found out in the police department file and anything else she found relevant and now she studied it all as she cozied into her thick cotton pajamas.
It didn’t make any sense to her. Every person in town that she tried to consider as a suspect was someone she at least knew of, even if she didn’t know them well. Maybe she could make her ex-husband the prime suspect. Even if it weren’t true, it would at least make her feel good.
She smiled at that thought. If this was all the police had come up with, though, then it was obvious that she would have to do some investigating on her own. The little scene she had witnessed with the Mayor and Pete came to mind. Maybe that was a place to start.
The Agatha Christie book sat upside down and open on the couch next to her. She had finished the first four chapters again, not seeing any relevance to Anna’s death. She’d read the book three times before. She knew the plot, knew who the killer was. She wished she could say the same thing here. Maybe Millie hadn’t dropped the book for any particular reason after all. She’d just bring it back to the bookstore and put it back in its place. Millie could drop it all she wanted to after that.
She decided that she would go and question Pete tomorrow. Yawning widely, she stretched her arms up above her head to try and get the kinks out of her aching back and shoulders. She was terribly stiff from bending over the papers in front of her for hours.
She looked at the square clock up on her wall and was surprised to see how late it was. She packed up the papers and put them away in the drawer before going up to bed.
Darcy decided to take the next day off work. She could hear the surprise in Sue’s voice over the phone when she was told she’d be left in charge. “Are you sure everything is okay? You never take time off from work.”
Darcy smiled. She knew that Sue could be a bit of an airhead sometimes but her heart was in the right place. “Sure, Sue, everything is fine. I just need to take care of a few things and I won’t have time to come into work today.”
“All right. You can count on me.” Darcy was sure she could.
It wasn’t exactly a lie that she had some things to take care of. She just didn’t think Sue would understand if she told her exactly what.
Darcy planned to spend the day following Pete around to see what he got up to. She needed to know whether he was a viable suspect or not. She wanted to think not, but at this point she felt like anything was possible. Pete was an author and worked from home so that was where she headed first thing. He lived with his brother, Blake, who worked at the post office. Darcy figured she would wait until Blake had left for work befo
re starting her stakeout.
Not to say Blake couldn’t be a suspect too, she supposed. But Blake hadn’t been the one to date Anna. Pete had.
Darcy and Smudge headed for Pete’s house just before eight o’clock giving them plenty of time to walk into town and get to the other side where Pete’s house was located. After a rather lengthy walk, the pair arrived on the street where Pete and his brother lived. Only one car in the driveway, perfect. Darcy knew they both had a car each, so Blake had already left for work. Walking farther down the street, she looked over the house. Very normal, plain even. Could this really be the house of a killer?
Darcy was able to sneak up behind his house and peer through his windows without being seen by anybody. She saw him working in the living room tapping away on his computer. It looked like he was on a bit of a roll. He had one break where he made a couple of phone calls. Darcy wasn’t able to hear what he said as the window was inconveniently closed. When he hung up he went back to work.
He typed for what seemed like forever and Darcy was getting a bit bored when nothing happened. Then around eleven o’clock he stopped typing. He got up and grabbed his coat before leaving the house. She snuck up the side of the house and peered around the corner to watch him walk down the street.
Darcy followed Pete through the town. He never looked back once and she stayed well back so that he wouldn’t see her. When he went into the Bean There Bakery and Café Darcy decided to follow him. She sat down at a table in the corner and opened up one of the complementary newspapers to keep herself out of Pete’s eye range. She was glad that Helen was busy in the back and hadn’t seen her sitting there yet. The lunch crowd was starting to come in. There was so much going on that no one noticed her.
She watched surreptitiously like a detective in one of those old movies as Doctor Sandal, Misty Hollow’s local doctor, came into the bakery and nervously looked all around. When he saw Pete he went and sat down next to him. Doctor Sandal leaned in close to Pete and started talking to him. Darcy couldn’t hear what they were saying but after a few minutes she saw the doctor hand Pete a plain, brown package. Pete then shook the doctor’s hand and left the bakery.
Darcy thought that this behavior definitely counted as suspicious. Was Pete taking drugs? Was he not in his right mind? Did that lead him to hurt Anna? Her mind raced with all of the possibilities. Each one sounded more outlandish than the last.
After counting to thirty Darcy left the bakery and followed Pete again. He went right back to his house. She took up her post outside the window once again to watch him. She was disappointed to see that he just went back to writing on his computer.
Frustrated, feeling stupid for having wasted her whole day standing outside this man’s house, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Taking a deep breath, she went around to the front of the house and knocked on the door.
Darcy was surprised when Blake opened the door. She hadn’t seen him all morning and his car wasn’t in the driveway so she had just assumed he’d gone to work. Now she had to think fast. She needed a reason for being here. “Uh, hi Blake. I was just passing by and…”
She trailed off, the half-formed excuse dying on her tongue. She took a better look at Blake. His face was terribly flushed and he looked feverish. He tried to speak but went into a bad coughing fit. She took a step back on the porch, realizing how sick he was. He looked awful.
“Oh, Darcy. What are you… are you…” he had to stop as another coughing fit racked him. Darcy hoped that she wouldn’t get infected with whatever it was that he had. “Sorry, Darcy. Can’t stay and talk.” Cough, cough. “Listen, as long as you’re here, Pete is in the other room. Maybe you can cheer him up a bit? He is having a hard time over Anna’s death.” Cough, hack, cough.
