by Stacy Green
Nikki shook her head and started walking across the frozen snow to join Courtney.
“Really?” Rory said. “You’re just going to ignore me and take the easy way out?”
Nikki turned so quickly her boot cracked through the thin ice coating the snow. Her heart pounded. After her parents were murdered, her life in Stillwater had been a sideshow until she was able to escape it. How long before someone other than Caitlin and Rory started following her around, wanting answers she didn’t have to give?
“Easy way out?” Nikki laughed bitterly. “I became a cop because I already knew how monsters worked. Leave me alone.”
She stalked over to help Courtney with her equipment.
“What’s going on? Why is the owner giving you so much grief?” Courtney asked.
“It’s Mark Todd’s brother.” Nikki put her hands in her pockets to hide their shaking. She wasn’t going to be pushed around while she was trying to do her job. “If you find anything questionable, Miller has people on standby who can impound the vehicle for you.”
Courtney’s head moved up and down, but her gaze focused over Nikki’s shoulder. “He’s coming over here.”
Nikki turned around, bracing for another nasty remark.
“Mark was never a monster until you made him one.” Rory’s voice cracked and the muscle in his jaw twitched. “I don’t mean to disrespect you. I’m just asking for ten minutes of your time. Please.”
She wanted to scream. Why couldn’t he be mean to her instead of compassionate? Dealing with killers was easy. But instead of coming at her loaded with anger and ego, Rory seemed almost contrite. He jammed his hands in the front pocket of his sweatshirt and looked down at her with a far softer gaze than she deserved.
“I know what it’s like to have people constantly coming at you. Everyone wants a piece of you. It’s like they thrive off of the most miserable moments in other people’s lives. We’re not all that different, if you think about it.” He flushed a new shade of red. “I mean, what happened to your parents is worse than anything I went through, but the attention and all…” Rory looked down at his boots. “I don’t know what I’m trying to say.”
“I do.” Nikki had been thinking the same thing on the drive from the station. She sighed. “Listen, I do have to prioritize this case, and forensics are on the clock. I’ll probably be at the government center late this afternoon. If you see my jeep, ask the front desk to speak with me. Take it or leave it.”
“I’ll take it.” Rory’s voice sounded tight. “Thank you.”
Nikki nodded curtly and then turned her back to him. “Test for blood and any bodily fluids. And keep an eye out for anything that looks like it might belong to a teenaged girl.”
Plenty of seasoned experts would be offended at Nikki giving them basic instructions even a new CSI would know to do.
Courtney murmured her agreement and kept working.
“Thanks, Court.”
“Anytime.”
Thirteen
Nikki sat with Sergeant Miller in the staff room at Stillwater High School, flanked by the principal and assistant principal. The office decor and the faces were new, but the room was familiar to Nikki. Her freshman year, Nikki had skipped her last classes to walk to the ice cream parlor with Scott Taylor, a boy she’d had a crush on since grade school. She hadn’t made it off campus when one of the teacher’s aides spotted her. Nikki’s parents had been furious, and she’d endured in-school suspension for three days. Sophomore year, she’d been caught making out with a boy in the copy room; a couple of months later, she’d started a food fight in home economics. She wondered if schools even taught that now, but thinking about junior year would only bring more misery, and she wasn’t certain she could keep a calm façade after the encounter with Rory. She refocused on the case and the students she and Miller had come to see arrived.
“Okay, girls.” The principal’s soft voice and laidback manner were reserved for this sort of occasion. “You’ve spoken with Sergeant Miller already, but this is Agent Nikki Hunt with the FBI. She has some questions about Kaylee and Madison.”
The four girls sat in a row across from Nikki. Despite varying skin tones and haircuts, they all looked alike: expensive wool boots—the brown shade every girl seemed to own—skinny jeans or leggings, form-fitting shirts and too much makeup.
A tall, willowy girl with silky, black hair crossed her legs and eyed Nikki. She was confident and well-aware of it. Nikki checked her list of names. “Are you Jade?”
