Resorting to Murder (A Darcy Sweet Mystery Book 11) (6 page)

Of course JoEllen would know where this grave was.  Darcy felt stupid for not realizing it sooner.

They had
walked into a trap.

JoEllen
was mad, her face set and her body language radiating anger, but Darcy took it as a good sign that she hadn't tried to shoot them yet.  If she had wanted them dead, Darcy and Jon would already be joining Audie Berkstone over there in shallow graves.

But what was this about her son?

As Darcy watched, JoEllen swallowed and her eyes blinked closed and then open again.  "I can't believe that twig snapped," she grumbled.  "Can you believe that twig snapped when I stepped on it?  I mean, how cliché can you get?"

Jon looked sideways at Darcy.  She could see the same questions
forming in his mind that she had herself.  Slowly lowering his hands he tried taking one step forward.  "JoEllen, why don't you put the gun down and we can talk about, well, whatever possessed you to point it at us in the first place."

"No," she said stiffly.  "You have my son.  I knew all I had to d
o was wait.  I knew whoever killed Audie wouldn't be able to resist coming back to view their handiwork.  You killed him.  You have my son."  She switched the gun to a double-handed grip and aimed it at Jon's heart.  "I want my son back."

Two things became clear to Darcy.  One, JoEllen hadn't killed Audie.  She thought Jon and Darcy had done that.  And two, there was a lot more going on here than met the eye.  Every word JoEllen
spoke was dripping with conviction and certainty.  Whatever she thought Jon and Darcy had done, it wouldn't be easy to convince her otherwise.

Darcy knew they had to try. 
Especially since she didn't feel like being shot.  "We don't have your son, JoEllen.  We didn't even know you had a son.  We just came here to have a weekend getaway.  That's all."

"Liar!"
  JoEllen jabbed the gun at them like an accusing finger.  "You took him!  I knew the minute you moved into the cabin next to me.  Not exactly subtle, by the way.  Here's a tip.  Don't blackmail someone and then move next door!"

"We're not who you think we are," Darcy tried, lifting her hands higher to show she wasn't any kind of threat. 
"Me and Jon.  We aren't whoever you think we are.  We don't have your son."

"Then why are yo
u here?  In the woods, next to Audie’s grave?  Huh?  Answer me that!"

Her voice had risen until
now she was practically shouting and the way she was waving that gun, Darcy really had to worry about it accidentally going off.  It wasn't the first time she'd stared down the black eye of a gun but this was one more thing that she would never get used to.  Her breath was caught in her throat and beads of sweat stood out on her forehead.  She forced herself to smile and act like there was nothing wrong.  She had to keep this going.

While Darcy had kept JoEllen's attention on her, Jon had inched
around, off to the side, without being noticed.  He caught Darcy's attention out of JoEllen's line of sight and mouthed a countdown. 

…
four, three, two, one!

Darcy dropped herself to the ground in a sudden heap
.  JoEllen watched her in surprise, mouth hanging open, and momentarily forgot she was supposed to be keeping them at gunpoint.  At that same instant Jon reached in and grabbed her gun arm in a vice grip, twisting it in a circle away from Darcy that forced JoEllen to her knees.

As Jon was taking her to the ground, JoEllen
rolled onto her back and scissor kicked Jon's feet out from under him.

They both we
re down, one on top of the other, Jon managing to keep a grip on JoEllen's right arm and holding it up above them as she jammed a hand hard under his jaw and shoved his head back into the dirt.  Darcy winced to see it.  She thought for one horrible moment that his neck had been broken but then he was rolling into JoEllen's guard and had her underneath him with her arm bent around behind her back.

The gun
went flying across the ground and stopped at Darcy's feet.

"
Ow!" JoEllen suddenly cried out in pain.  Jon had both of her hands pinned at the small of her back now, using his weight to hold her down on the ground.  "Let me go!  Let me go!"

"Darcy
get her gun," Jon said without taking his attention off JoEllen.  "Now.  I'm going to ask some questions, and you're going to give me some answers.  Got it, JoEllen?"

Darcy looked down at the gun
, wrinkling her nose at it.  Instead of picking it up she stepped on it.  That would do just as good, wouldn't it?  She really didn't like guns.

"Fine!"
JoEllen shouted, giving up on trying to struggle her way out of Jon's grip.  "Kill me too.  Go on!  Do it!  Just please, don't hurt my son.  Please?"

"What in God's name are you talking about?"  Jon's question hung in the air,
unanswered, as JoEllen began to cry.

With her mind spinning in circles,
Darcy regarded the sobbing woman.  Hadn't she just tried to kill them?  Tracked them through the woods and held a gun pointed at their hearts?  Wasn't she the bad guy here?

Then why did Da
rcy suddenly feel sorry for her?

"
JoEllen," she said, "we don't have your son.  We don't know who he is.  We don't know who you are, for that matter."

"That's an understatement," Jon scoffed.

Darcy threw him a glare.  Making the crazy woman mad was never a good idea.  "What I mean to say," she continued, "is that we're not whoever you think we are.  We didn't kill that man over there in that grave.  We're just trying to figure out what's going on here and it looks like you might have the answers we need.  But first, I think you should promise not to kill us."

"Sounds fair," Jon agreed.

"Shh," Darcy hissed at him.  "JoEllen, what do you say?"

For a long moment no one spoke.  JoEllen's tears continued
until she had calmed down enough to take a shaky breath.  "You really don't have my son?"

"No," Darcy promised her.  "If he's in danger, or some kind of trouble, we might be able to help you.  Jon is a police detective.  He's very good at what he does."

Jon's eyes lit up smugly at the compliment.

When
JoEllen didn't answer Darcy tried again.  "Let us help you.  Tell us what's going on."

