by Stacy Green
“I’m on it,” Miller said. “While Liam’s getting her picture to the media, one of my deputies and I are going to show her picture to everyone already interviewed about Madison and Kaylee.”
“Good thinking. Catch them off guard.” Nikki unlocked her jeep and started the engine. “Keep me in the loop. I’m going to get Liam. We’re going to pay a visit to Amy Banks.”
Eighteen
Nikki and Liam stood outside the Banks home, shivering. Liam rang the doorbell a second time, while Nikki stared blankly at the expensive glass panes.
Liam turned around, concern on his face. “Everything okay?”
“We have a third victim on our watch,” Nikki said. “Everything is not okay.”
“That’s not what I meant. You seem distracted.”
Hardin’s insistence that her blood hadn’t been drawn tied Nikki in knots. She kept thinking about Mark Todd’s affair with Hardin’s wife. Would he have gone to such lengths to get revenge? He’d been certain of Mark’s guilt, hadn’t he? The alternative made her tremble with anxiety.
She felt Liam’s eyes on her. He was every bit as perceptive as Nikki. She didn’t want her team to think she wasn’t fully committed to the current case, and she felt terrible that her confusion might have cost a woman her life.
“I’m just trying to work out this guy’s motivation. If we’re right, he’s desperate now. That puts any number of people in danger.”
“As cold as it sounds, I hope it’s someone else,” Liam said. “If it’s some kind of domestic, perhaps this woman didn’t suffer as badly as Madison and Kaylee. The positioning of their bodies felt so much more brutal. But maybe I just don’t want to believe this woman’s dead because we haven’t caught our guy. Why in the hell isn’t she answering?” Liam hit the doorbell a third time.
Seconds later, the door cracked open, and a pair of frightened blue eyes stared up at them. The boy looked to be around Lacey’s age; his tousled blond hair and serious expression made him look like a mini-John.
“Hi there. It’s Bailey, right?” Nikki showed him her badge. “My name is Agent Hunt, and this is Agent Wilson. We know your mom and dad. Are they home?”
The door widened an inch, revealing the Kool-Aid stain around his mouth. “You’re trying to solve my sister’s murder.”
His soft voice made the words sound obscene.
“We are. Are your parents home?”
“My dad’s working. Mommy’s asleep.”
“Could you wake her up? It’s really very important we speak with her.”
“I already tried. She’s sleeping real hard.”
Nikki and Liam glanced at one another.
“Does she usually sleep that hard?” Liam asked.
“No.” Bailey’s voice trembled. “She said she was hurting all over and was going to take some medicine for it and go back to bed.”
Nikki glanced at Liam, and he spun on his heel and headed back to his car. Before he’d joined the team, Liam had worked in narcotics, and overdoses were a common occurrence. He still carried naloxone out of habit. Naloxone was capable of reversing the effects of an opioid if administered in time.
Liam jogged back to the door, the small black kit in his hand. “You know how to do it?”
Nikki nodded. She’d taken a class on the overdose drug a couple of years ago. She smiled down at Bailey, trying to hide her nerves from the little boy. If Amy had overdosed, time was of the essence. The drug only worked if the person’s heart hadn’t completely stopped. “Will you let me come in and check on your mom? Sometimes pain pills make people extra tired.”
Bailey unlocked the storm door and then held it open. He hugged his chest and looked between them. “She’ll be okay, right?”
“Why don’t you stay with Agent Wilson while I check on your mom.” She pointed to his sweatshirt and he looked down at the logo. “Vikings fan, huh? Agent Wilson had tickets on the fifty-yard line last fall.”
Bailey’s eyes widened, and Liam knelt down. “Dude, it was so cool.”
Nikki hurried up the stairs, already searching for her phone, content that Bailey was distracted. A superhero movie played on the television in the upstairs common area. A half-eaten Pop-Tart and a glass of juice had been left on the small table. Bailey must have been responsible for his breakfast.
The master bedroom was three times the size of Nikki’s. Amy Banks lay in the king-sized bed, blankets tangled around her and her eyes covered with a silk mask.
