The Girls in the Snow: A completely unputdownable crime thriller (Nikki Hunt Book 1)

by Stacy Green

  “And what if the Frost Killer dumps some woman?” Jessica replied. “Will you just leave the case hanging?”

  “Jess, you don’t need to worry—” Miller began.

  Jessica’s voice grew louder as she white-knuckled her coffee cup. Her eyes bore into Nikki’s. “I need to know that you’re going to work this case until it’s solved, no matter what happens.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Nikki said. “I know you’ve answered the same questions over and over, so I’m going to try not to be very repetitive, but I do need to ask them again. That’s why I’m here. And I won’t be leaving until I find your daughter’s killer.”

  “My kid’s just another dead teenager to you,” Jessica snapped. “If you catch Frost, you’ll make national—”

  Nikki reached over the table and placed her hand over Jessica’s trembling ones. “I swear to you that I will see this case through.”

  Jessica’s shoulders inched down. “I’m holding you to that, Agent.”

  “I fully expect you to,” Nikki said. “Sergeant Miller said Kaylee was grounded and without her phone,” Nikki continued. “That she didn’t have permission to go to Madison’s.”

  “She’d cut class and then was caught with a joint. I took her phone and grounded her.” Jessica closed her eyes. “If she’d had her phone, maybe—”

  “Don’t do that to yourself,” Nikki said. “You did what any parent would do in the situation.”

  Jessica grabbed a lighter from the small pile of odds and ends on the table. Nikki didn’t see any cigarettes, but the landlord probably didn’t allow smoking inside.

  “Do you need a break to smoke?”

  “I quit. Too expensive. I just like to have something in my hands, you know?” Jessica cleared her throat. “I worked a double shift at the nursing home that day and didn’t get home until after dinner time. I was so angry she wasn’t home, but I knew she’d be with Madison, so I just drove over there. No one was home. I texted Amy then, and she told me the girls were at the Hansons’. I told her I’d go get them and drop Madison at home.”

  Nikki looked at Miller. “Why didn’t Madison go with her mother and brother to see her grandparents?” Nikki asked.

  “She begged off, saying she had a big test on Monday,” Miller answered.

  Exactly what Nikki expected from what she knew of Madison.

  “The Hansons had just gotten home from dinner. Miles said the girls never showed up. That’s when I called the police.”

  “I know Kaylee got in trouble this summer,” Nikki said. “Were things any better when she got back to school?”

  “I thought so. She seemed happier,” Jessica said. “But middle school was rough. Do you know how much social media can mess a teenaged girl up?”

  “I can only imagine.” Stillwater had two middle schools, and everyone was thrown into the mixing bowl freshman year.

  “Most girls spend an hour making themselves look perfect before they even think about taking a picture. But not Kaylee. She never obsessed about how she looked until she started getting teased. I don’t think she ever got her self-confidence back. Then a couple of girls on her volleyball team started picking on her.”

  “Teenaged girls can be awful,” Nikki agreed. “Is that why she left volleyball?”

  “She was kicked off the team because she stood up for herself.” Pride swelled in Jessica’s tone. “Madison Banks was the only girl on that team who stood up for her to the coach. All the rest fell right in line behind Jade.”

  “Good for Kaylee,” Nikki said. “And the girls became friends after that?”

  Jessica dabbed her eyes with a Kleenex. “I thought it was great. Madison was a good student, good kid, she was nice,” Jessica said. “They spent all their free time together. Sometimes Madison came here, but Kaylee mostly went to her house. Madison’s mother didn’t want her over here. But Madison never seemed to care that Kaylee didn’t come from a well-off family or have money to blow at the mall. I think that really helped Kaylee’s self-confidence.”

  “Amy Banks didn’t like your boyfriend.”

  Jessica snorted. “That woman doesn’t like anyone below her income level. But yeah, she didn’t like Ricky. Neither do I. Why in the hell I hooked up with him, I’ll never know. It’s over between us.”

  “I think we all have at least one of those guys in our past,” Nikki said, and Jessica smiled back at her. “Did Kaylee like him?”

