Shadow in the Pines (12 page)

Gathering her clothes from a heap in the floor, she headed for the bathroom. Noah had a shower, something she didn’t think she’d miss until she didn’t have one. As much as she loved long soaks in her tub, there was nothing like starting the day with a brisk shower to help her wake up. No matter what time it was, waking up was not one of her best things. When she emerged from the shower, she heard him banging around in the kitchen and called out to him.

“Can I borrow a shirt?”

“Help yourself,” he answered. “In the closet.”

It was surprisingly neat in there, and she was amazed to find a nice assortment of dress clothes. All she’d ever seen him in was jeans and casual shirts. It would be interesting to see how he decked out for the Rose Dance next weekend. Selecting a plaid flannel shirt that looked less enormous than the others, she buttoned it up and padded to the kitchen, still rolling up the sleeves that dangled to mid thigh.

“Morning,” she smiled, grazing his cheek on tiptoe. “Whatcha making?”

He was fully dressed and had plates already laid out on the card table.

“Omelets,” he said. “We actually eat breakfast at my house,” he grinned.

“Long as you cook it, I’ll eat,” she smiled, searching for a coffee cup.

“Beside the sink,” he read her mind. “Coffee’s over there,” he pointed to a pot in the corner.

“Can I help with anything?” she asked as she filled her cup.

“Nope,” he said. “All done. Sit down.”

She did as he asked, watching him with fascination. He was an odd mixture of rough and gentle, but she wondered how many people ever really got to see the gentle part. He never talked about friends or family, and she’d never seen him with anyone else. As witty and handsome as he was, that seemed strange. She was aware of the way the waitresses stole looks at him when he wasn’t watching, and the men always treated him with respect. She’d never seen him really angry, either, but she’d seen enough to know she didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that.

“There you go,” he said, sliding an omelet onto her plate. A moment later he returned with a basket of hot biscuits and sat down beside her. “How’s that for service?”

“Perfect,” she smiled, taking a bite of one of the best omelets she’d ever had. “Hey, this is good,” she said.

“But of course,” he winked at her. “If I do something, I do it right.”

She couldn’t argue with that. “You know, it’s Thanksgiving in a week and a half,” she said, thinking out loud.

“So it is,” he said. “You going out of town?”

“No.”

Even when she was married to Mark, they rarely celebrated. Doctors took off on holidays and left their patients to the residents. “I love holidays, though,” she said wistfully. “Even when we didn’t have any money, my mom always made it special.”

A small sigh escaped her lips as she remembered. When she and Mark were first married, she’d tried so hard to duplicate what her mom did for her growing up, but Mark thought she was being childish. He wanted cocktail parties and banquets instead of turkey dinners with homemade pies and tree trimming parties with caroling later.

“What about you?” she asked, shaking herself. “What do you do for the holidays?”

He shrugged, looking intently at his plate. “I don’t know. If I’m not working, I just do…whatever.”

“You don’t have any family?” she asked, hoping it wasn’t too rude.

“Well,” he said, “I haven’t seen my dad since I was six, and Mom died when I was twenty-two.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to pry.”

“No,” he took her hand. “You’re not. It’s just the way it is.”

They ate in silence for a while. Dani didn’t know for sure whether he wanted to talk about it or not.

“You know how to cook a turkey?” he asked, finally.

“I do,” she smiled broadly. “Want to come over for Thanksgiving?”

“You think you can top this?” he held up a fork with his last bite of omelet.

“Damn straight,” she said with a smile. “I’ve been practicing.”

“Deal, then,” he said, getting up and carrying his dishes into the kitchen. “Now,” he said, looking at her from the sink, “Why don’t you clean this up and I’ll go on over to your house and check it out. You can come on when you’re done.”

“Okay,” she said. It wouldn’t take long to clear these dishes but she was in no rush to go back in her house until she knew there were no more snakes lurking in there.

When she’d finished the kitchen, Dani took the shortcut through the trees and got to the driveway just in time to see a truck pull back out onto the road.

“Noah,” she called, climbing the porch stairs.

