Page 110 of The Girls in the Snow

“Glad to see you’re all right, Agent Hunt.” The deputy who’d been with Miller when she’d first arrived in Stillwater stood next to the administration desk, chatting with the desk sergeant. “Nice work.”

“Thank you, deputy. You guys stay warm.”

Outside, Nikki ducked her head from the frigid air, but her face still ached from the cold as she made her way to the jeep. Wind gusted between the cars, bringing with it the cloying scent of cologne.

“John.”

He was sitting on the curb in front of her jeep, hiding in plain sight. A wool hat hid his blond hair, and several days’ worth of beard made him look haggard. He looked up at her with bleary eyes.

“I saw the news. It’s my fault. All of it.”

“You’re right. My parents weren’t the only ones who suffered because of you.” Nikki couldn’t hold the question in any longer. “Did you put liquid ecstasy in my drink? Is that why I passed out?”

“I just wanted to see what would happen,” John said. “I took the pictures, thinking you’d wake up.”

“Then you decided to invite your buddies for some fun.”

“Just to see if you’d wake up. I swear I wouldn’t have let—”

“Oh my God, shut up, you pathetic excuse for a man. Why didn’t you just stay at the party after I left?”

He looked away, a tear streaming down his cheek. “I snorted a line after you left, and I was so fucking mad at you. The guys were making fun of me.”

Poor John and his fragile ego. “You planned to wait for me. Were you going to rape me like you were going to let your buddies do?”

“I just wanted to talk to you.”

“Bull,” Nikki said. “You were big John Banks. You had a reputation to protect. No girl was going to get away with embarrassing you in front of your friends. So you crawled through the window and planned to jump me when I came home.”

John angrily swatted the tear off his cheek. “Your dad heard me. He was going to call the police.”

“And you couldn’t have that,” Nikki said. “Because then people would have found out what you’d done to me, and that I wasn’t the first. Mr. Perfect couldn’t deal with jail.”

“I’m not perfect. And I told you, I was high. And mad as hell. I just lost it.”

She wanted to hit him. “You could have let my mother live.”

“She knew it was me,” he said.

“Why did you assault her?”

“Because she was a cold bitch who never gave me a chance,” John snapped. “She went off about how I wasn’t good enough for you, and now I’d just proven it. Next thing I know, I was…”

“Assaulting her. The DNA we lifted from your house is going to match the biological evidence taken from Mom. And then we’re going to find all the women who starred in your photo shoots.”

“Amy destroyed them.” His jaw tightened. “So good luck.”

“She lied. And I know where they are.”

John hung his head, shoulders slumped in defeat. “Bailey’s okay, though. I knew you’d find him.”

“You traumatized him,” Nikki said. “He saw what you did to his mother. But he’s going to be fine.”

“Nikki, I swear to God, if I’d known how unstable Bobby was, I wouldn’t have let Maddie near him.”

“That’s not why this happened. You know that. His father kept your secret, and it destroyed his family. Just like you destroyed mine and the Todds’. Madison and Kaylee’s deaths are on your hands as much as anyone.”

“You’re right.” John stood, and Nikki drew her gun.

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