Page 29 of Little Child Gone (Nikki Hunt #10)

Nikki hesitated before asking her next question. “Is it possible Amelia or Caden would keep it from you if Taylor checked in?”

“I… I don’t think so,” Christy said. “Why would they?”

“You’re probably right,” Nikki said. “But siblings have a unique bond. It’s possible Taylor got into some kind of trouble and one of the kids knows or has heard from him.

I know it’s hard for you to fathom, and you know your kids better than anyone.

But we need to cover all our bases searching for Taylor.

” She let the words sink in for a few moments.

“Would you mind if I spoke to them when I go upstairs to look at Taylor’s room? ”

Emotion flashed through Christy’s eyes, but Nikki couldn’t figure out if she was angry or fearful or something else. “Jared might not think it’s the best idea. You aren’t supposed to speak to minors without their parents.”

“How about this.” Nikki smiled at her. She didn’t like playing with the kids’ trust like this, but she doubted Christy would allow her to talk to the kids if she didn’t. “You come up with me and stay within earshot in the hall, just out of sight.”

Christy was silent for a few moments before nodding her head. “Penny is napping, so please keep your voice down.” They climbed the stairs in silence, Christy clutching her phone. Nikki followed Christy into Taylor’s bedroom.

“Is her room near this one?” Nikki asked.

“Opposite end of the hall, why?”

“Why don’t you bring Amelia and Caden into Taylor’s room so we won’t wake Penny. I know how bad it is when a toddler doesn’t get a nap.”

Christy shrugged and left to get the older kids.

Nikki scanned the room, surprised at how neat and tidy it was for a fourteen-year-old boy.

He didn’t have a computer, because all of the kids shared a desktop computer.

Band ribbons, drumsticks, but no drums. Taylor likely wasn’t allowed to practice at home because of his little sister.

Nikki sniffed the air; it smelled unusually fresh for a teenaged boy’s room.

His drawers were organized, with his socks and underwear fitting neatly into a fabric organizer.

Nikki slid the closet door open. The clothes were hung by color, just like the Halls’ master closet that Nikki had peeked in earlier.

“Agent Hunt.” Christy had returned with Caden and Amelia, who looked nervous as a scared cat.

“Mom said you haven’t found him,” Amelia said. “You talked to Neena? And Logan?”

Nikki nodded. “We’re not going to stop looking, I promise. Can you think of anyone else we should interview?”

Christy’s phone rang, making them all jump. “It’s the sheriff.”

“He told me he was going to call you with a detailed update on the door-to-door search.” Nikki felt bad for putting Christy through an unnecessary call, but she couldn’t figure out any other way to speak to the others alone. “You go ahead, we’ll talk.”

Christy hesitated and then hurried into the hall, closing the bedroom door behind her.

“Okay, guys, now is the time.” Nikki looked at both of them. “And we probably don’t have a lot of it. If there is anything else you aren’t telling me, it’s now or never.”

They both shook their heads, Amelia’s gaze flashing behind Nikki to the closet.

“Taylor never mentioned a new female friend?” Nikki asked.

More head shaking.

“What about this number, does it sound familiar?”

Both answered no, but Amelia remained fixated on the closet.

Nikki moved directly in front of Amelia, gently touching her shoulder. “What is it?”

“Mom will be mad,” Amelia whispered. “Taylor isn’t supposed to wear those shoes, only for special occasions.”

Nikki looked back at the closet, searching for whatever Amelia was talking about. She looked at the floor where Taylor’s shoes were in a meticulous line. An empty spot in the middle suggested a pair was missing. “What shoes?”

“His new Curry shoes. Mom said he had to only wear them in nice weather. She didn’t want them to get dirty,” Caden said. “He had on his boots yesterday when he left.”

“Is there any reason he’d take these shoes?” Nikki recognized Stephen Curry’s name and knew the shoes were pricey, but Taylor wasn’t going to get much in a resale or pawnshop if that’s what he was thinking. “Amelia, what do you want to tell me?”

“He kept money in there. All the cash he earned from doing anything. He had over seven hundred dollars in there.”

Christy’s footsteps made Amelia go silent. Once she’d returned, Nikki reiterated her questions about another friend and brought up the mysterious phone number again, her eyes on Christy.

“Whose number is that?” Christy demanded.

Nikki debated not telling her, but it wasn’t right to keep it out of the investigation.

