Her Silent Shadow: A Gripping Psychological Suspense Collection

by Edwin Dasso

  He’d teach her how to pace herself and she’d be grateful. She didn’t want to wind up a pathetic lush like Claire.

  Momentary lapse aside, Noah focused on the positive. For a few minutes, they’d been talking about family traditions, just like a real couple and he wondered what traditions they would make together. Hot chocolate on Christmas Eve while they wrapped gifts by the fire? She’d take the plate of cookies away, telling him he was getting fat. He’d grumble good naturedly while he put together a bike for one of the kids.

  “What’s your favorite holiday?” Noah asked.

  “Thanksgiving. Yours?”

  “Halloween. I loved dressing up.”

  “What was your favorite costume?” Eden asked, peering across the table as if she genuinely wanted to know.

  “A cop.”

  “I guess that’s why you ended up in security.”

  “I liked the idea of protecting people.”

  Like Eden. Although she may not realize it, he was protecting her now. From Hayden, and the other shallow relationships that were ruining her. He would never treat her that way.

  The frantic sound of a barking dog intruded upon Noah’s thoughts. He stiffened in his chair. His narrow gaze shot across the room to the door. A woman’s face peered through the living room window, sending a bolt of panic shooting through him. He’d thought to close the blinds in the kitchen, but the sunset had been so pretty that he’d wanted Eden to see.

  A mistake, he realized, too late.

  The neighbor banged on the front door. Eden’s eyes filled with worry. Noah’s jaw clenched.

  “Quiet. Not a word. I’ll get rid of her.”

  Ever so slightly Eden nodded, and Noah rose from his chair. He strode across the room. His hand drifted around his back. His palm grazed the gun tucked into his belt as he opened the door.

  A pudgy woman with glasses and frizzy gray hair smiled at him. She held the dog in her arms.

  “Hi. I’m your neighbor, Margaret Winston. I live over there.”

  She gestured through the trees to a blue house about a quarter mile down the road. Noah had driven by dozens of times on his way home.

  “It’s not a good time,” he said. “I have company.”

  “Oh,” she said, craning her head around Noah’s body, failing to take the hint. “I’m sorry to interrupt. I just realized that you’ve been here a few weeks and I haven’t stopped by to introduce myself and my dog, Comet, yet.”

  Noah glared at the mangy creature wiggling in her grasp. The dog fixed its beady black eyes on him. A soft growl rose from his throat.

  “Comet, hush,” Margaret said, but the dog kept growling. “Sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into him. He’s usually so friendly.”

  “I’m allergic to dogs.”

  Noah shot a look over his shoulder at Eden who was sitting perfectly still, bound to the chair. Her wide eyes looked enormous in her pale face. Margaret followed the path of his gaze and wiggled her fingers in a friendly wave.

  “Oh, hi there. I’m Margaret, your neighbor, and you are?”

  Margaret shifted to move past him. Noah widened his stance, blocking her path. The dog’s low growl erupted into a full-throated series of barks. The shrill noise hit Noah like an icepick through the skull, and before he could tell the bitch to get the fuck out of his house and take her stupid dog with her, Comet leapt from Margaret’s arms.

  He landed on the floor, toenails skittering and rushed inside.

  “Oh, my. I’m sorry I—”

  “I’ll get him,” Noah snapped.

  He swung away from the door and strode across the room to where Eden sat. The dog sniffed the rope that bound Eden’s feet to the chair. Noah was so focused on the dog that he’d totally forgotten about the gun tucked into the back of his belt.

  Margaret gasped. He turned. She scrambled away from the door and down the steps. Noah went after her. She’d seen the gun. She’d seen Eden. He couldn’t let her go.

  His feet pounded on the landing and he jumped down the stairs. Landing on the soft ground, he ran down the driveway. Margaret had almost made it to the car. She was scrambling through her purse, desperately searching for her keys. The purse crashed onto the gravel. Margaret clutched the keys in her hand. The remote clicked. The headlights flashed, momentarily blinding Noah. Squinting through the glare, he leveled the gun at Margaret’s chest.

