Ice Cold: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

to live.
    She scrambled onto the road and stood waiting for her rescuers. Feeling the sun on her face, the joy coursing through her veins. Hereis where it all turns out right, she thought. Here is where the nightmare ends.
    Then, through the approaching rumble of the plow, she heard the soft crunch of weight settling onto snow. The sound came from just behind her. She sucked in a startled breath, and it rushed into her lungs like a cold wind. Only then did she see the shadow moving in to engulf hers.
    The watcher in the woods. He’s here
.

J ANE FOUND D ANIEL B ROPHY HUNCHED IN A BOOTH IN THE HOTEL’S empty cocktail lounge. He did not look up at her, but kept his gaze on the table, clearly signaling that he wanted to be alone.
    She sat down anyway. “We missed you at lunch,” she said. “Did you get something to eat?”
    “I’m not hungry.”
    “I’m still waiting to hear back from Queenan. But I don’t think he has anything new to tell us today.”
    He nodded, still not looking at her. Still giving off signals of
Go away. I don’t want to talk
. Even in the forgiving gloom of the lounge, he looked visibly older. Weary and beaten down.
    “Daniel,” she said. “I’m not going to give up. And neither should you.”
    “We’ve driven through five counties,” he said. “Talked on the air with six radio stations. Watched every minute of those surveillance videos.”
    “There could be something we missed. Something we’ll spot if we watch them again.”
    “She looked happy in those videos. Didn’t she?” He raised his head and she saw torment in his eyes. “She looked happy with that man.”
    After a silence, Jane admitted: “Yeah. She did.”
    The surveillance cameras had caught several glimpses of Maura and the blond man in the lobby. But the views had been fleeting, each time only a few seconds at the most, and then she’d slipped out of sight. It was like watching a ghost, viewing those images on the monitor. A phantom reliving her last moments on earth again and again.
    “We don’t know what any of it means,” Jane said. “He could be an old acquaintance.”
    “Someone who made her smile.”
    “This was a medical conference. A bunch of pathologists who probably knew each other. Maybe he had nothing to do with why she went missing.”
    “Or maybe Queenan’s right. And they’re holed up together in some hotel right now, having hot, crazy …” He stopped.
    “At least it would mean she’s alive.”
    “Yes. It would mean that.”
    They both fell silent. It was only three PM, too early for cocktails. Except for a bartender stacking glasses behind the counter, they were the only ones in the gloomy lounge.
    “If she did go off with another man,” said Jane quietly, “you can understand why it might happen.”
    “I blame myself,” he said. “For not being that man. And I can’t help wondering …”
    “What?”
    “If she flew out here with plans to meet him.”
    “Do you have any reason to think that?”
    “Look at the way they smiled at each other. How comfortable they seemed.”
    “They might be old friends.”
Or old lovers
was what she didn’t say. She didn’t need to; that thought must be tormenting him as well. “These are just theories, based on nothing,” she said. “All we have is the video of her going out to dinner with him. Meeting him in the lobby.”
    “And smiling.” Pain darkened his eyes. “I couldn’t do that for her. I couldn’t give her what she needed.”
    “What she needs now is for us not to give up hope. To keep looking for her. I’m not going to give up.”
    “Tell me the truth.” He met her gaze. “You’ve been a homicide cop long enough to know. What do your instincts tell you?”
    “Instincts can be wrong.”
    “If she weren’t a friend, if this was just another missing persons case, what would you be thinking right now?”
    She hesitated, and the only sound in the lounge was the clink of glassware as the bartender tidied up behind the counter, prepping for the upcoming cocktail hour.
    “After this much time?” She shook her head. “I’d be forced to consider the worst.”
    He didn’t seem surprised by her answer. By now he would have reached the same conclusion.
    Her cell phone rang and they both froze. She glanced at the number. Queenan. As soon as she heard his voice on the line, she knew this was not a call that he wanted to be making. Nor a call that she wanted to receive.
    “I’m sorry to have to break the news,”