3 From the Ashes (9 page)

She almost kicked herself for even thinking it. She loved her mom, but large doses of her were hard to take.

“So, want to catch dinner tonight?” Jon asked her.

She caught herself twirling her hair with a finger. “You could pick something up and come over here.”

“I could do that, couldn’t I?”

“Pizza,” she told him. “With anchovies.”

“Yuck. Only if I can have mushrooms on my half.”

“Yuck to that, too.” They laughed. “I love you, Jon.”

“I love you, too.”

Smudge jumped on her shoulders as she said it, meowing into the phone.

“Aw,” Jon said. “Smudge loves me, too?”

Darcy looked at her cat. He lowered his eyelids and jumped away gently, landing softly on his feet and walking off with his tail in the air. “Uh, sure he does. What’s not to love?” she told Jon. They said goodbye again and she hung up.

Smudge looked at her from around the doorway to the kitchen. “Well, you’ll just have to get used to him, Smudge.” She hung the phone’s handset back into its cradle. “This one is here to stay.”

***

The next morning she untangled herself from Jon and left him snoring in bed. Putting a note on the table, she reminded him to look into the break in reports from Louis Fender, and said she loved him. Biting her lip, she hastily added a little heart, feeling like a schoolgirl again with her first crush.

On her way biking into work Darcy stopped at the Bean There Bakery and Café to get a coffee. There were other places in town to get coffee, but this was Helen’s business and Darcy liked to help her friends out.

The café was packed this morning and Darcy said ‘Hello’ to many of them as she walked up to the counter. Leo Hanway was in a particularly dour mood today and only grunted at her. She rolled her eyes as she turned away from him. He wasn’t a very likeable man.

Elizabeth was working behind the counter, busily serving the breakfast crowd. The woman’s auburn hair was pulled back into a tight tail exposing more fully the pale red splotches of the burn marks on her cheek. Darcy tried to examine them without staring.

When it was her turn she made sure to order one of the muffins that Helen had let her try along with her coffee. “You’re really busy this morning,” she commented to Elizabeth. The woman nodded without really answering.

“Hey, do you mind if I ask where you’re from?” Darcy asked her.

Elizabeth shrugged. “I don’t mind. It doesn’t mean I have to answer.” She handed Darcy the coffee and muffin. “If you really have to know, I’m from a little town about two hours north of here.”

Darcy waited for her to say the name of the town. When she didn’t, Darcy just smiled and turned to leave.

“Do you always ask this many questions?” Elizabeth said to her before she could step out of line.

“Not always,” Darcy said. “Do you always avoid answering them?”

There was just a ghost of a smile on Elizabeth’s face before she turned to the man behind Darcy to take his order. Darcy left the store, wondering about Elizabeth and her secrets and if she might really be the missing Angelica. She would have to tread lightly with the woman if she didn’t want to spook her. Maybe she should ask Jon to look into Elizabeth Archer’s past.

She would need to catch up with Jon later this morning and see if he’d managed to look up the police reports on the break ins at Louis’ house. She could talk to him then about Elizabeth.

She felt bad sometimes, putting so much on Jon. It seemed like any time she got into these situations, she took up a lot of his time helping her find answers or peek into people’s pasts. Well. He never complained about it. And she knew she couldn’t do it without him. They were a good team.

Balancing the paper bag with her muffin and the cup of coffee in one hand, she walked her bike back down the street to the bookstore to open it for the day.

Sue came in not long after, chipper as ever. “Hi, Darcy. Did you have a good weekend?”

“It was…productive,” Darcy decided to tell her.

They went through the first couple of hours in the store cataloguing the store and discussing possible new purchases. The mystery and horror sections were selling pretty well now, with the Halloween season just around the corner. The first customer didn’t walk through the doors until almost ten o’clock, a mother and her three young children who Darcy knew pretty well. They were looking for kids books, new ones that they hadn’t read yet.

“I tell you what,” Darcy said to her, looking at the clock on the wall. “How about I have Sue help you with that. I have a short errand to run. There’s a great new book we took in about a basketball tree. I think you’ll like that one.”

