Mountain Peril

by Sandra Robbins

  Danielle sighed and traced the rim of her cup with her finger. “When I graduated, I couldn’t get away from this place fast enough. Everywhere I looked I was reminded of Jennifer and what had happened. But I still had good friends here. Nathan had been a fan of my parents, and he took a special interest in me while I was in school. Jeff took over as president my senior year, and I worked in his office some. So they both knew me well. They were very supportive after Jennifer’s death.”

  “I’m sure it was good to have someone to lean on during that time.”

  “Oh, yes, and even afterward. They kept in touch with me when I went to graduate school because I had received the Webster Scholarship for Graduate Study.”

  Jack frowned. “What’s that?”

  “Nathan’s grandfather established a scholarship for the graduating senior with the highest grade-point average to attend the graduate institution of his or her choice with all expenses paid.”

  “And you won?”

  Sadness flickered in Danielle’s eyes. “Actually Jennifer should have been the winner. After her death, I was next in line. At first I refused to accept, but Nathan and Jeff told me I was being foolish. They said Jennifer would have wanted me to have it. I’ve always felt guilty because I benefited from her death.”

  Jack’s heart constricted. Before he realized what he was doing, he reached across the table and wrapped his fingers around Danielle’s. “They were right to make you take the scholarship.”

  Tears glimmered in her eyes. “Do you really think so?”

  “Of course. I’m sure your friend would have been happy for you.”

  She smiled and squeezed his hand. “As I mentioned, Jeff and Nathan kept in touch with me while I was getting my master’s degree and then my doctorate. In fact they both visited me several times. When they heard about my fiancé’s death, they began to hint at my returning to Webster to work. At first I didn’t want to do that, but they finally wore me down. So I came back.”

  “I’m glad you did,” Jack whispered. “I might never have met you otherwise.”

  Danielle glanced down at their intertwined fingers. The ringing of her cell phone interrupted her response. She fished it out of her bag and frowned at the caller ID. “I don’t recognize this number.” She flipped it open. “Hello.”

  She listened for a few moments before she glanced at Jack. “It’s Flynn Carter. He says Tricia was supposed to meet him two hours ago to drive to Asheville for dinner, but he can’t find her. He says he lost his cell phone this afternoon and he’s calling from his roommate’s phone.”

  Jack’s eyebrows arched. “Ask him when he last saw Tricia.”

  Danielle relayed the question and then looked at Jack. “He says he saw her at lunch in the cafeteria, then he spent the afternoon in the library. He thinks he lost his phone there. But he’s worried because he’s called her cell phone for hours, and she hasn’t answered.” Danielle’s eyes grew wide. “What did you say?” she squealed.

  Fear flowed across her face. Jack grabbed her arm. “What is it?”

  Danielle’s lips trembled. “He says there’s a message on the Web site that scares him.”

  “What does it say?”

  “It says, Do you want an encore? Then watch it at Laurel Falls,” Danielle whispered.

  Jack pulled his wallet from his pocket and signaled for the waitress. “Where is Carter now?”

  “In his room at the university.”

  “Tell him to stay there. I’ll get an officer and check this out.”

  Danielle repeated the message and closed the phone. She grabbed her coat and purse and followed Jack from the table.

  At the door, she grabbed his arm. “Jack, what do you think this means?”

  He halted and shook his head. “I don’t know. The message could have been left by some kook that came across the site. But it worries me that Tricia Peterson is missing.”

  “What will you do?”

  “I’ll call for backup and head to Laurel Falls.”

  Danielle pulled her coat on. “I’m going with you.”

  He debated what to do. After all, she didn’t have her car. “You don’t need to do that. I can drop you at home before I go out there.”

  She lifted her chin and directed a determined stare toward him. “Tricia’s parents expect the school to keep her safe. If something’s happened to her, I need to know.”

  Jack knew this was one battle he couldn’t win. “Okay, but you’ll have to stay in my car.”

