Mountain Peril (5 page)

His face flushed, and he glanced away from her. “I think we’d better…” He stopped and stared at the rose on her desk. “Where did that come from?”

The uneasy feeling of earlier returned. “It was there when I came in this morning.”

“Who sent it?”

Danielle shrugged and walked to the desk. Picking up the card, she handed it to him. “I don’t know. This note was with it.”

He held the note up and looked at it. When he’d finished, he handed it back to her. “Those are mighty fancy words.”

She nodded. “I can’t figure out who would have left this for me.”

He shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Maybe he’s shy and thinks you wouldn’t like him. Or maybe it’s some old boyfriend who wants to get back with you.”

The cold tone of his voice sent shivers down Danielle’s spine. The aloof man she’d first met was back, and she wondered where the Jack she’d laughed with at the Mountain Mug had gone. She frowned. “There’s no old boyfriend.”

He pointed toward the door. “I came to search Tricia’s room. Want to come with me?”

“Yes.” Thankful to change the subject, she reached for the key. “Security locked her room last night.”

She walked past him into the hall, and he followed. As they headed across campus to Tricia’s dorm, she couldn’t help studying Jack out of the corner of her eye. When she’d first met him, he’d seemed like a hard-hearted man. Last night and this morning he’d given her a glimpse into the private places of his soul, and she liked what she saw. She’d thought the ice inside him was beginning to melt, but now she wasn’t so sure. There seemed to be too many layers to him, and she doubted if she would ever dig through to find the real Jack Denton. Maybe it would be best if she didn’t even try.

D
anielle turned the key in the lock and pushed the door to Tricia’s dorm room open. She stood on the threshold and thought about the talented girl who’d lived here only yesterday but would enter no more. Danielle blinked back the moisture about to spill down her face.

“Are you all right?” Jack asked. The impassive expression on his face held none of the concern for her she’d seen last night.

She straightened her shoulders and pointed down the hallway. “Jennifer and I lived in the second room on the left. I haven’t been in this dorm since I’ve been back at Webster. Just couldn’t make myself enter.”

“If you’d rather not do this, go back to your office.”

She shook her head. “No, I’ll be okay. I want to do anything I can to help.”

Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the room and flipped the light switch. The cluttered room looked like the living space of a college student. Books lay in stacks on the desk next to a laptop, and the twisted blankets on the bed looked as if Tricia might have jumped from bed and rushed off to class. A bicycle leaned against the wall where a small corkboard hung with pictures displayed of life on the Webster campus.

Jack followed her into the room and stood in the center of the floor looking around. “So this is where she lived.”

Danielle nodded. “Where do you want to start?”

He looked toward the desk. “I think I’ll go through the desk first.” His blue eyes studied her for a moment. “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. My partner’s coming to help.”

Danielle spied the sheets of music piled to the side of the desk and pointed to it. “Tricia was a piano major. I suppose that’s the music she was working on. It belongs to the music library. Do you need to take it, or is it all right for me to return it?”

He picked up the stack and glanced at each of the pieces. With a grin he glanced at her. “I don’t know much about classical music.”

Danielle pointed to the piece on top. “
Chopin’s Nocturne in B Major.
I remember Tricia telling me she was performing this for her senior recital in the spring. I loved to hear her play. She had such a gift for showing the emotion of a piece.”

Jack took the music and put it back on the desk. “For the daughter of rock stars, you seem to know a lot about classical music.”

She shrugged. “My parents might have been rock musicians, but they were classically trained. We had all types of music in our home.”

“They sound like the kind of parents anybody would be lucky to have.”

“They’re wonderful. Maybe you’ll have the chance to meet them someday.”

Jack chuckled. “Me meeting Kenny and Mary Tyler. I would never have thought it when I was locked up in my room listening to the radio and pretending to play the guitar along with them.”

She grinned. “They’re just normal people like everybody else. They live a simple life now on the outskirts of Atlanta.”

“I guess they don’t seem different to you, but there’s nothing normal about them to me. I think of them as rock legends.”

