Page 1 of Chilled

CHAPTER 1

The killing’sonly just begun. Watch them drop now, one by one.

For the pastseven hours the words echoed through Brenna’s head. No amount of loud music or talking to herself erased the sound, repeating like a mantra again and again.

When she finally slid her Jeep Cherokee into the driveway of the police station and parked on a hump of ice, she sat for a moment, letting the heater blow warm air in her face. If she had any strength left in her arms after the grueling drive, she would shake a fist at the sky.

Yesterday, she’d been fooled into believing spring had arrived with sunshine melting through the mounds of solid ice piled four feet deep outside her townhouse in Bismarck.

With a sigh, she switched off the engine, pulled her gloves on and wrapped a wool scarf around her face before she stepped out into the storm. The storm that had raged since midnight had dipped its sub-zero blast as far south as Des Moines.

A native of the northern prairie, she knew better than to count on spring arriving any sooner than April and usually not until May. Her eyes stung, and she pulled her scarf higher over her nose to ward off the bite of the icy wind. Still wired by her hair-raising drive from Bismarck in whiteout conditions, Brenna stomped loose snow from her insulated boots outside the door to the Riverton Police Station.

The weatherman had predicted snow flurries. However, one thing North Dakotans could count on was the unpredictable, harsh weather. A trip that usually took her three and a half hours had taken twice as long at half the speed.

In any other circumstance, she’d have waited to make the trip until the storm had passed and the road crew had worked its magic, clearing away the foot of snow already accumulated. The forty-mile-an-hour wind hadn’t helped either. She’d struggled to see the road through the heavy snowfall and fought the gale-force gusts buffeting her four-wheel-drive vehicle all over the interstate highway. But she’d made it.

Stepping through the two sets of doors, Brenna entered the police station. The reviving scent of brewing coffee filled her senses as she divested herself of the scarf and draped it over a hook, followed by gloves, stocking cap and, finally, her heavy parka. Even the short walk from her car to the building necessitated full snow gear unless she wanted frostbite. The coffee smelled even better without the wool filter around her nose, and she yearned to wrap her stiff fingers around a hot cup. But first, she needed to find Tom.

She planted her hands on the counter and leaned toward the curious young police officer. “Hi, I’m Brenna Jensen. Where can I find Chief Burkholder?”

“That you, Brenna?” a deep voice called out from a doorway beyond the front desk.

Her smile lifted upward as her mentor and old friend Chief Tom Burkholder stepped into the lobby.

When she held out her hand to shake his, he brushed it aside and engulfed her in a bear hug that forced the air from her lungs. God, it felt good to be home, even in such tragic circumstances.

Chief Burkholder set her away from him and stared down at her face. “Did you stop by to see your mother and sister yet?”

“Are you kidding?” She tipped her head to the side and back to loosen the muscles tensed in her shoulders and neck. “As soon as they assigned me to the case, I headed straight here.”

“You’re just like your father—all about the job. We sure miss him around here.”

Her father had died of a massive heart attack two years after Brenna had joined the Riverton Police Department. He’d been so proud of his daughters’ accomplishments, especially when Brenna had chosen to follow in his footsteps. Never once had he bemoaned the fact he hadn’t had a son.

She missed her father. They’d understood each other, and he’d loved her unconditionally.

“Heard you’re up for a new job in Minneapolis,” the chief said.

“Yeah.” A twinge of guilt nudged at Brenna, as if leaving North Dakota was the equivalent of a sin, when so many young people fled the state to find jobs. In her case, she had a job, but the new one meant an increase in pay and responsibility, with the downside of being farther away from her family.

“When do they make the final selection?” Tom asked.

“In a week and a half.”

“I’ll keep you in my prayers for the job and this case.” He hugged her again. “You deserve the break.” The chief dropped his hands, shoved them in his pocket and stared down at his feet. “In the meantime, things been happenin’ around here.”

“Did you find the women?” Brenna asked.

The chief shook his head, his skin almost as gray as his hair. “No. We had dozens of state police and local citizens combing the countryside all weekend, but the storm...well,youknow what it was like. We pulled them in as soon as the weather got bad. No use losing anyone else in that mess out there.”

“Find anything in the victims’ homes?”

“Nothing yet. Only thing we got to go on is?—”

“—what the good ol’ U.S. Post Office delivered directly to me,” Brenna finished for him. Her mouth set in a bleak line. “I don’t know what to make of it, but I sure as hell plan to find out.”

“One other thing…” Chief Burkholder tugged at the tie already loose around his neck.

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