Page 1 of Dark Terror
Chapter One
If it hadn’t been her Friday to work until closing—the only night the Dark Falls library had extended hours—she wouldn’t have been going to her car in the dark.
If she hadn’t seen the little dog frantically barking and trailing a leash, she wouldn’t have chased it, afraid it would get run over. She glanced down at the brown and black dog sitting on her lap, his gaze glued to the door as if waiting for his mistress to appear any minute. That was never going to happen, poor thing.
If either of those things hadn’t happened, she wouldn’t have followed the dog into the park across from the library, and if she hadn’t gone into the park, she wouldn’t have witnessed a murder.
“Can you describe him?”
Cara Jenner blinked, lifting her gaze to the detective, wishing they’d sent someone older to interview her, a man who wasn’t just about the hottest thing she’d ever met. The black hair, those green eyes behind black frame glasses—who knew glasses on a man could be that sexy? Not her, that was for sure.
He’s a cop, Cara, she reminded herself.You do not get all hot and bothered over cops.
She glanced down at the dog again. “Why do I need to describe him when he’s right here?” Stupid cop.
“The man you saw,” the detective softly said as if he understood that after being the only witness to a murder, her brain was thinking about as well as a bowl of mashed potatoes.
“Oh, right. Him.”Duh, Cara.Heat warmed her cheeks, and she knew she was blushing. “Ah, it was dark, and he had on a hoodie. I’m sorry, Detective…”
“Calder. Gabe Calder.” He leaned forward. “Close your eyes, Cara, and tell me what you saw.”
“Huh?” She inwardly cringed, realizing she sounded like an idiot. But his voice, all soft and sensual, made it difficult to concentrate. He smiled, and she clamped her teeth down on her bottom lip to keep from telling him his smile was lethal and that he should stop doing it.
“Close your eyes,” he said again.
At least he hadn’t added her name that time around. Because seriously, she was dangerously close to embarrassing herself by drooling.Stop it, Cara. You’re getting ridiculous. Right, she’d just witnessed a murder. Mustn’t forget that. Although she’d very much like to do exactly that, which was maybe why her mind was more than willing to divert its attention to Detective Gabe Calder.
“Ah, okay, closing my eyes.” She closed them. She blinked them open. “Sorry, I saw him… you know, the killer, raise a wicked looking knife and smash it into the woman’s chest as soon as I closed my eyes.” She shuddered. “Was it… was the victim a woman? Seemed like it, but I’m not sure now.” She gave Detective Calder a helpless shrug.
“See, other than saying the man had a knife, you hadn’t told me or the cops who talked to you earlier that the knife looked wicked, or that you thought the victim was a woman. Or that you actually saw it happen.”
“I was trying to forget that last part.”
“Understandable.” He moved from his chair to sit next to her on the sofa. He was close enough now to catch his scent, something like soap and spicy aftershave. How was she supposed to concentrate when his smell was hijacking all her senses? Would it be rude to ask him to move back to the chair?
He pulled a cell phone out of a pocket of his cargo pants, messed with it for a few seconds before holding up the screen. “Any of these look like the knife you saw?”
The screen was filled with thumbnail-sized images of knives. As she scanned the pictures, she paused at one with a long serrated blade and black handle. She pointed at it. “A lot like that one.”
He clicked on it, enlarging it. “Still like this one?”
“Yeah.” A shiver passed through her at seeing it.
They were in the library’s adult reading room, the sofas and cushy chairs intended to lull patrons into reading away the afternoon. Mrs. Kastrop’s pacing at the far side of the room wasn’t easing Cara’s mind, though. She could hear the head librarian now.
Watching someone get murdered isn’t seemly, Miss Jenner.Or better,You’re bringing unwanted attention on the library, Miss Jenner.She’d hear all that and more tomorrow from the woman. And about the dog. Mrs. Kastrop had sputtered and clutched her ample bosom when Cara had brought the little thing back into the library with her. But what else could she do? No one had offered to take it, and how was she supposed to leave the poor thing to its own devices?
“You’re doing good, Cara,” Detective Calder said, bringing her attention back to him. “I’m going to ask you to close your eyes again, and I’m going to walk you through what you saw, but I’m right here. You’re safe. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said, mentally giving herself a stern warning to stop liking how the detective
said her name. While she was at it, she’d stop liking how he smelled.And add how he looks to that list. Dating cops was on her no-way, no-how list. Their job was dangerous and they died.
She’d let down her defenses for a few minutes, and realizing that, she raised the barriers blocking any attraction she felt toward the detective. She closed her eyes.
“You were going to your car,” he said in his soft voice. “You worked later than usual, so it was dark. Were you scared?”
“No.”
