Worth a Thousand Words: A Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery Book 33 Read online

  Worth a Thousand Words

  A Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery Book 33

  K. J. Emrick

  Contents

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  More Info

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  First published in Australia by South Coast Publishing, August 2022.

  Copyright K.J. Emrick (2012-22)

  * * *

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and locations portrayed in this book and the names herein are fictitious. Any similarity to or identification with the locations, names, characters or history of any person, product or entity is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

  - From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  No responsibility or liability is assumed by the Publisher for any injury, damage or financial loss sustained to persons or property from the use of this information, personal or otherwise, either directly or indirectly. While every effort has been made to ensure reliability and accuracy of the information within, all liability, negligence or otherwise, from any use, misuse or abuse of the operation of any methods, strategies, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein, is the sole responsibility of the reader. Any copyrights not held by publisher are owned by their respective authors.

  All information is generalized, presented for informational purposes only and presented "as is" without warranty or guarantee of any kind.

  All trademarks and brands referred to in this book are for illustrative purposes only, are the property of their respective owners and not affiliated with this publication in any way. Any trademarks are being used without permission, and the publication of the trademark is not authorized by, associated with or sponsored by the trademark owner.

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  Chapter 1

  Darcy Sweet gazed out across the neatly mown grass and tall trees of Misty Hollow’s town park. It was hard to believe that just a few months ago Mayor Andy Blanchard had stood in nearly this exact spot and made plans to bury all of this under a layer of concrete. His insane idea to ‘modernize’ the town had blown up in his face, thanks to her. She’d made sure it would never be anything other than a green space for people to enjoy themselves, no matter what Andy’s aspirations to the contrary might be.

  She did not like that man. He did not like her. Darcy didn’t mind in the least that certain people didn’t like her. It proved that there were still a few things that were in balance in the universe.

  Today was a beautiful autumn day in the middle of September. It had been a mild summer and the leaves on the trees had only just started to turn, hints of yellow and oranges mixed in with the lush greens, creating a moving tableau of shifting colors as the gentle breeze played through them. Darcy felt it riffle through the strands of her long and graying black hair. The hem of her dappled blue dress rippled around her legs as it stirred in the wind. She had added a wide belt at the waist, and she loved the way it looked on her. It was a very recent addition to her wardrobe. She frowned, but then smiled. She didn’t usually wear dresses. Deep inside she was still a jeans and tank top kind of girl.

  But this was a special occasion.

  She was hosting a group of old friends from college for the weekend, and she really wanted everything to be perfect. So far, it had been. The weather was cooperating, and they had fallen into their old habit of talking and joking with each other as easily as if college had been yesterday. This group hadn’t been together since Darcy had been in college, years and years and years ago. The Reading and Creative Exploration Club—RACE—had been the highlight of most days for her. More than a book club, they had discussed philosophy and politics and the nature of life and love itself. It had been a wonderful escape for her at a time when her relationship with her mother was still estranged and she wasn’t sure what direction her life was going to take. The group had helped to keep her centered, and motivated. Her friends had made her feel wanted.

  Now here they were, the six of them together again. Well, seven of them if she counted herself. The group of them were staying in a hotel over in Oak Hollow while they visited for the weekend. It was a good distance away, but really it was the closest place to find lodging except for a few bed and breakfast establishments. None of them seemed to mind. There had been a nice dinner out Thursday evening, and hours talking about books at Darcy’s bookstore in town. That had been wonderful. Just like old times. Yesterday they had gone on a day trip to walk through an interesting cave system over in Millard, a big tourist attraction a couple of hours away from Misty Hollow. That had been fun. She’d definitely worn her jeans for that. Jeans and sneakers.

  Today she’d changed into a dress because their scheduled activity pretty much called for it. A group picture. Everyone was at their best, just like the day they graduated from college—even if today there would be more gray in the picture.

  She wasn’t the only one who had gotten older. She might still fit into the same jeans she did from back in college—mostly—but she couldn’t say the same for Wally Torturo. Darcy remembered him being part of the track team, all lean limbs and a hawkish face, in the best shape of his life. Now his shape could best be described as round. Even his face had gotten pudgy, and the only familiar features were his hooked nose, and his kind eyes. He fiddled with his black tie, laying it back straight over his prodigious belly. He’d been the jokester of their group, with a quick and ready smile and a frizzy mane of red, curly hair. Now a receding hairline had claimed most of the hair, but the smile and jokes were the same.

  At least, they had been yesterday. Today he looked like he’d woken up sucking on a lemon. Did he not sleep well last night, or was something wrong?

