Frozen Stiff Read Online Free PDF

needed, but he wasn’t sure he really felt.
    A few feet away, his daughter was lying still as a statue, white as a ghost. His lively daughter, who never stopped moving.
    “I have to go home and then go to work for a few hours. You’ll stay here?” It wasn’t really a question.
    “Are you sure you want to go to work? I don’t think you need to. Anyone would understand.”
    She sighed. “I think I better.” She looked over at her daughter. “We’re going to need the money more than ever.”
    “Yes,” he said. He knew he had to stay with his daughter even though it was the last place he wanted to be. Seeing Bonnie so absolutely still ripped him up.
    “Call me. I’ll have the cell. Call me if anything happens.”
    “Of course.”
    Sara leaned next to him and he could feel her shoulders shaking. She whispered, “Poor baby doesn’t even have a name.”
    1:30 pm
    Sitting on the hard chairs in the waiting room, Claire went over what she knew about what had happened to Daniel Walker. She thought back to what she had seen when she first got to the Walker’s house—a naked man curled up in a ball out about five yards away from the house, his face uncovered and the side of his body blue in the cold air. The snow had been cleared away all around him, as if an animal had gone after him.
    She turned to Amy, who was slumped into the chair next to her, and asked quietly, “Did you clear the snow away from him?”
    Amy nodded toward Sherri who was sitting across from them in the waiting room, holding a magazine, but staring off into space. “By the time I got there, she had tried to dig him out.”
    “Why didn’t she know he was locked out earlier?”
    “From what I can gather, Sherri wasn’t there last night. She claims she got to the house this morning and found him out in the snow, just like that, then she tried to get him out. She called the office, but somehow Tanya didn’t realize what was going on, how serious this was.”
    “It looks like it was probably an accident,” Claire said. “Poor guy wandered out into the snow after drinking too much?”
    “Well, that’s what’s really weird. Sherri told me that the dead bolt was locked, which can only be done from the inside.”
    “Really?”
    “That’s what she said.”
    “Do you believe her?”
    Amy glanced over at Sherri, then shrugged. “Why would she lie about that? Why not make us think it was an accident?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Claire looked over at Sherri, studying her. She guessed her to be in her late thirties, but very well kept up, all the latest products. Sherri was very dressed up for so early in the day. Claire could see smudges under her eyes, but other than that her makeup was perfect. A light blue cashmere sweater fit her to a T and white wool pants had a perfect crease down the front of each leg.
    Claire walked over and sat down next to Sherri. “How’re you doing?”
    “I can’t believe this is happening to me. It’s just impossible. How could Dan let this happen?”
    “What an awful thing to find. What do you think happened?”
    Sherri shook her head. “I can’t think. It’s so unreal. When I got there I didn’t know where he was.”
    “Why weren’t you at the house last night? Where were you?”
    “At our house in town. Dan and I, well, we’re separated. I called him yesterday and said I wanted to come out to get a few things from the house. He knew I was coming. I hoped we would talk.”
    “Did you notice anything out of the ordinary when you first got there?”
    “Not really. The house was so quiet, I wasn’t even sure he was there. The bed hadn’t been slept in. When I went downstairs, the sauna was still on. That scared me. Why would he have left it on? That wasn’t like Dan. He was careful. Then I looked outside.At first he was completely covered with snow. Then the wind blew and...” Sherri’s eyes grew larger, then filled with tears. “What if I wouldn’t have seen him? What if he was still