Page 104 of The Girls in the Snow

“Bobby must be very attached, then?” Nikki asked.

“He missed her more than me when he was in Mankato.” Mindy quickly looked away, both hands white-knuckling the counter.

Nikki hoped her smile appeared genuine. “I’ll let you get back to packing. Good luck with the move.”

“Thank you,” Mindy said. “If I think of anywhere John might have gone, I’ll contact you.”

“Please do.” Nikki walked down the hall at a neutral pace, mind racing ahead. Something about Mindy’s demeanor wasn’t right.

The front door opened before she reached it, and Bobby stood on the other side looking just as nervous as his mother.

“Agent Hunt, I saw your jeep. What’s going on?” He glanced behind her. “Mom?”

Nikki turned around, her arm raising instinctively, but Mindy was closer than she’d realized. Something hard and cold hit her temple, and Nikki fell to her knees. Her head rang, her eyes crossed. A second slam to the back of her head sent her careening into the darkness.

Forty-Eight

Nikki blinked a few times before realizing she was stuck in total darkness. She touched the knot on the back of her skull but felt no sign of bleeding. Her head was pounding. She picked through the fuzzy images in her mind, trying to remember what happened.

Mindy Vance. She’d gone to Mindy’s house and suddenly realized something wasn’t right. She’d been going to leave and then Bobby had appeared… She’d been knocked out and she had no idea for how long. Where the hell had they taken her? she wondered. She knew it wasn’t the cabin—it had a distinct smell that she couldn’t detect. She reached into her coat pocket for her phone, but they had been smart enough to take it. Nikki extended her arms above her head and then in front of her. Wide, angled wooden slats with a few centimeters of space… she must be in a closet.

Her smartwatch. She sighed with relief as she reached for it before remembering she’d left it at Rory’s this morning. Nikki had no way of contacting anyone, and nobody knew she’d gone to Mindy’s house.

Shifting to her knees, she tried to look out between the slats, but the room was dark. How long had she been in here?

The closet seemed empty, but there had to be some sort of a bar to hang clothes on. She stood slowly, bracing against the wall as dizziness swept through her. She raised her hand and found a wooden bar. Plastic brackets on each end held the bar in place. Nikki braced against the right end of the bar and pushed hard, hoping the plastic was as shoddy as the rest of the house.

A loud crack sent a wave of fear through her. She stood motionless, listening. A full sixty seconds passed and no one came into the room, so she pushed the bar again. It snapped away, and Nikki yanked it out of the other bracket.

She ran her hands along the door and came to a vertical space large enough to put her fingernail in. Maybe she could bust through the cheap wood.

“You can’t get out.” Bobby’s tired voice came from the other side of the door. Nikki hadn’t heard him come into the room. Had he been waiting? she wondered. Someone as slight as him could easily sneak in without her hearing if the floor was carpeted. “Mom used a bungee cord.”

As soon as the big Maine Coon had jumped onto the counter, warning bells had gone off in Nikki’s head. The cat was Bobby’s, and that was the source of the hair they’d found on both girls’ clothes. They’d probably been in this house shortly before their murders—and most likely killed here. Courtney had found cat hair inside the freezer, probably transferred from the bodies. Assuming it was a match, the girls had been taken from this house to the cabin.

Madison hadn’t carved a ‘P.’ She had tried to write ‘B V’ for Bobby Vance. The ‘B’ hadn’t been finished.

“Bobby, please let me out. I can help you.”

“I’m not stupid, Agent Hunt.”

She tried to imagine the soft-spoken boy who’d come to her defense at the diner as a killer. He wasn’t a seasoned criminal, nor was he driven by an urge to kill. Everything he’d done had been impulsive, but why would he kill Madison and Kaylee? What was Mindy’s role in all of it?

“I know you aren’t. You’re also not a cold-blooded killer.”

He didn’t answer.

Nikki peered out between the door slats. “Can I talk to your mom?”

“She’s not here. She went to the store to stock up on stuff before we leave.”

What did they plan to do with her?

She had to stay levelheaded. She could talk her way out of this.

“Where are you going?”

“I can’t tell you.”

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