Page 50 of The Girls in the Snow

Nikki gave up on sleeping around 3:00 a.m. Between her dreams and everything Rory had said, her exhausted brain wasn’t sure what it actually remembered.

She made a pot of coffee and sat down at the little table next to the hotel window. Miller planned on searching Hanson’s house this morning, but she didn’t think he’d find anything. He’d also said Hanson’s mistress had backed his alibi, and St. Paul police confirmed the two of them had been at the hotel the afternoon the girls disappeared.

Madison and Kaylee had gone with their killer willingly, Nikki was certain. Two capable teenaged girls weren’t abducted off a trail right behind several houses. Ricky had an alibi, and if he had somehow been involved, his ego was too big for him to stay quiet. He was the type to skulk around the investigation, getting off on outsmarting the cops. Bobby Vance didn’t have a car, and Miller had already confirmed Mindy was visiting friends in the city that day. Bobby had taken the picture, but that had been several weeks before Madison and Kaylee disappeared. Had Kaylee started dating someone else?

Liam still hadn’t found any suspects with access to industrial freezers other than Drew Hanson, and they didn’t have enough evidence for a warrant. All of the sex offenders he’d found recently released nearby had iron-clad alibis. And Nikki was going to have to tell him that she still didn’t have Kaylee’s phone number—tracking it seemed less and less likely.

Nikki felt like they’d focused a lot on Kaylee, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Madison. Everyone seemed to agree that Kaylee was at the center of everything, but Nikki wondered if Madison was more than just a perfect student.

If her mother had visited Kaylee’s house, she was going to find out why. And Bobby’s comments about John rattled her. Why was he arguing with so many people about her parents’ case?

Her phone vibrated. Dread seeped through her as Miller’s number flashed on the screen. Early-morning calls were never a good sign. “What’s up?”

“We have another body,” he said.

Nikki leapt out of the chair, slopping coffee on her nightshirt. “Do you know who it is?”

“Female in her early twenties. She was left to the elements like the girls, but she’s not as frozen. Medical examiner’s on her way.”

Nikki shoved her coffee aside. Had she been too slow to find Madison and Kaylee’s killer and cost another woman her life? “Text me the address. I’ll leave in ten minutes.”

Rush hour and lane closures made the drive to the scene three times longer than it should have been. Heritage Square Park was a small, quiet park tucked away in one of the newer residential areas on the west side of town.

Nikki scowled as she recognized the two people standing near the swings.

She parked in an illegal zone and jogged across the street to join Miller.

“Why is Newport here?”

Hardin’s bulk eclipsed the reporter’s trim form, and she had to look up when she spoke to him. She was speaking very quickly, hands on her hips as Hardin nodded obediently.

“Hardin called her as soon as the call came in this morning,” Miller said. “He’s trying to play nice with her all of a sudden.”

And Nikki knew why. If Rory was right, Caitlin’s documentary on Mark Todd would expose Hardin’s mistakes—or worse—that night. She hadn’t been able to get Rory’s words out of her mind ever since she left the bar. Was Hardin really capable of putting an innocent man in jail?

“Agent Hunt,” Caitlin called. “What do you think of Frost leaving a victim here in Stillwater at the same time you’re here on a separate case? Seems like a message for you.”

“I haven’t even seen the body,” Nikki snapped. “May I have a moment with the chief?”

“Of course.”

Nikki felt the reporter’s gaze as she led Hardin to the other side of the swings. “Chief, between you and me, I don’t need to see the body to know Frost isn’t involved.”

“Now how do you know that? Besides, she’s got a red ribbon in her hair just like Frost’s girls.”

“I can’t share that information, but I’m asking you to trust me. The red ribbon is common knowledge.”

Hardin hitched up his pants. “That’s some ego, Hunt.”

“It’s not ego,” she said. “It’s simple fact.”

“She’s been left in the snow, in a public place, and she looks to be the same age as the other women he killed.”

“He never leaves two bodies in the same year, let alone three,” Nikki said. “Will you please just tell the media that we’re looking at all angles and leave it at that?”

Hardin glared down at her. “You said that after Madison and Kaylee were found. Now we have another body.”

“Exactly,” Nikki said. “If this is the same killer, he’s made his first real mistake. Excuse me.”

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