Shadow in the Pines (27 page)

“I have to go for wood. We have no guarantee that this guy will move before dark, or that someone from the PD will come looking before dark. But when it gets dark, it’s going to get damn cold. Your thermostat stops registering at 50 and we’re there now.”

Dani felt tears beginning to well up in her eyes, despite the fact that she knew he was right.

“Don’t cry,” he whispered, his voice breaking for the first time. “I don’t have to cut down a tree. I already have a cord of wood beside the house. I just have to run over and get some. Ten minutes, tops.”

“Can I see the wood pile from here?” she asked.

“No,” he said apologetically, “but I swear, I’ll hurry.”

“And you want me to stay up here while you’re gone?”

“Dani, it’ll be over before you know it. Remember, this is what I do everyday?”

That wasn’t entirely true, but close enough. Still, she couldn’t stop the tears from flowing once he’d gone back down the steps. She wished she could turn up the volume and be certain that her ears recorded every sound. Dani sighed and checked her watch, then focused her eyes on the window.

True to his word, she soon saw Noah making his way through the trees from the back side. Forcing herself to take her eyes off him long enough to scan the area, she quickly located him again, moving ever closer to his house. She kept her gaze on him until his back disappeared into the trees next to the driveway.

Holding her breath, she raised her wrist so she could check the time, then concentrated on her watch for a moment fearing the second hand wasn’t moving anymore. It was. And it continued to move, but nothing moved in the trees below. At eight minutes, Dani knew Noah should have been on his way back. At ten, she started to cry. At twelve minutes, with no sign of him, she thought she saw a movement nearer the front of the driveway. Frozen to the spot, she waited until her heartbeat pounded in her ears. Noah wasn’t coming back.

Chapter Twenty Four

With feet of lead, Dani tore herself away from the window and moved toward the stairs. Her mind was in chaos and she shook her head, silently begging for help from somewhere, anywhere. Warily, with shaking legs, she navigated her way down the ladder, then hit the stairs two at a time. Trembling so bad she fumbled the buttons, she pulled on her coat and tried to fasten it, then slid her shaking hands into her gloves. The last glance at her watch showed that Noah had now been gone for almost twenty minutes. Far too long. She wished they’d taken time to make a contingency plan, even though at the time she wouldn’t have wanted to hear it.

Terrified that the movement she saw near the front of his driveway was the killer, she sucked up every ounce of courage she could find and headed out the back door. With ears finely tuned, she followed the path that Noah had taken, running in a crouched position, not realizing that she should have brought a flashlight until the cover of trees blocked out what little daylight was left in the sky. With her black sweats and jacket, the killer would have a hard time seeing her in here. Trouble was, she’d have a hard time seeing anything before long.

Walking more slowly, dodging the grasping arms of the trees that crackled and crunched as she nudged against them, she made her way across the ravine. The crunch of each footstep echoed in her ears and she wished she knew how to walk more quietly. Although the wind was bitterly cold, sucking the very breath from her nostrils when it hit her face, Dani was aware of only one thing. She had to find Noah.

At the edge of the woods, she stopped and surveyed the visible area. Not a sign of life anywhere. Taking a chance, since she’d never really noticed the woodpile that was his destination, Dani headed left toward the back of the house. Sure enough, there it was, just around the back corner. But there was no sign that it had been touched recently. Actually, since the entire stack was covered with a three-inch blanket of snow, it was a safe bet that Noah never made it to the woodpile. Then where did he go?

Dani turned and retraced her steps, examining the ground as she went, fully aware that she was little more than a moving target. There, next to the house, she saw fresh footprints heading toward the back, but they stopped suddenly and it looked like he’d backtracked. The footprints disappeared at the driveway, but the wind had blown most of the snow clear from that area, leaving a thin sheet of ice over the frozen ground. Noah’s driveway, like her own, wasn’t paved, it was firmly packed dirt with a smattering of impacted gravel. Since the ground had been frozen hard before the snow fell, the snow didn’t stick much in the high wind.

