Katie attempted to better her mood by looking at the brightly-colored Christmas decorations as she walked. The blinking lights of the downtown businesses combined with the falling snow should have been a festive sight, but the lack of traffic and other pedestrians made the whole scene seem surreal. It reminded Katie of one of those old Twilight Zone episodes where everyone but the main character had disappeared.
She shook her head to dispel the thought. It wasn’t like she was in the middle of nowhere; she was in the middle of town, for crying out loud.
Still, she’d heard that they’d found a man dead this morning. The gossip mill hadn’t been clear about the man’s identity, but Rosie Collins had sworn up and down that it had been Elmer Jenkins. Katie hoped that it wasn’t true, because Mr. Jenkins often came into the store to buy beer. He seemed nice, and he didn’t hit on her like a lot of the other men did. Katie suspected that was because his wife had pretty much ruined women for him. She felt kind of sorry for Elmer. Lola Jenkins had a mouth on her like a bullhorn.
As Katie passed Elaine’s Discount, she happened to glance down the alley beside the building. Someone was there, standing near the back of the alley. The light from the streetlamp didn’t reach back that far, and Katie squinted her eyes as she peered into the darkness. It looked like a person—a woman maybe, judging from the build. But it was hard to tell through the falling snow.
“Hello?” Katie called.
She received no reply. At the rear of the alley, the figure did not move.
“Is someone there?” Katie took a tentative step into the alley. She thought she saw the woman (she was almost positive it was a woman) move slightly, just a shift from one foot to the other. Katie looked over her shoulder at the bright lights of the store display windows. She was in the middle of town. Surely there was no reason to be afraid.
She began to walk slowly toward the back of the alley, which terminated into a block wall that had been erected to prevent traffic between the two buildings. The woman—if it was a woman—appeared to be wearing nothing but a white gown. The only reason Katie could think of for someone to be outside dressed like that was drugs. And some damned good ones, at that.
If the woman was high on something, confronting her might not be a good idea. Katie had seen people high on bath salts and other synthetic concoctions. They were often paranoid and delusional. Sometimes, such people would attack others who were trying to help them.
Maybe she should just go back. She could stop by the sheriff’s office and report the woman. Let them deal with it. That would undoubtedly be the safest thing to do.
But what if the woman wasn’t high? What if she were hurt, or simply distraught? Katie wasn’t sure how long it took before a person died from hypothermia, but in weather like this, she figured it wouldn’t take long.
She weighed her options. The woman was small; Katie outweighed her by a good twenty or thirty pounds. And, having grown up with three brothers, she was no slouch in a fight. The one time Justin had slapped her during an argument, she’d put him on his ass. That was the last time he’d ever put a hand on her.
Feeling a bit more confident, Katie resumed her advance. If she could help the woman, she would. But if the old girl proved to be wild, Katie would clean her clock and go for the cops.
As she moved closer, Katie saw that the woman’s skin was an unnatural shade of white. Was that a sign of hypothermia? The woman didn’t seem to be in any obvious pain, but that could also be a symptom. Katie had read somewhere that, after prolonged exposure, your body stopped shivering. The woman’s blue lips were also a dead giveaway.
Her pallid skin and discolored lips notwithstanding, the woman looked as if she’d just stepped out of an old kung-fu movie. Her hair was long and jet black, and her features were definitely Asian, though Katie really couldn’t differentiate between Chinese, Japanese, or any other kind of –ese, for that matter. The woman wore a faint smile, and regarded Katie with some interest.
“Lady,” Katie said, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but it’s freezing out here. Don’t you think you need to go some place warm?”
The woman cocked her head and continued to smile. Her gaze was penetrating; it was not the look of someone spaced out on drugs. The stare unsettled Katie; still, the woman did not appear to be threatening in any way. Katie relaxed somewhat and returned the woman’s smile.
“Really, what are you doing out here? Aren’t you freezing?”
The woman did not reply.
It occurred to Katie that the woman didn’t understand her. It wasn’t a great leap of logic, since the woman had the look of a foreigner. Katie didn’t know of any Asian families living in Shallow Springs, and she had certainly never seen the woman before. Katie either knew or knew of pretty much everyone in the Springs, since most of them had wandered through the Quickee Mart at some point.
At any rate, it wasn’t getting any earlier. Katie was cold and she still had a good walk ahead of her. She decided to give it one last shot, and if the woman didn’t respond, then that would be that. No one could say that she hadn’t tried.
“Do you speak English? Can you understand me? You need to get out of the—″
The woman pursed her lips and blew a gentle breath.
Katie’s eyes widened as a white-hot pain enveloped her body. Her body jerked violently and then stiffened. Her final scream literally froze in her throat, never to escape.
***
She studied her handiwork and felt neither pride nor shame. It was not in her nature to feel such emotions, just as it was not in the hawk’s nature to feel pity for the mouse. Neither vengeance nor cruel enjoyment motivated her. It was simply her function, much the same as the snow which blanketed the earth and replenished it.
Her work was not yet done. As long as the snow remained, so would she.
With a slight flick of her head, she dissolved into the falling snow, leaving no trace that she had ever been there at all.
