14 Christmas Spirit (12 page)

It was only two days before Christmas.  Not a lot of time to prepare a dinner for…Darcy counted in her head.  Twelve people, if she counted baby Addison.  There was food to buy and the house to clean and now she'd have to figure out where everyone would stay, considering they had put JoEllen and Connor in the upstairs guestroom she had intended for her mother…

Her mother.

Darcy had walked home, leaving Jon at the station to sort through the paperwork and the arraignment of former Officer Blake Cipes.  Grace was going to help him but it was still going to take the rest of the afternoon and into the night.  Snow had started falling.  Big fluffy flakes that melted when they touched her face.  It was kind of a cleansing sight, all white and sparkling.  Peaceful, even. 

Then when she got within sight of her house she noticed James Bollinger's car in her driveway.  A gray Fiat.  A cute little car that would be completely impractical for any more than two people.

James and her mother were here.  At her house.  A day early.

Of course they were, Darcy thought to herself.  If life were easy, it wouldn't be fun.

The lights were on inside.  Through the curtains, she could see shadows moving.  The sound of laughter came to her on the chill night air.  Children's laughter.  Izzy and Lilly must be over again.

"Well," Darcy said to herself, "this place is going to be pretty busy for a while."

Up on the porch, right by the front door, she saw her Aunt Millie's spirit fade into view between the spiraling snowflakes.  The old woman's specter wore a long dark dress, unaffected by the cold that was turning Darcy's cheeks red.  She smiled at Darcy, approval in her eyes, the same way she used to look whenever Darcy had done something special.

Then she blew Darcy a kiss on the wind, and drifted away by degrees.

She took two hasty steps forward, reaching out a hand, already knowing it was too late.  Millie was always around, always watching over her niece, but it just wasn't the same.  Especially now, at Christmas time, Darcy missed her.

"I love you, Millie," she whispered, as she reached her front door and let herself in.

Into barely controlled chaos.

Lilly and Connor were chasing each other around the kitchen table in a game of tag, Lilly squealing with delight, leading Connor and evading his grasp and leading him on again.  It was obvious that Connor was letting Lilly keep the game going.  It was just as obvious that she knew it, too.

At the refrigerator, James Bollinger stood out of the way so the two racing kids could fly past him and tear into the living room.  He turned to her with a shrug.  "Kids.  You have to let them play, am I right?"

Darcy nodded her agreement.  "Hi, James.  Glad you could make it."

Tall, with a square chin that would have made him look like that actor Ron Perlman if not for his wavy, thick dark hair, James was a handsome kind of guy.  When her mother had first described him to Darcy she had envisioned an uptight man with very prim attitudes.  Kind of like her mom.  James was the exact opposite of that.  He was friendly and relaxed and always quick with a funny story.  He was good for her mother.  Darcy liked him.

"Sorry we're a little early," James told her, taking out the container of orange juice that had been his reason for opening the fridge in the first place.  "Your mom wanted to spend as much time with you and Grace as we could this year."

"That's fine," Darcy assured him.  "Although, you may have noticed the house is a bit, uh, crazy right now."

He lifted the glass of juice he'd poured for himself.  "No worries.  Your friend Ellen has been keeping us entertained."

Darcy felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up at the thought of JoEllen keeping her mother entertained.  What could those two possibly have to talk about?

Smudge came to the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, and meowed at her.

"I think you're right," she answered him.  "I'd better go see how everyone's doing."

Izzy and JoEllen sat in the chairs on either end of the couch.  Darcy's mom sat on the couch itself, holding her arms out to James as he returned and sat next to her.  "Darcy!" her mother called to her.  "Oh, it's so nice to see you again.  Thanks for hosting us, dear, but you didn't mention you had guests.  Are you sure there's room?"

"It was kind of a spur of the moment thing, mom."

