Ice Cold: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

Except for the murmur of the TV, its volume turned low, the ICU visitors’ lounge was quiet.
    “There’s something all wrong about what happened up there,” Maura said. “Something that doesn’t make any sense. Why was he so determined to kill us?” She looked up, and Jane scarcely recognized her friend in that gaunt and bruised face. Maura’s usually flawless skin was marred by scratches that were now scabbing over. The new sweater she wore hung far too loose on her frame, and her collarbones stood out on the pitifully thin chest. Without her stylishclothes, her makeup, Maura looked as vulnerable as any other woman, and that unsettled Jane. If even cool, confident Maura Isles could be reduced to this battered creature, then so could anyone.
Even me
.
    “A deputy was killed,” said Jane. “You know how things turn out whenever a cop goes down. Justice gets a little rough.” Again she glanced at her husband, waiting for him to comment, but Gabriel just stared in silence at the glitteringly clear morning. Although he’d shaved and showered after his return from the mountain, he still looked exhausted and wind-burned, tired eyes squinting against the sunlight.
    “No, he showed up there
intending
to kill us,” said Maura. “Just like that deputy did, on Doyle Mountain. I think this is all about Kingdom Come. And what I wasn’t supposed to see there.”
    “Well, we now know what that was,” said Jane.
    The day before, the last of forty-one bodies had been recovered from the burial pit. Twelve men, nineteen women, and ten children—most of them girls. The majority showed no signs of trauma, but Maura had seen enough in Kingdom Come to know the victims had surely been force-marched to their graves. The blood on the stairs, the abandoned meals, the pets left behind to starve—all pointed to mass murder.
    “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