Shadow in the Pines (28 page)

Cautiously, Dani approached the body keeping her eyes glued on the rifle still clasped within the motionless hands. When she got closer, she saw why Caroline carried the rifle the way she did. Blood covered her right shoulder and soaked most of the sleeve. It wasn’t visible from a distance because of the fading light, but up close, the contrast with the royal blue sleeve was easy to make out. Dani’s bullet hit her square in the chest and another stain was rapidly forming. Leaning over, she pulled the rifle out of her hands and carried it with her into the shed. If the woman was still alive, she wouldn’t be armed and she wouldn’t get far.

Not knowing what else to do, Dani dropped to the ground and sat beside Noah. Maybe she’d hear when help arrived. Right now, she’d done all she could do. She didn’t know how long she sat staring, or what she thought during that time. It was like her mind was on hold. Numb like the rest of her. It occurred to her at one point that she really should go for help, but there was no way she’d leave Noah. She’d die here with him in the dark if she had to but she wasn’t leaving. Besides, after all that had happened, she doubted if her legs would hold her up anymore.

She didn’t know how long she’d sat there. Time had lost all meaning. Even the chaos of her thoughts trying to make sense of everything slowly tapered off until Dani just stared at the fading light through the crack in the door. Realizing that daylight would soon be gone, Dani propped the door open a little wider and went looking for anything that might help. She found a firestick right away and was thrilled to see that it had lighter fluid in it. Still, she’d need something to burn. It was hard to tell in encroaching darkness, but that might be a lantern across the room on a shelf.

Memories of her own snake-filled shed not so long ago made it hard for her search the shelves in near dark but she didn’t want to risk using whatever amount of lighter fluid was in the stick. A low moan captured her attention and she turned.

“Noah!”

She flicked the lighter on again and held it where she could see his face. His eyelids were fluttering. “Noah! Noah, wake up!” she demanded in a voice louder than she thought possible. “Noah!” she prodded when he moaned again. Apparently he was coming around but still hadn’t opened his eyes.

Sweeping the lighter toward the corner, she looked for the lantern. It was there! Now, if only it had fuel in it! She could only hope that Caroline, if she was the stalker, had stashed it here to help her navigate the woods in the night.

With more energy than she thought she had, Dani scrambled over Noah’s legs and located the lantern, bringing it back to the spot she had staked out. She’d have to be careful of the flame, but she couldn’t even see well enough to light the thing without it. Holding the lighter what she assumed was a safe distance away, she located the wick and tried to free it with her other hand. Miraculously, it lit and Dani choked back a grateful sob.

Adjusting the flame, she was thrilled to see it illuminated the entire room. Positioning it so she wouldn’t accidentally kick it over, she turned her attention back to Noah and was shocked to find his eyes open, watching her every move.

“Noah,” she sighed. “You’re alive.”

“Dani,” his voice was weak, but lucid.

“Can you move?” she asked, fearing the worst since he lay so still.

“Head…hurts …like hell.”

“It’s okay,” she lied. She wasn’t sure anything would ever be okay again.

“I heard… shot…” he sounded like each word required supreme effort. “Did…you… get him?”

“Him?”

“Atkinsssss…”

Dani’s heart plummeted like a crashing plane. “I found Crane out back,” she told him in a trembling voice, “and I shot Caroline Crane. I haven’t seen Atkinson.”

“Shit,” he mumbled, struggling to rise up on one elbow. “We’ve… got to get out of here… he’s……… out there.”

Dani grabbed the gun she had laying on the ground beside her leg and looked fearfully at the darkness beyond the door. “Should I shut off the lantern?” she whispered.

“Turn it…down…not off…” he said.

“It must be after six by now,” Dani said, hoping. “Your friends should be here soon, right?”

Noah groaned. “Atkinson……… called…told them… I won’t be there…”

“He told you that?” she couldn’t believe it.

He nodded. Even in the weak light, his face looked pale.

“Tell me what to do, Noah,” she was out of ideas. Out of answers. Almost out of hope.

“Can you… make it…to the road?” he croaked.

“What’s the point?” she asked wearily. “There’s no help for miles. I’ll freeze to death before I get there if Atkinson doesn’t shoot me first.”

