The Stolen Valentine (4 page)

Jon put his hands up to show he didn’t want to argue.  “I trust you, Darcy.  I haven’t known Aaron as long as you guys have but he doesn’t seem like that kind of man to me either.  I’m just saying how the facts look.”

“Then remember the rest of the facts.  Aaron loves Grace.  He was happy about her being pregnant.  And he would not, ever, run away from her and leave her to worry like this.”

Jon nodded.  “Okay.  I’ll go into work right away and get started.”

Darcy was relieved that he was taking this seriously.  She knew he was only speaking the truth when he said things didn’t look good, and she knew he’d do everything he could to find Aaron.  He dropped a kiss to her lips and ran his thumb across her cheek, then he grabbed his coat and headed for the door.

***

Darcy ate a little bit of the eggs along with half a slice of toast before she lost her appetite altogether.  She put the rest of the eggs into a plastic bowl and set them in the refrigerator for Grace to have later.  She checked her watch and then the clock on the wall and then her watch again.  She twisted the ring on her finger over and over, worrying.  What had Jon found out?  Had he had time to find out anything?  Should she call him?  Or wait?

When both her watch and the clock agreed that it was ten o’clock Darcy sighed and went down to the bedroom.  Her sister was stirring in the bed and her eyes fluttered open.  When Darcy got closer, Grace sat bolt upright on the bed rubbing at her eyes.  “Aaron?  Did Aaron come home?”

Darcy shook her head sadly and watched Grace’s face fall.  “Jon has been at the police station since it was early.  He…he’ll figure things out.”

“Sure,” Grace said with a weak smile.  “Of course he will.  I’ve never worked with a smarter cop than Jon.  I’m going to get dressed and then I want to go down to the station.”

“Grace, you can’t go to work today.  Not with Aaron, uh, missing.”

Grace practically glared at her.  “I need to know what Jon has found out.  I need to hear it for myself.”

Darcy didn’t even try to argue.  She knew how she’d feel if it were Jon who didn’t come home.  No one could tell her not to do everything she could to find him again. “Sure, we can go to the police station and see what Jon has found out.” She grabbed her coat as Grace did the same. “Okay, sis,” she said.  “Let’s go.”

***

When they arrived at the police station they found Jon behind his desk on the phone.  Grace tapped her foot impatiently while they waited for him to hang up.  Darcy didn’t miss the several looks that the other officers in the room were casting their way.  Apparently everyone knew what was going on.

Jon cleared his throat and spread his hands apologetically to Grace.  “That was the hospital over in Woods Crossing.  I’ve called everywhere I can think of, Grace.  There haven’t been any accidents.  Nobody matching Aaron’s description has been taken to any of them, either.”

“Okay,” Grace said, a determined look on her face.  “Then we’ll start calling the local police departments.”

Jon stood up from his desk, stretching his back.  “Grace, I did that already.  No one knows anything.”

“Well, then we have to put out a BOLO message.”

“I did that, too.”

Grace clenched her fists.  “So why haven’t you found him, then?”

“Sis, Jon’s doing everything he can,” Darcy said, laying a hand on Grace’s arm, trying to send calm thoughts her way.

With a slow breath, Grace crossed her arms over her chest and looked away.  “I’m sorry, Jon.  I’m just upset.  I want to know what happened to him.”

“It’s okay, Grace.”  Jon hugged her quickly, then settled back to sit against his desk.  “It would be helpful if we knew exactly where Aaron had been yesterday.”

“I’m not sure.  He said that he was going to be running all sorts of errands around town.  Out of town, too.  He was being very secretive and I just thought he was getting me a Valentine’s gift.”

Jon gave Darcy a pointed look when Grace said that Aaron was being secretive.  Darcy chose to ignore it.  She knew what the facts were, no matter how it looked.

“Why don’t you keep looking,” she said to Jon, with a little kiss on his cheek.  “I’ll take Grace back to her apartment.  We’ll look through Aaron’s stuff.  Who knows.  Maybe he left a to-do list or some other clue.”

Grace didn’t look happy about leaving, but soon they were headed back to her apartment.  At least it would give her sister something to do while they waited for word.”

***

Darcy and Grace desperately searched for any clues that would give them an idea about what had happened to Aaron.  They looked everywhere they could think of, through drawers and through papers and in Aaron’s closet.  They even turned all of Aaron’s clothes pockets inside out.

