Free A Murder of Crows (A Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery #7) by K.J. Emrick

underwater.
    ***
    Out on the sidewalk, Jon turned them up the street and away from the bar, waiting until they were gone until he said anything.  “Jeff followed us in there, didn’t he?”
    “Yes,” Darcy admitted.  “I’m sorry.  I’ve told him to leave us alone.  I just can’t get rid of him.”
    “You can’t, like, point him toward the light or something?”
    “It doesn’t work that way.”  Although at this point she really, really wished it did.  “I need to find out what’s bothering him so much and that’s the only way he can be free to leave this realm for the next.”
    Jon snorted.  “I would have thought his secret affair with Marla would have been a bad secret enough for anyone.  With that cat out of the bag maybe he should just go find his door and stop pestering us.”
    Jeff floated up in front of Jon, screaming at him in jibberish.  Jon kept walking, perfectly oblivious to Jeff’s anger.
    Darcy couldn’t help but giggle.
    “What’s funny?” Jon asked.  At the same time, Jeff turned to her and mouthed the same words.
    Darcy laughed again, covering her mouth with a hand.  “Sorry.  I’m sorry.  Jeff is really overreacting.  About something.”
    “And that’s funny?”  Jon was upset at her.  She could tell.  He shook his head and looked up the street again.  “Look, never mind.  Why didn’t you use that little trick back there when we were at the police station?  If you could tell Brad wasn’t the killer couldn’t you do the same for Riley Mason?”
    “We didn’t really need it at the time.  You were sure Riley wasn’t the killer.  That was good enough for me.  Plus, I wasn’t invited into the interview.  How do you think the Ryansburg Police would feel about me using paranormal abilities to identify a murderer?”
    “Good point,” he said.  They walked on in silence after that, Jeff included.  Then, a few streets over he said, “Listen, Darcy, about this whole Jeff thing.”
    She cringed, waiting for whatever was coming next.
    “I really don’t know what to say.  I know he was your husband.  I know he treated you badly, and now we both know it was worse than you thought.  But it seems like you’ve changed.  You’re still you, but something’s different.  I think all of this has maybe soured you on marriage in general.  You just need to know.  I’m not him.”
    “I know you’re not Jeff ,” she said immediately.  Still, she thought he might have hit the point closer than she wanted to admit.  No matter what her feelings for Jon, she had taken a while to even agree to them moving in together.  Now, she was shying away from the very thought of marrying him.  And it had nothing to do with anything Jon had done.
    “Then don’t choose Jeff over me, now that he’s back for you,” he said to her.
    “Jon, it isn’t like that.  I have to admit that seeing him now has dragged up a lot of feelings.  I’m…confused, sure.”
    “So,” he said, “this would be a bad time to ask you to marry me?”
    She nearly tripped over her own two feet.  Her mouth dropped open and she gaped at him, trying to figure out something, anything, to say.
    He saved her from trying.   “Don’t worry about it.  Come on, let’s get back to the police station and talk to Phillips again.  He needs to know what that video shows.”
    She walked along with him, knowing in her heart there was so much more she should tell him, so much she should say, and not able to breathe a single word of it.
    ***
    They were led through the police station by a different junior officer, a kid really, with pimply skin and a scrawny neck.  He brought them to Officer Phillips’ desk then disappeared quickly.
    Jeff, angry screaming ghost, followed them the whole way.  Her aunt had never shown her any techniques for blocking a ghostly presence.  Their focus had always been on reaching out to trapped souls and helping them.  But Jeff was really starting to make her wish she