Sheriff Sam paced the length of the small briefing room, massaging his temples just below the slightly receding salt-and-pepper hairline that hinted at his age. He was not one for motivational speeches - those were better left for football coaches and ministers, as far as he was concerned. But the glimpses of the faces of his deputies, some still clearly shaken from the scene in the grey house, implored him to say something to lift their spirits and give them hope.

He turned to the team that he had assembled to head up the investigation and gazed at the expectant faces. He ran his hand over his face and cleared his throat. At the front of the room sat Detective Nina West. She had arrived from Maitland PD early that morning to assist with the investigation and form a liaison between the two departments. Despite being small in stature, her reputation preceded her - she was a strong, capable detective that would go after the perp like a bloodhound on the trail of a wounded deer.

Sheriff Sam resumed his pacing as he tried to string together some words in his mind that would instil confidence in his men and give them hope, but those words eluded him. Sheriff Sam was a man whose very existence seemed to find meaning in truth and facts, not titbits of ephemeral emotion and useless platitudes. It's not that he didn't care, or lacked empathy, because he did care. He cared deeply for his town and the people living in it. But what could he say that would possibly make things better? He sighed and rubbed his face once more. He had to say something.

"Men, I know yesterday must have shaken you. I'm feeling pretty shaken myself," he made direct eye contact with each of his men for a second, hoping that his face conveyed his vulnerability as well as his innate confidence in the men, hoping that it would provide the reassurance they needed and confirm the solidarity that they shared.

"This is Detective Nina West," he motioned for her to stand up as he spoke. "She's on loan from Maitland PD and is here to offer assistance. She comes highly recommended and with a well proven track record. She's one of us for the duration of this investigation. Treat her accordingly," he stated, trying to emphasize the need for interdepartmental cooperation. "It's still our case, but we've got their backing and we can use all the help we can get."

It wasn't much in terms of motivation, but then Sheriff Sam was neither a football coach nor a minister. He hoped that his men would at least draw some comfort from his words. More likely, no matter what he said, his men would wake in cold sweats for the months, maybe years to come, haunted by visions of the crime scene at the grey house, much like he had last night. Nothing could take those horrors away, but perhaps working the case could give them something more beneficial to focus on.

Over the next hour they went over the bare facts that Det. West could provide based on the initial findings of the forensics team and ME. The house and freezers were an apparent dead end. Both had been wiped clean of all possible evidence. There wasn't so much as a speck of dust, let alone a fingerprint or DNA evidence. Based on the lack of dust though, it could be assumed that the freezers had been placed in the house recently.

Forensics suggested that the bodies were most likely already in the freezers when they were carried into the house, implying that the murders had been committed at a different location. A detailed analysis of the ice crystals that had accumulated in the freezers and around the corpses had revealed that the bodies had partially thawed at some point while already in the freezers before being refrozen. This arguably would have occurred during a severe power outage, the likes of which had not occurred, or when the freezers were unplugged for a significant period of time, most likely to facilitate a move from one location to another.

Further to this, the initial assessment of the remains had revealed no commonalities between the bodies except for the manner in which they were treated postmortem - some were male and some female and they were of different ages and ethnicity, based on appearance alone. Further details might be revealed during the autopsies but suffice to say it ruled out most typical serial murderers who tended to go after a particular 'type'.

The bodies themselves were fully intact, minus the heads, and showed no visible signs of neglect or abuse. All the victims appeared to be in fair health. Cause of death could not be established based on initial observations either - there were no puncture wounds, no defensive wounds, no ligature marks, no bruising or marks to indicate that the victims had been restrained in any way and no postmortem lividity to indicate the bodies had lain in a certain position after death. The possibility existed that all the victims had died from a head wound, but without the heads it would be near impossible to confirm this or determine anything further.

The beheading was done postmortem with an incredibly sharp large knife or blade in one movement, all in roughly the same place between the C4 and C5 vertebrae, suggesting that this was not the first time that the perp had beheaded someone and indicating possible surgical or medical experience or at least a good knowledge of anatomy. At some point after disarticulation of the head and after the blood had been drained from the bodies, they were washed, at least thoroughly enough to remove any possible evidence.

Time of death would be hard to establish since the remains had been frozen solid. Further to this, no determination could be made as to whether or not all twelve victims had died simultaneously or at different times.

Tox screens would take some time to run, however a sedative might explain the lack of any defensive wounds or marks from restraints as the victim would have been unable to respond to his or her attacker in any way and wouldn't have necessarily put up a fight or been restrained.

Fingerprint and DNA testing would also take some time before possible identifications could be made and would be dependent on the victim already being in a database. Dental records and facial recognition were not an option for obvious reasons.

It seemed like a hopeless case, filled with dead ends. Anything garnered from the scant details would be pure conjecture at this point. They could assume that the killer was a professional and speculate that these were hits carried out, but without cause of death even the assumption that they were murders was pure speculation. It seemed unlikely that someone would behead and store the bodies of twelve people who had died of natural causes though. But then the whole situation seemed unreasonably bizarre in the first place, so anything could be possible.

Sheriff Sam rubbed his temples and ran his hand over his face as he considered the facts, or lack thereof, before him. It just didn't make any sense. If the corpses belonged to murder victims, then why behead and wash them, except to hide identification and do away with any forensic evidence? But then why freeze and store the remains rather than dumping the body or disposing of it in another manner? Unless the killer didn't want to run the risk of the bodies being found, which could suggest he didn't want anyone to know the victims were dead, rather than missing. But then why behead them? And what had become of the heads? At least as far as Sheriff Sam knew, no unattached heads had shown up anywhere in the country. And if the victims weren't murdered? Well that just left even more questions to ponder.

These and many more questions flitted through Sheriff Sam's mind, turning him mentally in infinite circles, like a twisted Möbius strip, that seemed to have no ends and no answers. This case simply did not conform to any previous experiences or preconceived notions of what a case should look like. It was an anomaly, unlike anything that he had ever come across or heard of before.

While the ME worked the bodies, and the crime scene techs stripped the freezers down to the component parts in the hope of finding something, Sheriff Sam and Det. West agreed to hit the streets and knock on doors. In a town this small you couldn't stub your toe without the news spreading faster than a communicable disease at an orgy. Someone had to have heard something or seen a vehicle up at the grey house. Someone knew how the freezers got there - they didn't materialize out of thin air and certainly not by magic - and Sheriff Sam was determined to find out who. Someone knew something, that was for sure.