Page 3 of Little Child Gone (Nikki Hunt #10)

TWO

Nikki flagged Rory down after Mark and Lacey had passed her. “Having fun?”

He smirked. “She loves it.” Rory’s gaze drifted to Courtney. “What’s going on?”

Nikki told him about Matt Kline’s call. “I understand why he wants me to look first. I just didn’t feel like I could say no.”

“Jesus. What do you want me to tell Lacey?”

“That I’ve got to help someone out and won’t be gone long.” She glanced at the swelled storm clouds. “Is it supposed to snow today?”

Rory nodded. “Please be careful. And don’t slam the brakes for anything.”

Nikki kissed her husband and hurried to join Courtney in the Jeep. She climbed into the driver’s seat, tossing her bag in the middle row. Thanks to the automatic start, the inside of the Jeep was almost hot. Nikki shrugged out of her heavy coat.

“I hate winter.” Courtney let loose a string of four-letter words about the weather.

“Well, it’s January,” Nikki said. “The worst will be over by March.”

“Oh, shut up,” Courtney replied. “You know damn good and well it could still be below zero in March.”

Nikki snickered. Courtney hated the cold and would complain about it until every ounce of snow had melted. “Are you nervous about going into the field again?”

“A little bit,” Courtney said, wriggling in her seat. “Even though this sounds like it will be some kind of cold case, right? It doesn’t sound like it could be Eli Robertson.”

Fourteen-year-old Eli had been missing for more than a month, with few leads.

Stillwater police were in charge of the investigation, but Nikki had been keeping an eye on it just in case they needed her help.

She and Sheriff Miller had both offered assistance on multiple occasions and had been turned down.

“Normally, I’d say we couldn’t rule it out because there are ways to quickly decompose a body, even in this cold,” Nikki replied. “But the Hendrickson place has sat empty for two years while the siblings squabbled over their father’s estate.”

“Well before Eli disappeared,” Courtney said.

“Or Scott Williams.” The fourteen-year-old had disappeared in the spring, his body washing up weeks later in the St. Croix River, several miles south of Washington County.

She and Miller both believed his stepfather was responsible, but they hadn’t found enough evidence to arrest him.

Nikki had been told to leave the case alone.

She’d still been spending her evenings searching through files, looking for something that could get the stepfather arrested.

Nikki remembered what Miller had last said.

“We’ve been operating as though his stepfather killed him, but we don’t have a lot of leads.

It was dark and cloudy and all of the CCTV is lousy.

” Scott had left a friend’s house late at night, claiming he had to get home.

The walk was a little over a mile down a relatively busy road, but Scott had disappeared without a trace.

Could she and Miller have been wrong about his stepfather?

“Eli disappeared near the ball fields southwest of downtown Stillwater,” Nikki said.

“Scott Williams lived on Interlochen Avenue, which is on the north side of the interstate. The ball fields are south of it. And this is far north Washington County. So, there are no connections yet. Hence why I haven’t been called in.

This is unlikely to be anything to do with either. ” Courtney nodded.

The Hendrickson homestead on the northeast corner of Washington County was one of the few remaining buildings built during the Swedish migration to Minnesota.

“I read a lot about the Hendrickson place when it went up for sale,” Nikki continued as she drove.

“It was built in the 1890s. Karl Hendrickson’s grandfather was first generation American, born on the homestead.

The original house is gone, but the barn is still standing, and that qualified for the historic register.

” Nikki’s interest had been piqued by the historical factor, but she’d followed the story for the drama.

“Karl Hendrickson died a couple of years ago,” Nikki said.

“There was something about a change to his will that caused the estate not to close and the house to sit empty, but I don’t know the details.

” Nikki wondered how Matt Kline had come to purchase the place.

His own ancestral home at Bone Lake had been the scene of grisly murders—twice—and Matt wanted nothing to do with it.

“We go right by Bone Lake. I’m surprised Matt Kline bought this place. ”

“He still owns the Bone Lake house, right?”

“I don’t know,” Nikki admitted. “Caitlin encouraged him to sell it, but two murder sprees tend to bring down the value. From what I’ve heard, though, it makes the Airbnb even more popular.

” Nikki had wondered why Matt hadn’t taken Caitlin’s advice.

Caitlin was a journalist, it was how she had met Liam, but she and Matt were old childhood friends.

Nikki knew he trusted her more than anyone else.

