A Long Winter

Frozen bodies appeared on a porch, in a garage, in a shed of snowbirds away in winter. Wildlife had at the first set; the porch door was not secure. But the bones suggested a story. The next victims were untouched by vermin, and their wallets were still in their pockets. Their IDs illuminated the story. The victims shared a family resemblance. This was an uncommon one, and, in the town in which the victims were found, new. The deceased were distinctively bulky and strong. Two of them stared from ID photos with the same gray eyes. It appeared that a family was being wiped out, and that the family violated everyone's notion of demographics.Pretty soon it became clear that the problem was older and broader than the locale in which it took shape. Two persons quickly recognized the possible scope - a forensic advisor to the local police and a relative of the deceased. It looked to them as though the roots of the crisis might reach back 35,000 years to the famous encounter in Europe and Asia between earlier peoples and their more modern counterparts. No one could be sure the crimes had such old roots, but what was important was whether anyone with a homicidal turn of mind thought they did. Even if no ancient issues were actually involved, a family feud a mere 150 years old was definitely in play. The family of the victims toyed with resuming this private war. In the logic of the vendetta, they now had license to kill, and might justifiably feel they were obligated to do so. Meanwhile, some members of the rival family worked to clear their name, although at the same time distant relatives relished these killings of the adversary, even if someone other than a family member was responsible.It took detectives a long time to figure out what was going on. The families ran their own investigations parallel to that of the police; they made headway.Killings continued and news of others flooded in. The pressure for a solution intensified. Finally the pieces began to fall into place. But was it too late? Was stopping the carnage enough? What about justice?