Hiding From Death (A Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery #6) (10 page)

              Grace stood up from behind her desk as Darcy and Jon with Izzy and Lilly came in.  Darcy hugged her sister.  “Wow, Grace.  You can really feel the baby bump now.”

“You should feel it from my side.”  She grumbled when she said it, but Darcy saw the smile on her face.  “So.  I got as much information on this Hand group as I could while I was wait
ing for you.  It turns out they’re known for racketeering and money laundering.  They’re on every known gang list in the state.  Loosely associated with the mafia, but independently run.  I found a list of known members from the State Police.  Here.”

             
She turned her computer screen around for the others to see.  On it were a series of photos, with names and vital statistics listed for each person.

             
“You’ve been busy,” Jon said to her.

             
“I’m pregnant, not permanently disabled,” she snapped at him.  “I keep telling you guys I can do more than shuffle papers.”

             
Jon raised his hands in a mock indication of surrender.  “Okay, okay.  I believe you.  You tell the Chief about this?”

             
“Not yet.”  Darcy sat back down, carefully balancing herself on the chair.  “I didn’t know what you had, or what you wanted me to tell him.”

             
She looked meaningfully at Izzy and Lilly, then back to Jon.  “Maybe you should tell him something?  Soon?”

             
“My next phone call,” Jon promised.  “There’s just been a lot going on—”

             
“That’s him!” Izzy exclaimed, pointing at one picture among dozens on Grace’s computer screen.  “That’s the man!”

             
They all crowded around the computer.  The picture Izzy had indicated was of a muscular white man with thinning black hair and piercing gray eyes.  A crescent shaped scar curved out along his cheek under his left eye.  “Adolphos Carino,” the name read, along with his age and his height and his weight.

             
When Darcy looked at the photograph, her vision of the night Izzy ran away from Cider Hill flashed through her mind.  She saw the dark man again, yelling after Izzy. 
“You can’t run forever!”

             
“Well.”  Jon rubbed at his jaw.  “That gives us a name to put to our attacker.  I have an idea I know who’s been stealing cars in town, too.”

             
“You think it was our friend Adolphos here?” Grace asked him.

             
“I do.  It makes sense.  The first car was stolen from Meadowood, and then dumped here, where another one was stolen from Garret Hobbs driveway.  We’ll have to tell our patrols out looking for that car to be careful.  If this Adolphos has it, then there’s no telling what he’ll do if he’s stopped.”

             
“Right,” Grace said, writing notes on a yellow pad of paper.  “I’ll take care of that with the desk Sergeant.  What do we do about it in the meantime?”

             
“We need someplace for Izzy and Lilly to stay where they’ll be safe.  I can’t exactly call the State Police yet, unless the Chief orders me to.  Now that we know a little bit more about everything it’s clear that Izzy is a victim.  She needs to be protected.”

             
Darcy smiled brightly at Jon.  She was so proud of him for making that decision.  She knew it hadn’t been easy.  He saw her looking at him and leaned over to kiss her cheek.  “I’m sorry if I was a jerk.”

             
“I’m sorry if I was, too.”

             
“Very cute, you two,” Grace said to them.  “It doesn’t solve our problem, though.  How about they come stay with me and Aaron for now?”

             
“With you?” Darcy asked.  “Are you sure?”

             
Grace spread her hands.  “It makes sense.  We live in an apartment off the ground floor.  No easy access.  If anyone comes looking for them all we have to do is keep the door closed and locked and call someone.”

             
Darcy had to admit that it did make sense.  She just hated how, once again, a mystery had swept into town and put all of her family and friends in danger.  She had to wonder if she was some kind of magnet for trouble.  Maybe her connection to the other side attracted people in danger to her for her to help.

             
If that was the case, then she and the universe needed to have a long conversation when this was over.

             
“Darcy, there’s one other thing,” Grace said.  She took her sister by the hand and led her over to the other side of the empty officer’s room.  “I, uh, was going to have you and Jon over for dinner some night soon and ask you this, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to have a day without tons of excitement in it for the next little while.  So.  I wanted to ask you…”

             
Darcy didn’t know what her sister was getting at.  “Grace, what is it?  Is something wrong?”

             
“No, no nothing like that,” she said quickly.  “Everything’s fine.  You know that Aaron and I are excited for our first child and we want everything to be just right and we were talking, and, um, we want to know if you’ll be the baby’s godparent?”

             
“Me?” Darcy thought her voice squeaked, she was so excited to hear Grace ask that.  “Of course I would!  I can’t think of anything that would make me happier.”

             
They hugged again, and Darcy practically bounced on her heels as they did.

             
Darcy woke with a crick in her neck and Jon’s arm across her waist.  Grace’s pull-out couch wasn’t exactly a comfortable way to spend a night.  She could feel every spring under her back.  When she shifted to a more comfortable position, Jon’s eyes popped open.  With a yawn and a stretch he ended up folding his body across hers.  “Good morning,” he said to her with a smile.

             
“Mmph,” she said back.  “Next time we find a four star hotel to hide in.”

             
“Deal.  Settle for making breakfast with me?”

             
He looked so cute with his hair mussed up and his eyelids all droopy.  They had both slept in their clothes for lack of pajamas, and his shirt hung all wrinkled down his front.  She kissed him on the forehead.  “Breakfast.  Then maybe a shower?”

             
“Together?” he teased.

