The Girls in the Snow: A completely unputdownable crime thriller (Nikki Hunt Book 1)

by Stacy Green

  Her voice threatened to break as she explained about the noise in her dreams, the fuzzy bits and pieces that flared up after she came back to Stillwater, and the building panic that she’d forgotten something crucial.

  “John’s friends did nothing. They never told the truth.” Nikki’s hands balled into fists. “I’m going to contact Mark’s attorney and let him know she can back up his version of events.”

  “Thank you,” Rory said.

  “I can’t stop thinking about those pictures. If John didn’t destroy them, they’re still out there.”

  “He wouldn’t have kept them,” Rory said. “They’re too incriminating.”

  Nikki didn’t mention the box of pictures John’s son had found. Those pictures were more than trophies. They helped him relive the moments he craved. Nikki understood why people did terrible things and it meant she couldn’t tell herself the lies that Rory did, the ones that might help her sleep at night.

  And Mark’s story fell in perfectly with Brianna’s information. Was there more to John and Amy’s argument? Was Kaylee in the pictures? Or Madison? She felt sick at the thought, but at this point, she had to believe that John was capable of anything. Had Madison somehow found out and that’s why he’d killed the girls?

  “I’ve spent almost twenty years pushing people away so that I didn’t get too close. Even my ex-husband. Mark and I had been friends, and after what happened, I felt like I couldn’t trust anyone.” Nikki couldn’t believe how badly she’d misjudged her ex-boyfriend. “How could John have done that? How could I not have known what he was capable of?” She shook her head in disgust. “I was wrong the whole time.”

  Rory sighed. “When I started high school, I was so grateful to be just another face in the crowd. But people always asked about Mark, and most either wanted to know more about the murders, or they wanted nothing to do with me at all.”

  “That’s my fault,” Nikki said.

  “It’s not,” he replied. “Anyone in your position would have thought the same thing. The police failed Mark. You’re a cop—can you imagine being so single-minded that you didn’t look under every rock for evidence?”

  Nikki thought about Liam’s accusation that she’d been trying to come up with a reason for John’s possible actions instead of just admitting he was a cold-blooded criminal. “That’s one of the reasons we work cases in teams. Personal agendas cause mistakes.” She couldn’t stop thinking about one of Mark’s initial comments. “Mark talked about how prison gossip travels, and one of the guys I’d locked up called me an ice-cold bitch.”

  She’d obsessed over the words the entire drive from the correctional facility. They were nothing special, yet they cut her deeply. They kept running through her mind, only in John’s voice.

  You stupid ice-cold bitch. You’ll pay for this.

  “I think John Banks killed my parents. And I think he might be the person who killed these girls.”

  Thirty-Seven

  Running on little sleep, Nikki consumed two energy drinks quickly the next morning. Her entire system felt jittery. She’d spoken with the district attorney and the new information she’d gathered hadn’t shocked Mathews as much as her change of heart. His hands were mostly tied until the DNA results were back, but Nikki now felt like she was doing the right thing for Mark. And for Rory too.

  Nikki could barely concentrate on the road. She whipped through traffic at a reckless pace, white-knuckling the steering wheel. How could Hardin live with what he’d done? He’d put an innocent man in jail, and he’d left a killer in Stillwater and now three girls were dead. Marching into his office and accusing him wasn’t the most professional way to handle things, but Nikki wasn’t sure she could remain professional much longer.

  She barely acknowledged the front desk officer when he buzzed her in, heading straight for Hardin’s office. “You’re a liar.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I’ve been to see Mark and I know everything.”

  “Mark Todd’s a liar.” Hardin didn’t look away from his computer.

  “No, you lied, and don’t you dare say it’s because you were protecting me.”

  “I really don’t like your tone.”

  “I really don’t like that my parents’ killer is still out there, and an innocent man is in prison thanks to you.” Nikki made sure her voice carried into the hall. “Tell me, did you consciously decide to fuck Mark Todd over because he’d been with your wife, or did all that happen naturally?”

