Shadow in the Pines (18 page)

His boyish grin was immediately replaced with a frown. “What happened?”

Without mincing words, she described the incident in the lab.

“He asked if you’d found any more snakes?”

“Something like that, yeah,” she admitted. “Weird, huh? Or am I just paranoid? He said he was making a joke.”

Noah shook his head. “It’s not funny.”

“No,” she agreed. “I still don’t think he has anything to do with it, though.”

He shot her a knowing glance. “You don’t think anyone you know had anything to do with it.”

He had her there. They’d discussed it several times and she could see his logic, but still. The thought that she could talk to someone face to face and they’d pretend to be nice then turn around and leave snakes and threats at her house was more than she could comprehend.

“Hey!” she jumped up suddenly, remembering the yarn she’d forgotten to show him yesterday. “I forgot to tell you…” she retrieved the red scrap from her pocket and laid it triumphantly beside his bowl. “I found this across the road yesterday, right in the same area where I thought I saw a flash of light.”

Noah picked it up and examined it, then looked up at her. “You
forgot
?”

She shrugged. “I don’t think it was there the last time I went over there looking for Bandit. I’d have seen it.”

“Exactly where was it?”

“Stuck on a bramble bush.”

He looked closely at the scrap of fabric, rubbing it gently between his fingers. “So your stalker bundles up in the cold, huh? Does your boyfriend wear a red scarf?”

Dani’s mouth dropped open. “No, but I know someone who does, or at least did a couple of days ago.” She recounted the brief altercation between Emil and Mike at Ophidian the same day Mike discovered the copperhead missing.

“What was the fight about?” Noah asked.

“I don’t know, the snake I guess. Emil’s not a real friendly guy.” It suddenly dawned on her that she was speaking of the man Beth compared to Antonio Banderas.

“What?” Noah must have seen the change in expression.

“Emil just started dating Beth,” she said.

A strange expression flitted across his face. “Your best friend on campus.”

She nodded.

“What’s his whole name?” Noah pulled a spiral notebook out of his pocket.

“Emil Betancourt,” Dani said, remembering the numerous reports she’d typed with his name on them.

“I’ll check him out,” he said as he finished writing and stuck the spiral back in his pocket. “I’ve got to go,” he smiled softly, taking her hand and pulling her out of the chair. “Walk me to the door?”

Dani got up and slid an arm around his waist, then stopped and kissed him. “How late will you be?”

“Too late,” he stroked the side of her face with one finger, then leaned down to kiss her again. “Do me a favor, be good while I’m gone, okay?”

Chapter Sixteen

With the last of her finals behind her, Dani was all too ready for school to be over. It hadn’t been as difficult as she’d feared, going back to school after so many years. In fact, she’d enjoyed it for the most part. But she’d found, being older, she had far less tolerance for completing studies that had little relevance to her chosen career aside from the resultant diploma.

With the students all gone, Dani made quick work of cleaning the lab then sat down at her desk to finish grading the papers that had been collecting the last few days. It was her least favorite part of the job and, as such, the one she postponed until the last possible moment.

“God! I am so glad that’s done!” Beth swooped dramatically into the lab and flung herself down in a chair adjacent to Dani’s desk.

Dani looked up with a smile. “Finished?”

Beth rolled her eyes. “Finally! I swear I wish I didn’t have to do this next semester!”

“Oh, come on, it’s not that bad,” Dani said. Everything for Beth was melodramatic.

“The hell it’s not! These kids don’t have a clue! They’re just selfish and lazy and incompetent,” she snapped.

Dani laughed. Beth seemed hardly more than a kid herself.

“So, give me the scoop,” Beth leaned suggestively toward the desk, blue eyes wide. “How are things with Wonder Detective?”

Dani sighed. “Fine,” she offered a small smile.

“Fine!” Beth scoffed. “Details, I want details! Are you engaged yet? Is he buying you a ring for Christmas?”

“Whoa!” Dani laughed. “Who said anything about getting engaged?”

“Come on, Dano,” Beth shot her a knowing look. “You’re obviously crazy about the guy and you’re not getting any younger.”

“Geez, Louise!” Dani laughed again. “You’re more obsessed with him than I am!”