Chapter Four
“You ready?” McCoy called from the kitchen. “John said he’d have someone here by nine.”
“Slipping my boots on now,” Amanda replied from the bedroom. “Did you pack extra clothes?”
“A few. I don’t plan on moving back.”
“Yeah. Well, I know you like to pack light, but keep in mind that you might get wet. Wet clothes in a snowstorm aren’t much fun.”
“Yes, Mother.” McCoy snatched his straw cowboy hat off the rack and settled it on his head. Since the truce with the Fey had been bartered, going back to his hometown was not the chore it had once been. That was good, because he’d recently discovered that he really missed the place. It did his heart good to see his old stomping grounds, though he would have preferred to return under better circumstances.
Outside, the snow had slacked off enough to give the road crews a fighting chance. The temperature was hovering in the twenties, however, and no real progress would be made until the storm finally moved out. According to the local meteorologist, that might be a few days.
“Did the mail run yesterday?” Amanda called. “I forgot to check. I want to make sure Pru gets her card before Christmas.”
Prucilla Pridemore was a pint-sized terror who possessed the same supernatural sensitivity as McCoy. They’d met in South Carolina back in March, when McCoy and Amanda had travelled down to help one of McCoy’s childhood friends. Pru had been vacationing on the same island with her family, and had been instrumental in helping McCoy defeat a pair of nixes which had been terrorizing the community.
“It ran,” McCoy assured her. “You know the slogan: neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night…”
“That ought to be your motto,” Amanda said as she walked into the room. She took one look at McCoy and stopped short. “Oh, Finn. Please tell me you’re not wearing that thing. I bought you a really nice knit cap last week.”
“Toboggans are for lumberjacks and longshoremen. This is my hat.”
“Your head wi
ll get cold,” Amanda pouted.
“In case you haven’t noticed, I ain’t bald yet. Besides, it’s my trademark.”
“What? You think the ghosts wouldn’t recognize you without it?”
“I’ll have you know that this hat strikes fear into all supernatural boogies.”
“It also strikes fear into anyone with the slightest sense of fashion.”
“Laugh now. They’ll have this hat bronzed one day.”
“Incinerated, more likely. Where’s your knapsack?”
“Over by the door. Don’t worry. I’ve stocked it for pretty much any contingency.”
“That’s reassuring,” Amanda said. “Especially since we have no idea what we’re dealing with.”
“I’m sure I’ll be able to figure it out once we get there,” McCoy said confidently. “After all, if it isn’t one of the Fey, how bad can it be?”
“Damnit! I knew you’d jinx us before we even left the house.”
“Ride’s here,” McCoy said, looking out the window. “C’mon. I’ll help you with your bags.”
***
John Talbot stared at Katie Daniels’ body and felt as helpless as he’d ever felt in his life. He’d known Katie since she’d been knee high to a grasshopper, and he’d really liked the girl. Of her worthless husband, Justin, he couldn’t say the same. But he had liked Katie a lot.
“Elaine Thomas found her around eight,” Deidre Pratt was saying. “She was taking out some trash before opening the store. Poor woman. They had to take her home, it gave her such a shock.”
“At least she’s not a human icicle like poor Katie here,” John said irritably. “Have you talked to Bob Fredricks? Katie was working the evening shift last night.”
Deidre nodded. “Bob told her to shut down at eight and go on home. He tried to make it sound like it was for her safety, but you know Bob. He’s too cheap to keep the lights on if there aren’t any paying customers.”
“Where’s her vehicle? She drives an old Blazer.”
“It’s in the store’s parking lot. Dead battery. She must have been walking home.”
“Damnit. Why didn’t she call us? I would have given her a ride.”
“She had an independent streak a mile wide,” Deidre said. “There’s no sense in beating yourself up over this, John.”
John knew that his deputy was right, but as he looked at Katie’s frozen corpse, he found it difficult to not shoulder at least some of the blame. He should have gotten McCoy there sooner. John was in over his head on this one, and he knew that if he didn’t come up with a plan of action pretty soon, he would lose more people.
He checked his watch. McCoy should be en route by now, but with the road conditions being what they were, the trip would take well over an hour, maybe closer to two. He could find solace only in the fact that whatever was doing this seemed to operate only at night. He and McCoy would have most of the day to come up with some semblance of a plan.
“Where’s the ambulance?” John snapped. “It should have been here by now.”
“In this mess? Who knows. I hope they’re not stuck somewhere.”
John looked toward the mouth of the alley. Already, a few gawkers were standing just beyond the yellow police tape. John shook his head. Even a blizzard couldn’t keep the rubbernecks away.
“Well, we can’t leave her here like this. I don’t want her standing here like a statue when her idiot husband shows up. Go get your Tahoe and back it in here.”
“We’re going to load her up in the back of the Tahoe? You can’t be serious.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
Deidre shrugged and went to get the vehicle. John stood with his back to the onlookers, shielding the body from their view with his broad torso. He knew that he shouldn’t be moving the body, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave Katie out in the snow like some carnival sideshow attraction. She’d been a good person, and she deserved better. Besides, what clues could the ME glean from the body? Whatever was killing the residents of Shallow Springs, cold hard science wasn’t likely to find it.