Nikki hit the emergency button on her phone and felt for a pulse on Amy’s cool wrist. Her heartbeat was weak and possibly irregular.
She took the mask off Amy’s eyes. “Amy, wake up.”
There was no response and Nikki could feel that Amy’s breathing had slowed.
“What did you take?” she said, aware that Amy couldn’t hear her.
She found an empty bottle tangled in the sheets: 40mg of oxycodone, prescribed to John Banks three months ago. Take one tablet in the morning for lower back pain.
“Christ.” Nikki shook Amy again, hoping to see movement behind her closed eyes. She thought the Bankses were having problems when she’d visited their house, worried their relationship wasn’t solid enough to deal with the strain of Madison’s death, but not for one moment did she imagine Amy was suicidal. How many pills had she taken? “Amy, come on. You have a little boy and husband who need you. Wake up,” she whispered.
Nikki opened the kit and grabbed one of the Narcan nasal sprays. She carefully inserted the nozzle and pressed the plunger.
Amy immediately coughed and gagged.
“Mrs. Banks, just relax,” Nikki said. “You’re going to be okay.”
Amy finally opened her eyes. She glared at Nikki. “The hell you doing in my house?”
“You overdosed on oxycodone. My partner is with your son. I’m going to let him know you’re okay.” Nikki hurried into the hallway. “Liam?”
Bailey appeared at the foot of the stairs. “Is my mom okay?”
“She’s awake. Give her a few minutes, and I’m sure you can come up.”
“We already called Mr. Banks,” Liam said. “He’s on his way. Paramedics, too.”
“Good.”
“I don’t need paramedics.” Her shrill voice carried into the hallway and down the stairs. “I’m not an addict. My child was murdered.”
“What happened to Mommy?” Bailey asked.
“She took too much medicine.” Nikki met him halfway up the stairs. He didn’t need to see his mother until she looked more like herself and had her head somewhat straight.
“Why?”
“She’s just really tired and made a mistake.”
Bailey seemed pacified, but his eyes were still worried. “When can I go see her?”
“I need to talk to her for just a few minutes. Then she’s all yours.”
The little boy grabbed her hand. “Don’t take very long.”
Nikki’s throat knotted. “I won’t.”
When she returned to the bedroom, Amy was sitting up on the bed, a silk robe wrapped tightly around her thin body. “I guess I’m supposed to say thank you.” She sighed. “I just needed to sleep.”
“They make pills for that.”
“My prescription ran out, and I have to go back to the doctor to get it filled. That’s the last thing I want to do right now.” Amy slowly made her way to the bed and sat down. “I just needed a couple of hours. John said one would help me relax, so I took a few extra.” Her eyes widened in horror. “Is Bailey okay? Does he know what happened?”
“He’s downstairs with Agent Wilson talking about the Vikings. I told him you took too much medicine by mistake. John’s on his way.”
Amy closed her eyes.
“You don’t want him here?” Nikki asked, sensing that John’s presence was the last thing Amy wanted.
“I don’t need a lecture from him,” she replied.
“I’m sure he’s going to be happy you’re all right.”
Amy’s cold
gaze met hers. “You don’t know him at all.”
“He’s not going to be happy you’re all right?” Marital problems and stress aside, Nikki couldn’t see John being that callous, especially now.
“I’m not discussing my marriage with you.” Amy walked shakily to her vanity unit.
“You’re grieving an unimaginable loss,” Nikki said. “It’s understandable that you’re having a tough time, and you and John should be able to console one another. No one else will feel the loss like you do. You’re lucky to have one another.”
Amy stared at her reflection, tears welling in her eyes. Her small body shook as she sobbed. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“Carry on.” The words came out harsher than Nikki intended. The woman’s grief was contagious, and Nikki’s heart ached for the two girls and their families.
Amy stared at her. “Carry on? That’s it?”
“Yes, uncaring as it sounds. We have no other choice when bad things happen. And you have a little boy who loves and needs you.”
