The East Avenue Murders (The Maude Rogers Crime Novels Book 1) by Linda L. Dunlap Page A

checking him for a pulse that was no longer there. She eased her radio out of its pouch watching the window all the while, called the radio code for “officer down” giving the address and advised “caution, man with a gun”. Even though she knew Mason was dead, Maude requested an ambulance. She had seen enough dead bodies to know her partner was gone but it was procedure.
    She stayed low to the floor knowing the danger wasn’t over then made her way in the shadows putting the furnishings of the house between her and the shooter. The grief for her partner would wait. Her survival depended upon her ability to make it until help arrived. It seemed to take hours for the sirens to sound and car doors to start slamming, the men in uniform filling the street like a horde of locusts covering a field of grain.
    Cops were everywhere but the shooter was gone, his shell casings gone, the ground with his shoe prints intentionally stirred erasing any solid piece of evidence. The ambulance came and took Mason away, cops lined up waiting for the stretcher to pass their way, tears in many eyes.
    The crime lab techs showed up bursting with energy, determined to find a piece of evidence to help make it right but of course no one could make it right. A veteran cop was gone in the blink of an eye. If it could happen to him, it could happen to anyone.
    Maude related the incident to her Captain who showed up before Mason was removed from the premises .
    A determined look on his face he stated to all listening, “We’ll get this guy, whoever he is, we’ll find him,” he said. “I’ll put my best men on it.”
    And that is what he did, leaving Maude out of the loop.
    The original welfare check had so far proven fruitless; there was no one in the house. Maude searched all the rooms after she was dismissed by the Captain to carry on her duties. A patrol officer accompanied her throughout the house, searching for any sign of distress that might have made the resident leave.
    Everything was spotless, even more than it should have been considering the neglect outside. Both bedrooms proved to be almost sterile with stripped beds and vacuumed rugs, some even freshly shampooed. The bathroom was disinfected, spotless also, all hairs removed from the drains with nothing left to give any leads.
    The kitchen h ad been the last to be searched; the orderly cabinets and sterilized sink were devoid of stains or evidence. Nothing out of place, once again everything was spotless, too clean. Maude knew whatever it was that had happened in that house was really bad. She walked out to the small laundry room, finding it crowded with a washer and dryer and large stand up freezer. Why a single woman needed a large freezer was beyond Maude’s comprehension. Without any further consideration she reached for the door and opened it, swinging it back, opening the appliance to full view.
    The next thing Maude did was look at her watch to determine the exact time. She glanced at the deputy standing beside her with his mouth open and nodded for him to go get his boss. She took a minute to observe, puzzled by the scene before her.
    A youngish woman was frozen in an upright position taking up the space in the largest part of the freezer. All shelving had been removed to accommodate her. Her arms were folded against her chest, head bowed, knees slightly bent, overcome by frost. The body was naked, and the ice that covered her was old, at least by several days. As the fluids in the woman’s body froze they created a heavy coating of rime from head to foot. Across the woman’s chest a long row of careful stitches could be seen through the frost, an obvious repair of a long and deep incision. It would only be later when the pathologist opened the body for autopsy they would discover that the victim’s heart had been taken.
    From the very first Maude had been saddened by the waste of life, the terrible theft of the young woman’s future. Her belly tied itself in knots when