Chilled by Death (43 page)

“Ha, it certainly made it easier,” Mark said in a conversational tone. “I saw what he’d done and couldn’t believe what our Stevie boy had accomplished all on his own. It was like a challenge to try my hand.”

She nodded as if she understood. Like hell. Who could?

Her gaze landed on several tools tossed on the ground ahead of her. As if they’d been working and just dropped them when they heard sounds. She didn’t know what he expected from her, but she wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

“Get up. I have to find Stevie.”

She shifted forward, getting hold of a hammer and sliding it along her grip.

He glared in the direction Stevie had gone. She didn’t want to wait. She swung, aiming for his temple. Hard. And danced back. Then flew forward and smashed him in the same spot again. And again.

He yelled, his one hand going for her throat, his other hand going to the side of his head that gushed blood. She danced back out of his way, shifted to his other side, and with both hands, she used the hammer like a baseball bat and took out his knee.

He went down screaming. One of his hands was splayed out flat on the ice, trying to support himself. She danced in and smashed his fingers as hard as she could. With his martial arts skills, she’d be lucky to get away from him even if he had only hand and one knee. She dared not let him get his hands on her.

Hammer ready, she danced just out of reach, her breathing panicked. She wanted to go in and hit him over and over again until he was nothing but hamburger, but she didn’t kill people. She wasn’t him. She refused to become him.

“Stacy?”

Royce. “Oh my God.” She threw the hammer down and ran into his arms. “Are you okay? I was so afraid they’d gotten to you.”

“Mark here did. But I managed to recover long enough to hear what was going on. Stevie is out cold and…” He motioned toward where Mark was lying crumpled on the ground. “Apparently you handled this guy all by yourself.”

“Nothing like knowing you were the next specimen to be put on display to give you strength and courage,” she said with a grimace. She pointed to the wall of women. “He’s killed eleven.”

Royce stared in grim horror at the room of poor women. “I’d like to hit him eleven times just for these poor souls.”

Noises behind them had them both spinning around, expecting the worst, only to have the room fill with cops and rescue personnel. As one, they came to a sudden stop inside the big cavern and stared.

“Oh dear God. Those poor women.”

“A serial killer?”

“He killed all of them? There must be a dozen women here.”

“He…” Stacy pointed Mark out where he lay moaning on the ground. “Has killed eleven. But they are not all here in this room.”

“And that horrific snowboarding scene we just walked past,” one of the men asked incredulously. “What about those two?”

Stacy looked at him sadly. “They both died in an avalanche three years ago.” She ran her hand down the side of her head, not surprised to see it shaking badly. “Stevie, the man Royce knocked out cold here, he’s responsible for finding their bodies and arranging them in that display. They were our best friends,” she said gently, sadly. “He couldn’t handle losing them.”

“So he found them and kept them here as what? Mementos that he could come and visit?” one of the men asked, staring at the room of horror, his voice trembling and thin. “I can’t believe this has been going on for so long.”

“A memorial, I think. The two women died three years ago, so they weren’t here longer than that. The other women less so as Mark started his collection after he saw Stevie’s work.”

“Stevie had to finish the job he started – for the girls’ sake. So they could be together again,” Mark defended his friend. “Can’t you appreciate that?”

Stacy could. But she had no idea how to even contemplate Mark’s actions. And she didn’t want to.

The men stared at him, then at each other.

They turned their backs on him and started to process the scene. There were two cops in the mix. One walked over and grabbed Mark’s arms and tugged them behind his back, ignoring his screams as they handcuffed him. In a smooth movement, the cops reached down and lifted him to his feet. He continued to scream that he was injured. “Stacy beat me with a hammer,” he said, crying out. “I wasn’t doing anything to her.”

One of the men turned and asked her, “Did you?”

She nodded faintly. “I did. Several times. Self-defense. He was trying to make me his twelfth victim.”

“Too bad you didn’t hit him some more. Then he’d be dead and we wouldn’t have the problem of a trial.”

She searched his gaze. Then admitted softly, “I hit him several times in the temple. I’m not sure he’ll survive anyway.”

The guy’s eyes widened. He grinned. “You’re Stacy Carter, aren’t you? I attended a talk you gave last year in Vancouver.”

“I love Vancouver.” She gave him a wan smile. “I hope I acquitted myself well.”

“It was great.” He turned to look at the chaos around him. “I’m glad to see you can handle yourself in the field, too.” He nodded and moved on.

She turned to Royce. “Are you ready to leave?”

His lopsided smile slipped out. “If you remember, I never actually wanted to come here.”

Teary eyed, she stepped into his arms. “That may be true, but I am very glad to finally have this at rest.”

Burrowing his head against hers, he hugged her tight. Then he turned in the direction of the exit. “Let’s get going.”

They walked back out to the crevasse, having to walk around a dozen people. “This place will be a busy hub for days,” she said.

“And our ride is now gone, too. I presume they will take Mark’s truck and impound it?”

She sighed. “They will. We’re going to have to find a ride home on our own.”

“Or not.”

Royce pointed up to the top of the hill.

George, a worried frown on his face, stood waiting for them. As soon as they reached him, he grabbed Stacy and hugged her tight. “I went in and saw,” he said, “then came right back out and puked.” He shook his head. “Jesus. Stevie and Mark?”

