Hiding From Death (A Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery #6) (11 page)

             
“You could always hire someone else.”  His eyes were on the stairs as he spoke to her, and she could tell his ears were pricked for any sound.  “Or maybe cut back on the hours?”

             
“Well, I know the shop hasn’t been doing as much business as it used to, but Sue and I are working on a plan to change that.”

             
“Oh, yeah?  You should tell me about…  Shh,” he raised a hand up, motioning for her to be silent.

             
Darcy felt a chill go up her spine at the same time that Jon went very still.  Someone was coming.  Someone with bad intentions.

             
They heard the door slam open downstairs and Izzy cried out.  Then the voice of the dark man, shouting.  “It’s just you and me now.  You tell me where he hid the money or you’ll never see your daughter again!”

             
Jon was already halfway down the stairs.  Darcy followed him to the wall separating the living room from the kitchen.  He motioned for her to stay back, then crouched down to give himself leverage, and jumped out at Adolphos.

             
Darcy heard the scuffle start and when she came around after Jon, he was on the floor with the intruder, struggling to get the gun away from him.  Izzy had backed away into the corner by the sink.  Adolphos’ face was scrunched up and the cords in his neck stood out as he wrestled with Jon.  Both men were tall and strong but Darcy could see that Adolphos had the size advantage.  She had to help.

             
Picking up the teakettle from the stove she carefully circled the two men until she had an opening, fully aware of where the gun was being pointed the whole time.  When she saw her chance she smashed the kettle down as hard as she could on Adolphos’ head.  It was a heavy green metal thing, and it made a hollow thunk against the man’s skull.

             
The strike dazed Adolphos long enough for Jon to wrestle the gun away from him and toss it aside.

             
“You’re coming down to the station,” Jon said, panting as he pinned Adolphos down on his stomach, handcuffing him behind his back.  “We all need to have a long talk.”

             
Darcy went to Izzy and held her, feeling the way she trembled.  “It’s all right, we got him.”

             
“Thanks to your assist,” Jon said to Darcy.  “Maybe they should issue us teakettles instead of pistols.”

***

              Grace and the uniformed officers drove Adolphos into town to the police station.  It had been a long couple of days, and Darcy was glad to see they were close to finding an end to it all.  She and Izzy watched through the two-way glass of the interview room as Jon sat down across from Adolphos, hit man for The Hand.

             
Dressed in black pants and a nice black silk shirt, Adolphos was every bit as scary as his photograph.  The crescent scar under his left eye was puckered in a ruddy face that glared daggers at Jon.  His hands were still cuffed, and the cuffs were chained to a ring on his side of the metal interview table.

             
Jon tapped a pen against the yellow pages of his notebook.  He was recording the entire interview, but Darcy knew that he liked to make his own notes as well.  Through the speakers, she and Izzy could hear every word that was said.  “You’ve been advised of your right to remain silent, remember,” Jon told Adolphos.

             
“I know my rights better than you do,” the man sneered.  “No doubt you’ve seen my rap sheet.  I’ve been arrested on any number of crimes.  Each time, I walked.  I’ll walk this time, too.”

             
Jon raised an eyebrow.  “What makes you so sure of that?  You’ve attacked Isabelle McIntosh twice now in my jurisdiction.  We know you’re working for a group that calls themselves The Hand.  We know you’re after money that was stolen from the group by Isabelle’s husband, Charles McIntosh, also known as Chip.”

             
“You know a lot for a dumb cop.”  Adolphos shifted in his chair, somehow managing to look comfortable in spite of his circumstances.  “So you must know how this is going to work.  I’m going to offer to give you information on certain…activities that are related to organized crime that your little rinky dink agency here will be much more interested in.  As will the State Police, and I should think the FBI as well.  Call Agent Dominie at the capitol office.  I’ll give you the number.”

             
“Where’s Chip McIntosh?” Jon asked, seeing the conversation wasn’t going anywhere.

             
Adolphos shrugged.  “Don’t know.  We know he’s still alive, of course, but we haven’t been able to find him.  You’re the smart guy.  You figure it out.”

             
Jon kept at it for a half hour longer or more before finally giving up.  He closed his notepad and walked out, coming around to where Darcy and Izzy were.  “We’re not going to get anything more out of him.  We’ll charge him, of course, but unfortunately he’s right.  With what he knows he’ll buy himself a reduced sentence.”

             
“You think he’ll really walk away free?” Izzy asked, her face horrified.

             
“No,” Jon said.  “Not completely.  He’ll serve a sentence in a nice cushy Federal Prison, most likely.  What we need to worry about right now is finding your husband.  You thought he was dead all this time.  Now, you know he’s not.  So, think now.  Where would he go to hide?”

             
Izzy bent her head in thought.  When she looked up again her eyes were wide.  “His brother has a summer home a few hours away from here.  He hasn’t used it in three years.  Chip took it over.  No one goes up there anymore.”

             
She gave them the address and Jon went to grab his coat.  Darcy followed tight on his heels.  Jon stopped her with a hand on her arm.  “Not this time.  Not that I wouldn’t mind you backing me up with a teakettle again but let me and the uniformed guys handle this one.”  He kissed her on her cheek.  “I’ll be back.”

***

              Darcy spun the antique ring on her finger fitfully as she sat with Izzy in the Bean There Bakery and Café.  Lilly was still being watched by Aaron.  They had agreed it was best to leave her there until they found out if Jon would find Chip.  There was no sense in confusing the poor girl any more than she already was.  In spite of her concern for Jon, Darcy’s stomach had reminded her she hadn’t eaten all day, so they had decided to go for sandwiches and coffee.

