Page 11 of Cold Threat

Tony sighed. “When you get out of bed or up from a chair and groan a certain way ... well, let’s just leave it there, okay?”

“I’m thinking being shot four times might be the cause of those noises.”

“You’re just trying to make me feel better.”

River grinned at him. “Yeah, that’s it.” She went back to looking over the pictures. “You know, there’s something else that bothers me.”

“What’s that?”

“All of these people were lying on their backs.” She frowned. “How do you sleep?”

“On my side.”

“Me too.”

“I’m not sure we can conclude much from that,” River said slowly, “but it’s rather odd. Especially since bodies tend to contract when being burned.”

“Wait a minute,” Tony said, turning a page. “Seems their wrists and ankles were bound with wire.”

“So, the killer wanted them to be in a supine position,” River said slowly. “Were their wrists crossed?”

Tony looked up at her and nodded. “That’s significant.”

“Yes, it is.”

They were both quiet as they concentrated on the case. It was then that River’s eye caught something. She picked up a magnifyingglass on the top of Ray’s desk and held it up to one of the pictures.

“See something?” Tony asked.

“Quiet,” she said. As she moved the glass from picture to picture, her heart began to race. Finally, she put the glass down and turned to face Tony.

“Your dad’s right,” she said. “His serial killer is still at it. And he’s in Burlington now.”

CHAPTER

SIX

Tony got up and walked over to where River stood. What had she noticed that made her so certain his dad was on the right track?

“Show me,” he said.

“Okay, we know that the last killing in Des Moines was different. The one where that guy was arrested. But the previous two...” She held the magnifying glass up to a photo of the outside of the house where the first fire had been—where his father had been injured.

He looked it over carefully. All he could see was a burned-out house that had collapsed not long after his father had run out with a child in his arms. “Sorry. Nothing looks unusual to me.”

“It’s not the house. It’s the tree outside. And the fact that it’s snowing.”

“This incident happened in December. Snow isn’t unusual for that time of the year.”

“Here.” River pointed at a large tree in the front yard, its leaves gone.

“I don’t ... Oh, you mean the snowman ornament?” He stoodup straight and stared at her. “Again, almost Christmas. It would be weird if there weren’t any Christmas decorations.”

“It’s the only decoration we can see. True, it’s possible there were some on the house that were burned up, but still, who puts one ornament on a tree that far from the house?”

Tony didn’t want to offend his partner, but this was hardly evidence. He started to tell her that, but before he could get the words out, she moved the magnifying glass.

“This is the second murder a couple of years later,” she said. “What do you see?”