Winter Prey by John Sandford

Author:John Sandford [Sandford, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Adult
ISBN: 9780425231067
Amazon: 0425231062
Goodreads: 37304
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 1993-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Lucas and Climpt rode to the Schoeneckers’ house in Lucas’ truck, hoping that it’d be less noticeable than a sheriff’s van. “So what do you know about these people?” Lucas asked on the way over.

“They’re private and quiet,” Climpt said. “Andy’s a bookkeeper, handles businesses in town. Judy stays home. They been here for twenty years, must be—come from over in Vilas County, I guess. You just never see them unless you see Andy going in or out of his office. They don’t socialize that I know of. I don’t know if they’re church people, but I don’t think so. Here, that’s their driveway.”

“Private house, too,” Lucas said.

The Schoeneckers lived on an acreage at the north end of town, in a neat yellow rambler with blue trim. The lawn was heavily landscaped, dotted with clusters of blue spruce that effectively sheltered the house from both wind and eyesight. Lucas drove up to the garage and parked.

An inch of unbroken snow lay in the driveway.

“I got a bad feeling about this,” Climpt said. “Nobody going in or out.”

Lucas scuffed the snow with his boot. “They cleared it off after the last storm. This is all blown in.”

“Yeah. Where are they?”

They went to the front door and Lucas rang the bell. He rang it twice more, but the house felt empty. “Got good locks,” Climpt said, looking at the inner door through the glass of the storm door.

“Let’s try the back, see if there’s a door on the garage,” Lucas suggested. “They’re usually easier.”

They followed a snow-blown sidewalk around to the back. The locks on the back door were the same as on the front. Climpt tried the knob, rattled it, put his weight against the door. It didn’t budge. “Gonna have to break it,” he said. “Let me get the bar.”

“Hang on a second,” Lucas said. A power outlet with a steel cover was set into the garage wall, just at light-switch height. Lucas lifted the cover, looked inside. Nothing. A post lantern with a yellow bug light sat at the corner of a back deck. He waded through thigh-deep snow to get to it, looked into the four-sided lantern, then lifted one of the glass elements, fished around, and came up with a key.

“Fuckin’ rural-ass hayshakers,” he said, grinning at Climpt.

The key worked on the door into the garage. The door between the garage and the house was unlocked. Lucas led the way in, found the inside of the Schoeneckers’ house almost as cold as the outside. They walked through quickly, checking each room.

“Gone,” Lucas said from the master bedroom. The closets and dressers were half-empty. A stack of wire hangers lay on the king-sized bed in the master bedroom. “Packed up.”

“And not coming back in a hurry, either,” Climpt said from down the hall. “Look at this.”

Climpt was in the bathroom, staring into the toilet. Lucas looked. The bowl was empty, but stained purple with antifreeze. “They winterized.”

“Yup. They’ll be gone a while.”

“So let’s go through it,” Lucas said.

They began with the parents’ bedroom and found nothing at all.

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