Page 73 of Ice Covered Heart

But, like Shelby, like Hunter, Kimber stumbled to a stop.

Shelby stared at the scene before her. Part of the dorm room appeared totally normal. It was a single, a private room just for one student. A loft bed with soft pink sheets and white pillows waited to the right. A desk. Vanity mirror. String lights running across the ceiling.

But then you looked at the other side of the room…

One complete wall was filled with photos. Old pictures of Shelby, of Margot, of Aisha, of Jenna, of Kali, of Tonya, and of Kim. Pictures from their time at the university. Pictures of Shelby after the attack when she was being taken to the hospital. At the funerals.

Pictures of her…walking in New Orleans. A shot of her watching a street performer near Jackson Square. An image of Shelby eating alone at Café Du Monde.

She was watching me?

And there were pictures of Nate Shiloh. Old pictures of Nate when he’d attended college. Handsome face. Dimples winking. A picture of him sitting at the back booth of Ms. Rochelle’s diner. With Shelby.

And…

Current pictures of Nate. His blond hair buzzed. Wearing a garish orange uniform shirt. His prison uniform.

Yellow yarn snaked around all the pictures, zigging and zagging and looping around thumbtacks that had been pushed into the wall. And there were paper printouts—web stories that had been printed and taped to the wall.

“It’s a fucking shrine,” Jonah snarled. “A shrine to the Sorority Seven Killer.”

Nate’s picture was right in the middle of that wall. One of the current pics—Nate in his orange prison uniform, with sunlight hitting his buzzed hair and his head tilted back as he closed his eyes.

“No.” Hunter’s denial. Adamant. “It’s not a shrine.”

Her head snapped toward him.

“It’s a murder board,” he said. His eyes narrowed on the images. “Or, murder wall, I guess.”

“What is that?” Kimber edged closer. She lifted a hand, reaching to touch the yarn. “Why does she have this going everywhere?”

“This whole thing is evidence!” Jonah barked. “Don’t touch it!”

Kimber backed away, fast.

Shelby’s eyes had returned to the wall. The yellow thread started at Nate, then it went to the diner—the picture of them together, then…to the sorority house. An old picture of the house with all of the girls from her senior year gathered in front of it. Hugging each other. Smiling. The seven victims all stood in the middle of that picture. They’d been circled with red ink. From there, the yellow thread moved to…

A picture of Kali. Grinning as she posed in a cat Halloween costume.

Kali, sprawled on the couch, the TV playing…her throat slit…

Then to a picture of Jenna. Baking gingerbread cookies one Christmas.

Jenna’s blood smeared on the kitchen floor. Slashes all over her arms and torso.

The yellow thread circled up to Tonya. A pic of her with fireworks in the background.

Tonya never made it out of her bed. The sheets had been soaked. Her throat cut.

The yellow thread moved to a thumbtack near Aisha. The pic was of her smiling broadly as she held a puppy in her hands.

Aisha’s white bedsheets had been soaked red. In the trial, the ME had said the knife stabbed through her and went into the mattress.

The yellow thread moved on…

Kim. Sweet, shy Kim. Blowing out her birthday candles in the pic. Her brother JT beamed beside her.

Kim’s pajamas drenched with blood. Dead in the bed. Blood spray on the wall near her.