Page 2 of Locked In Ice

Snick.

Yes.That sweet little sound had to be the sound of a pocketknife opening.

He felt another tug on the ropes.His heart slammed hard into his chest.

“I’m Ophelia Raine, PI extraordinaire,” she murmured behind him as her knife sawed at the ropes.“Of course, I have a knife.I also stopped to call nine-one-one so that the cavalry would come rushing to the rescue.But like I said, I was worried he was cutting you open, so I headed inside instead of waiting for the cops to actually arrive—”

The door opened.Not just opened.The damn thing flew against the wall and hit with a thud as Lane’s prey filled the doorway.Tall and wide.With a big belly that hung over his pleated khaki pants.Light spilled in behind him, and Lane could clearly see that the man had returned with his weapon of choice.

A big-ass butcher knife.

How fabulous.

Ophelia had stopped sawing at the ropes behind Lane.

“You should have stayed the hell away from me,” Thomas Bass told him.

Thomas Bass, high school assistant principal, neighborhood watch organizer, and serial killer.The cops had never tied him to the murders of the four teenage girls who’d been found in Cobb County, Georgia.But the Ice Breakers had pegged him as a strong suspect.One of their top five.So Lane had been watching the guy…A gnawing in his gut had told him that the biology teacher turned assistant principal had secrets.

“You were going to take another victim,” Lane snapped.“You werestalkingher.A girl in your damn high school.No way was I gonna stay away while you hurt her!”

Thomas hit the light switch.Illumination flooded into the room.“I gagged your ass,” he snarled.

Oh, shit.Yes, he had.

Thomas lumbered forward.“How the hell are you talking to me?How’d you get that gag free?”

Thomas hadn’t seen Ophelia.Was she hiding behind the chair?Had to be.Ophelia was pretty small, so she’d stayed hidden.But while she was back there, why the hell wasn’t she sawing the ropes?Why had she stopped?

Even as he had the question, Lane felt her slide the handle of her knife into his palm.He grasped it as best he could and started to saw the ropes himself.

Meanwhile, Thomas brought up the butcher knife and pointed it at Lane—

“Hi, there!”Ophelia said brightly as she popped to Lane’s side.

For a moment, Lane squeezed his eyes closed.For the love of God, Ophelia!

“I am so sorry to interrupt what appears to be a kidnapping-slash-murder event,” she continued as Thomas gaped at her.“But I feel like you should know that the cops are coming to this location.They are on the way as we speak.My advice to you?You need to run now and leave my ah, friend here, alone.”

Thomas didn’t run.His grip did tighten on the knife.And he angled his body—and the knife—toward Ophelia.

Oh, fuck.Lane sawed faster at the ropes.Had she just given him her only weapon?Thomas had at least a hundred pounds on her.Probably a whole lot more.And while Ophelia was older than Thomas’s usual preferred prey, the man’s beady eyes had lit up when he looked at her, and he was practically licking his lips.“Don’t even think it,” Lane snarled as he sawed with all his might.“You are not hurting her!”

Thomas laughed.“Who the hell is gonna stop me?”He motioned with the knife.“Lady, you picked the wrong—ah!” His words ended in a scream as his whole body jerked and vibrated.Electrodes flew at him, and the knife fell from Thomas’s hand.It clattered onto the floor a second before Thomas hit the hardwood, too.

“I’mgoing to stop you,” Ophelia told him.“Little old me, and the taser that I found in your bedroom when I snuck in through the unlocked window.I set it at maximum voltage and, judging by the fact that you just pissed yourself, I’m guessing max voltage feels like hell, am I right?”

Thomas couldn’t answer.He was too busy jolting and shuddering and pissing himself.

The ropes gave way around Lane’s wrists.Hell, yes.He immediately went to work on his ankles because Thomas had bound each ankle to a chair leg.

“I should tell you.”Ophelia edged closer to Thomas.She kicked his butcher knife across the room.“Marjorie Mayweather sends her regards.Do you remember Mrs.Marjorie?She’s in her late seventies now.A sweet grandmother.Or, she would have been, if you hadn’t killed her only daughter.Patience, that was her name.She was stabbed one night at a local fair back when you and Patience were juniors at Oak Lawn High School.The cops never found her killer.Who would have guessed that it was football player Thomas Bass?The boy most likely to grow up to be a serial killer?”

One ankle was free.Lane kept his eyes on Thomas.The assistant principal had stopped shaking.And Ophelia was way too close to him.“Uh, Ophelia…”

“Everyone else forgot about Patience, but Marjorie didn’t.A mother never forgets her child, no matter how much time passes.She hired me, and guess what?”Ophelia glared at Thomas.“You’re going to rot in jail for Patience’s murder because when I entered your bedroom, I found your treasure box.I saw Patience’s class ring.I saw—”

“Ophelia!”Lane roared.

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