Shadow in the Pines

by PJ Nunn

  Dani sighed. That was a fair question. “I’m sorry about that.”

  The waitress arrived with their meals and they both picked at their food in silence for a while.

  “I guess it would be better if we both knew exactly where this was going,” she offered, finally.

  “That’s what I’m saying,” he agreed. “Where do you want it to go?”

  “Noah, that’s not fair!” she protested. “You tell me first.”

  The muscle in his jaw started working again. “All right,” his voice was curt. “I care about you more than I’ve cared about anyone for as long as I can remember. I was willing to give it time… to wait and see if you felt the same way. But all this shit has forced us to get close in a hurry and I don’t like it when I feel you pushing me away. I’d rather be alone the rest of my life than feel like I’m straddling a fence and ready to be knocked off at any moment.”

  His words were weighted, pummeling her like stones. Dani chose her response carefully. “I know I do that. I’m sorry. But my marriage was a total sham. I believed him; I trusted him and he was lying to me the whole time. And I know you’re not him. You’re nothing like him. I love,” she caught herself just in time. “I love having you close and feeling protected but I’m afraid.”

  “Afraid of what?” he asked softly.

  “Afraid to be wrong when I trust you,” she said. What she really meant was she was afraid she wouldn’t live through it again.

  He nodded like he thought that was fair.

  “If it helps at all, I trust you more than I trust anyone,” she added miserably.

  “Dani,” he reached across the table and touched her hand. She met his eyes. “I understand. Just tell me one thing…”

  She nodded.

  “Would you still want me around if I wasn’t a cop?”

  “Uh!” That took her completely by surprise. “Of course! Why would you ask that?”

  “Just checking,” he smiled. From the way he visibly relaxed, her answer must have satisfied something lurking in there.

  “Noah,” she leaned forward and whispered. “I have an idea. Let’s go back to my house and pretend all this isn’t happening and you can pretend you’re not a cop if you want to.”

  “Ya think?” he grinned at her.

  “I think,” she smiled. “Now eat so we can go home.”

  ***

  The first sight to greet Dani in the morning was Noah emerging from the bathroom wearing low-slung jeans and a towel draped around his neck. “I’ve got to tell you, I miss the shower when I stay over here,” he said, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

  “Me too,” she said, rolling over so she could reach his back, unable to resist the temptation to give it a rub. “Maybe you should build me one.”

  He laughed. “Oh, sure. No problem. I’ll trade in my badge for a plumbing license.”

  “Gee,” she pretended to pout. “I thought last night you said you’d do anything for me.” Dani ducked when he tossed the damp towel at her.

  “A plumber, I’m not,” he assured her, getting up and crossing to the door. “Better get up, you’ll be late to class.”

  She made a face at his back as it vanished out the door, then rolled off the bed and headed for the closet. A quick glance out the window affirmed that it was still December so she dressed accordingly.

  The feeling of contentment that came from having an understanding with Noah followed her all through class and into the lab. Attendance was down as more and more students completed their semester’s work and she found herself alone in the lab with almost an hour to spare before heading over to Ophidian. With any luck, she’d have time to finish cleaning and storing the dissection tools that had been turned in. At this rate, all her work would be done long before next Friday’s deadline.

  “No class?” Joe Abraham poked his head in the door and looked around.

  Dani smiled and shrugged. “Most of them have turned in their finals. The others don’t stay long.”

  “Yeah,” he nodded his agreement. “Everyone’s anxious for the holidays.” He wandered in and perched on the corner of her desk. “How’ve you been?”

  “So, so,” she answered. “How’ve you been?” She knew what he was wondering but felt reluctant to discuss it with him for some reason. Maybe it was the glare of the fluorescent lights, but his face looked even more pale and drawn than usual.

  “I’m tired,” he admitted, but the look in his eyes told her it was more than that. “Of course, I’m always tired this close to finals.”

  She smiled. “Yeah. I only have two more to take next week, but I’ll be glad when they’re done.”

  “Well,” Dr. Abraham got up and nervously shuffled his feet, looking around the room. “Dr. Crane treating you all right?” His creased forehead contradicted the assumed casualness of his tone.

  Dani wiggled uncomfortably in her chair, then got up and started gathering her things. “Let’s just say it’s not the same as working for you,” she flashed him a smile she hoped would put an end to his questions.

  “He can be a little blunt at times,” he concurred. “You’re doing okay, though? No more snakes hiding at your house?”

  Dani’s head jerked up as if she’d been slapped. “Why would you ask that?”

  “Oh, no reason, just my pitiful attempt at humor,” he answered quickly and tried to laugh it off. “I better get back to work!”

  He scurried from the room as fast as he could without running, leaving Dani staring after him and shaking her head. As much as she hated to talk to Noah about Joe Abraham, it looked like she had no choice. His behavior was becoming too unsettling.

  When she reached Ophidian, she found a note taped to the door saying the lab closed early and work would resume Monday. Last night’s compromise with Noah included meeting him at the PD at six so she wouldn’t arrive home alone, but now she had an extra two hours to kill. Dani walked slowly to her car, then turned on the heat and sat idling, wondering what to do.

  Finally, she put the car in gear and started rolling toward the exit. Why not do what everyone else was doing? Noah promised to cut down a Christmas tree for her this weekend, but she could still go shopping for decorations and maybe some groceries for making cookies and candy. It was about time for a little holiday cheer in the log cabin, wasn’t it? With her mind made up, she pressed on the accelerator and tried to forget the problems that had plagued her of late.

  With festive decorations and jovial holiday shoppers, Dani caught a little of the holiday spirit and found herself enjoying the effort. Long checkout lines caused her to pull in to the police parking lot exactly twenty minutes late and just in time to catch Noah getting into his truck. Maneuvering her car to block the truck, she rolled down the passenger window and leaned over. “Hey! Bet you thought I gave you the slip again, didn’t you?”

  Noah frowned as he walked toward the car but it wasn’t convincing. He was obviously glad to see her. Leaning on the open passenger window, he looked at the collection of bags in the back seat. “Shopping?”

  She smiled. “I got off early and I knew I couldn’t go home.”

  He returned her smile. “You’ll probably want me to carry it all in, too, won’t you?”

  “Nah,” she teased. “We’ll let the elves get it.”

  “Right,” he chuckled. “Follow me.”

  Back at the house, Dani made a quick supper of soup and sandwiches while Noah carried in the bags then went next door to check his mail and pick up some clean clothes. They’d agreed he should stay with her for the duration. At least until her stalker was identified and stopped. She bustled around the kitchen, excited about the idea of stringing tinsel and lights while Noah was gone to work, then greeting him with fresh baked cookies and hot eggnog when he came home. Home. Funny how he seemed to belong there.

  She was surprised to see him come in the door with damp hair and clean clothes.

  “I took a quick shower,” he explained before she had a chance to ask. “
Let me stow this then I’ve gotta hit the road!”

  That put a frown on her face. He would have to work the first night after their new agreement.

  “You can at least sit down long enough for a bowl of soup, can’t you?” she asked when he came back down the stairs.

  He looked at his watch. “Half hour, tops,” he agreed.

  “Fair enough,” she smiled, pouring him a bowl then going back for another for herself.

  “You seem chipper enough today,” he observed when she sat down beside him.

  “I’m glad it’s Friday,” she said. “It was a pretty easy day and next week should be even better.”

  “How’s your boyfriend, the doctor?” he teased, putting a scowl on her face.

  “That’s not funny, Noah,” she said. “I’m beginning to think you may be right.”

  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.