Page 39 of Criminology of a Character

“My god.” Griffin’s voice shook when he saw her. She knelt before their feet, a girl who couldn’t be older than twenty-five, and she was frozen solid. She wore a sweater and jeans, but her garments were useless against the ice in this freezer. Her death would not have been quick. She knew what was coming for her, and sickness roared through Bel at the memory of the chain Rollo had cut from the door.

“Did she die elsewhere, or was she locked in here to freeze?” Griffin whispered, as if speaking would wake the dead.

“Only Lina can tell us the cause of death,” Bel started, but then something lying before the girl’s knees caught her attention. She aimed her flashlight at it, and realizing what it was, she sucked in a breath so icy that she coughed at the pain.“She was alive. Whether she was locked in here by accident or on purpose, she entered this freezer alive.”

“What makes you say that?” Griffin asked.

“The matchsticks.” She tapped her toe beside the pile of charred matches before the girl’s knees. “They’ve been burned to stubs. She probably tried to use these to locate the door, but it seems she ran out.” Bel cursed. This girl had been trapped alone in the dark with only a handful of matches. She’d used them to attempt an escape, but she’d died feet from salvation, and that reality settled a cold into Bel’s bones far more excruciating than the chill of the air.

“Olivia? Please don’t let that door shut on us,” she begged, her voice shaking against her will. The thought was ridiculous. Dozens of officers stood outside. They would notice if she and Griffin never walked out of this barn, but she was suddenly afraid of freezing to death.

“What’s going on?” Gold asked. “Is there really a body?”

“Yes,” Bel called. “We need Lina. There’s a—” her voice lodged painfully in her throat, and this time the sickness couldn’t be shoved down. She couldn’t control the visceral reaction, for when she’d twisted toward the door to address her partner, her flashlight shifted from the dead girl to the back of the freezer. The beam of light was dim. It barely illuminated the darkness, but as it swung across the floor, it caught on something resting on the ground, and the sight was so horrifying that Bel turned on her heels and fled the freezer.

The air grew volatile,but Bel didn’t hear a single sound. She was deaf to the world, blind to all save that horrifying sight carved into her memory, and she bent over the grass, fingers gripping her knees as she heaved for breath. She’d seen death before. She’d held it in her hands, stared into its faceandgreeted it with defiance, but what lay in that freezer below the dirt undid her, and she hovered over that field as if she no longer existed in her body. Her hand shook. Her lungs burned. Her stomach churned.Eamon.She wanted to call Eamon, to hear his voice, to beg him to hold her and stop her from falling apart. She wanted him beside her as she braved the darkness of that cold and heinous room because whoever had locked that chain around that door was an evil unmatched.

“Isobel?” A broad palm slid over her back, and she flinched at the touch. Griffin never called her Isobel, and she stared at him, unable to focus on his face.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his features twisted with horror, butit was Oliviasitting against the side of the barn with eyes as dazed as the frozen girl’s that commanded her attention.

“I…” she trailed off and grabbed Griffin’s shirt, clutching it in her fist until her knuckles turned white, and her boss instinctively pulled her into his arms. “I thought this was about drugs,” she whispered into his neck as she clung to him. “I thought we were going to find a cannabis farm, not… I wasn’t prepared for that.”

“None of us were.” He stroked her hair. “But I need you. I can’t do this alone.”

“I know.” She reluctantlyextricatedherself from his embrace. “I can do it. I’m okay. I just… needed a minute.”

“Me too.” Griffin patted her shoulder. “I have to call Thum… I don’t know what to tell her.”

Bel slipped her hand into his powerful one and squeezed tight. “I want to shut my eyes and pretend I never saw what’s down there, but they’ve spent enough time in the dark. They no longer have a voice, so weneed tospeak for them. Lina will understand that.”

“She will.” Griffin’s thumb rubbed her knuckles. “We all do. I’ll make the call, then I’ll come down with you. I don’t want you to be alone.”

