Shadow in the Pines

by PJ Nunn

  As she rocked back on her heels to give her back some relief, Dani felt the boards move beneath her. Shifting her weight, she felt them move again. Curious, she turned around and pressed down on the board with the palms of her hands, surprised to see the boards come up on the other end. There was a whole section of floor in the corner that wasn’t fastened down.

  Unwilling to leave a job half done, she scurried up the stairs again for a tool box from the garage and a flashlight to help the dim bulb with illumination. When she returned, she set to work, using the biggest screwdriver she had to pry up the first board, hoping to locate the joist so she’d know exactly where to place the new nails. Buoyed by the fact that she’d seen few spiders or bugs all day, she flipped the board over as soon as it was loose, then fell back as a rank, decaying odor hit her in the face. Something was under the floor!

  Squinting the same way she did when trying to shield herself from a scary scene in a movie, she crept back up on her knees and shone the flashlight beam down into the hole. What the hell was that?

  The board was about four feet long, but only six inches across. She couldn’t make it out, but whatever it was, it was big, covered with cloth that was covered with mud. A little leery, she pulled up on the next board, which came right off in her hands. She still couldn’t quite identify the stench, but she knew what the cloth was - it was a sleeve, and that was a hand coming out of it!

  It took a minute to realize the screaming she heard was her own voice!

  In her haste to get out of the cellar, she slipped and fell three times going up the stairs. When she reached daylight, she had to stop for a moment and get her bearings. Rubbing a trembling hand over her eyes, she ran to the back door and grabbed up the phone in the kitchen.

  The message on his answering machine reminded her that Noah was out of town. Damn him! He wouldn’t be much help from Atlanta. Still shaking, she dialed 911 and tried to keep her voice from quivering as she explained the situation to the operator. That done, she grabbed her purse and sank down on the couch and dialed Noah’s cell phone number.

  “Russell,” he barked into the phone.

  “Noah,” even to her, it sounded like a wail.

  “What’s wrong?” the bark turned tender.

  “Noah, there’s a dead body in my cellar!”

  “What?” he thundered. “Dani where are you?”

  “I was cleaning the cellar and the floor was…”

  “Are you still in the house? Have you called the police?” he sounded frantic.

  “Yes, I’m still here and they’re on their way,” she said, taking slow, deliberate breaths.

  “Jesus H. Christ!”

  A wave of reality washed over her as she closed her eyes, hearing the frustration in his voice.

  “I’m sorry,” his voice took on a more controlled tone. “Tell me what happened.”

  “I was cleaning the cellar and some of the floor boards were loose,” she said, wishing she could see him while she told him. “I was just going to nail them…”

  “You couldn’t have waited until I was there?” he interrupted, volume increasing with every syllable.

  “Noah!” she yelled back at him. She didn’t call him to do this. “Why can’t I clean my own damn cellar?”

  Dani walked a fine line between enjoying the feeling of being protected by him and being annoyed that he acted like she was helpless. Bandit followed her to the door as she heard sirens coming closer.

  “They’re here, I’ll talk to you later,” she peeked out the curtains.

  “No! Hold on,” he said. “I want to talk to them.”

  “Just a minute,” she carried the phone out on the porch as the first squad car drove in and parked behind her car. Was she imagining it, or had the sunlight ducked behind an ominous bank of clouds? Was she seeing everything through a dingy, brown filter of death?

  “Ms. Jones?” the officer asked as he approached. Tall and stern, he reminded her of a State Trooper she’d once tried unsuccessfully to talk out of a speeding ticket.

  She nodded. “Noah Russell wants to talk to you,” she handed the phone to him.

  “Russell?” he spoke into the phone as Dani rubbed her arms to fight the chill that came from inside. “Yeah, I just got here……………okay ……… …okay………no,” he looked up at her. “Roger that,” he handed the phone back to her.

  “What?” she asked into the phone, wishing like hell Noah was here.

