Read Online Hiding From Death (A Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery #6) by K.J. Emrick - Free Book Online

Logic told her no.  It was dangerous.  It was illegal.  It was wrong.
                  And she was going to do it anyway.
                  After Anna’s death, Darcy had found the house key that Anna had given her.  As neighbors, they had checked on each other’s houses any number of times.  Darcy had put the key on her ring and kept it there, partly for the sake of having something of Anna’s to hang onto, partly because she had thought it might come in handy someday.  It looked like today was that day.
                  She fit the key to the front door lock, hoping Laura or the realtor for the house hadn’t ever changed the locks.  It fit, and the handle turned quietly, and the door swung open without any alarm.  Darcy breathed a sigh of relief.
                  She stepped inside quickly and then shut the door behind her.  Around her, the house was silent and still.  She remembered the whole layout, downstairs and upstairs, every room, every door.  The furniture, even, was still Anna’s.  She took a moment to remember her dear friend, then got started on what she was here for.  There was no way of knowing where Laura was or when she’d be back.
                  Darcy didn’t know what she was even looking for.  She just started looking.  Papers on the kitchen table were all about the sale of the house, and all of it was in the name of Laura Lannis.  There was nothing in any of the kitchen drawers but some silverware.  There weren’t any photos or pictures stuck to the refrigerator.  All in all, there was hardly anything in the house at all to show people lived here.
                  Laura, or rather Izzy, was travelling light.
                  The living room was the same, without even a photograph on the wall.  The downstairs bathroom had two toothbrushes and a tube of paste and handsoap and other things, but no personal items.  In the garbage, she found a discarded box of hair dye, dark black like Laura’s was now. 
                  Frowning, feeling like a thief, Darcy went upstairs to the bedrooms.
                  The first one she went into looked like it was being used by both Laura and her son.  A second bed had been set up, crammed in where there really wasn’t space for it.  That was odd, she thought.  It was like Laura didn’t want to let Alex out of her sight even when he was sleeping.
                  There weren’t many clothes hanging in Laura’s closet.  A few jeans, some shirts, and that was it.  Darcy bit her lip, embarrassed, but went through the dresser drawers anyway, telling herself she was trying to help Laura and she needed to be sure.  In the top drawer there was an opened pack of underwear, some socks, and a couple of bras.  Nothing else.  The other drawers were empty.
                  As she was about to shut the dresser up again she stopped.  The open pack of underwear was a plastic set of six like you might find from a department store.  There were two or three pair taken out, but the others were still there.  They caught her eye.  They were covered in cartoon fish.
                  Not really something a grown woman would wear, Darcy thought to herself.  She picked the package up to look closer at it.  They were cotton panties and the picture on the front showed a smiling little girl.  They were sized for a child.
                  Alex.  Laura’s little boy was really Izzy’s little girl.  What had Jon said her name was?  Lilly.  Lilly McIntosh.
                  Darcy put the panties back.  There was no doubt in her mind anymore but she couldn’t very well bring a pack of opened underwear to Jon and call it proof.  Especially since she wasn’t supposed to be in their house in the first place.
                  Even more so because she wasn’t trying to get Laura arrested.