Page 75 of The Girls in the Snow

“She has a couple of bruises here”—Blanchard pointed to Madison’s right arm—“that are lighter and have just enough yellow to make me think the healing process had started.”

“How did she die?” Nikki asked.

“That brings me to the worst part.”

“There’s something worse?” Liam asked.

“Lividity showed she died in the fetal position, tied up. She experienced both liver failure and kidney failure. Her heart was compromised as well.” Blanchard moved the sheet so they could see Madison’s hands.

“Frostbite,” Liam said.

“Jesus Christ. She froze to death?”

“She had internal bleeding. The back of her skull is broken from blunt force trauma. Her brain bled and swelled, which means she didn’t die immediately. She may not have been fully conscious, but the frostbite proves that she was alive when she was tied up and put into the freezer.”

“And Kaylee had been dead for several hours, if not longer.” Liam looked at Nikki.

“Blunt force trauma is evident in both Madison and Janelle, and both died in severe conditions,” Nikki said. “Was Madison left to freeze to death intentionally, like Janelle?”

“It’s very possible, but the killer may have assumed she would die much faster than she did. I swabbed underneath all three victims’ fingernails,” Blanchard said. “But we’re days away from any results. Courtney picked up both girls’ clothing yesterday. Madison wore a belt and a watch. We’re looking for fingerprints.”

Nikki was already texting Courtney for an update.

Blanchard carefully turned Madison’s arm so that her palm lay face up. “See the lower part of her forearm?”

Nikki’s breath caught in her throat. The marks had likely been relatively fresh before Madison became incapacitated in the freezer. “Are those… letters?”

“I think the first one looks like an ‘P.’” Dr. Blanchard squinted at the scratches. “Or possibly an unfinished ‘R.’ I can’t tell if the second is supposed to be a letter or a number.”

“It looks like a vertical line,” Nikki said. “Maybe an ‘I.’ Probably not ‘S’ or ‘G’. Or ‘C’.”

“‘J,’ ‘O,’ ‘Q,’ are out. ‘X,’ ‘Y,’ and ‘Z’ too. But that still leaves plenty of possible letters.” Liam shook his head. “That’s a lot of variables.”

“She had fake nails,” Nikki commented. “Those are too dull to make scratches like this.”

“Shellac,” Blanchard said. “Once the base loosens, they’re relatively easy to pull off. Her right index fingernail is missing the shellac and the nail is jagged and clogged with Madison’s own blood. These scratches happened shortly before she died. They’re not particularly deep, but they had no chance to heal. The cold actually preserved them.”

Madison had carved into her own flesh so her killer could be found.

Twenty-Nine

Adrenaline pumped through Nikki. “Kaylee was probably killed within a couple of hours after their disappearance, but he took his time with Madison. He wanted her to suffer while Kaylee’s death looks relatively painless.”

“Kaylee had sex with him and then he kills her,” Liam said. “Madison could have been collateral damage.”

“Maybe,” Nikki said. “But Miles Hanson said Kaylee was a virgin. Assuming he’s right, Madison and Kaylee might have just gone to hang out and then Kaylee decides to have sex with the killer.”

“Did the killer plan to murder Kaylee all along? Why not just strangle Madison too? Why make her death so much more brutal?”

“Strangulation is extremely intimate and almost always driven by a volatile temper that snaps,” Nikki said.

“Bobby was Kaylee’s crush,” Liam said. “Is there any chance he’s lying?”

“They disappeared on Saturday. Bobby doesn’t have a car, so he would have needed Mindy to pick him up. Miller questioned everyone close to the family and checked all their alibis. Mindy was at work all day Saturday, and both she and Bobby told me that Mindy picked him up early Sunday morning so he could come home and search. That also matches what they originally told Miller in October.”

“I’ve re-interviewed all their friends now,” Liam said. “There are no other male friends with cars, and I still haven’t been able to find the cell phone data to narrow down a pick-up location.”

“Are you still going to talk to John’s favorite girls at the strip club? We need to find out anything he might have told them that he didn’t tell us. Can we see if they recognize anyone else from our list of suspects?”

---