With a nod to Sue, she slipped into her light fall jacket and went to get on her bike. She figured she’d given Jon enough time to check on those police reports.

***

“I can completely verify that there is no record of any robberies at Louis’ house.”

Darcy was confused to hear that. She was sitting at Jon’s desk at the police station, drumming her fingers on her knee. “That means Louis lied to his daughter about that. Why would he lie about reporting those break ins? And who breaks into a house without taking anything?”

“Are you asking me or just thinking out loud,” he asked with a little smile.

“Well I was just thinking out loud but since you’re offering your vast police experience, you tell me.”

He sat up a little straighter in his chair. “In my experience, if there really were break ins to the home, and you’re sure there were because Sarah told you there was, then it’s one of two things. Either the person who did the breaking in is known to the homeowner, or there was something stolen the homeowner doesn’t want anyone to know about.”

“Like what?” Darcy asked.

“Like drugs, usually, or money that the person wasn’t supposed to have in the first place. Things like that.”

“Hmm. Well. Louis struck me as strange, and really nervous with me asking questions, but he didn’t seem like the kind of guy to be involved in drugs. And even though his family used to be wealthy land barons he only runs a small real estate business now. I doubt he had any secret money that he was hiding. Plus, Sarah said there were several break ins. Why keep breaking in?”

Jon nodded to everything she said, encouraging her that she was on the right track. “I think,” he said when she finished, “that leaves the idea that Louis knew whoever was breaking in.”

Darcy turned that over in her mind. Someone Louis knew. Like maybe Angelica?

“I did find something else out,” he said to her, drawing her attention back to him.

“You’re holding out on me?” she teased. “What do I have to do, bribe you?”

“Bribing a police officer is illegal. I do accept kisses in lieu of cash, though.”

She rolled her eyes but gladly leaned across his desk and kissed his soft, warm lips.

“There,” he said as he sat back in his chair. “Paid in full. I figured if Louis was trying to make false claims on his homeowners insurance something might show up in his financials so I went over and checked with Mark at the bank.”

“Wait, don’t you need a subpoena for that?” Darcy asked.

“Usually we need a warrant to search records. But this is such a small town and everyone knows me, so I can usually ask nicely and get at least a little information. Mark says there’s nothing odd in Louis’ accounts, just the income from his business and a few other small deposits here and there.”

“Well, that’s not unusual,” Darcy said, waiting for something more.

“True, that’s not strange at all. But the fact that his daughter, Sarah, is getting a check for a large sum of money every three months is. A different amount every time.”

Darcy’s curiosity was piqued. Why wouldn’t Sarah have mentioned that to her? She didn’t know the answer to that, but she was definitely going to find Sarah and ask.

Chapter Fourteen

It turned out she didn’t have to look for Sarah very hard. Biking down the street back to the bookstore, Darcy saw her walking up the sidewalk.

Braking to a stop in front of Sarah, Darcy smiled. “Hi, Sarah. Hey, I was just going to go look for you.”

“Really? Did you find something out?” the girl asked hopefully.

“Why didn’t you mention that you were getting checks for money every three months?”

Sarah blinked at the direct question. “Because I didn’t think it had anything to do with, well, anything. I won a scholarship when I was in grade school. Something for gifted children I think. I’ve gotten it all my life. Why would that be important?”

Darcy felt foolish now. Of course it would be something that simple. “I’m sorry, Sarah. I guess I’m just at a loss to find answers to all your questions. So you’re still getting money form this scholarship? You’re out of school now, right?”

“Well, yeah, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, you know?” She smiled at Darcy and pulled an envelope out of her back jeans pocket. “Actually I’m going to deposit the check now. See?”

She pulled it out and handed it to Darcy. The check looked just like any other check. In Darcy’s hands, though, the paper felt…prickly. Like there was something wrong with it. She knew when to trust her sixth sense. She studied the check closer, reading Sarah’s name, the amount—seven hundred and twenty dollars—and the company that issued it. There was no return address.

“What’s the Accountable Student Foundation?” Darcy asked.

“I don’t know. The group that gave the scholarship, I guess.”