  “Kaylee hated him, so he was never over here when she was by herself.”

  “Why did she hate him?”

  Jessica hesitated. “She said he’d said some inappropriate things to her. He denied it, but I couldn’t trust him.”

  Miller glanced at Nikki. “I’m sure you saw that in the case file. That’s why Ricky was originally a suspect, but his alibi’s solid.”

  “I did,” Nikki said. “Is that why you broke if off?”

  Jessica’s gripped tightened on the lighter. “That was part of it.”

  Nikki let the silence simmer, watching Jessica become more uncomfortable as the seconds ticked by.

  Miller leaned forward, his brow furrowed. “Jessica, is there something you haven’t told us?”

  Jessica’s bouncing knee made the table shake. “I found pictures of other women on his phone.”

  “This was before Kaylee disappeared?”

  “About a couple of weeks before.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything to me?” Miller’s voice was sharp.

  “Because Ricky didn’t have anything to do with it,” Jessica said flatly. “You know he was visiting his brother at Oak Park Heights when the girls went missing.” Oak Park Heights was the same prison where Mark Todd was housed. Was Nikki going to have one conversation today that didn’t have ties to that man?

  “His brother’s serving eight for larceny,” Miller said. “Ricky did visit that day, but he was back by the afternoon.”

  Jessica crossed her arms, both knees bouncing now. “He went back to work. His boss alibied him. Look, you guys didn’t need to be chasing dead ends. I know Ricky didn’t do it.”

  Something wasn’t adding up. Jessica had been desperate to find her daughter, and keeping information from the police didn’t make sense. “Jessica, what aren’t you telling us?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “The only way to be absolutely certain that Ricky didn’t take the girls is knowing his whereabouts at the time of the abduction,” Nikki said. “Which means you were in contact with him.”

  “If Amy Banks hears this, I guarantee you she’ll start screaming about you being involved and covering up for Ricky,” Miller said.

  Jessica’s face turned red. “I would never—”

  “Then you need to tell us everything,” Nikki said. “Or I’m going to start digging into Ricky’s alibi, and I will find the truth.”

  The woman’s shoulders dropped. She rested her elbows on the table, head in her hands.

  “I was with Ricky that afternoon. He came to my work when he got back into town. He was there during the time the police think they were abducted. And then he went to work. Clocked in and out.”

  “So why didn’t you tell us before?” Miller asked.

  “I need my job. And I’m just trying to help patients.”

  “What do you mean?” Nikki asked.

  “Do you know how expensive it is to get old and die? Medicare fights coverage on everything they don’t feel is necessary. God forbid the patient not be in so much pain. I just can’t stand seeing them suffer. So I asked Ricky to get me something to help them.”

  Miller sighed. “Ricky sold you pain medication?”

  “He didn’t sell it to me,” Jessica said. “I took them from him—used the pictures on his phone as blackmail.”

  “Wait a minute,” Miller said. “Were those pictures of minors? Because blackmailing him with pictures of adult women makes no sense.”

  “If they were kids, I would have called the police, I swear. A couple of them were
taken at a construction site. He’d been screwing other girls on the site. His boss would have fired him on the spot.” Jessica’s head dropped to her hands. “I know it’s all wrong, but I swear I didn’t make a dime off it. I just snuck the pills to—”

  “I don’t want to know the name, and I don’t want to know if you received compensation for the pills,” Miller said. “You realize opioids are being laced with fentanyl, right? Surely you’ve read about it on the news? The patient could have died from a bad batch; they’re all over Stillwater.”

  “Ricky swore these were pure.”

  “Did Kaylee know you were doing this?” Nikki asked.

  “I had to tell her, because she’d overheard us arguing about the pictures and wanted to know why I wasn’t telling his boss.”

  “And she didn’t negotiate to keep the secret? A phone perhaps?” A cell phone was a teenager’s lifeline. Losing it was like cutting off a hand.

  Jessica shook her head. “She knows what it’s like for the residents. She said I should help them.”

