The Language of Death (A Darcy Sweet Coy Mystery) Read Online Free PDF

she turned away.
    Darcy watched her go.  There was definitely a mystery here.  Everyone knew Chloe so well and knew she would never do something like commit suicide and yet no one was questioning it.
    Well.  Darcy was going to question it.  Whether Veronica thought it was her place to do so or not.  She was going to find out exactly what had happened, one way or the other.  If ever she needed her special talents, it was now, when it could help a friend.
    ***
    Her motel room wasn't anything special.  Darcy picked the first one she came to in the downtown business district.  The Cascade Inn was tucked in behind a Dollar Mart and a Laundromat, a row of connected rooms with red doors facing the parking lot and a tin roof that had been painted blue not too long ago.  Out of the way and quiet.
    It was cheap, and the rooms were clean.  It was all she needed.  She hadn't come to Smithsville for a vacation.
    Putting her small travel bag down on the single bed's blue comforter, Darcy drew the blue curtains tight across the floor to ceiling window in the back wall, and sat down in the cushioned blue chair.  She was sensing a theme here that was tied up into the painting of ocean waves on the wall above the bed and in the scallop-shell bathroom sink she'd seen on her way in.  Small town chic.
    Darcy liked small towns.  After going to live with her Great Aunt Millie she'd finished growing up in Misty Hollow, a small town with the typical small town charm and small town issues.  College for her and Chloe—and for Lorne Sommers too—might have been in the big city, but afterward she and Chloe had both come back to their small town roots.  Her to Misty Hollow, Chloe here to Smithsville.  The fact that Smithsville was a small town wasn't what bothered her.
    The fact that someone in this town was a murderer was what bothered her.
    She was certain of that now.  Chloe's ghost coming to her and asking for help had set her suspicions on edge to begin with.  Talking to Lorne and Veronica had convinced her.  Chloe hadn't taken her own life, no matter what the evidence might say.  Someone had killed her friend.
    Darcy was going to see to it that whoever had done that was held responsible.
    Sitting there in the gloomy room with the lights off Darcy went over in her mind what she already knew.  An apparent overdose of medicine for epilepsy.  But Chloe wasn't epileptic.  Darcy was sure of that.  They'd spent enough time together in college for Darcy to know everything about Chloe, down to the freckle that Chloe's teensiest bikini hid.  She certainly would have known if her friend had been taking medication for epilepsy, or anything else.
    Of course, sometimes people got diagnosed with things late in life.  It had been a year since she and Chloe had talked to each other, and Darcy hadn't thought to ask…
    She cursed at herself, twisting the silver ring on her finger furiously, biting the inside of her cheek.  Well, that would have to be the first thing she asked Chloe's mom, Betsy, the next time she saw her.  Or she could just ask Lorne.
    Lorne.   Their date tonight.  She'd almost forgotten—
    Whoa.  Wait a minute, she told herself.  This was not a date.  This was two old friends getting together to talk about the passing of another friend.  A friend who had been Lorne's fiancé, for that matter.
    It was also Darcy's chance to find out information.  That was all.  She was not here to pick up a date.  Sure, Lorne was cute and she remembered how he could be funny and how she'd maybe had a little crush on him for a while, but she had not given up on Jon Tinker.
    No, wait.  That wasn't what she meant.  She meant she still believed Jon would come back whether or not a good looking guy was taking her to dinner.
    No, no, not that either.  Jon was still part of her life no matter what guy was here now…
    Darcy made a little frustrated sound in her throat and gave up trying to untangle her thoughts about the