“Why did Matt call you and not the sheriff?”

Nikki suspected Matt had more than one reason, but she explained his distrust of the Chisago police. “The Chisago County Police took charge of his family’s murders since it was near the county line, and they got to the scene first. Egos botched that case from the beginning.”

“Would Chisago respond?”

“I’m sure,” Nikki said. “If I remember correctly, the Hendrickson place is only a few miles from the county line, too.”

“Trauma sucks.”

“It does.”

Courtney adjusted her seat belt. “I hope you know how much spending time with Lacey helps me. She’s so smart and advanced for her age. She reminds me of an inquisitive grad student who doesn’t realize how tough the world is.”

“I’m so glad,” Nikki responded. “She certainly keeps your mind off things when she’s around.”

“She did. I’m glad she likes the microscope. Even if she shifts focus, I bet Lacey sticks with science. You should put her in STEM classes when the time comes.”

“We probably will,” Nikki said. “I don’t want to think about her being in junior high yet.

There’s something I wanted to tell you, though.

” Nikki slowed down at the busier part of Manning Avenue north, houses and condos giving way to open tracts of land and blowing snow.

“Lacey asked me how I felt about her calling Rory ‘Dad.’”

Lacey’s biological father had been murdered a few years ago, and Rory had stepped in to fill the role.

They all made sure to keep Tyler in their lives.

He had a Christmas ornament on the tree, and Rory had always been supportive of keeping Tyler’s memory alive, including helping Lacey make an ornament for him this year.

“Oh my God, really?” Courtney put her hands over her heart. “That is so sweet.”

Nikki nodded. “I told her that it was up to her. She thought about it for a minute and then said that Tyler would always be Daddy, but Rory had been Dad for a few years.” Nikki could still remember Lacey’s solemn expression when she’d asked if Tyler would be mad.

“She worried it would hurt Tyler’s memory, but I told her that he’d be relieved that she loved Rory so much.

I think she’s going to bring it up with him today. ”

“He’s going to bawl like a baby,” Courtney said.

“Probably.” Nikki turned onto 240th Street, following it around the remaining cornfields. “Thirty years ago, the only things you saw out here were corn and farm equipment. Hendrickson owned a lot of land. Kids liked to race down the road at night because there was so little traffic.”

Nikki’s boyfriend at the time had owned a muscle car, and he frequently raced the Hendrickson drag strip, as everyone called it.

Nikki had always refused to ride in the car with him, and he’d called her a coward.

She should have dumped him then. “Damn. That gas station definitely wasn’t there back then. ”

“Hendrickson must have been loaded, between selling the machinery business and so much land.”

“I’m sure he was.” Nikki turned right onto Olinda Trail. “One of our best K9 trainers lives around here.” She gestured to the surrounding land. “I know progress happens, but I hate seeing houses gobbling all the farmland up.”

“Is that a solar farm?” Courtney asked.

“Yeah, Matt said the driveway was just after the solar farm on the right.” Nikki slowed down as they passed a grove of trees that blocked any line of sight from the road to the house.

She’d never been to the Hendricksons’ actual house, but she knew it was at the end of a long drive, trees surrounding the property and separating them from the cornfields.

Nikki’s tires handled the icy driveway with ease, following the drive to the house.

“That doesn’t look like a historical house,” Courtney said. “Looks like a seventies rambler.”

“I think the original house burned down,” Nikki said. “That’s why Matt’s house on Bone Lake is so important to the local history. It’s original and in excellent condition, which is very rare.”

Nikki and Courtney were still getting out of the Jeep as Matt Kline exited the front door and hurried toward them.

“He reminds me of Ryan Gosling, with shaggier hair,” Courtney muttered. “Is he still single?”

“I have no idea.” Nikki slung her work bag onto her shoulder. “Hey, Matt. Happy New Year.”

“Yeah, Happy New Year.” Matt wore only a black T-shirt covered with drywall dust and ratty, paint-stained jeans.

“You know it’s, like, twenty degrees?”

“Yeah, let’s hurry inside.”

“Courtney was at my house when you called, so I brought her along.”

Courtney held up her black bag that she lugged to every crime scene. “Head of FBI Evidence Response.”

“Good. I think you’ll have plenty to examine.”

Nikki and Courtney struggled to keep up with Matt’s long strides. “What made you choose this property to remodel?” Nikki asked.