Shadow in the Pines (7 page)

“That would be nice, thank you,” he smiled politely. She left him wandering aimlessly in the living room, glad she already had a pot made. In the kitchen, she ran fingers through her hair and tried to check for runaway makeup in her reflection on the side of the toaster. Running a finger under each eye to clean any stray smudges of mascara, she grabbed two mugs and called, “How do you take yours?” She still couldn’t bring herself to call him Joe.

“Black is fine,” he called, sounding pleasant but a little tense.

Dani filled two mugs and joined him in the living room. Since he’d seated himself on the overstuffed couch, Dani handed him a mug and took a seat in the tattered armchair nearby.

“So, what brings you out here?” she asked again. He hardly ever came in her lab, so it seemed totally out of character for him to show up at her front door unannounced.

“Well, I was out this way and thought maybe I’d drop by…”

Surely he was kidding. In the neighborhood? Dani coughed to cover a laugh that threatened to escape. “Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say.

He laughed nervously. “That’s not true,” he admitted. Dani was amused to see a blush creeping into his pale cheeks. “I wanted to ask you about something.”

“Okay,” she said, crossing her legs and trying to look pleasant while Bandit sniffed curiously around the legs of their visitor.

He sat nervously on the edge of the couch, resting his elbows on his knees. “I’ve heard you’ve been asking questions about the students that disappeared six years ago.”

This was an unexpected development. It hadn’t even occurred to her to ask him about it. Dani shifted, leaning forward slightly to get a better look at his face. “Do you know about that? Were you here then?”

“I started at the lab the year before it happened,” he said, fidgeting in his seat. “You seem like a nice person…”

Never one to beat around the bush, she couldn’t help herself. “Joe, just say it - tell me what’s on your mind,” she said bluntly, smiling a little to take the edge off.

“I’m probably making way too much of this,” he said, “I just…” He pulled at his tie like it was choking him. “After those kids disappeared, there was another kid, a lab assistant…he reminded me a little of you,” he smiled apprehensively. “He worked over in Ophidian, and he was a little older than the others and took his work very seriously. The whole thing bothered him a lot, and he kept asking questions.”

“You mean about the students that disappeared?” she asked.

He nodded. “Just wouldn’t leave it alone. He said the police weren’t doing enough to try to find them. Anyway, the last I heard, he said he was going to comb these woods himself until he found something.”

“That sounds logical,” she said, her mind working overtime. She’d had the same thought.

“The best I remember, that was a Friday. Monday he wasn’t there. By the middle of the week, I heard he’d moved away suddenly,” he stared down into his coffee mug.

“I take it you don’t believe that,” she said solemnly, aware of a tightening in her chest. He looked genuinely distressed.

“I don’t know what to believe,” he shook his head. “I had a bad feeling about it way back then, but I never said anything. But now………I just didn’t want to risk the same thing happening to you.”

Dani was touched by his concern, but didn’t like the feelings it evoked. Pictures flashed in her mind of the shadow between the trees this afternoon, and being locked in the cellar last week. “Wow!” she sighed deeply. “So you think I should just stop asking questions and leave it all alone?”

Somehow, being here in her living room, talking like this, Joe seemed much more human, more real. At work he was almost like an automaton, never tiring, rarely making a mistake. Sitting here now, he obviously had feelings and concerns like everyone else.

“I don’t know,” he looked up at her, his blue eyes filled with concern. “Sometimes I wish I knew what happened, too. Those poor kids,” he said. “And I understand the University wanting to keep everything quiet, but……… what are the chances of three students who all worked for Ophidian disappearing without a trace in a couple weeks’ time and it wasn’t related to the University somehow?”

“Didn’t I hear that Dr. Atkinson left not long after?” she suddenly remembered something Beth had said.

“Yes, he did,” Joe said, nodding. “That seemed a little abrupt, too, but I didn’t have much contact with anyone over there,” he shrugged.

“What about Dr. Crane? Was he there then?” she persisted.

He nodded again. “They were partners.”

“Well, you know him. Couldn’t you ask him about it?”