“In your dreams, Dano,” Beth chuckled. “I’ve seen how he looks at you. You’re in denial.”

Dani thought about that. Beth probably had a point. She was aware that Noah seemed to be waiting for a commitment she just couldn’t give and the idea troubled her. What if she waited around for too long and he moved on? What would she do without him? She sat up and started gathering the stack of papers she’d already graded, separating them from the rest of the stack. She didn’t want to think about that.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Beth asked.

“It’s too soon,” Dani tried to blow it off.

“For him or for you?”

“Damn, Beth! Give it a rest, will you?”

Beth smiled. “Don’t wait too long. You don’t want this one to get away.”

Dani looked up and locked eyes with her, ready to do battle, but Beth’s expression discouraged that and she sighed. “I just don’t want to get burned again.”

Beth’s expression softened. “Honey, we’ll all get burned again, sometime, somehow,” she said knowingly. “The point is, who better to be burned by?”

Dani smiled and shook her head. “There’s logic.”

“I mean it!” Beth insisted. “What if he’s the real thing and you never know because you’re afraid to try? What a loser.”

“Great,” Dani chuckled. “Now I’m a loser. You’re a good friend, Beth.”

“You know what I mean,” she rolled her eyes.

“I get your point and I’ll consider it,” Dani said, reaching for the drawer that contained her grade book. “Now get out of here and let me post these grades so I can go, too.”

With an exaggerated sigh, Beth got up and started for the door but Dani’s shriek stopped her in her tracks.

Dani’s hands shook as she sat staring at the drawer she’d just opened and slammed shut.

“What?” Beth asked, approaching the desk.

Dani didn’t take her eyes off the drawer. “There’s a snake in that drawer.”

“Oh, God,” Beth sounded disgusted. “I told you, these kids are so juvenile.” She moved around the desk and reached for the drawer.

“No!” Dani yelled, stopping her. “It’s alive. I think it’s a copperhead!”

“Dano, you’ve lost it. Nobody would put…” her voice trailed off as she examined Dani’s face. “Who would put a copperhead in your drawer?”

“Just watch the drawer,” Dani instructed, reaching for the phone to dial Ophidian.

“Let me talk to Mike,” she instructed the girl who answered. She must have sounded important enough or urgent enough. The girl dropped the receiver on the desk and Dani heard her from a distance calling Mike’s name. After what seemed an eternity, she heard heavy steps approaching the phone.

“What?” Mike’s voice was sharp.

“Mike, it’s Dani. I need you to come to Biology Lab 4 right now.”

“What the hell for?”

“Are you missing another copperhead?” she asked.

There was a long silence. “Why?”

“Because there’s one in my desk. Could you come here now, please?”

He hung up the phone.

“Is he coming?” Beth asked as Dani hung up the phone.

Dani nodded, scooting her chair away from the desk but keeping her eye on the drawer. “You don’t think it can crawl out of there, do you?”

“Shit!” Beth jumped back at the thought.

Dani reached for the phone again, dialing Noah’s cell number.

“Russell,” his voice was a welcome relief.

“Noah, there’s a snake in my drawer at the lab,” the words rushed out.

“What? Are you okay?”

“Ye-es,” her voice started to quiver. “I’m waiting for Mike to come.”

“Which lab?” he was all business.

“Four.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Dani and Beth waited in silence, jumping when Mike burst through the door.

“Where is it?” he barked, looking mad as hell.

Dani pointed, then got up and moved away as he approached the drawer. Gloved to the elbows, he carried a cloth bag and a stick with a noose on one end and a Y on the other.

“I’ll just wait over here,” Beth said, moving toward the door, her freckles standing out in stark contrast to her ashen face.

“One of you has got to hold the bag,” he snapped, looking first at Beth, then at Dani.

“Hey, it’s your lab,” Beth told Dani.

Great. Dani tentatively reached for the bag Mike held out, then spied the trashcan beside the desk. “How about if I put the bag in there?” she asked, dumping the trash on the floor then lining it with the bag Mike gave her and scooting it over beside him.

Mike shot her a withering glance, but didn’t argue. Slipping the end of his stick through the drawer handle, he slowly opened the drawer to reveal a small copperhead, coiled atop the grade book, watching them with tongue flicking.