“What if I can’t get it together for him? I don’t want to get lost in grief and fail him.”
“Then don’t,” Nikki said. “Go to grief counseling. Take Bailey with you. Use every resource available to help you both heal.”
Amy reached for a box of tissue and dried her tears. “Why did you come over in the first place? Is there news?”
Nikki didn’t want to set her off again, but she had to know the truth. “I came here to ask you why you visited Kaylee’s house a few weeks before the girls disappeared.” Amy turned back to the mirror and started brushing her wild hair. “You told me you didn’t know where she lived.”
Amy stiffened and turned around to face Nikki for a moment. “I asked her to stay away from Madison. She was a bad influence.”
“How so?”
“She got kicked off the volleyball team for fighting. She skipped school. I didn’t want Maddie around that.” She turned back around to continue with her hair.
“And what did Kaylee say when you asked her to leave Madison alone?”
“She said no,” Amy replied. “She had the gall to tell me I couldn’t buy everything in life. Like she was some sort of expert on relationships.”
“Did Madison know you did this?”
Amy yanked the brush through her hair, her hand trembling. “Kaylee said she wouldn’t tell her, as though she were giving me some sort of leniency. I was just trying to protect Madison. All it takes is one bad friend.” The hairbrush hit the vanity hard enough to rattle the perfume bottles. Amy put her head in her hands. “I still can’t believe this is happening.”
“I know,” Nikki said.
Amy’s bloodshot gaze met hers. “How did you do it?”
Nikki tried to mask the wave of pain that swept through her. “I did everything wrong. I tried to block everything out and get through school so I could leave. I shut out my friends. I learned to compartmentalize—to a fault. Don’t do things my way. Find a grief counselor and a group. There are several in the city. I can give you some referrals.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Mrs. Banks,” Nikki said. “I want to find out who did this, but I can’t if you don’t tell me everything.”
“I have.” Amy took a deep breath. “Thank you for everything. Will you please send Bailey upstairs?”
“Sure.” Nikki hesitated. “There’s one other thing, and I hate to do it now, but I’m here and I’d hate to bother you again.”
“What is it?”
Nikki told her about the woman found in Heritage Park. “I think there’s a connection to Madison and Kaylee, but we don’t even know this woman’s name. Would you be able to look at a photo?”
“Of her body?” Amy turned green.
“Just her face,” Nikki said. “There’s some frostbite, but it’s not too graphic.”
Amy still looked uncertain, but she nodded.
Nikki opened the photo Liam had texted her earlier and zoomed in so that just the woman’s face showed. She turned her phone to face Amy.
“No.” Relief colored Amy’s voice. “I don’t recognize her.”
“Thank you. I’ll be in touch.” Nikki headed downstairs. Bailey jumped up from the bottom step and hugged her. “Thanks for helping my mom.”
If something happened to Nikki, she felt sure that Tyler would take care of their daughter. She would be loved and given all the help she needed. Nikki had a gut feeling that Bailey wouldn’t be so lucky if something happened to Amy. She hugged him back, and then handed him one of her cards. “Put this somewhere safe, and if you need anything or want to talk, call me. Any time, okay?”
Bailey looked at the card as though she’d handed him a great treasure.
“Go on and see your mom. Agent Wilson and I will hang around outside for your dad.”
Bailey shot off upstairs.
Liam closed the front door and Nikki shouldered into her coat. Bright sun glinted off the snow and made her eyes hurt.
A burly paramedic was trudging up the sidewalk.
“She overdosed on oxycodone,” Nikki said. “I administered a single dose of naloxone. She seems stable.”
“Nice job,” the medic said. “We’ll check her over and make sure she doesn’t need to go to the hospital.”
“Go easy on her. She’s just lost her daughter, and she didn’t want the paramedics coming in.” Nikki waited until the medic went inside and then turned to Liam. “It was John’s oxycodone. Prescribed a few months ago.”
“I heard her yelling at you,” Liam said. “She sounds like a lovely person.”
