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“I was in Special Forces. After I got out, I looked for a nice, quiet town and ended up in Webster Falls. It’s close to home. My mother lives in Asheville.”
She scooted her computer to the side and clasped her hands on the tabletop. “My parents live in Atlanta now. I see them several times a year. It must be nice to live so close you can visit your mother whenever you want.”
He averted his gaze and took a sip from his cup. “Yeah. I try to go at least once a month.” They sat silent for a few moments. Then he reached for her cup. “Want a refill?”
Her ponytail bobbed up and down as she nodded. “That would be great.”
Jack rose and walked away from the table. What was he doing sitting with this woman? He’d talked with her more since he’d walked in the door than he had with any woman in the past three years.
He stopped at the counter and glanced back at Danielle. She smiled at him, and he forced his lips to respond. He should leave. He didn’t need any complications in his life, and something told him she could be just that.
The day had produced more surprises than Danielle had experienced in a long time. The last thing she would have expected was to be sitting drinking coffee with Jack Denton. She had to admit, though, there was something about the quiet detective that intrigued her.
“Tell me, Jack…” she began but stopped.
He swallowed the coffee in his mouth and set the cup back on the table. “What?”
“I started to ask you about your family, but I don’t want you to think I’m prying.”
“No, it’s okay.” His eyes clouded, and his forehead creased into a small frown. “My mother is my only family. She has Alzheimer’s and is in a nursing home in Asheville. That’s why I go once a month.”
A pang of regret pierced her heart. “I’m sorry, Jack. That must be very painful for you.”
Jack nodded. “It is.” He cleared his throat and glanced at her. “But what about you? I’m sitting here with you, and for all I know you may have a boyfriend, or even be married.”
Another memory she struggled to suppress drifted into her mind. As she’d done so often in the past, she tried to shake it from her head. “No, there’s not a man in my life. There was one when I was in Chapel Hill attending graduate school, but he died.”
Jack leaned forward. “Oh, I’m sorry. What happened?”
Danielle swallowed before answering. “He was killed during a robbery of his apartment.”
“That’s terrible. Did the police catch the killer?’
Danielle shook her head. “No. They said there had been an increase in robberies in that area. They decided he must have walked in on a burglary in progress.”
Sympathy shone in Jack’s eyes. “Then I guess we have something besides Jade Dragon in common. My wife died in a car crash with another man while I was away on special assignment with the army.”
Danielle sucked in her breath. “Oh, Jack. I’m so sorry.”
Surprise flashed across his face. “I can’t believe I said that. You’re the first person I’ve told that to since I came to Webster Falls, and I’ve only known you one day.”
She smiled. “Then maybe this means we’re going to be friends.”
“Maybe so, but I have to warn you. I don’t make friends easily.” He leaned forward and crossed his arms on the table. “The way you talk, it seems you’ve been able to accept what happened in your life. How have you been able to do that?”
Danielle tilted her head and arched her eyebrows. “Oh, I have times when I feel overwhelmed. Two of the people I’ve loved most in my life, Jennifer and my fiancé, both died, but my faith got me through the bad times. So I try to remember that my life isn’t over and God still has plans for me.”
Jack cocked an eyebrow. “Faith, huh? Glad it works for you.”
His stony expression relayed his skepticism. Danielle shifted in her chair and debated what to say. “It can work for anybody, Jack.”
He sighed and pushed back from the table. “Not me.” He glanced past her toward the door, and his eyes widened in surprise. “Flynn Carter just walked in, and I recognize the girl with him from the Web site.”
Danielle stared in the direction he was looking. She hadn’t seen Flynn since early this morning, but his arrival reminded her of his behavior then. “He seems a lot happier now than when he was in my office. I wonder if he’s told Tricia about our meeting.”
Jack shrugged. “They don’t seem to be too concerned, do they?”
Danielle sighed and shook her head. “One thing I’ve found out about working with college students is they don’t tend to get too upset about anything but what’s happening at that minute.” She glanced at Jack. “Don’t get me wrong. We have some great kids at Webster, but they haven’t had the life lessons yet that will mold them into the adults they’ll become. They’re preparing for the world, and they have no idea how tough it can be at times.”
Jack studied Flynn and Tricia as they purchased coffee to go. “I hope their little prank doesn’t cause them to get some of that experience.”
“I do, too.” Danielle watched Flynn and Tricia as they disappeared out the door.
After a moment, Jack stood. “I guess I’d better be going. It was nice to see you.”
She stuck out her hand. “It was good seeing you. I hope we’ll meet again.”
He grasped her hand, and his gaze moved over her face. “Maybe we will. I’ll probably be back out at the school in a day or so if Carter doesn’t take the Web site down.” He smiled. “Good night, Danielle.”
“Good night, Jack.”
He turned and strode toward the door. Danielle watched him go before she picked up her iPod. As she stared at it, she replayed her conversation with Jack Denton in her mind. She’d never talked with anyone who seemed to guard each word like he did, and yet there had been a connection between the two of them.
They shared a love for her parents’ music, but there was more. They’d both had a tragedy with the person they loved. The difference was in the fact that Jack couldn’t accept what she’d found—faith. If they became friends, perhaps in time she could help him face his difficult memories.
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.