The Girls in the Snow (Nikki Hunt #1) - Stacy Green Page 0,88
asks if anyone wants to have a turn with you.”
Nikki’s damp hands slipped on the metal chair.
“He said you wouldn’t wake up for a while. He’d taken your clothes off and you didn’t even flinch. We didn’t believe him at first, but he had a Polaroid camera, and there were… pictures.”
The sound of the Polaroid camera ejecting a picture had been the odd buzzing noise that haunted her dreams for so long. Such a distinct sound, and yet Nikki had never allowed herself to recognize it. Did John still have the pictures he’d taken of her?
“Did he… do anything to me?” Nikki gripped the side of the chair.
“He said he didn’t, but he wanted to see what happened if someone else tried. I convinced them that I’d known you the longest so I should get to go first.”
“You did what?”
“It was me or John’s buddies, who all seemed to think it was a great idea. I had to play along, so I locked the door and said I was going to take my time. Then I started trying to wake you up. Every now and then, you would mumble something, but I couldn’t get you coherent. I went to pick you up so I could sneak us out of the window. John started knocking and yelling. Then you started screaming, and I went over to tell you it was all right, and your eyes opened and you thought…”
Nikki hadn’t had vodka in years, but she tasted it now, her senses overloading. “Why would you do that?”
“Because it was the right thing to do. I should have had the guts to stand up to him in front of his friends and call the cops instead of trying to hide from him. Anyway, you know what happened after that. John kicked my ass and I ran.”
“His friends never—”
Vodka vomit on the grass. Shouts and laughter. John’s angry voice rising above the others.
Nikki had been so angry, screaming at John. Had she smacked him? Or someone else?
“His friends had his back and covered their own asses, but they never touched you,” Mark said. “I was at your house that night because I wanted to tell you what happened, even if you didn’t believe me. I wanted you to know what John was really like.” Mark shook his head. “I made a mistake waiting until you came home. I didn’t care what you thought about me, but I wanted to make sure you were safe. I waited in your old barn, but I’d been hurt pretty badly by John and I passed out. The gunshots woke me up. I had to bust the glass in your front door to get inside. I heard her crying.” He paused. “I’m sorry.”
Nikki’s heart was in her mouth thinking of her mother, but she had to keep going; this was just another interview, just another suspect. “I’m fine,” she said, and Mark nodded.
“I ran up the stairs and found your mom. She was bleeding from her side, but she was still alive. I tried to stop the bleeding and stepped in the blood. It must have got her lung because she was spitting up blood and trying to talk.”
Nikki tamped the image of her mother down and focused on Mark. “What was she saying?”
“I couldn’t understand her, but I think she was trying to warn me he was still in the room. He came up from behind me and hit me in the head. I woke up with the gun in my hand. Back of my head was busted open. I went downstairs to find the phone. Then you came inside.”
“Did you touch anything?”
“Downstairs? Probably. My head was ringing, and I couldn’t walk straight.”
Just as she’d feared. His blood trail had never been mentioned, much less photographed for evidence.
“What motive would I have for killing your parents?” Mark said.
“You wanted to punish me for what happened at the party.” Nikki felt like she was coming apart from the inside. It’s the motive she’d held onto for years. “You climbed in the window I’d left open.”
“There wasn’t a stitch of trace evidence linking me to your room because I wasn’t in it. My DNA isn’t going to be on the clothes that are being tested.”
“If that happened with John at the party, why didn’t you say something to the cops?”
“I did,” Mark said. “But Hardin didn’t believe me, said I tried to take advantage of a girl blitzed out of her mind. I knew he wouldn’t listen, since I’d