Page 11 of Little Child Gone (Nikki Hunt #10)
SEVEN
“Matt texted he was on his way with Spencer,” Nikki said.
Miller shoved his hands into his coat pockets. “Heard anything from Blanchard?”
“She and Courtney are still testing samples from the scene, and the forensic anthropologist is coming in. Blanchard is confident the body in the trunk is female and the bones on the other end of the closet male. The female is an adult, and the male is likely between thirteen and twenty-five, but the forensic anthropologist will be able to confirm.” She shivered in the freezing wind.
“I talked to Matt’s attorney this morning.
He spoke some more about how difficult Karl’s daughter Stephanie can be, and how upset she was about the will. ”
“I remember Spencer coming into the station for something when I was still a deputy,” Miller said. “This would have been around 2011. Drunk and disorderly perhaps? He threw a fit about things.”
“He hasn’t been arrested since then.” Nikki had run a background check on Spencer Bancroft before leaving the office. “Matt seems to think pretty highly of him.”
The K9 handler returned, his Belgian Malinois on a long lead. “He didn’t pick anything up on the property beyond the family graveyard.”
Miller pointed to the silver Chevy truck coming down the driveway. “Good timing. Matt’s here.”
Matt parked off to the side of the police vehicles. He jumped out of the truck, key in hand. “Sorry we are running a little late. We had a shift last night.”
Spencer Bancroft exited the truck. He was a couple of inches shorter than Matt and stouter, with piercing blue eyes. He stared at the old house in silence for a moment before joining them.
“Spencer Bancroft.” He shook hands with Nikki, Miller and Huse, the K9 handler. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Thank you for stopping by right after your shift.” Miller looked at Matt. “Can we talk inside?”
Matt agreed and hurried them all into the house out of the bitter wind.
Despite not being heated, the breezeway was a nice reprieve from the wind. Matt explained the layout of the house to Miller as he set out the folding chairs from the corner.
“Take the dog through the main house first,” Miller said. The handler and Malinois headed into the main house while Nikki and the others sat down to talk.
Spencer took off his Nike hat and perched it on his knee. “I just feel so bad for Matt. I pushed him to buy the place.” He stared out of the window for a minute. “How long have they been there?”
“We don’t know yet.” Nikki kept Blanchard’s information to herself. “Do you remember when your grandfather put the apartment in?”
Spencer thought about it for a few moments.
“The original house burned down in the early seventies. I don’t remember the year, but Grandpa was still a bachelor then.
He helped rebuild the house and during that time met my grandma.
” Spencer shook his head. “Grandpa built the addition around 1992, maybe. The apartment was a rumpus room for my mom and uncle, and I lived in it for a while right after I graduated high school.”
Nikki looked up from her notes. Spencer was younger than Matt. “What year?”
“2014.”
“How long did you live in the apartment?” Nikki asked.
“Just that summer.” Spencer flushed. “I was young and stupid and thought I should be on my own. I still stopped by to check on Grandpa, since he was getting older.” He gulped and glanced at Matt.
“When Matt told me about the bodies, I immediately thought about the young woman and her children who came the next summer to help Grandpa out around the house.”
Nikki’s fingers froze around her pencil. Spencer should have started with that information. “You know who the victims are?”
“No, I thought of them, but they ran off, they weren’t murdered.”
“Tell us about this woman and her children,” Miller said. “How did your grandpa meet her?”
“He put a want ad in the newspaper.” Spencer smirked. “Didn’t tell my mom, who thought she was in charge by then. God, she was pissed.”
Stephanie Bancroft, the sibling who’d fought the will. “Why?”
“She said it was because this woman came out of nowhere, and Grandpa hired her without letting Mom do any kind of background check.” He shifted in his chair. “He and Mom butted heads a lot. She likes to be boss. He didn’t like to be bossed.”
“Sounds like most men,” Nikki said. “Did your grandpa have any sort of background check run on her?”
Spencer snickered. “He was very old school. He went by his guts. And he told Mom the idea that Ms. Smith could hurt him was just ignorant. They didn’t speak that whole summer.”
“Did she not have a first name?” Nikki asked.
“Not that I heard,” Spencer replied.
“Did your mom ever meet Ms. Smith for herself?”
“Not that I know of,” Spencer said. “I met her a few times. She seemed nice. Grandpa adored her kids. She had a toddler and a couple of older kids.”
“How old were they?” Nikki asked, thinking about her conversation with Blanchard this morning.