  “The Webbers aren’t on vacation. They wouldn’t have left without telling me. You did something to them. You—"

  Noah pulled the trigger. The blast of the gun echoed through the trees. Margaret fell. She hit the driveway like a sack of wet cement.

  Noah heaved a sigh. This was bad. He would have to get rid of her body. He could bury her alongside the Webbers. And then there was the dog. The last thing he needed was for that damned dog to bark its idiot head off alerting the neighbors to the fact that something had happened to Margaret.

  Married women had golden retrievers or Labradors or collies. Only single women had yappy little asshole dogs like Comet. She wasn’t married. She didn’t have a husband waiting for her at home.

  Noah cast his gaze through the line of trees in the direction of Margaret’s house.

  Or did she?

  19

  Eden’s eyes fluttered open to the sound of an engine humming, and the buzz of tires on the road. Daylight streamed through the car’s windows. Thick locks of hair clung to her neck, plastered to her skin with sweat. Her mouth tasted like tin. She gazed out the passenger’s window, struggling to orient herself.

  A thick blanket of fog hung low over the winding two-lane road, cutting through a patchwork quilt of fields. They sped past shadowy barns, rundown houses and empty orchards stripped bare of their leaves. Without the sun to guide her, there was no way to glean what direction they were driving, let alone where they were.

  A short twenty-four hours ago, she’d have given anything to be out of that room, but now, she was trapped in a car heading god-knows where with a murderer. With each passing mile, her hopes of being found dwindled. Eden was caught in a desperate loop between panic and denial.

  Noah was going to kill her.

  Noah would let her go.

  She would find a way to escape.

  She was going to die.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Well, look who’s awake.” Noah smiled. “We’re heading south.”

  “South? Where?”

  “We need a clean slate. A place to start over. California. Mexico maybe, if I can figure out a way across the border.”

  Fear gave way to despair and Eden knew that California was too far away, and if they crossed into Mexico, she was as good as dead. At least in Oregon, she might still be found. There would be news reports about the kidnapping and missing persons flyers. The police would be looking for her. But in California, she was no one, just another lost girl with no hope of making it home.

  God, her poor parents. They must be going nuts, not knowing whether she was dead or alive. And Hayden. The cops would be all over him. The night they’d gone to the karaoke bar with Claire, he’d tried to warn her about Noah, but she’d brushed him off, chalking it up to misplaced jealousy. She and Noah were just friends. Right. What an idiot she’d been.

  Even if Hayden voiced his suspicions to the cops, it wouldn’t do any good. Not without evidence. Noah was bat-shit crazy, but he wasn’t dumb. Her last hope was the list of cosmetics she’d given to Noah on the slim chance that Claire might recognize them, might suspect him. But Noah had spotted the trap and hadn’t shown the list to Claire. Even if he had, Claire wouldn’t have believed that Noah was capable of such darkness. Any fool could see that she was in love with him.

  They passed a road sign for Silverton. Noah bypassed the town, traversing a series of back roads that left the valley behind. The flat farmer’s fields gave way to more rugged terrain. Barns clung to the hillsides and opened onto muddy fields. Christmas tree farms filled with prefabricated rows of noble firs eme
rged from the fog. They were soon dwarfed by towering Douglas Firs. The forest thickened as they passed the sign for Silver Falls and Eden cast a worried glance at Noah, who stared silently through the windshield, as if his thoughts were a thousand miles away.

  Eden tugged on the zip ties, but they held fast. There were no cars out here, just miles of empty roads. The few cars that were parked at the trailheads sat abandoned, their occupants already deep in the woods.

  Noah turned onto a narrow forestry road. Now that they had climbed to a higher elevation, the fog had burned away. Golden shafts of autumn sunlight broke through the heavy canopy of trees. The beauty of the forest was lost on Eden. She remembered the neighbor. Margaret. And the gunshot. All she could think about was how easy it would be to hide a body here. A few hundred feet off a hiking trail, the woods were so dense that human remains would never be found.