Danielle had dealt with opinions about her parents all her life. She only wished the public could know them like she did. “If you’d kept up with them, you might have discovered that a lot of their time is spent working with inner-city kids and telling them about Jesus.”

His eyebrows arched. “After all they went through, now they’re Christians?”

“Yes. Dad spent some time in rehab, but he kicked his drug habit. He came out with a strong faith, and he and my mother have never looked back. They want young people to know how drugs and alcohol will rob them of their lives. They’re the best people I’ve ever known.”

Jack smiled. “I’m happy things turned out so well.” He took a deep breath and glanced around the room. “We’re not getting anything done standing around talking. I’d better get to work.”

Danielle nodded and picked up a book that lay on Tricia’s desk. “It’s very hard being here and seeing it like she just stepped out for a moment. I hope you find the person who killed her and he pays for what he’s done.”

Jack shrugged. “No telling when that will be. It’s been ten years since Jennifer’s death. I hope we don’t have a repeat of that.”

She’d never considered the fact that Tricia’s death would be unsolved like Jennifer’s. “You can’t let that happen, Jack. You have to find out who did this.”

The veil closed over his eyes just as it had done when she first met him, and it chilled her. “I’m going to devote every minute to tracking this guy down.”

She took a step back to escape the chill radiating from his body. He didn’t have to tell her what he was thinking. She could read it in the muscle that flexed in his jaw. He was letting her know he was backing away before they became any closer. “I hope you find him.”

He glanced around the room. “In fact if I want to get this search over, I should probably be here alone. I’m wasting too much time talking.”

She flinched at the abrupt dismissal. “All right. If that’s the way you want it. Goodbye, Jack.”

“Goodbye.” He picked up Tricia’s notebook from the desk and began flipping through it.

Danielle waited to see if he was going to say anything else. When he didn’t, she ran into the hallway but stopped at the sound of a door opening. Two students exited the room where she and Jennifer had lived. Their giggles drifted toward her as they walked in the opposite direction.

She shook her head to keep from thinking how she and Jennifer had been just like that, friends who shared every secret. She wiped at her eyes and strode toward the exit.

As she reached the door, it opened, and a man with several boxes in his hands stood there. “Good morning. I’m Will Bryson, Detective Jack Denton’s partner. I was supposed to meet him here.”

“I’m Danielle Tyler, Dean of Students at Webster.”

Will Bryson’s freckled face beamed at her, and Danielle knew this man was nothing like Jack Denton. From his red hair to the boyish grin, he was an exact opposite of the moody, sullen man she’d just left. Will set the boxes down, propped his arm against the wall and cocked an eyebrow at her. His gaze raked over her.

“Well, now, you’re just as pretty as Jack said.”

Her eyes grew wide. “I doubt he said that.”

Will chuckled. “Maybe not, but he should have.”

Danielle tried to smile. “I just left Detective Denton in Tricia’s room. It’s down this hall on the right. The door’s open. You can’t miss it.”

He studied her for a moment more before concern furrowed his face. “All kidding aside, Jack told me about you and your connection to the two murdered girls. I’m very sorry.”

“Thank you, Detective Bryson.”

He nodded. “If there’s anything I can do to help you get through this, let me know.”

Danielle glanced down at the floor. “I’ll remember that.”

Without waiting for his reply, Danielle brushed past the man and hurried outside. Even though she knew his remarks had probably been a line he used on lots of women, it made her feel good to know that she could still attract a man’s attention. She stopped and clenched her fists. The exception seemed to be Jack Denton.

She shook her head. The last thing she needed to be thinking about was Jack Denton. She had too many other things on her mind. Tricia’s death had brought back the memories she’d tried to forget of what had happened the last time she saw Jennifer. She wondered what people would think if they knew the truth.

Danielle placed her hands on either side of her head and closed her eyes. She could see Jennifer standing in their room her hands on her hips the afternoon before she died. She’d accused Danielle of being jealous because she was going to win the Webster graduate scholarship. No amount of reasoning had changed her mind, and Danielle had finally given up.