Darcy went to Aaron’s desk tucked into a corner of the back room opposite the bedroom.  Surely there would be something in there that would help them out.  They’d looked everywhere else.

She went through the desk drawers one at a time.  In the bottom drawer on the right of the desk she found his day planner.  “Yes!” she said, picking up the little rectangular book.  It had a space for notes and a page of phone numbers but all she really cared about was the calendar. 

She flipped it open to yesterday’s date and could see that Aaron had listed all sorts of different places.  Shops.  He was doing shopping yesterday.  She recognized a few of the names, and a few others had addresses.  Most of them seemed to be for places over in Oak Hollow.

She went into the bedroom where Grace was searching under the bed.  “I found something.”  She held up the day planner so that Grace could see.  “It’s a whole schedule.  This would have taken him most of the day.  Hopefully this will tell us where Aaron went yesterday.”

Grace stopped her searching and hurried over.  “Great.  Let’s go.”

“Right now?” Darcy said.  Grace nodded and without waiting to see if Darcy followed her she grabbed her car keys and headed out of the door.

***

Grace asked Darcy to drive them.  Darcy knew her sister was upset and nervous, and understandably so.  She felt a bit weird behind the wheel, though.  It had been almost two years since she’d driven a car.  There wasn’t really any need for one, living in Misty Hollow.  She’d kept her license renewed just in case, and today it had proven to be a good idea.

Driving along the streets of town, Darcy saw tendrils of mist hovering just above the snow.  It crept out of the shadows, so faint that anyone else probably would have passed it by without a second thought.  Darcy knew better.  Misty Hollow got its name from the constant fog and mist that crept through the area.  Darcy had come to understand the phenomenon was more paranormal than meteorological.  Whenever troubles came to town, the mists appeared.

They drove away from Misty Hollow towards Oak Hollow.  Aaron’s to-do list included several stores in there.  There were no times listed next to the names, so no real telling which place Aaron would have gone to first, but it was as good a place to start as any.

In the middle of the list was an odd name that Darcy took to be a store, even though she’d never heard of a store called “The Bishop.”  She wondered what they would find when they got there.

She hoped whatever it was got them closer to finding out what had happened to Aaron.

Chapter Seven

It was late afternoon by the time they reached Aaron’s first errand marked on his list, the specialty grocery store in Oak Hollow called Nature’s Bounty.  Oak Hollow was a small city, nearly one hundred miles away from Misty Hollow.  Whatever Aaron had wanted here, he must have wanted it badly enough to drive over an hour one way to get it.

Darcy pulled into a parking space in front of the store.  The one story building was made of gray stone walls and a wooden shingle roof.  Cartoonish pictures of vegetables and fruits were posted up in the front windows.  As soon as Darcy put the car into park, Grace was hopping out and marching up to the door.

She was gone before Darcy could stop her or even ask what their plan was.  Grace wasn’t thinking clearly.  Darcy just hoped she didn’t do something that got them thrown out of this place.  Or worse, got the local police involved in a bad way.

She caught up to her sister as they went inside through the automatic sliding doors.  Inside was a brightly lit space of metal shelves and tall glass-fronted coolers.  An older man behind the front counter, with thinning black hair that he combed over the top of his skull like a bad toupee, smiled at them as they entered.  He was wearing a green apron with a nametag on it that said, “Hi, my name is Paul.”

“What can I do for you two ladies today?” Paul asked them, flashing a smile that showed two missing front teeth.

“You can tell me,” Grace said, leaning across the counter to push her cell phone up into the man’s face, “why my husband came into your store yesterday.”

On the flat screen of Grace’s smart phone was a picture of Aaron.  Grace kept shoving it toward Paul as he raised his hands and tried to mumble something.  Darcy shook her head.  The guy looked scared, his eyes wide and his brows lifted.  He took a step back from Grace and Darcy figured if she didn’t step in, then they would lose any chance at all of having the man talk to them.

The store was dark and filled with shelves of expensive chocolates, bottles of olive oil, wine and various other expensive goods. Darcy filed away those quick impressions as she moved hastily towards her sister.

“Sir,” Darcy said in a much calmer voice, “my name is Darcy.  This is my sister, Grace.  We’re trying to find her husband.  He’s missing.  We think he was in your store yesterday.  Would you mind looking at her photo to see if you recognize him?”