  Was that why Noah had driven all the way here? The frightening thought drove a chill through Eden, and she shivered. Reaching across the center console, Noah laid his hand against her bare arm. She jumped at the unexpected contact. Noah frowned.

  “You’re freezing. I’ll turn up the heat.”

  He cranked a dial on the dash, and warm air flowed through the vents, filling the cabin with heat.

  “Dammit.”

  Eden’s heart jolted at the vehemence of Noah’s curse. He slowed the car and came to a stop in front of a closed gate.

  “Damned forest roads. They shouldn’t be closed this early. There’s not even snow.”

  “Do we need to turn back?”

  Noah shook his head. “There’s another road a little farther up.”

  “You know the area?”

  “I’ve been hiking in these woods since I was a kid.”

  Noah’s statement was far from reassuring. He backtracked onto another road and soon, they were on their way. An hour later, the forest was behind them. Sunlight disappeared behind a blanket of heavy clouds and a misty rain began to fall.

  Eden saw a road sign for a town up ahead. Sublimity.

  “I need to use the rest room.”

  Noah’s gaze never strayed from the road as he shook his head.

  “There’s no place to stop.”

  “There’s got to be some place. A restaurant. A gas station. Please.”

  Noah’s jaw hardened and Eden sensed him weighing the risks.

  “Once we’re out of town, I can stop near some trees.”

  Eden blinked. “You want me to pee behind a tree? With my hands tied? You’re serious?”

  “We’re not on a road trip, Eden You’re going to have to make do.”

  She heaved a sigh as the town of Sublimity came into view. According to the sign on the outskirts of town, two thousand eight hundred souls resided here, and she prayed that at least one of them was paying attention. Eden straightened in her seat, scouring the sidewalks for signs of life. If she could make eye contact, signal someone, maybe there was a chance she would be recognized.

  But Sublimity, as it turned out, was a one stoplight town. They sailed past the Chevron without stopping. The lone human she saw pumping gas into a beat-up pickup did not look up as they passed.

  Eden slumped.

  She was as good as dead.

  “Do you have anything to eat? I’m hungry.”

  If she could at least get him to untie her hands, maybe she could jump from the car. It was a crazy desperate idea, but what else did she have?

  “Food?” she prompted him.

  “I didn’t have time to pack much. Are you in trouble?”

  “Would it matter?” she snapped.

  They fell into a brooding silence. White covered bridges spanned fast-moving rivers as they continued on their southward trek. Eden tugged on the zip ties, but the only thing she managed to do was chafe her skin until it bled.

  The destination board that flew by signaled another town. Sweet Home. At the town limits, Noah dropped his speed.

  “Can I trust you?” he asked.

  Those four words gave Eden reason to hope. “Yes.”

  Noah remained silent, his brooding gaze fixed out the windshield, he stared at the road ahead. Sweet Home had seen better days. A two-lane highway cut through the center of town, which was filled with rundown bungalows, trailer parks, and dingy strip malls. Eden watched the town slide past, wondering what Noah was thinking and not daring to ask.

  Mid-day. Though the streets weren’t entirely deserted, few people braved the rain. The pedestrians that ambled past paid them no mind. Traffic thickened only slightly as they reached the fast-food strip. Noah stopped for the traffic light. A young, dark-haired woman pushing a baby stroller stood at the crosswalk waiting for the light to change. She looked up. Eden’s heart lurched as their eyes met. She stared at the woman and mouthed the words.

  Help me.

  The woman stared back. Please. Please. Please. The light changed and Noah sailed through the intersection. The woman at the corner pushed the baby stroller across the street. She was no longer looking their way.

  “What are you looking at?”

  Eden’s cheeks flushed and her throat went dry as she glanced over at Noah. “What?”

  “Back there.”

  “Oh, nothing. There was a baby. That’s all.”

  “You like kids?”

  “Sure. Don’t you?”

  Noah shrugged. Eden shifted her gaze to the side mirror, but the woman and the baby were long gone.