She still could barely stand to think about the harsh words spoken. If she’d only known that was the last time she would see Jennifer, then she would have kept quiet. Instead Danielle had blasted Jennifer with angry words.

Danielle pressed her hands tighter on her head. How she hoped no one ever found out about the argument, and how she wished she could blot it from her dreams. No matter how hard she tried, she was sentenced to reliving it over and over.

Thirty minutes later Jack still couldn’t get Danielle out of his mind. He hadn’t wanted to send her away, but he’d found himself concentrating more on her than what he’d come here to do. When she’d started talking about her parents, he understood their different worlds involved more than just her impressive education.

Jack thought of his childhood and the stern father who never had a kind word for him or his mother. Years later when Jack had ranted about his wife dying in the car with another man, it had been his mother who pointed out that in his own marriage he became the man he hated most in the world. And she’d been right.

Shame filled him every time he remembered how soon he’d forgotten the vows he’d spoken on his wedding days. It only took him a few years to transform his wife from a fun-loving and happy woman into an embittered and neglected shell of the girl he’d known.

With him, it had always been the next Special Forces assignment and the adrenaline rush he got from the danger. He’d isolated himself from her and replaced her with his buddies who understood the emotional tightwire they walked in their jobs. It was no wonder she’d turned to another man.

In the months after her death he’d slowly realized that he was his father’s son, and his wife had fared no better in her marriage than his mother did.

Jack sank down in the chair at Tricia’s desk, and his gaze moved over the papers and objects scattered across the top. He’d been through every drawer, and he’d found nothing that
seemed to have any connection to the case. With a sigh he pushed back and glanced up at the bookshelf on the wall above. A yearbook for Webster caught his attention, and he reached up and pulled it down.

“What do you have there?” Will asked.

Jack glanced over his shoulder at Will who was searching through Tricia’s closet. “It’s the school annual with last year’s date on it. I thought it might yield something.”

He opened the book, flipped through the first few pages and stopped when Danielle’s picture appeared on the faculty page. Her hair was shorter then than now, but her smile was the same. He rubbed his thumb across her mouth.

He thought about the rose he’d seen in her office. His heart constricted at the thought of someone else being interested in Danielle. The words in the note were from a well-educated person, not somebody like him—a cop who barely made it out of college.

His cell phone rang, and Jack pulled it from the clip on his belt. “Hello.”

“Jack,” Sheriff Chris Peck said, “how’s it going?”

“Fine, sir. Will’s here with me, and we’re going through everything in Tricia’s room.”

“Good. I wanted to give you some news.”

Jack gripped the phone tighter. “What’s that, sir?”

“You know we did some checking on all the people who were at Webster at the time of the last murder and this one, too. We found out something interesting about the orchestra teacher, Landon Morse.”

Jack’s eyebrows arched. “Oh?”

“Yeah, he was fired from his last job at a small college in Texas for stalking a female student. The girl was in some kind of accident, but they never could link Morse to that. Just the stalking.”

Jack nodded. “That’s interesting. Will and I will be back at the station in an hour. We haven’t found anything that points to the killer, but we’re bringing a few of her personal items like her calendar, laptop and a notebook.”

“Good. See you then.”

Jack flipped the phone closed. “It looks like we may have hit pay dirt today.”

When he’d finished relating the conversation, Will grinned. “Maybe it won’t take too long to solve this case after all.” He glanced around at all the scattered items they’d decided to take with them. “Let’s get these things boxed up and get on back to the station.”

Jack nodded and turned back to the desk. His gaze fell on the yearbook, and he remembered Danielle’s picture inside. He picked the book up and placed it in the box with the evidence. He told himself he might need the annual later to look up pictures of students, but in his heart he knew there was only one picture in it that interested him.

D
anielle looked down at the steak on her plate, laid her fork aside and glanced at the customers in the restaurant. Soft conversation drifted from the young couple seated next to them. She smiled at the looks the two directed at each other. You could always tell when two people were in love—they seemed more interested in each other than the food.