“In here,” he answered, coming out of the kitchen wiping his hands on a dishtowel.

“Who was here?” she asked, glancing around the floor quickly as she entered. The house that seemed so comfortable yesterday morning seemed cold and unfriendly today.

“That was your sociable neighborhood locksmith,” he smiled. “I had him change all the locks and check the windows.”

“Oh.” He sure didn’t waste any time. “You really think someone came in here and planted that snake, don’t you?”

He came closer and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Yes’m, I do. I have something else for you, too.” Giving her shoulders a quick squeeze, he went back into the kitchen and emerged carrying a pistol. “Ever shot one of these?”

“No,” she said, frowning. Last night’s fears surged through her like she’d grabbed a live wire.

“It’s just a precaution,” he said. “Don’t get all stressed.”

“But, Noah…” Dani never even used mousetraps because she couldn’t stand to see the disgusting little creatures killed like that. Did he really think she could use that thing on somebody? “I could never shoot anybody.”

“And I don’t want you to shoot anybody,” he assured her, leading her to the back door. “All I want is to show you how to use this just in case you need it. That’s all.”

As she stepped through the back door, she saw that he already had some target cans set up along the far side of the yard and they spent the better part of the next hour getting her acquainted with a .38. It wasn’t as bad as she feared, but it wasn’t the gun that worried her. It was the target.

When they got back inside the house, she sat down on the couch and closed her eyes while Noah went to put the gun away. It was impossible to believe all this was happening to her. How could things happen so fast when time seemed like it was standing still?

The couch cushion took a little dip when he sat down beside her and she looked up at him. “What do you really think is going on here? I mean, you’re not afraid I’ll disappear like the other three, are you?”

Dani imagined all sorts of things running through his mind as he looked at her, things she didn’t want to think about, much less hear.

“You want a professional opinion, or a gut instinct?” he answered a question with a question.

“Both,” she said, suspecting they weren’t at all the same.

“Okay-y,” he said. “My professional opinion is, somebody thinks you’re asking too many questions and wants to scare you out of it. The phone call, the big non-venomous snake. If someone wants to kill you, they don’t usually warn you first. But, my gut tells me there’s something more going on. I don’t know what, but I care too much about you to take any chances.”

“So, what do I do?” she asked. “I can’t just quit my job and stay here all the time.”

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, tugging playfully on a strand of her hair. “You be careful. You let me ask the questions, and you don’t go off anywhere by yourself.”

“Okay,” she said meekly, looking down at the floor.

“Or, you can move in with me and I’ll be your chauffeur,” he offered jokingly.

Rolling her eyes, she said, “Yeah, right.”

She’d just come out of a ten-year marriage where her husband dictated every detail of her life. She wasn’t about to go there again, no matter how different Noah seemed. If some coward wanted to play hardball, she’d just have to learn how to play.

***

Dani was putting the last of the file folders into the file cabinet when she looked up to see Mike standing in the doorway, watching her.

“Hi,” she smiled, determined to be friendly despite the constant cold shoulder she got when she worked at Ophidian. “Need me for something?”

“Nah,” he shook his head, glancing casually around the now spotless room. “You’ve done a good job in here. I’ve never seen it look like this in all the time I worked here.”

That was high praise, coming from him.

Dani shrugged, not wanting to make too much of it. “Thanks. You guys work hard in there, you need someone to keep your reports organized.”

In truth, she’d far rather be in the file rooms than in the labs with the snakes. Especially after the incident at the house last week. She swore, the first time she’d entered a lab after that she felt her skin crawling.

He nodded but didn’t speak again. Dani waited a moment, then gathered her books off the table. It was already after six and Dr. Crane didn’t approve of overtime unless it was his idea. Mike moved so she could pass into the hall, then followed her to the office.

“I heard you found a brown snake in your house last week,” his words stopped her with her hand on the doorknob and she turned back to face him.

“Yes,” she said. “How did you know?”

“Beth,” he said. “She was pretty freaked.”

Dani laughed at that. “So was I.”