“Beth,” Dani spoke softly to avoid startling the snake any further, “watch for Noah so he doesn’t storm in here and scare it.”

“Don’t let anyone else in here,” Mike added.

Beth nodded and slowly opened the door, stepping back into the hall while keeping her eyes on the desk. Mike moved slowly, trying to catch the snake’s riveting head in the noose, but it eluded him, hissing and striking with a force that caused Dani to jump. Patiently, he tried again, finally pinning the snake in a corner of the drawer with the Y end of the stick.

“You’re not going to touch it, are you?” Dani asked, horrified, as he reached for it with his free hand.

“Would you rather I left it here?” he asked sarcastically.

Dani’s blood ran cold as he moved swiftly, grasping the snake securely just behind the head and lifting it from the drawer.

“Get the bag,” he said through clenched teeth.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Noah come through the door, approaching slowly. “I’ve got it.” Swiftly and silently, he moved around the desk and grabbed the bag from the trashcan, holding it open for Mike to lower the snake. A moment later, the bag was closed, undulating silently on the floor beside the desk.

“What the fuck happened here?” Noah asked sharply, looking first at Dani, then at Mike.

“I was just going to get my grade book and I found it there in my drawer,” she pointed to the open drawer.

“Is it one of yours?” Noah asked Mike who nodded grimly. “Who touched the drawer?”

“No one but me,” Dani said, remembering that Mike used the stick to open it.

“Copperhead, right?” he asked Mike who nodded again. “Where’s your boss?” he turned to Dani.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him today,” she said, looking over at Beth.

“Me either,” Beth spoke from the doorway. “Listen, can I go now?”

Noah looked over at her. “Were you here when she found it?”

Beth nodded.

“Then you’ll need to stay.” He reached for the phone and called for a squad car. “Stay here, all of you,” he instructed, then strode from the room. When he returned, he had a pale-faced Joe Abraham and a campus security officer in tow. Two uniformed police officers appeared a moment or two later.

“All right,” Noah said sternly. “Let’s get some answers.”

The inquisition, as Dani referred to it, lasted the better part of two hours. When it was over, against Noah’s advice, Dani insisted on going back to Ophidian to help Mike close up the lab for the holidays. She was sure she’d hear about it later, but she was numb right now. She wanted to finish her work then never go back there again.

When she left with Mike, Noah was still questioning Joe and Beth about who had access to a locked lab.

“Well, that was festive, wasn’t it?” she said to Mike, wearily dropping her book bag on the table in the file room.

He grunted in response but didn’t answer as he headed off down the hall with the snake bag in hand. The place was eerily quiet, with most of the employees already gone for the holiday. Dani was finishing the last of her reports when she looked up to find him in the doorway.

“Can I see those?” he nodded at the report file. Dani handed it to him and he scanned the pages, his expression growing darker with each one.

“What?” she asked.

“Something’s not right,” he handed it back to her, then reached for another. “Count how many Madagascar Hognose we should have.”

“Sure,” she opened the file and pulled out her notepad, making little stick marks to tabulate each group. They worked in silence for a few minutes, with Mike doing the same thing on another file.

“Shit!” he said, causing her to look up.

“What?”

“How many do you have?” he looked at her.

“Um…” she tallied it up in her head, “looks like eight mature and twenty-seven in nursery,” she said.

“No way!” he jumped up from the floor and took off down the hall. Ignoring her instincts to avoid the labs whenever possible, she followed him and found him in lab seven counting out loud.

“What’s wrong, Mike?” she asked, hovering just inside the door. He motioned for her to be quiet and continued counting, turning toward her as he finished the last tank.

“Is that the file?” he came toward her with his hand outstretched.

Nodding, she handed it to him, watching as he checked each tank again. “No fucking way,” he turned to her with a stricken look on his face, then snatched up a file laying on the table beside him and brushed past her through the door. Reluctantly, she followed him again, pausing momentarily as she realized that he’d entered lab twelve, the only one where they kept venomous reptiles. Ophidian housed and bred a large variety of snakes, but the Southern copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), was the only venomous one.

“Mike, what’s wrong?” she asked again, noting that a ghostly pallor had replaced his usually ruddy complexion.