Across the table Nathan pointed to her plate. “Aren’t you hungry, Danielle?”

She sighed. “I suppose I got too interested in studying the customers. I love this restaurant, Nathan. Thanks for bringing me here tonight.”

He pushed his plate back and leaned forward, his elbows on the table. “I should be thanking you. It’s been a nerve-racking week, and I couldn’t stand to think about eating alone tonight. Thanks for joining me.”

In the three years since she’d been back at Webster, she and Nathan had often gone to dinner. Usually they discussed school business, but when he’d asked her today, the sad expression on his face told her he needed company. She’d agreed to dinner in the hopes of helping a friend.

In her heart, though, she knew there was another reason. One she couldn’t understand. She missed Jack Denton, but
in the week since their conversation in Tricia’s room he’d made no effort to contact her. Now she sat with another man who’d been her friend for years.

She reached across the table and covered Nathan’s hand with hers. “I know it was difficult, but you did a great job of addressing the student body and faculty when we resumed classes on Monday. Your words comforted all of us and got everybody back on course.”

He smiled. “I hope so. I didn’t know if I could hold up. This horrible situation is a nightmare.”

Danielle nodded. “I know. I’m sorry it’s presented you with so many problems. I’m here to help you any way I can.”

He smiled, but sadness showed in his eyes. “Maybe tonight has helped you, too. You’ve stayed to yourself too much since you’ve been back, Danielle. You need to get out more. You have to face Stan’s death and get on with your life.”

Jack’s face flashed into her mind, but she pushed it away. She drew her hand back and picked up her coffee cup. “I don’t suppose I’ll be getting out much until after Christmas. The fundraiser is going to take up most of my time.”

“I know. I really appreciate you taking that job.” He smiled. “You know I’ve always told you that you do a better job than any previous Dean of Students we’ve ever had.”

Danielle laughed and waved her hand in dismissal. “No need to butter me up now. I’ve already agreed to help with the fundraiser.”

The waitress stepped up to the table and pointed to Danielle’s plate. “Would you like for me to get that out of your way?” When she’d picked up the dish, she smiled down at Nathan. “Would you care for dessert? Our crème brûlée is very good tonight.”

Nathan looked at Danielle. “Want some?”

She shook her head. “Just coffee, thanks.”

The waitress returned with a coffeepot and poured some in their cups. As Danielle took her first sip, Nathan spoke again. “Detective Denton came by to see me today.”

Danielle gulped and tried to keep from choking. “H-he did? Did he have any news about the investigation?”

“No. He said they haven’t heard from the lab reports on Tricia yet. When they do, they may know more.”

“Why would it take so long for the medical report to come back?”

“I asked him that, too. He just laughed, or rather grunted I guess you could call it, and said we weren’t dealing with a television show that gets its medical results in hours. The Webster Falls Sheriff’s Department has to rely on the state lab, and they stay so backed up it could be weeks before they know anything.”

Danielle traced her finger around the top of her cup. “How was Detective Denton?”

Nathan set his cup back in the saucer and thought for a moment before he answered. “I don’t know. I can’t tell much about him. He’s a very private person. It’s like he doesn’t want anybody to get too close to him.”

“I had that impression, too.” Nathan didn’t say anything, and she glanced at him. His dark eyes studied her. “What is it?” she asked.

He frowned. “You’re not interested in him, are you?”

Danielle tried to laugh, but it sounded more like choking. “Where did you get that idea?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s how you looked at him the night of Tricia’s murder. And the two of you did leave together.”

Danielle straightened. “You’re imagining things.” She reached for her purse. “I really need to get home, Nathan.”

He grasped her hand. “Be careful, Danielle. This man will only hurt you. He’s not for you.”

Her eyes widened, and she stared at Nathan. “You don’t have to worry. The last thing I need is to get mixed up with a man like Jack Denton. And besides, he isn’t interested in me, either. So you have nothing to worry about.”

Nathan relaxed his hold and smiled. “Good. You know I only want what’s best for you.”

