The Lady Killer by Paizley Stone Read Free Book Online Page A

clue got left behind. They found a padlocked walk-in freezer and noticed that it appeared to be running. That seemed peculiar in an abandoned building, so they got bolt cutters and opened it up. They found a second body in the freezer!”
    Laura couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “A second body, you have to be joking, right?”
    Dan shook his head apologetically. “No, I wish I was. It’s the same guy, the bodies are staged the same. The one out in the warehouse is exactly like the ones we’ve seen before, but the one in the freezer looks like she died from being frozen, not by asphyxiation. We’ll have to get a final word from Dr. Foote on that, but there’s no tape on the mouth and the nostrils are open. Other than that, she had been tortured the same way as the others. The one in the warehouse has a women’s designer suit under the body. We don’t know if those are her clothes, or just one of his signs that he leaves behind. There’s no underwear lying around, so I’m thinking the suit is a plant. The one in the freezer has a small dog under her body. There are cigarette butts in proximity to both bodies but not the same brand.”
    Detective Burns thanked Murphy for his good analysis and then turned to Laura. “Are you okay, Peterson? You look like you’re about to pass out.”
    She was standing there just staring at the wall. “No, I’m alright, Burns. I’m just trying to process all of this in my mind. There are two crime scenes in the same building. The previous one had two bodies, but not by choice, because it looked like the guard surprised him. But this was planned this way. Murphy, do we have ID’s on these women?”
    “Yes, both their purses have been left at the scenes, like all the rest. I phoned them in to see if we could get some kind of hit on them, and you’re not going to believe what I found.”
    “Should I be sitting down?”
    “Maybe, the one in the freezer was reported missing seven months ago!”
    A look of total disbelief came over her face. “So, the one in the freezer must have been his first victim, which means the one out in the warehouse is number eight, instead of seven?”
    Dan shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, that’s the way I’m seeing it. The warehouse one is pretty fresh, so she was probably killed last night. Considering the freezer woman has been missing seven months, she was probably killed right away in that freezer and just preserved.”
    “That means that he is either very brazen or upset that his first victim wasn’t found. Maybe he had to stage a second one here, so that we would look around and find the first.”
    Dan shook his head. “What bothers me is, if he wanted her found, why padlock the door? Why not leave it open for someone to find her?”
    She was impressed with his reasoning. “Good point, Murphy, where did Burns go?”
    “I saw him go over and talk to the two people who found the scene. I think he sent them home. Then he went inside the building with Dr. Foote when he arrived. Do you want to go have a look?”
    The thought of facing another gruesome crime scene made her cringe. She had a hard time dealing with this man’s brutality toward women. “Not really, but it’s my job.”
    They walked through the front door and looked around at what appeared to have been some kind of deli type store front. Through the back, they entered the warehouse and saw the first victim. The suit, which was laid out beneath the body, was on hangers and looked brand new. Laura picked up the sleeve with her pen to find a tag hidden there. She raised her eyebrows when she saw the extravagant price. “So, this is just a sign like all the rest. What is this guy trying to tell us? He must be sending a message of some kind.”
    She walked over to the freezer and met Ralph on his way out. He was dressed in a parka. “If you’re going in there, don’t stay too long. It’s literally freezing in there. In fact, it’s well below freezing. I sent someone to