K.J. Emrick - Darcy Sweet 12 - Death at the Wheel Read Free Page B

be late.  It’s all right.  I have the book club tonight anyway.”  She smiled at him, and pushed herself up on her toes to kiss his cheek.  “I’ll stay up for you.”
    “I love you, Darcy Sweet,” he said to her.
    “You’d better,” she told him, waggling her left hand with its diamond ring.  His ring.  “You’re going to marry me, after all.”
    Looking back over at the accident scene, Darcy wasn’t surprised at all to see tendrils of white, misty fog starting to coil around the cooling heaps of twisted metal.  This town had ways of telling her when weird things were happening.
    They were happening now.

Chapter Two
     
    Darcy and Izzy wore rubber gloves as they swept up and removed glass shards from everywhere they could find.  Lilly stayed in the back office, chattering away to Millie’s ghost about the exciting car accident.  Darcy had whispered the more gruesome details to Izzy.  They both agreed Lilly didn’t need to hear about dead people and missing drivers.  Not right now.
    The police had finished measuring the impact of the car part—a wheel strut, they said—that had shattered the front window.  It had been taken away to be kept with the cars themselves for further investigation.  Now it was up to them to put the shop back to rights.
    “We’ll need plywood to board up that window until we can get it replaced,” Darcy said.  “I hope Davis down at the hardware store can help us out with that.”
    “Why don’t I run down and ask him now?” Izzy offered, dumping a last dustpan full of glass into the trash.  “That way we can get it done quicker.”
    “No, let me do it,” Darcy said.  “That way you can stay with Lilly and I’ll be able to stop by the Police Station like Jon wanted me to.  Oh, and see Grace, too.”
    “How is your sister doing?  The first pregnancy is always the hardest, you know.”
    It was almost like she knew what she was talking about, the way she said it.  Darcy quickly put the thought aside.  Her friend only had the one child, as far as she knew.  “Grace just doesn’t like being put on bed rest, is all.  She never could stand still.  Even when we were little girls.  She must be ready to chew nails knowing that she missed all this action here this morning.”
    “Sure is weird, isn’t it?”  Izzy stripped off her rubber gloves, shaking her head.  “Wouldn’t someone have seen the driver run away from the scene?  I mean, he has to be somewhere, right?”
    “We didn’t see anything,” Darcy pointed out.  “It’s not that strange, I guess.  Just weird.  Like you said.”
    She made sure the sign on the door was turned to “OPEN a good book today” before she left.  The lack of a window shouldn’t keep them from making a few sales if anyone came to the store.  Out on the street she watched the last of the clean up being done.  Just two hours later, and all that was left was some pieces of plastic and other leftover debris for the fire department members to sweep away.  If the gouges in the pavement hadn’t been there it would be easy to imagine it hadn’t even happened.
    Only it had, and someone had died because of it.  A tragedy in itself, but since the one passenger’s touch had sparked a vision for her, Darcy had to believe there was more to this than even a missing driver could explain.
    Her bicycle was waiting for her, still upright and safe in its rack.  She was glad the accident hadn’t hit her bike, too.  She depended on it to get around.  At least, she would until the snow started to fall.  Pedaling off, she headed for the Police Station to talk to Jon.
    Of course, Jon could wait for a little bit, and so could the broken window, although neither of them would wait for too long.  Checking her My Little Pony wristwatch she decided she had time to go see her sister.  A quick visit, anyway.
    The watch had been a gift from Lilly.  Not exactly what she would have chosen for herself, but who didn’t like My