When I walked through the door marked “Sheriff,” Grant was standing with his hands behind his back staring at the falling maple leaves outside his window. I could tell by the set of his shoulders that he was unhappy about something. His tone was as cold as the near-frost conditions which registered on my car.
“Hello, Darcy.”
I spoke to his back. “Hi, Grant. Looks like you’re deep into solving the world’s problems this morning.”
His blue eyes shot sparks when he turned to look at me. His expression was not just cold but was downright furious. “Darcy, tell me that what I just heard about your meddling in the Worth case isn’t true.”
After stepping all the way into his office, I closed the door behind me and sat down in a straight wood chair facing his desk. Gossip in Levi was faster than any form of technology.
“Not meddling, Grant; gathering information. And am I right in surmising that’s the reason you are upset?”
“No, Darcy, upset doesn’t even come close to the way I’m feeling right now. Here we are with one of the neatest disappearances in local history. The last sheriff and the OSBI couldn’t come up with even the smallest clue about what happened two years ago to Andrea Worth. So the investigation just dwindled away. Most of the people in Ventris County decided she just left old Gary. It became a cold case on state records, and as far as civilians like you are concerned, that’s the way it should stay. Why did you go to Dilly’s and start nosing around? Are you expecting somebody to walk right up to you and say, ‘Yep, I know what happened to Andrea Worth.’ It won’t work that way, Darcy.”
A stack of papers flew off his desk as he smacked it with his open hand. He was really mad!
“I just couldn’t believe it!” he continued. “A woman as experienced in crime reporting as you are knows very well what kind of trouble she may get into if she goes out and starts asking questions. What if Andrea didn’t just walk out on her husband? What if disappearing was not her idea at all? And, doggone it, Darcy, what if the person responsible for Andrea’s disappearance was right there in Dilly’s? I’ve been worrying about you ever since you came to Levi and got involved in finding out who killed poor old Ben Ventris. Maybe you couldn’t have helped being in the middle of that but . . . .” He paused and brought his voice down a few decibels. “Now you’re deliberately asking for trouble.”
My own hackles began to rise. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to purposely put myself in danger? You remember that I am, or at least I used to be, an investigative reporter. We’re not always the most popular people on earth. Once, somebody even threatened me.”
Palms down on his desk, Grant leaned toward me. His eyes narrowed. “Somebody threatened you? Who and when was that?”
Immediately I wished I had kept my mouth shut. “Um, well, it was a few years ago, in Dallas. I had snapped a picture of a man coming out of a drugstore after a robbery. It was my picture that confirmed he was guilty and sent him to jail.”
“What is his name and what, exactly, did he say?”
“I’ll never forget his name—Rusty Lang. His exact words were, ‘I’ll get you for this.’“
Grant shook his head. “That only proves my point. Why are you even interested in Andrea Worth after these two years?”
I tried to keep my voice calm. “I’ve recently found out something that may shed more light on Andrea’s disappearance. Don’t you think I’ve been at this sort of thing long enough to know how to proceed?”
“OK, Darcy Tucker . . . .”
“Campbell.”
“OK, Darcy Tucker Campbell, what are you talking about? What did you find out?”
“Sorry. I can’t divulge a source and this may not amount to a hill of beans anyway.”
He kicked his chair toward him and plopped down in it. “We don’t know where Andrea Worth is, but let’s just say for argument’s sake, there was something criminal. If that’s true, snooping around can be dangerous. Did you know, Darcy, that here in Levi the drug problem is getting to be pretty bad? Maybe somehow Andrea was mixed up in drugs. You don’t want to get in the middle of something like that.”
With the desk between us, we sat glaring at each other. Of course I realized that drugs were a problem everywhere, even in small town Levi, but it was sad that it was getting worse. There seemed to be no stopping the trafficking of drugs by unscrupulous people. And the abundance of the gullible who decided to try it just once amazed me. However, “just once” was never often enough.
“Pinocchio,” I muttered.
Grant looked at me like maybe I had lost my mind.
“The children’s story. Many times children’s literature holds lessons for grown-ups. In Pinocchio, boys who wanted only to go to Pleasure Island were gradually being turned into donkeys and didn’t realize it until they were hooked; I mean, it was too late.”
His frown deepened. “Yep, that would apply to drugs. But getting back to you—last spring, mostly through sheer luck, you and your mother managed to avoid ending up like Ben Ventris in Goshen Cemetery. I spent several weeks worrying and trying to get you out of harm’s way but would you listen? No! Not Miss Darcy, the renowned criminal writer.”
So maybe my idea of going through the sheriff’s files about Andrea wouldn’t work. Grant sounded anything but cooperative.
He picked up a pencil and tapped the eraser end on his desk blotter. “Andrea’s case was thoroughly investigated two years ago. That was when Art Grover was sheriff. He called in Steve Hopper from the OSBI. They came up with nothing. Zilch. In fact, Hopper is over in Tahlequah today about a different case. So, Darcy, I don’t know what you can hope to uncover.”
“I know Steve,” I said. “I consulted him a few times in Dallas. Is he at the Cherokee County Courthouse?”
“Don’t get any ideas, Darcy. He probably has already gone back to the city. I don’t want you and Miss Flora meddling in the Andrea Worth mystery.”
Steve! Of course. How convenient that he was nearby. He had the enviable ability to file things away in his memory bank for years.
“We didn’t ask to be involved in the Ben Ventris murder last spring, Grant. We just couldn’t seem to not be involved. It all turned out all right in the end, you’ll have to admit.”
He reached across the desk and laid his hand over mine. “If you won’t consider your own safety, think of your mother. She could be in danger, too. For her sake and my own peace of mind, I sure do hope that you don’t start up your own investigation. Surely you know how I feel about you, Darcy, and how I’ve felt about you since you were sixteen years old. Just drop this crazy idea.”
My heart seemed to be choking me and I felt my face grow warm. When I was sixteen, Grant was my first boyfriend. He was my date for the prom and he had kissed me beside the peony bush in my parents’ front yard. I had been very sure that I was in love with tall, handsome Grant Hendley. That was before Jake Campbell came into my life. I didn’t want Grant to look at me the way he was. I didn’t want to hear what he was saying. A person can’t just turn back the clock and take up a relationship where it ended. When Jake died, my heart broke and I had learned how very painful love can be. I didn’t want to be that vulnerable again.
Pulling my hand away from his, I said, “I’m sorry, Grant, but this looks like something I’m going to have to do. I’ve got to find out for sure what happened to Andrea. If she ran off, she’s bound to be somewhere. I’m going to try to find her. If she met with foul play, well—maybe at least I can help her mother find some peace.” I scooted my chair away from his desk and headed toward the door.
“Yes.” His voice was quiet. “And you may even get yourself killed, Darcy Tucker.”