She nodded. “I know. If it hadn’t been for you, I don’t know how I would have made it through these past few years. Thank you for bringing me back here where people care about me.”

“It was my pleasure and the university’s gain.”

She checked her watch. “I really do need to go home now.”

“I’ll get the check.” He waved at the waitress, and she headed toward their table.

Suddenly Danielle felt hot. The news that Jack had been at Webster, and the fact that he’d ignored her for the past week made her feel faint. She had to get out of there. “I need some air. I’ll wait for you outside.”

Before Nathan could respond, she rushed through the restaurant and out the front door. Once on the sidewalk she leaned against the side of the building and gasped for breath. Tears burned her eyes, and she thought she might burst out crying any moment. What was the matter with her? She barely knew the man, but in the few times she’d been with him, she sensed something special in him.

“Stop it, Danielle,” she hissed. She was acting like a stupid, emotional woman, not a self-assured college dean.

She froze at the touch of a hand on her arm. “Danielle?”

Shock ripped through her body at the sound of Jack’s voice. She whirled to face him and then fell back against the side of the building. “Jack, what are you doing here?”

“I came to pick up something to take home. I didn’t expect to find you out here alone.”

She straightened and pulled away from him. “I needed some fresh air.”

His gazed roved over her just like when they had coffee. “Let me take you back inside,” he said.

She shook her head. “No, I’m fine. You surprised me. That’s all.”

“It’s good to see you. How have you been?”

“Fine.”

“I’ve thought about you.”

If he had thought about her, why hadn’t he called? “Nathan told me you were at the university today.”

“For a few minutes.”

Rain had begun to fall, but she ignored it. “You didn’t have time to say hello?”

In the glow from the streetlight, she could see his face, but no emotion betrayed what he was thinking. “I was in a hurry when I left.”

Puzzled, she stared at him and shook her head. “I don’t understand you.”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Since I met you, we’ve had coffee, been to dinner and been swept into a murder investigation. Yet you act as if we hardly know each other. I thought we were on our way to becoming friends, but I don’t think you want that.”

He jammed his hands into his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. “I’m not good at friendship, Danielle. I don’t think you’d be interested in being friends with a guy like me.”

The door to the restaurant opened, and Nathan stepped outside. He looked from Danielle to Jack as he walked toward them. “Why, Detective Denton, imagine meeting you here.” He turned to Danielle. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Nathan. Jack just stopped to say hello.” She
pasted a big smile on her face. “It was good to see you. Maybe we’ll meet again soon.”

She pushed past Jack and strode toward Nathan’s car. He caught up with her and reached around her to open the door. “What was that all about?”

She slid into the seat and shook her head. “Nothing. We were just chatting.”

Nathan closed the door and crawled in behind the steering wheel. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

Danielle nodded and pulled the seat belt across her. What was it about Jack Denton that intrigued her and infuriated her at the same time? Maybe she felt drawn to him because he seemed so lonely, and she wanted to help him. On the other hand, she was probably better off not becoming friends with him. People close to her tended to end up dead, and she didn’t want to lose anyone else.

As the car pulled away, she glanced toward the restaurant. Jack, the pouring rain beating down on him, still stood on the sidewalk. She turned her head and looked the other way.

Jack hardly noticed the rain dripping down his face as he watched the car pull away. Danielle faced straight ahead and didn’t turn to glance at him, but he could see her profile. The set of her jaw and the tone of her voice when they’d spoken told him he’d offended her by his seeming indifference.

He slicked his wet hair back and glanced at the restaurant door. Suddenly he wasn’t hungry anymore. Instead emptiness filled him and left him feeling more alone than ever. In the last week he’d come to know that sensation well. It came over him every time he thought of Danielle Tyler.

He shook his head. It was better for her if he kept his distance. He would only hurt her like he had everyone else in his life.

Glancing at the restaurant once more, he turned and walked back to his car. He didn’t want to enter and see couples enjoying their time together. Even being alone at home was better than that.

A groan rumbled in his throat. Alone. That’s what the future held for him, and it was all his fault.