“Grief makes a person lash out,” Nikki said. “Thanks for distracting Bailey.”
Liam grinned. “I did more than that. He said his dad had a neon Vikings sign in the garage, and of course I just had to see it. The Bankses have a standard standing freezer that’s stocked full. No way the girls would have fit into it.”
“Thank God. Getting a warrant for their freezer would have put Amy over the edge.” Nikki could see a silver Lexus come to an abrupt stop in front of the house. “That’s John.” Nikki headed down the steps. “Amy apparently told Kaylee to stay away from Madison during her little visit. That’s it.”
“You believe her?”
“For now.”
John jogged down the sidewalk and slipped on a patch of ice. Liam caught his arm before he fell.
“Thanks.” John’s face was ashen, with dark circles around his eyes. “What happened?”
“She’s okay.” Nikki glanced at Liam. John was likely to be more candid if Nikki spoke to him alone. “You mind if I speak with John privately?”
Liam gave her a knowing look. “Sure. I want to talk to the paramedics before we leave anyway.” He headed back into the house.
“Bailey’s with Amy right now, along with the paramedics,” she said. “She overdosed on your oxycodone.”
His eyes widened. “I told her to start with half a pill. She’s never taken painkillers.”
“She wanted to sleep, so she took more than one. Luckily, Liam carries naloxone. I don’t know if the ambulance would have got to her in time.”
“Christ, she’s never done anything like that.”
“She seems vulnerable, John, I can’t imagine what she’s going through,” Nikki said. “Just be there for her. I think she might need to talk to someone.”
“I know,” John said. “It’s just hard to think about breaking down in front of a stranger.”
“Because you were taught to be strong and in control.” Nikki smiled sadly. “But nothing prepares us for a loss like this.”
John’s eyes misted over and he cleared his throat. “Why did you come over this morning? Is there news on Maddie’s case?”
Telling him about Amy’s conversation with Kaylee might drive a further wedge between the two, but John deserved to know. And hearing it from Nikki might soften the blow, as well as any potential fallout with Amy.
“Kaylee’s neighbor has a ca
mera that captures part of her front walk. We found out Amy went to Kaylee’s house a few weeks before the girls were taken. She wasn’t there long,” Nikki explained. “But she said she warned Kaylee to stay away from Madison and Kaylee refused.”
“You think Amy had something to do with this?” John shook his head. “No way. She would never hurt anyone.”
Would she pay someone else to hurt Kaylee? Nikki might be able to use the security footage to get a warrant for Amy’s financial records to see if had made any large withdrawals since the girls’ disappearance, but she still couldn’t see her being involved with Madison’s murder. Her grief was too raw. “I don’t think she would, but I still had to ask. She didn’t even tell us she went there.”
“Why would she keep that a secret?” John shook his head. “I just don’t understand.”
“Pride,” Nikki said. “Listen, don’t let this come between you two. Not telling us was wrong, but it ultimately didn’t affect the outcome.”
“I don’t have the energy to fight with her,” John said. “Especially after today. If she did something foolish and—” He looked down at the ground and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know what I’ll do.”
Nikki awkwardly patted his arm. “Try to be there for her. Make sure she knows how much you love her. And let her be there for you.”
John squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry you had to come back to Stillwater, but I’m glad you’re here.”
The wind gusted, and Nikki caught the sweet scent of his cologne. She pulled her hand away and took a step back. “I do have a couple of questions.”
Disappointment flickered through John’s eyes. “Sure.”
Nikki told him about her conversation with Bobby Vance—minus the part about John’s ego. His bragging and embellishing his role that night hadn’t surprised her. “Bobby remembers there being tension between you and his dad.”
“I don’t remember that day, but I’m sure there was. Bob suffered from severe depression. He couldn’t find a medication that helped.” John’s eyes misted. “Maddie was always curious about crime stories. When the Innocence Project announced they were reviewing the case, Maddie got really into following it. She was thinking about law school.” John’s teeth dug into his lower lip. “So much ahead of her.”