Kitabı oku: «Mountain Peril», sayfa 2
THREE
Danielle sat at her desk the next morning studying a report on students’ midterm grades. She ran her finger down the page until she came to Flynn Carter’s name. His extracurricular activities hadn’t caused any academic problems for him yet. She hoped it remained that way.
Her phone rang, and she picked it up. “Danielle Tyler. May I help you?”
“Danielle.” Nathan Webster’s soft voice sounded in her ear. “I’m in Jeff’s office and Detective Denton is with us. Can you come?”
“I’ll be right there.” She hung up and pressed her hand against her chest. She knew Jack was coming, but she thought they wouldn’t call her to the meeting.
She pulled a compact from her purse and took a quick look at her reflection. Her makeup and hair looked okay. Standing, she smoothed the pants of the new suit she’d put on this morning, straightened her jacket and headed toward the president’s office.
Jeff Newman stood from behind his desk as she entered. Nathan Webster, to his left, smiled, but Jack Denton’s stony gaze made her wonder where the man she’d spent time with the night before had gone.
She nodded to Nathan and turned her attention to Jeff. “You wanted to see me, Dr. Newman?”
“Yes, Dr. Tyler, have a seat.”
Jack pushed a chair toward her, and she sat. He settled into one next to her and leaned toward her. “How are you this morning, Dr. Tyler?”
Her eyebrows arched at the formal tone of his voice. “I’m fine, Detective Denton.” She turned back to Jeff. “Have you met with Flynn?”
Jeff nodded. “I’m afraid we got nowhere with him. He insists he hasn’t broken any laws, and he refuses to take down the site. He said if we try to force him from school, his father will take us to court.”
“Then what are you going to do?”
Nathan Webster’s shoulders drooped, and Danielle noticed how tired his eyes appeared this morning. Although in his mid-forties, Danielle had always considered Nathan to be the most handsome man on campus with his brooding good looks and dark complexion.
Nathan glanced from Jeff to Danielle. “If it comes to that, we’ll have to let our lawyers handle it. Maybe we should leave it alone for a few days and see if Flynn comes to his senses.”
Jack tapped his index finger on the notebook in his lap. “I really doubt he’ll do that, but I could be wrong. If he doesn’t, maybe the police department can contact the service provider and see if they would ban the site. Of course, Carter might just go to another one.”
Jeff’s brow wrinkled as he stood and stuck out his hand. “Well, whatever happens, we appreciate your help, Detective.”
Jack gripped the hand and nodded to Jeff. He pushed up from his chair and shook Nathan’s hand. “I’ll be in touch.”
Danielle rose and smiled at Jeff. “Thanks for letting me know what happened. Now I’ll get back to work if you don’t need me for anything else.”
She turned and hurried toward the door, but she could sense Jack was right behind. In the hallway she slowed her gait, and he fell into step beside her. He leaned close, and their arms brushed. “It’s good to see you again. I enjoyed our time together last night.” His soft voice held a hint of reluctance.
“I did, too.” They stopped at her office. She opened the door and turned to him. “Maybe we can do it again sometime.”
He swallowed. “I’d like that. How about tonight?”
Her forehead wrinkled. “You want me to meet you for coffee tonight?”
He stuck his hand in his pocket and jingled some coins. “Sorry. You can’t read my mind. I meant dinner. How about having dinner with me?”
Danielle smiled. “I’d like that. What time will you pick me up?”
“How about seven o’clock?”
“That will be fine. I live at 295 Pikeville Road. Do you know that area?”
He nodded. “I do. I’ll see you then.”
Without saying another word, he whirled and hurried down the hall. She watched him go for the second time in two days. He hadn’t seemed enthused about asking her out. In fact he’d mumbled so that one would have thought he was being forced to offer the invitation. Jack Denton perplexed her, but she had always been good at solving puzzles, and she intended to find out what made this man tick.
The flame from the flickering candle in the middle of the table cast a honey-colored glow on Danielle’s skin. Jack studied her over the rim of his coffee cup as she put the last bite of linguini in her mouth.
When he’d left the Mountain Mug last night, he’d promised himself he would stay away from Danielle Tyler. That idea vanished the minute she walked into Jeff Newman’s office earlier in the day. Jack couldn’t believe it when he heard himself asking her to dinner, and yet it seemed the natural thing to say.
He had to admit it—Danielle Tyler fascinated him. It wasn’t just the fact that she was smart and beautiful. There was something more he still couldn’t understand. Perhaps it was the fact that she’d had two tragic losses in her life.
She finished chewing, wiped her mouth with her napkin and smiled. “That was delicious. Thank you for bringing me here tonight.”
He glanced at the customers in his favorite Italian restaurant. Soft accordion music drifted across the dining room filled with linen-draped tables. He pushed his plate back and leaned forward, his elbows on the table. “I should be thanking you. You saved me from a lonely frozen dinner in front of the TV.”
She laughed. “Then I’m glad I accepted your invitation.”
“Would you like a refill?” The waitress stood beside their table with a silver coffeepot.
Jack nodded, and she poured the steaming liquid into their cups. When she’d walked away, Jack directed his attention back to Danielle. “I know you went to school at Webster, but what made you end up working there?”
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 took 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 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.”