It had been a restless night for Danielle, and it had been all she could do to drag her tired body out of bed this morning. She pushed the door to her office open, hurried inside, and was about to drop her briefcase on her desk when she saw it. Another red rose with a white ribbon tied around it lay next to her computer.

Her hands shook as she picked up the flower. An envelope lay beside it, and she laid the rose back down, slid the letter opener under the flap, and pulled the card out.
Your eyes warm my heart.

The phone rang, and she jumped in surprise. The flashing buttons indicated the call was coming from a campus number. She picked up the receiver and held it to her ear. “Hello.”

“Dr. Tyler,” Jeff’s assistant said, “Mr. Webster has called a meeting of the advisory board in Dr. Newman’s office.”

She glanced back at the rose and swallowed. “When do I need to come?”

“Right now. I’m about to call Landon.”

Danielle hesitated. Should she tell someone about the flowers? She’d told Jack, and he’d seemed unconcerned. Perhaps she should keep it to herself for the time being. “I’m on my way.”

She replaced the phone in the handset and wondered why they were meeting again today. Hopefully it wasn’t about the fundraiser. She had a lot of loose ends to tie up before she could answer many questions about the event.

After giving the rose one last glance and shoving the card in her desk drawer, she trudged from her office and entered the president’s reception area. Betty, involved in a phone conversation, motioned for her to go on inside. Pushing the door open, she jerked to a stop. Jack Denton stood to the right of Jeff’s desk. His steel-blue eyes reminded her of frosted glass, and she shivered at the scrutiny of his cold gaze.

Jeff turned from talking with Nathan and smiled as she walked in. “Come in, Danielle. Landon’s on his way. We’ll start whenever he gets here.”

Nathan pulled a chair forward. “Sit here, Danielle.”

Without speaking, she eased into the chair to Jeff’s left and glanced at Jack across the desk. He directed a half smile at her, and she wondered what kept his stony face from cracking into a hundred pieces.

The door opened, and they all turned to see Landon walking in. “Sorry, I’m late. I couldn’t get away from some students.”

Jeff pointed to a chair in front of his desk. “That’s quite all right. Detective Denton came to see me, and I decided all of you need to hear what he has to say.” He sat down and motioned for everyone else to sit.

Danielle glanced around at the group. She had ended up on Jeff’s left with Nathan beside her and Landon on the far side of him. Jeff took his seat behind his desk, but Jack continued to stand.

When everyone had settled, Jeff spoke. “I’m going to turn this meeting over to Detective Denton now. There are some developments he wanted to share.”

Jack cleared his throat and stood beside Jeff. “I brought a piece of information to Dr. Newman’s attention, and he wanted you informed.” He held the same notebook Danielle had seen that first morning, and he looked down at it. “Our
tech guys have located the origin of the encore message left on Carter’s Web site.”

Danielle scooted to the edge of her chair. “That’s wonderful news.”

He shook his head. “You may not think so when I tell you where it is.”

She tilted her head and frowned. “What do you mean?”

His gaze drifted over each of them before he answered. “The message was sent from this school.”

Nathan bolted from his chair. “What? Are you telling us the killer used one of our computers to send that message?”

Jack nodded. “Yes. Our tech people traced the ISP to Webster University.”

Nathan fell back into his seat and gripped the arms of his chair. “Oh, this is horrible news. There’s a killer among us, and we don’t know who it is.”

Danielle reached over and covered Nathan’s hand with hers. “I think we knew this might happen. Now we have to help the police find out who it is.”

He glanced down at her hand on his and smiled. “Thank you for that voice of reason, Danielle.” He looked up at Jack. “We’ll cooperate with you any way we can to catch whoever sent that message.”

Landon leaned forward in his chair and nodded. “What do we need to do?”

Jack picked up his notebook from Jeff’s desk and stuck it under his arm. “We’d like to bring in some experts to check out all the computers on campus. Our guys tell me that even when a message is erased from a computer, it can still be retrieved. With any luck we can locate the one where the message originated. Maybe then we can find witnesses who were nearby at the time.”