Mists of the Past (A Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery #2) Read online

  Grace raised an eyebrow. “Just ‘like’?’”

  Darcy felt her face flush. Darn it. She almost never blushed. She made sure to keep her eyes riveted to her coffee. “No, sis, it’s more than that. I really think I love him. He said it to me, you know. Just yesterday. It was really sweet.” She felt her face get hotter. “I’m not being silly, am I?”

  Grace was quick to shake her head. “No, Darcy. You’re not being silly. You’re being a woman. Look, I know Jon pretty well now. I’d wave you off if I thought there was some reason for you not to go after him. This isn’t me telling you not to do this. This is me teasing my little sister about her boyfriend.”

  She winked at Darcy and Darcy relaxed. Back when Anna and Jeff had been murdered, the whole investigation that Darcy had started into their deaths had gotten Grace’s husband arrested. She had thought at the time that it would be the end to their friendship. They’d come through it, though. It was good to know she still had her sister to depend on.

  “Can I fill that for you Darcy?” Darcy jumped a little and knocked her empty cup over, the white ceramic mug spinning on the tabletop before she could right it again. She had been in another world and hadn’t heard Lily come up to them.

  Lily Sutter had just started working at the bakery and was a young girl in her early twenties. Short blonde hair framed her delicate face and her pale blue eyes looked tired. “Thank you, Lily.” Darcy held her cup out as the girl filled it for her. Darcy studied her as she turned to fill Grace’s cup.

  “Do you like working here Lily?” Darcy asked, a sudden curiosity about the girl making her ask.

  “Oh yes, I like it very much,” she answered. “It’s so much better than the restaurant where I used to work in Edgeport. I was really worried when it closed. It’s so hard to get a job these days, you know, and I thought that I might have to move to the city to find one. Helen has been a lifesaver for me.” Edgeport was a slightly larger town, nearer to the coast, a few miles east of Misty Hollow. Darcy knew that Lily had lived in Misty Hollow all of her life, and had commuted to Edgeport each day for her job at the restaurant, but other than that she knew hardly anything about her.

  She smiled at the girl. “You know I don’t think you and I have ever had a chance to chat. How are things going for you?”

  “Things are going fine, except I got into a big fight with my brother, Robbie, this morning. It’s tough having him live with me.”

  Darcy didn’t know that Lily had a brother. “Is he an older brother?”

  “Yes, though you’d never know it. He couldn’t get a job after he finished college so he decided to come back here to live with me for a while. Lucky me, right? Problem is now that our parents are gone and the family home was sold he didn’t really have a home to come back to. So I couldn’t just turn him out on the street.”

  “That was good of you to take him in.” Darcy hadn’t even realized Lily had a brother. “I hope your argument with him wasn’t anything too bad.”

  “Nah, just typical sibling stuff,” she said dismissively as she left and went back behind the counter to serve some other customers.

  Chapter Two

  Darcy peered at herself in the bathroom mirror as she painstakingly applied the new eyeshadow and blush she’d purchased. She almost never wore makeup. It felt so strange to see her face like this. She was quietly humming a tune to steady her nerves. She had a few butterflies in her stomach which she thought was quite ridiculous. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know Jon. Not like she’d never gone on a date before.

  Her cat Smudge came into the room and sat stoically watching her for a moment. Then he jumped up onto the vanity and tried to rub up against her. She gently pushed him away. “I can’t have you getting your fur all over me.”

  She stared at the cat, willing him to understand. Smudge flicked his tail violently from side to side, annoyed at her. “Well, I’m sorry that I have a date tonight, but I do.” Smudge mewled at her and jumped down from the vanity. He stalked out of the room and Darcy rolled her eyes.

  Finally ready she went into her room to grab her purse and then headed downstairs to wait for Jon. When she was half way down she heard a knock at the door. He was early. Her breathing stalled and her heart kicked hard in her chest. She admitted to herself that she was more than a little nervous.

  Opening the door to Jon she couldn’t help but smile. He looked magnificent in his dark blue suit, a white shirt and a dark maroon tie. Her mouth watered a little at the sight of him. He looked gorgeous.

  “Hello,” he said softly as he leaned in to kiss her gently. He studied her for a moment. “You look great. Are you ready to go?”

  She definitely was.

  ***

  “This is a nice restaurant,” Darcy said as she looked all around. They had driven to the next town over, Meadowood, because Misty Hollow didn’t have a restaurant of the kind that Jon had wanted to take her to, a sit-down restaurant with waiters and gentle orchestral music playing over the speakers.

  The restaurant was dimly lit and very romantic with long, white table cloths and candles. While they waited for their food to arrive they sipped wine and talked about their childhoods. Jon was telling her about when he broke his leg while riding his bike.

  “I was showing off for my friends. I felt like such an idiot when it happened but all my friends thought it was hilarious.” Darcy laughed at his story and Jon pretended to be annoyed with her, frowning ridiculously which set off another bout of laughter from her. Darcy told him a couple of stories about when she and Grace were just kids. She chose a story that happened before she was such a disappointment to her mother.

  Before their food arrived Darcy excused herself to visit the bathroom. As she was retouching her lipstick in the mirror she suddenly felt cold. A chill washed over her and sent shivers down her spine. It was growing dark in the bathroom.

  Her sixth sense had her in its grip.

  Suddenly she was catapulted into a vision. Like most of her visions everything came to her in pieces. The vision was from the point of view of a man and she was in an unrecognizable apartment. She felt really sick, almost to the point of vomiting and her stomach was cramping with vicious pain.

  There was a knock at the door of wherever her vision was occurring and another man entered the room. Darcy realized in shock that the other man was Jon. He looked younger. This wasn’t happening now. It was in the past. When? Where? Then she felt another sharp pain. In the vision she, as the man, was on the floor and Jon was hovering over her. He reached out for her.

  And then the vision snapped away like someone had changed the channel and she was back in the here and now.

  She found herself on the bathroom floor. Yuck. She picked herself up and brushed off her clothes. What on earth was that all about? Where had it come from? And why was she having a vision of something in Jon’s past?

  Jon. She remembered that he was just outside waiting for her in the restaurant. She couldn’t face him. She couldn’t go back to that table and pretend she hadn’t seen what she just saw. Worse, she couldn’t just sit down and start asking him who the badly sick man from his younger years was. He still wasn’t very accepting of her sixth sense. There was no way she could see him. Not right now.

  She left the bathroom and fled the restaurant out of the back door.

  ***

  After the cab dropped Darcy home she ran inside and slammed the door behind her. She leaned up against the door panting, her heart racing. She took a few deep breaths to try and calm down. The vision in the restaurant’s bathroom had really rattled her.

  Smudge rubbed up against her leg as soon as the door closed and she bent to pat him. “I’m fine old fellow. Just a bit shaken up.” She headed upstairs, with her cat following her, and got changed out of her nice new dress and into her bathrobe. She was still jittery, still on edge.

  She went into the bathroom to scrub at her makeup. Staring at her reflection in the mirror she was alarmed at how pale she looked. Her green
eyes were almost luminous and her dark hair stood stark against the white of her skin. She looked deeply into her own eyes and asked herself for the hundredth time why she saw these things when no one else did. Was it hereditary? Something passed down from her mother or her father? No. Grace didn’t have this issue. Darcy was the only one in her family blessed, or cursed, with it.

  Loud knocking brought her out of her reverie. She knew it would be Jon. She grimaced and shook her head. “Oh for Pete’s sake,” she muttered. She should have just faced him at the restaurant.

  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 herse
lf 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?”