  Nikki left Miller to finish interviewing Jessica while she checked out Kaylee’s bedroom. She had the larger of the two bedrooms, but the twin bed and mismatched dresser took up most of the real estate, along with an old bookshelf loaded with various paperbacks from thrift stores. Nikki carefully sifted through the books in search of a phone. Mystery and science fiction dominated the collection, but a dog-eared copy of The Outsiders was full of sticky notes.

  Two storage containers under the bed held sweaters and other winter gear. Nothing beneath the mattress or jammed inside the rickety nightstand. A portrait-sized mirror was propped on the dresser. Hairbrush, several hair ties, along with drugstore foundation, blush, eyeshadow. Nothing over the top.

  A couple of Polaroid pictures had been taped to the mirror. How in the hell were those things popular again? Their picture quality had improved but was nothing like cell phone or digital camera pictures. But the instant gratification of the Polaroid probably appealed to an impatient teenager.

  Both pictures featured Madison and Kaylee, smiling and happy, with Kaylee making the silly “duckface” in the second. The expensive Polaroid probably belonged to Madison.

  Dresser drawers contained the usual items, but Nikki removed the slats just in case. She’d kept notes from John hidden from her nosy mother in the small crevices between drawers. No such luck with Kaylee.

  There was no shelving in the small closet, and nothing hidden in the flooring. These cookie-cutter condos didn’t have the same kind of hiding places as an old farmhouse.

  Nikki’s mother’s voice rang in her head. “I found your stash, Nicole Ann Walsh. How did you get the weed? Was it that boy?”

  Instead of answering the question, Nikki had railed on her mother for not trusting her. The pot had been hidden beneath a loose floorboard under Nikki’s bed. Her mother had to search long and hard to find it.

  Nikki swallowed the knot in her throat and stood, her groaning knees reminding her that forty was bearing down quickly. She hadn’t expected to find the phone. Kaylee had no doubt had it on her—if she actually had one.

  A memory slivered on the edges of her consciousness: a strange buzzing, a command: Stop taking pictures. Sweat beaded on Nikki’s forehead. The phantom taste of vodka swilled in her mouth.

  She went to the dresser and stared at her reflection. Her dark hair was messy from the hat and the sweat, her face pale despite feeling hot. Fear glowed in her dark eyes, but of what?

  Nikki took a deep breath and pulled herself together. She’d had so many nightmares after the murders and being back in town must have triggered them again.

  She looked again at the pictures taped to the mirror, willing one of the girls to give her something to work with. The pictures had been taken on the same day, in front of a brick storefront with a large bay window.

  Mahoney’s.

  Mahoney’s in downtown Stillwater.

  But who took the picture?

  Nikki yanked one of the pictures off.

  The window reflected a tall male with a stocking cap and a dark hoodie, the camera covering most of his face. He looked to be a few inches taller than both girls, close to six feet. Wide shoulders but not overly muscular. The window wasn’t big enough to reflect his shoes, but his jeans were well-worn, either from use or style.

  Nikki grabbed the second picture and put the two side by side. Was that a tiny grin on the visible fraction of the boy’s mouth?

  Kaylee’s outstretched arm was blurry and in a weird position, almost in front of her. She’d been moving when the picture was taken.

  Kaylee hadn’t been making the face. She was going to blow a kiss at the boy taking the picture.

  Back downstairs, Kaylee’s mother knew nothing of the boyfriend. She’d never asked who took the picture, she’d just been glad her daughter was hanging out with Madison. Nikki told her not to blame herself, even though she knew the woman would do exactly that.

  She followed Miller outside. “Are you going to charge Jessica?”

  Miller shook his head. “Not unless you push the issue.”

  “No, but she has to stop.” Nikki’s breath crystallized in the frigid air. “I don’t care how pure Ricky says the stuff is.”

  “She will. I’ll make sure of it. I did come up with one thing.” He held up a small black object. “Kaylee’s flash drive for school stuff. Her mother made her keep it in the kitchen junk drawer, so it didn’t get lost.”

