Tess Gerritsen - Ice Cold

“They couldn’t let any of you live,” said Jane. “Not after what you saw in that village.”

“The day I hiked out, I heard a snowplow coming up the mountain,” said Maura. “I thought they were finally there to rescue us. If I’d been there, with the others…”

“You would have ended up like them,” said Jane. “With your skull fractured and your body burned up in the Suburban. All they had to do was roll it into the ravine, set it on fire, and that was the end of it. Just a group of unlucky tourists, dead in an accident, no questions asked.” Jane paused. “I’m afraid I complicated things for you.”

“How?”

“By insisting that you were still missing. I brought your clothes for the tracking dogs. I gave them everything they needed to hunt you down.”

“I’d be dead now,” said Maura softly. “If it weren’t for the boy.”

“Seems to me, you returned the favor.” Jane reached out to take Maura’s hand. It felt strange to do so, because Maura was not a woman who invited touches or hugs. But she did not flinch at Jane’s touch; she seemed too weary to react at all.

“The case will all come together,” said Jane. “It may take time, but I’m confident they’ll find enough to tie it to The Gathering.”

“And Jeremiah Goode.”

Jane nodded. “It couldn’t have happened unless he ordered it. But even if those people voluntarily drank poison, it’s still mass murder. Because you’re talking about children, who had no choice at all.”

“Then the boy’s mother. His sister…”

Jane shook her head. “If they were living in Kingdom Come, they’re probably among the dead. None of them have been identified yet. The first autopsy will be done today. Potassium cyanide is everyone’s guess.”

“Like Jonestown,” said Maura softly.

Jane nodded. “Fast, effective, and available.”

Maura looked up. “But they were his followers. The chosen ones. Why would he suddenly want them dead?”

“That’s a question only Jeremiah can answer. And right now, no one knows where he is.”

The door opened, and an ICU nurse stepped in. “Dr. Isles? The police have left, and the boy’s asking for you again.”

“They should leave the poor kid alone,” said Maura as she pushed herself out of the armchair. “I’ve already told them everything.” For a moment she looked dangerously weak and wobbly, but she managed to regain her balance and followed the nurse out of the room.

Jane waited until the door swung shut again, then she looked at her husband. “Okay. Tell me what’s bothering you.”

He sighed. “Everything.”

“Care to be more specific?”

He turned and faced her. “Maura’s absolutely right. Montgomery Loftus fully intended to kill her and the boy. He didn’t come with our search party. He was canny enough to predict the boy would head for Absolem’s cabin, and he hired a chopper to drop him off there. That’s where he waited to ambush them. If we hadn’t stopped him, he would have killed them both.”

“What’s his motive?”

“He claims he just wanted justice to be done. And no one around here is questioning that. After all, these are his friends and neighbors.”

And we’re just the meddlesome outsiders, thought Jane. She looked out the window at the parking lot, where Sansone was walking Bear. They made an odd couple, the wild-looking dog and the man in the cashmere coat. But Bear seemed to trust him, and willingly jumped into the car when Sansone opened the door for the drive back to the hotel.

“Martineau and Loftus,” Jane said softly. “Is there a connection between them?”

“Maybe there’s a money trail to follow. If Martineau got paid off by the Dahlia Group…”

She looked at Gabriel. “I’ve heard that Montgomery Loftus is having money trouble. He’s barely hanging on to the Double L Ranch. He’s ripe to be bought off, too.”

“To kill Maura and a sixteen-year-old kid?” Gabriel shook his head. “He doesn’t seem like a man you could buy off with money alone.”

“Maybe it was a lot of money. If so, that’s going to be hard to hide.”

Gabriel glanced at his watch. “I think it’s time I head to Denver.”

“The Bureau field office?”

“We’ve got a mysterious shell company in Maryland. And large amounts of money being thrown around. This is starting to feel really big, Jane.”

“Forty-one dead bodies isn’t big enough?”

He gave a somber shake of the head. “That may be just the tip of the iceberg.”

MAURA PAUSED IN THE ICU CUBICLE DOORWAY, UNNERVED BY THE sight of all the tubes and catheters and wires snaking around Rat’s body, an invasion that no sixteen-year-old boy should ever have to endure. But the rhythm on the cardiac monitor was reassuringly steady, and he was now breathing on his own.

Sensing her presence, he opened his eyes and smiled. “Hey there, ma’am.”

“Oh, Rat.” She sighed. “Are you ever going to stop calling me that?”

“What should I call you?”

You called me Mommy once. She blinked away tears at the memory. The boy’s real mother was almost certainly among the dead, but she did not have the heart to break the news to him. Instead she managed to return the boy’s smile. “I give you permission to call me whatever you want. But my name is Maura.”

She sat down in the chair beside his bed and reached for his hand. Noticed how calloused and scabbed it was, the fingernails still stubbornly stained with dirt. She, who did not easily reach out to touch anyone, took that battered hand in hers, and took it without hesitation. It felt natural and right.

“How’s Bear?” he asked.

She laughed. “You’ll be changing his name to Pig when you see how much he’s been eating.”

“So he’s okay?”

“My friends have been spoiling him rotten. And your foster family promised they’d look after him until you get home.”

“Oh. Them.” Rat’s gaze drifted away from hers, and he looked up listlessly at the ceiling. “I guess I’ll be going back there.”

A place he clearly did not want to go. But what alternative could Maura offer him? A home with a divorced woman who knew nothing about raising children? A woman who was carrying on a furtive love affair with a man she could never acknowledge as her partner? She was a poor role model for a teenage boy, and her life was already troubled enough. Yet the offer trembled on her lips, an offer to take him in, to make him happy, to fix his life. To be his mother. Oh, how easy that offer was to make, and once made, how impossible to retract. Be sensible, Maura, she thought. You can’t even keep a cat, much less raise a teenager on your own. No responsible authority would grant her custody. This boy had already known too much rejection, too many disappointments; it would be cruel to make promises she couldn’t keep.

So she did not make any. She merely held his hand and stayed at his bedside as he drifted back to sleep. The nurse came in to change the IV bottle and whisked out again. But Maura remained, pondering the boy’s future, and what part she could realistically hope to play in it. I know this much: I won’t abandon you. You’ll always know that someone cares.

A knock on the window made her turn, and she saw Jane beckoning to her.

Reluctantly Maura left the bedside and stepped out of the cubicle.

“They’re about to start the first autopsy,” Jane said.

“The Kingdom Come victims?”

Jane nodded. “The forensic pathologist just arrived from Colorado. He said he knows you, and he’s wondering if you’d care to observe. He’s doing it downstairs, in the hospital morgue.”

Maura glanced through the window at Rat, and saw that he was peacefully sleeping. The lost boy, still waiting to be claimed. I’ll be back. I promise.