The more time she spent with her mom, the more she saw herself in Eileen's face.  It wasn't that the resemblance was getting stronger as Darcy got older.  It was more like it had always been there to see, and Darcy was only just now looking for it.  Her mother's hair might be completely silver, but the heart shaped face, the eyes, those were things Darcy had definitely inherited from her.

"I just adore your friends," Eileen told her, sipping at a cup of tea.  "Ellen here says she might be staying in town for a while now.  And such a wonderful little boy she has."

"Thank you, Eileen," JoEllen said, honestly happy for the compliment.  "I was lucky when Darcy and Jon agreed to let me and Connor stay here for a while."

"So was I," Izzy said.  "My Lilly's found a friend.  Those two are becoming inseparable.  I hope you're staying around for a while?"

JoEllen looked to Darcy standing in the doorway.  "I'm not sure, to tell you the truth.  Darcy and I haven't really discussed it yet."

"Oh, the more the merrier I say," was Eileen's comment.  "What do you think dear?"

"I think," James said, clinking his glass against her teacup, "that I couldn't agree more.  It's Christmas, after all."

They sat and talked for a few hours, popping corn for the kids to snack on and deciding that none of the grownups were hungry enough to make anything for themselves.  Darcy made herself remember to call JoEllen by her new shortened name, Ellen, and steer the conversation away from her as much as possible.

It was nearly nine o'clock when Darcy heard the door open again and Jon come in.  By then, Connor and Lilly were both lying on the living room floor, whispering secrets to each other.  Darcy wondered what could be so important in their nine and ten year old world but knew better than to ask.  They should have time to be kids.  Both of them had experienced horrible things that no child their age should have to live through.  They would be able to understand each other in ways that the adults in the room could never do.

Of course, Darcy thought as she got up to meet Jon in the kitchen, Izzy had been on the run and hiding from her past when Darcy first met her.  Maybe she could understand JoEllen's circumstances better than most, too.  Maybe they should let Izzy know what was going on for just that very reason.  It would be nice to have someone else they could count on while they tried to untangle the thorns of JoEllen's past.

"Hi," she greeted Jon, putting a world of emotion into that one word.  Relief.  Warmth.  Love.

"Hi yourself," he said, in much the same tone of voice.  His arms felt good as they circled her waist and she settled herself against his chest.  "I hope I didn't leave you alone with all these people for too long.  Izzy's here too?"

"She sure is.  I wanted to talk about that, actually."

"Oh?  Been thinking we should tell her about JoEllen and why we're trying to help her?"

Darcy made a small sound and nuzzled her head into his shoulder.  "You know me so well.  We can trust Izzy.  Plus, you should see her daughter playing with JoEllen's son.  It's kind of cute."

"It's nice to find someone special in your life," Jon said.

"Hmm.  I completely agree."

"You guys," JoEllen said from behind them, "are too sweet, you know that?"

"Someone told us that once, yes," Darcy answered, staying in Jon's arms but turning so she could see JoEllen.  "You heard what we were talking about?"

"Yup.  I don't mind.  I like Izzy.  I'm thinking there's a lot more to her story than you two have told me so far."

"There is," Jon said simply.

"'Kay.  I guess that's a talk for another time."

"When there aren't so many people around," Darcy agreed.

"I do need to know one thing, though," JoEllen said to them, her voice serious.  "Harris Browder.  The man who my former employer hired to kill me."

"What about him?" Jon asked, finally letting go of Darcy, although she would have been perfectly happy to spend the rest of the night in his arms.

JoEllen sat down at the kitchen table, one leg up on the chair next to her, and spread her hands.  "Well, what did he tell you?  Do I still need to hide my face from the world?  Do I need to run again?"

Jon sat down across from JoEllen, shaking his head.  "I don't think so.  Browder is going away for years on charges of attempted murder, assault on a police officer, and a host of other things.  You're not likely to see him ever again.  At least not before he starts drawing social security."

