1 Death Comes to Town (13 page)
Read 1 Death Comes to Town Online
Authors: K.J. Emrick
Jess seemed to think that over for a few minutes and then she nodded. “We weren’t running away together, Steve and I, we were just going on a trip. Steve would never leave his wife. That was something I was okay with.”
Darcy would never understand that. She hoped she’d never have to be in the position that Jess had put herself in. “You were the one who broke into my house, weren’t you Jess? It wasn’t the killer. Steve wouldn’t have been scared off so easily.”
Jess looked at her with wide, sad eyes. “I overheard you at the party saying that you were close to solving the case. I just wanted to scare you off.”
“So you knew what Steve had done.” Darcy didn’t say it as a question.
Slumping into her chair, Jess nodded miserably.
It made sense to Darcy. “You’re not a killer, Jess. I know that. But you can’t be okay with what happened. Where did you get the gun that you used to scare me?”
Jess couldn’t look at her as she said, “It was just a toy gun, totally harmless.”
Darcy shook her head. “Why did you try to burn down the bank?”
“I wasn’t trying to burn down the bank.” Jess said. Her voice had gotten so quiet. “I just meant to burn the financial records in a trash can, but it got out of control.”
Jon nodded to Grace as he jotted down the last of his notes from what Jess had said. Then Grace led Jess back out to the holding cells. The woman didn’t even try to resist.
Darcy turned to Jon, sitting at his desk, tapping his pen against the paper like he did. “I want to talk to Steve,” she said.
“That’s not a good idea,” Jon argued. “Thank you, for helping us with Jess. But like you said, she’s not a killer. Steve is.”
“I know. But I need to talk to him. You have to trust me one more time, Jon.”
She could tell he didn’t like it. He didn’t have to like it, Darcy figured. She didn’t like it herself, but she had to do this. Finally, Jon threw his hands up in the air and led her to the holding cell where Steve was sitting with his head in his hands. Grace stood nearby. She nodded silent encouragement to Darcy.
When Steve saw Darcy he leaned back against the cell wall. “Hi, Darcy. I’m, um, sorry. I guess.”
“You’re sorry?” Jon said, his voice rising. Darcy held up a hand to hold him off.
Darcy spoke directly to Steve. “They arrested Jess. She told us everything. We know that you and she were having an affair.” Steve was quiet. He looked like a broken man. “So we know everything, Steve. But there’s still one thing I can’t figure out, and I need to hear it from you. Why did you kill Anna in the first place?”
Steve started to cry then. Heavy tears ran down his face and he tried in vain to blink them away. “I never wanted to hurt anyone. Certainly not Anna. She had come to the house that afternoon to see Helen before going to the festival but Helen wasn't there. Instead she walked in on Jess and me together. It was…well it was obvious what we were doing. I never had a chance to explain because she just fled the moment she saw us.”
He sniffed loudly and swiped a hand across his eyes. “It would have ruined me. Everything would have come out then. The affair, the money I’d stolen, everything. I went to her house after the ceremony to try and talk to her. I brought money with me to encourage Anna to stay silent. At first we just talked, but when Anna made it clear that she was going to tell my wife everything, I got upset.”
They waited for the rest of it. Now that he’d started talking, he couldn’t stop. Getting up, he began to pace the length of the cell getting more agitated as he spoke. “I just meant to scare her, but Anna fought back and it got out of control. The gun was Anna’s. She grabbed it when she felt threatened. It made such a tiny noise when it went off…”
“Then why did you take Anna’s book?” Jon asked him.
Still crying, Steve said, “I needed to get rid of the body. The evidence. All of it. The book had blood on it so I picked it up with the gun, but then I heard someone outside. I had to leave. I even left the money behind. I found out later that it was you that I’d heard, Darcy.”
He stopped his pacing abruptly and stood still with his head hanging down.
They weren’t done, though. “Why Jeff?” Darcy asked. She needed to know all of it.
“He got too close,” Steve explained, gesturing helplessly with his hands. “I had heard that Jeff had talked to Mark, asking for the town’s financial records. Like Anna, I just meant to talk to him. I had brought the gun for protection, but once again it got out of hand.” Steve started to pace again, frantically.
He stopped and turned to face them, yelling, “I didn’t mean to!” He lunged and grabbed the bars of the cell and Jon pulled Darcy back. “I love Jess so much. I’d do anything for her.”
“Even kill good people,” Darcy pointed out. Grace looked at her oddly, and she realized that she’d included her ex-husband with Anna as “good people.”
“Come on, Darcy,” Jon said to her. “We’ve heard enough.”
Chapter Twenty Four
It took a few days for life to get back to normal. Darcy was at work in her bookstore that Friday while Sue was out on an errand. She was tidying up, rearranging some books and generally getting rid of the dust that had accumulated. It felt good to have nothing more important than this to worry about. Even the fog and cleared out over the past few days. Misty Hollow was just a sleepy little town again.
She jumped when she heard the bell over the door ring. She looked up and smiled when she saw Jon walking towards her.
He came right up to her and with no hesitation pulled her into his arms. His kiss was warm and familiar. They’d had a lot of practice.
“Well, hello yourself,” she said when he let her go. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at work?”
“I am. But I missed you.”
She smiled at him. It felt good, being this happy. Smudge jumped up on the counter between them and purred. Jon laughed and scratched the cat’s ears.
“I guess we’ll have to share her,” he said to Smudge. “How does that sound to you?”
Smudge meowed and pressed his head into Jon’s hand. Apparently, Darcy thought with a smile, Smudge was fine with that arrangement.
The End
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About the Author
Strongly influenced by authors like James Patterson, Dick Francis, and Nora Roberts, Kathrine Emrick is an up and coming talent in the writing world. She is a new Kindle author/publisher and brings a variety of experiences and observations to her writing.
Based in Australia, Kathrine has wanted to be an author for the majority of her life and can always be found jotting down daily notes in a journal. Like many authors, she loves to be surrounded by books and is a voracious reader.
In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and volunteering at the local library.
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