  “You are out of line.”

  Nikki slammed a file onto his desk. “You ran a shitty investigation and buried evidence. The district attorney called Patsy Moran this morning, and she happily connected him with Deputy Anderson. Where are the pictures taken of the blood prints in the hall? Or the kitchen chair that Mark held onto when he went in search of a phone? Their disappearance was the last straw for Anderson.”

  Hardin’s face turned red, his double chin wobbling. His meaty hands clenched into fists, and the anger simmered in his dark eyes. “I have no idea.”

  “You had no real scientific training, and yet you convinced the sheriff that some evidence wasn’t worth testing. You ignored Nadine Johnson’s report of a muscle car racing down the road in the middle of the night.”

  “Big deal,” he said. “It was the weekend.”

  “John Banks drove a ’68 Shelby Mustang, and you knew it,” Nikki replied. “I know Mark told you about the pictures of me and that he thought I might have been drugged, and that’s why you buried my blood test, isn’t it?”

  Hardin pointed a fat finger at her. “I suggest you stop right there. I’m not going to have my career destroyed—”

  “If John Banks has kept that up all these years, how’s that going to look for you?”

  “You actually think John killed your parents? That’s ridiculous. Maybe I made mistakes, but we got our man. I stand by that conviction.”

  “You should know I intend to speak on Mark’s behalf when the DNA exonerates him,” Nikki said, and stormed out.

  Thirty-Eight

  Telling Hardin off left Nikki exhilarated. He talked a big game, but he’d make a terrible poker player: he refused to make eye contact and constantly shifted his posture.

  Now that Nikki had faced up to John’s lies, she wondered if he was the person Kaylee had gone to see. Was John the person Kaylee had had sex with before she died?

  “Agent Hunt.” Miller jogged down the hall to catch up with her. “Agent Wilson’s in my office. He’s found something you really need to see.”

  “What’s going on?” Nikki closed the door to Miller’s office.

  Liam paced back and forth. “The loading dock at Roan Pharmaceuticals is on the same side of the building as John’s corner office. I noticed the emergency exit door when you and I first went to Roan. The security videos we were provided to confirm John’s alibi were of the main entrance and the employee entrance on the opposite side of the building. John used the main entrance when he came into the office that day, and he left from it that evening. I walked around the campus yesterday and finally realized the emergency exit near John’s office is actually a stairwell that leads right down to the loading dock. Look.”

  Nikki took his phone and looked at the pictures he’d already cued up. The emergency stairwell was clearly visible through the building’s enormous glass windows. The stairwell opened onto the side of the big dock. Anyone who used the exit just had to walk down a short set of concrete stairs to reach the grounds. “Did you request the security videos?”

  Liam nodded. “The security firm Roan employs said I needed a warrant. I’m waiting for it, but I talked to a couple of the warehouse guys who’d come out for a smoke. John’s been known to use the stairwell in the middle of the day when the weather isn’t terrible. He’s friendly to the workers and always returns in about thirty to forty-five minutes. A couple of other people confirmed he walks around the campus.”

  “Madison and Kaylee disappeared on Saturday,” Ni
kki said. “She texted Miles Hanson at 12:45 p.m. that they were heading to his house. A jogger spotted them roughly five minutes later, not far from the Bankses’ home. The receipt for John’s lunch meeting is marked as 1:15 p.m. There’s no way he’s the person who picked the girls up.”

  “No, there isn’t,” Liam said. “But it doesn’t mean he didn’t kill them.”

  “Kill them?” Miller said, astonished. “We have reports that he had affairs, but we don’t have anything that suggests he’s capable of murder.”

  Nikki sank into a chair. “No, but I think he might have murdered my parents.”

  “What?” Miller asked. “Why would you think—”

  “I’ve spoken with Mark Todd.” Nikki looked at Liam.

  “What?” Liam asked.

  “I’ve been through the evidence that they’re using to retry Mark, and his story suggests that John is lying, that he came to my house that night. It also suggests that not all of the women in his photos were there willingly.”

