Gallery of the Dead

Nine

Hunter, Garcia and White followed the agent out of the bedroom and through the short hallway that led back into the living room, but contrary to what they were expecting, the agent didn’t direct them to any of the surfaces she’d been dusting for prints, nor did she lead them to the front door or the outside of the house. Instead, she took a right as they entered the living room and guided everyone into a sharp-lined, modern-looking kitchen.

The kitchen was surprisingly spacious, with black granite worktops running along three of the walls and contrasting perfectly with the shiny white floors and cupboard doors. The chrome extractor unit above the black stove matched the stainless-steel sink and the wall-mounted oven. A large double window, directly above the sink, would no doubt bring more than enough sunlight into the kitchen during daytime. The fridge, the freezer and the dishwasher were all hidden behind cupboard doors, making the kitchen look and feel clean and decluttered, and that was exactly the first thing Hunter noticed as he stepped into the room — how clean it all seemed to be. There was no real mess anywhere. No crumbs or leftovers on any of the surfaces, including the floor. Nothing to be put away, except three items left inside the sink — a fork, a small salad bowl and a wine glass. The wine glass and the salad bowl were both empty. The glass showed residues of red wine and a very noticeable red lipstick smudge around its rim.

‘I finished with all the surfaces in the living room,’ the agent explained. ‘Second in line was the kitchen.’ She nodded at her equipment case on the floor, to the right of the door.

Despite her steady voice, Hunter picked up a sincere hint of distress in her tone. While she spoke, his eyes carried on scanning the room.

‘As I’m sure you have already noticed,’ the agent continued, ‘every appliance in this kitchen, except for the oven and the microwave, sit hidden behind one of the cupboard doors.’

She indicated the first door on the far left, under the worktop that hugged the east wall.

‘We have a dishwasher right here,’ she said, before diverting their attention to the two tall doors that flanked the wall-mounted oven on the west side of the kitchen. ‘Over there you’ll find the fridge on the left and the freezer on the right.’ She paused and took a deep breath. ‘Why don’t you go ahead and have a look inside the freezer?’

Kevin White’s stare stayed on his agent for a couple more seconds before moving to Hunter and Garcia, who were standing to his left. He already had a pretty good idea of what he would find inside that freezer. His weight shifted from one foot to another before he finally took a step forward and pulled open the door.

‘Oh... Jesus Christ!’

The shock in White’s voice was real. There was no question that he was expecting to find the victim’s missing body parts stashed away in that freezer. But he was wrong. He was very wrong.

Hunter and Garcia had followed White and what they saw as he pulled the freezer door open added a whole new layer of cruelty to an already over-sadistic crime scene.

Two of the freezer shelves had been removed to create more vertical space. In that space, frozen in place, was a black and gray cat.