Page 27 of The Ice Sisters

“Just be careful, Ellie.”

“Give me a heads-up when he starts home.”

“Copy that.”

She hung up and Derrick spoke. “You’re not going there alone. I’ll follow you and you can park nearby then we go in together.”

Ellie didn’t bother to argue. They could cover more ground together than she could by herself. They sped onto the highway, headlights illuminating the country road as she drove.

Fifteen minutes later, she wove up the hill and parked beneath an overhang of trees a half mile from the house. Derrickpicked her up and he drove them the rest of the way, parking his car out of sight.

They hiked up the hill to the farm, scanning the property as they approached the house.

Pulling flashlights, they walked along the edge of the woods until they reached the drive to Modelle’s. The front door was locked so they crept around back and found an open window. She crawled through it and Derrick followed.

They quickly surveyed the kitchen. Just like the exterior, everything looked old from the dingy walls to the faded orange linoleum. Dirty coffee cups and beer bottles littered the counter and some kind of stew that smelled like deer or opossum sat on the stove, the pot still warm.

Derrick checked the pantry, but it was clear, so they separated to search the house. Five minutes later, they’d cleared it and determined no one was being held in the house.

They exited the same way they’d entered and hurried to the barn. Ellie searched it while Derrick went to the next building which appeared to be a storage shed.

The stench of farm animals and hay filled the barn. A small storage room held food for the animals along with rakes and shovels for working the stalls. She moved down the center of the building, checking each stall. No animals here at the moment although she spotted bloodstains on the floor of one of them.

Bile rose to her throat, and she examined it more closely. The blood had formed a puddle but it was dry. Pulling a tool from her pocket, she stooped down and scraped a sample. Without a warrant, it might not be admissible in court but at least it would indicate if the twins had been here.

A text dinged on her phone.

Bryce:Modelle’s on his way back.

Ellie rushed to tell Derrick. They had to leave before Modelle returned.

THIRTY-ONE

CROOKED CREEK

Saturday, November 28

Ellie fought against the frigid water, kicking and using her arms to swim to the surface. Her limbs were weighted, her vision a blurry fog of gray, her lungs straining for air. The water was sucking her down into the darkness.

Shadows danced and crawled around her, but she remembered seeing the girls by the falls and had to get to them. Pushing herself, she pumped her arms and kicked, then noticed a shadow near the falls.

A man?

She tried to swim to the edge, fought the underpull, but the shadow flitted away.

Ellie gasped for air as her eyes flew open, the sheets tangled around her. Sweat trickled down the side of her face as she jerked herself to a sitting position. She rubbed her eyes to clear her vision and scanned her bedroom expecting to see bones floating around her, then realized she’d been deep in the throes of a nightmare.

Throwing her feet over the edge of the bed, she padded to the bathroom, closed her eyes and splashed cold water on her face. Her breathing still unsteady, she stared into the mirror. But for a brief second, the image of the dead girls replaced her own.

She leaned against the sink, her mind racing.

What if the girls’ killer had been at the falls? If she’d only been faster, she could have caught him.

A chill cut through her, and she yanked on her robe and walked to the kitchen for coffee. Frustration clouded her brain, and she cradled her coffee and sipped it as she stared into the snowy mountains behind her house.

But as the coffee warmed her, her determination kicked in. Her meeting at the morgue with Laney was scheduled for ten. She also needed to follow up on forensics from the hunting knife Cord had found.

But first she’d run by the office and do some more digging on Modelle.

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