  “Jesus,” Liam said, looking at Nikki. Nikki knew she didn’t need to say that she was one of those girls. “If Madison and Kaylee were going to confront him about those pictures, he would have panicked—”

  “And if anybody else got a closer look at them, John may have been connected to my parents’ case. Especially with the retrial happening,” Nikki replied.

  “The news talked about it as early as October,” Miller said. “Mark’s parents told a local reporter they were speaking with the Innocence Project. They believed they’d found evidence to reopen the case. I remember because Hardin was livid.”

  “So, John’s already nervous and then the girls confront him about the pictures,” Liam said. “Kaylee’s murder is quick, but he takes his anger out on Madison.”

  “And the initials Madison tried to scratch into her arm?” Liam asked.

  “I have no idea,” Nikki said.

  “Where does Janelle fit into this?”

  “She worked at the club he frequented. He could have easily found out she was new and down on her luck. He uses her to mislead us, but he has some fun along the way.” Disgust rolled through her.

  “We need to get his fingerprints,” Liam said.

  “And his DNA,” Miller said. “But without a court order—”

  “That will take too long,” Nikki said. “But I have an idea.”

  Thirty-Nine

  Nikki sent a text to Courtney and told her to expect to have John’s fingerprints by the end of the day. She fidgeted in the passenger seat and wished she’d taken the jeep. Miller drove too slowly. She needed to get control of her emotions. John would sense her weakness and exploit it. Nikki had to approach him just as she would any other suspect. They had enough circumstantial evidence to scare John into talking, and she intended to push him into letting his guard down and making a mistake.

  “How do you want to play this?” Miller asked as they approached the Bankses’ front door.

  “You lead with Liam’s information. I’ll follow up about the pictures.” Nikki jammed her hands in her coat pockets. She couldn’t allow John to see her anger.

  He finally opened the door after Miller rang the bell three times. The reek of vodka threatened Nikki’s gag reflex.

  John looked at them in confusion. “You have news.”

  “Developments,” Miller said.

  “Is Bailey in bed?” Nikki asked.

  “He’s upstairs watching TV.”

  “Where’s Amy?”

  “She’s resting in the living room.”

  “Good. She should hear this too.” Nikki held her breath as she walked past him into the living room.

  Amy looked up from the couch, her eyes glazed. “Agent Hunt?”

  “Did you take more painkillers?”

  “No, just my sleeping pills.” Amy slowly sat up. Her hair was matted, and she hadn’t showered in a couple of days.

  Miller caught Nikki’s eye and then looked at the kitchen. Empty takeout boxes covered the counter, empty liquor bottles in the sink. Nikki clenched her fists to keep herself from saying something she’d regret. “Sergeant Miller has some questions for you.”

  “Yeah? Does he have information about who killed our daughter?” John took a long drink from the porcelain Disney World souvenir cup on the table next to him.

  “Some of Roan’s dock workers said you like to use the emergency stairwell and take long walks,” Miller said. “We’ve got a warrant for the security footage from the Saturday Kaylee and Madison disappeared.”

  John stilled. “You won’t find me on it.”

  “Maybe not, but you’ve lied to us so many times I don’t know what to believe,” Nikki said. “I heard you like to take pictures.”

  John stared at her a beat too long. “Doesn’t everyone?”

  Tension simmered in the air between them. “Did you take Polaroids of me at the party when I was knocked out?” Nikki made sure to emphasize the last two words. She was counting on John losing his temper.

  “What are you talking about?” John shifted in his chair, not meeting her gaze.

  “You took pictures and showed them to your buddies. Asked them if they wanted a turn. Mark got to me before anyone else could.”

  Contempt shined in his eyes. “Who told you that ridiculous story?”

  “Mark Todd.”

  “Come on, Nik. Why would I do that?” John’s bitter laugh sent a fresh wave of anger through Nikki. She thought of Mark Todd in his prison uniform, somehow able to seek justice without lashing out at her like she deserved. The man had spent half his life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and it had all started because Nikki had trusted the man sitting in front of her.