A blaring horn brought his attention back to the street. Deidre was attempting to back her unit into the alley, but the gawkers were not moving out of the way. John spat in the snow and shook his head. At times, he felt less like a sheriff and more like a kindergarten teacher.
“Move your asses!” he bellowed. “Police vehicle coming through!” The onlookers turned briefly to consider him, then slowly shuffled out of the way. Deidre slowly backed into the alley, mindful that she had only a few feet of clearance on either side of the vehicle. John hoped she didn’t put any scratches on it. The town council would flip out.
When Deidre had backed close enough to the body, John signaled for her to stop. Since there was no way Deidre could open the door enough to squeeze out, it was up to John to load the corpse himself. He opened the door to the rear compartment area and readied himself. He was loath to touch the body in its present condition, but there was no help for it. He couldn’t back out now, and he didn’t want to appear weak in front of his deputy.
Resolving himself, John picked Katie’s body up and attempted to slide her into the Tahoe’s cargo bay. Deidre, watching from the driver’s seat, shook her head.
“She won’t fit lengthwise, John. You’re going to have to turn her the other way.”
“She won’t go in that way, either,” John huffed. Though he was a strong man, he was having difficulty with the corpse, which felt like it weighed more than a ton of bricks.
“She won’t bend at all?”
“I think she’d break before she’d bend. I wish there was a way to thaw her out.” He stood Katie on the ground and leaned her against the back of the vehicle. “Keep an eye on those people up there. I want to try something.”
“Ten-four.”
John removed his gloves. He had no idea whether or not this would work, but he guessed it was worth trying. Placing his hands on Katie’s shoulders, John summoned the fairy fire which was his to command. Instantly, the purple fire erupted from his fingertips and engulfed Katie’s frozen body. There was a loud hiss as the ice and frost which covered the body evaporated into the frigid air, where it immediately condensed into a wispy fog.
“Whatever you’re doing back there—and keep in mind, I don’t want to know what it is—keep it down,” Deidre said, her voice tight.
“I’m trying,” John said through gritted teeth. The fire seemed to be working, but the effort required to keep the fire burning was immense. “Just a few more seconds…”
With a sudden pop, Katie’s lifeless form lost its rigidity. Luckily, John’s reflexes were quick enough to allow him to grab her before she hit the ground. He gently lifted her. Unfrozen, she no longer weighed as much as a cow moose. Bending Katie’s knees, John placed her body into the cargo bay.
Deidre turned around and regarded the body with astonishment.
“As much as I want to ask how you did that, I’m not gonna,” she said. “Close the hatch, and I’ll meet you back at the station.”
John shut the door and watched Deidre pull out. Deidre had been present when John had first discovered that he could wield the fairy fire. Fortunately, she had also been unconscious. Though she had seen the Fey and was thus aware of the existence of supernatural beings, she did not know about John’s peculiar pedigree. He was certain she suspected something, but she’d always had the good grace not to ask. John loved her for it.
He put his gloves back on and walked out of the alley. He knew that he should be out helping with the wrecks and stranded motorists, but he didn’t have the heart for it. It had been a long day already, and it wasn’t even ten A.M. yet.
He decided to go back to the station and wait for McCoy to arrive. He would put on a fresh pot of coffee while he was at it.
He just felt like he needed to do something.
Chapter Five
The ride to Shallow Springs was nearly the end of McCoy. Their driver, a rotund deputy with the unli
kely name of Francis Bacon, was a talker. An hour into the drive, McCoy already knew more than most scholars about the deputy’s namesake, Sir Francis Bacon, the English philosopher and scientist. Deputy Frank, as he preferred to be called, was a walking, talking encyclopedia on the subject.
“Wanna hear something cool?” Deputy Frank asked.
“Do tell.” McCoy answered with a pained smile.
“The scientific method was originally called the Baconian method, on account of him being the one that came up with it. Is that awesome, or what?”
“I’m speechless,” McCoy said, earning him an elbow in the ribs from Amanda.
The sarcasm was lost on Frank. “Yeah, I know. I could just go on and on about it.”
McCoy opened his mouth, but Amanda’s Evil Eye caused him to think better of it.
“How long have you been with the department, Frank?” Amanda asked sweetly.
“Little over six months now. Before that, I worked at the Feed and Seed. I was the assistant manager there for over four years. It was a good job, but boring. Me, I’m more of an action guy, you know? Like Magnum or Sherlock Holmes.”
McCoy rubbed at his temples.
“I’ve always been good at solving things. Like crossword puzzles and such. And riddles. Ask me any riddle. I bet I can guess it.”
“What time is it?” McCoy asked.
Deputy Frank frowned. “That isn’t much of a riddle.”
“That’s because it’s a question,” McCoy said wearily. “I was asking the time.”
“Oh.” Frank glanced at his watch. “Ten-oh-five. We’re making pretty good time, considering the road conditions.”
As far as McCoy was concerned, if they’d arrived yesterday, it wouldn’t have been soon enough. He made a mental note to kill Big John for sending the court jester to pick him up.
Cold Chills (A Finn McCoy Paranormal Thriller Book 3) Page 3