A Murder of Crows Read online

  COPYRIGHT

  First published in Australia by South Coast Publishing, April 2014.

  Copyright K.J. Emrick (2014)

  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.

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  Chapter One

  Darcy Sweet was up early, considering it was a Sunday morning. She had already showered and dressed and had some breakfast, and it wasn’t even eight o’clock yet. In jeans and a plain green t-shirt she waited now at the kitchen table with a cup of tea. Marla Benson should be here any minute.

  Jon was still upstairs, asleep. She’d left him there with a kiss that had put a smile on his sleepy face. She’d ruffled Smudge’s ears too, making sure her black and white tomcat knew she wasn’t forgetting about him. Jon had moved in with her months ago now, but still her cat acted like Jon was intruding on his space.

  Well. A week alone together without her might give them the time they needed to get used to each other. Her seminar in the town of Ryansburg was scheduled for five days but she and Marla had talked about maybe ducking out of the last day. There didn’t seem to be anything important scheduled for then, just a wrap up and a discussion panel.

  She sipped her tea and glanced out the window at the green grass and the budding flowers. Spring had fully replaced winter, finally, and the day promised to be warm and bright. Darcy sighed. Considering the troubles that had hit Misty Hollow over the winter—first when her brother-in-law Aaron had been kidnapped on Valentine’s Day and then when Darcy’s new neighbor had turned out to be an accused murderer hiding from both the law and a shady group of criminals—it didn’t hurt Darcy’s feelings to know she’d be getting away for a few days.

  After a few more minutes Jon came downstairs. Scrubbing at his short dark hair and yawning widely, he came over to her and kissed her on the top of her head. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, just a pair of gray pajama bottoms, and her eyes wandered over his chest and his tightly defined abdominal muscles. Sleeping next to him every night made her the envy of a lot of her friends.

  Of course, Jon had hinted that maybe they should make it more than just sleeping next to each other or living together. The big “M” word hadn’t come up yet, but they had certainly danced around it enough. Along with the discussion of when they wanted children and how many children they wanted, the marriage talk had been something of a landmine for the two of them.

  “Good morning,” he said behind another yawn, going to the refrigerator. He took out a carton of orange juice, swirled it around to see how much was left, then with a shrug drank straight from the container.

  “Good morning yourself, Jon Tinker,” she said back to him. “Hey! Don’t drink it like that. Use a glass.”

  He tipped the last of the juice out and then brought the empty carton to the garbage bin. “There wasn’t much left. You’re not worried about catching my germs, are you?”

  “I’m worried about you turning into a Neanderthal now that you live with me.” Darcy couldn’t keep herself from smiling, but she really was serious. “Men always act all cute and proper when they’re trying to attract a woman, then when they have her it’s all leaving the toilet seat up and wearing the same clothes three days in a row.”

  “I will never wear the same shirt three days in a row,” he promised.

  “And how many days have you been wearing those pajamas?”

  He looked down at himself, brows bunching. “I don’t remember, now that you mention it. I’ll change them tonight. Promise. Did Jeff do that to you all the time or something?”

  Darcy’s smile faded. Jeff Thomas had been her husband, before they’d divorced, and before he’d been murdered. He had been a few years older than Darcy but for the most part they’d gotten along fine. At first. Then things had turned sour between them. She’d never really understood why. Sometimes that just happened, she supposed.

  “Sorry, Darcy,” Jon said to her now, pointing at her hands. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  Darcy had been twisting the antique silver ring that she wore on her right hand without realizing it. She usually did that when she was nervous or anxious. It had been her Great Aunt Millie’s ring, just like this house had been Millie’s, and the weight and feel of the ring always comforted her.

  “It’s all right,” she said to Jon. “Jeff and I had our differences, but we had almost smoothed them over toward the end. If he hadn’t…if he hadn’t been killed, then maybe we could have become friends again, just like we used to be.”

  Jon didn’t try to argue with her. He had come to town just before Jeff and poor Anna Louis had been killed, joining the police force here as a detective. Through much trouble and several rocky moments, Darcy and he had fallen in love. Now she couldn’t imagine being with anyone else.

  He knelt beside her and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. “I love you,” he said.

  “I love you, too. Are you going to be all right without me for a few days?”

  “Come on now, Darcy, we talked about this. I’ll manage to keep busy.” As he sat back he saw her little frown. “But I’ll miss you.”

  “That’s better.” She stroked his chin gently. “You should go back to bed.”

  He feathered back the long dark hair that had fallen loose into her face. “I can wait with you. I’ve got my whole day to sleep.”

  They sat at the table for a while and chatted about simple things. Darcy couldn’t see how life could get any better.

