Free 3 From the Ashes by K.J. Emrick Page B

girl was probably under a psychiatrist’s care somewhere. She couldn’t blame her after what had happened.
    Darcy took a bite of the muffin. It was wonderful. “Oh my gosh this is delicious.”
    “I told you they were good.” Helen grinned at her.
    Darcy chatted a little longer as she finished the muffin. Then she said her goodbyes and hopped back on her bike. The town was beautiful this early in the morning, adorned with the colored leaves of Fall. The mists that lingered were the only thing that dampened the scenery but she could ignore them.
    Mostly.
    ***
    In her bookstore, the door locked and the closed sign out, Darcy flipped through the books she had purchased about the town’s history on her weekend with Jon. It was all interesting stuff. As she leafed the pages one at a time she was surprised to see a section labelled with Louis Fender’s family name. She read that a few decades ago Louis’ ancestors had owned practically the entire town and several of the surrounding towns. For a time, nearly everything around for miles in every direction was Misty Hollow.
    That explained Louis having a job as a real estate agent. She wondered how much property he still owned from what his family had passed down generation to generation.
    There was a knock at the door. Darcy looked up in confusion. No one would think the store was open. Not on a Sunday. Through the glass front of the doors she saw Sarah standing there, a light gray hoodie closed tightly against the slightly chill breeze. Darcy closed the book before going to let her in. This was another piece of the puzzle that didn’t quite fit and she wasn’t ready to throw something else at Sarah.
    Sarah came in looking sheepish. “Hi Darcy. Look I’m really sorry for the way my father behaved last night. I’m not sure what got into him.”
    “Don’t worry about it, Sarah. Obviously we hit a sore spot with him. It could be nothing more than he misses your mom.” Even as she said it, though, it didn’t sound right to Darcy.
    Sarah nodded, her eyes focused away from Darcy. “That’s not why I’m here, though. I thought of something last night. It might mean nothing, or something, I don’t know, but our house has been broken into several times over the past few years.” She took a moment to shrug. “They never take anything, though. At least not that my dad has told me. The way he acted last night, I got to thinking maybe he’s hiding more from me than just what my mom was like. Maybe there was something taken that he isn’t telling me about? He reported it to the police each time,” she added, with an expectant glance at Darcy.
    “Okay, I’ll ask Jon about it,” she said. “He can pull up the police reports.”
     

Chapter Thirteen
     
    As soon as Darcy got home she went right to her phone and called Jon. He was off work today because of the weekend but he said he’d had some things to take care of, slyly pointing out that he wouldn’t have to take care of his own place if he lived where she did. She had kissed his cheek and called him cute and now here they were, with her calling him for help.
    “Hey Sweet Baby,” he said to her, using his little pet name for her. “What’s up?”
    She told him all about Sarah’s house getting broken into several times and that Louis had supposedly reported it each time.
    “Hm,” he said, and she could hear him snacking on something. “Well, I only looked into the things that were happening in town around the time of the fire, not since, so I’ll check. First thing in the morning. Anything else?”
    “No.” She sighed. “I wish there was. Oh. I was looking in those books I bought on our trip, you know, the history books? Turns out most of the area all around here once belonged to Louis Fender’s family. Including all of Misty Hollow.”
    “Wow. They must have been rich. I wonder what happened to all that money?”
    “Who knows. I’ve never had that kind of money to worry about.”
    He laughed at her