Like any town where people lived and made a home, Misty Hollow employed a code enforcement officer. His job was to make sure people who were putting up buildings or making renovations to ones already in the town didn't build in a reckless or dangerous manner. All structural changes of any significance had to be approved through the code enforcement office.
In Misty Hollow the code enforcement officer was Giattano Franco. When Jon told Darcy what he had learned from the owners of Handyman Express, her jaw dropped.
Giattano was the nephew or cousin of Dominic Franco. Cassidy and Angela Whedon hadn't been clear on the family relationship between the two. What they had said, was that Giattano the code enforcement officer had come around to the Whedon's home just three weeks ago. They ran their business from their house, and Giattano had wanted to see all the information the Whedons had on a certain building project from two years back.
The concealed door in Belinda Franco's living room.
It was the next day, Tuesday, just five minutes before eight in the morning when Jon parked at the curb outside the Misty Hollow Town Hall. It was a two story brick building with ribbed white pillars out front supporting a triangular overhang with a large round clock that hadn't moved a second forward in decades. It was permanently stuck at three minutes before noon. Or midnight. Darcy had never been sure which.
"So the Whedons didn't say why Giattano wanted to know about their door?" she asked Jon. She looked up at the clock and wondered why no one on the town council had ever set aside funds to have it fixed.
"No. They didn't know. I only spoke with Cassidy but I got the impression that he found it really strange for a code enforcement officer to be that concerned over an improvement to the inside of a house."
They sat in silence after that, watching the town come awake. People hurried down the sidewalk and the traffic increased until it became what passed for rush hour in Misty Hollow. Cars rolling slowly down the streets, drivers graciously giving the right of way to everyone else. Just another sleepy morning in a small town.
Another morning with a mystery to solve.
Who was trying to steal from Belinda? The poor old woman didn't even seem to have anything to steal in the first place, but it was obvious that someone thought she did. Darcy was still betting on Rita Casey. Something about that woman just set warning bells ringing in her mind.
That didn't mean she couldn't be wrong, though. She rolled her eyes. Not that she hadn't been wrong more than a few times in the past. They needed to follow up on this new bit of information that Jon had brought them. Which was why they were waiting at the Town Hall for Giattano to come into work.
"Do you know him?" Jon asked Darcy. "Giattano, I mean?"
"Sort of. You know how it is in a town like this. I know who he is. Enough to wave to him, I guess. How about you? Did you ever meet him when you were living here?"
"I don't think so." He watched an old Volkswagon Beetle roll by, then turned his concentration back to the main entrance of the Hall. It was just being opened for the day's business by a woman in white shirt and blue vest. "I, uh, appreciate the loan of your couch last night."
Darcy turned her face away to stare out the passenger side window. Jon and she had talked late into the night, about Belinda, about the two of them, about everything, until it had become obvious there was no sense to his driving all the way back to Oak Hollow just to drive back here this morning. She had quickly offered him the couch and a spare blanket so she wouldn't have to think about how not all that long ago they slept in the same bed…
A cat walked by them on the sidewalk, distracting her. She was a pretty cat, with silky gray fur and a long tail. She turned her blue eyes up to Darcy for just a moment before hurrying on to whatever sort of appointment cats keep in the early morning hours.
At any rate, Jon hadn't said very much last night about the most important subject on Darcy's mind. Even though he'd told her that he still loved her, how were they going to reconstruct their relationship with the distance he had put between them? Every time she tried to pin him down for an answer he got them off topic, onto something else, until finally Darcy had just given up and told him goodnight with a kiss on the cheek.
She'd half expected him to sneak up to their room in the middle of the night. He didn't, no matter how much she would have welcomed it, and eventually she fell into a dreamless sleep that lasted until dawn.
"It's been a while since we were on stakeout together," he said to her now.
That, at least, brought a smile to her face. "It's not much of a stakeout. We're just waiting for someone to come to work—hey, there he is."
Giattano Franco, a flimsy looking man carrying a brown suitcase in one hand, kept his eyes straight ahead as he went up the front cement steps to the door of the Town Hall. He was tall and thin and the sleeves of his suitcoat hung down past his wrists. Thick glasses and a perfectly round head topped with frizzy brown hair made him look sort of like a bobble head figure, in Darcy's mind.