Pete came into the entryway at that moment. “Blake, get back into bed. I can take care of Darcy.”
They watched as Blake shuffled away towards his bedroom. Pete closed the door behind her and Darcy followed him into the living room. “Would you like some tea?” he offered.
“Oh yes please, that would be lovely.” She was relieved not to have to explain herself now. She was here to check on Pete. It was the neighborly thing to do. That was all.
It didn’t take any time at all for Pete to start talking about Anna and how close they once were. “You know I never stopped loving her. She always laughed and shrugged me off when I tried to tell her, but that didn’t change my feelings for her.”
He looked so sad that Darcy just couldn’t see him as Anna’s killer. “It’s a terrible thing, Pete. I miss her too.”
“I know. It was worse for you, Darcy. You had to find her. I can’t… I can’t imagine.”
“Yes, that was hard. I didn’t see you at the festival that night, Pete. Where were you?” There. That was subtle, wasn’t it?
She hadn’t been prepared for him to start crying. “I was here, taking care of Blake. He’s had this flu for weeks now. I must look like a wreck. I’m so sorry for crying Darcy. I’ve been so depressed since hearing the news about Anna that I haven’t been able to sleep. I can’t eat. I cry at every little thing. I even had my doctor write me an emergency prescription for a sleep aid.” He held up the package that she had seen Doctor Sandal give him. “I really need to get some sleep.”
Darcy felt horrible that she had ever suspected Pete. He wasn’t the one to do this horrible thing. Now that she’d talked to him face to face, she was sure of it. She stayed with him for a while, comforting him as best she could, and then after some time had passed, got up to leave. Pete walked her to the front door. As they were about to say goodbye, Darcy had a thought.
“You know, I really liked Blake’s car, did he sell it?” She asked, attempting subtlety.
“Huh? No… it’s in the shop. Why do you ask?”
“Oh, just curious.” Darcy could see by the look on Pete’s face that he wasn’t entirely convinced, but was too tired to press it any further. They both said their goodbyes one last time and Darcy started the long journey home. A few minutes later, a furry black and white something brushed against her leg.
“Now where on earth did you get to Smudge?” She asked, now realizing that her tom cat had abandoned her sometime this morning.
All he said in response was a cheery “meow”. Darcy sighed, today had been a waste. She was no closer to solving Anna’s death. Hopefully tomorrow would be more fruitful.
Chapter 11
The next day didn’t get any better.
In the book store, the bell over the door jingled and in walked the last man on Earth that Darcy wanted to see. Jeff smiled in that arrogant way he had and sauntered up to the counter. Sue rolled her eyes before going off into the back. She had her own opinion of Darcy’s ex-husband. It more or less mirrored Darcy’s own opinion.
“Jeff, I’m so not in the mood for you today. Just go.” She hoped that would be the end of it. It wasn’t.
He held up his hands, palms facing out to her. “I come in peace.”
Darcy didn’t believe him and folded her arms across her chest. “Then what do you want?”
“You’re being awfully tough on someone who is here to help. I have news about Anna. I was going to tell the police but then I changed my mind. I figured, why not tell you first?”
Darcy stood up straighter and let her arms fall to her sides. She did not trust him, but Jeff had gotten her interest. He’d always known how to do that. “Well, keep talking.”
His smile got wider. “On the night Anna was killed I saw her at the festival. She seemed really upset. She seemed to be talking to herself so I went over to her to see if she was alright.”
“You?” She snorted. “You were never the helpful type.”
“See, right there is why I divorced you,” he complained. “You never had any faith in me. None.” He ran a hand through his hair and started to pace back and forth.
“I broke it off with you, Jeff. I thought you had something to tell me?”
He stopped his p
acing and looked at her. “Fine. Be like that. Anna wasn’t making much sense, but I asked her if there was anything I could do for her just like I always do for a friend,” he made sure to add. “She told me that she had seen something but was practically talking over herself and I’m not sure exactly what she said. Something about someone new in town.”
Darcy stared at him for a moment. “That’s it? That’s your big news? What do you think she meant?”
Jeff shrugged. “I only know of one new person in town. That’s your sister’s new partner, this Jon Tinker character. That’s why I didn’t take this to the police, see?”
Darcy shook her head. “You must have misunderstood. Besides I was with Grace and Jon when it happened.” Although she remembered the way Anna had run off when she’d spotted Grace and Jon heading for them. Maybe there was something to what Jeff was saying. Maybe it was worth investigating on her own later.
“Sure, Darcy. You’re always right, after all.” He waited a moment and when Darcy didn’t rise to his bait he said, “Guess I’ll see you later then.” He turned away and headed towards the door.
When he got to the door she shook her head at herself for treating him so badly. He came to her, after all. “Why do you care anyway Jeff? You were never close to Anna.”
He shrugged again. “You and me might have fallen apart, and I still want those photos you stole from me, Darcy. But I always liked Anna. She didn’t deserve this.”
Then he turned and left the store leaving Darcy standing there, wondering about Jeff’s sudden unselfish gesture. And what was it with him and those photos?
That night Darcy was pacing back and forth in her kitchen. She was out of options and knew what she had to do next. She’d put it off long enough. Now, for Anna’s sake, she needed to do it. She had to turn to the spirit world. She looked at Smudge and sighed. The cat blinked at her. “Yeah. I know,” she answered his unspoken encouragement.