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can. You know where the key to my house is. Why don’t you wait for me there?”

  “They’re not running me out of my house,” she said, aware that the officer was waiting. “Noah, I’ll talk to you later.”

  After answering a few basic questions for Officer Wylie, she led him through the back door and out to the door of the cellar. He motioned for another officer to join him from the driveway and soberly instructed her to wait as they proceeded down the stairs. As if she could be coerced to go back in there.

  “They’re in there,” she pointed to the cellar door as yet another officer rounded the corner of the house. Bet they didn’t have this kind of fun every day.

  Rubbing her arms against the cold, she wandered to the back door and turned on the outside light. It was getting darker by the minute. Moments later, the three officers resurfaced, exchanging grim, two and three word sentences in subdued tones.

  Chapter Twelve

  At Officer Wylie’s instruction, Dani went back into the house to wait as the physical evidence squad moved in to unearth the body. She started a pot of coffee, then browsed through the refrigerator and cupboards, knowing it was time for dinner even though she was far from hungry. When the phone rang and she discovered Beth on the other end, pouting over a broken dinner date, she gladly agreed to meet her for a bite to eat and a late movie. Officer Wylie hardly seemed to notice her when she asked if it was all right for her to leave and she was soon on her way.

  El Chico’s was fast becoming her most frequented restaurant. Beth met her in the parking lot and regaled her with familiar nonsense as they were seated and proceeded with their meals. Although Dani knew she’d tell Beth the gory details of her afternoon, she enjoyed the normalcy of Beth’s chatter and was in no hurry to change the subject.

  “Too much,” Beth groaned, pushing away a plate of half eaten enchiladas. “Why do I always order this when I know I can’t eat it all?”

  “Because it makes nice leftovers?” Dani guessed, smiling. That was the fate of her own dinner. It smelled good when the waiter delivered it, but her stomach reacted to the first bite of her taco by sending out a warning gurgle and she’d only managed to finish a few bites of her rice.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you or do I have to start guessing?” Beth asked.

  “You’ll never believe it,” Dani warned, then launched reluctantly into an abridged account of the day’s activities. When she got to the part of her discovery in the cellar, Beth’s eyes were like saucers and she gasped audibly.

  “Oh my God,” she said in hushed tones when she could speak.

  “I’m sayin’,” Dani sighed, subdued by the new onslaught of confusion and anxiety that came with telling the tale. Beth’s bubbly, non-stop conversation during their meal had helped her forget, but talking about it again threw it right back up in her face.

  “I told you that house is haunted!” Beth hissed. “What are you going to do?”

  “What can I do?” Dani shrugged. “Besides, the house didn’t bury that dead body.”

  “I wonder who it is?” Beth said with a sparkle in her eye. “Ooh! I bet it’s one of those students that disappeared!”

  “Beats me,” Dani had to smile at her perverted enthusiasm. She could just imagine Beth reenacting the whole story with a healthy dose of literary license to anyone who would listen tomorrow. Encouraged by a smattering of oohs and ahs, it would no doubt grow more menacing and exaggerated with each telling.

  “Oh you know it is!” she i
nsisted. “Girl! You’ve gotta get out of that house!”

  “Oh, yeah, right,” Dani scoffed. “And live where? I bought the house, remember?”

  “Well, I don’t know, but how can you sleep there? Sell it!”

  Dani laughed out loud at that. “You want to buy it?”

  “Ooh,” Beth’s face fell. “Good point.”

  “I’m not moving,” Dani said. “It pisses me off that somebody wants me out of there. There’s nothing wrong with the house.”

  Beth looked stumped. “Well, at least get a bigger dog.”

  Anxious to change the subject, Dani mentioned the upcoming Rose Dance and Beth launched off into another direction allowing Dani to end the evening on a more upbeat note. The conversation ranged from who’d be wearing what to who’d be dating who and the two were giggling by the time they crossed the parking lot in search of their cars.