Darcy saw the letters in the name of the company shift on the check. Like they were twisting somehow while they stayed still. Then the first letter of each word in the company name lit up, gold against the black ink.

Her eyebrows shot up.

“Sarah, what was your mom’s middle name?”

“Uh, Sybil. Why?”

Darcy knew what her sixth sense had been trying to tell her. Angelica Sybil Fender.

Accountable Student Foundation.

ASF.

She had to check out her hunch, though. Even if her sixth sense was almost never wrong, she still needed proof.

“Sarah, before you go to the bank would you mind coming with me to visit Jon at the police station?”

***

On their way back to see Jon, Darcy explained to Sarah everything that he had told Darcy about the break-ins to Louis and Sarah’s house. The girl was surprised and a little sad to learn her father had lied about that. She had to wonder what else her father had been lying about. Sarah just wished there were more answers to give her.

Jon was at his desk still. He looked up as she approached and smiled. “Wow, twice in one day. What do I owe this to?” The smile slipped a bit when he saw that Sarah was with her.

“Jon,” Darcy said, “I know I keep taking up your time but this is important. Can you look up the Accountable Student Fund for me?”

“Of course. It’ll cost you though.” He arched an eyebrow and she knew what his price would be.

“Okay, okay,” she agreed in mock frustration. “But later. At home.”

She caught Sarah’s look. The woman knew exactly what Jon was charging her.

He turned to his computer and did a number of searches, both public ones and official ones that she wouldn’t have been able to access. Darcy watched him work over his shoulder and saw the results of each so she wasn’t surprised when he shook his head and said, “There’s nothing by that name.” He looked up at her. “What is it?”

Sarah held up her check. “It’s the name of a company that has been sending me checks from a scholarship I won as a little girl. How can it not exist if it’s sending me money?”

Jon and Darcy exchanged a glance, and he nodded. Turning to Sarah, she said, “I think the money is coming from your mother.”

Chapter Fifteen

Jon’s eyebrows dipped as he said, “What are you talking about? Where would she get all that money from?”

“The Fender family used to be very rich,” Darcy theorized. “They made a lot of money off selling land around and in Misty Hollow. They owned tons of the buildings in town.”

“Sure, Darcy,” Sarah said to her, running a hand through her dark hair. “But my dad isn’t rich. He just has his real estate business. The money that I get from this scholarship has made the difference between paying bills or not, sometimes.”

“Maybe he didn’t lose the money,” Darcy said to her, “maybe Angelica has it.”

Sarah thought about that in silence. “I don’t get it. You mean to say, my dad gave all his money to mom so she could go live some secret life but now, rather than have any contact with me, she’s sending us money under a false name so that we don’t go broke?”

She was angry and Darcy couldn’t blame her. For now, everything pointed to exactly that. As hard as her own mother had been on her when Darcy was growing up, she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have a mother who had completely abandoned her.

“There’s something else,” she said to Sarah. “I think that your mother is alive, and here in Misty Hollow.”

Jon’s expression was only slightly less shocked than Sarah’s. Darcy hadn’t planned on telling Sarah this part yet until she had more information, but in light of the checks and everything else, it seemed like now was a good time to test out this part of her theory.

“Would you mind coming with me to meet someone?” Darcy asked. Sarah bit her bottom lip and wrung her hands together roughly, but nodded and stood up, ready to see where Darcy was going to take her.

***

The morning rush had subsided in the Bean There Bakery and Café. Elizabeth was cleaning down tables. Darcy could see another employee, a man she didn’t know, busy in the back through the swinging doors with the round windows in them. Elizabeth looked up at her, then with a roll of her eyes went back to work.

Sarah pointed to Elizabeth when her back was turned. Darcy whispered, “Yes. Does she seem familiar?”

Swallowing, shuffling her feet, Sarah shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know.”

Darcy figured it would be hard for Sarah to know. She had been a young girl when she last saw her mother, and the only other thing she had was photographs. “Maybe you could be sure with a closer look,” she offered. Then, raising her voice, she said, “Elizabeth, could you come here for just a minute?”