Shadow in the Pines

by PJ Nunn

  After a few minutes, she headed back inside to fix something for lunch, going through the motions by rote. She couldn’t even tell what kind of soup she’d eaten if she hadn’t seen it on the can label. After lunch, she sorted through her dvd collection for a movie that wouldn’t be too painful to watch. It was more challenging than she anticipated, though, since everything she had was something she’d either watched with Noah, or reminded her of him.

  Finally, she selected ‘Outbreak’ and sat down on the couch, determined that she wouldn’t develop a fear of being reminded of him that would dictate how she lived.

  Although the movie was an old favorite, she hardly enjoyed it, but stuck it out to the end. When it was over and she caught sight of the tiny gift nestled beneath the tree, she got up and grabbed her coat again. Maybe she’d go out for dinner.

  Choosing a restaurant she felt sure Noah would never frequent, she ate alone, surrounded by diners full of holiday cheer. She felt like she was enclosed in a plastic bubble, able to see and hear everything around her, yet nothing touched her. She was alone with a pain that was nearly unbearable and there seemed to be no relief. More than once, she considered calling Noah. Telling him she was sorry and asking him to pretend it never happened. But that wouldn’t work. Sooner or later, she’d get to this place again.

  Unwilling to go home yet, Dani headed back to the mall. Not that she wanted to do any shopping, but it was a good place to get lost in a crowd. She stayed until closing time, wandering from store to store, taking a break on one of the strategically placed benches when her legs grew too tired. On the drive home, she felt a prick of conscience. Noah had stressed to her how vulnerable she was traveling these isolated roads alone late at night. Whatever her situation, some things hadn’t changed and that was one of them.

  As she pulled into the drive, she scanned the yard for any sign of Bandit, but there was none. Charlie greeted her at the door, rubbing against her ankles and purring ‘Naowwww’ no doubt to remind her that she’d not yet been fed. Dani pulled off her coat and hung it on the rack, then proceeded to the kitchen to put out some food for Charlie and fix a hot drink for herself. With the two new novels she’d picked up at the mall tucked under one arm and the Suisse Mocha mug in the other hand, she headed upstairs. The bed was no more welcoming than it had been last night, but she climbed in anyway. The lack of sleep from the night before caught up with her and she dozed off with book in hand and the lamp still on.

  Dani jerked straight up in the bed, not sure what woke her but certain that something had. A glance at the clock beside the bed showed her it was almost four AM. She held completely still, listening. When she heard nothing for a few minutes, she reached over and turned off the lamp, but sleep eluded her.

  Until now, she’d been so caught up in worrying about her failed relationship with Noah that she hadn’t given much thought to any impending danger to herself. Not smart. Before, she’d had Noah watching out for her. Now she was on her own. She wondered again about Bandit’s absence. He’d run off before, sure, but he always came back. It wasn’t like him to be gone two nights in a row.

  Tossing and turning, she wrestled thoughts of Dr. Atkinson, Dr. Crane, and Mike, interspersed with slide shows of Noah’s pervasive presence in her life and drifted off into a troubled sleep. Morning greeted her with a pounding headache and dark gray skies that promised snow.

  With thoughts of Bandit uppermost in her mind for a change, Dani dressed warmly and took off into the woods, hoping to find him before a snow storm endangered his life. Play was one thing. Getting stranded in freezing temperatures was another and the weatherman was predicting heavy snow and ice.

  Keeping her gloved hands tucked securely in her pockets and a stocking cap snug over her ears, she started her search across the road where he usually wound up, even though he’d disappeared in the back yard. Rustling wind and crackling branches encouraged her to keep her right hand around the handle of the .38 nestled in her pocket after taking it out to make sure the safety was still on.

  Against her better judgment, and Noah’s advice if he’d known, she proceeded deeper into the woods than she’d gone before, hoping that the cold weather ensured any snakes were hibernating deep in their nests. Although the sight of a reptile didn’t alarm her as much as it used to, she was by no means comfortable with them.

