Page 45 of Cold as Hell

Even Storm whines, and now I can hear her. She moves against me, and I pet her head. Then I rememberwhyshe would whine, and I awkwardly drop to one knee and hug her.

“You found her,” I say. “And I’m sorry.”

She leans against me and exhales, and I hug her tight.

“Thank you,” I say. Then I use her bulk to help me rise, and when I look out, I can see smoke rising ahead and slightly to our left.

Haven’s Rock.

I reach over to squeeze Dalton’s arm. Then I set out with Storm, and he brings up the rear with Lynn’s body over his arms.

With the storm abating, we decide to veer a little more and take the perimeter path to our chalet rather than get close to town with Lynn’s naked body over Dalton’s arms.

I go inside first and grab a blanket to lay on the kitchen floor. It’s not the most ceremonious place to put her, but it has the best lighting.

Dalton sets her on the blanket, and she’s still in the position we found her in. I don’t know whether she’s in rigor or literally frozen.

“I’ll get April,” Dalton says.

I shake my head. “Warm up a bit first.”

“And let you have a look first?”

I glance up at him. “Please.”

My sister is an amazing doctor, and she’s become a good medical examiner, but if I have the chance to examine a body first, I want it. And after being out in that wind, Dalton really should warm up. When I start to bend beside Lynn, though, he shakes his head. I think he’s going to insist I sit down, but he only unzips my coat.

Right. He’s not the only one who needs to warm up. I can’t feel my toes, and my cheeks have long since gone numb.

I shrug out of my parka and sit to let Dalton take off my boots. The process seems obscenely slow when there’s a dead woman on our kitchen floor. I should be on my knees examining her without a thought for my personal comfort. But it’s not comfort—it’s safety. My toes are indeed numb, and they burn enough to make me hiss in pain as Dalton gently warms them with his hands. The chalet is maybe fifteen degrees. Hardly cozy, but a roaring fire wouldn’t be safe for potential frostbite or for examining Lynn’s partially frozen corpse.

As Dalton warms my toes, I do the same for my cheeks. Then I insist he remove his outerwear. Thankfully, his feet arefine—I’ll blame poorer circulation from my pregnancy for my brush with frostbite.

Just when I think I’m ready to get to work, Dalton wordlessly plucks at my sweatshirt. It’s wet from snow and sweat. I pull it off as he goes upstairs to get dry clothing. Only once I’m changed does he let me finally get down beside Lynn’s body.

“If I make you hot chocolate, will you drink it?” he asks.

I want to say no, of course not. I have a corpse to examine. But I’m still shivering and as I warm up, I’m getting sleepy, and part of that is low blood sugar from not having eaten for hours.

I nod, and he sets to work on that while I take my first good look at Lynn. When Dalton returns with my phone, I smile weakly at him.

“Thank you,” I say, and I hit Record on the voice memos and turn back to Lynn as I give the date and time.

Then I continue, “The deceased is known as Lynn Williams, resident of Haven’s Rock. Lynn was definitely seen by customers at around one thirty yesterday afternoon, although we have a secondhand account of her being seen with another resident after the storm hit. We still need to interview all residents to secure a complete timeline. For now, it is possible she had been missing for as long as twenty-four hours. Victim was found south of town near the edge of the lake. On-site examination was impossible due to the weather conditions. She was lying on her back. All clothing had been removed. The body was disturbed by a wolverine who seems to have…”

I hit Pause and move closer. When my small medical kit appears from nowhere, I look up at Dalton and murmur my thanks.

My fingers still sting from the cold, but any numbness has faded and I pick up the metal probe easily. I use it to prod around the wolverine damage. Then I start recording again.

“I count three distinct bites on the abdomen where the wolverine had begun feeding. Each chunk is…” I measure. “No deeper than an inch and a half. There’s some damage to the internal organs from the bites, but I’ll tentatively say none should be the cause of death. They’re all shallow and, at the scene, I confirmed that the interior of each wound was unfrozen, suggesting they had been made very recently. The deceased is in full rigor and partially frozen. With the cold, the onset and the speed of rigor would be slowed. While I need to run calculations based on the weather, the cold and the exposure means she likely died at least eight hours ago.”

I pause and take a few temperature readings, internal and external. Considering we moved Lynn’s body, a defense attorney would jump on any conclusion that involved those readings, but that isn’t something we need to worry about here. Even if it’s murder, there will be no trial. This is to help my own investigation.

Isit murder?

The lack of clothing would certainly suggest that. But while a storm might not keep someone from sexually assaulting her, would he strip her entirely?

I make the briefest examination of her inner thighs. That part I really do want to leave for April. For now, I’m just looking for blood or obvious contusions. There are none.

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