Read Online Chills by Mary Sangiovanni - Free Book Online

Colby was invisible to the rest of the outside world, and all attempts at communication in or out were being swept away by the snow. Jack didn’t tell Katie that, of course. He didn’t want her worrying the kids. Already she was driving him nuts, wanting to know how he was going to explain all this weather business to the children; he reassured her he would talk about it with them in an informative but non-frightening way.
    It took forty-five minutes of such reassurances to finally get her off the phone, and promptly upon disconnecting, he spilled his mug of coffee across his desk. Half an hour later, he received word of Abe Maurner’s mother keeling over in the snow on her front lawn, Joe Bishop’s request for extended medical for his heart surgery, and Cali Richter’s report on freezing deaths a block away from the local homeless shelter on Trensfer Avenue. All throughout, the phone rang off the hook with concerned citizens demanding answers, not unlike Katie, about the weather and some downed power lines that appeared to be limiting cell usage and preventing Internet access altogether, and just what the hell were the police doing about it, anyway?
    What he did not get, however, was anything useful from Cordwell’s preliminary autopsy report on the John Doe. He hadn’t even been able to identify the animal that had left those teeth marks, and there was no forensic evidence on the body whatsoever that could help identify the killer or killers.
    Jack had a headache before eleven-fifteen that morning.
    Then, around 4 PM , dispatch notified him of another homicide, a multiple this time. He and his team were being asked to report ASAP to Ormann Field at the end of Woodland Road. Texts had already gone out to the CS team, Morris, Teagan, and Kathy Ryan. Responding officers noted unusual circumstances.
    â€œUnusual how?” he’d asked Sherry at dispatch when she told him.
    â€œThey didn’t say,” she’d replied. “They just said to get ahold of the task force on the ‘John Doe devil worship case’ right away. I’m guessing there are similarities between your JD and this scene, or something in this one that connects it to the last one.”
    â€œOkay, Sherr. I’m on my way.”
    â€œHey, you be careful out there, huh? Don’t want to lose my favorite detective.”
    â€œYes, ma’am, I will. Wouldn’t want to disappoint my favorite dispatcher,” he flirted back, and he could hear her smile through the phone.
    â€œOh, one other thing—the ROs said to bring heat lamps.”
    â€œHeat lamps?”
    â€œApparently, some of the evidence was deliberately frozen to the ground. They don’t think it can be chipped out without possible damage to the evidence. Jars, as I understand, though the ice surrounding has kept anybody from positively ID-ing anything in them so far. Mixed reports about the state of the bodies—you’re going to have a lot to sort out, I think. ROs just said there was ‘Kathy Ryan kind of stuff.’ You know how that goes.”
    â€œHuh.”
    â€œYeah.”
    There was a pause, and then Sherry added, “Uh-oh. Oh . . . oh no.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œOh God, Jack,” she whispered. The change in her voice alarmed him.
    â€œWhat? Sherry, what’s going on?”
    â€œCalls coming in . . . ROs on two other scenes requesting your help. All multiple homicides in open spaces. All requesting your task force. You have to go, Jack. Go now. I’m texting you and your team all the info.”
    Jack got up, setting his new mug of coffee to precarious wobbling. He barely noticed. He grabbed his keys and coat. “I’m on it, Sherry. Tell them I’m on my way.”
    â€œIt’s bad, Jack. Children, too, on these . . .”
    An awful lump rolled over in Jack’s stomach. He hated when crimes involved children. It was really turning out to be a clusterfuck of a