by K. J. Emrick
The decision stumped her, until she saw a light come on in one of the windows at the Town Hall. Someone was there.
Most likely it was Helen. She would have had her meeting with Jon down at the police station already. Maybe she didn’t want to go straight home after the shocking news about Steve, or maybe she just had some paperwork to finish.
Well, that made things easier on Darcy. All she had to do was stop into the Town Hall quickly and let Helen know that she would be there if she needed moral support, or even just a shoulder to cry on. Darcy would be there for her, no matter what.
Checking the street both ways, she crossed over to the other side. There were hardly any cars moving at this hour, but the streets were still full of people out enjoying the weather and the scenery and, she had to admit, even the music. The men were all in jeans or khakis and the girls were all in short shorts and sleeveless tops. She sighed and tried not to be jealous. She could definitely remember being that young. That flirty. That… carefree.
Carefree and Darcy Sweet hadn’t been friends in a lot of years.
Unexpectedly, that made her laugh. She was in a pretty good mood when she stepped into the Town Hall.
This building had been completely gutted by a fire a number of years ago, during one of Darcy’s more intense mysteries, and rebuilt from the inside out. Some of the brick façade had survived, but the hardwood floors and the dark oak paneling and the nice wall sconces had been installed after the flames had destroyed everything that had been here before. Darcy could remember one particularly hideous portrait of Abraham Lincoln that had hung in the lobby. She didn’t miss that painting one bit.
Helen’s office was off to the left. Sure enough, that was where the light she had seen from outside had been coming from. Darcy hesitated, for just a moment, before knocking on the door with the brass plate that read “MAYOR.” Then she shrugged. If Helen had wanted her privacy she would have locked the front doors to the building instead of leaving them open for just anyone to come walking through.
When she knocked, she heard a sudden scuffling sound from inside, like Helen was trying to tidy the office up. She heard the telltale sound of papers being shuffled into a neat pile and filing cabinet drawers all closing one after another. It was funny the things that people considered important when they weren’t thinking straight. Darcy remembered the time when she thought Jon was dead, and how she had tidied up her sock drawer for twenty minutes straight before finally scooping them all out and dumping them on the floor.
He wasn’t dead, of course, but of all her mysteries that was the one she liked to think about least of all.
“Helen?” she called out. “It’s just me. You don’t have to clean up. Mind if I come in?”
Silence met her question.
“Hey, Helen? Are you all right?”
“Under the circumstances,” Darcy heard Helen answer, “I suppose I’m fine.”
Only, the answer had come from down the hallway behind her, and not through the closed office door.
Darcy turned, and found Helen Turner walking in her direction, the front doors of the Town Hall just closing behind her.
Then Darcy turned back to the office door. If Helen was out here…
“What’s wrong?” Helen asked her. There was a strain around Helen’s pale brown eyes, and her face was nearly as white as her short, feathered hair. Obviously, the news of the day had taken its toll on her. She looked frazzled. “Darcy? Why are you trying to get into my office?”
“Um. I thought you were in there.”
Helen blinked at her as she fisted her hands into the pleats of her dress. “Well, obviously I’m not in my office. I’m right here. This has been a horrendous day already, Darcy. I don’t think I’m up for any more surprises. Now, who is in that room?”
Both of them turned to stare at the door now. The brass MAYOR plate caught the light from the wall sconces and seemed to wink at them.
Someone, not Helen, was in that room. Someone, not Helen, had been going through drawers and paperwork in that room. Now someone, not Helen, was in there being completely quiet.
Darcy’s left hand reached over and found her aunt’s ring, twisting it around and around her finger. She really wished Aunt Millie’s ghost was here. Someone who could walk through walls and tell them what was waiting on the other side would be really helpful. She’d even settle for Steve Nelson’s incorporeal form to pop through this hallway right about now. How come it never seemed her ghosts were around when she needed them?
“What do we do?” Helen asked Darcy. “We can’t just stand here. Should we call the police?”
“There’s two of us,” Darcy pointed out. “We can handle it.”
Helen set her lips in a thin line, taking a step back from the door. “I’m not sure I agree with that statement.”
Darcy reached out for her friend’s hand. “Together,” she said. “We’ll go in together.”
“Fine. If you say so. But I’m calling 911 first.”
Darcy had to admit that was a very good idea.
Half a minute later, as Helen was putting her cellphone away in her purse, Darcy took her hand again, and they gave each other a nod of encouragement.
Darcy’s hand turned the knob. In the next breath she pushed it open wide and both of them jumped back, ready for whoever was in there.
No one. That was who they found. Absolutely no one.
The room was empty.
It was also a wreck. Someone had tried to put the desk back to rights, but the stapler was on its side and the papers weren’t so much in a neat pile as they were all haphazardly smushed into a stack that was threatening to spill over onto the floor. The filing cabinet drawers were closed around the edges of files that hadn’t been put back the right way. A lamp in the corner had been bumped, and now it was leaning up against the wall.