  There was no sign of Bandit, but her search revealed a small shed tucked way back among the trees. The door hung loosely on rusty hinges and the whole thing looked like it would collapse in a high wind. Dani scanned the area surrounding the shed, wondering if she was closer to another property than she knew, but there was nothing visible. Warily, Dani approached the shed and peeked through the door. The inside was clean and swept with nothing but a rickety chair propped against one wall and a battered Coleman lantern in the corner.

  Dani was so excited with her discovery, she forgot at first that she and Noah were not on speaking terms and had run half way back to the road with the intent of calling him before that realization struck a discordant note in her psyche. Slowing her pace, she trudged back across the road, casting a furtive glance toward Noah’s house as she passed her own and proceeded down the driveway to the back yard. Since this was the last place she saw Bandit, it was worth a look. She still wasn’t ready to be in that empty house alone.

  The wind had disrupted all of her previous leaf raking efforts, spreading a carpet of fallen leaves across the yard. Dani noted that the only place left uncovered was the area surrounding her cellar. Odd, when that was the place most densely covered when she first found it. The woods behind the house were much thicker and more difficult to navigate. It didn’t help that she’d not been this way before, so everything looked unfamiliar. It took more than twenty minutes just to get far enough in that she couldn’t see the house anymore.

  When the trees closed in so close together that it was hard to squeeze between without getting scratched, Dani reluctantly turned back, calling Bandit’s name every few minutes. The first snowflakes hit her cheeks as she emerged from the cover of the trees and she wondered what she’d done to cause the things she’d put such hope in to turn on her and leave her feeling so empty. She’d so looked forward to the first snow, almost childlike in her anticipation. Now all she could think of was that Bandit might be caught somewhere in it, freezing to death. Was nothing as it seemed?

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Hello?” Dani answered the phone call that interrupted her dinner preparations. Determined to make the most of her holiday, Dani already had a pecan pie in the oven, a pot of chicken soup simmering on the stove and was preparing a couple of pork chops to stuff and grill.

  “Hey, Dano, whatcha up to?” Beth’s cheerful voice warmed her.

  “Dinner. How about you?”

  “Nah. I’ve given up eating until I lose eight pounds,” Beth said, laughing.

  “Right,” Dani smiled.

  “Just dinner,” Beth added. “Not chocolate.”

  Dani laughed at that, an odd but welcome feeling. “You called to tell me this?” She held the phone between her shoulder and one ear, stirring the stuffing mix.

  “No, duh!” Beth pretended annoyance. “I’m calling on request. Have you heard from Mike?”

  “McKay?” Dani asked in surprise.

  “Yeppers.”

  “No, why?”

  “Because we can’t find him, silly. He was supposed to meet Kathy at Cheddar’s at six, but he hasn’t shown. When she called, his roommate said he never came home last night.”

  Dani’s chest tightened at the news but she tried to remain calm. “I haven’t seen him since day before yesterday,” she told Beth. “But, I rarely do and I don’t think he’s ever called here.”

  “All righty then!” Beth’s chipper voice said she wasn’t too concerned. “Talk to you laters!”

  Dani couldn’t shake a nagging feeling of growing dread as she finished cooking her dinner. Suspicious thoughts paraded through her mind as she chased bites of pork
chop mindlessly around her plate with a fork. Had Mike been the one to deliver the envelope to her house three nights ago? Did he decide to turn in what he knew and vanish without a trace? Or did his disappearance have something to do with her little visit with Dr. Crane?

  The thoughts plagued her as she finished her meal and cleaned up, then followed her into the living room. She started a fire to help the heater ward off the cold, then sat in front of it, wishing the warmth she felt on her hands would somehow permeate her heart. The longer she sat staring, the more she knew – Noah needed to know about the envelope and all that happened after. She’d promised to inform the police if anything else happened. She should at least keep her word.

