Ice Lake Read Online Free PDF

the hole. He’s still alive. He wasn’t shot through the head or heart. He’s still breathing and will be for a while longer. Why does his assailant not fire a second round? The first was no accident. Execution-style, remember. Has there been any sign of a second wound?”
“We won’t know until we get him out of the hole. On first examination, no.”
“For now, let’s say there was one shot. Why only one? Because he needed noise to cover the sound, perhaps? Three or four snowmobiles are roaring towards his cabin—”
“Not the cabin where we found the body?” Painchaud wanted to verify.
“Some other one. I saw no sign that he was shot there. Now, snowmobiles are roaring up, and the killer entices or tricks the victim to check the ice-hole. Maybe to pull up a line, clear ice, something like that. The victim gets down on his knees and pulls up a fishing line. The killer takes out his pistol. The snowmobilesare roaring by, and when the sound is loudest the victim feels the pistol on his hair and jerks slightly. Pop! The killer fires. The head of the victim collapses into the water, but he’s not dead. He’s not able to save himself—he will drown there or bleed to death—but he’s not dead. The killer cannot fire again—”
“—because the snowmobiles have moved on.”
“Exactly. He’s not sure what to do. His victim is thrashing around. Should he shoot him again? No. Let him drown? Either his head is underwater or it’s just above the surface. Maybe he lifts him by the feet and pushes him down. Maybe he plants a boot on the back of the man’s head. But he keeps him in the water. Only after he’s been in the water awhile, and is quite dead, does he lift him up.”
“Why?” Bill Mathers asked.
Cinq-Mars shakes a finger in the air. “The killer is not done with the corpse. We know this because the corpse freezes on land, not in the water. Water does not turn to ice when it enters a warm body. But water turns to ice when it freezes in a dead body left out in the cold. Perhaps the dead man remains in the hut with no heat, and overnight the water in his face, throat and lungs freezes and expands. Some drains off him and crystallizes in his long hair. Perhaps he’s carried on a Ski-Doo sled across the lake and in the forty-below temperature freezes stiff. The thing is, before he is put back in the water, he freezes above ground. That’s key. That’s important.”
Painchaud nodded thoughtfully. “So my men should be checking ice-holes for signs of blood and tissue.”
“Not only here,” Cinq-Mars admonished him, “but all around the lake. As soon as possible.”
“Why do you think the victim was not shoved into the hole right away?”
“Good question, Painchaud. You must have your thinking cap on.”
“Actually, Sergeant-Detective, some of us in the SQ, have brains, contrary to the perception of our friends in the MUCPD.”
Cinq-Mars chuckled. “Touché, my friend. Possibly, the victim did not fit into the hole, just as he does not fit the hole where he was found. The killer may have left him to go and find tools to open the ice. More likely, the killer might not have wanted him to be found where he was shot. I doubt that he would know to rely upon a current. He might not have expected him to be found until spring, and when he was, he wanted it to be as far away from the scene of the crime as possible. Or perhaps, and this is a long shot, the killer had specific reasons for having the victim found where he was. I’d want to make sure there was nothing keeping the victim in place, other than the fishing line tied to the stove, which Bill put on him. We must at least entertain the notion that he was deliberately left to be found where he was found.”
“But how?”
“That’s another good question,” Cinq-Mars acknowledged, but he did not suggest an answer.
Painchaud jumped up from his seat. “I’ll get on that right away. I hope it’s not too late.”
“Very good, Sergeant. Good luck with