2 Mists of the Past (3 page)

She heard the door open and Jon called out, “Darcy? Darcy are you here?” She took a deep breath and went downstairs to find Jon hovering, very agitated.

“Oh, thank God,” he said. She had expected him to yell at her or call her names or something. Instead she only heard concern in his voice. “I didn’t know what had happened to you. What’s wrong? Why did you leave the restaurant without telling me you were going?”

She knew she’d have to lie to him. At least for now. “While I was in the bathroom I started to feel really sick. I was feeling so nauseous that I didn’t think, I just ran out and took a cab home.”

She could tell that he didn’t completely believe her. “All right. Well, I hope you feel better soon. I wish you would have just come and got me. I would have brought you home, you know.” He tried to draw her into a hug but at the last moment Smudge jumped at him, growling. Jon quickly stepped back looking puzzled at the cat. Smudge had always gotten along well with him.

But he was loyal to Darcy.

“I guess he doesn’t want you to catch whatever I’ve got. It’s probably best not to get too close.” Darcy figured it was as good an explanation as any. She felt her fingers fiddling with her aunt’s ring, twirling it madly around and around, a mix of emotions burning a hole in the pit of her stomach. Jon’s eyes drifted downwards and he frowned a little. He knew what it meant when she fiddled with the ring.

He didn’t speak for the longest time. And then when he did, there was a distance in his voice that she could hear. “I’ll call you in the morning to see how you are.” He gave her one last intense look, and then left without another word.

After the door closed Darcy turned to Smudge and said, “Thank you. At least you and I understand each other.” He blinked at her as if to say, of course we do.

She headed upstairs once again intending to go to bed. But after several minutes of tossing and turning she realized that she was too restless to go to sleep. She needed to figure out what her vision meant. She decided that she would go and find her sister, Grace.  Like Grace had said, she understood a lot more about Jon than Darcy did. Maybe there were answers there. She threw back the covers and got out of bed.

***

Darcy raced to Grace’s house as quickly as she could. The good thing about living in Misty Hollow was that almost everything and everyone was within walking distance. Darcy didn’t even own a car. Of course, that meant that when you wanted to be somewhere right now, you had to wait until your feet got you there.

When she finally made it to Grace’s apartment, she banged on the front door until it was opened by a sleepy Aaron wearing light blue pajamas.

“Darcy. Is something wrong?” His voice was sluggish and disinterested as he rubbed his eyes. His brown hair was a tousled mess. She knew that he’d forgiven her for the whole thing about him being arrested when Jeff and Anna were murdered, but that didn’t mean she was his favorite person.

Darcy shook herself and said, “Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine. I know it’s late and all, Aaron. I just really need to talk to Grace.” Darcy spotted Grace shuffling towards them yawning widely. Darcy smirked a little when she saw the pajamas Grace was wearing. They were pink with little white lambs all over them. Cute.

“It’s not that late, Darcy,” Grace said to her with another yawn. “But we both need to be up early. What do you want?”

“I’m sorry for waking you up.” Darcy felt really stupid now. How should she even start this discussion? “I really need to talk to you, Grace.”

“Well come on in, then. I’m sure you’re not going away until you get whatever it is out in the open.” Grace knew something about Darcy’s special abilities. Just not everything. She didn’t want to know, for the most part.

Aaron gave Grace a sleepy little kiss. “This is clearly a sister’s thing, so I’m going to go back to bed.” Darcy said goodnight to him as he stumbled back down the hallway toward the bedroom.

Grace made some tea and she and Darcy sat at the kitchen table to drink it. “So are you going to tell me what this is about now?” Grace asked. “I’m betting this has to do with that sixth sense of yours?”

Anxiously twirling the ring around her finger Darcy took a deep breath and then explained her vision to Grace. “I really trust Jon. I do. But what I saw really shook me. I don’t know what it all means.”

Grace was silent for a moment. “Darcy, you need to remember that you suspected Jon of being a murderer before, based on some stupid visions, and you were wrong.”

