She snatched her hand away as if shed touched a hot stove. IIm glad. I mean, that youll go with me to see Thomass parents. That will be very helpful. She rose, as if she couldnt wait to put some space between them. Maybe we should go inside.
Maybe they should. And maybe he should stop putting himself in situations where he was alone with her.
CHAPTER SEVEN
WHAT WAS WRONG WITH HER? Jessica kept a smile on her face as she said goodbye to everyone, but once she got into her car and started back toward the lane, the expression slid away.
How could she have let that happen? She took a deep breath and focused on the turn to the two-lane blacktop road. The Morgan place was several miles from the village of Springville, and the road wasnt much traveled, it seemed. No other cars came along to distract her with their lights. She was alone, and at the moment that gave her too much time to think.
She tried telling herself that nothing had happened. Or that, if there had been some spark when she touched Trey, it had been entirely on her side, and he hadnt noticed a thing.
Wrong, said the judicial little voice at the back of her mind. Wrong on all counts.
It had happened, and it hadnt been just her. Trey had most definitely noticed it, too. When shed scrambled to her feet and headed into the house, shed seen the same stunned expression on his face that must have been on hers.
She took another breath, blew it out on a long exhale and tried to relax tense muscles. All right, face it. There had been a spark of attraction between them. A very strong spark. More like a flare gun.
For the most part, she kept her relationships on the light side, going out casually with people who were as wedded to their jobs as she was. People who would understand.
Not that she had any intention of letting something develop with Trey. Trey was still just as annoying, just as bossy, just as sure he was right as hed been before.
She couldnt be attracted to him, for more reasons that she could enumerate. For one thing-
A deer bounded across the road in front of her, and she slammed on the brakes, catching a glimpse of the white tail as it vanished into the cornfield on the opposite side of the road. Her heart pounded with the suddenness of the animals appearance, coming out of the dark and vanishing just as quickly.
She gripped the steering wheel and drove more slowly, eyes alert for movement on the berm of the road. As for Treyshe learned when she was just a kid that trusting someone with her heart wasnt wise or safe. Shed figured that out the day her father shipped her off to boarding school as if she were an inconvenient package, separating her from the woman whod been the only mother figure shed ever know. Shed learned to control her emotions, not let her emotions control her.
Sure, she thought about marrying someday. Having a family. But she wouldnt approach that on the basis most people did. Shed use her mind, not just her heart.
Shed file that bit of attraction to Trey under the category of Foolish Mistakes and concentrate on the case.
She fished her cell phone out of her bag and checked for messages. None, but shed promised to give Sara a call tonight. She almost pushed the button but dropped the cell phone on the seat instead. All shed need was to have her attention distracted when another deer decided to wander onto the road. Or a skunk. Or a rhinoceros. Who knew what kind of wildlife they had around here?
The blackness all around her was beginning to make her nervous. She hadnt seen another light in miles, only the narrow ribbon of blacktop, shining as far as her headlights reached.
She switched on the radio, found nothing but hard rock and country, and switched it back off again. She must be almost to Springville. She just couldnt see the lights of the small town for the black bulk of the hillside.
Even as she thought that, a pair of headlights appeared in her rearview mirror. The car accelerated, gaining on her quickly. Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel. Was that idiot going to pass on this winding road? To be fair, it might be perfectly familiar to him. He could be fuming at the sedate thirty-five she was going.
She steered closer to the edge of the road, giving him more passing room, but apparently that wasnt his intention. He slowed about two car lengths behind her, keeping pace with her.
That was normal. That was what any safe driver would do. But for some reason the pair of lights, glaring at her from her mirror in the midst of all that darkness, began to get on her nerves.
Stupid, she scolded herself. Youre just not used to the country, thats all. Get you away from streetlights and traffic signals, and you panic.
The stern lecture settled her nerves, but she was still glad when she rounded the flank of the hillside and the lights of Springville came into view. Once she got a bit closer, thered be enough light to see the car behind her.
But that wasnt to be. The car turned off at the next intersection. All she could say for sure was that it was a car, not a truck, and it was dark in color.
The car didnt mean anything, any more than that ridiculous attraction shed felt for Trey meant anything.
