The Girls in the Snow (Nikki Hunt #1) - Stacy Green Page 0,100

phone and then have it printed out and framed?”

Bailey nodded. “I think there were lots of those. But there were square ones. Like thick and kind of old-looking.”

How did she describe a Polaroid picture to a kid his age? The technology would seem ancient to him. “Did they look like the picture had been printed on a thick, plastic-like white material? Like the actual picture was framed in white?”

He nodded. “Those were weird. Mommy was really upset about those.”

“Did she tell you that?”

“No,” he said. “But she kept picking them up and staring, like she was trying to figure something out. Mommy saw me in the door and made me go back to my room. Then I heard Maddie come home. Mommy told her to come here.”

Nikki worked to keep her face and tone neutral. Amy had shown Madison the pictures. “Did you hear what they talked about?”

“I heard Mommy crying and Maddie yell. Not at Mommy, though. Just like really surprised. And Mommy kept asking about her.”

“Who’s her?” Nikki kept waiting for him to tell her he might have seen a picture of her in John’s box. Maybe she was giving herself too much credit, since twenty years had gone by. She definitely didn’t look anywhere near sixteen now.

“I don’t know,” Bailey said. “She just kept asking Maddie if she was sure that was her. She kept saying yes,” he said, playing with the end of his mittens, concentrating hard in an attempt to remember. He reminded her of Lacey when she’d had a bad day at school and was making sure not to miss a single detail. “And then Maddie came back and told me everything was going to be okay. But it wasn’t. She was angry every time she saw Daddy. And then she and Kaylee were gone.” His eyes welled up.

Nikki’s heart broke for the little boy. “I know it’s hard to understand, but sometimes really bad things happen, and it’s no one’s fault.” She took his hand and led him to the jeep.

Forty-Four

Bailey finally agreed to watching a movie on the DVD player in the jeep as long as Nikki drove it up to the cabin. She needed to examine the cabin and Bailey wanted to be able to see her. He was still scared, and with the visits that Nikki had made to Bailey’s house in the last few days, she was the person he felt the most comfortable around. After updating the APB on John, she enlisted one of the Mille Lacs County deputies to keep an eye on him and joined Liam and Courtney inside the cabin.

“I can’t imagine multiple families staying here.” Courtney’s equipment took up half the floor space. “Even if there are three bedrooms. Where do the kids sleep?”

“Didn’t you ever go camping as a kid?” Liam asked. “Who cared about sleep?”

“I prefer indoor activities, thank you very much.”

“Kids are usually stuck sleeping wherever there’s room,” Nikki said. “Probably on air mattresses.”

In addition to the three bedrooms and single bathroom, the cabin had a decent-sized kitchen space that opened into a carpeted living area.

“Smells like mothballs and dust.” Courtney ran her gloved finger along the dirty windowsill. “I think it’s been a while since anyone stayed here.”

Nikki looked through the bag of groceries John had left on the counter. Fruit, cereal, bread, plus ham and cheese. He’d also left two gallons of water and a couple of blankets Bailey said his dad always kept in the truck.

“He never intended to hurt Bailey,” Nikki said. “He likely took him on the spur of the moment and then panicked. So, he gives him enough to keep him warm and fed for a couple of days and then leaves.”

“Counting on you to find Bailey quickly,” Liam said. “That’s a risk.”

“He must have known we’d find the cabin in his financials. He’s the sole owner, right, Court?”

“Bought the other guy out after Robert Vance’s death. The third friend, Larry, moved to Illinois to stay with family a couple of years ago. He’s got pretty bad Parkinson’s and didn’t use the cabin anymore. Says he hasn’t spoken to John since then.”

“He locked the Tahoe,” Nikki said. “But it does have OnStar. It would have taken a warrant, but we could have located him using their GPS. John surely knew that.”

“Agent Hunt?” One of the county deputies ducked his head into the doorway. “We got into the storage shed. Something you guys need to see.”

Dread weighed her down as they followed the deputy out back