Ice Cold: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel by Tess Gerritsen Page B

next door. Doug dug in the snow for the handle and yanked up the bay door. It squealed open and they both froze, staring into the garage.
    A pickup truck was parked inside.
    Maura turned and looked across the street, where Arlo had just opened another garage door. “Hey, there’s a car in here!” Arlo yelled.
    “What the hell is going on?” murmured Doug. He ran through knee-deep drifts toward the next house and hauled open the garagedoor. Took one look at what was inside then plunged ahead, toward the next house.
    “Car in this garage, too!” Arlo called out.
    The wind screamed as though in pain, and a squall line raced toward them like white stallions kicking up snow. Maura blinked as the glittering cloud stung her face. Suddenly the wind fell still, leaving a strange, icy silence. She regarded the row of houses facing her, all their garage doors now gaping open.
    There was a vehicle inside each one.

I DON’T KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN IT,” SAID DOUG AS HE SCOOPED UP A shovelful of snow and flung it aside, clearing the space behind the Jeep so he could lay out the tire chains. “All I care about now is getting out of here.”
    “Doesn’t it bother you just a little? That we don’t know what happened to these people?”
    “Arlo, we have to
focus.”
Doug straightened, his face florid from exertion, and glanced up at the sky. “I want to be on that main road before it gets dark.”
    They had all been shoveling, and now they paused to rest, their faces cloaked in the steam from their breath. Maura eyed the winding road out of the valley. There were deep drifts in their way, and even if they did make it up to where they’d abandoned the Suburban, they still had another thirty-mile drive down the mountain. Thirty miles during which they could get stranded again.
    “We could also just stay right where we are,” said Maura.
    “And wait around to be rescued?” Doug snorted. “That’s no way out. I refuse to sit back and be passive.”
    “I’m supposed to fly back to Boston tonight. When I don’t show up, they’ll know something’s wrong. They’ll start searching for me.”
    “You said no one knows you came with us.”
    “The point is, they
will
be searching. We’ve got food and shelter right here. We can hold out as long as we need to. Why take the risk?”
    His face flushed an even deeper shade of red. “Maura, it’s my fault that we got into this mess. Now I’m going to get us out. Just trust me.”
    “I’m not saying I don’t trust you. I’m just pointing out the alternative to getting stuck on that road, where we may not find any shelter.”
    “The alternative? That we sit here and wait for God knows how long?”
    “At least we’re safe.”
    “Are we?” It was Arlo who asked the question. “I mean, I’m just throwing this out there for you all to think about, since I’m the only one who seems to be bothered by it. But this place. This
place …
” He looked around at the deserted houses and shuddered. “Something bad happened here. Something that I’m not sure is over with. I vote for getting the hell out, as soon as we can.”
    “So do I, Daddy,” said Grace.
    “Elaine?” said Doug.
    “Whatever you decide, Doug. I trust you.”
    That’s how we got into this mess in the first place, thought Maura. We all trusted Doug. But she was the outsider, overruled four to one, and nothing she could say would change the balance. And perhaps they were right. There
was
something wrong about this place; she could feel it. Old echoes of evil that seemed to whisper in the wind.
    Maura lifted her shovel again.
    With all of them working together, it took only a few more minutesto clear enough space behind the Jeep. Doug dragged over the clanking tire chains and laid them out behind the rear wheels.
    “Those look pretty banged up,” said Arlo, frowning at the rusted metal.
    “This is all we’ve got,” said Doug.
    “Some of those cross links are broken. Those chains may not make it.”
    “They