Ice Where There Was None Read online

  “And her house?”

  “That was just as weird as before. She inherited a decent sum a while ago and paid cash for the house. She set up an escrow to cover taxes and utilities, which were paid automatically. As far as we can tell, she hasn’t actually been there since you two dropped her off after her assault.”

  “Speaking of the assault,” the Captain continued, shaking his head as he said, “the guy disappeared.”

  Joe said, “But I thought she didn’t know who her attacker was.”

  “Well, turns out, he was caught doing the same thing over in Sanford. The ran his DNA through the system and Anna’s case was flagged. He was going to stand trial for both events but never made it.”

  “Never made it?” Ben asked.

  “Yeah, he disappeared while on bail. They thought he skipped town and a bondsman went after him, but no one found him. Now I’m thinking she took care of him. Probably won’t ever find him.”

  Patricia Obvari leaned down and kissed her husband’s head. “At least this whole thing is over.”

  “Yeah, I hope so …” the Captain said but his voice trailed off.

  Joe caught this and sat up a little in his seat. “You hope so?”

  The detective and the Captain shared a look before he continued. “We didn’t find the latest missing victim anywhere in her makeshift workshop. We don’t know where she is.”

  “Yeah,” the detective added. “And we found what looked like sleeping arrangements for three people.”

  “Three?” both Ben and Joe said simultaneously.

  “It looks like whoever the other two were had cleared out completely. We found her personal items: clothes, toiletries, etc., but nothing for the other two. It’s like whoever they were, they packed up and left before last night.”

  “Wait, you mean she had help?” Joe asked.

  * * *

  “I hope she is happy.”

  “Yeah, me, too.”

  “We owe her a lot.”

  “Yeah …”

  Two women sat in the front seat of a late model Ford F-150 as it traveled north on I-95. A sign for an exit to Fernandina Beach whizzed by on their right.

  After a few more miles, the passenger turned to the driver. “Did we do the right thing?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well,” the passenger said, looking at her hands as they fidgeted with a piece of leather from a small roll next to her. A piece of gleaming steel with a sharp edge poked out of the roll which pricked her finger, welling up a small, bright drop of blood. She exhibited no notice if it was painful, simply wiped it on her T-shirt printed with ‘Whilhelm Taxidermy and Processing, Asheville, North Carolina’ across the chest. “We taught her so much. She taught us so much.”

  “Right,” the driver agreed.

  “Well,” the passenger said again, “are you sure we shouldn’t have stayed? You know, to help her with the last one? No one is going to take her out to show off. Like the others. So she could be seen.”

  The driver nodded. “Yeah, I asked her the same thing. She said no, that this was just to be private. I think she just wanted it to happen, not let everyone see.”

  This seemed to mollify the passenger. She spent the next few minutes staring out the side window in silence.

  “Besides,” the driver said, breaking the silence. “We’ve got one of our own now. She wanted us to have her.”

  They pulled a small trailer behind them, a cooling unit on top sputtering out water in drips along the road.

  Thank You for Reading!

  I have enjoyed the exercise of writing a serial thriller so much that I have continued with a new story in the newsletter, with an additional thriller on Channillo (www.channillo.com). Both are released monthly and will carry on through the year.

  Also, I hope you have enjoyed the world of Joe and Ben because there is more coming! Releasing soon will be a stand-alone novel, Smite, that takes you a few years beyond this story to a time of a crime family, assassins, FBI, and so much more. Look for the release announcement soon!

  Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter, if you haven’t already, to stay up to date on the latest releases and news. Also, check out the website for some extra shorts to tide you over until the next release.

  asmackenzie.com

  About the Author

  A. S. MacKenzie is the author of several short stories, serials, and soon-to-be released books. When he’s not traveling for work to all points of the globe, you can find him online at www.asmackenzie.com, on Instagram at @a.s.mackenzie, and on Twitter @a_s_mackenzie. You can also email him at [email protected]. He’d love to hear from you!

  Copyright © 2018 by A. S. MacKenzie

  All rights reserved.

  First published in the United States in 2018 by A. S. MacKenzie

  * * *

  All characters and places in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual places or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2018 by A. S. MacKenzie All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America

  A. S. MacKenzie Atlanta, GA

  www.asmackenzie.com