             
She laughed.  “You make the pancakes.  I’ll see if there’s any bacon in the freezer.”

             
While they were starting everything, getting pans and bowls out as quietly as possible so they wouldn’t wake any of the others especially Izzy and Lilly, Jon became very quiet.

             
“What are you thinking about?” Darcy asked him.

             
He looked sheepish.  “Is it that obvious?”

             
“I just know you that well,” she said with a smile.

             
“Actually, I was thinking about this whole situation.  I think I have a way to catch our visiting bad guy, this Adolphos character.  The only drawback is it’s going to mean putting Izzy in harm’s way again.”

             
Darcy thought she might know what he was getting at.  “We’d better wait for her to wake up and ask her what she thinks.”

             
“I agree.”  He put another pancake on the stack he had already cooked and then turned to her.  “There’s something else.”

             
“Oh?”  She wasn’t sure she liked the way he had said that.

             
He wiped his hands on a dish towel before encircling her waist and pulling her to him.  “You need to know I’m still a little angry about the spot you put me in with Izzy and Lilly.  That whole mess could have cost me my job.  Or worse, got me charged as an accessory.”

             
“But, Jon, you talked to the Chief and explained the whole thing to him, right?  He said to do whatever you had to?”

             
Jon nodded, his eyes studying the lines of her face.  “Yes, but he wasn’t happy about it.  Luckily by that point we had all of the proof we needed to show reasonable doubt about Izzy killing her husband.  Otherwise…well, let’s not dwell on the otherwise.  So, here’s what I need to say to you.”

             
Bracing herself, Darcy tensed up in his arms.  She bit at her lower lip to keep it from trembling.

             
“Darcy Sweet, you were right,” he said at last, his lips curling into a weak smile.  “What we’re doing is exactly the right thing.  Thank you for making me do it, because on my own I would have just arrested her and let the State Police figure it out.  You make me a better person.”

             
She didn’t know what to think.  It was probably the sweetest thing Jon had ever said to her.  Warmth spread through her body and turned her cheeks pink.  “I love you, Jon Tinker.”

             
“I love you, Darcy Sweet.”

             
“Aw,” they heard Grace say from the hallway leading down to the bedrooms.  “You guys are so sweet you make me just want to brush my teeth.  You made breakfast?”

             
Later when they were all eating breakfast, with Izzy and Lilly sitting at the kitchen table with Aaron and Grace and Jon and Darcy eating from their plates over the countertop, Jon laid out his plan to them.

             
Grace mopped up maple syrup with a forkful of pancake.  “Are you sure that’s a smart idea?  We don’t know what this Adolphos is capable of.  Or more correctly, we know exactly what he’s capable of.  He’s dangerous.”

             
Jon nodded, placing his empty plate in the sink.  “I know.  And there’s a lot of risk to this.  Izzy, if you don’t want to try this, we can do something else.  I just can’t think of what that would be, other than turning you over to the State Police.  We’ve all agreed we don’t want to do that if we can avoid it.”

             
Izzy had hardly touched her breakfast.  She looked down at her daughter, who was making her way through her second pancake after munching a pile of crunchy bacon.  Finally she nodded.  “I’ll do it.  My daughter deserves to be able to live without being afraid all the time.  I’ll do it.  For her.”

             
Darcy found Jon’s hand and gave it a squeeze.  Now they had a plan.

***

              Later that day, Jon sat with Darcy in the second floor hallway of Izzy’s house.  They had been there for hours now, waiting for something to happen.  Izzy was downstairs, sitting at the kitchen table with the curtains wide open so anyone could easily see her from outside.

             
“Are you sure he’s going to come?” Darcy asked Jon.

             
“I’m sure,” he answered.  “It’s just going to take time.  Grace tailed Izzy while she walked all around town for nearly an hour.  There’s no way that Adolphos didn’t see her.  Then she came right here.  It won’t be long.”

             
Darcy tugged at the neck of the bulletproof vest she was wearing.  Jon had made both her and Izzy wear them, just like he was.  Adolphos was a killer, and he’d come at Izzy with a gun twice already.  They weren’t worried about him shooting Izzy through the window, or even bursting through the door shooting.  He thought Izzy had information that he wanted.

             
Izzy’s husband had been involved in money laundering and worse.  It wasn’t a big leap from that fact to know what Adolphos had been asking about yesterday. 
“Where is it?”
he’d asked.  What he meant, was that Chip McIntosh had been skimming money from the criminal organization The Hand.  Adolphos wanted that money.

             
The problem, as Izzy had pointed out to Jon, was that Izzy had no idea where the money was.

             
So now Jon and Darcy waited for Adolphos to take the bait and make an appearance.  He’d told her several times that he wanted her to stay at the station or with Grace, but Darcy had insisted on coming.  She thought maybe her sixth sense might be of some help.  Plus, she had started this whole thing, and she wanted to see it through to the end.  Grace and two uniformed officers had taken up positions in a car parked behind Jon and Darcy’s house, ready to swoop in when needed.

             
Which apparently wasn’t going to be anytime soon.

             
“You know,” Darcy said, talking just to pass the time, “Sue’s leaving for college.  She won’t be able to work at the shop anymore.”

             
“Really?  Hmm.  That’s too bad.  When’s she have to go?”

             
“Next week, I think.”  The reality of it rushed in for Darcy.  “I got to thinking about running the bookstore by myself.  It’s too much.”