Page 40 of Cold Threat

“Exactly. What’s the weather forecast?”

Tony pulled his phone out of his pocket and quickly looked up the report for Burlington. “It’s not supposed to snow again until Saturday.”

“We planned to head back on Saturday.”

“According to this, the snow will start early Saturday morning and could bring several inches.”

River sighed. “Maybe I should rent a car and leave tomorrow. I don’t want to take advantage of Mrs. Weyland.”

“Shouldn’t you call and ask her what she wants you to do?” Tony said. “To be honest, I need your help. And besides, I don’t want you driving back alone.”

“I thought you said no one followed us here.”

Tony nodded. “I don’t believe they did, but I don’t want to bet your life on it.” He hated saying it that way, but it was the truth.

“So, if it snows a lot on Saturday, will we be able to drive back on Sunday?” she asked.

Tony went back to the forecast. After checking ahead, he sighed. “More snow on Sunday. We may be stuck here until at least Monday afternoon.”

“Maybe I could fly back.”

Tony shrugged. “It’s not impossible, but flights are tough to get around Christmas, and the planes out of Burlington are small.”

“I should call Mrs. Weyland today.”

“Do you want to phone her now?”

River shook her head. “No, let’s do some work first. I want to make sure we get this done.”

“Okay.” Tony sat down at the table across from her and they went over their profile, adding to it and refining it. About two hours into the process, Tony’s phone rang. When he picked it up,she saw it was his father. He answered and put it on speakerphone. “Okay, Dad. Go ahead. River can hear you.”

“Ms. Cooper wasn’t able to talk long. They’re keeping her on morphine.”

“But you did get to talk to her some?” Tony asked.

“Yeah. She went over what happened again. I still can’t believe she had the presence of mind to roll on the floor, which put out the flames, and call 911. Amazing. She did happen to add that she remembered the man actually sitting in a chair near her bed for a few minutes before pouring the gasoline around her. Right after that, she fell asleep again. We’re pretty sure we know why she felt dizzy and sick when she woke up and why she didn’t wake up when he bound her hands and feet. We found a syringe on the floor. It was tested. Insulin. He gave her an overdose of fast-acting insulin. However, her doctor thinks her A1C was high. That means her body needed the insulin. Her diabetes might have saved her life.”

“That’s very significant,” River said, looking at Tony. “He made two mistakes. Dropping the syringe and picking a diabetic to inject. He’s getting sloppy.”

“So, she said her attacker was a man,” Tony said. “Please tell me she gave a better description than that.”

Ray’s sigh carried through the phone. “Not much better. She drifted off again. But she did mention that he had red eyes.”

“Red eyes?” Tony said. “What does that mean?”

“I have no idea,” Ray said. “Like I mentioned, she was heavily medicated.”

“Anything else?” River asked. “Since the fire was put out so quickly, maybe there’s other evidence that wasn’t destroyed.”

“The evidence tech hasn’t found anything yet, but he took some things back to the lab and is testing them for hair, fibers, anything that can help us.”

“How did the Snowman get in, Dad?”

Another sigh came through the phone. “Nothing looks amiss. It’s strange. There weren’t any keys hidden outside anywhere. Either Ms. Cooper left a door or window unlocked or the Snowman had a key. But that can’t be right. He couldn’t have keys to all the victims’ houses.”

“Again, River and I would really like to get a look ourselves,” Tony said. “No disrespect to your evidence technician, but through the years, we’ve heard almost everything. Maybe something we see will click.”

“I can take you there either tonight or tomorrow morning.”

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