"Hmmph," she grunted, though whether it was at his ogling her or his answer, Decker couldn't tell.
"What are we going to explore?"
"The barn," Dani muttered. "You can't see it from my room. I didn't realize it was here."
Decker glanced to the barn ahead, not that there was much to see. It was a barn; old, red, rectangular, and huge, with large sliding doors on both the front and back and a small swinging door in the middle of the side facing them. Dani headed for the smaller door.
Decker automatically moved ahead as they neared, to open it for her, his gaze moving curiously over the interior as she walked past him. It appeared to be filled with empty stalls that lined the opposite wall for two thirds of the way before stopping to leave an open area. This side was the same except that the middle stall was missing to make way for the doorway they were entering through.
"They're going to tear it down and build a garage here for the SUVs," Decker announced as he followed her inside.
Dani's response was another grunt as the door swung closed behind him, leaving them in darkness.
"Hang on," Decker said. While he could still see well enough to move around, he knew she was probably now left as blind as the proverbial bat. He moved back to the door and swung it open again, but all the way this time, until it banged against the outer wall. When it stayed open, he nodded his satisfaction and stepped back inside, but Dani was no longer where he'd left her. His head turned, eyes searching the shadows anxiously until the squeal of metal on metal drew his gaze to the huge double, sliding doors at the front end of the building. She had braved the darkness to approach and slide one open. It moved along the rusty track for perhaps four feet before coming to a grinding halt. Dani gave it another shove, putting her whole body behind it, but the door wasn't going any farther.
"Here, let me try " he offered.
"That's all right. It's fine," Dani decided as she turned to see the effect.
Decker followed her gaze. It was much lighter in the barn now. There were still dark corners, and it was a bit dim overall in comparison to outside, but good enough, he supposed, and moved away from the door to follow as she set out to explore.
"There's still hay in here," Dani commented with surprise as she peered at the half a dozen fresh bales stacked against the wall. At least two more lay broken open on the ground in front of them. He couldn't tell if they'd been deliberately put there, or had simply been knocked off the others and broken open themselves, but they had made a small mound of fresh-smelling hay.
"It's a barn," he said with a shrug. "Barns have hay."
"Yes, but why didn't the previous owners take it with them?" Dani asked curiously as she glanced around and added with surprise, "And the saddles."
Decker turned his head until his eyes settled on two saddles that had been left hanging on the wall. He moved closer to examine them, noting the poor shape they were in. "They're pretty old. They probably aren't much good anymore."
"The hay looked pretty fresh though," Dani commerited, and he glanced around to see that she'd started moving along the stalls. Peering curiously into each one as she went, she added, "I would have expected they'd take that with them."
"Maybe they were getting out of farming and had no use for it," he suggested, trailing after her.
"You don't usually farm horses," she said, sounding amused. "At least I don't think you do. I guess they could have been breeders."
Decker didn't comment, and he wasn't looking around much either. It was a barn. Wood walls, wood stalls, the smell of hay, and motes of dust floating in the pools of light spilling from the open doors. It wasn't really very interesting to him. Decker was more concerned with how to tell her what he had to... and make her listen.
"Dani," he began.
Dani sighed to herself with irritation. She just knew Decker was about to bring up Nicholas again, but she didn't want to hear it.
She began to walk a little faster along the stalls, asking, "How long do you think it will take for Bastien's men to fix the phone?"
"I don't know," he muttered. "But while we're on the topic-"
"Oh look, more hay," Dani interrupted as they reached the end of the stalls.
Decker sighed and moved up behind her to peer in at the bales stacked in the end stall.
"They must have kept them in here so they didn't have to drag hay all the way from the front for these back stalls," Dani guessed, but was just talking to keep him from being able to. She began to walk quickly back toward the front of the building. "I always wanted a horse when I was growing up. I suppose most little girls do. I'd get one now, but I don't know how to ride and-"
"He ripped her throat out," Decker blurted.
Dani came to a shuddering halt at the end of the stalls, her eyes locked on the open door ahead. She stood just on the edge of the pool of light spilling through those doors. All she had to do was cross the open area with its hay and saddles and she'd be out, able to rush somewhere else to try to avoid hearing what she suspected was going to at least shake, and possibly topple, all the hopes she'd placed on the shoulders of one Nicholas Argeneau, rogue vampire. Instead she turned slowly to face him, her voice defeated as she said, "Tell me."
Decker glanced away, regret flickering across his face, then shifted to lean back against the stall behind him and crossed his arms over his chest. Peering down at the ground then, he said, "Her name was Barbara Johnson. She was a housewife, eight months pregnant. Both she and the baby died. She was an only child. Her father had a heart attack when they gave him the news, her husband hung himself after the triple funeral, and her mother became an alcoholic and drove her car into a tree before the end of that year." He raised his head and added bitterly, "The man you're counting on not only killed a woman, but also wiped out a family.
"And that's just the victim's family. Ours was torn apart by it too. His younger brother, Thomas, won't talk about him, and his little sister..." Decker shook his head. "Jeanne Louise really looked up to Nicholas and wouldn't at first believe it, but when she finally did... she won't even admit to his existence. As far as she's concerned, she only has and ever had one brother."