Free Family Secrets (A Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery #8) by K.J. Emrick Page B

again.  "Careful.  That's an old wound you don't want to open up."
    "Seems like you have to open up about it," Darcy pointed out.  "You're still wanted for that murder.  We've cleared you of this one, but that other one isn't going away."
    Aimee turned her face away and stood with her arms crossed.  "Jon will help me out.  You just said you two are close, right?  And you don't think I did it, so he'll believe you.  Mario—that's my boss who was killed—was a good man.  I don't know who would have wanted to hurt him.  Besides, I wasn't even at Mario's office that night.  I went to the movies.  It was the late show, and it ran from nine-thirty to after midnight.  So there.  Couldn't have been me."
    Darcy was quickly making mental notes in her head.  She hadn't wanted Aimee to see her writing anything down, but there were questions that needed answers.
    She had enough to find those answers now.
    "Well, Jon should be back soon," she said, standing up, cautiously looking over at the security camera just to be sure she was still out of its field of vision.  "He'll let you know more about what's going on."
    Silence met her remark.  Aimee turned a little like she was sorry to see Darcy go, but then she went and sat back down on the bunk.
    "Hey, Darcy?" she called out.  "Thank you.  For believing in me."
    Darcy nodded, but didn't say anything more as she crept back up the hall and back toward the front of the building.

Chapter Thirteen
     
    It didn't take Darcy long to figure out her mistake in not using the back door out.
    As she walked into the officer's area of desks and computers and bulletin boards, Grace noticed her first.  "I thought you left," she said.
    "I, uh, forgot something," Darcy tried to cover.  It might have worked, or it might not have, but just then Jon and the other two patrolmen came back in, a sulking Richard Chartrand handcuffed and held by both elbows between the uniformed officers.
    "We didn't even have to ask him a single question," Jon said with a big smile.  "We just showed up on his doorstep and he broke down crying and confessed the whole thing."
    Even now, Richard was sniffing back tears.  Killing his own mother must have weighed heavily on his soul.  It probably wasn't intentional, Darcy figured.  Just one of those heat of anger moments that can't be taken back.  Ever.
    "So," he added in a joking tone, "What did we miss?"
    Darcy wanted to tell him about Aimee, and about what she had just found out.  She started to do it and then stopped.  Two things kept her from saying anything about it.  One, she wasn't positive yet that she was right, and she needed to do some research.  He'd already callously reminded her about wrongly accusing people in the past.
    T wo, he was so happy right now.  He'd been in a bad mood ever since his sister showed up and she just wanted them to have this singular moment when they weren't fighting and he was happy.
    She didn't think that was too much to ask.
    Darcy stepped over to him and kissed his cheek as Grace began helping the uniformed officers with the arrest paperwork on Richard Chartrand.  "I love you," she said to him.  "I'll see you at home."
    He blinked at her kiss and his smile slipped a little.  "Darcy.  We'll talk about everything.  I promise."
    "Sure we will," she said, although she wasn't sure at all.  "At home, okay?"
    Darcy made her way out to her bicycle and headed for home.  It was nearing lunchtime and her stomach growled again to remind her she hadn't even eaten breakfast.  She didn't have time to stop at Helen's café in town, although she did need to catch up with her friend and see how she was coping with Vivica's death.  She'd have to get something quick at home. 
    She had a lot of work to do.
    ***
    It was late afternoon when Jon came home.  Darcy was on the couch, Jon's laptop computer set up on her folded legs, a plate with crumbs on it and an empty soda bottle on the coffee table.  Smudge had been perched