The girl nodded. “My mom went to high school with you.”
“Oh, really? What’s her name?” As much as Nikki needed to make a connection with these girls, delving into her high school years was a slippery slope. The last two had been nothing but misery and grief.
“Connie. Her maiden name was Butler. I think you graduated the same year.”
Connie Butler had been the stereotypical popular girl loved by all the teachers and loathed by most of the school because of her bullying. The confidence already radiating from Jade now made perfect sense.
Jade tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Mom says it must be hard being back here.”
“Don’t worry about me. I know you all must be shaken by Madison and Kaylee’s deaths.”
“For sure,” Jade said. “I’m still in shock. Not surprised, though.”
The blond girl to her left elbowed her. “Jade, come on.”
“Why?” Nikki checked her list; the blond’s name was Taylor. The girl next to her was Sophie; the short-haired brunette on the end was Brianna.
“Kaylee was trouble.” Jade’s tough exterior threatened to crack. “We told Madison that, but she didn’t listen.”
“Kaylee punched a couple of girls on the volleyball team for spreading rumors about her,” Taylor added. “And got herself kicked off the team for it.”
“Not what I heard,” Jade said. “I heard it was because she came on to the coach.”
Brianna rolled her eyes and looked at the floor, while Taylor and Sophie scoffed.
“My sister is varsity,” Sophie said. “She saw the whole thing go down.”
“What happened?” Nikki asked.
“One of the varsity girls had her phone and was showing everyone the photos of Kaylee from last year. She was talking about her. Madison told them to knock it off, and the varsity girl shoved Madison and told her to mind her own business. Madison was being nice to Kaylee, telling her to ignore them, but the older girl wouldn’t shut up. Kaylee had enough and socked the girl.” Sophie shrugged her shoulders.
“That’s when they started hanging out,” Taylor said. “This fall.”
“She brought her into our group without asking,” Jade said.
Jade certainly had inherited her mother’s holier-than-thou attitude. Connie loved to make sure the unpopular kids—usually those who lived outside of town, like Nikki—knew their place.
Brianna had yet to speak, her gazed focused on her shoes.
“But you guys were still friends,” Miller said. “Madison was at your house the weekend before she disappeared.”
Jade made a face. “Because I had to nag her into it. And I had to invite Kaylee. Thank God she didn’t come. That’s the thing—she didn’t like us any more than we liked her.”
Sophie and Taylor exchanged a glance that made it clear Jade’s opinion didn’t speak for all of the group, but the girls didn’t have the guts to challenge the social pecking order.
“I liked Kaylee.” Brianna’s soft voice surprised Nikki. “She was nice. Quiet, but nice. And smart.”
Jade glared at her, while Sophie and Taylor tried to hide their smiles.
“Did she ever talk to you about boys?” Nikki asked.
“Not really.” Brianna’s nervous gaze focused on the window behind Nikki.
“Are you sure?” Nikki asked. “We think she may have been dating an older boy in secret.”
Jade snickered. “Wouldn’t surprise me. She probably put—”
&nb
sp; “Stop it,” Brianna said. “She had a big crush on an older boy, but they weren’t dating.”
“How did they meet?” Nikki asked.
“Madison’s known him since she was little. His name is Bobby Vance.”
“Mindy’s son?” Miller asked.
“I don’t know his parents,” Brianna said. “He’s going to Mankato State.”
“He’s Mindy’s son.” Jade perched on the edge of her chair. “He is pretty cute. They used to live down the street from Madison until his dad died.”
Nikki scribbled down the name and then tried to pass the picture she’d taken from Kaylee’s bedroom to Brianna, but Jade got to it first.
“Cute.”
“See the reflection in the window? Is that Bobby?”
Jade shrugged and then gave the photo to Brianna. “Might be. He’s tall and thin. Blond hair.”
“I can’t tell for sure,” Brianna said.
