The Girls in the Snow (Nikki Hunt #1) - Stacy Green Page 0,36
the playground in kindergarten.” Nikki blocked out the unpleasant image of Lacey doing the same.
“Hell, I kissed three or four girls by first grade,” he said. “But when it’s my little girl, nah. That ain’t happening.”
Nikki laughed, and Miller joined her.
“I’m serious,” he said. “I told her that’s how a person gets really sick and ends up missing a bunch of school.”
“Did that work?”
“For now,” he said.
Nikki’s laughter died in her throat. A large, white canvas had been mounted onto the side of a dilapidated barn. “Free Mark Todd” sprawled across the sign, the red spray paint a vibrant shock of color against the winter landscape.
“You okay?”
“I have to be,” Nikki said, composing herself. She thought about Rory’s insistence that his brother was innocent and wondered if he’d painted the sign. “What do you know about Mark’s younger brother?”
“Rory? Not much, which means he stays out of trouble.”
“I ran into him at the gas station yesterday.” Nikki recounted last night’s embarrassing events. “He was far nicer to me than most people would have been.”
“He’s grown up in the shadow of his brother’s case, seeing his parents spend their lives trying to free Mark. You’d think it would have made him bitter, but he doesn’t have that in him.”
“How are his parents?” Nikki remembered Mrs. Todd as petite and friendly. She’d enjoyed Mark having his friends over. Mr. Todd had been reserved and usually kept to himself, but they’d always seemed like a close family.
Miller shifted in the seat. “Far as I know, they’re fine. They moved to an apartment in town a few years ago. I heard Rory bought the house.”
Nikki flushed, trying not to think of how good it had felt to lean on Rory’s chest and breathe in his scent. She rarely allowed herself to think like this, to be so vulnerable, even with Tyler during their best times. He was good and kind, dependable. Nikki could always count on him to be there for her, but she’d never experienced the sparks other couples described. Nikki had always assumed she lacked the ability to truly connect with anyone. She’d trusted Tyler enough to tell him the details about the night her parents were murdered, but she hadn’t been able to let her emotional guard down. He’d pressed her to tell him how she felt and what she was going through, but Nikki could never manage it. It wasn’t his fault, but Tyler couldn’t possibly understand.
But there was something different about Rory. They had both experienced the same thing, albeit from different sides. They’d both been living under a media microscope after the murders, they both understood what it was like to have their family torn apart. No matter how hard he tried, Tyler would never be able to understand what that had been like.
“There’s another thing I wanted to mention,” Miller said. “I would have brought it up back at the office, but you’d just dealt with Newport.”
“What is it?”
“Ricky Fillinger works for Rory Todd.”
Eleven
Ricky had been a football star during Nikki’s first two years in high school. His speed made him one of the fastest running backs in their conference, and he’d gone on to play at a community college until the knee injury ended his football career. The school rumor mill had claimed Ricky kept a list of all his sexual encounters. Nikki had been warned to steer clear of him when she was younger, and it seemed perhaps that times hadn’t changed.
A man in heavy work overalls looked up from the half-built deck of yet another cookie-cutter condo. He looked warily at them, and Nikki wondered if he was well-versed in dealing with cops. Ricky was the epitome of small-town athletic hero gone to seed: thirty pounds heavier but somehow appeared more solid than flabby. His sandy blond hair had receded a good inch from his forehead, and his ruddy skin was damaged from the sun.
“Hey, Ricky, you got a minute?” Miller asked.
Ricky stuck his hammer in his belt and puffed his chest. “Not really.”
“We have some questions about Kaylee—”
“I already answered those.” If Ricky was grieving Kaylee’s death, he hid it well.
“Not mine,” Nikki said.
“Who are you?”
“Special Agent Nikki Hunt with the FBI.”
Ricky grunted and finally hopped off the deck. He still had the piercing blue eyes Nikki and every other girl in school had swooned over. “Rory Todd’s my boss. He hired me even though I’ve got a record,” Ricky said. “That don’t happen very often.”