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  Blood Runs Cold

  ( Ren Bryce - 1 )

  Alex Barclay

  Kindap and murder collide in Alex Barclay’s heart-stopping new thriller featuring FBI Agent Ren Bryce.When an FBI agent is found dead on the white slopes of Quandary Peak in Colorado, a brilliant but volatile agent is drafted in from Denver to lead the investigation. Fighting personal demons, pressure from Washington and dwindling leads, the case stalls and a career faltersBut as summer comes, Quandary Peak has disturbing new secrets to give up. And as one agent fights failure and hopelessness, another has left behind a trail that leads to a man with a dark past and even darker intentions.

  ALEX BARCLAY

  Blood Runs Cold

  For Sue Booth-Forbes

  Prologue

  In the lights of the police cruisers, her face was a strobing image of pain and fear. But she was still, to the child in her arms, a haven. She ran as fast as her violated body would allow, pressing his head to her cheek, his hair soaking up their sweat, blood, spit, tears. A terrible, ruined stench rose from them in the damp heat.

  She staggered on, flinching at the stones and branches underfoot, her shoes long lost, too beautiful for the night. The trees swayed toward them and away, and when they gave enough shelter, she stopped. She prised the tiny hands from around her neck, breaking the dead-man’s grip of a seven-year-old boy. She tried to smile as she lowered him to the ground. Black pinpricks of gravel shone from her lips.

  ‘Do not make a sound,’ she said. ‘Not a sound.’ Her voice was edged in nicotine.

  The boy quickly clamped his arms around her legs. She shoved him sharply backwards, away from her wounds. He fell hard. She watched without feeling. He got up and moved toward her again, tears streaming down his face.

  ‘No,’ she hissed, shaking her head. ‘No.’

  She crouched down. ‘You have to hide, OK?’ She pointed to the scrub close by. ‘Go. I’ll be right here.’ She squeezed his hand as she released it.

  He did as she said. She moved a few steps forward into a clearing, cracking the forest floor. Her face was in darkness. But in the faint glow of a flashlight, relief swept over her features; a picture, flashing like a warning.

  The man walked from the trees. He looked at his wife – bloodied and soiled, her hand gripping her ripped-open blouse in what dignity she could find. She slumped against him, the sounds she made raw and disturbing.

  The little boy watched.

  As I was walking up the stair

  I met a man who wasn’t there

  He wasn’t there again today

  I wish, I wish he’d stay away

  ‘Mira, Domenica,’ said the man. Look.

  Domenica turned to where she had run from. Beyond the trees, a fire raged and smoke filled the sky. She was transfixed.

  ‘Hellfire,’ she said.

  But her eyes shone with something more than flames.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Part One

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Chapter Forty-four

  Chapter Forty-five

  Chapter Forty-six

  Part Two

  Chapter Forty-seven

  Chapter Forty-eight

  Chapter Forty-nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-one

  Chapter Fifty-two

  Chapter Fifty-three

  Chapter Fifty-four

  Chapter Fifty-five

  Chapter Fifty-six

  Chapter Fifty-seven

  Chapter Fifty-eight

  Chapter Fifty-nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Chapter Sixty-one

  Chapter Sixty-two

  Chapter Sixty-three

  Chapter Sixty-four

  Chapter Sixty-five

  Chapter Sixty-six

  Chapter Sixty-seven

  Chapter Sixty-eight

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Alex Barclay

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  PART ONE

  1

  Rifle, Colorado

  Jean Transom woke to the glow of her desk lamp and the feeling that someone had laid a trail of explosives under her world while she slept. Two work files lay in front of her – brown manila folders, the pages inside clean, neat and annotated. The top file held no photographs, but was open on a drawing – a basic floor plan, the benign geometry of rectangles and circles and squares coming together on a page to represent a space that had been so malignant. Jean inhaled deeply, but what followed was a broken breath. She pressed her hands on the desk and stood up.

  She took a shower, rubbing a bar of soap briskly over her body under the hot jets. She dressed in a white shirt, tan tapered pants and soft leather shoes.

  ‘Come here, baby,’ she said, smiling as she walked into the kitchen. She hunkered down and reached out a hand. ‘Come here, McGraw, you sweet little boy.’

  The shiny black cat stared her down.

  ‘That’s why it’s called a catwalk, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘You know how to move, don’t you? And you know how to look at me like you are fabulous and I am not. But I can be fabulous, you’d be surprised to hear. Yes I can.’ She laughed as he turned his back, raised his tail, and made his way slowly to his bed in the corner.

  ‘Lazy, baby,’ said Jean. ‘I have a lazy man living in my house. And if you’re not going to talk to me …’ She reached over and turned on her old black stereo. For a few seconds, Jean Transom sang along to the music, gently and off-key.