“No. I don’t know him that well, and he made it plain back then that he didn’t want to talk about it at all. In fact,” he rubbed his chin, “seems like there was some kind of problem with him even talking to the police when it happened.”

Already, the wheels were turning in her mind. Noah could get access to all those records, she was sure of it. Glancing up at the clock on the wall, she wondered what time he’d get home. It was already after nine.

“I better get going,” he got to his feet. “I’m sorry to intrude. I hope you don’t think I’m being too nosy,” he smiled.

“Not at all,” she said, standing. “I’m glad you told me. I’ll be careful,” she assured him.

“Good. Do you still want me to call Dr. Crane about you doing some work over there?” he asked as she opened the front door.

“Absolutely,” she smiled. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll get lucky.”

“All right, then,” he looked a little disappointed. “Good night.”

“Night,” she said, closing the door firmly behind him. What an odd conversation! First, he volunteered to talk to Dr. Crane about her working at Ophidian, then he acted like he didn’t like the idea. What happened in a few short hours to change his mind? There must be something more he didn’t tell her.

She’d already picked the phone out of her pocket and sat down at the kitchen table to call Noah when it occurred to her that she never heard a car start. Jumping up, she peeked out the curtain on the front window, but there was no car in sight.

Chapter Six

The jangling of the phone in Dani’s ear woke her from a surprisingly sound sleep. “Hello,” she mumbled, reaching for the alarm clock to see what time it was. Three o’clock in the morning!

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Noah’s voice through the phone warmed her all over.

“Noah, hi,” she smiled, snuggling back down under the comforter. Even though the weather was still reasonably mild and she hadn’t cranked up the heater yet, it got down in the 40s at night and she liked to keep the window open a crack.

“I woke you, didn’t I?” he asked.

“Duh,” she chuckled. Like she would be awake at this hour. “It’s okay, I missed you.” It was dangerous to talk to him in this half sleepy state. Her defenses were almost non-existent.

“I saw your lights on and thought maybe you’d waited up.”

“Oh, yeah,” she’d forgotten. Feeling a little nervous after Joe left, she couldn’t bear the thought of being alone with Bandit in a dark house, so she’d left the lamp on in the living room. “I guess I left the lamp on.”

“Is everything all right?”

“I’m fine,” she said. “I just felt a little nervous earlier. I thought I saw someone standing in the trees across the road, then my boss came over and I wasn’t expecting him…” her voice trailed off.

Noah didn’t say anything at all for a moment. “Want me to come over?” he asked finally.

“You don’t need to do that,” she answered. What she wanted right now was something else again. “Bandit would bark if anyone was out there, right?”

“Did he bark earlier when your boss showed up?”

She didn’t remember Bandit making a sound until Joe knocked on the door. “No-o, not really,” she admitted. She didn’t even know where the dog was when she watched the sunset out the window, but she’d have remembered if he was barking at something.

“Let’s try him out, then,” he said. “I’ll be right over. Don’t get up till I ring the bell.” With that, he hung up the phone.

Dani lay still in the dark, waiting. Bandit was asleep in his usual position at the foot of her bed. A few minutes later, she heard the crunch of footsteps on gravel, but Bandit didn’t stir. So much for her theory that Bandit might not be big and ferocious but at least he’d warn her by barking.

Trying hard to stay motionless, she listened as Noah made his way around the front of the house, rattling the downstairs window. She even heard the porch boards creaking beneath his weight before he rang the bell, but Bandit slept on. When the doorbell pealed, she saw him lift his head and cock it like he was wondering if he’d really heard something or was just dreaming.

“Some help you are,” she muttered, swinging her feet to the floor. She shivered when she opened the front door, this time from the burst of cold air that entered with Noah. The shiver was followed closely by a rush of warmth as he enveloped her in a hug, letting his hand linger near the small of her back as he followed her to the kitchen.

“He isn’t barking yet,” he observed.

“You noticed,” she said wryly. She put on a pot of coffee, then led him back into the living room and curled up next to him on the couch, tucking her feet up under her to keep them warm. “Where have you been?”

He looked as fresh as if he’d just started the day. If she’d been working around the clock like that, her raccoon eyes would have told the tale.

