Page 14 of The Ice Sisters

The room was empty.

No bedding. No toys or stuffed animals or dolls.

No little girls whispering or the pitter patter of feet.

Suddenly footsteps shuffled outside the door. Then his low whistle, a happy tune, as if nothing was wrong. The door swung open, and he stood in the shadows, a hulking figure in black, a menacing glare in his eyes.

“Who are you and why are you doing this?” she cried.

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

His evil laugh boomed through the room, echoing with disdain. “Are you going to behave if I give you clothes?”

She swallowed back a sob. Part of her wanted to argue, to shout that he had to let her go. But he took pleasure in her pain and would only make her suffer more.

Although this was nothing compared to the agony of losing her precious daughters. She wished he’d killed her, too.

He strode over to her, gripped her chin so hard she thought her bones would crack and twisted her face, forcing her to look at him. “Are you going to behave?” he asked again, enunciating each word carefully.

She nodded, swallowing a whimper.

“Are you going to cry?” he barked.

A sob caught in her throat. “No.”

He threw a pair of sweats at her, then unlocked her bound wrist, watching her intensely. She sat up cautiously, bracing herself for another beating. But the only thing that touched her was his cold, hard eyes. He stared at her in contempt as she dressed, then he walked to the door and, a second later, pushed a ladder into the room. Next, he brought a tarp and spread it on the floor, then brought in a paint brush and can of paint.

“Pack up all the clothes in the closet then paint the room,” he ordered. “And don’t get any paint on the furniture or else.”

Too terrified to protest, she simply nodded then pushed herself to a standing position. Whistling again, he spun around, walked out and locked the door behind her.

She glanced at the closet with the girls’ T-shirts, little dresses and shoes and tears blurred her eyes.

She knew exactly what he was doing. He intended to erase any sign Taylor and Heidi had ever been there.

SIXTEEN

EMERALD FALLS

Cord met his coworker, Milo, and two other team members at Emerald Falls. They decided to search a wide radius surrounding the falls while ERT combed the area nearest the falls and pond. Although the snow had accumulated to six inches the night before, this morning the sun streaked the sky, and white puffy clouds that resembled cotton candy danced above. The gray clouds were moving north and the frozen ground was starting to melt, creating a slushy mess.

Carrying hand-held radios for communication, they divided the territory into grids, then split up. Cord hiked northeast along the AT. The wilderness was his home and had somehow helped him turn a life around and find purpose when he’d thought he wasn’t worthy of living.

The creek water gurgled as he followed it, twigs and sticks that had been torn from the trees last night floating downstream. Weeds poked through the snow as he wove through the thick rows of trees. AT shelters had been built for hikers to seek cover and rest although they were nothing but wooden lean-tos for a person to park a sleeping bag and escape the elements for a few hours.

Except for rodents, the first shelter he came to was empty. He searched for signs of blood in case the killer had come this way but found none. He moved on, scanning the woods and ground as he walked, but the snow had obliterated any footprints that might have been created by the killer.

Another few miles and he reached another shelter. Inside, he spotted a tin can someone had eaten from and the embers of a fire having burned out. No signs of blood though. And no track marks.

If the killer hadn’t murdered the girls at the falls, he had to have carried the twins there. Most likely he’d have come on an all-terrain vehicle or used a sled or wagon to transport the bodies.

Unless he’d killed them near the falls and carried them one by one to the ridge.

In the next shelter, he found two teens who’d camped out for the night. They were packing up their supplies and gathering trash from the snacks they’d brought with them.

“You okay, guys?” Cord asked, running his gaze over the teens. No blood on either of them.

“Yeah, we got lost out here last night when the storm hit and took shelter.”

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