  “Mind if I take it?” Nikki asked.

  “Once I bag it and mark it as evidence, it’s yours.”

  “Thanks.” Nikki pointed to the condo adjacent to Kaylee’s house. “Is this the security camera you looked at to confirm that Kaylee left that day?

  Miller nodded. “Why?”

  “Did you look for visitors earlier in the day? Or the day prior?”

  “We watched everything taken from that day,” Miller said. “We were focused on the search and the area they’d last been seen. I didn’t think to look earlier.”

  “You were focused on the right things,” Nikki replied. “But go over the last couple of weeks. Catching him on camera is probably a long shot, but if Kaylee knew about her mother’s deal with Ricky, I’m betting she tried to blackmail him, too.”

  “For cash or drugs?”

  “I’m hoping cash, for the phone I can’t find.”

  Eight

  Nikki replaced the nozzle and closed her gas lid. Miller wanted to get a warrant for Ricky Fillinger’s truck before they spoke with him, so they tabled that fun task until morning. She pulled away from the gas pumps and parked in front of the store.

  Mark Todd’s mugshot stared at her from the front page of the Star Tribune.

  New evidence and disturbing details emerge about Nicole Walsh’s state of mind on the night of the murders.

  Her state of mind? No one on earth had a damned clue what her state of mind had been that night. This had to be the article Jessica had referred to earlier.

  Nikki shoved four quarters into the change slot and snatched the paper, folding it under her arm.

  Inside the busy store, her hands trembled as she made a cup of decaf coffee. She had to stay focused on the present. Getting caught up in her past wasn’t going to do a damn thing to catch Madison and Kaylee’s killer. She loaded her coffee with French vanilla creamer and stepped up to the counter.

  “I paid at the pump for my gas.” She eyed the cigarette display behind the cashier. She’d stopped smoking when she was pregnant, and it wouldn’t take more than a couple of puffs to be right back in the habit. She chose a bag of candy instead and pretended sugar was less addictive than nicotine.

  It seemed like she’d already been away from her daughter for days. Since Nikki’s FBI unit served all of Minnesota, staying at a hotel for a few nights wasn’t a new experience, but being away from Lacey seemed to sting more than usual. As soon as she was settled into the room, Nikki would check in with Tyler and Lacey. Her daughter’s happy li
ttle voice was always a mood-booster.

  The cashier pressed several buttons on the register and sighed. “Dang it, this thing locked up on me. Just let me reboot it.”

  “No problem.”

  A six-pack of beer hit the counter beside her with a thud, and Nikki jumped.

  “Sorry.” A man in a gray hoodie and paint-splattered jeans set a pack of gummy bears on top of the beer. His cheeks dimpled with his smile. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

  He was at least a head taller than Nikki, with a slim build but broad shoulders. A lock of dark, wavy hair had escaped his navy wool hat and curled around his ear.

  “Nice combination,” Nikki said. “What flavor goes best with the Corona?”

  “Red, of course.” His voice made candy sound ridiculously erotic. “Sugar baby.”

  Nikki’s eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

  He tapped on the bag of candy. “Sugar babies. I think you’re the first person I’ve met who liked them.”

  Her entire body felt red hot. “I might have a sugar addiction.”

  “Hi, Rory.” A second cashier opened the next register.

  Rory? The name sounded vaguely familiar. Had she gone to school with him, too?

  Nikki snuck a glance at him while he simultaneously counted out cash and flirted with the cashier. His wide smile and raspy voice had the girl blushing, and he clearly understood the effect he had on women.

  Nikki’s face still burned and not just from embarrassment. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt something for a man, let alone felt nervous standing next to someone as good-looking as this guy. How long had it been since Nikki had a date?

  “Try it now,” Nikki’s cashier said, his eyes on Rory. “I read the article about your brother, man. You think he’ll get a new trial?”

  You’re going to be asked questions, especially if his brother finds out you’re in town.

  Nikki’s stomach hollowed out, and her hands shook as she swiped the card and waited to put in her PIN number. The newspaper tucked under her arm felt like a brick.