The Girls in the Snow (Nikki Hunt #1) - Stacy Green Page 0,96
remember his parents owning any other property, but a lot of things changed in twenty years. “Check under Ronald and Madge Banks, too. His parents live in Florida, but they might have a residence somewhere around here as well.”
Liam tried to get into the Bankses’ laptop, but the password protection locked him out. “Fucking Mac. I’ll need a warrant to get their tech people to unlock this.”
Nikki searched the cabinets and drawers looking for anything that might point her in the right direction. John’s desk and office were suspiciously clean. No sign of his pictures, but her gut said he had them stashed somewhere.
“Agent Hunt? Sergeant Miller?” The big deputy gestured to the front door. “A friend of the family is here.”
Mindy Vance, wearing only sweatpants and a baggy sweater, stood in the doorway, shivering. Worry lined her round face. “Are Amy and Bailey all right?”
“Amy’s seriously injured, and John has taken Bailey. He’s in serious danger.”
Mindy sagged against the doorway. “I told her he was a ticking bomb. Amy’s gone through so much already.”
“Did Amy or John know you were coming over?” Nikki asked.
“Amy did,” Mindy said. “She wanted me to get Bailey and take her to her parents. She wouldn’t tell me why, but I could tell she was scared. She sounded much worse than she did yesterday.”
Nikki motioned for her to come inside and led her into the kitchen, away from the sea of cops. “You talked to her yesterday?”
Mindy sat down on one of the tall barstools. “She called to tell me that they had confirmed more details for a memorial for Madison. She wanted to make sure I’d heard about it.”
“How did she sound?” Miller had joined them.
“Exhausted. Almost robotic. But that’s what you do when something awful happens, isn’t it? You put your head down and go through the necessary motions.” She glanced at Nikki and then quickly looked down at her hands.
“You’ve known the family for a long time.” Nikki waved Liam over from the computer. “You remember Agent Wilson.” Mindy nodded. “Did Amy ever give you the impression she was afraid of John?”
Mindy tugged at her graying hair. “Afraid, no. But John’s a powerful man. He likes to put on a certain façade for everyone, and he would certainly get frustrated if she didn’t go along with everything he set out.”
“Bobby told me about the argument over John’s heroics the night Mark attacked me.” Nikki worked to keep the venom from her tone. “It sounded like Amy embarrassed him.”
“That’s right,” Mindy said. “I’d forgotten. She said something about his embellishing every time he told the story. My husband took John outside to calm down. Things were never the same between them after that, and they just got worse.”
“What happened between your husband and John?” Miller asked.
“John convinced Bobby to come work for him at Roan. He promised him a guaranteed number of clients, which meant the opportunity for large bonuses. That’s not how it worked out, and Bobby felt he’d been misled.”
“John didn’t agree?” Had he ever liked to admit when he’d been wrong? Nikki wondered.
“He said Bobby wasn’t the salesman he’d once been. Bobby suffered from severe depression, and that just made it worse. He couldn’t afford to just quit his job since he hadn’t worked at Roan long enough to have much severance. And then he was gone. He couldn’t take it anymore.” Mindy wiped the tears off her cheeks. “John and Amy came to the funeral, and I was cordial. But I’d only spoken to her a handful of times since, until Madison went missing.”
“Did she ever talk about John hurting their daughter?” Nikki had suspected Mr. Vance had died by suicide, but how much of his decision could be attributed to the secrets he might have kept for John?
“My God, no. John Banks is a lot of things, but he loved Maddie like his own. She called him Daddy and thought the sun rose and set on the man.” Mindy’s lips pressed into a tight line. “But you said he hurt Amy, and I never would have imagined him doing such a thing. Why do bad things always happen to good people?”
“I wish I had an answer,” Nikki said. “Can you think of any place John might have taken Bailey?”
Mindy twisted a stray sweater thread around her finger. “Well, the boys always liked to camp. Fishing, not hunting. My husband didn’t like guns, and John wasn’t going to get that dirty.”