2 Mists of the Past by K.J. Emrick Page B

interrupted by a commotion in the outer office. Darcy could hear a man yelling. They went to see what was going on and found Wilson Barton, the night shift officer, trying to calm down an irate guy in a gray hoodie and blue jeans.
    It was Lily’s brother Robbie. “You let Lily out right now!” He was demanding at the top of his voice. Jon went over to him and put a restraining hand on his shoulder but Robbie shook him off. “I want to see my sister right now! You have no right to hold her, she hasn’t done anything wrong.”
    “Look, Robbie, is it?” Jon started to say. “You need to calm down. Your sister is being questioned and I know that you...” He was interrupted once again, this time by his cell phone ringing. He took it out and Darcy expected him to ignore it after looking at the caller display. Instead, he immediately thumbed the screen to connect the call. “Grace?”
    Grace? Darcy stiffened as she heard her sister’s name. While Officer Barton finally managed to escort the still upset Robbie out of the office, Jon finished his call and then turned to her.
    “Darcy…I’ve got bad news. That was Aaron. Grace has been attacked.”
    ***
    Jon took them straight to Grace’s apartment building. She was his partner, after all, and Lily wasn’t going anywhere. Darcy was grateful for his company.
    When they got there, Darcy pounded on the front door. “Darcy,” Jon said, holding her fist in his hands, “it’s all right. She said she was all right.”
    “It is not alright! Every time I get into these kinds of things, someone I care about gets hurt! Every time!”
    Aaron opened the door at that moment and Darcy flew past him into the neat, orderly apartment. “Is she alright? Where is she?” Aaron pointed towards the bedroom and Darcy hurried down the hallway to get there. Jon stayed behind to talk to Aaron.
    Grace was reclining on the bed with an ice pack on her forehead. Darcy was speared by alarm when she saw it. She dropped down into the chair next to the bed and immediately peppered her sister with questions.
    “What happened sis? Who did this? Should we call the ambulance?”
    “No, no I’m fine. Well, not really,” her sister said with a wince. “I was coming into the house when someone hit me over the head with something hard. Right at my door. Can you believe it?”
    “Did you see who it was?”
    She went to shake her head but then stopped herself. “No. I didn’t see who it was, I didn’t even hear anything. Aaron found me lying in the entryway when he got home a little while ago. We figure I was lying there for about twenty minutes or so, give or take.”
    “Oh, Grace.” Darcy was at a loss. “This is terrible.”
    “It gets worse,” she said with a sober expression. “Apparently there was a typed note lying on my chest when Aaron found me.” Grace handed the note to her in a plastic Ziploc bag.
    When you look into the past
You find nothing but strife
This warning will be my last
Stay out of a dead man’s life
    Lo ti distruggero
    Darcy’s breath hissed in as she read the note, the same type of note and bad poetry that had been left previously for Jon. “I’m so sorry Grace.” Darcy realized what had happened. When Grace went looking into Jon’s files, she must have alerted Kyle’s murderer. She was convinced now that Kyle had been murdered. If her spirit communication hadn’t shown that to her, then this did. No one would go through this much trouble over a suicide.
    “Don’t worry about it Darcy, all right?” Grace took the note back and read it over again. “I’m a police officer. It’s part of the job.”
    “I don’t think getting mugged at the door to your apartment by a psychopath qualifies as part of your job, Grace.”
    “He didn’t mug me. To mug me, he would have had to rob me after he hit me, and he didn’t. So thank God for small favors.”
    Darcy tried to smile but she didn’t find it very funny. “What about the ambulance?”
    “I’m fine,