staying up all night. It wasn’t much more elaborate than that. She was going to make a dummy body in the bed and stick a comfortable chair in the walk-in closet where she was going to sit and wait, a flashlight in her left hand, her gun in her right. Lights were out at ten o’clock. Before that she would parade about the house with the curtains open, letting the world know she was there. She knew Felton wouldn’t shoot her through the window. He would want to be up close with a knife so he could watch and feel the life ooze out of her. That was going to be his downfall.
She’d finally convinced Sam to patrol the area rather than hang out in the woods. He wouldn’t have made it in the woods for any period of time in his physical condition, and he most certainly would have telegraphed his whereabouts. Now, at least, he was watching somewhere from a car. Danni figured he’d be out there all day as well as during the night. It wasn’t just conjecture. A friend at the department told her he had taken a leave of absence for an indefinite duration.
She was still worried about his emotional stability. And something else, someone else, added to that concern—Jack. Ron had called her and told her that Jack believed that Felton was going to come after her. It wasn’t news to her but she appreciated the fact that Jack was concerned. Her animosity toward him had dissipated somewhat. Henry’s actions had certainly contributed to her change of heart, but she also realized that when Jack had read Felton’s criminal file, he had been presented with a set of facts that had led him to only one conclusion—that his client had been set up. He didn’t listen to her when she told him to stay out of it, but it was his job to investigate the facts and test the validity of the police and the prosecution’s case. He wasn’t supposed to listen to her. She was never going to tell him, but she finally understood things from his perspective.
Now Jack was out there somewhere, according to Ron. If Jack ever crossed paths with Sam Jeffries, she didn’t know what would happen. Sam might snap and shoot Jack on the spot. Considering Sam’s state of mind, it was not a far-fetched possibility.
Jack had his own plans that he did not share with anybody, including Ron. He knew Danni’s house and the surrounding neighborhood from the brief period of time when they had been together. After circling the neighborhood a few times to re-familiarize himself with everything, he too became convinced that Felton would attack from the woods. It was the only undetected avenue for entry and escape. So Jack decided he was going to stay in the woods.
He bought himself a pup tent and a sleeping bag. He didn’t know what the police presence was going to be like, but he figured they would probably be checking any parked cars in that area and that they would also set up surveillance at the entry to the woods behind Danni’s backyard, so, before daybreak, he rode his bike from the new condo and entered the woods a half a mile farther down from the area directly behind Danni’s house. It was a longer walk and the woods were thick, but if he could do this, Felton could as well. He found a place to hide the bike not far from his entry point, under some fallen tree trunks that he covered with dead leaves. Then he walked to the area directly behind Danni’s house, a walk of about twenty minutes, and started searching for a spot for his tent. It took him a while but eventually he found a hollow, maybe about three feet deep, that abutted a tree. He set the tent up and covered it with leaves and put a log in front of the entrance. Even in the daytime, he was sure it was undetectable.
Like Danni, Jack figured Felton would make his move at night, so he, too, planned on catnapping during the day and staying up all night. Unfortunately, at night he would have to stand up to look out over the log to be able to see all of Danni’s backyard. Since he would be exposed then, he knew he had to be extremely careful. As an amateur, he also knew he would have to plan for any and every contingency.