“Yeah, I know, Grace. I’m not saying he’s done anything wrong. The vision just scared me, that’s all. Is there something in Jon’s past that I should know about? He and I are just starting out and it’s going so well and…and…”

Grace sighed when Darcy fell silent. “Well. I can always ask him questions without him knowing what I’m doing. And maybe check with his superior at his old department. But it was just a stupid, well, vision. I wouldn’t put much stock into it.”

Darcy sighed with relief. “Thanks, Grace. I can’t just ignore what I saw.” She stifled a yawn as she rubbed a hand over her face. She sighed once again before she said, “Can I stay here tonight? I don’t want to go back home.”

Grace nodded. “Of course, you can. Take the guest room.”

Chapter Three

The next morning Darcy left Grace's house to go to work. She wore the same clothes she’d had on to go to Grace’s the night before, but they would do. Grace and Aaron lived in a very nice upmarket apartment close to the center of town so it didn't take long for Darcy to get back to Main Street.

She had to physically restrain herself from going straight to the police station to talk to Grace, who had left for work early before Darcy was even awake. Darcy was glad she wasn’t a police officer; the early hours wouldn’t suit her. She reminded herself that Grace would come and find her as soon as she had news.

Before heading to the bookstore Darcy headed over at the Bean There Bakery and Café to get some coffee. She waved to Mrs Sparks as she passed the old woman working in her front garden, which was immaculate already. Darcy knew that she spent a lot of time tending it.

Lily was alone and was busy serving behind the counter when she entered the cafe. She looked a little flustered as she poured coffee for Darcy. She spilled a little over the brim of the cup.

“Sorry, Darcy. I’m just so busy what with Helen taking over the mayoral duties. She has less time for the café. I’ve had to take over the baking and the serving, too. I’ve even had to bring my brother in to help me.” She ran a hand through her short blonde hair. “You don’t want to hear all this. I love the baking part actually. I’ve been trying out new recipes. Here, take this muffin and try it. Let me know what you think of it.” She shoved a muffin towards Darcy before darting off to serve someone else.

“Thanks,” Darcy said quickly as she started to pour milk into her coffee.

Lily finished with the other customer and came back to stand at the counter in front of Darcy. She had a sly grin on her face. “Say, I saw Jon all dressed up and heading out towards your house last night. I’ve heard a lot of rumors about the two of you. Are you dating?”

The question took Darcy off guard and she nearly spilled her coffee. While she quickly shoved the top back onto the cup she mumbled some stupid answer about how you never know and then took her coffee cup and muffin and raced out of the shop.

***

Darcy found herself staring out of the window yet again. She was at the bookstore and was supposed to be cataloguing some books she’d obtained from a second-hand store, but she wasn’t being very productive. She kept watching and hoping to spot Grace coming with news.

“Hey, earth to Darcy.” Darcy hadn’t heard Sue come up behind her and jumped when she finally realized she was speaking to her. “You’ve been way distracted today. Get in too late last night? You expecting a visit from a hunky police officer or something?” Sue smiled slyly at Darcy with a wink.

As if on cue, through the window she saw Jon coming toward the store. She couldn’t believe his timing. She turned quickly to Sue and said, “Jon and I had a big fight last night. I really don’t want to see him right now can you cover for me?” Another lie. She would have to decide what she was doing about Jon, and decide quickly, because she couldn’t keep lying just to avoid him.

Sue nodded, though, and put a finger up over her lips while Darcy ran to hide behind the shelves in the back of the store. She only just made it before she heard the tinkling of the bell over the door as Jon entered.

“Hi, Sue,” she heard Jon saying. “Is Darcy here?” Darcy couldn’t work out his mood from the tone of his voice. Neutral, was the best she could decide on.

“Um…no, she’s not here right now.” Darcy could hear the nervousness in Sue’s voice. Darcy knew she wasn’t a very good liar. Jon was sure to hear the lie in her voice. She put her forehead down against the books and shook her head from side to side. What was she doing?

“Okay,” Jon said a little too quickly. “When will she be back?”

“I really don’t know, Jon.” Darcy could just imagine Sue out there, twirling her finger into her hair. “She didn’t say.”

There was a moment’s pause and Darcy heard that edge to Jon’s voice he always got when he was suspicious. “Well, I thought she was sick, but she isn’t at home. I guess she’s around somewhere. Can you tell her I stopped by?”