“This is the number Taylor gave his manager a week ago. He told Mr. Livingston it was yours. Mr. Livingston called last night when Taylor didn’t show and spoke to a woman who said she was Taylor’s mother and he wouldn’t be coming in because he was sick. ”

Christy sat down on the edge of the bed, staring at Nikki in shock. Nikki watched the two siblings’ reactions, but they’d seemed as shocked as their mother.

“You’re sure there’s no other family he’d go to?” Nikki asked. “Maybe a friend in Indianapolis? Someone you’ve forgotten?”

Christy insisted they’d given all the information they had. “Talk to Jared, he will tell you. He’ll set you straight.”

“I’m headed there next.” Nikki looked at each person in the room. “Please call if you think of anything else or hear from Taylor.”

Nikki called Miller as soon as she left the Halls’ home. “Thanks for distracting her.”

“No problem, but fill me in, please.”

Nikki explained that Taylor had changed his mother’s contact information at work and that his boss spoke to a woman claiming to be Taylor’s mother on that number yesterday.

“If he’s close to his siblings, they’re our best shot at information.

But they seemed just as shocked as Christy, and I don’t think Amelia could have hidden her emotions well enough to be acting.

” She told Miller about the missing basketball shoes. “Taylor kept his cash in there.”

“So he changed his mom’s contact information to an internet number, an unknown woman vouches for him yesterday, and he took his favorite shoes and all his cash. That sounds more like a runaway.”

“Liam is communicating with Indianapolis public transportation. He hasn’t been spotted. But maybe we’re looking too far away.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Taylor’s a band kid, right?” Nikki said. “Granted, I only played two years, but I remember going to competitions all over Minnesota and Wisconsin and meeting new people. We didn’t really stay in touch, but technology has changed all that.”

“That’s true,” Miller said. “First thing my daughters do when they meet someone is create a contact in their phone.”

“Exactly,” Nikki said. “Taylor may not be allowed on social media, but he could get away with it at school. He could have been communicating with someone he met a while ago and decided to meet her somewhere.”

“State troopers are looking within a fifty-mile radius of the county,” Miller said. “I’ll call the Wisconsin State Police since Hudson’s across the river. I’d forgotten until you mentioned it, but I’m pretty sure my daughter had a band competition there at some point.”

“We always did,” Nikki said. “It’s worth a shot.

” She merged into busy interstate traffic and silently counted to ten.

“I’m headed to the hospital to talk to Jared when he’s out of surgery.

I’ll let you know how it goes.” She started to say more, but Blanchard’s number flashed on the screen.

“I’ll let you know what she says,” she told Miller before switching calls.

“Hi, Doctor Blanchard.”

“Doctor Willard confirmed the skeleton in the corner of the closet is a male between twelve and twenty-five.” Blanchard never bothered with niceties.

“They’re cleaning the bones of the victim in the trunk, so it will be at least a day before Doctor Willard can confirm sex.

We were able to completely reassemble the male skeleton, and there are no obvious marks on the bones that would suggest cause of death.

He might have been killed elsewhere, but he was left to decompose right there. ”

“What about CODIS?” The DNA database contained profiles taken from violent crime scenes throughout the country.

“We’re getting the male profile into the database now,” Blanchard said. “I’ll let you know if we get any sort of hit. Doctor Willard is going to bring me a DNA sample from the other set of remains later today. I’m going to upload them to NamUs as well.”

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System that had started as a passion project for an amateur sleuth had grown into the country’s database for missing and unidentified people.

Initially, the information had been limited to whatever the pathologist could glean from the victim’s body, but now they were able to work with the DOJ for DNA collection.

“ViCAP too,” Nikki reminded her. The database for violent crime was a long shot, but if the victims turned out to be related to a felon, they’d at least have a starting point.

With so little information, identification through one of the DNA databases was their best chance at narrowing things down.

“Did Miller mention an August 2015 hit-and-run to you?”

“He sent me an email, but I haven’t got to it yet,” Blanchard said. “You think that victim could be related to the ones from the house?”

“I do, and I haven’t had a chance to talk to Courtney about any of this. Could you pull that 2015 record and send it to her for DNA comparison? Apparently, she was Hispanic.”

“I’m about to go into the autopsy suite,” Blanchard said. “I can do it after that.”

“Thanks. I haven’t had a moment to think about the cold case today. We’ve got another missing fourteen-year-old boy.”