  She ate her breakfast – oatmeal, honey and fruit. She filled the dishwasher, wiped down the counters and folded the tea towel by the sink.

  As she walked out of the kitchen, carrying a cup of decaf back to her office, pain and sorrow swelled again inside her. Everyone is born with places to hide secrets; mind, heart and body. A family can spread the burden along the branches of its trees; some shatter in the storm, others survive the most relentless assaults.

  She sat down at her desk and stared at the diagram – years old, preserved in plastic, drawn in blues and greens by a child’s determined hand. It was a diagram that Jean Transom could trust, a child she knew had screamed in the night with the visions. She put it in her work file and went into the hallway.

  Her hand shook as s
he picked up her purse and pulled out her FBI creds. She snapped them on to the right inside breast pocket of her jacket and walked out the door.

  Golden, Colorado

  Ren Bryce woke to white porcelain and the feeling that someone had laid her free weights on her head while she slept. She reached a hand up to take them away, but her knuckles hit the underside of the toilet bowl. She opened her eyes wider and saw splashes of what had surged from her stomach at four a.m. Red wine. She rolled on to her back. Her blue dress, beautiful and complimented twelve hours earlier, was open to the waist, limp and stained. She turned her head slowly and saw her stockings in the corner by the toilet brush. She closed her eyes again.

  She dragged herself slowly upright and was soon hanging over the bowl, heaving nothing, but hit with the smell of her previous efforts. She retched until silver stars burst before her eyes. She hauled herself standing and turned on the shower, spending ten minutes washing her hair and body with six different products.

  From her bedroom, her iPod alarm exploded full volume with Dropkick Murphys.

  Let’s finish these drinks and be gone for the night Cos I’m more than a handful you’ll see So kiss me, I’m shitfaced …

  Ren jumped from the shower and ran naked to turn down the volume. She dried herself with a towel from the floor, then threw on pink lace boy shorts, a matching bra, a black fitted shirt, black bootleg pants and black heels. She walked past her dressing table, a wave of nausea sweeping over her at the thought of makeup. But she gave in. Her day was already going to be bad.

  She grabbed a clip with one hand, twisted her wet hair with the other and pinned it up. She sat down at the mirror and moisturized in slow motion. Her face was a blank canvas; dark skin, pale green eyes, high cheekbones. Somewhere in her past, there was Iroquois blood. She dragged her makeup toward her and applied a calm surface to the choppy waters.

  Vincent was downstairs on the sofa reading the paper.

  ‘Hi,’ said Ren.

  ‘Appropriate song choice.’ His voice was flat.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Sorry about the volume.’

  ‘The volume?’ said Vincent, looking up.

  Ren stared at him from across the room.

  ‘Is that it?’ he said.

  ‘Is what it?’ said Ren.

  ‘Have you nothing to say for yourself?’

  Ren kept walking into the kitchen. She poured a mug of black coffee.

  Vincent came in behind her. ‘Can you explain your behavior at least?’

  ‘OK,’ said Ren, turning around, ‘you’ve just used three sentences – in a row – that my mom used to say to me when I was, like, seventeen.’

  ‘Stop with the whole mom thing.’

  ‘Yeah, well, it’s true. That’s what you sound like. I’m sick of listening to you treat me –’

  ‘No, no, no. I’m sick. Of all of this.’

  Ren opened her mouth.

  ‘Listen to yourself,’ said Vincent. ‘You are thirty-six years old and you sound like a child.’

  ‘Fuck you,’ said Ren.

  Vincent held up his finger. ‘I can’t do this any more,’ he said. ‘You were way out of line last night.’

  Ren put her hands to her ears. ‘Shut up. I don’t want to know.’

  He pulled her hands gently away. ‘I know you don’t. But you went ballistic.’ He shook his head. ‘I tried everything.’

  Ren remembered the start of the evening, her nice dress, her perfect makeup, her pinned-back hair, Vincent’s smile when he saw her walk down the stairs.

  ‘Did you see a work file around here anywhere?’ she said. ‘Did you tidy anything away?’

  ‘No, I didn’t.’

  ‘Shit.’ She put her mug down and strode around the living room, opening drawers and lifting up cushions. ‘Shit.’

  ‘It’s not there, OK? I cleaned the entire place this morning. Can we talk about last night?’ He was close to grabbing her wrist.

  Ren glanced at her watch. ‘Shit. Sorry. I just don’t have the time.’

  ‘Tonight?’ she called after her as she ran into the hall.

  ‘No,’ said Vincent, following her. ‘No.’

  ‘OK. What did I do last night?’ she said, turning to him. ‘Tell me.’

  ‘It was more what you said.’

  ‘I was drunk. It doesn’t count.’

  ‘Yes it does,’ said Vincent.

  ‘Jesus, why can’t you just get that I say things I don’t mean when I’m drunk?’