“Take the lantern……… and… set my house…on fire…”

Dani looked at him incredulously. “You can’t seriously mean that.”

“Yes……… Dani…I’m not okay……… and you’ll freeze… in here…we have to get……help…”

Dani considered what he said. Maybe he was concussed and not thinking rationally. There had to be a better way.

“But Noah, if I take the lantern, I’ll be a moving target for Atkinson. If he shoots me out there, they’ll never find you in time.”

“Turn it off……… light it…again…when you get there…”

As bad as she hated to admit it, if he was right and Atkinson called and told them Noah wouldn’t be in today, they might not come looking for him tonight. Meanwhile, Atkinson was still out there and ready to kill them both. And, she had no idea what Noah’s wounds were but it wasn’t hard to tell that he wasn’t doing very well. He might not survive the night out here, even if she did.

“All right,” she agreed. “Here,” she placed the rifle on his chest. “Can you use it?”

“Damn straight,” he tried to smile.

“Noah… I love you,” she said, hoping it wasn’t the last chance she had to tell him.

“Dani, I can……… beat that,” he managed a crooked grin. “I… love you…too.”

With great apprehension, Dani extinguished the lantern and held it in her left hand, wrapping her right firmly around the handle of the .38. She waited a moment for her eyes to adjust, then ventured to the doorway.

“Dani…”

She looked back over her shoulder, unable to see his face anymore in the darkness. “Yeah, Noah.”

“I mean it.”

Chapter Twenty Five

Dani slipped out under the cover of night, ignoring the glimpse of Caroline’s splayed legs still lying where they fell. Ready to shoot anything that moved, Dani picked her way carefully through the trees with nothing to guide her besides an image in her mind and an occasional glimpse of the moon peeking between the clouds. She hardly noticed the cold anymore and wondered if the beginnings of hypothermia had already set in.

The weight of the lantern was cumbersome, but the warmth it emitted when it brushed up against her leg was her only assurance that she wasn’t totally numb. Her body was certain it was well after midnight by now, but her intellect reminded her it was probably around seven. Stumbling and bouncing off trees she didn’t see until she ran into them, she made her way back toward the road, hoping and praying she was moving in the right direction. Pausing once in awhile to get her bearings and listen to the stillness that surrounded her, she was rewarded finally, with the sound of a car motor.

Holding her breath, although it wasn’t really necessary, she waited, wondering if it was help or the enemy patrolling the edge of the woods. A glimpse of headlights through the trees told her she’d gone off course and she redirected, aware for the first time that she had no idea what Atkinson looked like.

Driven by the hope of help, she hurried through the trees toward the road, knowing somehow she’d just have to figure it out when she got there. She might have a nervous breakdown for shooting Caroline Crane later, but right now it was pure survival instinct. If she had to do it again, she didn’t doubt that she could.

There was no sign of light as she approached the road, so she stopped at the edge of the trees and waited, hearing only the sound of her heart in her ears and the whish of her own exhale through the knit fabric of the mask she’d adjusted to cover her mouth. She could just make out the shape of her dark house in the hollow, so she turned right and followed the tree line toward Noah’s. She couldn’t picture herself actually setting fire to the house, but she had to figure out something. She wondered if she could blow up the truck and cause enough of a blaze to be seen by someone who’d care enough to call it in. On the heels of that thought came a mild chuckle that she was even considering such a thing seriously. Funny how priorities change and what seemed reasonable in a time of panic.

She stopped suddenly at the sight of a red glow near Noah’s house. Moving more cautiously, she soon saw that it was brake lights on a car in his driveway parked right behind the truck. She hesitated to cross the road, not knowing who might be in the car, but didn’t see any other option. Hoping she wouldn’t slip and go skidding across, she stepped tentatively out in the open and moved as quickly as she dared to the trees on the other side. Once there, she disappeared into their welcoming branches, making surprisingly little noise in the process.

Hiding inside the branches of an evergreen that lined his drive, she caught a glimpse of a flashlight shining around the front porch area. Was it Atkinson looking for her? She waited, relaxing a little as the flashlight edged toward the other side of the house. The car lights were still on. Could she make it to the car and get away, leaving him there? That would be a much better idea than blowing something up.