Worried about a lot more than leaving footprints in the snow, Dani skirted the driveway with her gun in hand, fully cognizant that she might just have to use it this time and praying that she did so wisely. She was almost to the road when she spied something that threatened to stop her heart. Pausing just long enough to scan the trees that lined the other side of the road for a sign of movement, she ran across the road, nearly losing her footing twice on the way. Skidding to a stop, she stared at the ground.

A bright red splotch that could only be blood glistened in the snow it melted when it touched. Fresh.

Heart pounding and short of breath, Dani edged her way into the trees, not sure at first which way to go. Footprints, she reminded herself. Look for footprints. Shivering uncontrollably as much from fear as from cold, she scanned the ground and located what might have been footprints. A few steps further in she saw another spot of blood, not much more than a few drops this time, but enough to assure her that something was very wrong and she was moving in the right direction. Fortunately, she’d been in this part of the woods often enough searching for a truant Bandit to make it seem quasi-familiar.

Pausing long enough to pull the ski mask down over her face and let the safety off her gun, she proceeded cautiously with a death grip on the .38. The snow was too sparse and scattered beneath the trees to make out any consistent trail of footprints, so she just followed her instincts. When she’d lost sight of the road and any sign of footprints or blood spots, she stopped, breathing deeply, grateful that the stocking mask filtered some of the bitter cold from the air she breathed. It did nothing for the pounding of her heart, however, or the vise-grip of fear that encased her soul like concrete.

Her watch was hopelessly concealed by the bulk of her coat over the sleeve of her sweatshirt, but the encroaching darkness told her she was rapidly running out of time. She doubted she’d survive the night alone out here with no power and no phone. Especially with no Noah and an unknown assailant intent on her demise.

As the shadows covered more and more ground, Dani covered less and less. She felt she’d make as much progress by crawling and could only hope she was still moving in the right direction. The road was no longer visible. When she could go no further, she stopped, leaning against the nearest tree and trying to breathe deeply while suppressing the sobs that threatened to rise up and overtake her. She didn’t dare call out for Noah, but his name slammed relentlessly around inside her head, echoing through the canyons of her mind.

Knowing she had to move, she changed direction slightly. The opening between the trees spread just a few inches and she was able to see a little further. Following it around curves and corners, she finally caught sight of the shed dead ahead. Stopping again to make sure there wasn’t someone waiting and watching, she gasped audibly when she spotted a man’s body, crumpled in a heap about fifteen feet ahead through the trees that circled the back side of the shed.

Fighting the instinct to turn and run, she crouched low and put one foot in front of the other. Close enough to see that it wasn’t Noah, she heaved a sigh of relief, but it didn’t still the pounding of her heart. Wriggling the fingers that clenched her gun, hoping to restore some of the feeling, she wished like hell someone would wake her up from this nightmare. The fear that gripped her kept her more aware of her surroundings than the tingling pain that signified loss of feeling in her extremities.

A few steps further and she recognized the man on the ground. It was Dr. Crane. Noah’s prime suspect after Dr. Atkinson. But if Crane was her stalker, and Noah took him down, where was Noah?

Suddenly, it occurred to her that maybe Noah had followed him here and got the drop on him, then headed straight back across the road to let her know. But if he found her gone, then he was bound to be out here searching for her. They’d not likely cross paths because she came across from his driveway when hers was directly across the street. She contemplated that for a moment. She probably should leave here now and make her way back across the street. But if Noah wasn’t there, or if Crane wasn’t the stalker, she was still in danger and it would be dark soon.

It will be dark soon, anyway, another voice inside argued back with her. What then? Maybe she should go back now and at least get her flashlight. It would be another hour or more before she could even hope for reinforcements. If something had happened to Noah out here, he could die from exposure in that amount of time. Wait a minute!

Someone was bleeding, enough to leave a trail. From this distance, she saw no sign of blood on Dr. Crane. Maybe if she got close enough to determine how he came to be lying there, she’d have at least one answer.

