Mountain Peril (3 page)

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.

A
n 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
radiating 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.

Danielle studied the streetlights as they drove toward her house. Their beams cut through the interior of Jack’s car and cast a protective glow through the interior. Jack’s presence beside her comforted her. She didn’t want to go home alone. A sadistic killer had surfaced in Webster Falls again, but in the wake of his appearance, she’d met Jack.

Her house came into view, and she sighed with relief. Jack turned into the driveway of the small log cabin where she’d lived for three years and stopped behind her car. The fluid movements of his lean body made her heart skip a beat as he slid from the car and hurried to open her door.

He grasped her arm and helped her climb from the car. Once outside, he continued to hold her, and she leaned against him as he guided her up the steps to the front porch. His muscles rippled, and she recognized a sense of security flow through her. She hadn’t felt that in many years.

At the door he released her, and she fumbled with the key. Her hands shook so she couldn’t insert it into the lock. Jack leaned over and took the key ring from her hand. “Let me.”

In one swift move he unlocked the door and pushed it open. Uncertain what to do, she faced him. “Thanks for seeing me home.”

The security light in the yard cast a shadow across his face
as he surveyed the surrounding area. “You don’t have any close neighbors.”

“No. That’s what I liked about this place. It’s private.”

He glanced inside the house and back across the dark yard. “I’m wondering if it’s safe for you to be here.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “Why?”

He frowned. “Two people close to you have been killed.”

Fear raced through her as her gaze flitted toward the shadows around the house. “At the school you said it could be a copycat. What if it’s not? What if the person who murdered Jennifer has been here all these years?”

“That’s what I hope to find out. But for now, do you want to go to a hotel for the night?”

She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “I don’t want to be run out of my home because I’m scared. Besides I have an alarm system.” She opened her eyes and glanced into the dark house. “But I was in such a hurry this morning, I didn’t set it.”

Jack nodded toward the inside. “Want me to go in with you?”

Danielle opened her mouth to refuse. She hadn’t invited one person inside in the three years she’d lived here, but the thought of entering the house alone scared her. She pushed the door open and stepped inside. “Come on in. Do you have time for a cup of coffee?”

Jack glanced at his watch. “I have a few minutes before I told my partner I’d be at the police station.” His gaze drifted over the small living room. “This is nice.”

Danielle turned and smiled. “Come on in the kitchen.”

He followed her and sat without speaking at the table while she bustled about trying not to look at him. Suddenly, she felt like a high-school girl desperately wanting to impress her date, but Jack wasn’t here because of a date. He wanted to protect her.

When she filled his cup, he looked up her and smiled. “Thanks.”

She smiled at the sound of his soft voice. “I really appreciate you coming in with me. I don’t think I could have entered this house by myself.”

He nodded. “You’ve had a rough day.”

“Yeah.”

He leaned forward, his eyes staring into hers. “Are you sure about staying here?”

She realized he would leave soon. She’d be alone. What if the killer knew her? A lump of fear rose in her throat. “I—I think so.”

They drank in silence for a few moments. She tried to figure out what thoughts were running through his head, but his expression remained unchanged. After a moment he pulled a notepad from his pocket and wrote something, then pushed the paper across the table. “Here’s my cell phone number. Call me if you need someone.”

Relief flowed through her. Tears welled in her eyes. “Thank you. I don’t mind telling you Tricia’s murder has me scared.”

His gaze locked with hers, and his eyes softened. Pushing his cup away, he stood. “I’d better be going.”

Danielle nodded and followed him to the front door. They reached for the knob at the same time, their fingers touching. He jerked his hand away, and she opened the door. “Thank you again, Jack.”

He exhaled. “I’d better go.” He stared at her for a moment, then nodded. “Good night, Danielle. Sleep well.”

She closed the door and leaned against it. Her life had taken a detour since this morning. One of Webster’s most promising students had been murdered, and her school was once again plunged into a horrible nightmare.

Only time would tell if Tricia’s murder was related to Jennifer’s. At the present time there was no concrete evidence to believe it was, but something told her a killer had returned.

Danielle’s breath puffed a vapor mist as she stepped onto the front porch the next morning. It seemed chillier than usual, but she hadn’t felt warm since she’d stood in the parking lot at Laurel Falls the night before. She pulled the key from the locked door and turned toward the steps just as a car stopped at the curb.

A smile creased her lips at the sight of Jack crawling from behind the wheel. He walked toward her as she descended the steps. Stopping a few feet away, he smiled. “Thought I’d check to see how you made it last night.”

His eyes looked tired, and the stubble of a beard showed on his face. “Have you been up all night?”

He chuckled. “Yeah. Just left the station.”

“What about Flynn? How is he?”

Jack shook his head. “Not good. One of the officers drove him back to the dorm last night. We were afraid for him to drive himself because he was so upset.”

Even as angry as she’d been at Flynn over the Web site, she knew Tricia’s death must have been devastating. “I’ll check on him when I get to school. But first, would you like a cup of coffee? There’s some in the kitchen.”

He shook his head and glanced at his watch. “I’m going home to shower, then I have to get back to work. I’ll come out to the school later. I want to look through Tricia’s room. See if I can find anything that might point to the murderer.”

“Do you need my help?”

“Yeah. I’ll call before I come. Now I’d better get going.”

Danielle followed him to his car and stood behind him as he pulled the door open. Before he got into the car, he turned
and faced her. “Watch your step today. Be suspicious of everybody around you. Don’t trust anybody.”

A tremor rippled from her legs and swelled as it traveled upward. She swayed toward Jack, and his steadying hand clamped on her arm. Ten years ago with her parents on tour in Europe, she’d faced her friend’s death alone. Perhaps this time would be different.

She took a deep breath and straightened. “Thank you. I’ll remember your advice.”

He stared at her for a moment before he released his hold. “I’ll see you later.”

Danielle watched his car disappear in the distance before she headed for her Jeep. She’d put off leaving for school long enough. She couldn’t ignore her responsibilities there, but today she wished she could go somewhere other than Webster. Jack’s words had left her wondering what secrets might be hidden inside the walled campus.