  “You have Izzy watching the shop this week?” he asked her.

  Darcy nodded. Izzy, her new neighbor who had taken over Anna Louis’ house, had been a Godsend at just the right time. Darcy’s friend Sue had to quit her job at Darcy’s bookstore when she went back to college to get her advanced degree in literature. That, and to be closer to her boyfriend. Darcy and Jon had figured out Izzy was a fugitive from the law, and that she had been falsely accused. After that, Izzy had stepped in and picked up the business end of Darcy’s bookstore quickly.

  Having the right help was even more important now that Darcy had started to offer electronic readers and e-books for sale. Business had really picked up. That was why she and Marla we
re going to this seminar, actually. Marla was the head librarian for Misty Hollow’s library. Since Darcy had started selling electronic readers two months ago the library had gotten dozens of requests to start offering e-books to borrow. So, with Darcy’s store selling them and the town library being forced to move into the twenty-first century, Darcy and Marla had decided to look for some training in this area. Marla had found this seminar for them. Darcy had jumped at the idea.

  Glancing at the black plastic clock over the kitchen sink, Darcy saw it was now eight-thirty. She started to fidget.

  “She’s late, isn’t she?” Jon asked, picking up on Darcy’s mood.

  “I’m sure she’ll be here soon. We don’t actually check into the hotel until after three this afternoon but I was hoping to take it easy and maybe look into some bookstores along the way. It’s a five hour drive, after all.”

  “I’m not sure I like you going all the way over to the next state,” Jon said. He raised one eyebrow and folded his elbows on the table. “We’ve never really been apart for that long.”

  “Oh, Jon, for Pete’s sake,” Darcy laughed. “I’m as near as your phone. I’ll call you as soon as I get there and let you know what the hotel phone number is.”

  “You’d better.”

  A horn honked from the driveway. Looking out the window Darcy saw a blue Nissan idling there with Marla at the wheel. She jumped up from the table and grabbed her two black bags. “There’s my ride, love. See you!”

  “You should consider getting a car of your own, sweet baby. I love you.”

  It made her feel warm inside to hear him call her by her nickname and at the door she turned and waved a little wave. She really was going to miss him. She was already looking forward to coming back to him.

  In the driveway, Marla smiled at Darcy and rolled the driver’s side window down. Her shoulder length red hair was caught by a sudden breeze and blew across her freckled cheeks. Darcy always had trouble picturing her as the town’s head librarian. She looked so young, even though she was probably ten years older than Darcy. Her jade green eyes caught her smile as she leaned on the windowsill of the car door. “Morning Darcy,” she said. “You all set?”

  Darcy got into the passenger seat and put her bags in the back next to Marla’s. “Sure am. I’m really looking forward to this.”

  “Me, too,” Marla said as she backed out of Darcy’s driveway. “Just us girls in a hotel for days and days.”

  Marla was dressed in jeans and a loose blouse. Casual clothes like Darcy had on. Darcy had wanted to be comfortable for the ride over to Ryansburg, but Marla was talking like this was a vacation. “You know we’ll actually have to work during this seminar, right?” Darcy asked her. “There’s workshops and discussion panels and—”

  “Oh, Darcy don’t be such a wet blanket.” Marla was already driving them into town so they could catch the main road out. “This is going to be fun!”

  Darcy didn’t know what to say to that. Sure, there would be some down time when she and Marla could catch a drink or maybe go out for a movie or something, but she was treating this as a business trip. Her bookstore was on the road to turning a profit again thanks to the electronic reader devices and she needed to learn the latest techniques if she was going to capitalize on that.

  She and Marla were two different people, she supposed. Looking in the rearview mirror at the retreating image of her house, she checked for Jon to see if maybe he had stepped out to wave goodbye.

  A shadowy figure stood on the road behind the car, hands stuffed into pants pockets, head lowered so she couldn’t quite see the face. The way he was standing though, the cut of his figure, it looked like…

  Darcy gasped, and Marla looked over at her. “What? Did you forget something?”

  “No, I…” Darcy hesitated. She couldn’t tell Marla what she thought she had just seen. “It was nothing. Sorry. Let’s stop for some muffins at Helen’s bakery, okay?”

  Marla agreed that was a great idea and went back to talking about all the fun she thought they would have on this trip.

  Darcy looked in the mirror again, but the figure was gone. It couldn’t have been who she thought. It couldn’t. Then again, in her life, it wasn’t unusual to see things that shouldn’t be there, or find long lost friends suddenly standing in front of her.

  In this case, the long lost friend had been standing behind her. The figure had looked like her ex-husband, Jeff. Her deceased ex-husband.

  It just couldn’t be.

  Could it?