“Can I walk you to your car?”

“Sure,” she shrugged.

He hadn’t talked to her this much the whole time she’d worked here. Maybe she was finally gaining some ground. Her search through the files had been productive, at least for the lab, but it hadn’t told her anything she wanted to know about the missing students. She’d tried to heed Noah’s warning about asking too many questions, but it was hard when those questions relentlessly bombarded her brain.

Mike walked along beside her, nervously shoving his hands in and out of his pockets and keeping a wary eye on the surroundings. Dani was beginning to catch his uneasiness when he spoke again.

“What did you do with the snake?”

“I’m not sure, exactly. A friend of mine was there. He killed it and took it outside,” she said. “Why?”

He stopped beside her when she reached her car and scanned the parking lot, not meeting her eyes.

“I had to come in Saturday to pick up something I left in the brown snake lab,” he explained. “One of them was missing when I got here.”

“You think it’s the same one?”

“I’d like to check it, if you don’t mind,” he said. In spite of his wariness, there was a glint of determination in his eyes.

“Okay,” she said, her mind reeling from the possibilities. She hadn’t even thought about where the snake might have come from. “When?”

“How about now?”

Dani was going straight home anyway, so she waited for him to get his car and follow her. Once she got home, she called Noah to find out where he’d put the snake and was able to take Mike right to it. It didn’t look near as scary sprawled on a bush, shriveled and crawling with ants, but Dani still had to suppress a shudder as Mike gingerly lifted it and laid it out flat on the ground.

“Is it?” she asked finally when he didn’t speak.

“I can’t be sure, but I think so,” he said solemnly.

The gentle breeze and the crisp, pine scent did nothing to lighten the dread that hovered like a storm on her horizon.

“Mike,” she said, unwilling to play games, “somebody put this in my house. Who would do that?”

“You don’t know that,” he turned angrily, stomping through the brush toward his car.

“What do you mean, I don’t know that?” Dani struggled to keep up with him as he walked away. “You think that snake just escaped from the lab and crawled out here and let himself into my house?” Once they broke free of the trees, she hurried around and stopped in front of him, forcing him to look at her.

Running a hand nervously through his hair, he shook his head and stared up at the sky.

“Talk to me!” she demanded. He closed up the lab. He had to know something.

“I don’t know what to tell you!” his eyes flashed with anger. Or was it fear? She couldn’t tell.

“How long have you worked there, Mike?”

Pulling his keys out of his pocket, he sidestepped and got in his car, ignoring her question.

“Mike! I haven’t done anything wrong! Why won’t you talk to me?” she pleaded.

He put the car in gear and started backing out of the drive, then stopped, looking at her out of the open window. “I need to think about this,” was all he said, then he was gone.

Completely frustrated, Dani picked up a pinecone off the ground and hurled it with all her might back in the direction of the snake. What was it all about, anyway? Her brain refused to process the data. It was simply too unbelievable. So what if she owned the land where they disappeared? It was six years ago, for God’s sake. She didn’t see anything!

Chapter Eleven

The funky cloud followed her into the house, hindering her evening activities and leaving her with a generalized feeling of depression. When Noah called and said he was working late, she decided to chuck it all and headed upstairs for a long soak. Maybe a glass of wine and a good mystery would take her mind off things for a while.

She had the tub filled with hot water, vanilla candles burning and was just pulling her shirt off over her head when the doorbell pealed. Hastily shrugging back into her shirt, she raced downstairs thinking Noah must have finished up sooner than he expected.

“Hey!” she said, smiling as she opened the front door.

But it wasn’t Noah, it was Mike, and in his arms was a big, fluffy gray cat.

“What’s this?” she asked, with Bandit sniffing and wiggling furiously at her feet.

“Snakes don’t like cats,” Mike explained, with a sheepish grin that smacked of repentance and made him look like an overgrown schoolboy.

“Are you serious?” she asked. “Come on in.”

Shuffling awkwardly through the door, he stood in the living room floor and waited for her to shut it before handing her the cat. “I have some things for her in the car.”