Page 7 of The Ice Sisters

The woman narrowed her eyes. “Yes, she’s been staying here, but she left earlier to hike to the falls and hasn’t returned.”

Cord clenched his jaw at the idea of her out in the blizzard alone, hurt or lost.

“Can we check her room just in case she slipped inside without you noticing?” Cord asked.

“Typically, we don’t allow anyone else inside a guest’s room,” the woman replied.

“I’m with Search and Rescue, ma’am,” Cord said, his patience wearing thin. “Ellie’s not answering her phone and we’re worried about her out in the storm.”

Lula gave a little nod, then snagged an old-fashioned key ring from the hook on the wall behind the desk.

“I’ll canvass the guests and see if anyone has heard from her,” Derrick said.

Cord nodded as Derrick veered into the dining room, and Lula stepped around the desk and led Cord up the winding staircase. Wreaths hung on each of the guest room doors. The inn keeper stopped at room five and knocked.

“Ms. Reeves,” she said. “Are you in there?”

No answer.

“Ellie, it’s Cord,” he said. “If you’re here, open the door.” Silence greeted him, and Cord gestured for Lula to unlock the door.

He strode in and quickly scanned the room. Dammit.

No Ellie.

SEVEN

Tears froze on Ellie’s cheeks. She didn’t know the little girls, but her heart broke for them.

She guessed their age to be around eight. Poor little darlings.

Exhaustion blended with sorrow, weighing her down. Her clothes were wet, stiffening with the freezing temperature, and she could barely feel her hands or feet. She wanted to move the girls out of the elements, but she could barely stand herself. And there was no way she could carry both of them the two-mile trek back to the cabin.

Besides, she knew better than to disturb a crime scene. Moving the twins might destroy any evidence the killer had left behind.

With the snow inches deep, she was unable to see footsteps or a trail of blood to indicate which way the killer had come from or gone.

She dug in her pocket for her phone, but the icy water must have killed the battery.

Another gust of wind and she shuddered with the cold. Her head spun and her body was trembling uncontrollably. The snow was blinding now, her eyelids heavy. Dammit, she needed to getback to the inn and get help. An ERT and medics and the ME and…

But the dizziness overtook her and she felt herself slipping to the ground. Then exhaustion and cold dragged her into the darkness.

EIGHT

EMERALD FALLS

Derrick talked to several guests who remembered meeting Ellie, but none of them had heard from her or seen her since breakfast.

“She mostly kept to herself,” a woman in a red dress said.

The woman’s husband wrinkled his brow. “She seemed troubled.”

“We knew she was a detective so we kept our distance,” a younger guy stated. “I thought she might be here investigating a case.”

“Me too,” his girlfriend added. “I saw her on the news a while back, that she caught a serial killer.”

Ellie was earning quite the reputation.

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