The Girls in the Snow (Nikki Hunt #1) - Stacy Green Page 0,23
new to look at. Nikki couldn’t think about that right now. “Finding the person responsible for the girls’ deaths is my priority.”
“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?”