Read Online Murder Down Under (A Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery Book 17) by K.J. Emrick - Free Book Online Page B

while Darcy and Jon stood there.  At first she thought he was a teenager, but his dark brown hair was receding and his face showed the lines that only came from years of laughter and deep thought.  Round glasses with dark rims gave his oval face an owlish appearance.  He wore black slacks and a black short sleeved shirt with a reverse collar, marking him as the church’s pastor.
    In his hand was a watering can, still dripping from the spout.  He raised his other hand in greeting and then wiped sweat from his brow.  “You must be tourists to our little town here,” he said.  “Lost, are ya?”
    “A bit,” Jon admitted.  “We’re looking for Humes Street?”
    “Not so lost after all,” the pastor reassured them.  “Although I do recommend heading to church whenever you feel lost.  Glad you found me.  You need to go up Main Street that way, and take your second right turn.  Humes is the next street.  A dead end.  Are you looking for someone?  I know everyone in town, if I can help.”
    “Oh, let them go already, Jonas,” the man standing in front of the doorway of the church said to the pastor.  It was the tall man with the gaunt face who had waved to Roy’s taxi yesterday.  He was standing in the same place that Darcy had seen him, holding the same wooden cane with the rounded handle, wearing dark clothes again.  His face was clean shaven, his gray hair combed straight back from a high forehead.  He winked at Darcy.  “They’ve got important things to do.”
    “Well we are in kind of a hurry,” Darcy had to admit.  If Jonas was the pastor, with his reverse collar, maybe this other man was the assistant pastor.  He certainly had the kind eyes and easy smile she would expect from someone who spent their time ministering to the needs of others.
    “I see,” Pastor Jonas said with a nod.  “Young people.  Always in a rush.  Like a wallabee hopping around.”
    “You’re Pastor Albright?” Jon asked.
    “Yes I am, although it’s Reverend not Pastor,” he corrected. “I am the minister at the church here.  Feel free to come down while you’re visiting us here in Lakeshore.”
    “We just might do that,” Darcy said, although her thoughts were already on finding Humes Street.  “Thank you, Jonas.”
    The pastor seemed surprised.  “I don’t believe I told you my first name, Miss.”
    Darcy thought back through their conversation.  “No.  He did…”
    She was pointing at the empty front steps of the church, where the tall man had stood, and was now gone.
    “Who did?”  Pastor Jonas asked.  “I don’t see anyone.”
    “I don’t know who it was.  He was tall, with gray hair.  Using a cane?”
    The pastor’s face went very pale, and he turned to stare at the church door again, as if he’d just seen a ghost.
    Jon thanked the man again.  They left him standing there, and started down the street in the direction he had given them.
    Darcy felt tingles running up and down her spine.  Pastor Albright’s church wasn’t as empty as he might think.
    Humes Street was easy enough to find, once they knew where to look.  A dead end street with exactly three houses on it.  The last one at the end wasn’t much different than the others.  A single story home, with a plate glass window facing a small yard littered with pine needles from the trees growing just past the edges of the pavement.  The white of the exterior walls was bright and clean, like it had been painted only recently.  Darcy could see flowers of different colors drooping along the front, beginning to wilt as the seasons changed.
    Heavy blue curtains were drawn across the window so they couldn’t see inside, but a beat up Volkswagen hatchback was in the driveway.  Someone was home.
    The door opened before they even got to the short set of front steps.  A slender young woman stood glaring at them, dressed in khaki shorts and leather cowboy boots that had pink fringe on them.  Her shirt matched, with pink