             
Helen came over to their table after waiting on some of the other customers, and sat down with a smile.  “Well, Darcy, it’s good to see you’ve gotten our new neighbor to come out of her shell.  Hello there, I’m Helen Nelson, mayor of Misty Hollow.”

             
Izzy smiled uncertainly and made small talk for a few moments.  Darcy reminded herself that most of the town had no idea of the drama unfolding around them.  In a lot of ways it was a nice change of pace.  Usually the troubles that came to Misty Hollow caught everyone up in their webs.

             
“Oh, Helen,” Darcy said, suddenly remembering.  “I wanted to ask you something.  You know that Sue is leaving, right?  I wanted to do a going away party for her.  Two days from now, maybe?  Could you possibly bake a few dozen cookies for it?  I’m going to invite the book club and Linda from the library and some others.”

             
“That’s a wonderful idea,” Helen agreed.  “I’ll do some other appetizers, too.  We sure will miss Sue.”

             
After they finished their sandwiches they made their way back over to the police station.  “Izzy, that’s Jon’s police car,” Darcy said, seeing the dark sedan parked out front.

             
They went inside, buzzed through by the desk sergeant on duty, to find the inside of the police station humming with activity.  Grace sat at her desk, directing several uniformed officers to tasks that had them all scurrying.  At Jon’s desk, a man sat with his hands cuffed in his lap, miserably hunched over.  His shirt was torn along the left sleeve and his pants were filthy.  A healed over scar along his left forearm showed Darcy where he must have cut himself to leave his blood behind and frame his wife for his murder.

             
As if he knew she was there, Chip turned and locked eyes with Izzy.  His blonde hair was cut short and choppy, and his face was covered with stubble.  Izzy put a hand to her mouth to muffle a gasp.  “Chip…”

             
Jon nodded to Darcy, and she understood.  “Izzy, let’s go into the waiting room.”

             
“No!”  Izzy suddenly ran up to where Chip was sitting and slapped him across the face.  “How could you do this?  How could you do this to me?  To our daughter?  How dare you!”

             
He shrugged.  “I had to go into hiding.”

             
It was the only explanation they would ever get from him.

             
Two days later, Jon and Darcy were putting the last touches around the bookstore for Sue’s going away party.  Streamers were strung along the bookshelves.  Balloons were tied and floating from the chairs.  Next to the front counter, the big surprise was covered with a large blue tablecloth.

             
Grace, Aaron, and Izzy were all helping.  Lilly ran among the bookstacks, taking children’s books down off the shelves, flipping through their pages and putting them back, over and over.  Darcy smiled to see it.  She’d been so worried when Izzy had told her daughter about her daddy still being alive and going to jail.  Lilly had thought about it, then looking straight at her mom she’d asked, “I guess we’ll have to send him Christmas cards at the jail, huh?”

             
Darcy looked over at Jon, smiling and laughing at something that Aaron had said.  Someday, they’d have their own little daughter or son.  She couldn’t wait to talk about it with him.

             
Jon had told them about turning Chip over to the State Police, and how the warrant for Izzy had been rescinded given the circumstances.  She would still have to make several statements and testify at any number of hearings, but for the moment she was free.

             
Helen arrived with trays of cookies and muffins and little finger sandwiches.  Not long after, the store was full of people from town, eating, laughing, and dancing to music.

             
Great Aunt Millie was there too.  At one point, a single balloon untied itself from a chair and came floating over to hang in front of Lilly until the little girl grabbed its string.  Millie always had loved children. It’s such a shame that she’d never had any of her own.

             
Sue was late in arriving to her own party.  When she got there, the whole place erupted in cheers and applause, causing the young woman to blush fiercely.  Beside her, a young man with a kind face broke into a wide smile and leaned over and whispered in Sue’s ear, making her blush even harder.  Darcy recognized Zach, Sue’s boyfriend. 

             
The two of them came over to where Darcy and Izzy were standing.  “Hi Sue!” Darcy said.  “Like your party?”

             
“You shouldn’t have done all this, Darcy!”  Sue was laughing, holding Zach’s hand tightly.  “This is too much.”

             
“It’s not even close to enough to show my appreciation for everything you’ve done here.  Everyone in town is going to miss you.  Oh, this is Izzy McIntosh.  Izzy, this is Sue and her boyfriend Zach.”

             
“Nice to finally meet you,” Sue said.  They talked for a while and then Helen came to pull Sue off to some other people.

             
After Sue walked away Darcy turned to Izzy.  “You know, with Sue leaving I’m going to need someone to help me here at the store.  And if I remember, you kind of need a job.”

             
“Boy, do I ever,” Izzy sighed.  “I have no idea what state my finances are in.  I have to have Chip declared alive again, and see if I’m entitled to any of his money or if it all has to go to pay back what he stole, and it just keeps getting worse the more I think about it.  A job would definitely help.”

             
“Then why don’t you come work for me?”

             
Izzy looked mildly surprised.  “That’s so generous of you.  Are you sure?”

             
“Well, it’s actually kind of selfish on my part.  I’m going to need someone to help me with the surprise Sue and I put together.  Jon!”  She called across to him and he looked over, his mouth full of a muffin he had just bitten into.  He came over to her, kissing her with crumbs still on his mouth.  “Silly man,” she said.  “Can you stay with Izzy for a few minutes?  I need to do something.”

             
Leaving Izzy with him, she rounded Sue back up from the crowd again.  “Are you ready to show everyone?”

             
Sue nodded, too excited to speak.  They went over to the cash register, to the object covered over by the counter, and Darcy called for everyone’s attention.  With the music still playing in the background everyone quieted down and waited for what the big announcement was.