Mountain Peril

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?”