Cold Shiver

TW: murder

Cold Shiver

By Heather Ann Martinez

Becky’s Diner was the only place to grab food for more than twenty miles along Route 55. Linus Stillman had been frequenting Becky’s for the majority of the past twenty-five years. It was where he met his wife. It was where he met his birth brother and birth father. It was where he went to when he lost his sales job, when he picked up another and where he felt most at home spring through autumn. Every November, he disappeared from his daily routines. He would emerge the last week of March as if nothing happened. For several weeks out of every year, he wouldn’t respond to a text, to a letter, to anyone or anything. At the end of March, he would sit at the counter of Becky’s Diner. He didn’t engage in small talk with anyone except for Becky. She was, in a way, protective of Linus. She knew his wife died and he had some scattered conversations with his birth family. He knew he still had a lot of unanswered questions as did the police.

His wife’s body had been found at the bottom of a nearby lake as the ice was melting the first week of March two years earlier. There were bruises on her body. The medical examiner said that both time and water had faded most of the evidence of what happened to her. What was odd to them was what she was wearing. She wore a corduroys jumper and a short-sleeved shirt. The medical examiner thought it was strange because it had snowed a lot that week and she wasn’t wearing a coat or shoes.

The police followed Linus as much as they could. They suspected he had something to do with his wife Brinlee’s death. Whenever they questioned him, his answers were short. He wasn’t friendly. He never smiled. He never laughed at any of their jokes or even seemed interested in finding out what happened to her. Brinlee did not drive. She was a fearful person. She would rattle off statistics about vehicle accidents and said that she did not want to be responsible for harming another human being. It had bothered the police greatly. They didn’t know who harmed her. They didn’t know where Linus went for several weeks out of the year. They couldn’t find any activity on his credit cards or phone records. His landlord said he always paid rent four months ahead of time. It was as if he vanished before the first snow and returned when the last snowflake melted. No one in town could say for certain they saw him in winter. He was never at a convenient store or at a drive-through. Becky would calm any rumor down by reminding everyone that he had suffered a great loss. She knew his life was not easy. She was there for all of his up’s and down’s. She tried not to give him any advice. He only wanted her to listen.

For Det. Monroe, Linus gave him a cold shiver. Every encounter seemed more pointless than the previous one. Dt. Monroe was convinced Linus had killed his wife. He didn’t have any evidence to support his theory. No one could confirm that Linus was even in the area in early March two years ago. There was evidence Brinlee had been in town. A neighbor saw looking for some gardening books the day before she was fished out of the lake. The neighbor said that she seemed cautious as usual, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about her appearance. The neighbor said that Brinlee had a hat, gloves, a heavy coat and was wearing boots. The neighbor remembered that she complained to the librarian about how cold the library was. The librarian told her she would raise the temperature. Brinlee smiled and stayed for a half hour longer. The neighbor said he remembered the incident because Brinlee was talking very loudly and several other library patrons asked her to whisper. Brinlee obliged them but did not make any apologies for speaking loudly to begin with. One of the other library witnesses said that Brinlee seemed lost in a library. She wasn’t aware of any of the rules. She didn’t know how to look for a book. She knew that she could get books for free but was upset when she was told she would have to return them in six weeks.

Det. Monroe contacted Linus’ birth family but they claimed they didn’t know anything. They had only had a few short exchanges with Linus. They admitted they did most of the talking. Linus leaned back in a chair at Becky’s diner and listened. Linus didn’t tell them much about his foster family or the way he had been raised. He did tell them he would be hard to find between the end of November and the end of March. They did not disclose anything else with Det. Monroe. Det. Monroe thought they were also hiding something but couldn’t put his finger on it. He couldn’t place them with Brinlee at the time of her death and knew he couldn’t badger them for more information. It was Linus he wanted. He would try to provoke some sort of response from him whenever he could, but Linus was also as cool as a cucumber.

Linus sat at the counter at Becky’s when Det. Monroe spotted him. He got up from one of the tables and sat on the stool next to Linus. He told Linus he was very close to catching Brinlee’s killer. He said it was just a matter of time and all of the cards would be laid face up on the table. He told Linus he could confess and it would make him feel so much better. Linus did not even flinch. He didn’t even look in Det. Monroe’s direction. Linus was wearing dark sunglasses and a long sleeve shirt. Det. Monroe noticed he had a lot of scars all over his hands. It was as if his hands had been in the mouth of a shark. Det. Monroe asked him where he got the scars. Linus told him there was always a larger predator. As Det. Monroe started grabbing at Linus’s collar, Becky told him to let go and not make another scene in her diner. Linus thanked her and started to walk out. Det. Monroe followed him to Linus’s home on the other side of town. Linus lived on a working farm. His apartment was on the second level of the barn, but that wasn’t where Linus was heading. He was walking into a large shed behind the chicken coop. Det. Monroe heard a lot of other voices coming from the shed including Linus’s landlord. Linus was telling the others that the winter had passed and they could soon return to their homes. Their time of slumber was coming to an end.

To get a closer look, Det. Monroe used a flashlight and found a small hole in the wall of the shed. He was shocked at what he saw. There were well over fifty people piled one on top of the other. They were all sleeping or trying to sleep. Linus took his spot on the pile. Det. Monroe ran back to Becky’s diner and took Becky to the kitchen. He asked her cook to given them the room for a few minutes.

“What’s going on Floyd? You are going to scare away my customer.”

“Why didn’t you tell me Becky? Come on, you should have told me!”

“About Linus? About the others? No, I couldn’t get involved.”

“You could have told me he was one of them. You should have told me the minute we found his wife’s body. I would have focused my attention elsewhere. You should have told me he was one of the sleepers.”

“Hush! Keep your voice down. You want to scare up all kinds of trouble again. Do you remember the last time someone opened that can of worms? The sleepers were left alone for generations until other people started doing exactly what you have been doing. Asking questions about where he is for the winter months. He is hibernating. They are all hibernating together. Unlike the others, Linus wasn’t born like them. He adapted to their way of life. He trained his body to sleep for weeks at a time. The others adapted to colder, harsher temperatures by sleeping through the winter when they were further north. They moved down here when the developers bulldozed their forest and turned it into a ski lodge.”

“What about Brinlee? What happened to her?”

“Linus told me she woke up three weeks early. She didn’t know why. She went to the library but hadn’t been there before. She went out to the lake and a bear attacked her and Linus followed her and tried to defend her. But it was too late. The bear killed Brinlee and Linus heard someone coming. He rolled her body in the lake. Her coat and shoes were buried during the attack. That was when she was found.”

“At least, now I know what is going on. It all makes sense now, but how am I going to tell my boss?”

“You can’t tell anyone! That was how people found out about them years ago. Don’t you remember? Those scientists came up here and wanted to know how they figured out how to adapt to colder climates, how the could become one with a cold shiver. They reduce their heart rate, their breathing, everything and sleep for weeks at a time. Tell your boss it is a cold case and leave it be. Those people have been through enough. Linus has been a mess. I am afraid he is going to tell someone about the sleepers. His birth father was asking a lot of questions the last time he visited.”

“A cold case, huh? You aren’t hiding any leprechauns or Big Foot up here, are ya?”

“No, those are fairy tales.”

“Just checkin. Well thanks for letting me know. I’m now going back to the station to tell my boss the case went cold and Linus Stillman is no longer a person of interest.”

“Thanks, Floyd. Now let’s get back to business.”