  The windshield wipers squeaked, filling the silence, as the last of the town disappeared behind them. They followed the highway east and passed a road sign for the Green Peter Dam. Noah slowed the car and turned left, onto a tributary road. Branches, from the evergreens bordering the road, closed in overhead. The edge of the winding road dropped steeply off to the right, mirroring the meandering path of a river. Through the blur of tree trunks, she caught brief glimpses of the slate gray water churning at the bottom of a valley dozens of feet below.

  Rain struck the windshield with increasing force, driven on by the wind. Eden stared glumly out the window. There was nothing out here. No houses. Only trees. Far below, the river turned white and frothy with rapids.

  Noah slowed the car again and turned left onto a dirt lane. Tires crunched along gravel as they made their way up a hill.

  “Promise me that you’ll behave yourself.”

  “Why?”

  “I know someone who lives up here. He was one of my teachers in high school. We could stop. Use the bathroom. Maybe get something to eat, but I have to know I can trust you.”

  Eden’s heart raced. “You can, Noah. I swear.”

  “They’re good people. I wouldn’t involve them in this thing but—” He raked his hand through his hair and blew out a breath, as if he was still trying to decide. “But we can’t stop anywhere else. At least, not until we’re out of Oregon.”

  “What’s his name, this teacher?”

  “Mr. Roberts. He taught at the high school. English.”

  “Wait, you grew up here?”

  Noah shrugged. “In the area. A town called Sodaville, just southwest of Sweet Home.”

  Noah pulled off the road onto a gravel driveway. A quarter mile up, he stopped the car. The green bungalow in the center of the clearing was the most beautiful thing Eden had ever seen. A flagstone walkway carved a path through the flower beds to the front door. Bright patches of impatiens, pink and white, added bursts of color amongst so much green.

  Noah leaned toward her. The faint scent of sweat wafted from his warm skin as he cut the zip ties.

  “Stay there,” he ordered.

  Eden rubbed her chaffed wrists and waited for Noah to round the car. Her desperate gaze strayed toward the trees, only a hundred yards away. Her body tensed, and she imagined herself bursting from the car and sprinting toward the woods.

  She’d never make it. Noah could outrun her. Besides, he had a gun. She recognized the subtle bulge near his hip, just visible beneath his sweater.

  A
ll she could do was play along. And hope to god his teacher recognized her.

  20

  An elderly woman dressed in blue slacks, a turtleneck and puffy vest answered the door. A sleek golden retriever slid past her knees to greet them. Tail wagging, he shoved his cold nose into Eden’s palm looking for attention.

  “Oh! Manners, Bentley. Can I help you?”

  The dog ignored her. Noah held Eden’s hand tightly in a death grip as he returned the woman’s smile.

  “Mrs. Roberts. You probably don’t remember me. I’m Noah Hall, and this is… my girlfriend, Annie. We were wondering if Mr. Roberts is home. I’m one of his former students.”

  “Oh, it’s such a pleasure to meet you, Noah. Bill,” she called over her shoulder. “We have company. Please, do come in. Bentley, go.”

  She snapped her fingers. This time the dog obeyed her command and trotted into the living room. Noah and Eden followed Mrs. Roberts inside. The living room was small but cozy. The television was turned on and a game show was playing. Mrs. Roberts turned the television off.

  Footsteps sounded down the hall, and Bill Roberts emerged. Bentley bolted to his side. Mr. Roberts was a tall man with thinning white hair, and wire rim glasses perched on his nose.

  “Mr. Roberts.” Noah’s voice took on a note of reverence. “You may not remember me. I’m Noah Hall. You were my tenth grade English teacher.”

  “Noah. That’s right. It’s been a lot of years, but I never forget a face.”

  Mr. Roberts extended his hand, and the two men shook. Mrs. Roberts’ gaze locked on Eden. Her heart nearly stopped as Mrs. Roberts looked at her. Eden studied the expression in the older woman’s eyes, looking for something, anything, for please god, a flash of recognition.

  “And what was your name again dear?”

  Eden’s hopes crumbled. Without missing a beat, Noah said, “Annie. This is my Annie.”

  “Welcome, Annie. What an unexpected surprise. We’re so glad you stopped by. Please, sit.”