  He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and called Dispatch as he and Danielle rushed out of the restaurant. The memory of the girl’s body on the Web site flashed into his mind. When he’d first seen it, he had hoped the beautiful girl wasn’t really dead. Now he realized it might be too late to repeat that wish.

  Two patrol cars drove up to the Laurel Falls Trail parking lot just as Jack and Danielle arrived. Danielle sat up straight in her seat, grabbed his arm and pointed to a red sports car parked at the entrance to a path that led up the mountain. “That’s Tricia’s car.”

  “Maybe she hiked up to the falls.” He patted her hand. “Don’t worry. We’ll find her. I’ll leave the car key in case you get cold. You can start the car and turn up the heater.”

  She pulled her coat tighter and shivered. “Thanks.”

  Jack climbed from his car and nodded to the four deputies who joined him.

  One of the officers pushed his hat back on his head. “What we got here, Jack?”

  He tilted his head toward the parked sports car. “It may be nothing, but the girl who owns that car posed for the Web site we’ve been investigating. She’s missing, and a message on the site said to check out Laurel Falls.”

  The deputies exchanged worried glances and hurried to their cars to get flashlights. When they returned, the officer in charge faced the three other men. “Two of you stay here. With this many police cars in the parking lot, we may have passersby who want to stop. Keep everybody off the trail until we get back.” He pointed to the third man. “Come with us.”

  Jack shivered in the night mountain air as he and the two officers started up the trail. The beams from their flashlights cut through the darkness, lighting the path in front of them.

  He waved his flashlight beam to the left, then straight ahead. “You two search up the trail and to the left. I’ll take the right side.”

  They walked in silence for perhaps twenty minutes as they headed deeper into the wilderness that led to Laurel Falls. Jack struggled through the undergrowth that threatened to trip him. As the incline of the path grew gradually steeper, the vegetation became thinner, making it easier to walk. His heart hammered in his chest, and his lungs burned from the high altitude.

  The sound of roaring water could be heard in the distance. They were approaching the falls, and they’d found nothing. Maybe Flynn had already found Tricia, and they were on their way to Asheville. They were probably warmer than he was right now. It was time to call it quits for tonight. If Tricia was still missing in the morning, they could bring in the mountain rescue team to search.

  Jack was about to call out to the others that it was time to head back when he saw her. He pushed a low-hanging tree branch out of his face and stopped. Tricia lay just as she had on the Web site. He exhaled and squatted at her feet.

  He gagged from the nausea roiling in his stomach, then stood and backed away so as not to disturb the crime scene. He couldn’t look away from the still form.

  Jennifer McCaslin and now Tricia Peterson. How could he tell Danielle that the nightmare she’d lived with for ten years had returned? He thought of how her body had shaken all the way to Laurel Falls and how frightened she looked when he’d left her at the car.

  With a sigh he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and called the officers in the parking lot. Briefly he described what he’d found, asked them to notify headquarters and cautioned them to be on the lookout for anything suspicious.

  As he flipped the cell phone closed, he t
ook a deep breath and called out to the two deputies searching with him. “Over here!”

  Within minutes the other two officers joined him. None of them spoke as they stared at the dead girl beside the trail.

  Jack turned and started toward the parking lot. “I’ll be back shortly,” he called over his shoulder.

  His feet felt like lead as he trudged down the path. Telling Danielle was going to be the hardest thing he’d ever done. At that moment he wished he didn’t know her. It would be so much easier to tell a stranger. In twenty-four hours’ time, she was no longer a stranger, and he was about to deliver news she didn’t want to hear.

  The coat Danielle wore did little to ward off the chill of the October night air as she climbed out of Jack’s car. She crossed her arms and hugged herself in an effort to keep warm. Every few seconds she glanced at her watch and wondered when Jack would step from the dense forest.

  The two policemen guarding the entrance to the trail watched as she paced back and forth across the asphalt parking lot. After fifteen minutes and no sign of Jack, she approached them. “Have you had any word from Detective Denton yet?”

