Family Secrets (A Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery #8) Read Online Free PDF Page B

keeping her eyes on his the whole time that he talked to her about his family.  His sister, the upstart child who always broke the rules and got caught up on the wrong side of the law early in life.  But then, what could the family expect, he asked.  She came by it naturally from their father.
    Their dad had given their mother a loveless marriage where she never wanted for anything except his companionship.  They didn't find out until much later that the money he brought in was actually scammed from other people.  The law caught up with him, too, and sent him to prison.  Twice.
    Then there was Jon.  Jon Tinker, the black sheep.  He stayed in school, got good grades, and became a police officer.  No matter how hard he worked, though, he couldn't escape the shadow of his family.
    "She even came here," Jon said, miserably.  "She came here, to where she knew I was, and she killed someone else."
    Darcy bit her lip.  "Um.  About that?  I read over my aunt's book again.  I may not have done the procedure correctly."
    Jon stared at her.  "What do you mean?"
    "According to the book, that process shows when a person has guilt on their hands.  I thought it was to show murder, strictly murder and nothing else, but it turns out it's for just about any sin you want to mention that could hurt someone else.  Hit somebody with your car, break their legs and then leave without confessing?  That will show up as blood on your hands.  Poison your neighbor's cat?  Blood shows up on your hands.  But, it's all to varying degrees."
    "I'm not following you," Jon admitted.  "You know I can't see the things you do.  Dumb it down for me, will you?"
    "It's simple.  The worse the act of violence against someone else, the more blood the practitioner—that's me—should see.  For a murder, Aimee's hands should have been dripping with blood.  There should have been blood oozing out from her skin and pooling all over the interview room."
    He winced.  "Thanks for that image."
    "Uh, yeah.  Sorry.  That was kind of gross, wasn't it?  Jon, Aimee's hands had blood on them, sure, but there wasn't enough to show murder."  She shook her head.  "I don't think she did it."
    "So, what are you saying Darcy?" he asked, his tone annoyed.  "You think she poisoned someone's cat?"
    "No," she said immediately, then rolled her eyes to the side.  "Well, maybe.  I don't know, Jon.  You said she was into a lot of bad stuff as a young girl, maybe it had to do with something back then.  And she has a warrant of arrest, don't forget."
    "The warrant was for murder, too, Darcy. Don't forget that. Are you going to tell me she isn't guilty of that one, either?"
    Darcy hadn't thought of that.  Here was a woman accused of two separate murders, and according to Darcy's abilities she wasn't guilty of either one.
    "Jon, I trust my abilities.  I saw blood.  She's guilty of something.  I just don't think she's guilty of killing Vivica Chartrand."
    Jon threw his hands in the air and pushed up off the couch.  "You aren't being reasonable.  I can't…I can't talk about this right now.  I'm going to bed."
    "Jon!"
    "No, Darcy!"  He realized he was yelling, and pressed his hands to his face as he drew in a deep breath.  When he took his hands away again his face was calmer, but his eyes were still stormy.  "My sister is a murderer.  It's just something I have to accept."
    She went over to him, put a hand gently on his arm.  "What if I can prove she's innocent?"
    "And just how do you plan on doing that?"
    "Hey," she said, with a shrug and a smile, "isn't that what we do?"
    His expression eased a little more.  "Yeah, I suppose.  We're a pretty good team."
    And there was the other thing that had been weighing on Darcy's mind all night.  "If we're such a good team, then why are you considering taking a job over in Oak Hollow?"
    "They offered me the job, Darcy.  I didn't go looking for it."
    "That doesn't really answer my question, does it?"
    Over on the