  With more than a little trepidation, she crossed to the phone in the dining room and called the police. After being transferred from one officer to another several times, she finally found one who was willing to take her statement. She kept it brief, but left nothing out. Satisfied that she’d done something to help, she turned everything off and curled up on the couch in front of the fire with one of the books she’d started reading last night. The antics and hi-jinx of a female private investigator were just what she needed to lighten her mood a little. The girl’s complicated relationship with a cop didn’t take up much space in the story so it only helped to assure Dani she wasn’t the only one with a difficult relationship.

  The ringing of the phone startled her out of a particularly tense chapter. Dani dashed to the dining room to pick it up then carried the cordless phone back to the couch.

  “Hello?” she answered pleasantly, expecting to find Beth on the other end.

  “I understand you have some information I need,” Noah’s curt voice cut through her like a knife.

  Totally unprepared, she stammered, “Uh… I … uh… just what I told the officer…”

  “Dani, cut the crap,” he interrupted harshly. “What the fuck is going on?”

  Switching her emotions to autopilot, she recited the story again, leaving nothing out. “I thought you should know,” she finished.

  “You found the envelope Wednesday?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you decided to tell me tonight when you heard McKay was missing?”

  “Yes.” Dani felt miserable, but there was no other way to answer. No explanation would be good enough.

  His silence spoke volumes and Dani shuddered to imagine what he must be feeling.

  “Is there anything else I should know?” she heard an edge creep into his voice.

  “No.”

  More silence.

  “Noah…”

  Dial tone.

  Just as well, Dani thought. There was no point postponing the inevitable.

  Determined to beat the rapidly developing pattern of fitful sleep, Dani took a dose of NyQuil before bed, hoping it would soothe her nerves as well as her headache and allow her to enjoy a night of dreamless sleep. Maybe then she’d feel equipped to face another day. Instead of the desired results, it only made her groggy enough to think, for an instant when she turned over and bumped into Charlie, that Noah was back in her bed and all was right with the world.

  When she awoke again around two, her mouth was dry and she was wide awake. So much for sleep inducing drugs. Deciding she’d do a little more reading rather than lying in the dark thinking about things she’d rather avoid, she slipped on her house shoes and made her way downstairs. Using the light on the vent-a-hood to avoid too much glare, she fixed another cup of Suisse Mocha and wondered idly if it was her caffeine intake before bed that kept her from sleeping. Never bothered her before, she reminded herself.

  With a sigh of acknowledgment, she dug in the pantry for some crackers and pulled a block of cheddar cheese from the refrigerator. She was stacking her stash on the table and searching for a sharp knife to cut the cheese when she thought she heard a faraway bark. Bandit!

  Flinging open the back door and wincing from the shot of cold air that greeted her, she paused, listening.

  “Bandit?” she called tentatively into the night.

  There it was again. Muffled, but she was sure it was Bandit. Taking no thought for the cold, she rushed back into the house and hurried up the stairs. Struggling to get her Reeboks on over bulky socks, she didn’t bother to change out of her sweats and just pulled a heavy sweater on over her t-shirt. She raced downstairs and jerked on her coat, pulling on the stocking cap as an afterthought. Bandit must be freezing! There hadn’t been enough snow to really cover the ground, but the temperature was in the low thirties and ice crackled, weighing down the branches of nearby trees.

  After she finished buttoning her coat, she slid her hands into her gloves and picked up the flashlight she’d left on the kitchen counter. There was no thought for her safety, just that of her faithful friend. Something that was in short supply these days.

  A gust of frigid wind took her breath as she stepped out on the back porch and peered out into the darkness. The porch light cast an eerie semi circle of illumination that reached no more than ten feet out into the yard. Beyond that was total darkness. Clouds obliterated any light she might have gleaned from stars or moon.

  Carefully pulling the door behind her, she tried to leave it open enough to add to the light, but the wind whipped it open again and she had to close it to avoid freezing temperatures inside as well as out. When she reached the perimeter of the porch light, she clicked on the flashlight and tried to walk softly. In the silence, the crunching of frozen grass underfoot seemed to echo as loudly as the target practice with her new gun.