  “Can’t tell you anything, ma’am,” one of them said.

  She pulled the car door open and crawled inside. The only policeman she wanted to see was Jack Denton, and she had no idea how long it would be before he would reappear.

  Thirty minutes later Jack was still nowhere to be seen, but other deputies stood all around the parking lot. One after another police cruisers had arrived, and now they lined the roads. The blue lights of the cars blinked in the darkness, and several deputies stood in the road directing traffic to keep cars from stopping.

  The scene, so similar to one at the same spot the night of Jennifer’s murder, told Danielle that something horrible had happened in the wilderness. She squirmed into a more comfortable position and glanced out the car window. The beam of a flashlight appeared on the path. She sat up straighter and strained to see who was coming out of the forest.

  Danielle shoved the door open and ran to Jack before he’d even reached the end of the trail. “Tell me what you found.”

  The dim light in the parking lot shadowed his face and accented the sadness in his eyes. He licked his lips. “We found Tricia’s body.”

  “W-w-was it like the Web site?” Her lips trembled so she could hardly speak.

  He took her arm and guided her across the parking lot. Then he slumped against the side of the car and rubbed his hands over his eyes. “It was horrible.”

  Danielle remembered how Jennifer’s body had looked and how she had reacted. Her concern for Jack suddenly overshadowed her grief for Tricia. Nothing she could do would help the young woman, but Jack needed someone to care about him and what he was feeling.

  She reached up and pulled his hand away from his face. Wrapping her fingers around his, she stared up into his face. “I know what you’re feeling. I’ve been there.”

  The hard lines of his face softened. “I’m a police officer. I’m supposed to be able to see violence and not react. But somehow, I still can’t believe what some people are capable of doing.”

  “You’re a man who doesn’t share his feelings, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have any. I can tell you’re strong, and you’ll be able to do your job.”

  He straightened and pulled his hand loose. “Thanks. I’m glad I brought you with me tonight.” He glanced at the policemen across the lot. “There’s nothing you can do here, so I think you should take my car and go to the school. Someone has gone to notify Dr. Newman and Mr. Webster that I’ll meet with them at the school in an hour. One of the other officers will drop me off, and I’ll see you there.”

  She thought of the problems this was going to cause the school. “Okay.”

  Danielle watched Jack as he trudged back up the path into the dense forest and disappeared into the dark before she climbed into his car. As she drove along the winding road, the horror of what had happened began to sink in. She was glad she hadn’t seen Tricia’s body. She really didn’t want to remember her the way she did Jennifer.

  Tears filled Danielle’s eyes as she remembered seeing Tricia dash across campus on her way to class. They’d often joked about how she could never get anywhere on time. But the spirited young woman had a talent like few Danielle had ever seen. When Tricia sat at the piano, she had the ability to weave lilting melodies and complex harmonies into a performance that transported her listeners on a breathtaking musical experience. Now her gift had been silenced forever.

  Danielle shook as tears slid down her face. What kind of monster could end such a beautiful life?

  Another thought popped into her mind. According to Jack, Jeff and Nathan were being notified. But what about Flynn? Tricia’s death would devastate him.

  The aftermath of Jennifer’s death had been a nightmare for the school and its students. Now the horror had returned, and they were facing the same situation again.

  FOUR

  An hour later Jack paused outside Jeff Newman’s office. The door was cracked open just enough for Jack to hear inside. He listened for Danielle, but he could only make out Nathan Webster’s voice. “I can’t believe this has happened. A student murdered? We’ll be lucky if we have any applications for next year’s freshman class.”

  “We’ll have time to worry about that after we’ve faced this latest crisis. Now’s not the time to discuss next fall,” Jeff Newman replied.

  “Maybe not for you, but it’s my family’s endowment that’s on the line here. Who’d want to come to a school that can’t even protect its students? You’d better be thinking of some way to counter all the bad press we’re going to get over this.”

