Page 101 of The Ice Sisters

Ellie’s pulse jumped. That was an antipsychotic drug.

The prescriptions were dated two months ago. Thirty pills.

The bottle was still full.

Meaning Huller hadn’t been taking his meds.

She made a mental note of the doctor’s name to follow up. They needed to know his exact diagnosis.

Next door she found another small bedroom. No bed or clothes in the closet.

A small desk in the corner was littered with papers and photographs. A bulletin board above held photos of the women and little girls.

A cross had been drawn across the twins’ faces with a red marker.

The pieces began to fall into place in Ellie’s mind. Huller was their killer.

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO

Derrick searched the exterior of the house for a crawl space and found one in the rear. The opening was overgrown with weeds and briars. The grass looked undisturbed, indicating no one had been inside lately, but he yanked on gloves then ripped away weeds until he spotted the opening. Nailed shut.

Dammit.

An acrid odor seeped through the foliage. Derrick hurried to Ellie’s Jeep, grabbed a small hatchet from the trunk, returned to the crawl space and hacked away the briars and weeds. The opening had been walled over with plywood so he pried it open. Next, he pulled his flashlight, got down on his knees and peered inside. The space was dark but he shined a light into the interior.

Relieved not to see the girls, he slid back to exit the space. Footsteps crunched behind him. He was on the verge of backing out and breathing in some fresh air, but then something hard and cold slammed against his back. Pain shot through his lower extremities and legs and he groaned. Another sharp pain as he was struck again. He flattened his hands on the dirt and shoved but that movement sent a mind-numbing pain screaming through him and the world spun.

Unable to move, he dropped down face first and tasted dirt then everything turned black.

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE

The disturbing sight of the girls’ pictures at Huller’s made Ellie’s stomach roil.

Time might be running out for Mazie and Ivy.

Why would Huller want to hurt his stepsister’s children? And if they’d never talked about personal matters or family, how could he possibly have known about the embryos?

She called for an ERT, texted Cord to fill him in, then asked him to meet them at Huller’s. Terrified Derrick might have found the girls’ bodies, she walked outside. Heavy dark clouds hung in the sky, painting it a smoky gray. Fog thickened the view even more, making the forest look like a ghost setting for a horror movie.

With every step, her fear mounted. The woods behind the house were so thick it was hard to see through the trees. There were also caves in the woods that had once been mined for gold. Was there a path through the woods to the falls?

The wind blew her ponytail around her face as she called Derrick’s name and scanned the property. When he didn’t answer, she circled to the right side of the house, shouting his name again.

The fog made it impossible to see two feet in front of her. Twigs and leaves fluttered to the ground, sticking to her shoes and jacket.

A noise to the left jerked her attention to the rear of the house so she slowly crept around the corner. An old well stood near the woods and a tree had fallen over it. She inched another foot in search of a tornado shelter or garage and stepped over fallen limbs and brush that appeared to have been hacked with an ax.

“Derrick?” Proceeding cautiously, she saw the hatchet from her car tossed into the thick of the brush. She swallowed hard and inched nearer. Her heart lurched as she saw a pair of legs sticking out from a crawl space.

Fear thundered through her, and she inched closer. She recognized Derrick’s shoes, his pants… Dear God. He wasn’t moving.

She stooped to check but gravel crunched behind her. A breath brushed her neck.

Knowing she had to act quickly, she jerked up and spun around, facing the eyes of a wild and crazed man.

Huller. A cold-blooded killer. You could see the evil in his menacing black eyes.

She reached for her weapon, but he threw himself at her. He’d killed so many people already. He might have killed Derrick.

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