“Isn’t that a restaurant in Hudson?” Jade asked.
“Why?” Nikki waited for the other two girls to look at the picture before stowing it in her bag.
“’Cause I don’t think Bobby has a car,” Jade said “Freshmen can’t have cars on campus, and his dad died before they could buy him one. His mom can’t afford it now.”
“You sure know an awful lot about their family situation,” Miller said dryly.
“Not really,” Jade said. “Everyone knows freshmen can’t have cars. And if Mrs. Vance couldn’t afford their house, I bet she couldn’t afford to buy him a car.”
Nikki directed her question at Brianna. “Did Kaylee talk about Bobby coming home on the weekends? Or say anything that made you think she might have been spending time with him?”
Brianna shook her head. “I only know about the crush because Maddie told me.”
“I think Madison was her main friend,” Sophie said. “And Miles Hanson, but that was because of Maddie, too.”
Because she was afraid to be herself. She wasn’t high enough on the food chain to draw any sort of attention that wouldn’t be negative. Four years of that had sucked. Nikki wouldn’t go back to high school for any amount of money.
“What about the girl Kaylee punched?” Nikki asked. “Was there fallout?”
“Trinity’s all talk. She threatened to beat Kaylee up after school, but never did anything. I need to get back to class,” Jade said. “Are we done?”
“Yes.” She didn’t want to push the girls, to scare them. They were keeping themselves together, but Nikki could tell Madison and Kaylee’s murders had upset them. “Thank you for your time.” Nikki handed each girl a business card. “Please call me if you think of anything else.”
The assistant vice principal told the girls to return to class, and they left single file, with Brianna lingering in the back. She glanced over her shoulder at Nikki, chewing on her lips, and then pocketed the card and hurried from the room.
Principal Phillips offered to take them to Mr. Hanson’s room. She and Miller quietly discussed the student body’s reaction to news of the murders, but Nikki lagged behind.
Walking through the halls felt surreal. She never dreamed she’d set foot in this place again. Not all the memories were bad, but she’d had to lose the good ones to get rid of the awful.
The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. For all the advances in technology, high school, at its core, remained a four-year survival course. The popular kids were different than the ones she’d known, but they were just as catty and cruel. Kids who didn’t conform to their standards spent high school trying to fly under the radar, while the popular kids secretly feared that one day they would end up on the outside looking in. The idea that high school was supposed to be the best years of your life was hysterical. But, in the end, most people wound up an upgraded version of their high-school selves, passing on their agenda to their kids.
Jade Eby looked just like her mother, save for the darker skin tone. She seemed to have inherited the same calculating personality, the same arrogance, confident she could do and say whatever she wanted to whomever she wanted. Connie didn’t even know Nikki existed until she’d started dating John Banks. They’d all wanted to be her friend after that. To her credit, Connie never pretended to be anything but mean.
Nikki spent her last two years in high school being “the girl whose parents were slaughtered.” Other kids called her a freak because of what she’d seen. And some doubted her story.
Sweat broke out over her forehead as a long-forgotten memory slipped through her defenses.
“She was all sorts of messed up.” Connie Butler’s nasal voice bounced off the locker-room walls like an echo chamber. “I heard John was in there with her for a while before Mark. You know they were banging.”
Nikki pulled her feet up and balanced on the toilet, her heart pounding. If they caught her, she’d have to stand up for herself. She wasn’t afraid of Connie or her friends, but Nikki didn’t want to talk to anyone about that night or anything else.
“Guess that’s what happens when you date an older guy way out of your league.” Shelly Peek, another cheerleader, laughed. “I can’t feel sorry for her. He’s always been a player.”
“And a creep,” Connie said. “We fooled around a couple of times last year, and he wanted to do some really kinky things. So gross.”
“Nikki Walsh probably lets him do whatever she wants. Look how popular she is now that she’s dating him.”
“God, you guys are awful.” Mary Barton was the rare breed of nice cheerleader. She sat near Nikki in English and had been nice to her long before she started dating John. “Her parents were just murdered.”
