Page 48 of The Girls in the Snow

Rory pushed his beer aside and folded his arms on the table. “But you’ve never looked at my brother’s case with a trained behavior analyst’s eye, have you?”

“No,” she said. “Do you really think I could be objective?”

“If you knew the things I do, yes. It would be hard, but you’re too good at your job not to be.”

“You overestimate my—”

“I’ve read all about you,” he said. “You’ve been featured on a couple of police shows, and your peers were kind of in awe with how well you read people.”

She flushed at his compliment, not knowing why she felt embarrassed by Rory saying this. She was used to being analyzed in the press for years, but it felt different coming from him. “I guess seeing violence like I did is both a curse and blessing. It made me hyper aware. Obsessed, almost. If I’d only understood him better, I would have realized what your brother was capable of.”

“You didn’t realize because he isn’t capable of it.”

Nikki admired Rory’s loyalty. “What did you want to talk to me about, specifically?”

He ran a hand through his hair and Nikki couldn’t help but watch, her eyes trained on the way it settled on his brow. “I’m absolutely positive that you would see things differently if you sat down with the case file. There are so many things that don’t add up.”

“D.A. Mathews told me that was the defense’s position.” Her stomach knotted. “Did you leak any of the new details about the case to Caitlin?”

“I would never do that,” he said. “It was probably someone from the Innocence Project.”

Should she really trust him? What if he was recording the conversation?

“Can I see your phone?” she asked.

“Why?” he replied, moving back slightly as if shocked by the question.

“I want to make sure you’re not recording me. I’m here to talk to you, not the attorneys.”

Rory looked irritated but slid the phone across the table. “It’s unlocked.”

He didn’t have a lot of apps, and voice memo wasn’t turned on.

“Thank you.” She slid the phone back to him. “Look, I know you want to believe your brother, and I’ve been told about the new DNA testing and evidence. But it doesn’t change what I remember. You know what happened earlier in the night from my testimony. John found Mark on top of me at that party. I woke up and Mark was hovering over me and I screamed.” Nikki hugged her arms to her chest to hide her balled fists.

“Is that how you remember it?” he asked softly.

She hesitated. “Yes.”

“There’s no way you don’t have blank spots. Mark says you were completely blasted and passed out. You didn’t go into that room to sleep if off.”

“I’m sure that’s his version. I never denied drinking, but I was told my sobriety was confirmed when I gave my statement. There’s nothing unreliable about what I saw.” She waited for him to mention the missing report, but he didn’t seem to know.

“You’re remembering what you’ve been told happened.”

“That’s not true,” Nikki said, anger growing inside of her.

“Nicole, how do you know Mark was going to rape you?”

“His hands were on my shoulders. He was straddling me.”

“And then John’s your hero,” he said dryly. “Do you remember fighting with him earlier that night?”

“Yes.” John always had to be the center of attention, especially hers. He didn’t like her mingling with other people at parties. Nikki usually complied, but that night she’d drunk enough that she didn’t care. John had pulled her into the hallway, and they’d argued. He’d gone on about her embarrassing him, how she’d been flirting with every guy. He usually succeeded in manipulating her into an apology when they argued, but her liquid courage had prevailed. She’d told him to shove it and gone for another drink. And then another. “We argued all the time.” Nikki shouldn’t be talking about John to anyone given her involvement in Madison’s case. “But I’m not sure what that has to do with Mark. He’s the one who killed my parents and waited around for me so he could finish what he’d started at the party.”

Rory’s eyes shined with sympathy. “I’m sorry for what you went through, but Mark didn’t do it. He’d come over to wait for you, yes. But then he heard the shot and went inside. That’s why the front door was broken into. He found your mom, but he was hit on the back of the head before he was able to get help—”

“Why didn’t the killer shoot him?” Nikki asked. “He’d already killed one person and a second one was dying. Shooting Mark would have been the only option.”

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