It took the ambulance crew over half an hour to break down old Mrs Cranbourne's door. When they finally got through, they found out why. Every surface in her apartment was covered in a layer of ice, inches thick. Everything - the walls, the floor, the ceiling, even Mrs Cranbourne herself! - was frosted over. It was so cold that the breath froze in the paramedics' lungs, filling them with dagger-sharp shards.
The situation was definitely unusual. A team of scientists in hazmat suits and arctic clothing came to the housing complex and prowled Mrs Cranbourne's rooms, looking for the cause of this strange phenomenon. They took readings using strange machines, and took samples away for testing. They even drilled into Mrs Cranbourne's frozen corpse to see if there was anything strange inside. All they found was ice; and even that was melting away by the time they gave the 'all clear'.
The coroner came to collect Mrs Cranbourne's body. He and his assistant loaded it onto a gurney and wheeled it carefully out of the apartment, towards the waiting hearse. Mrs Cranbourne's neighbours watched respectfully from their doors. One of them - Mrs Ellis - stopped the coroner as he went past.
"Excuse me," she said. "You're taking Mrs Cranbourne away?"
The coroner stopped and nodded in reply. "We are indeed, ma'am. Were you a friend of hers?"
"A friend?" Mrs Ellis shook her head. "No. But I knew her. Do you know what happened to her?"
"I can't say yet. My best guess is she froze to death."
"Heh," Mrs Ellis snorted. "That doesn't surprise me in the slightest."
The coroner gave the old lady a puzzled frown. "Why do you say that?"
"She always was a cold-hearted piece of work."
