The Girls in the Snow (Nikki Hunt #1) - Stacy Green Page 0,6
door. “Are you ready for us, sir?”
“Yes, of course.” His voice was gruffer than Nikki remembered.
She stepped around Miller and barely managed to keep a neutral expression. Harvey Hardin had grown at least two pants sizes since Nikki last saw him. He had always been stout, but he had to be pushing three-hundred-and-fifty pounds. His black hair had turned a pretty shade of silver, but the excess weight in his face gave him a youthful appearance.
He hefted his bulk from the chair. “Nicole, thank you for coming to help us. Have a seat.”
Nikki froze for a moment. She hadn’t been called Nicole since she left Stillwater. She sat down, and Miller took the seat beside her. “I hope my team can help.”
“Your record as an FBI agent is impressive,” Hardin said.
“First-hand experience to the criminal mind helps.” She clutched the warm coffee cup she was holding. Her fingers still hurt from the cold. She’d never had an issue with Hardin, but something about him always set her on edge. As a kid, she’d figured it was her aversion to authority figures. The people who should have protected her and failed.
“You see the protesters?”
“Freedom of speech.”
“Those bleeding hearts at the Innocence Project are absolutely certain we railroaded the guy, and they’re going to help get him out of prison by testing some tiny speck of DNA.” Hardin’s mouth curled in disgust. “You know that’s not true, right?”
Nikki had only learned about the Innocence Project getting involved in Mark Todd’s appeal a few days before Thanksgiving. She’d spoken with the new district attorney, who assured her that his staff was handling the defense’s request. He’d told her to enjoy the holidays and not to worry about it and Nikki had done her best to put it out of her mind and focus on more important things. But she still hadn’t heard when the judge planned to rule on getting the DNA tested, and she wouldn’t have come to Stillwater if she’d known the appeal had become such a hot topic.
She nodded. “I’d rather focus on Madison and Kaylee, if you don’t mind. That’s what I’m here for.”
Hardin’s chair groaned as he leaned back, his meaty jowls making him look like a dangerously overfed bulldog. Nikki worried his uniform buttons might become tiny projectiles at any moment. “I just want you to understand you’re going to get hit with questions, especially if Mark Todd’s younger brother finds out you’re in town.”
“I’m not worried about it,” Nikki said. “I’m only here to do my job.”
Hardin’s meaty hands rested on his stomach. “So, you married? Kids?”
“Divorced. Too busy for kids.”
Sergeant Miller cleared his throat. “The families will be here soon.”
Nikki was thankful for the interruption. “Kaylee and Madison disappeared six weeks ago?”
“Yes. Kaylee was at Madison’s home. It backs up to the woods and a nature trail that’s close to the lake,” Miller said. “Madison texted a friend who lives on the other side of the park to let him know they were coming over and taking the trail. It’s about a ten, fifteen-minute walk. They never showed.”
“Just vanished,” Hardin added. “Madison’s cell phone was turned off, and it’s never come back on again. No GPS. Her phone records don’t show anything suspicious.”
“What about Kaylee’s phone?”
“She didn’t have one.”
“A teenager without a cell phone? Really?”
“Her mother confiscated it a few weeks before,” Miller explained. “Kaylee was a bit of a handful. Got caught this summer sneaking out and partying with people she had no business being around.”
Hardin smiled and winked at her, but his eyes were flat. He’d busted more than one underaged party Nikki had been attending.
“You didn’t find anything in her phone records? No texts to suspicious people? What about her social media?”
“Kaylee only had a few contacts in her phone: her mom, Madison, her mom’s work. But like the sheriff said, she didn’t have it for three weeks. She only had Instagram, and it was set to private. She deleted all her other accounts last year.”
“I can’t fathom a teenage girl going without a phone for three weeks,” Nikki said. “Did Kaylee have a part-time job?”
“Sort of. She babysat for some of the neighbors,” Miller replied. “Her mom Jessica barely keeps her car running and she works long hours. Kaylee didn’t have a ride to work anywhere else.”
“But she did have cash?”
“Presumably.”
“Then she had a cheap phone somewhere,” Nikki said. “Pay as you go. No way she’s cut off from friends like that.”