She drove down Springvilles main street, turned in at the sign for the Willow Brook Motel and drove around to the back toward her unit. The motel must be full tonight. Most of the spaces were taken, and a laundry truck took up the one in front of her unit.
Annoyed, she went around the first rank of cars in the lot, finally finding a space two rows back. She slid out, locked the car and headed for the motel.
Her briefcase-shed left it in the trunk. Annoyed with herself, she stopped-and heard an echo of her step, as if someone else were in the lot, someone who stopped when she did.
Nonsense, she told herself briskly. An image of the knife stuck in her tire slid unpleasantly into her mind, like a snake slithering out from beneath a rock.
She would not let that vandalism turn her into a basket case. She walked quickly back to the car, took the briefcase from the trunk and slammed the lid defiantly.
Several large motor homes were parked in the middle row of the lot. Why would someone want to stay at the Willow Brook Motel when his or her home on wheels had all the modern conveniences? Maybe RV drivers got the urge to spread out once in a while. She walked between two of them, their high sides forming a tunnel, and heard it again.
It wasnt an echo. Footsteps. Distinct footsteps, keeping level with her on the far side of the motor home. A chill slithered down her back. Maybe it was nothing, but it paid to take precautions, especially after the incident with her tires. If someone would slash her tires, what might he do to her?
She reached into the pocket of her bag where her cell phone lived. Her fingers groped fruitlessly, and her stomach cramped. The phone wasnt there. It was on the seat in the car, where shed dropped it.
Going back for it wasnt an option, not when she was aware of the person on the far side of the motor home. His footsteps had stopped when hers did, and she could almost imagine that she heard him breathing.
She pulled the key card from her bag, making sure she had it turned in the right direction. Then, before she could scare herself into immobility, she started walking again. When she stepped into the open, the other person would, too. Shed see that it was someone perfectly innocent, some late traveler headed for his or her room.
But when she stepped into the lane, the other person didnt. He stayed where he was, invisible in the shadow of the vehicle.
Then the shadow moved, and panic swept over her. She spun and ran for her room, unable to hear anyone for the sound of her own heart pounding in her ears, too breathless to cry out. She reached the door, shoved the key card in and stumbled inside.
She slammed the door and shoved the bolt home. She could breathe. Had she just made a complete idiot of herself? Probably.
Not turning the lights on, she sidled to the window and moved the drape just enough to peer out. If shed imagined thisbut she hadnt. Beside the motor home she saw a shadow shift, detach itself and then move backward, disappearing into the darker shadows beyond.
SHE HADNT CALLED the police, and Jessica was still wondering whether that decision had been the right one the next morning. Theyd have come, but even after the incident with her tires, how seriously would they have taken her account?
Someone followed you in the parking lot, Ms. Langdon? Can you describe that person? Oh, all you saw was a shadow.
She could imagine the looks theyd exchange over that. No, shed done the right thing. Maybe it had been nothing more than someone else going to his or her room.
Shed called Sara instead, and Saras common sense had reassured her. Jessica frowned. Shed intended to ask Sara to do a little research for her on past cases involving the Amish, but shed forgotten after that episode in the parking lot. Shed have to try to catch up with her later.
Treys truck pulled up, and she hurried out to meet him, double-checking to be sure the door locked behind her. Shed said she could drive herself to this meeting with Thomass parents, but Trey and his mother between them had battered down all her arguments. Besides, she didnt doubt that the Esch family would talk more freely with him there.
Good morning. She slid in quickly, circumventing his move to get out and open the door for her. Youre right on time.
My father taught me to be punctual. He raised an eyebrow at her. And my mother taught me to open a door for a lady.
Im perfectly capable of opening a truck door, she said.
She couldnt keep from glancing toward the spot where shed realized someone was there, keeping step with her in the darkness. But it wasnt dark now, and the motor homes had vanished, their drivers off on their travels, presumably.
She turned back around in her seat, feeling Treys gaze on her. She didnt intend to tell him, any more than shed told the police, but for a completely different set of reasons.
Trey might believe her. And if he didwell, hed jump in and try to take control, of course. Shed learned that much about him already. After that treacherous moment of weakness shed felt with him last night, she had to keep her guard up.