Grace glared at her, but then her face softened as she must have realized that Darcy was right.  If she frightened the poor man into not wanting to say anything, that wouldn’t help Aaron.

After an appreciative glance at Darcy, Paul looked closer at Grace’s cell phone, squinting and rubbing his chin.  “Yup.  I do remember him, actually.  I’d remember any man that excited about his wife.”  He smiled at Grace and Darcy saw the tears pool in her eyes.

Paul tapped a finger against the polished wood countertop.  “Your husband came into the store yesterday.  He called earlier in the day to see if we had this certain vintage of wine from Spain.  It’s something we specialize in, selling all natural products from small businesses.  Your Aaron said he wanted to make a special dinner for Valentine’s Day.  Uh,” Paul scrunched his face up with an apologetic smile, “hope I didn’t say too much there.”

“That’s fine,” Darcy assured him.  “Do you remember what time that was?”

“Oh, tennish.  Thereabouts.”

The tears slowly slid down Grace’s cheeks.  “We went to Spain on our honeymoon.  I kept going on about the wine there.”  She took a moment to calm the tremor out of her voice.  “Do you have any idea where Aaron went next?  Did he say anything about that?”

The man shook his head.  “No.  I’m sorry I don’t.  He paid for the wine and took it with him and that was the last I saw him.  Had a line of customers come in after that.  Didn’t have a lot of time to talk to him.”  He shrugged and muttered, “sorry,” again.

They thanked Paul for talking to them and then left the store.  “Do you believe him?” Grace asked Darcy as they got back in the car.

“Of course I believe him, Grace.  He’s just a store owner that Aaron bought wine from.  You need to calm down some, sis.  We’ll find him.  I promise.  But we can’t charge in full tilt like everybody is a suspect.”

“Everybody
is
a suspect,” Grace said miserably, hunching down in her seat as she belted in.

“Grace…”

“No.  Don’t.”  Grace wiped angrily at more tears.  “Just drive.”

***

The next two stops on the list were no help at all.  No one remembered Aaron.  Darcy didn’t lose hope, though.  That could mean he hadn’t gotten to those places, or it could simply mean that the people at those stores just didn’t remember him.  She figured it could go either way. 

By this time the sun was beginning to set and Grace was in a near panic.  They weren’t any closer to finding out what had happened Aaron, even as they pieced together the steps he’d taken yesterday.  Darcy had called Jon to let him know what they were doing, about finding the to-do list and following its clues.  He’d been impressed, and told her to keep at it because unfortunately, he had nothing to report from his end.

Darcy didn’t know what to say to calm Grace down.  She was also getting very worried about her brother-in-law.

The fourth name on the list was that shop Darcy had noted earlier, “The Bishop.”  The address printed beside the name was for a lonely street on the edge of the city, where vacant lots sat under thin layers of snow.  Grace exchanged a puzzled look with Darcy.  “What would Aaron be doing here?”

“I don’t know,” Darcy answered.  What else could she say?

As they pulled up in front of the non-descript building in the middle of the street, Darcy’s instincts started to scream at her.   The place was a square building made of red bricks.  There were no windows and only the one door in the front with no sign or anything other than the street number, Forty Seven.  What on earth sort of business did Aaron have in a place like this?

“I don’t like the look of this place,” Darcy said to Grace.  “Um.  Maybe we should try the other places on the list first?”

“Are you kidding?” Grace’s voice was tight.  “Some of those places are all the way back in Misty Hollow.  We’re here now.  I need to know everything Aaron did yesterday.  His list says he came here next, and this is where we’re going.”

“I’m just saying, maybe we should call Jon and have him come with us.”

“Sis, I’m a police officer too, remember?  And Aaron is still missing.  I’m not going to wait here another two hours while Jon drives out to us.  Now, come on.”

Darcy understood her sister’s urgency, but she still knew she’d feel better with Jon by her side.  When Grace got out of the car and stalked towards the front door she had no choice but to follow.

The door creaked open on heavy rusty hinges and then closed with a solid thud behind them.  Past that, they were stopped by a gate of wrought iron bars, decorative but locked.  Darcy recognized the buzzer mechanism that allowed a store owner to open to customers or not as they pleased.  It suddenly hit her what kind of store this was.