  He was talking to Shaniqua Jane, tall and regal looking as always, asking her a question that earned him a shake of her head in return. She towered over him in a sleeveless dress today that put the one Darcy wore to shame. Back in college, when Darcy had been a “tomboy” and first became friends with Shaniqua, she’d thought the taller woman was just about the most beautiful person she’d ever seen. Almond eyes, high cheekbones, skin that was just a few shades darker than her hair. She still had the long rows of braids like she did back in college but somewhere over the years she had started dying them blonde, probably to hide the gray. She’d let her fingernails grow out long, too, painting them an attention-getting glitter-gold. Back when she was the president of the school’s debate team, she never would have done that. She always said that too much flash detracted from the spoken word when you were facing a debate opponent.

  Beside them stood Geoffrey Mallard. He was the only one of them who would ever consider wearing a red-and-white striped tie with a blue-checkered jacket. They used to joke with him that he dressed like someone straight off the set of Leave it to Beaver. He was a tall man,
slender just like he had been back in the day. Unlike Wally, he still had a full head of hair, even if it had gone from a striking jet black to a polar opposite, icy white. He smiled at the others as they talked and walked about the park, but he didn’t participate. He’d always been a bit of a loner. A bit of an oddball. He was always a good friend but it was hard to get close to him. Even now, here at their reunion, he was being standoffish and she didn’t know why…

  A shoulder bumped into hers and her thoughts scattered away. Looking up into Jon Tinker’s smiling face, she let herself relax into his side.

  “Hello there, wife of mine,” he said to her, circling an arm around her waist. “Are you glad you got the chance to see all your old friends again? Kind of brings you back, doesn’t it?”

  He always knew the right thing to say even when he didn’t realize he was saying it. Her husband had been her best friend for so long now that she couldn’t imagine her life without him. His dark hair was going gray more slowly than hers, and she hated that about him, even if she loved everything else about him. The changes they saw in each other weren’t as dramatic as the ones she saw in her college friends, but she had to admit that might be because they saw each other every day, and life’s changes had a way of sneaking up on you.

  “Hey yourself,” she greeted him back, leaning up to give him a kiss on his chin. “It’s been fun having them here, sure, but is it selfish of me that I’m looking forward to having time for just my family again?”

  His smile crinkled the corners around his gray-blue eyes. “Maybe a little, but if it is then I’m being selfish, too. Most of your friends are great but I like having our weekends just to ourselves. Well, us and the kids.”

  He nodded with his chin toward the park’s gazebo, where Colby and Zane were playing a game of tag, running up and down the steps and around the lawn. They were laughing and calling to each other and apparently nobody cared who was actually supposed to be tagging who. Colby’s friend Audrey Kwon was in on the game, too, running circles with her dress flaring wildly around her ankles. Darcy and Jon’s two kids were both in jeans and t-shirts, even on such a warm day, but Colby was barefoot, loving the feel of the grass under her toes. Darcy could remember doing the same thing at her age, too.

  That reminded her that her children were growing up, and growing up fast. Colby was fifteen, for Pete’s sake. Zane wasn’t all that far behind her, at a very grown up seven. Some days she wished she could roll them up in bubble wrap and put them on a shelf and keep them just like this, forever. Happy and free of responsibilities, playing with friends without a care for what tomorrow would bring.

  Other times, she was eager to meet the people they would grow up to be.

  As she watched, Zane stopped chasing the girls to bend down and look intently at the family’s brown dog, Cha Cha. He was tipping his floppy-eared head back and forth, whuffing insistently about something. After a moment Zane nodded, and shrugged, and said something that Darcy couldn’t hear from where she was standing.

  Both of her children had a version of the family gift, a paranormal ability that meant one thing for Darcy and her daughter, and quite another for Zane. As far as she knew, her son was the only boy born into her family line who had any extrasensory aptitude. He was unique, and special. For him, the family gift allowed him to talk to animals. He needed to be careful about doing it in public like this but since they were in the park and most dog owners “talked’ to their pets, she was sure no one would pay him too much mind.

  “Too bad your friends didn’t bring their kids,” Jon remarked, squeezing her into him in a sideways hug. “I can’t remember, but I think you said a couple of them are married, right?”

  Darcy nodded. “Not to each other, but yeah.” She looked at the last three members of their group, off by the park swings talking among themselves. “Drucilla there has twin boys. Topper is divorced, but I think he has a little girl. It’s a long way for all of them to travel so they left their kids home. I told them next time to bring them along. The more, the merrier.”

