Diane looked in the direction Kurt pointed just in time to see a flash of white moving between the trees some twenty feet away from where they stood. "Kurt, that's it!" she exclaimed. "That's what I saw yesterday. Whoever that is might have seen something the day of the murder. Come on, we have to catch him."
With that, she started off at a quick jog, leaving the trail and heading deeper into the woods, dodging tree trunks and branches, her heart pounding in excitement and anticipation. This could be it! They could find a witness that could tell them about seeing a tall, older man - Arthur Eames - shooting John Patterson in cold blood. Maybe it was a child, or a teenager, in the woods smoking marijuana, and that was why they ran. They were afraid, afraid of the killer, afraid of getting in trouble. It could be that simple.
"Diane," Kurt called after her. She could hear him jogging behind her, trying to catch up. "Diane. Jesus woman, slow down and think here for a minute would you? This could be dangerous."
She stopped and spun around. "Kurt, we don't have time to think, he's going to be out of sight again soon. I need to talk to that person." She grabbed his hand and practically dragged him along behind her for several more feet, but, whatever the flash of white had been, it was no longer anywhere to be seen.
"Damn it, where did he go?" she asked, coming to a stop. Dropping Kurt's hand, she turned in a slow circle. "He was right there! How could he disappear so quickly?"
Her frustration with this case was quickly rising higher than any other in recent memory. Between lying business partners, lurking potential witnesses, and lovelorn associates, she was starting to wish she had never heard of Karen Patterson. "Why does he keep running away from us."
Kurt shrugged and shook his head, still breathing somewhat heavily from exertion. "I don't know."
"He doesn't want to be a witness," she mused, pushing her windblown hair back from her face. "Or, maybe he's the real killer."
"Or he's just shy, Diane. You're shooting in the dark."
She twisted her lip in dismay. He was right, of course. They had no idea who, or what they had been chasing. It could have been an animal for all she knew. "Okay, fine, you win." She crossed her arms across her body, and shivered. The temperature had to have dropped ten degrees in the short time they'd been there. "I wish I knew for sure that there were no witnesses, so we could move on to dealing with the actual facts of this case. It's just so odd, that both times we've been here, we've seen that...whatever, whoever, it was."
Kurt paused and looked at her, head tilted slightly to one side and she knew he was trying to decide whether to humour her, yes, but also whether she could be right, that this situation could be too bizarre to simply ignore. He was a smart man who didn't like loose ends, and she knew he wouldn't be able to let go of this any easier than she could.
"Would it make you feel better if we looked around a bit more?" he asked finally.
She smiled. "Yes, I think it would, if you wouldn't mind?" She knew there was a very good chance they wouldn't find anything, but she...they...would feel better in the long run for having been thorough. And if they could somehow put this witness thing to bed, here tonight, maybe they could move on to something else, like who it was that moved the body post-mortem, and why.
He glanced at his watch. "We've got about thirty minutes before we completely lose the light. Come on." He jerked his head back toward the trail.
The setting sun barely penetrated the thick canopy, only every so often did a sliver of red and orange light reach the floor of forest, casting shadows across mossy logs and fallen branches and lending the woods an eerie quality. Losing what little sun they had made the air even cooler than it already had been, and Diane shivered, partly from the cold, and partly from the increasingly creepy atmosphere. The shadowy forest, so picturesque by day, was now beginning to remind her of the setting of a horror movie.
Not helping that impression were the mournful bird calls overhead or the rustling of small animals in the brush, as startled by her as she was by them. Surely these sounds had been there all along and she just hadn't being paying attention when she was busy discussing the case or flirting with her expert witness. Now that she knew, or suspected at least, that they weren't alone, every little sound, every little glimpse of movement, seemed ominous. She was doubly glad now that she had hired Kurt. She couldn't think of anyone she would rather have alongside her in a situation such as this. No matter what happened she couldn't let him quit. She had to find some way to prove to him that Karen was innocent.
For fifteen minutes, they walked slowly and carefully, looking from side to side for any sign of another person. Kurt led the way while Diane followed close behind, so close in fact, that a couple of times he paused to peer into the darkening woods, she almost bumped into him.
"Alright back there?" he asked, after she jumped and allowed a half-strangled yelp to escape her lips when some tiny creature burst from a pile of leaves and darted up a tree trunk beside her.
"Yes," she said, and if her voice lacked its usual confidence, he was kind enough to not mention it directly. Instead, he slowed his pace until they were walking abreast, even though the trail wasn't quite wide enough to accommodate them both and he was left trudging partially in the rough and their elbows were sliding against each other with every step they took.
"Getting cold in here, he remarked, buttoning up his jacket. "You want to keep going?"
"Just a little farther," she said, pulling the zip of her lightweight sweater up higher under her chin. "Let's just go around that bend in the trail up there, and if we don't see anything ahead, we'll go back. Okay?"
In the darkness, she could barely see his quick nod.
This was probably a waste of time, and what's more, she was beginning to question her own motives. Did she really think she was doing something that might help her client here, traipsing around in the rapidly darkening woods? Or was she just entertaining some preposterous fantasy of her own, of being alone in the dark with a man she found undeniably attractive? A man who was supposed to be a professional contact only, and with whom she had absolutely nothing in common, and no reason to see after this case was over. Was she just being unforgivably self-indulgent?
Too lost in her own thoughts, she forgot to watch where she was going, not that she could see much of the trail in front of her anymore in any case, and tripped over an exposed root, nearly going down in a heap for the second time in as many days.
This time she was saved that indignity by a pair of fast-acting, strong arms catching her about the waist and keeping her upright. "Oh," she exclaimed, clinging to his jacket as she caught her balance and her breath. "Thank you. Good heavens, you must think I'm hopeless. I can't even keep my feet under me when I'm wearing proper footwear."
She looked up at him, expecting to find his already familiar lopsided smile, only to discover his face mere inches from her own, his expression inscrutable. "But, I...I think I'm okay now," she finished, though for some reason her hands refused to loosen their grip on the front of his jacket.
"Good," he said quietly, making no move to release her, and her stomach flipped over in anticipation.
She had never kissed a man with a moustache before, she thought inanely, and as if of its own accord, her right hand let go of Kurt's jacket and rose to cup his cheek, her thumb just barely grazing the edge of his upper lip. Heart pounding, she leaned in.
His eyes closed and his hold on her waist changed from keeping her upright to pulling her close to him, one hand sliding halfway up her back while the other remained resting lightly on her hip.
Her eyes began to drift closed, and then...she stopped and pulled away in incredulity, eyes once again wide open.
"Kurt, look!"
The trail around the curve ahead of them was glowing.