1 Death Comes to Town Read Online Free Page A

their destination they came upon the Mayor and his wife as they walked, and stopped to say hello. “Hi Steve, Helen, how are you both today?” Darcy thought that Steve looked a little tense. Of course, she thought, his speech that he had to give.
    He pulled a crisp white handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at his forehead with it. She noticed his hand wasn’t quite steady. “Well Darcy I have to say I am doing quite well. Unless you count a bad case of stage fright.”
    “Oh now dear, just calm yourself,” Helen patted his arm. “What do you have to be worried about? You give this same speech all the time. Darcy and Grace don’t want to hear your woes.”  Just then Roland Baskin demanded the Mayor’s attention, probably to complain about the festival as he always did when something was being held in the town. That gave Darcy and Grace the perfect opportunity to move on.
    “Oh there’s Jon.” Grace turned to face Darcy as her partner spotted them and raised a hand in greeting. She laid a hand on Darcy’s arm to get her to stop walking. “I don’t understand what the problem was between you two the other day. He’s a very kind and nice man.”
    “And good looking,” Darcy had to admit, even though she was miffed at Grace laying the blame for the encounter on her.
    “Well. He is easy on the eyes,” Grace agreed with a lopsided smile.
    “It’s fine, Grace. He doesn’t have to be nice to me as long as he’s okay for you to work with.” Darcy tried to ignore the way her heart sped up as she looked at Jon. She sighed. She could still appreciate his looks even if he was a jerk, couldn’t she?
    “Will you excuse me for a moment?” Grace asked her. “There’s something I need to talk to him about.”
    “Sure go ahead. I’ll just wander around here for a bit.” Darcy watched as her sister hurried away through the crowd. She wandered along the sidewalk going from stall to stall, just taking her time and catching up with people she saw.
    “Darcy! Darcy!” she suddenly heard. “Oh thank goodness I found you.”
    Darcy turned to find her neighbor Anna frantically weaving her way through the crowd, waving her hand in the air to catch Darcy’s attention. As Anna reached her she grabbed her arm and held on tight.
    “Anna, what’s the matter?” She tried to guide the older woman away from the busy sidewalk to one of the park benches so that they could talk more privately. The whole time Anna was shaking her head. Her face was very pale. Whatever had upset her must be bad.
    Giving up on getting to a bench she just led them away from the crowd a ways. “Anna what is it? If you don’t tell me I can’t help you.” Anna looked at her with frightened eyes and Darcy felt that familiar odd feeling go through her again. Did she really want to know what it was that Anna knew?
    “I…I found out something horrible earlier and…”
    Darcy waited with impatience for Anna to continue but the woman looked at something over Darcy’s shoulder instead. She shook all over just as Darcy saw her sister Grace heading their way, with Jon in tow. “I’m sorry, Darcy. I was mistaken. I’m sure I was mistaken. I’m just going to go home.”
    Darcy could hear Grace and Jon’s voices now. They seemed to be talking heatedly about something. She was more worried about Anna, though. “Are you sure? You seemed so upset.”
    Anna smiled in a way that did nothing to erase the fear from her eyes. “Yes. I’m sure. The crowd. Yes. The crowd is too much for me today. That’s all it is.”
    Darcy could tell there was something more to it. She didn’t want to press Anna and spook her more, though. “Okay, if you’re sure that’s what you want to do?”
    “Yes it is. Definitely. I’ll talk to you later on.” She nodded to herself and then scurried away. Rushing home as if the devil was on her tail, Darcy thought. How odd.
    “…and I hear that Darcy is always causing trouble.” Darcy tuned into the conversation