Read Online Til Death Do Us Part (A Darcy Sweet Cozy Mystery Book 16) by K.J. Emrick - Free Book Online

been clearer.  It had been detailed enough for her to see it wasn’t her wedding at all.  It had been the Salvatore’s wedding.  Oscar and Florence, their happy memory of their wedding reception.
    “Sorry,” she told him.  “Sorry.  I just, I mean, I was dreaming.”
    “I get that.”  He smiled at her, then settled her back down against his chest.  “What time is it?”
    There was a clock on the wall but it was dark in the room now.  Darcy couldn’t see where the hands were pointing.  Someone, probably Ellen, had turned the light off for them during the night.  Or maybe Smudge had done it.  If Smudge could dance a waltz, why couldn’t he turn off the light?
    She yawned and stretched against him and felt the way he reacted to her.  Good.  She wanted to hear him catch his breath like that every time she touched him.  Forever.  That was a sure sign that he loved her.  It was better than flowers, better than candy or jewelry or…
    She scrunched her face up.  She was tired, and maybe she wasn’t remembering things clearly, but there was a detail from the dream that snagged at her.  Something.  What was it?
    Jewelry.
    The ring.  Yes.  In her dream, she’d been wearing an incredible engagement ring.  If the man she was dancing with in the dream had been Oscar Salvatore, that meant she had been looking out through the eyes of his wife.  Florence Salvatore.  This happened in her dreams sometimes.  She saw memories from other times and other people’s lives.  She learned things from her dreams.
    This time her dream had shown her a piece of jewelry.
    “A ring,” she said, sitting up, turning so she was facing Jon in the dark.  “Jon, I was right.”
    “Hm?  Right about what?”
    “The victims.  The dead victims.  They had things with them when they were buried.”
    “Darcy, what are you talking about?”
    She couldn’t see his face, but she could hear the confusion in his voice.  She slowed herself down and tried to explain it better.  “Why would someone go through all of the trouble to dig up people’s graves, then just leave the bones to be found?”
    “They didn’t leave them just lying around,” he pointed out.  “Whoever did this left the bones in boxes.”
    “No, Maven did that.  I think she found the bones wherever they had been left, organized them, and then she put them in the boxes.  Maybe she used dental records or whatever to figure out who the victims were, but she wasn’t the one who dug the bones up.”
    He took her hands and held them lightly on his knees.  “You’re jumping around a lot.  I’m not sure I’m following.  We were thinking that Maven dug those bones up, weren’t we?”
    “She didn’t do it, Jon.  She didn’t have a motive.  Someone else dug them up, and she found them.  Maybe she was going to do something about it but she died first.  Then the new coroner comes in and finds her work, finds the Salvatore’s bones in their boxes, and here we are with this mystery.  I think that fits.  But Maven Sirles didn’t dig up those bodies.  She didn’t have the motive.”
    “Okay, I’ll bite.  Let’s assume someone else dug the bones up.  Someone with a motive.  But what exactly is the motive here?”
    She smiled, putting his hand up to her face for him to feel it.  “The oldest motive in the books.  Plain, simple theft.  The victims all had valuables buried with them.  I’d bet on it.”
    He stroked her cheek while he processed that.  “It’s a good theory, Darcy, but how are we going to prove it?”
    “The church records we saw today, remember?  They don’t just show where each person was buried.  They give details of the burial.  Who carried the casket, where the person was embalmed, and what they were buried with.  For instance, Florence Salvatore was buried with her engagement ring.  It was gold with three diamonds in it.  That must be worth quite a bit of money.”
    She didn’t tell him that she hadn’t