“Yeah, but we’ve got them now,” Stacy said. “Unfortunately, Christine is dead.”

Holding her tight, he kept repeating, “Dear God. I almost lost you too.”

“I’m safe. However,” she pulled back slightly, her exhausted gaze going from one man to the other, “I don’t think I’m ever going to let you talk me into another winter holiday here again.”

“You?” Royce said, “Hell, I’m not going to ever come back myself.”

“Ditto.”

The three hooked arms and carefully made their way back to the cabin and George’s waiting Land Rover.

“Can we leave?” Royce asked as they loaded up their bags.

“Yes, they’ll get a hold of us tomorrow for full statements.” George said. “I was going through Squamish when I started getting your texts, so I still haven’t seen Kathleen, but she’s awake and talking. Maybe she can leave today, too. Yvonne has woken from the coma, but she’ll be a couple of days yet.”

“Good, then home it is. There’s a bathtub with my name on it,” he said with a big grin on his face. “But it’s at Stacy’s place.”

“A bathtub, huh?” George turned to look at his sister. “Is that okay with you?”

“Oh yeah,” she said. “It’s got my name on it too.”

And she couldn’t wait. Her future looked the best she’d ever seen it.

Thank you for reading Chilled by Death! If you enjoyed my book, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a review
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Dale Mayer

Buy this book at Amazon.

Time has a way of solving many problems – but it also has a way of creating many more…

Sari grew up with a secret that involved her missing father… The only other person who knows the truth refuses to acknowledge it. Sari can’t forget what happened. Ever. She lost someone she loved.

Fifteen years later, the possibility of reversing the series of events drives her to keep searching for answers. Especially now that she’s finally returned to where it all happened and with the people – one in particular – that she’d been forced to leave behind.

Fifteen years ago, Ward was devastated when Sari’s mother fled to France with Sari. Even at ten, they’d been sweethearts. But the mystery of what happened back then had lain fallow…. waiting for someone to stir up the soil. And damn if Sari wasn’t the best at doing just that…

Sari and Ward are out of time. Can they solve the mystery of what happened? Or do they become the next victims…

What she doesn’t want…is exactly what he needs.

Shunned and ridiculed all her life for something she can’t control, Samantha Blair hides her psychic abilities and lives on the fringes of society. Against her will, however, she’s tapped into a killer—or rather, his victims. Each woman’s murder, blow-by-blow, ravages her mind until their death releases her back to her body. Sam knows she must go to the authorities, but will the rugged, no-nonsense detective in charge of tracking down the killer believe her?

Detective Brandt Sutherland only trusts hard evidence, yet Sam’s visions offer clues he needs to catch a killer. The more he learns about her incredible abilities, however, the clearer it becomes that Sam’s visions have put her in the killer’s line of fire. Now Brandt must save her from something he cannot see or understand…and risk losing his heart in the process.

As danger and desire collide, passion raises the stakes in a game Sam and Brandt don’t dare lose.

A twisted game of Hide’n Go Seek forces an unlikely alliance between a no-nonsense FBI agent and a search-and-rescue worker.

Celebrated search-and-rescue worker Kali Jordon has hidden her psychic abilities by crediting her canine partner Shiloh with the recoveries. But Kali knows the grim truth—The Sight that she inherited from her grandmother allows her to trace violent energy unerringly to victims of murder. No one knows her secret until a twisted killer challenges her to a deadly game of Hide’n Go Seek that threatens those closest to her.

Now she must rely on FBI Special Agent Grant Summers, a man who has sworn to protect her, even as he suspects there’s more to Kali and Shiloh than meets the eye.

As the killer draws a tighter and tighter circle around Kali, she and Grant find there’s no place to hide.

Medical intuitive and licensed MD Madeleine Wagner thought she’d seen every way possible to heal a diseased body…then patients start dying from mysterious causes in her long-term facility.

The terminally ill fight to get into her ward. Once there, many miraculously…live. So when her patients start dropping and she senses an evil force causing their deaths, she calls on her friend and mentor, Stefan, for help. Together, they delve beyond the physical plane into the metaphysical… Only to find terror.

She wants to save everyone, but are some souls not meant to be saved?

Detective Drew McNeil has two family members in need of Maddy’s healing care, but his visits to her facility leave him wondering – who cares for Maddy? Bizarre events on her floor raise his professional curiosity. And the more time he spends with Maddy, the more personal everything becomes. When the deaths on Maddy’s Floor intersect with one of his cold cases, he realizes an old killer has returned – and Maddy’s standing in his path.

How can these people stop something that no one else can see, feel or even believe?

(Book 1 of Second Chances…at Love)

Go ahead. Take Charge of your life. Move forward…if you can…

Changing her future means letting go of her past. Karina heads to a weekend seminar and discovers the speaker is the person she needs to move on from. But she soon realizes bigger issues are facing her…

Brian has moved on, at least he’d believed he had… until he sees Karina in his audience…and realizes he’s been lying to himself.

Passion pulls them together, love binds them together, but a revengeful enemy determines to keep the two apart…and destroy them both.

Dale Mayer is a prolific multi-published writer. She’s best known for her Psychic Visions series. Besides her romantic suspense/thrillers, Dale also writes paranormal romance and crossover young adult books in several different genres.

To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system.