And, on the other side of the desk, one of the room’s three windows stood open to the warm July evening. The screen was popped out and most likely was currently lying on the grass outside. There had been someone here, sure enough, but they’d taken advantage of Darcy and Helen’s hesitation to sneak away. By now, they were long gone.
Trying not to disturb anything, the two of them took a quick look around the office. Nothing struck Darcy as obviously missing. It might take Helen going through everything one piece of paper at a time to be sure, but for now it looked like they had stopped whoever was in the room from getting… whatever it was they had come looking for.
“Oh my,” Helen groaned. “What else can go wrong today?”
Darcy cringed. There were some questions you just never asked out loud.
The answer was always bad.
“I left so quickly,” Helen explained to Jon Tinker. “I mean earlier, when I found out about Steve being murdered. I was here, and I was so frazzled and in such a rush, I left without locking the front door of the building. After I left the police station I just knew I had to come back here and check on things and that’s when I found Darcy… oh, my.”
It was all Helen could do to keep it together now. One thing after another had piled themselves on her shoulders today. Darcy had always admired how strong her friend was, and how she had faced one difficulty after another in her life. Not just with her ex-husband Steve, but with everything else life had thrown at her, too. There had been Alan Lansky, a man Helen had fallen in love with after Steve went to prison, and who was only pretending to love her back. Then when she sold the café and bakery business she had worked so hard to turn into a centerpiece for the town it had burned to the ground. It had been just one blow after another for her.
The bright spot in her life was her new husband, the real love of her life, Bruce Turner. He was sitting right next to her in the Town Hall’s meeting room as she told her story to Jon Tinker, proving once again that yes, there really were good men out there. You just had to be patient for them.
At least a foot taller than Helen, Bruce was a big man with a kindly expression on a rugge
d face. Darcy remembered him saying something once about how he used to work as a Forester, a job that required him to be out in the woods and nature for hours on end. She could see that about him. With his dark hair and beard and penchant for wearing plaid flannel shirts, he looked exactly like a lumberjack. He radiated strength and love as he sat next to Helen at the long table, across from Jon and Darcy.
With the help of Detective Wilson Barton and two uniformed officers they had already searched her office, and dusted for fingerprints, and photographed everything. It was now three hours after Darcy had decided to make a quick run into the Town Hall. So much for that. Izzy was saving her butt once again, agreeing that she could stay just as long as Darcy needed her to. That was good, because now Darcy had no idea how long she was going to be here.
Because it wasn’t just Helen’s office that had been ransacked. The police had searched the rest of the building and found something very interesting.
The mayor’s office wasn’t the only room someone had been in.
“It’s okay, Helen,” Jon said to her now, closing his notebook and tucking it away into the pocket of his jeans. He hadn’t even had time to change since they’d started making dinner together. “We’ll figure out who did this.”
“It must be related to Steve’s death.” Helen stared at her folded hands on top of the table without really seeing them. “Don’t you think it must be related? It can’t be a coincidence that it happened on the same day.”
Darcy had been thinking the same thing herself. She had never been a big believer in coincidence. Two things happening on the same day might be unrelated, sure, and then again, she might be George Lucas’s third cousin on his mother’s side. Not likely.
She twisted her great aunt’s ring around her finger as she thought about the break in, and the murder, and what the possible connection might be. What could possibly be here in the Town Hall that would be worth killing a man? Even a man like Steve Nelson?
“We’re exploring every lead,” Jon said to Helen, even though that wasn’t much of an answer. “We can’t rule anything out. When the coroner finishes his autopsy on Steve’s body we’ll know more.”
“I just don’t understand why he was here!” Gesturing helplessly with her hands, Helen started to stand up and then just dropped back into her chair again. “He didn’t have any reason to come back here.”
“Except for his mother,” Darcy pointed out to her. “Every man still has a little boy’s desire to come back home to his mother when the going gets tough.”
Jon turned in his chair to give her an oh really? look.
Darcy shrugged a shoulder. “Present company excluded, of course.”
Bruce chuckled and folded his hand over Helen’s. “I see why you like her, Jon.”
“Yeah, she’s got a way about her.” Jon cleared his throat. “Anyway. Helen, are you sure that Steve hasn’t tried to contact you since he got out of prison?”
Bruce answered for her. “No, of course not. I would know if he came to the house. How could we possibly have known?”
Darcy thought that answer was maybe a little too quick, and she thought it was interesting how angry Bruce was getting over the idea of Steve coming to town, but it wasn’t nearly as interesting as what Helen said next.
“I knew he was getting out.” She almost whispered the words before clearing her throat and forcing herself to look Jon straight in the eye. “I knew. I was notified by mail a few days ago he was being granted early parole over my strong objections.”
“Helen? Honey?” Bruce turned a quizzical look on her, trying to catch her eyes. “What do you mean, you knew? A few days ago, you knew this bastard was being let loose? Why didn’t you tell me?”
She cupped his face in her hands. “I didn’t want to worry you, Bruce. I never dreamed he would come here.”
“But he did.”