Praying she’d made the right choice, Dani crept closer, then stooped to a squatting position. There, in the middle of his chest, was a bullet hole with a round circle of blood on his shirt that dripped down over his left pocket and disappeared beneath his coat. No way he was shot all the way back by the road. The blood would have drained down toward his belt. He was shot right here. Someone else was bleeding.

Closing her eyes and taking deep breaths didn’t do much to calm her, or to tell her what to do next. Weary beyond words and entering a chronic state of numbness, Dani got slowly to her feet, looking around the clearing. She wanted to scream Noah’s name at the top of her voice, but doubted she could summon the strength. There was nothing for her but to keep searching. She had no doubt that was what she’d do until she simply couldn’t search any more.

The shed was the logical place to start. She hadn’t heard a sound except the crackling of ice-laden branches in the wind and the crunch of frozen weeds beneath her feet. All emotion was frozen, she wasn’t even moved by the sight of a dead body less than five feet away, or the thought that he might have been coming for her. This must be what autopilot was like. No feeling, no thinking, just reacting according to how you’ve been programmed to react.

With another glance around the clearing, she closed the distance between herself and the shed, nudging the door open with her shoulder. The sight of Noah sprawled out in the floor of the shed brought a wave of panic. In an instant, she was by his side, dropping her gun on the ground beside him and fumbling to remove her gloves with fingers that were numb from the cold.

“Noah!” inside, it sounded like a hoarse scream, but to her ears it was a barely audible hiss. “Noah, please!” Blindly, she groped his neck for a pulse and amazingly enough she found one. Too nervous to tell if it was weak, fast, or slow, it was enough just to know he was still alive.

Quickly, she looked him over the best she could, trying to see why he was out cold. There was no sign of blood, but it was obvious he wasn’t just sleeping. She’d never be able to move him. At least in here he was protected from the wind. Somehow, she had to get help.

Getting to her feet, she reached for her gun and turned toward the door. “Please hold on, Noah,” she said, as much for her own benefit as his. Without pausing to look, she burst through the door and started back toward the road.

“Took you long enough,” an oddly familiar voice stopped her in her tracks and she turned slowly to see a tall figure leaning against the shed. “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming.”

Dani was painfully aware of the gun in her hand pointing at the ground, but her attention was focused on the rifle cradled in the arms of the hooded figure that spoke.

“I’m sorry it has to be like this, but it does. Drop the gun and kick it over here.”

Dani squinted at the figure she faced. Tall and lean, the voice sounded almost like a woman, but with a stocking mask much like her own, it was impossible to tell. Her mind raced, considering her options. It was almost completely dark now and she was only a few feet from the trees. She might be able to make it and get lost in there, but there was no help for miles. How far could she run?

As if reading her mind, the figure let loose a throaty laugh and revelation dawned. Caroline Crane. Unbelievable. “You can run, but if you do, I’ll kill Noah. Is that what you want?”

“Why?” she asked feebly, unable to comprehend how this high society doctor’s wife could possibly be behind all this.

She laughed again. “You’d never understand. Besides, it’s not important. It’s enough that you know I’ll do it. Now drop the gun and kick it over here.” The voice had an edge that wasn’t there before and Dani feared she did, indeed, mean what she said.

She weighed her options and tried desperately to remember all Noah had taught her about using the gun he’d given her. Never pull it unless you intend to use it. Never let someone take it away from you.

But what about the TV shows where police have to surrender their weapons to protect someone? Not real, Noah’s voice echoed from within. No officer would ever surrender his weapon. He’d die fighting before he’d do that.

Dani’s shoulders slumped and she hoped she gave off an air of defeat. This woman didn’t fool her. She’d shoot Noah if Dani tried to run, but she’d shoot him if Dani surrendered her weapon too. No way she’d let him walk out of here alive.

Hoping a straight shot was faster than swiveling a rifle, Dani raised the gun and fired straight at the form that was Caroline Crane. The shot did more than startle her attacker; it knocked her up against the wall of the shed and dropped her on the ground. The rifle discharged into the air as she fell, but once she hit the ground, there was no movement.