  Dani’s apprehension returned in full force as she turned her car toward home though. Her foot eased off the accelerator little by little as she approached the house, fearful of what she’d find. All sign of the squad cars had vanished and it looked like it did any other day. Purposefully avoiding so much as a glance toward the back yard, she let herself in the front door and carefully locked it behind her. Greeted by Bandit dancing around her feet and Charlie, who jumped up on the couch and assumed her customary accusing position for having been abandoned, Dani breathed a sigh of relief. In spite of all the unnerving experiences, she’d come to love her new home.

  After tossing and turning most of the night, Dani slept nearly till noon on Sunday. With concentrated effort, she kept her mind on schoolwork until time to dress for the dance. A quick call from Noah assured her he was on schedule and she finished her preparations feeling a little like a teenager getting ready for the prom. She was just putting the finishing touches on her hair when the doorbell announced Noah’s arrival.

  Dani hurried down the stairs, a little awkward in the heels she’d shunned for so long. His appearance at the front door took her breath away. Clad in a tuxedo that had to be tailored to fit, his eyes twinkled in the light of the porch and his hair was tamed into shoulder caressing waves that looked better than her own.

  “Ready?” he smiled down at her, amused by her stair.

  She nodded. “Do I need a coat?” The wind blew right through the crocheted shawl draped around her bare shoulders.

  “I’ll keep you warm,” he promised, sliding an arm around her shoulders as they walked toward the truck. “Sorry, the limo’s in the shop,” he teased, holding her arm as she stepped gingerly up on the running board to get in.

  “Right,” she mumbled, relaxing a little.

  A moment later, he was behind the wheel. He started the truck and adjusted the heater, then turned toward her. “You look marvelous.”

  Dani smiled, not knowing how much he was teasing.

  The country club was literally covered in roses. From the moment they’d entered the front door, chic fabric ribbons of royal blue dusted with rose petals led the way to the dining room and to the ballroom. Antique baskets filled with fragrant petals lined every available countertop and shelf in the rest room and every shade and variety of rose was represented there somewhere. The theme for the dance was Midnight in the Garden, and the decorating committee had done a lovely job of recreating the motif. Elegant latticework supported climbing vines of roses and the buffet table was generously appointed with containers of tea roses. Even the ceiling in the ballroom, darkened to a midnight blue, had tiny twinkling lights arranged in constellations of rose shapes.

  The band, reportedly a group from the college, did a fine imitation of the big band sounds and dancers enthusiastically embraced the swing dance craze. The whole atmosphere provided a welcome antidote to the dreary and cold gray skies that heralded the arrival of an east Texas winter.

  Dani breathed in the festive mood as she watched the dancers impatiently from a wrought iron bench along the side wall, one foot kicking softly to the beat of the music. She and Noah were just finishing a wonderful buffet meal when his pager went off. As he assured her he’d be right back, she offered to wait in the ballroom, drawn magnetically by the candlelit ambiance and music that wafted through the doorway.

  At one point, she thought she spotted Caroline Crane across the room, but she’d lost all sense of the urgency she’d felt earlier. There’d be time enough to track her down for questioning another day. All thoughts of pursuing the mystery of the missing students vanished as she drew in a breath of sheer pleasure at Noah’s approach from across the room. Reality would creep in soon enough. This was a chance for fantasies to come true.

  She’d seen his dress clothes in his closet once, but a quick glance at fabric on hangers did nothing to prepare her for the vision of his muscular form draped in a carefully tailored black tux. His every day appearance was so far removed from the country club society Mark insisted they frequent that she’d wondered more than once if that was why she was attracted to him. But seeing him now, she knew he’d put those doctors to shame on their best nights.

  “Sorry,” his voice warmed her like brandy as he extended his hand. “I didn’t mean to be so long.”

  Dani smiled up at him, taking his hand and suppressing a quick shiver of anticipation. “You don’t have to go, do you?”