  Chapter Two

  The highway led them across the state line just before lunchtime. Listening to music along the way, Darcy and Marla hadn’t had a lot to say to each other. Darcy had tried to start conversations about the seminar they were going to several times, about what Marla thought might be the best way to expand the use of the electronic reading devices, but each time Marla had shut the conversation down cold.

  She, on the other hand, kept asking Darcy if she’d brought clothes to go out at night, or how much money she’d brought in case they went shopping, and other things like that. Darcy answered in short sentences, not wanting to be rude, but not wanting to forget the whole reason for the trip either.

  As it was nearing noon, they came through a small village named Cementville. They both laughed at the name, driving slowly through the congested area of small houses huddled around a huge factory that actually produced cement, according to the sign out front.

  “Obviously someone put a lot of time and effort into naming this place,” Marla said with a little twist of her lip. “Want to get a couple of bags of cement and bring them home with us?”

  “No,” Darcy laughed. “I’m good, thanks. I think this place is kind of quaint though. Oh, look, there’s a bookstore. Let’s stop.”

  Marla’s face soured. “Are you sure? I’m hungry. There was a sign for a burger place a few miles up the road.”

  “I won’t be long, I promise,” Darcy said. She didn’t like having to justify wanting to stop for a minute. She was the owner of a bookstore. Marla was head librarian in the town. Books were important to both of them. “Pull in here,” she said, a little more firmly.

  Marla didn’t say a thing, but it was obvious that she wasn’t happy. Darcy tried not to let it bother her. She just hoped the whole trip wouldn’t be like this.

  The place really did turn out to be a disappointment. The store owner sat behind the sales counter with his feet up the whole time they were in the store, flipping through a magazine about trucks. Most of what Darcy saw for sale were comic books and romance paperbacks. A very small selection of maps of the area was set up in the front. An even smaller selection of children’s books caught Darcy’s attention momentarily, but even that couldn’t justify staying any longer.

  “I guess you were right,” Darcy finally admitted. “Let’s go.”

  “Good.” Marla smiled and made a beeline for the door. The guy at the counter kept reading his magazine as they left.

  As they drove back onto the main road, Marla wouldn’t stop talking. She was going on and on about how they had to find the nearest shopping mall to their hotel and how she had a friend who knew this great club. Darcy tuned her out and watched the city going by out the car window.

  Darcy had never really known Marla. Just from around town. Apparently riding for hours on end in a car with someone really let you get to know them.

  ***

  The Restaway Lodge in Ryansburg was part of a small chain of motels that stretched up and down the East coast, and the rates here had been the best Darcy could find in the area. The conference on electronic media was actually being held in a different hotel a few streets over but that place had been booked solid already.

  Still, Darcy liked the Restaway as soon as they entered the lobby and went up to the front counter. It was decorated with irregular gray bricks and wood paneling. The floor was covered in thin green carpeting. Paintings on the walls were of rustic scenes, cabins in the woods and salmon
jumping in a stream. Things like that.

  For a six story hotel in the middle of a fair sized city, it was a very cozy and inviting space.

  The two of them checked in and Darcy gave her credit card for any incidental charges and then they went up to room 306. It had two double beds and a tall clothes cabinet and a flat screen television on top of a set of drawers. The bathroom was small, and the shower curtain was too short, but the tub was big. The same motif from the lobby was used here as well, gray bricks along the walls in imperfect lines next to wood paneling. The purple comforters on the beds clashed a little with the green carpeting.

  “Wow,” Marla said. “Nice room. A girl could get used to this.”

  Darcy set her bags down on the bed closest to the window. It was four-thirty already, and her stomach was already reminding her how close it was to dinner. The burger place Marla had stopped at hadn’t really been what Darcy had wanted. She had a chicken Caesar salad that featured wilted greens and greasy chicken bits. Most of it had stayed in the bowl. “Want to go exploring the city a little?” she asked. “I’m starving. Maybe we can find a nice restaurant to eat at.”

  “Or a bar,” Marla said to her with a wink. “I wouldn’t mind a few drinks and maybe a man willing to flirt with me.”

  Darcy thought of Jon. She certainly wasn’t looking for a man to spend any part of the evening with, innocent flirting or not, but she wouldn’t mind a quick drink. “There was a book store a few blocks back,” Darcy said as she opened her one bag to take out shampoo and perfume and other things. “It looked like it might have a few older books. I’d like to check that out.”

  “Really? After what happened in Concrete Town or Cement City or whatever it was called? You really are a bookworm, aren’t you?” Marla said with a small twist to the corner of her lip.

  Darcy paused on her way to the bathroom. She looked at Marla in surprise. “Well, you are too, right? Being head librarian, I mean.”