So they were going to continue as if they hadn’t had that argument. Good. Laurel reached for the entry closet door and bundled up in a thick parka, snow boots, gloves, scarf, and a hat knitted by her mom. “Mom? I’m going for a walk with Huck and will be back shortly.” Without waiting for an answer or a protest, she hustled outside. The frigid air instantly burned her face and she pulled down the hat and more securely wrapped the scarf over her lower jaw. “Let’s go.”

He turned just as Aeneas bounded out from the trees, happily churning up frozen pinecones.

They walked down the driveway with winter silence all around them. Laurel looked up at the darkened sky with its distant stars. Even they looked frozen.

“This case is all wrong,” Huck said, shortening his steps so she didn’t have to jog.

“Tell me what’s bothering you,” Laurel said as Aeneas raced on ahead, his muscles bunching.

Huck stared off into the trees. “Genesis Valley is a small town in a large county. Yet within two months we have two different crazy serial killers leaving bodies for us to find?”

That was an interesting point. “The Snowblood killer had meant to hide the bodies by throwing them off the edge of a cliff.” It had only been a UTV accident and an avalanche that had revealed those bodies.

“Even so, two killers right here in this town?” Huck shook his head. “I don’t think so. Statistically, I mean.” His voice was a low and oddly comforting rumble in the night, despite the macabre subject matter. “Plus, it’s the same team working the case. I know it’s our job, and crimes like this are specifically your unit’s purview, but still. I don’t like the coincidence. My gut doesn’t like it.”

She’d always admired people whose gut made decisions. Of course, it was instinct, which was truly just experience filtered by the subconscious. But she’d learned to trust Huck’s subconscious. “The FBI has put out data that there are about fifty active serial killers in the US right now.”

“I thought the number was a couple thousand,” Huck said.

Laurel grimaced, shoving her gloved hands into her coat pockets. She needed thicker gloves because her fingers were starting to go numb. “That’s a statistic from a crime-tracking organization a few years back when we first started tracing kills by new DNA tracking capabilities. Remember that a serial killer is just defined as somebody who kills more than three people. The violent crimes unit is primarily focused on the ritual type of serial killing.”

“Okay. But I’ve heard you use the higher number before,” Huck mused.