“I covered a surveillance detail for a guy who got sick,” he explained, pulling off his jacket and laying it over her lap. Draping his arm around her shoulder, he pulled her close. “Now, tell me what happened.”

“You know, I probably just imagined it,” she said, feeling foolish now that he was there. “Do you have to work early in the morning?”

“Nah. I’ll go in around noon, probably,” he smiled softly. “How about you?”

“My first class is at ten,” she said, grateful for that fact now.

“So there’s really no reason why you can’t stay here with me awhile and tell me what the hell is going on, is there?”

Dani loved the way his brown eyes crinkled up when he smiled and almost seemed to twinkle.

“My boss, Joe Abraham, came over around nine,” she said. “It was kind of weird, I mean, he’s never said anything personal to me at work at all.”

“So, he got personal?” he raised an eyebrow.

“No, not that kind of personal,” she nudged him with her shoulder. “I mean talk about anything besides work.”

“Just checking,” he pretended to be jealous. Or was he pretending?

“Do you want to hear this or not?” she teased. “Okay, then,” she continued when he nodded. “He worked here when those kids disappeared, and he said there was another lab assistant who thought they didn’t look hard enough for them or something. Anyway, the guy asked a lot of questions and said he was coming back out here to comb the woods himself, then he never came back to school. They said the next week that he moved away suddenly, but it was in the middle of the semester.”

His expression told her he was taking it all in. “Why’d he feel the need to come here and tell you all that tonight?”

Dani shrugged. “He said I reminded him of this guy, that I take my work seriously and all that. I think he felt bad because he never said anything back then and didn’t want it to happen again. But you know what else? This afternoon, he said he could recommend me to Dr. Crane for some work over at Ophidian, then tonight, he acted like maybe that wasn’t a good idea. Weird, huh?”

Dani watched a variety of expressions flicker across his face before it settled into his “cop” expression. To her way of thinking, it was a mask designed to keep anyone from knowing what he was thinking. She imagined there was a ticker tape of questions and possible solutions running directly behind his eyes. His appearance was deceptively casual but she knew his mind was always working.

“Interesting. Did you tell him you’d seen someone out there tonight?”

“No,” she shook her head.

“Did you tell him someone locked you in the cellar?”

“No, why?”

“Don’t,” he said somberly. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“Noah,” she pulled back a little and examined his expression. “You’re scaring me.”

“No,” he shook his head, frowning. “I’m not trying to scare you. I just need to look into some things.”

Dani laid her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. She was tired and it felt so good to have him here.

With twenty minutes before her next student was due, Dani took a chance and laid her head down on her desk. Even though she’d slept later than usual, she didn’t sleep well. Bizarre dreams kept intruding then receding from her memory, leaving her with vague feelings of unease and nothing real to blame it on. Every time the dreams came, she found herself alone in the woods running for her life from an unknown pursuer. To further complicate things, she’d awakened this morning tucked safely into her own bed with Noah fast asleep beside her. She must have dozed off on the couch talking to him last night. She didn’t remember anything else. At least they were both fully clothed when she woke. There wasn’t a chance in hell she could have slept through a session of lovemaking with him.

Lifting her head when she heard the door open, Dani smiled at Joe Abraham.

“Danielle,” he smiled back. For some reason, he insisted on using her full name, even though nobody else ever did. “Your student called to cancel for the afternoon. Here’s your schedule for Dr. Crane’s lab.” He laid a slip of paper in front of her. “You start tomorrow when you finish up here.”

“Oh, thanks,” she picked it up. Three days a week for two hours after her last Biology lab. Not bad. “This is great,” she smiled.

He looked as though he might say something, then turned to walk back to the door. Looking back over his shoulder, he said, “You be careful over there.”

“Yeah,” she said softly, gathering up her things to go home. Maybe, if she hurried, she’d have time for a nap before Noah came over.

Things didn’t go the way she’d hoped, though. After she’d changed clothes and let Bandit out for a quick run, she climbed into the bed, but lay wide awake for almost half an hour. Deciding finally that it was probably for the best, she went back downstairs to get a head start on dinner. If she slept this late in the day, she’d no doubt have trouble sleeping tonight anyway.