Hiding From Death (A Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery #6) (5 page)

             
Darcy smiled to see how grumpy her sister was.  Desk duty wasn’t Grace’s idea of police work, but she and her husband Aaron had just lived through a nasty experience when Aaron had gotten into the middle of a botched robbery.  They were being a little overcautious with the baby now, maybe, but Darcy understood how they felt.  There was only so much tragedy anyone could handle in their life.

             
Grace ran her hands back through her short black hair and leaned back in her chair.  “I am so bored, sis.  Please tell me you came to take me to lunch or something.”

             
Darcy leaned over Jon’s desk to trade kisses with him.  “Yes,” he said, “please take her to lunch.  She’d driving me nuts.”

             
Grace stuck her tongue out at him.  “Whatever.  Next time Aaron gets to have the baby.”

             
“Just think, sis,” Darcy said to her as she sat down in the chair in front of Jon’s desk, “you’ll be the first one in the family to have a baby of their own.”

             
Jon shifted in his chair.  Darcy noticed but didn’t say anything.  They had never finished their discussion on whether it was time for them to start their own family yet.  She was really curious how he felt about it, but now was not the time.

             
“Well,” Darcy said, “it’s a little early for lunch but I do have something that might keep you busy.  You too, Jon.  I went to see Laura Lannis again this morning.”

             
Jon rolled his eyes at her.  “I knew you would.  She already turned you away once, didn’t she?”

             
“Yes, but I think she may have had a reason.”  Darcy described the vision she had when Laura’s hand touched hers.  She put in as many of the details that she could remember.  The dark man, the house, the church with the spiral bell tower.  She mentioned holding the child in her arms and then how Laura had looked in the reflection in the window.  “It was obviously her, but without the dyed black hair and heavy makeup.”

             
Jon leaned his elbows on his desk.  “It definitely sounds like she’s trying to hide something.  Definitely explains why she won’t talk to anyone in town.  She’s scared.”

             
Neither of them argued that Darcy was wrong or mistaken in what she’d seen.  They both knew about her abilities, so they knew that what Darcy was describing was real in some way, even if they didn’t fully understand what Darcy could do.  Jon had watched Darcy contact spirits before, and her abilities had helped solve more than one of his cases. 

             
“So the question is,” Jon was saying, “what do we do now?  If she doesn’t want to come forward with this problem there isn’t much we can do as police officers.”

             
“We can still look into it, though,” Grace argued.  “And I think we should.  I mean, if she’s on the run from some guy, it could affect the whole town.  Plus, she’ll need help whether she’s willing to ask for it or not.  You know, Darcy, that church that you described in your vision sounds very familiar to me.”

             
“I know, right?” Darcy said.  “I thought the same thing.  I’ve been trying to place it but I just can’t put my finger on it.  I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere before, though.”

             
“You think it’s a place in one of the towns around here?” Jon asked.  He had moved to Misty Hollow not even a year ago, just before he and Darcy had started dating, so he wasn’t as familiar with the area as Darcy and Grace were.  They’d lived here most of their lives.

             
“It might be,” Darcy admitted, “but I just don’t know.”

             
“I tell you what,” Grace said.  “I’ll look into that.  I’ll also try to find any reports of missing women that might match Laura’s case.”

             
“Women with a son,” Jon reminded her.  “That should definitely narrow it down.”

             
“Are you sure you have the time?” Darcy asked her sister.

             
Grace made a little snorting sound.  “It sure beats checking other officer’s paperwork or whatever other job they can think to give me.  I hate light duty.”

             
Jon laughed at her.  “Well, like you said, next time Aaron can be the one to get pregnant.”

             
Darcy had a good feeling about this.  All they had to do was find that church, and maybe they could find out what kind of trouble Laura was in.  Then they could help her.  If she’d let them.

***

              Jon came home late that night, but with no good news.  Grace had spent hours trying to track down any active missing persons reports, and had checked with every police agency in the state just in case. As near as Grace and Jon could determine there were no reports of a missing mother and son to be had.

             
After a restless night’s sleep Darcy allowed Jon to drive her into work again.  She didn’t want to be alone, didn’t want to pass by Anna’s house knowing there was something weird and dangerous going on there.  He kissed her goodbye and held her hand at the door to the bookstore, knowing how upset she was.

             
It was more than just the intensity of the vision.  More than the fact that this woman was now living in Anna’s house.  It was the incredible sense of fear that she had felt through Laura in the vision.  Whatever she was running from with her son had her terrified.

             
In the bookstore Darcy kept herself busy all morning by rearranging the shelves, clearing out a space near the front.  That led to her clearing off several shelves, dusting them down, and then restocking them.

             
Sue had the morning off.  She had several last minute things to take care of before she went back to school again, and it was almost her last day of work already.  Darcy began to wonder if she should throw some kind of party for Sue.  A going away party.  The more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea.  Yes.  A party with all of Sue’s friends here in Misty Hollow.  They could hold it right here in the store. 

             
Darcy drew her hand back, a tingling cold sensation jittering across her fingers.  Several books fell to the floor at her feet.  When they did, the strange sensation disappeared.