  A chair scraped on the floor. “Don’t worry, Nathan. I will.”

  Jack raised his fist and knocked. To his surprise Danielle flung the door open. Tears streaked her face. He cleared his throat and looked past her to Nathan and Jeff. “Excuse me. I hope I’m not interrupting.”

  Jeff and Nathan turned to face him as Jack walked into the room. Nathan stepped forward. “Come in, Detective Denton. Do you have any news for us?”

  Jack shook his head. “I wanted to tell you we won’t release Tricia’s name until we’ve notified her parents. I thought you would probably want to talk to them, too. I’ll be back in touch in the morning to answer any questions you might have.”

  Nathan frowned. “Will you have the killer by then?”

  Jack shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’ll do everything I can to assure Tricia’s parents that I won’t rest until he is found.”

  Jeff sank down in his desk chair and raised a shaking hand to his forehead. “I can’t believe this is happening again. Do you think it’s the same murderer?”

  Jack shrugged. “We don’t know at this point. It could be, or it could be a copycat who saw the Web site.”

  A groan came from Danielle’s direction. “Oh, why did Tricia and Flynn get mixed up in this horrible situation?”

  Jack glanced around, and his eyes widened at the paleness of her face. She needed to get out of there. “My partner’s gone to bring Flynn Carter to the station. I need to get down there, too, but I’ll come back tomorrow.” Jack turned to Danielle. “Dr. Tyler, you look like this ordeal has gotten to you. Why don’t I take you home?”

  Nathan’s lips parted, and his eyebrows arched. “Don’t you have your car, Danielle?”

  Before she could answer, Jack took her by the arm. “We were at dinner when she got Flynn’s call.”

  What Jack interpreted as disapproving looks flashed across Nathan and Jack’s faces. Before they could say anything, he steered Danielle out of the room and down the hall. At the building’s entrance, he pushed the front door open and stood back for her to exit.

  “Thank you,” she murmured as she walked outside.

  The forlorn hoot of an owl from the distant hills matched the mood that hung over them as he walked beside Danielle to where she’d parked his car. He could almost feel the grief rad
iating from her body at this latest tragedy, and he felt helpless. Policemen weren’t supposed to become emotionally involved in their cases. Although he’d never let anyone know it, he hadn’t learned how not to care about those affected by violent crime.

  They stopped at the car, and he opened the door. She looked up at him. The tears in her eyes shimmered in the glow from the inside light. Her lips trembled. “Thank you for all your help tonight.”

  He jammed his hands into his pocket. “Just doing my job.”

  She started to get in the car, but she turned back to him. “It really hit me on the way back from Laurel Falls. Tricia is dead. Just like Jennifer and Stan.”

  He frowned. “Stan?”

  “My fiancé.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know his name. I’m sorry.”

  “Stan,” she whispered. “Stan Winters. He was a wonderful man.”

  She looked so vulnerable standing there in the parking lot shadows. A cold wind blew from the distant mountains, and she shivered. The urge to put a protective arm around her shoulders washed over him, and he shoved his hands deeper in his pockets. “Let’s get out of here. After all, there is a killer loose.”

  Her forehead wrinkled, and her gaze darted across the lit area. “And he could be watching us right now.” She moved closer to him. “I thought you had to go to the station.”

  “I’ll go after I see you safely home.”

  She smiled. “Thanks.”

  Jack waited for her to get inside before he closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side. As they pulled out of the parking lot, he turned up the radio, adjusted the heater and tried to concentrate on anything but the woman sitting next to him. It was no use.

  As bad as tonight was for her, tomorrow might be worse. He wondered how she would react when she found out that a text message on Tricia’s phone asking her to meet him at Laurel Falls had been sent from the phone Flynn said he lost.

  The concern Jack felt for Danielle Tyler surprised him. He’d sworn he would never get involved with another woman, and he’d worked hard to perfect the image of a man with no feelings. It scared him to think she might make him want to change his mind.