JoEllen
thought about it for another few moments, then nodded her head, her eyes closed.  Her curly blonde hair had fallen across her face, and shadows hid her expression.

It was obvious that Jon didn't like the idea, but at Darcy's urging he let go of JoEllen's hands and quickly pushed himself up and off of her,
stepping over to Darcy.  He walked backward until he reached her so that he wouldn't have to risk turning away from JoEllen.  Squatting down, he gently moved Darcy's foot and picked up JoEllen's gun.  "It wouldn't have bit you, you know."

"I don't like guns," was her answer, even though she couldn't deny it made her feel better to see Jon holding one right now.

It was then that Darcy noticed the darkening bruise on the side of Jon's face and the little trickle of blood from a cut.  "Are you all right?" she asked him.

"Yeah.
  I'm fine.  She's good.  I almost couldn't take her."

That wasn't something
she ever thought she'd hear Jon say.  She'd seen him in a lot of bad spots.  He might not win any mixed martial arts competitions anytime soon but he was good in a fight.  For him to say JoEllen nearly got the better of him said a lot about JoEllen, and made Darcy think.

Standing up,
JoEllen turned to face Jon and Darcy, wiping at the dark soil on the front of her blue blouse and khaki shorts.  They all stood there, watching each other.

"I was so sure," JoEllen finally said.  "It was the only way I could think of to find you.  Well.  Not you, I guess. 
Audie's killer.  Which, I guess, isn't you.  Are you really a cop?"

Jon took the question in stride.  From his back pocket he took out his wallet and flashed it open to his badge for her to see.  She nodded and then stared down at the ground, shaking her head.  "Wonderful.  Now the police are involved.
  I could have strangled the manager of the resort when he called the Sheriff about Audie being missing.  The last thing I need is the cops poking around in this."

"I think," Darcy said, "that you're starting the story at the end again.  Want to start over? 
From the beginning?"

She shrugged. 
"Why not?  I've got nothing to lose at this point.  I'm boxed into a corner and if you really are what you claim to be, maybe you can help.  I don't know.  I just know I need to find my son."

"Someone has him?" Jon asked.  Darcy was glad he was being direct.  If they left JoEllen to tell the story in her own way they would probably be out here until sundown.

"Yes.  Someone kidnapped my son," JoEllen said bitterly.  "They have him, and if I don't do what they ask, they'll kill him just like they killed…Audie." 

She choked when she spoke the dead man's name, and Darcy could see he had meant something to her. 
Something special.

"We'll get to Audie," Jon said.  "For now, let's talk about your son.  Why would anyone want to take him from you?"

JoEllen shifted her weight form foot to foot, crossing her right arm over herself to hold her opposite elbow.  Darcy noticed how her eyes flicked to the gun in Jon's hand more than once.  "It's complicated.  You're a cop.  You may not like the answers I have to give."

"We want to help," Darcy reminded her.  Jon caught her eye with a do-we-really-want-to-help-her kind of look on his face.  She ignored him.

"You could just walk away and pretend you never met me, you know," JoEllen said to them.

"I can't do that," Jon explained.  "I'm a police officer.  There's a man dead over there, and you came at us with a gun.  I can't just turn a blind eye to all that. 
And like Darcy said, I might be able to help."

He left out the part where he was way outside of his jurisdiction. 
Officially, he couldn't do a thing here in Bear Ridge.  Unofficially, Darcy knew that it didn't matter to Jon where he was.  He was a police officer every minute of every day.  When people needed help, he was there.

She was the same way.

JoEllen cleared her throat.  "They took my son to force me to do something."

"Okay.  Not for money?  It's not a dispute between you and the father?"

"No.  Nothing like that."

"How do you know?" Jon asked.

She nodded back at the grave with a tilt of her head.  "Because my son's father is over there in the ground."

That answer shocked Darcy.  No wonder JoEllen had seemed a little crazy.  She had every right to be.  What would Darcy do
, she wondered, if Jon had been hurt and someone she loved had been taken from her?

Probably everything she could until justice was done and everyone was safe.  Maybe she could understand JoEllen pointing a gun at them.  Just a little bit.

Next to her, Jon's expression was tight as he thought everything through.  "All right.  Tell me this," he said.  "What does your son's kidnapper want you to do?  What's so important to them?"

JoEllen
smiled sadly.  "It has to do with my line of work."

"Your work?"
Jon asked her.  "Why?  What do you do for work?"

"See, that's the complicated part," she said, lifting her head up
with a challenging glare.  "I'm a contract killer."

"So
, what you're telling us, is that you kill people for money."

They had gotten back to Jon's car with a lot of silence and more than a few awkward glances.  The
y had decided to head back into town because it was lunchtime, after all, and in spite of JoEllen trying to kill them they were getting hungry. 

The
open road might not be the ideal place to have a discussion about how JoEllen was a killer for profit and her son had been kidnapped and her fiancé killed.  But Darcy knew this was going to be a long conversation even by JoEllen's standards and not one they could really have around other people.  The car provided them with the privacy they needed to at least get most of their questions answered.

It also gave them time to decide what to do next.

JoEllen's gun was in Jon's trunk for now.  They hadn't really been prepared to store a loaded weapon.  If they'd known when they came on this trip that there would be guns pointed at them…well, they probably wouldn't have come.  At the same time, they weren't about to give it back to JoEllen.  Just because they wanted to help her and her son did not mean that they trusted her.

In the front passenger
seat JoEllen slumped lower and brought one knee up to her chest.  "Yes.  I'm a contract killer.  People pay me to, well, do certain things they aren't willing to do themselves.  Does that shock your conscience, mister police officer?"