Sue giggled nervously and said, “Sure thing.”

He left the store and Darcy slowly came out of hiding. Sue practically pounced on her. “Come on Darcy give over. What’s going on?” Sue wanted all of the details of their fight.

“It’s nothing really. We just fought about silly little things last night. That’s all. I’d really rather not talk about it. I’m going for a walk.” She didn’t wait for Sue’s reply as she left the bookstore.

***

Darcy didn’t get very far on her walk when she saw Grace walking quickly towards her. “I was just coming to find you,” she said to Darcy.

“Do you have news?” Darcy was eager to hear what Grace had found out.

“Yes, I looked into some things.” She looked around them and then continued, “But not here. Let’s go and find a seat somewhere quiet.”

“You want to talk at home?”

“No,” Grace said with a shake of her head. “I don’t want to wait that long.”

They found a quiet spot inside the Gazebo in the town square. Grace wasted no time in getting to the point. “You remember that whole thing that you and Jeff told me about Jon back when we were investigating Anna’s murder, right?”

Jeff, her late ex-husband, and Darcy had found an article about Jon being accused of murder back at his old precinct. It was all cleared up, but at the time it had seemed to indicate that Jon could perhaps be capable of murder. “Yes,” Darcy said at last, after replaying some of those horrific events from just one month ago. “I remember. But he was cleared of those charges. The article said so.”

“Well,” Grace said with a twist to her mouth, “Maybe he was cleared or maybe that was just the story that they fed the newspapers. Cover ups do happen.” She raised her eyebrows.

Darcy couldn’t believe that Jon would be guilty of this but then again she didn’t really know him that well either. She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment and then asked, “So who was the victim of the crime that Jon was investigated for?”

“He was investigated for the murder of a man called Kyle Young.”

“Okay. I remember that the paper said Jon solved the crime himself and in the end it hadn't been a murder at all but a suicide.”

“Which may be what happened. It also may not be. Not long after that he resigned from the police force there and came to work with us out here.” She sat back on the bench and brushed her dark hair back.

“Look, Darcy, I’m not happy about this. This guy is my partner, and I trust him, and I think you two are good together. I hate that we’re digging into his past this way but maybe…maybe there’s good reason to. The details are sealed, which is strange. That raised my suspicions as it seems to indicate that there is more to it. I’ve got a contact in the State Police over near Pequot Lakes, where this all happened, and he says he can find out what really happened for me.”

“Thanks Grace. I appreciate it.” She sighed, still not sure what to make of it all. “I need to get home now. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

Grace nodded and Darcy walked away toward home. She had completely forgotten that she needed to go back to the bookstore. Right now she just wanted to be alone to think.

She had thought that this whole thing with Jon had been cleared up when Jeff and Anna’s murderer had been caught. She thought she could trust Jon, that he was safe, that she could let herself fall in love with him.

Had she invited a murderer into her heart after all?

***

It seemed as though she wasn’t going to get space from Jon after all. As she got closer to home she could see him waiting for her on her front porch. Her steps slowed as she mentally prepared herself for a confrontation. He was sitting on the steps with his head in his hands and the sight of him gave her pause. She stopped a little way from the house to just study him.

Could he really be a killer? Hadn’t they already been through this a month ago, settled it, moved past it? Yet, here they were all over again. She didn’t really believe it but what about her vision? Her visions were always right, even if she couldn’t figure out exactly what they meant right off. It looked bad for him.

At the sound of her footsteps his head popped up and his eyes locked onto her immediately. He stood up slowly and waited for her to approach and when she was close enough he said in a demanding voice, “I want to know what’s going on, Darcy. I looked for you here, I looked for you at the bookstore, everyone I talk to says they haven’t seen you. What’s going on? Are you avoiding me?”

Darcy decided that she couldn’t avoid this anymore. She needed to know what had happened. More than that, she couldn’t keep lying to him. “What really happened with Kyle Young?” Jon looked surprised by her question. She told him about the vision she had in the restaurant bathroom. She added the part about the dying man being Kyle, sure now that was who it had been.