  Cautiously, she made her way to the edge of the yard, pausing every few steps to listen and call Bandit’s name. In the few short minutes she’d been outside, her cheeks and lips went numb from the cold and she didn’t even want to know what the wind chill factor was. When she started to shiver uncontrollably, she knew she had to give up and go back inside. If Bandit was well enough to bark, she had to believe he was well enough to find his way home.

  Sorely disappointed, Dani turned and started back toward the house. As she passed the cellar doors, she thought she heard a faint whine. Closer inspection with the flashlight revealed the padlock was gone from the doors. With fear gripping her heart, she leaned closer and called Bandit again. This time, he answered with a sharp bark. Damn! He was in the cellar!

  Refusing to even consider how he got there, Dani jerked open the doors and peered down into the darkness, surprised the air that met her was considerably warmer than what was outside. Must be well insulated, she thought.

  “Bandit! Here boy!” she waited expectantly for him to come bounding up the stairs but he didn’t. “Bandit?”

  His answering bark was shrill, but not moving. Dani shined the flashlight into the hole, but its beam didn’t even illuminate the bottom of the stairs. The batteries were getting weak. Maybe Bandit was hurt and not able to climb. Her desire to find Bandit and take him inside overrode her fear of the cellar and she started down the steps, wishing the flashlight did more than provide a tiny tunnel of a beam to pierce the darkness.

  She nearly lost her footing, slipping on something on the steps, but when she shone her flashlight on her foot she didn’t see anything out of place. Bandit’s bark had given way to a persistent whine and all her thoughts were on reaching him.

  The floor was so dark that even with the flashlight, she still saw more shadows than shapes. Shining the light along the wall as she reached the lower steps, fear gripped her heart as she located Bandit. He was in a doggie carrier perched precariously on one of the top shelves. Every time he barked, the whole thing shook. Obviously, his presence here was no accident.

  “Be still Bandit!” she called, sweeping the floor with the flashlight before she took that last step.

  It looked like the floor was covered with rope, but she couldn’t be sure. The lamp on her flashlight was dimming, offering the promise of light without really delivering. If only she could reach the string that dangled from the overhead bulb. Swinging the flashlight up tow
ard the ceiling, she spotted it and took a step, reaching out with her other hand. She wasn’t surprised to feel a piece of the rope beneath her left foot, but she was shaken when it felt like it moved. Jerking the string in her hand, she froze in terror as the light flooded the room. The floor of the cellar was crawling with snakes!

  Too terrified to move, or even scream, her mind raced. She was vaguely aware of the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle falling into place in her head, but couldn’t do anything about it. When one of the smaller snakes slithered lazily across her instep, she forced herself to wait, then slowly stepped back up on the first step, prepared to turn and run like hell. As she did, she looked up just in time to see the cellar door slam shut in her face!

  Knowing in her heart that it was no accident, she climbed frantically to the top, pushing against the door with her shoulder, but to no avail. Whoever was after her finally got her. She wouldn’t be surprised to know the padlock was firmly back in place and now, she didn’t even have the assurance that Noah would come looking for her. Not any time soon, anyway.

  Willing herself to remain calm, she made herself look back down at the floor. If the lab was missing over a hundred snakes, she knew there were at least that many on the floor below. Fortunately, they didn’t seem interested in the stairs. It was probably too cold near the door. What looked like a tiny space heater hummed away in the far corner and most of them were clustered around it. The few that weren’t were coiled tightly in corners and on shelves, going into hibernation mode she hoped.

  Think, Dani! she chided herself. The choices she’d made left her alone again, with only herself to depend on for rescue. She tucked her hands back into her pockets and sat huddled, hunchback, on the top step, keeping a guarded eye on the steps below. Although some of the snakes had found perches on the shelves, there didn’t seem to be any movement near Bandit’s cage. She could only hope that his barking would keep them at bay. The holes on the cage front were plenty big to allow one of them to slither inside. It wouldn’t take long for a copperhead bite to kill her poor dog. Her, either, for that matter.