  ‘Because it hurts, Ren. It fucking hurts, OK?’

  ‘But if you know what I’m saying is not true, how can it hurt you? I mean, that’s like me getting offended because you call me, I don’t know … something I’m totally not.’

  ‘Great, Ren. We’ve been over this before. You have a very simple way of looking at it. You think you can say what you like to me and I’ll be fine. But what happens is you totally hook me into your bullshit. You are so convincing. The way you say everything, I believe you. It’s like every time, you’re having an epiphany.’

  ‘Well, if you know it’s every time, why don’t you ignore it?’

  ‘For Christ’s sake, Ren, that’s just not how it works. Do you even remember what you said to me last night?’

  Ren said nothing.

  ‘Well, at least I’m seeing the glow of pre-emptive shame,’ said Vincent.

  ‘That’s mean.’

  ‘Try this for mean: “Vincent, you’re dull is your problem. You’re conservative and stifling. You want me to be someone else. You can’t accept who I am. You stand there, you righteous prick, and try and tell me what to do? Fuck you, Vince. Fuck you, because you have no idea how to live. None. You court the sameness of life because it is safe. And you like safe.” All this, Ren, because I refused to buy the drunken lady here another vodka.’

  Ren paused. ‘Well, it’s not like you are the most spontaneous guy in the world.’

  ‘Oh my God,’ said Vincent. ‘See? This is what I mean! This is why I believe you! Because in all sobriety, however many hours later, even you find the truth in what you were saying. At the same time as trying to claim you were drunk and senseless.’

  ‘I was senseless.’

  ‘What, but now you see the merit in your ramblings? Oh God, how many times have I had this conversation with you? It is so fucking painful.’ He stabbed a finger her way. ‘This is dull, Ren. This. You accuse me of being dull –’

  ‘Get some perspective –’

  ‘Me? Me? Jesus Christ. That’s it. I’ve had it. I cannot do this any more. I can’t. I give up.’

  ‘What do you mean, you give up?’

  ‘Exactly that. I’m out of here. I’ve had too much of Ren Noir.’

  She tried to smile. ‘You like Ren Noir. She keeps things interesting.’

  ‘Right now? I think she’s a bitch.’

  Tears welled in Ren’s eyes.

  ‘And,’ said Vincent, ‘I’m all out of sympathy.’ He walked up to her and kissed her on the head. ‘Look after yourself. I won’t be here when you get home.’

  Ren stared at his back as he walked away through the living room. Fuck him.

  Her hand shook as she picked up her purse and pulled out her FBI creds. She snapped them on to the right inside breast pocket of her jacket and walked out the door.

  2

  Breckenridge, Colorado

  Downstairs at Eric’s was dark, packed and loud. The hallway was filled with kids in snow boots and giant parkas pounding pinball machines. By the entrance to the restaurant, two groups of schoolgirls stood hanging from each others’ shoulders, waiting for a table. Half of them were Abercrombied, the other half Fitched. Inside, skinny blondes too old for braids leaned against the wall by the kitchen, flashing the restaurant logo on the backs of their T-shirts: Downstairs at Eric’s: Because Everywhere Else Just Sucks.

  Sheriff Bob Gage sat with a beer in one hand and a clean fork in the other.

  ‘Damn, where is my pizza?’

  ‘O
n a little yellow piece of paper,’ said Mike Delaney.

  ‘Hours from registering on my weighing scales.’

  Mike rolled his eyes. ‘Can forty-six-year-old men be body dysmorphic?’

  ‘If I knew what that was, I’d love to tell you,’ said Bob.

  ‘You know – when you see yourself different to how everyone else sees you. Like you, for example, think you’re fatter than you actually are.’

  ‘Really? Are you kidding me?’

  ‘No,’ said Mike. ‘You’re a reasonably tall guy, Bob. You can carry a few extra pounds.’

  Bob gave him a side-glance. Mike used to be a tanned, blond ski bum. Now, at thirty-eight, he was a tanned, blond, ski-bum Undersheriff, his eyes always a little red, his skin a little burnt, his lips pale from sunblock. Bob had choirboy styling – polished skin, neat side-parted brown hair, conservative clothes – but it couldn’t quite hide the crazy. Most women were attracted to both of them, for different reasons.

  The first night they worked together, they’d gone on a domestic violence call-out and the woman had told them she’d like to be ‘wined and dined with you, Sheriff, so’s you could laugh me right into bed with your pal, blondie, here.’ Bob had looked at her and said, ‘Didn’t Blondie sing “I’m gonna getcha”? Yeah, well, gotcha! And probably gotcha for another twenty years for beating the shit out of that poor husband of yours.’ She had looked at him and said, ‘I would never lay a finger on you, cutie. Can you smell my breath? It’s Wintergreen. Winter in my mouth, but summer in my heart.’