“I don’t want to be alone either.” Bel released his hand and turned her sights on the death-stained barn.

“Are you going back down there?” Olivia asked from the grass as she strode past, and when she nodded, Olivia scrambled to her feet. “I’m coming with you, even if it makes me sick. I can’t bear the idea of you alone in that cold.”

“Thank you.” Bel gripped Olivia’s hand as they returned to the freezer, not caring that the gathered deputies could see their interlaced fingers clutching each other. This scene was beyond them, beyond judgment, and together the friends braced for the cold.

“I’ll be here if you need me.” Deputy Rollo pressed his back against the door to reassure the women they wouldn’t meet the same fate as the girl in the freezer, and Bel patted his shoulder in thanks. He nodded before turning away as if he couldn’t bear seeing what waited for the detectives, and withthat sobering reminder, Bel led Olivia into the freezer where not one frozen girl awaited them but dozens.

Neither woman spoke as they slipped through the perfectly preserved bodies. Burned matchsticks sat in a single pile before each victim, a testament to their last attempt at survival. Bel didn’t need Lina Thum’s expertise to know these women froze to death, and while it seemed their killer moved their frozen statues to make room for every new matchstick victim, he’d left them in the cold for each girl to find. Bel stopped walking and turned her gaze to the pitch-black ceiling. To be locked in this freezer alone and scared and see your fate staring back at you. To know that you would end up another frozen girl, that you’d be added to their ever-growing ranks for the next terrified victim to stare at as her matches burned to nothing. Death was rarely kind, but this? This made her want to forget the law and lock the killer in a room with Eamon.

“They’re all dressed differently,” Oliviawhispered,as if she was afraid to speak in such a place. “Some are dressed for winter and others for summer. Some of their clothes are fashions I haven’t seen in years. He’s been doing this for a long time.”

“There are forty-two women,” Bel said. She’d counted three times because she couldn’t fathom the number. “How does one person kill forty-two people and get away with it?” She ran hernumb fingers through her hair. They’d been inside for only a few minutes, yet her knuckles were already stiffwithcold. She didn’t know how they were supposed to work this scene without experiencing damage to their bodies, and she found a sliver of comfort knowing these girls’ ends were probably quick. When the body froze, the mind eventually shuts down, dulling the senses. She prayed that in the end, the women felt like they weresimplyfalling asleep.

“My guess is these Jane Does were runaways or girls who lived on the streets,” Griffin said as he joined them. “People no one would look for. To kill forty-two women and have no one come after you? No one missed these girls.”

“That makes this worse,” Olivia said, pausing before a victim who looked barely eighteen. “Some are older, but she’s practically still a child. This was someone’s daughter, someone’s baby girl, and he froze her to death with only a pile of matches to give her hope.” She fell silent, and by thewayher breathing changed, Bel could tell she was crying.

“There are no lights in here,” Bel said as Griffin rubbed Olivia’s back. “These women would’ve only seen what their matches illuminated, which wouldn’t have been much since our flashlights barely light this space. They might not have realized how many dead girls knelt in here, but they also weren’t able to find the door.” She backtracked through the silent women and aimed her flashlight at the front of the freezer.

“What are you thinking?” Griffin asked.

“Freezing people to death is a detached, weaponless form of murder,” she answered. “If you don’t want to look your victims in the eyes, this is the perfect execution. It’s not complicated either, since most deep freezers fit in a garage, so you wouldn’t need to tap into the electrical grid, but this.” She gestured behind her. “This is elaborate and expensive. Leaving the girls here long after they die for his next victims to see is a power play.Being locked in a freezer is terrifying, being locked in a freezer with dozens of dead girls and just enough matches to learn how doomed you are is excruciating. Our killer wanted them afraid, and he wanted their endingdramatic. Someone doesn’t go through all this troublejustto lock the doors and walk away.”

“You think he watched them die?” Griffin swung his flashlight at the wall, but the beam did little to revealanyhidden clues.

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