"Let's go," Jon said, already getting out of the car.
They caught up to Giattano just inside the heavy wooden entrance doors. The hallway inside was dimly lit, dark wood fixtures and trim lending an air of importance, giving the impression of weighty matters being decided here.
Darcy felt cold prickles crawl up the back of her neck as soon as she stepped inside. Almost like she was being watched. She looked up and down the hallway but besides her and Jon, Giattano was the only person in view.
She could feel another presence. One that made her feel uneasy.
"Mister Franco?" Jon called out, stopping the man with his hand on the knob of a door leading to an office on the left, a polished and shiny code enforcement nameplate attached to it. "Can we have a moment of your time, sir?"
"Of course," he answered, his voice remarkably deep and full considering how little there was to the rest of him. "Um, it's Tinker, isn't it? You were a cop here in town, right?"
Jon nodded. "I was. I'm actually looking into something that you might help me with. You're related to Dominic and Belinda Franco, aren't you?"
Giattano's face paled. "I…I was. To Dom, I mean. He, um, he died. Still related to Belinda." He tried for a smile and failed. "Right. Well. Is something wrong?"
Darcy could tell Jon was waiting for her to pick up the conversation but the cold sensation that gripped her was getting stronger, and it was making her uncomfortable. There was definitely something here in the Town Hall, and it's attention was on her. A presence, a ghost…something. She'd been in the Town Hall only a few times before but she'd never felt anything like this. She knew there was a story about it being haunted. It wasn't unusual for an old building to have its share of ghosts.
This was something more than that.
Jon noticed Darcy's discomfort and without missing a beat began asking the questions they had worked out last night. "You're aware of a secret door that Belinda had installed two years ago?"
Darcy thought the man would faint. He somehow managed to keep his voice even and smooth, even as his eyes darted around as if looking for escape. "Sure do. I had to give her the building permit. Nice work, too. Some company out of Oak Hollow. I have the forms inside. All in order. Why, are you looking to have something done like that in your house? Oh, I always liked your Great Aunt's house, Darcy. So much character."
The man was talking a mile a minute and his eyes twitched all over, looking everywhere but at them. Giattano was definitely hiding something. Darcy could see why the Whedons had immediately pointed to him as a good suspect. Maybe that was the cold feeling Darcy was feeling. Maybe her sixth sense was trying to tell her they were two steps closer to finding who was invading Belinda's home.
She heard laughter from further in the building. Or had she imagined it?
Jon's phone rang from his pocket. "Hold on a minute. I have to take this."
Jon's eyebrows knitted and he stepped back down the hall the way they had come in with a meaningful glance at Darcy. The call was important, but he couldn't tell her why in front of Giattano. She'd just have to stall.
"So, Mister Franco," she said.
"Uh, please, call me Giattano." He held his hand out, making no move to invite her into the office. "You're Darcy, right? Darcy Sweet? You own the bookstore in town."
"That's right," she said with a smile as they shook hands. "Belinda and Dominic were good friends of my Great Aunt Millie. We're helping Belinda out with a problem, Jon and I. That's why we wanted to know what was so special about the door to Belinda's basement?"
"Special?" Giattano parroted. "Nothing special. It's just a door." He laughed, but it didn't sound convincing.
"Oh? Hmm," she said, pretending to consider something. "That's odd. Why would you track down the company that installed that door if it wasn't important?"
"You mean those Handyman Express people?" He seemed to relax, his eyes finally turning to look directly at her. It was like now that Darcy had told him why they were here, he knew what to say. "Well, you know, I take my job as code enforcement officer very seriously. Those people didn't apply for a permit before installing that new door on my aunt's home. Can't have that."
Darcy wasn't convinced. "See, that's what I thought at first, but then the people who own Handyman Express told Jon how odd it was for you to ask them about it at all. Something about how a code enforcement officer, such as yourself, is normally only concerned with major structural changes or new construction. Not about what someone's door looks like."
Giattano swallowed. He went back to sputtering and his eyes looked away again. "Well. You know. I don't know how the code enforcement officer over in Oak Hollow does things, but here in Misty Hollow we do things right. Yes. That's it."
