Page 103 of The Girls in the Snow

A large foreclosure sign stood in Mindy Vance’s front yard. Boxes were piled high in the minivan parked in the middle of the driveway. The house had a slightly unkempt look compared to its neighbors: the snow needed shoveling and one of the down spouts looked loose. Taking care of such a big place alone had to be difficult, especially when your spouse had died.

“Damn. Poor woman.”

Nikki rang the doorbell. Footsteps tromped near the entryway, as though someone were running down the stairs.

Mindy opened the door, a fine sheen of sweat on her forehead. “Agent Hunt. Is everything okay?”

“I just came to let you know Bailey’s fine, but John is on the run. I don’t expect him to come around here, but you should be aware if you haven’t seen it on the news.”

“Oh dear.” Mindy brushed the dust off her pants. “Forgive the way I look. I’m packing. Please, come in.”

The house looked older than the Bankses’, and the fake wood floors and run-of-the-mill trim made Nikki think it probably wasn’t as well made. Most of the living area looked as though it had been packed away. Even the walls were bare, save for the dust lines that surrounded whatever had hung in that spot.

“I’m sorry about your foreclosure.”

“Thank you,” Mindy said. “My husband’s life insurance carrier is contesting the policy. I don’t make nearly enough money to cover the mortgage, so here we are.”

“Why are they contesting?”

“Because they’re greedy assholes,” Mindy said. “Do you have any idea where John might have gone?”

“Actually, I was hoping you might have some ideas. Your husband and John had been friends since college?”

“High school, actually. They did everything together.”

“I used to date John back then. I met Bobby at a party once. I’m sure you know the story. Your son told me John talked about that night fairly often.”

Mindy’s eyebrows knitted together. “Yes, he did. But Bobby Sr. and I started dating right out of college, so that was before my time.”

“I wasn’t much fun to be around back then,” Nikki said, smiling warmly.

“I’ve been reading about the new evidence and testing and obviously your son has been going to the protests. It must be awful for you.”

“It’s not great,” Nikki said. “But right now, my priority is finding out who killed Madison and Kaylee. And Janelle Gomez.”

“Who?”

“The woman found in the park the other day.”

“And her death is connected to the other murders?” Mindy wiped her pink face with a napkin.

“It’s looking like it.” Nikki leaned against the kitchen doorway as Mindy fluttered about. Yesterday she’d seemed resigned and quiet, but Mindy was a trembling ball of energy. She didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands.

“I thought John killed the girls. Isn’t that why he ran in the first place?” Mindy picked at her ragged thumbnail. The tip of her index finger looked raw from biting the nail.

“Most likely,” Nikki replied. “But we can’t be one hundred percent sure yet. That’s why we need to find John.”

“Well, I hope you can figure it out. Those poor girls deserve justice.”

A big, furry cat trotted into the room and jumped onto the counter.

“Get down, Mace. You know better.”

The cat looked at Mindy and then started cleaning its paw. She swatted it off the counter.

A loud buzzing rose in Nikki’s head. “He’s beautiful. What breed?”

“Maine Coon,” Mindy said. “He’s Bobby’s. That cat drives me nuts, but his dad gave him Mace for his birthday just a few months before he died.”

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