Silently, she crept toward the back of the car, still hugging the trees until she got closer. When she reached the back end of the car, she held her breath, prayed she’d make it and lunged for the driver’s door, jerking it open in one swift move, realizing too late that the passenger seat was occupied!

The man that stared back at her looked as startled as she felt, but there was no time for discussion.

“Out!” she ordered, waving her .38 at him and nearly choking on the blast of warm air in her face. “Get out now!” The car was already running. If he’d just get out, she could leave him standing and get to town for help. It really didn’t matter who he was.

But he didn’t budge, he just stared at her with his mouth open.

“I swear I’ll shoot you where you sit if you don’t get out of this car!” Dani was so intent on ousting the man in the front seat, she never heard the other man come up behind her.

“Drop the gun!” a heavy voice pierced her consciousness.

“No way,” she argued without looking back. She saw the man cast a nervous glance at his unseen partner behind her. “Just tell him to get out and I won’t hurt either one of you.” She was running purely on desperation and instinct now.

“Lady, I’m with the Tyler PD and I’m telling you again, drop the gun!”

Tyler PD. It took a moment, but it registered. Still, even if she wanted to, and she wasn’t at all sure she did, she was powerless to lower her weapon. “Show me ID,” she said, looking the frightened man dead in the eye. “Really slow, get your ID. I promise, if you shoot me, you’ll be sorry.”

A look that might have been recognition played across his face, but he reached slowly into his jacket. “I’m just getting my wallet, lady,” he assured her.

She wanted to believe him, knowing his partner most likely already had a gun aimed at her head. When she saw the familiar leather folder that housed his ID and badge, she didn’t even have to look at it. “Oh, thank God!” she sobbed, lowering her gun. “You came to find Noah, didn’t you?”

Vaguely aware of the other man drawing her slowly back out of the car while the one inside removed the .38 from her grasp, she sobbed relentlessly, not hearing a word they said. He propped her up against the car and frisked her for other weapons but she didn’t care.

“Lady! You mentioned Noah. Where is he?”

The name brought her back to the present. “Noah! Oh my God. You’ve got to help me. I can’t carry him! Oh! It’s you!” she grabbed the front of the man’s coat, recognizing him as one of the officers who’d come to the house when she found the skeleton in the cellar.

“Please, lady. Miss Jones, is it?”

She nodded mutely.

“I’m Officer Wylie. Try to calm down and tell me what happened.”

The words tumbled out in seemingly random order, but Wylie seemed to get the gist of it. “Get some backup and an ambulance out here,” he told the other man, still sitting in the front seat. “Miss Jones, can you take me to him?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “But Atkinson is still out there somewhere. If we light the lantern, he might see us and it’s hard to find in the dark.”

“Why don’t you let me worry about that?” he asked, moving to the back of the car and opening the trunk. Methodically, he removed his coat and pulled on a black vest, then pulled his coat back on over it and handed one to her. “I think this will fit over your coat.”

“What is it?” she asked, taking it from him.

“Kevlar vest,” he explained matter-of-factly. “Just in case. Ready?”

Dani nodded, anxious to get back to Noah, but Wylie was talking to the other guy who’d gotten out of the car and buttoning his coat. He joined them a moment later.

“This is Officer Huckabee,” Wylie offered. “Did you tell dispatch what we’re doing?”

“Yes sir,” Huckabee nodded, flashlight in hand.

“I’ll take lead,” Wylie said. “You follow.”

The three set off into the woods with Dani giving directions from behind Wylie’s broad back. They made it to the shed without incident.

“Wait here,” Wylie told Dani when they reached the clearing.

“I’ve got your back,” Huckabee said over her shoulder.

A moment later, she heard a muffled, “Clear,” from inside the shed, and raced toward the door before Huckabee had a chance to stop her.

“What took you so long?” Noah asked in a weak voice with that same crooked smile that kept her moving through the dark less than an hour before.

“Oh, Noah,” Dani ran to his side and sank weakly to her knees, caressing his face in the dim light that finally seemed less threatening.

“I’m going back to the road to direct them in,” Huckabee said behind her back. Dani was vaguely aware of the two men talking but only had eyes and ears for Noah.