AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Get the sled and meet me here. The rest of you,” Maddie said, “head back to the station. Let ops at Polardyne know that we found him.”
It was dusk by the time Nate arrived, pulling a sled behind his snowmobile. Eric was trailing behind him.
The two men worked in silence to transfer the body to the sled and tie it down. Afterward, Maddie rode behind Eric back to the station. The rest of the crew were standing outside when they arrived.
“What the hell happened out there?” Emily Raskin asked, walking up beside the sled as Eric and Nate removed the bungee cords from around Mateo’s body. Her gaze lingered over Mateo’s face. Her mouth trembled.
“Don’t know yet,” Maddie said, trying not to let her grief keep her from doing what needed to be done. “But we should check him out before we put him in the garage.” Heating in the garage kept the vehicles just warm enough that the engines didn’t freeze, but the back of the building was cool enough to store a body throughout the winter. A grisly contingency that had been planned for.
“Em,” Maddie said a little sharply to pull the woman’s attention away from her dead boyfriend, “clear the table and put down a tarp.” She didn’t have to say for what.
Darkness fell quickly. The outside floodlight popped on. Nate and Eric carried Mateo inside, others preceding them into the kitchen area to flip on lights. When Mateo lay on the table, Em gave a little sob and waved a hand in front of her face, her distress plain to see.
“You don’t have to be here,” Maddie said. She glanced around the group. “In fact, I only need Nate here since he’s our team medic. I’ll need someone to get a fresh set of clothes for Mateo. Leave it outside the door. The rest of you, please wait in the common area.” She turned to Eric. “I need you to find the body bag in our emergency supplies in the garage.”
Eric’s jaw tightened, but he gave Mateo’s body a quick glance, then gave her a nod and turned away.
When the kitchen emptied, she turned to Nate. “We’ll need to cut away his clothing, but we’ll bag it to preserve it. We do this by the book.”
Nate gave her a nod; his expression was grim.
Working silently, they began removing his clothing—first his jacket, then his knit cap.
Nate felt around his skull. “I don’t feel any lumps. He didn’t hit his head.” He bent over his face and spread his thawing eyelids. “What the fuck?” He backed away, then waved her over. “Have a look.”
Maddie bent over Mateo and forced down bile as she spread one eyelid. There were red spots on the white part of his eye. She frowned and shot Nate a glance.
Together, they cut away his jacket and T-shirt to expose his neck.
“He was fucking strangled,” Nate ground out.
As she stared at the thick band across the front of his neck, which rose to just beneath his ears, she shook her head. “This is unbelievable,” she whispered.
“What do we do?”
She frowned. “I’ll need to talk to Polardyne.”
He snorted. “They’ll say contingencies already exist.”
“For natural, unexpected deaths, not murders,” she hissed, not wanting the others to be alarmed just yet. Not until she was ready. She was in charge. She needed a plan. “I’ll use the satphone. Perhaps they’ll be able to get a helicopter out here to pick up the crew.”
“They’ve got millions tied up in the research, some of it coming from foreign governments. This is our last winter on the island. Do you think they’ll give that up?”
“We aren’t safe. Either one of us is responsible for this—”
“No way. Don’t forget what we found.”
“A groove,” she said, her mouth twisting. “We were invaded? Who’s going to buy that?”
“I’d rather believe it wasn’t one of us. We’re friends,” he said, his dark brown eyes growing glassy with tears.
“Is it okay if I come in?” Eric said from beyond the doorway.
Maddie shared a charged glance with Nate. “Yeah, come in. We need that bag.”
When Eric stepped inside, his gaze went straight to Mateo, and his eyes widened. He strode straight for the table and stared down. “Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” he whispered.
“Yeah,” Maddie said. “Mateo was murdered.”
