Read Frozen Stiff for Free Online

something or we’re going to lose him for sure.”
    Claire was also surprised by how forthcoming the doctor was with how dire the situation was. But Claire was often surprised at what people would tell a uniformed cop—they must feel comfortable speaking openly with such an authority figure, plus she was old enough to be the young doctor’s mother.
    “How long will it take?”
    “Hours.” With that comment, Dr. Cornwall turned and left.
    A few minutes later, Amy and Sherri appeared. Claire filled them in on what the doctor had said, then watched Sherri sink into the chair next to her, her hand rising to her eyes. “It’s going to be some time here, Amy. I’ll stay here with Sherri. Why don’t you go back over to the house and start checking around to see what you can see?”
    “Do you want me to get anyone else over there to take photos?”
    “Not yet. As long as we’ve got it secured. I’ll stay with Sherri. I’d rather have just one person in the house at the moment. There’ll be time soon enough to bring in the boys.”
    After Amy left, Claire turned to Sherri, “How’re you doing?”
    Sherri shook her head. “That sounds awful. Cutting him open. Do they have to do that? What does this mean? Did she tell you if he was going to make it?”
    “Dr. Cornwall seemed to feel this was the best chance of bringing him back safely.”
    Claire didn’t add, if anything could. It was not her job to squelch hope in the victim’s family. But she couldn’t help remembering the line she had once heard about persons suffering from hypothermia: “They’re not dead until they’re warm and dead.”
    2:30 pm
    Meg lounged on her bed, listening to her music, drawing a picture of a snowflake. She liked playing with the patterns that they made, symmetrical. So you just had to figure out a fourth of it and then replicate it. A beautiful puzzle.
    Her cell phone was resting on the bed next to her. No phone calls, no messages. Usually Curt checked in, even if it was about nothing. She hated being so aware of him, of how he was treating her. She wished she felt more sure of herself, that she didn’t care so much about him. Or that she wasn’t worried about them.
    Them. They had been a them for over a year now. She liked being a them: meeting at school, Curt would always be waiting for her to get off the bus, having lunch together, he would give her his chips and she would split her sandwich, walking down to the lake and skidding rocks out on the ice, seeing who couldget one to glide the farthest and checking in a few times a day when they were apart. But lately things weren’t quite the same—Curt had changed.
    Where was her good old boyfriend Curt? What had Andy Hindquist done with him?
    At first she had been glad when Andy and Curt had started to hang out. Curt seemed happier, more involved in things. Andy had all the latest electronic toys and Curt was so excited about playing with them. Curt’s family wouldn’t waste their money on them, nor did they allow those violent games in their house. At first Meg had thought that was such a rigid way of looking at videogames, but now she was starting to agree with it.
    Since Curt had started playing videogames, it was all he wanted to do. He was obsessed with them. All he wanted to do anymore was go over to Andy’s and play them. He didn’t mind if Meg came along and for a while she had, but she didn’t like playing the games and there was nothing else for her to do. She would sit and watch Curt turn into someone she didn’t know and she wasn’t sure she liked.
    Maybe she should just call him and ask him to go to a movie with her. She loved watching movies with him—they would sit really close to the movie screen, hunker down in the seats, hold hands, eat candy and popcorn, and then afterwards, dissect everything about the movie.
    Meg felt hesitant to call him, like she was chasing him, but that was so stupid because she always called him. At least as often as he called