  “I’m all yours,” he said with a hint of a smile as he led her to the dance floor. Maybe it was the caress of the music, or the feel of his hand warming the small of her back, but Dani felt like she was in heaven. As the music slowed and the evening drew to a close, she rested her head on his shoulder, wondering if there was a way for this to go on forever.

  ***

  The morning went by in a blur. It was nearing the end of the semester and everyone seemed anxious for the Thanksgiving holiday to begin. Dani’s last class was dismissed early with warnings to complete their semester projects by the time they returned next Monday. She’d spent so much time worrying about her microbiology project, the other classes had been neglected a little.

  With a sigh, Dani set her lunch tray down on an empty table in the corner and retrieved her spiral from the book bag. The course in question was Ethology, the biological basis of animal behavior. Topics to be studied include fixed action patterns, dominance, conflict behavior, and phylogeny and ontogeny of behavior, genetics and ecology of behavior. Fortunately, a lab research project wasn’t assigned for this semester. All she had to do was pick a topic and design a potential research proposal.

  Between bites of an overcooked hamburger, Dani referred to her class notes and jotted down the most interesting studies she could think of, wondering idly if she’d have time to get the bulk of this paper out of the way tonight. The last thing she wanted to do was spend her entire holiday in front of the computer screen.

  “Mind if I join you?” Joe Abraham’s voice interrupted her scribbling and she looked up in surprise.

  “Not at all,” she smiled. The cafeteria wasn’t even half full, and he had nothing but a cup of coffee in his hands.

  “Last minute research?” he quizzed, glancing at her notes.

  “Nothing like waiting till the last minute,” she smiled again, wondering why he’d sought her out. As she thought about it, she didn’t remember seeing him in the cafeteria often.

  “Those were the days,” he offered, looking casually around the cafeteria. “So,” he turned his attention back to her, leaning forward slightly, “how have you been?”

  “Good,” she nodded. “How have you been?” Shooting the breeze was never a comfortable thing for her. Why didn’t people just get to the point? Decorum, she answered herself, finishing the last bite of her burger.

  “Oh, I’m fine,” he dismissed the question with a wave of his hand and leaned in, adopting a tone that was barely more than a whisper. “I heard about the body they found in your cellar last weekend.”

  “Yeah,” she sighed. She should have known it would be big news in a town this size, but it had surprised her a little
to find it on the front page of the local paper. Thankfully, they hadn’t printed her name and up to now, no one had mentioned it to her.

  “That must have been terrible for you,” he continued. “Do they have any leads?”

  “I really don’t know,” Dani shook her head. “They don’t think I did it,” she tried to smile. All Noah had said was that it was a male and probably Thad Gregory, but she hadn’t pressed him for details. In fact, she didn’t much want to talk about it at all.

  “Do they know who it is?” Joe persisted.

  “The body hasn’t been identified yet, as far as I know,” she answered vaguely. Something about his intensity made her uncomfortable.

  “I see,” he murmured, leaning back in his chair. “What are you going to do?”

  “What do you mean?” she looked at him quizzically, trying to read the curious expression on his face.

  “Well,” he seemed discomfited, eyes darting around the room again, “I’d imagine it might be uncomfortable for you staying there after finding a snake in your house and now this…”

  “How did you know about that?” she asked abruptly. She hadn’t told anyone but Beth and Mike and hadn’t heard anyone else talking about it.

  He looked surprised. “Dr. Crane, I believe…”

  “Oh,” she said. Of course, Dr. Crane would know, since the snake was missing from the lab, but from the way he acted toward her, she doubted he even remembered her name. “Well, I don’t really know what you mean. There’s nothing for me to do.”

  “You’re not selling the house, then?”

  “No,” she said shortly, annoyed that he seemed so interested.

  Whether he picked up her cue or just got the information he came for, she didn’t know, but he stood to his feet.