“Teenagers,” he said. “I think the boy was a freshman and the oldest girl was a senior. Her name was Rebecca. She told me they were homeschooled.”
A boy in his freshman year of high school could easily be the male remains. Blanchard hadn’t mentioned whether the adult female had given birth, so she could be Ms. Smith or her daughter Rebecca. If Spencer was right, where were the surviving family members? Where was the toddler?
“Did Ms. Smith tell your grandpa anything about her life before she came to work for him?” Nikki asked.
“Not that he told me,” Spencer said. “She was an incredible cook and doted on Grandpa. He bragged about how well she kept the house. She practically cleaned before it was dirty. And Rebecca played the piano. Grandpa let her play on his piano. That pissed my mom off. Me and my cousins could never touch the thing.” Spencer shrugged.
“Do you remember when Ms. Smith started working for him? You said summer but can you narrow down the date any?” Nikki asked, wondering if the neighbors had seen this woman or her children on the property.
“I know it was spring, because my mom said the kids not being in school was weird. That’s when Rebecca told me they were homeschooled.”
“Did you spend much time with Rebecca?” Nikki asked, noticing a change in his tone of voice.
He grinned. “She was beautiful. Thick, dark hair and these eyes that seemed to swallow a person whole. I know that sounds stupid.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Nikki said, realizing he had a crush on her. “So you liked her? Did you date her?”
Spencer blushed. “I wanted to date her. We actually went to a concert the weekend they disappeared. I never saw her after that night.”
“Can you tell us about it?” Miller asked.
Spencer looked at the floor for a few moments, rubbing a ring on a chain around his neck.
“I invited Rebecca to see a concert with me in Rochester.” He looked at Matt.
“I was driving that Nissan GT I told you about. That car floated. I miss that thing, but I’d probably be dead if I’d kept it.
Too much power for me.” He shifted in the chair.
“Grandpa had gone fishing at Big Marine Lake for the weekend.”
“What exactly were the living arrangements?” Miller asked.
“I believe she stayed in a bedroom down the hall from Grandpa with her youngest son, and Rebecca and her brother used the apartment. That’s how Rebecca was able to sneak out with me that night. Ms. Smith didn’t want her dating or leaving the property much.”
“She wanted Rebecca specifically not to go anywhere?”
“All of them,” Spencer said. “It was weird, but Ms. Smith took really good care of Grandpa and he was happy, so I didn’t really think about it. But I was kind of surprised Rebecca agreed to defy her mom and sneak out with me to go to the concert.”
“Do you remember what time you two got back here that night?” Nikki asked.
“God, after midnight, I’m sure. I know the show didn’t end until eleven p.m. or so and the drive back is over an hour. It might have been closer to one a.m.”
“Was your grandpa home at that time?”
Spencer nodded. “He never left for the lake until after sunrise. But he slept like the dead, so I wasn’t worried about him catching Rebecca.”
“How did you discover they’d gone?” Nikki asked.
“He called me on that Sunday night, upset. He couldn’t find any sign of them.” He looked at Matt. “Honest to God, I thought he’d had a stroke and didn’t know what was going on. I fully expected to see Ms. Smith when I got here, because it made no sense.”
Nikki leaned forward. “Did you search the house and apartment?”
“Yes,” Spencer said. “I do remember smelling bleach here and there in the apartment, but Ms. Smith cleaned with it. I never even considered anything bad.”
“How did the bedroom look?” Miller asked.
“Fine,” Spencer said. “It was clean. She’d even set the two twin mattresses up against the closet and swept the floors. You don’t think my grandpa could have done this, do you? He wasn’t a violent man.”
Nikki nodded. “How long after that did your grandpa go to the nursing home?”
“A few years,” Spencer answered, seeming more panicked. “He was devastated. I tried to spend as much time with him as I could, but I’d started taking classes by then.”
“You never noticed a smell coming from the apartment?” Matt said.
“Lime,” Nikki reminded him. “Courtney said the carpet was covered with lime. It was inside the trunk, too. Did you ever go back into the apartment?”
“No,” he said. “Grandpa boarded up both doors and wouldn’t let anyone inside it.”
“Why did you decide they’d left on their own?” Miller asked.
“All of their things were gone,” he answered.
“The cash he kept in his nightstand was gone, along with the Swedish silver tea set that my great-great-grandpa brought from Sweden. Grandpa was devastated. He locked the apartment that day. I don’t think he was hiding anything, I just think he was heartbroken and could barely stand walking by it. ”
“Did he report the theft?” Miller asked.