“And she’s putting the wrong guy in jail.” Connie’s hard tone echoed through the old walls. “Mark would never.”
“He was, like, there,” Shelly said. “With blood on his hands.”
“He said he went to tell Nikki what happened at the party,” Connie said.
“John kicked his ass for trying to have sex with his drunk girlfriend. He was humiliated.”
Connie snorted. “I heard Mark was trying to stop John.”
“How do you know that? It was a college party.”
“I know a girl who was dating one of John’s friends. She heard it from him.”
“Sounds like a bad game of telephone,” Mary said. “The cops know what they’re doing. They wouldn’t have arrested Mark if they weren’t sure.”
“Maybe,” Connie said. “But Nikki Walsh was drinking enough vodka to pass out. No way she remembers everything from that night.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that her parents were murdered,” Mary said. “You two are jerks for talking about her like this.”
Small feet stomped out of the locker room, followed by a slamming door.
“Ugh, goody two-shoes.”
“Yeah,” Shelly said. “But I mean, she’s not wrong. Just because we don’t like Nikki doesn’t mean we should be making jokes about her parents.”
“I’m not making jokes,” Connie said. “It’s awful what happened. I just think she got what she deserved. Some girl from the sticks dating John Banks and acting like she’s queen? It was bound to happen.”
Shelly giggled. “You’re just pissed off because John blew you off to date her.”
Nikki wondered if she’d even asked John about Connie’s accusation. She didn’t really remember breaking up with him. It was as if they’d just stopped talking. But what else had Nikki erased from her memory?
“Nikki?” Miller touched her arm. “You okay?”
They’d reached the second floor. Nikki wiped the sweat off of her forehead and peeled off her jacket. “I’m fine. Just remembering.”
“If you want to wait in the car—”
“I’m fine.” Nikki took a deep breath to clear her head.
Fourteen
The principal directed them to Hanson’s room and headed back to her office. Drew Hanson had a large classroom with a view of the south side of campus. He sat at his d
esk, lost in his computer, while his students worked on school-issued laptops.
“Drew? You have a moment?”
The class looked up from their work, mouths agape at the sight of Miller in his uniform and Nikki with her FBI badge prominently displayed.
“Uh, sure. Guys, I’ll be right back.”
Hanson followed them into the empty corridor and closed the door. “What’s going on?”
“We just talked to Ricky Fillinger. Kaylee got a ride to his job site a few days before she disappeared.” Revealing so much information was a calculated risk, but during their previous interview, Nikki had learned that Hanson wasn’t a very good liar. If he really didn’t have anything to hide and had a valid reason for giving Kaylee a ride, this was her best shot at spooking him into telling the truth. “Gray minivan with Stillwater High School bumper sticker. Miller says that’s what you drive.”
Hanson’s face paled. “Along with dozens of other people, I’m sure. This is the only high school in town so…”
Nikki folded her arms and looked pointedly at Hanson.
Sweat broke over his brow. “Is that all?”
Nikki shrugged. “You tell me.”
Nikki knew guilty people postured and had trouble making eye contact. They’d inevitably start slouching or withdrawing into themselves, crossing their arms over their chests. They just didn’t trust the system. Innocent people inevitably wanted to talk. Hanson may not have done anything to the girls, but he definitely had something to hide.
She glanced into the room. Some of the students were pretending to work, but several watched with wide eyes, which is exactly what Nikki had counted on when she decided to confront Hanson. He wouldn’t want her and Miller around for any longer than necessary, and his desperation to get rid of them and give the students some rational excuse would make him talk faster than any threat. Nikki had learned the technique from a veteran detective, and it had never failed her.
Sweat glistened on Hanson’s broad forehead. “I-it’s not what it looks like.”
“Really?” Miller said. “Because it looks like you forgot to tell me you gave Kaylee a ride days before she disappeared. And you’ve got access to commercial refrigeration.”