JoEllen sniffed, the only emotion she spent on Harris Browder.  "That's fine, and all, but what about the guy who hired him?  My former employer.  You never got around to telling me what he gave you on that guy."

"Everything," was Jon's reply.  "His name, where he lives, how much he paid for the hit on you and what account the money came from.  It was enough for the FBI to arrest him on stuff more serious than what I could have thrown at him."

He looked to Darcy then, still standing over by the counter.  "I just heard about it today," he told her.  "I was going to share the good news tonight but I wasn't expecting the party when I got home."

"Izzy came over," Darcy told him, although he already knew that part.  "And, my mom showed up early."

Jon arched his eyebrows.  That part he didn't know yet.

JoEllen's hands were nervously tracing patterns on the top of the kitchen table.  "So where does that leave me?  If Browder turned on him, and both of them got arrested, didn't they give me up?  Are there more warrants being drawn up for me right now?"

"Uh, no."  Jon shook his head.  "However, JoEllen Meyers is a person of interest in this.  Both the FBI and my department are actively looking for her."

Darcy smiled to herself.  Jon had called it his department.  Chief Jon Tinker.

It had kind of a nice ring to it.

JoEllen slumped over the table to drop her head in her hands.  "Then I'm done.  I'll have to pick up and run again.  Connor…poor kid.  Maybe if we head to the other side of the country, out on the west coast?  I don't know."

Jon looked over his shoulder at Darcy, and smiled at her.

What was he up to?

"I don't know what you're so upset about," he said in a suspiciously sweet voice to JoEllen.

"Serious?" she exploded, sitting back up, hands flying through the air, barely keeping her voice down to a level the others in the living room wouldn't hear.  "I'm a wanted person again, Jon!"

"Well, JoEllen Meyers is a wanted person, sure.  But that's nothing new for her."  Slipping his hand into the inside pocket of his suitcoat, he took out a thin plastic card and tossed it across the table to her.  "But that has nothing to do with Ellen Gless."

JoEllen picked up the card, and stared at it in disbelief.  "Ellen Gless?"

"That's right," Jon said.  "Ellen Gless.  That's you, right?"

Darcy saw what the card was.  A driver's license.  Obviously in the name of JoEllen's assumed identity.  No doubt she had a few false IDs of her own to sell herself as this Ellen Gless, but they would be fakes.  Darcy had the feeling this license was the real thing.

"How did you…?"  JoEllen flipped the license around in her hands, holding it up to the lights to examine the security holograms and the magnetic strip.

"I happen to know the mayor of this town," Jon said with a broad smile.  "She knows enough people to call in a few favors.  I told her you were essential to this last investigation but that you'd lost your driver's license.  Not getting into any of the less, uh, public details, that license is as real as mine.  It's a first step in giving you a new identity that you won't have to change in a few months."

"Jon…" JoEllen breathed.  "I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything, Ellen," he told her, making sure to use her new name.  "You're not out of the woods yet.  We'll tell people that you prefer Ellen, and that will cover you with anyone we've already introduced you to as JoEllen.  We'll let Izzy know the whole story and that should help us sell your cover, too.  But, there are still warrants of arrest out there that we'll have to take care of.  And I doubt this man who wants you dead will stop just because you disappear off the grid.  I don't think prison will stop him, either."

"So, Mister Police Man," she said to Jon.  "You're going to help a hired killer.  Is that the deal?"

He shook his head.  "I'm helping a friend."

JoEllen's pale blue eyes grew misty with tears.  "Going soft on me, Mister Police Man," she managed, her voice choked up.

"Don't count on it," Jon told her.  "You say you want to change, that you want to give up your old life for the sake of your son.  Fine.  I'm willing to give you that chance if you really want it.  I'll do what I can to undo the arrest warrants, and we'll build up this new identity for you slowly.  You'll stay here in Misty Hollow where I can keep an eye on you because if you step out of line I'll be the first one to take you down."