             
She stared at her fingers, and then at the mess of books down at her feet.  She sighed.  “Millie, I’m not in the mood for jokes.”  Her aunt was always playing jokes like this.  She’d lost track of how many people had been in the shop when books had gone flying across the room or fallen on their toes.  Today just wasn’t the day for it.

             
She put the books back on the shelf one at a time, stacking them left to right.  Until the tingling crept into her fingers again.  She didn’t pull away this time.  Instead, she pulled that particular book back off the shelf and looked at it closer.  It was a picture book, one of several books Darcy carried in the shop that featured the local history.  There were a few that dealt with haunted places near Misty Hollow, some that were real and some that she’d found to be fake.  There were half a dozen about the role Misty Hollow and Meadowood had played in the war.

             
This book was a history of architecture in the surrounding towns.  A picture book of buildings.  Including churches.

             
Darcy couldn’t believe it.  She’d forgotten that this book was in her shop.  Now she rushed over to one of the reading tables and set the book down, quickly flipping through the pages.  The first buildings were from the early 1800s, made of wood or thick square stone.  Nothing like what she’d seen in Laura’s vision.  She kept looking, gradually going forward in time.

             
Then she found it.  A white church with a steepled roof that led up to a spiraling bell tower.  She ran her fingers over the picture, remembering little details from her vision now that she had barely noticed as Laura had made her mad dash to get away from the dark man.  Details like that stained glass window in front, or the way the top of the front door was round.

             
The paragraph under the photo told about how the church had been rebuilt in 1956 after a fire that had claimed several buildings in Cider Hill.

             
Darcy snapped her fingers.  Of course!  Cider Hill was a town about five hours away from Misty Hollow.  Grace and Darcy had gone there once with their mother for a town fair.  She remembered there had been pony rides, and someone making up kids’ faces like clowns and butterflies, and marching bands in a parade.  And over in the church, there had been an ice cream social.

             
That’s where she remembered the church from.  In her mind, she replayed the vision again.  Now that she knew where the church was, other details became clearer as well.  Laura had run away from the dark man past a store.  Darcy hadn’t been able to make out the letters in the window before, but now she knew what they said.  “Cider Hill Hardware.”

             
Slapping the book closed again she went for her coat.  It was still the middle of the morning but even so she put out the sign telling people she’d be back in fifteen minutes.  She actually didn’t know how long she’d be, but she had to let Jon and Grace know about this new information.

***

              Jon was talking with a uniformed officer, Johnson, when he saw Darcy come in.  He handed a file to Johnson and then came over to give her a quick hug.  “You know if you keep coming here they’re going to give you a desk and a caseload of your own.  I’ve already spoken to the chief about it.”

             
She laughed but she didn’t feel like she had time to joke around with him.  “Jon, I figured something out.  I found that church I saw.”  His eyes widened as she explained what she had seen in the book.

             
He looked at her intently and she felt herself blush a little looking into his eyes like this.  “So,” he said.  “This is going to be another one of those kinds of cases?”

             
She didn’t have to ask him what he meant.  Jon knowing about her abilities was one thing.  He still didn’t quite understand them, not completely.  They were working on it, though, and he never made her feel like she was doing something bad for using a special power that she had been born with.    She loved him for that.

             
“It looks like it will be,” she said to him.  First the vision, now this.  She wouldn’t tell him about the mists around the town.  She didn’t think he was quite ready for that level of weird yet.

             
He nodded with a sigh.  “I love you, Darcy Sweet.  You certainly keep my life interesting.”

             
She hugged him again.  “So what do we do now?”

             
“I’ll reach out to the police over in Cider Hill.  If they even have a police force there.  Maybe they know something that we can connect to Laura.”

             
“She needs our help, Jon.”  Darcy had never been more sure of anything.

             
“I know.  I mean, I believe you.  Do you want to wait here while I figure this out?  I sent Grace out for some coffee to give her something to do.  She should be back in a few minutes.”

             
Darcy gave Jon a knowing smile.  “She’s starting to get on your nerves, isn’t she?”

             
“Let’s just say your sister isn’t the kind of person who can just sit.  She needs to be constantly doing something.”

             
“Well when the baby gets here she and Aaron will have plenty to do.”  Darcy couldn’t wait to see her new niece or nephew.  How strange it was going to be to have a baby in the family.  “I think I’ll go back to the store for now.  I’m all hyped up and I’m not sure if I could just sit here, either.”

             
“I’ll call you there, then, if I hear anything,” he promised her.  “I have a few other things I’m supposed to be doing, though, so if you don’t hear from me just head home.  I’ll meet you there.”

             
They kissed each other goodbye, and Darcy left.  She hoped Jon would find something soon.  She had the feeling that time wasn’t on Laura’s side.

***

              Darcy called to the police station before going home from work.  It was Grace who answered her call.  Jon was out of the office, she said, taking a call about a stolen car.  Darcy thought she actually sounded jealous of him.

             
“You want me to have him call you when he gets back, sis?”

             
“No,” Darcy said.  “I’ll wait for him at home.  Hopefully he won’t be too long.”

             
Darcy waited for Jon until well after dark.  Whatever case he was working was definitely keeping him busy, she supposed, because he hadn’t even called by the time she had changed into her pajamas ready to head for bed.  Smudge kept her company as the minutes rolled by.  She watched the red numbers change on the bedside clock, and still no Jon.