  She’d meant it, too. She wanted to meet their children in person, rather than just as faces in photos online. “Topper” was just a nickname that Tommy Rogerson had earned back in school, because of his habit for going to bars and constantly asking for his beer to be “topped off.” It became like his catch phrase. She guessed he hadn’t given up that habit, either, considering the prodigious size of his waist. The pants of his gray suit were held in place with both suspenders, and a belt. He hadn’t gained the kind of waist that Wally had, but middle age spread had definitely caught up to him. He was a very handsome man even so, with twinkling brown eyes and a neatly groomed blonde beard. Darcy was pretty sure she’d never seen Topper when he wasn’t smiling.

  Drucilla Jones was the only one of them who looked pretty much—no, exactly—like she did back in college. Darcy remembered the smooth line of her neck and the graceful movements of her long limbs. She had even kept her hair buzzed short along her temples, with that tight row of black curls over the top, down to the nape of her neck. She’d been an aspiring Olympic figure skater back in college, a dream that was never realized even though she had the distinction of being the second Black female to place in the top five nationally. Unfortunately, the Olympic teams only took the top three. Darcy remembered how devastated Dru had been at the time. Now she was happy, with a family and a coaching career that helped mold the young generation of skaters. She had talked everyone’s ears off during this trip with tales of her skating club back home in Indiana.

  Which left Marcus Sergio. Darcy and he had been pretty close back in college. He was older now but still cute, with that olive skin and those perfect eyebrows and that wavy hair. The hair was still black, but it was obviously dyed that color now. Hair that shade was never natural. She remembered how great he looked in tank tops, and bare-chested too, for that matter. There’d been nights that she spent in his dorm room, crying on his shoulder when she was struggling in pre-calc, or when her mother still refused to talk to her. Sometimes he unloaded his heart to her in return. In fact, for a brief moment in time she’d thought they might even start a relationship—until she realized he was attracted to men, not women. Besides, there had been a guy back here in Misty Hollow that she was sweet on. Not Jon, but her first husband, Jeff Thomas…one of the greatest mistakes in her life.

  But now she had Jon, and she had her own kids, and she had a life that she positively adored. Life was good, as they said. She had even grown to appreciate how the family gift made it possible for her to see and talk to ghosts. Once upon a time she’d hated that she had inherited that gift. Looking back, she realized how it had helped a lot of people, even living ones.

  The mysterious was all around, and she liked being in the middle of it.

  “You’re smiling,” Jon told her.

  “Yes, I am. This has been a good weekend.” She turned and kissed his shoulder. “And it’s not over yet. Thank you, my wonderful husband. You’ve been a good sport to let me have all this time with my old college buddies, watching the kids for me, taking care of the house while I stay out late even though you have your own job to take care of. Just all of it.”

  He waved a hand like it was no big deal. “The kids practically take care of themselves now. Since I’m the police chief I can delegate work to my amazing staff. As for the house, well, you might find the dishes have been piling up in the sink.”

  Funny man. She knew he was joking about the dishes…mostly.

  “Darcy! Hey, Darcy!” That was Topper calling for her, waving her over. “Come on, it’s time for the group photo. Let’s get Jon in on this, too. The more the merrier, right?”

  Jon nodded his agreement. Those two had hit it off from the first moment they met. They’d spent a solid hour on the ride to the cave tour—much to Darcy’s bewilderment—debating who was the better shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, Rico Petrocelli or Nomar Carciaparra. Topper said it was Nomar because his stats were higher across the board
. Jon pointed out that Nomar’s multiple injuries kept him from becoming truly great and cut his career short.

  Darcy honestly didn’t care one way or the other, but she had enjoyed her husband and one of her oldest friends getting to know each other. She’d never really been much into sports herself. She knew how to play baseball, but never understood how any player could be called the best at a particular position. Thankfully, they hadn’t planned any group sports for the weekend.

  “I’m coming, Topper.” Untangling herself from Jon, she took him by the hand and started over to the group. The others were already heading over to the gazebo. This would be a great place to make a lasting memory.

  She had her phone in her purse, and she definitely wanted a photo or two of her own. In fact, it was likely that everyone would want their own. Hmm. They’d have to ask someone else to take the photo, since Tommy wanted Jon to be a part of it with them. Maybe the kids.

  As she was thinking about that, a tug on the sleeve of her dress brought her to a halt.

  Wally Torturo looked at her with a serious frown. “Hey, Darcy. Can I talk to you for just a minute?”

  His brown eyes held hers with a serious expression. Here was that change in mood that she had noticed in him. Apparently she hadn’t been mistaken. Something was bothering him.

  “Uh, sure Wally. What’s up?”

  When his eyes flicked to Jon, his frown deepened. “Alone, please?”

  Her first inclination was to let Wally know that anything he had to say, he could say in front of Jon, but then she took a second look at his expression and realized this was going to be about something more important than baseball stars. Wally was really upset.