  “Maybe I was a trial run to see if the liquid ecstasy mixed with alcohol was as bad as people were beginning to say it was.”

  “I never did liquid x.”

  “Doesn’t mean you didn’t have it,” Nikki said. “It was legal then.”

  “This is too much.” Amy’s shrill voice shook. “You’re supposed to find my daughter’s killer, not get all caught up in Mark Todd’s appeal. I knew this would happen.”

  Nikki glared at her. “John tried to pick up Kaylee at a bar this summer. He wanted to take her picture.”

  “I already know about that,” Amy said flatly. “We worked through it.”

  “Your husband tried to pick up a teenage girl, and you worked through that?” Nikki had hoped to rattle Amy’s faith in John with the information about Kaylee. How could she have known and said nothing to the police?

  “He didn’t realize she was underage,” Amy snapped. “He didn’t even know her name until Madison brought her to the house after volleyball practice.”

  “That’s why you went to Kaylee’s,” Nikki said. “To buy her silence.”

  Amy’s small frame vibrated with anger. “Yes, I did try to pay the girl to keep quiet. When Maddie brought her over, John freaked out. I finally got it out of him that he’d been drinking with some work people in Hudson and made a pass at her. He was terrified she was going to say something.”

  “She didn’t take the money?”

  Amy shook her head. “She said she’d stay quiet for Maddie’s sake. She didn’t want the money. I told John if he ever did something like that again I’d leave him and take everything.”

  “And what about Janelle Gomez?” Miller asked.

  “John admitted to me that he’d been going to the strip club,” Amy said. “He also says he didn’t have any interaction with that woman. He was here the night she was murdered.”

  “Forgive me if I don’t trust your word right now,” Nikki said.

  “I don’t care what you trust,” Amy snapped. “I’m telling you the truth.”

  “When did Bailey find the pictures?”

  “What pictures?” Amy glanced at John. He looked pointedly away from her.

  “The ones of naked girls,” Nikki replied. “Madison told one of her friends about the big fight after Bailey found them.”<
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  “The girl’s either lying or misunderstood Maddie. Bailey didn’t find any pictures.” Amy had regained control, her tone cool and far too calm. Was she going to hold this over John’s head and punish him her own way, or was she afraid of being charged for not reporting the pictures?

  “I’m tired of being questioned.” John took another drink. “I have an alibi, for Christ’s sake. You’re so screwed up about your parents that you aren’t capable of thinking about anything else.”

  John’s expression was carefully neutral, but Nikki recognized the desperation in his voice. She was getting to him.

  “Here’s where we stand,” Nikki said. “By morning we’ll have warrants for your financial records, plus this house, your office and any other property you own. We’ll be up your ass until it bleeds.”

  John hurled the heavy stein towards her. It hit the floor with a thud and cracked into several pieces. “Kaylee’s got the secret boyfriend. That’s what you told me the other day. Did you ask Bobby Vance about her? I know she had a crush on him.”

  “He’s been cleared,” Nikki said. “And you’re pathetic for trying to pass blame onto him.”

  “Then it’s some other older guy. Kaylee screwed up and got our daughter killed.”

  “Kaylee died first, likely days before Madison. Your daughter was beaten and left to die in the freezer. She suffered tremendously.” Nikki hated to be so callous in front of Amy, but the woman needed to get her head out of her ass. Protecting John was very likely protecting her killer.

  Amy’s cries almost pierced Nikki’s resolve.

  Rage flashed through John’s eyes as he stood up and towered over her. “I hope you’re happy, Nicole. You could never be subtle about anything. Fucking theatrics. Now Amy’s a wreck again.” He stomped into the kitchen.

  “Mommy?” Quick footsteps sounded on the stairs, and then Bailey rounded the corner. He hurried to his mother. “Mommy, what’s wrong?”

  Amy’s body shook with sobs.

  “Mommy?” The little boy’s voice trembled with fear. “Mommy!”