A tear ran down her cheek. “Yes. He did. And, I suppose I knew there was the possibility he would come. I mean, his grandfather Merlon had just passed away, and that would mean an inheritance, and of course the last will and testament was kept on file here at the Town Hall… all right, yes, I knew it was a possibility that he would come to town, but I was just hoping…”
No one made her finish that sentence. They all knew what she was hoping for. A life without Steve Nelson showing his face here ever again. It wasn’t any different than what the rest of them would have hoped for.
“If it makes you feel any better,” Helen said to Bruce a moment later, “I didn’t tell anyone else about it either, except my secretary Julie. I told her about him being released from prison and about his grandfather’s will, but I told her in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t to allow him in this building, or take any of his calls, or let that… man anywhere near me. I’m sorry, Bruce.”
Silence fell between all of them. They all knew this changed things for the investigation. Jon finally cleared his throat and took out his notebook and pen again. “Helen… I’m sorry. I’m going to have to ask you where you were all day today.”
“Jon, you can’t be serious,” Bruce complained, standing up and towering over everyone. “Hasn’t she been through enough?”
“Yes, Bruce, but you know I have to do this. Helen’s ex-husband comes to town unexpectedly, she doesn’t let anyone know he’s being released, and then of course there’s all the bad history between them. I don’t want to ask this, I have to ask it. There’s going to be no end of questions about this. Helen’s not only the dead man’s ex-wife but she’s also the town’s mayor.” He shrugged and turned his attention back to Helen. “You need to be above reproach.”
“She didn’t do this, Jon!” Bruce slapped a palm down on the table, and the echo of it was like a gunshot.
Helen put her hand on his arm. She seemed to have aged years in the short period of time they’d been talking. “He’s right, Bruce. I have nothing to hide, but people will want an answer. Best to get it out now. I was here for most of the day, Jon. My secretary will confirm that. The maintenance man, too. You know him, I think. Nash Fullerton? He was here. And of course, I’ll be on the security cameras.”
She pointed to the black globe in the corner of the room. There were several of them all around the building, installed when the Town Hall had been rebuilt. Better to spend on security than pay out for frivolous lawsuits, was how the construction firm had worded it to Helen.
“All right,” Jon said, making notes for himself. “Julie and this Nash person left before you, I take it?”
“Yes, they did. I sent them both home at three. It’s almost the holiday. I figured they could use some time to themselves. Pretty sure there’s something between the two of them. Not that I like to gossip, or anything.”
Darcy suppressed a smile. Helen had always loved to gossip. Maybe less so once she took over as mayor, but she was still the same woman underneath the job title.
“Then after they left,” Jon said, “you stayed here. Right?”
“Well, yes” Helen continued, thinking back. “Then, I left around four-thirty. I made a quick stop at Alex’s Shop and Go. I suppose that his surveillance cameras will show me there. If he has any. I’m not even sure. Then I went straight home. I got there, oh, about five o’clock.”
“It was five-eleven,” Bruce told Jon. “Just after the radio news ended.”
Jon nodded, but kept his attention on Helen. “All right. I don’t have a time of death for Steve yet, but let’s see. You called me about him being found dead just before seven o’clock. My guys found his body an hour before that, and they called you first, and then you called me. Which means…”
“She didn’t do it,” Bruce repeated.
“Which we already knew,” Jon said, “but now we can prove it. There wasn’t time in her day to find Steve, kill Steve, and dump Steve’s body out on Applegate Road. Not as long as the security cameras back her up, and you two alibi each other at home.”
“We do,” Helen and Bruce said together.
; “Good. So. I think we’ve all had enough of this day. Bruce, how about you take Helen home, and I’ll call and check in tomorrow as soon as I know something. Okay?”
Helen thanked him and gave Darcy a hug before letting Bruce guide her out of the meeting room and out of the front doors of the building. She looked so tired as she disappeared down the front steps. So… old. Helen was quite a bit older than her, but Darcy had never really thought of her friend as old before. In the pit of her stomach was a sinking feeling that this mystery was going to get worse before it got better.
“Come on, Darcy,” Jon said once the door to the Town Hall closed again. “Our night’s not over.”
“Jon, I really want to get back to the kids.”
“They’re fine. I called Izzy and asked—”
“You too?” Darcy said with a little smile. “I guess we were both worried for nothing, huh?”
“Well, it’s what parents do. Izzy said that Tiptoe is sleeping on Colby’s bed and Zane is fighting to stay awake in his crib. She was going to read him another story from her e-reader.”
“She certainly comes prepared. I feel bad about ruining her and Devon’s night, though. They were going to have a romantic dinner date before this happened.”
“Oh, I don’t think they mind. Besides, there’s no better way for a woman to find out if she’s with the right man than watching him with someone else’s kids.”
“Is that a fact?” Darcy asked with a wry smile.
“Uh-huh. You have to know how a man is with kids before you make a commitment.”
She actually knew that was true. The times she’d seen Jon with kids before they were married… well. It wasn’t just his pretty face and deep blue eyes that she found attractive. “Hey,” she said when she realized they were going further into the Town Hall. “Where are you taking me?”
“Just down here,” he told her. “Down to where the other room was broken into. Wilson’s still poking around.”