Shadow in the Pines

by PJ Nunn

  “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.

  She’d stopped leaving the front door open after the cellar incident, and felt a rush of shyness when she heard Noah come up the stairs and ring the bell. Even though nothing had happened, it was still disconcerting to find him in her bed when she woke up. Carrying her dishtowel with her, she opened the door and headed back for the kitchen, turning around half way when she realized he was still outside.

  “Aren’t you coming in?”

  “Sure,” he wore an odd expression as he stepped just inside the door and stopped.

  “What’s wrong?” she felt her heart skip a beat.

  “You’ve already started dinner?” he asked.

  “Just getting ready to,” she said, trying to read the expression on his face. “Is something wrong?”

  He closed the door and rubbed a hand over his eyes as he moved to the kitchen table. “Nah,” he shook his head, taking a seat. “It’s okay. Can we go out to eat, though?” She saw the weariness around his eyes when he looked up at her.

  “You sure you want to do that?” she asked. “You look tired.”

  “I’d rather, if you don’t mind,” he said. Looking past him out the window, she saw his truck parked behind her car. Usually, he walked over.

  “Okay,” she said meekly. “I’ll just get changed.”

  She paused long enough to put away the vegetables she’d sat out on the counter, then dashed upstairs. Something was wrong; she didn’t care what he said. Trading her jeans for a pair of khaki slacks and a soft sweater, she stopped at the bathroom mirror to touch up her makeup and run a brush through her hair. A spritz of perfume and she was on her way downstairs, but didn’t find Noah there. He was waiting in the swing on the porch.

  “Ready?” he smiled when she came out the door.

  She nodded, following him to the truck after she flipped on the porch light and locked the door behind her. Sitting quietly, she stole occasional glances at his face as he drove into town. This was a side of him she hadn’t seen before. Usually he was almost childlike in his openness with her, something she hadn’t expected from a cop. But this, this was different.

  “This okay?” he asked, pulling up in front of Steak and Ale.

  “It’s fine.” Right now, it didn’t feel like anything was okay.

  The hostess that greeted them gave them forced congeniality and ushered them rapidly to a secluded room illuminated only by candles.

  “How’d you rate the private room?” Dani asked, looking at all the empty tables in the center of the room.

  “Gotta know the right people,” he smiled, looking a little more like the Noah she knew. A waitress materialized immediately, taking their orders and returning with iced tea for both of them. Dani noticed the girl’s eyes giving him the once over. He did look even more attractive than usual. Dark, and brooding. The tight jeans were the only pants she’d seen him in, but instead of the usual snug fitting T-shirt, he wore a dark blue plaid shirt, open at the collar to reveal a significant vee of deeply tanned chest covered with curly golden hair that beckoned for a touch. On top of that, he wore an old black leather bomber jacket that made him look like the quintessential bad boy every girl’s mother warned her about.

  “So, what’s up?” she asked bluntly when the waitress moved away.

  He surprised her again by pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. “Do you mind?”

  “No,” she shook her head, watching as he lit up.

  “I’ve been checking things out, today,” he said, exhaling slowly. “Looks like your boss was right to be worried.”

  “Really?” she perked up. “What’d you find?”

  “Thaddeus Gregory was a lab assistant for Ophidian, and he went to the police several times with ideas, apparently. They did check it out, but nothing came of it. Then, I found a note in one of the files that said he’d moved out of town, so I called to see if I could find him,” he looked serious.

  “And?”

  “He’s gone,” he said simply. “Never showed up anywhere. I ran his social and there’s been no income or activity since he left here.”

  “Well, shoot! What does that mean?” Dani was afraid she already knew.

  “I’ve requested his records from the university so I can get his family information, but according to what I saw, he’d been working steady from the time he was sixteen. It’s not likely that he’s alive.”

  Dani tried to process what she was hearing, staring absentmindedly at the smoke curling from the tip of his cigarette. “So, what’s your professional opinion of all this?” she asked.

  “I don’t have enough to open the case back up, but I think I’ll nose around a little bit.”

  She waited, but he didn’t say anything. There was something else bothering him, though, she was sure of that. She’d eaten half of her meal, barely tasting it, when he finally broached the subject.

  “About last night…” he said tentatively, causing her to look up from her plate. “I hope you don’t mind that I stayed. I shouldn’t have, but I was worried you wouldn’t sleep…” his voice trailed off.

  Funny, he didn’t look like such an old fashioned gentleman.

  “Noah, it’s all right.”

  “No, it’s really not,” he argued.

  “Noah,” she reached across the table to take his hand. “Just say it, dammit.”

  His eyes were drawn to hers and he stared into them for a long time before he spoke again.

  “I’m worried about you,” he said, finally. “And I want to be there to protect you. But do you have any idea how hard it was not to touch you last night?”

  In spite of the distress on his face, a smile tugged at her lips. If he’d seen her dreams, he wouldn’t be asking that question. Time to lay the cards out on the table?

  “So, touch me, then,” she said softly, prompting a groan from him.

  “You don’t get it,” he said roughly. “I could make love to you all night, but if I do, I’m done.”

  Dani wasn’t sure what she expected, but that wasn’t it. She didn’t even know what he meant. “You’re right. I don’t get it.”

  “How can I protect you if I’m not objective anymore? Hell, I sat up half the night wondering if I should pay Abraham a visit, just to make sure he didn’t mess with you! What kind of cop is that?”

  Dani had no idea any of that would even be an issue. Secretly, she felt a little thrill at the thought that he was jealous but he was too distressed about it to dare say anything like that.

  “So, what do we do?”

  Sighing deeply, he said, “I don’t know. I’ve tried to figure that out all day. Every time I decided I’d just back off so I could watch out for you, I’d remember how you looked last night, falling asleep on my shoulder. Then, when I saw you again tonight�
� I really don’t want to back off.”

  Candlelight from the table flickered in his eyes as he held her gaze, making them look like warm, clear brandy.

  Dani breathed out a sigh of relief. “Good. Then don’t leave me,” she whispered, fearing that’s exactly what he had in mind. “I don’t……… I don’t want to be without you, Noah,” she said, admitting it to him and to herself for the first time.

  He closed his eyes and she waited, holding her breath again until he spoke.

  “I don’t want that either,” he said softly. “Some tough guy, huh?” he grinned for the first time she remembered this evening.

  “Can we go now?” she asked, knowing she’d be in his arms in another minute, no matter where they were.

  Chapter Seven

  Dani wasn’t sure exactly when the decision was made, but she knew by the time they reached her driveway that she wanted to be with him more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life.

  It wasn’t really even a matter of choice, Dani told herself. It was more a matter of destiny. Any objections raised by her intellect were promptly overruled by her physical responses.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked, rolling up on one elbow so she could see Noah’s face.

  “I’ll never tell,” he teased, smiling up at her in the moonlight that shone through her bedroom window. “Are you sure about this?” he asked quietly, tracing her jaw line with his finger.

  “Make love to me, Noah Russell,” she whispered.

  ***

  “Girl! You look like something the cat drug up!” Beth laughed as Dani set her cafeteria tray down on the table beside her.

  “Well, thanks!” Dani chuckled. “It’s that damn microbiology class that does this!” It was the only class she had on Tuesday and Thursday, but she struggled more in there than in the other three combined.

  “Ralston’s a bear,” Beth agreed. “I waited till I could get Deaver instead.”

  “Yeah, well Deaver’s class was full by the time I registered,” Dani said. “If I can’t make Ralston happier than I am right now, I’ll be sure to get Deaver for the retake.”