Ice Princess Ch. 14

For the first time in her life she wasn't hungry. Every male that she passed on the street didn't fill her with the urge to drink from them. She no longer wanted to make them pay or make them suffer for what had happened to her. For the most part, she simply didn't care what happened to them. All she wanted was for them to just let her be.

She rounded the curve on the sidewalk that she was following and branched off it into the park. The day was sunny and she wanted to be alone. Her thoughts needed to be sorted out. It was time to move on.

She walked to the pond and sat down along the shoreline admiring the ducks that swam across it. This had been one of her and Jack's favor places to sit.

She glanced across the pond. Her mind traveled back in time to that summer, when they'd first fallen in love.

"Come on Danielle," teased Jack, twisting her hair between his fingers. "I kept my promise now you have to keep yours." His eyes sparkled with mischief.

"No way, Jack," Danielle remembered saying.

"There's no way I'm going to swim in the duck pond nude. It's a public place by the way." She tossed a yellow dandelion onto his chest and he picked it up twirling it between his fingers instead of her hair.

"A promise is a promise, Danielle," he whispered with a snicker. "You'd not want me to think you don't keep yours?" The yellow dandelion's head popped off and he brushed it off his chest. It landed on the ground beside him.

"Come on, Jack," she'd whispered in extreme embracement. "You've got to be joking."

She looked away trying to pretend she'd never heard him.

"Danielle," his deepening voice had whispered as he got up off the grass and tried to push her into the pond.

"Jack!" She'd screamed, as the edge looked dangerously near. He'd laughed and pulled her back toward the grass.

"Chicken!" he sang out as he picked up his shirt and pulled it back over his head hiding his blooming hairy chest from her eyes.

"Danielle," said a voice near her. "Danielle?" she heard it again, but she ignored it.

"Danielle," it's too cold out here to sit on the ground." Danny reached down and tried to get her to stand up. "I didn't mean to frighten you or make you drop back to those unhappy days. I know how difficult it is to be raped."

His fingers pressed into the fat of her arm and she stood. "How would you know?" she asked as she pushed her hair away from her face.

Danny didn't answer right away. Instead, he looked at her. She felt as if his eyes could look into her mind. He seemed to want to be part of her, and she didn't want that invasion. She didn't want to hurt him. She looked away in confusion.

"Danielle," he tried again, "please give us a chance." He stood beside her, unmoving. It was so cool out that his breath came out in steam. She looked at them like little voice bubbles in comic strips. They lasted just a few seconds and then vanished. They made Danielle think of little messages of desire.

"We've taken Josie in for questioning." He said. "The chances are looking pretty big that she is the sheriff's killer."

Danielle looked at Danny, and for the first time, she felt regret. "Why?" she asked.

"They were having an affair, "said Danny. "She liked nice things and her paycheck just didn't go that far," he replied. He held his hands together and blew into them for warmth.

"The neighbors heard them fighting a few nights before this happened. She wanted more money to sleep with him, and he said he just couldn't afford her prices." He glanced back up at her. A mist seemed to be forming over his eyes. "You know he was my uncle?"

"Your uncle?" she said, surprised.

"Yes," he replied, "that's why I said I'd take the case. Normally, they don't allow family members to get this close. But, in this case they allowed it. Only because I was working in a nearby town and knew most of the territory."

"All the clues add up to Josie," he said, "The red hair, the ripped and torn up clothing and the missing money."

"Missing money," said Danielle. This was the first time she had ever been surprised in one of her kills. She hadn't taken his money.

"Yes, he'd been carrying a wade of twenty dollar bills that he owed one of the sergeants. When they picked him up he didn't have a stitch of clothing on and he was broke. Red hair was found in his hand and on the ground around his body. It looked like he'd put up quite a fight."

He stopped talking for a moment rubbing his hands together to get them warmer. "You knew she had classes in self-defense didn't you?"

Danny stepped back and started walking toward the nearest restaurant. Danielle followed along; she was suddenly very interested.

"No," she answered, trying to add up the facts in her mind. The messages didn't seem to compute.

"But anyone could have taken that money," she supplied, suddenly finding it rather cool outside. "Buy me a cup of coffee?" she asked, pointing toward the town's only coffeehouse. "

"I'd be delighted," he replied, a soft little smile tried to turn up the corners of his mouth. "I can't pass up a chance to get warmed up, now can I?"

"He last reported in from Josie's house," he supplied, as they walked toward the coffeehouse. "Nancy, the dispatcher, told us when we questioned her."

He pulled open the door and stepped inside, after Danielle. "Humm it's warm in here," He sat down at one of the first round tables he came across and kept rubbing his hands together.

"What'll you have?" He asked and grinned.

Danielle pulled out one of the menus from the displayer on the table. Danny reached across the table and stopped its descent. "I promised coffee, if you order extra it's going to cost you." he chuckled. Jack's face flashed before her eyes. Only Jack would say stuff like that to her.

"And what will it cost me?" Danielle inquired, ready to play the game that she was so familiar with. Easily, she twisted the menu out of his hand and opened it to the first page.

"Humm," he gave that question some consideration before he replied. "What's it worth to you?" he finally asked, removing his hand from the menu and grinning. "I've got a long list of specialties."

"That all depends on its cost; don't you think," she answered, and grinned back at him full of anonymity.

The waitress appeared beside them with an order blank in her hand. She didn't look too pleased to see them, but she smiled just the same.

"What'll you have" she asked. She was clearly in another place.

The spell ended for Danielle just like that. This wasn't Jack. This was Danny.

"Black coffee," she replied and let the menu slide across the table toward him.

"I'll have the same," he replied as a shadow slipped across his face followed by a frown. "What's wrong?" he asked and slipped the menu back into its place. "What'd I do?"

What had he done? What had he done? The question seemed to flow like a circle around in her mind. He'd acted like Jack, and Jack was dead. Jack was dead, because she'd killed him!

Jack, the love of her life was gone, because she'd killed him. She'd killed him, because she'd blamed him for the rape.

Her eyes misted over and the room became blurry. Was she crying? Why was she crying? She never cried. What could be worth crying over?

She looked up to see Danny's distorted face before her eyes. How could he want her in his life now? She was a murder! She'd killed Jack. She'd loved Jack! What if she did the same thing to him? The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him. She'd done enough.