A fresh chill went up her spine when Giattano mentioned the two Hollows. The similarity had always struck her as funny, Oak Hollow and Misty Hollow, but in an area with so many hills and low-laying stretches of land, it wasn't outside the realm of possibility. She ignored the cold prickly feeling of someone staring at her and instead listened to what Giattano was saying, promising to investigate the Town Hall some other day. When she had more time.
"I don't trust those people at Handyman Express anyway," Giattano said. "I checked up on them. Both of the Whedons have records, you know. Criminals. I just can't abide them. You know?"
"What kind of record?" Darcy asked, immediately interested.
"Breaking and entering, mostly." Giattano seemed very sure of himself again as he gave up this gossip, turning the attention from him to someone else. "I suppose that's why they're so good with repairing and installing locks, hm?"
Jon put his cell phone away and said, "I'm sorry, Darcy, we need to go. Thank you for your help, Mister Franco."
"Oh, anytime, anytime." With a sigh of relief that the conversation was over Giattano whisked into his office and closed the door behind him.
"He's hiding something," Darcy said to Jon.
"Probably, but it doesn't matter." When she looked up to ask what he meant, he whispered, "That was Belinda who called. She says the ghost is in her house right now."
"Jon, there is no ghost," Darcy insisted. "I told you that."
He took a corner too fast and Darcy could see the shocked looks on the faces of two people standing at the curb as they watched Jon's car squeal through the turn. Two people she knew. Two people who no doubt would already be calling their friends to spread the gossip about what they had just seen.
That crazy Darcy Sweet woman is at it again, they would say. Whatever.
"You're not a police officer here anymore," she reminded him, clutching the sides of her seat to hold herself steady. "You may want to slow down before you get yourself a ticket."
"We need to be there now." He slowed finally, but only to remember which street he needed, then his foot was on the gas pedal again. "Besides, Chief Daleson likes me. He said so yesterday when I spoke to him."
"You talked to the police chief? Here?" Darcy asked. "Why?"
"That's her house there," he said, ignoring her question.
They pulled over and parked on the side of the street behind a large green truck with oversized tires and a "Just Drive" bumper sticker. "Belinda said she was upstairs in her bedroom and could hear this ghost of hers downstairs. Can you go around to the back, and I'll come in the front? With luck we'll catch whoever's masquerading as her dead husband by surprise."
Darcy started to say yes, then corrected herself. "Wait. I have a better idea."
When she heard Jon crashing in through the front door, making just as much noise as he could, yelling "Police officer! Don't move!" at the top of his lungs, Darcy readied herself.
Jon always did know how to make an entrance.
Bare seconds passed as Darcy stared at the metal hatchway doors leading up from the basement of the Franco home. She counted them off in her head, and when she got to twenty-eight, the doors swung upward very slowly, and very silently.
Darcy had taken up a position at the back corner of the house, where she would be able to see those doors when Belinda's "ghost" tried to make his—or her—escape. Sure enough, someone dressed all in black was coming up through those doors now, obviously trying to rush and to be silent at the same time. From black hiking boots to a puffy black ski jacket to a black mask with material covering even the eyeholes and mouth, the person was so covered up that Darcy couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman.
"Stop right there!" she called out, jumping out from her hiding spot, raising an accusing finger. "Jon! Jon, they're out here!"
The person turned, apparently stunned with disbelief at being caught, and for just a moment hung suspended like a statue.
Then they turned and ran.
Darcy was surprised. Then she was angry with herself for being surprised. How many times would it take for her to remember that telling someone not to move was the quickest way to get them to run?
It wasn't until the next second when Darcy's brain put her legs in gear and she started chasing after the person in black. Jon came out the back door at exactly that moment and Darcy pointed ahead of her at the retreating form. Jon took off like a shot, but Darcy had the sinking feeling that it was already too late.
Unfortunately her hunch proved to be correct. Through a hedge row on the next property over they ran, tailing the mysterious figure in black, Darcy's arms being mercilessly scratched up by the branches of shrubs that were taller than she or Jon. When they came out the other side, their suspect was nowhere to be seen.
They were in someone's back yard, a wide expanse of carefully mown grass. Darcy could hear street noises off to her right, and then a car door slammed and a vehicle drove away. She didn't need to see it to know that was their suspect driving away.
"He got away," Jon said, repeating her thoughts, panting for breath. It had been a short sprint but they had given it their all. It just hadn't been good enough.