Page 32 of Little Child Gone (Nikki Hunt #10)

EIGHTEEN

Nikki’s alarm yanked her out of an uneasy sleep.

She’d spent the night at the station going over the same information with Miller until they were both nearly in a stupor.

Nikki turned off the alarm and sat up, rolling her neck muscles.

Why did she always end up sleeping on the same couch in the break room?

It gave her a neckache every time. She’d have been better off sleeping in the Jeep.

“Nikki.” Miller poked his head in the break room. “Making sure you’re up. Hendrickson’s attorney is going to be here in twenty minutes.”

Nikki gave him a thumbs up and reached for the overnight bag she kept in the Jeep for cases like this one.

She normally wouldn’t take time on a cold case like this, especially with a missing teenager, but the new connection between Scott Williams and Stephanie Hendrickson changed everything.

Were all these missing kids, these cases, connected?

Was there a serial killer on the loose? Nikki shuddered as she checked her messages, hoping for an update about Eli Robertson from Lieutenant Chen, who’d promised to let her know when they planned to raid the suspect’s apartment in the city, but she’d yet to hear anything.

She went to the women’s locker room and splashed ice-cold water on her face until she didn’t feel like her eyes were going to glue themselves shut any second. She changed clothes, brushed her teeth and freshened up with seven minutes to spare.

“God!” Nikki almost ran into Miller in the hallway outside the locker room.

“Sorry. The lawyer’s here. I put her in the small interview room with a window.”

Nikki grabbed her work bag and hurried across the sheriff’s office to the conference room reserved for victims’ family members. She paused at the open door to collect her breath.

“Thanks for meeting with me on short notice.” Nikki put her things on the table. “Especially on your way to the airport for a transatlantic flight.”

“I’m glad to help.” Deandra Price had been the Hendrickson family attorney until Karl’s death. Her fantastic white hair was cut into a stylish bob, her jewelry understated and her perfume the familiar Chanel No. 5. “Karl was a friend.”

Nikki shuffled through her things until she found her pencil and notepad. “How long did you work for him?”

“Nearly twenty years,” Deandra answered.

“But I’ve known him much longer. I was the senior partner at Price and Lawry by then.

My father had been the Hendrickson family attorney since Karl’s parents were young.

I believe the Hendricksons were some of the firm’s first clients by then.

Point being, I’ve known Karl since I graduated law school and joined my father’s firm.

Nepotism I know, but I assure you I was qualified. ”

Nikki smiled. “I have no doubt.” Nikki had done her research before meeting with Deandra. Until her retirement three years ago, she’d been among the top estate and tax attorneys in Minnesota. Her clients were all among the wealthiest in the area.

“Well, when my father retired, I took over the Hendrickson account,” Deandra continued.

“Karl and his wife were well off then, but they’d been entertaining the idea of selling the machinery business to a national chain.

At the time, they were past traditional retirement age.

Both of their children had graduated from college and moved on. They wanted to travel.”

Nikki caught the wistful tone in her voice. “What happened?”

“A few weeks before the sale closed, Mrs. Hendrickson was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Karl was devastated. She was gone within six months.”

Nikki couldn’t imagine being diagnosed with cancer, or, God forbid, Lacey or Rory. The idea of spending your life with someone to have them ripped away like that terrified her. It could happen to anyone at any time. “That’s awful.”

“It was,” Deandra agreed. “I thank God every day I still have my husband.”

“I know Karl and Stephanie had a strained relationship, but he seemed to get along with his son.”

“Patrick is a nice man.” Deandra’s lip curled in disgust. “Stephanie is… Stephanie. I’m no psychologist, but if she’s not a sociopath, I’d be shocked. I’ve never met a colder person.”

“That’s what makes her such a good defense attorney,” Nikki said.

“I suppose.” Deandra shifted in her chair. “I assume what you really want to know is about the amendment for Ms. Smith.”

“Yes, please. Did you ever meet her?”

“No, and I could kick myself. I took the summer off that year. My husband did, too. He was a corporate accountant. We both just needed to get away.”

“So, you don’t think Ms. Smith was trustworthy?” Nikki clarified.

“That’s not it at all,” Deandra said. “I just wish I’d met her.

Maybe I could have found her if I’d known something about her.

Do you know we didn’t even have any photos?

I don’t even have a first name. Karl called her Ms. Smith.

He didn’t know much beyond that. I tried to convince him I would never have a chance to find them without at least one name.

He refused. Part of me wondered if he even knew himself. ”

“But you were certain that he was of sound mind?” Nikki asked.

“Yes,” Deandra said firmly. “We talked at length about current and past events, including various professional sports and politics. Karl kept up with everything.”

“This was before he went into the nursing home?” Nikki clarified.

Deandra nodded. “It was really astounding how fast he went downhill after we finished up the will. It was like he’d used up his last bit of strength figuring how to make one last-ditch effort to find her.

” She worried her bottom lip. “I don’t know if either of Karl’s children or Spencer knows about this, but Karl first talked to me about putting Ms. Smith in his will that July before she left. ”

“No, I didn’t. After only knowing her a few months?”

“He said she was the daughter he wished he’d had,” Deandra answered. “I told him never to say that near Stephanie or it would not end well. And then I encouraged him to think about the change.”

“He was receptive to that?” Nikki asked.

“He was, because Ms. Smith had finally agreed to stay through the fall and winter. She’d initially told him they would only be able to work that summer and would have to move on. I suggested revisiting after Ms. Smith had been with him for a year. He agreed.”

Nikki took a few seconds to digest what she’d just learned. “Did he ask her why they would only be there for the summer?”

“He said she preferred not to say.” Deandra shrugged. “I confess, we both assumed she was afraid of someone. I even suggested that Karl get a security camera in case someone did come after her, for his own safety. But he was too set in his ways.”

“Did he ever say anything about telling Stephanie or Patrick?” Nikki asked.

“He wanted to tell Patrick but didn’t want to put him in that position.

I said someone from the family needed to confirm his competence in addition to me, and he brought in Spencer.

Kid knows his mother—he’s the one who thought Patrick should have a copy of the change, because his mother would do everything possible to hide it.

Patrick really never looked at it until the will was read. ”

Nikki tried to pluck one of the questions from the dozens currently racing in her mind. “So between the time the family disappeared and Karl’s death, how often did Karl bring up putting Ms. Smith in the will?”

“Several times,” she said. “He wanted to believe that she was alive, or at least one of the kids was out there somewhere, but deep down Karl believed they were dead. He refused to believe that Ms. Smith would just vanish like that without saying goodbye. She’d talked about getting the kids enrolled in school and staying the winter. ”

“Did he have any theories?” Nikki asked. “From everything we’ve learned, there weren’t any signs of violence when Karl returned from his trip.”

“Karl believed she was running from an abusive partner,” Deandra said.

“She had a couple of scars in her eyebrow and on the side of the neck. When Karl asked about it, she’d only say it was from an accident.

And she was very skittish about her or any of the kids leaving the property.

It took him all summer to convince her to enroll the middle one in school. ”

“Going back to the amendment in the will, what did you have to do in order to find her?”

“Everything in my power.” She sighed. “Karl believed the Smith family came from Pennsylvania, near Amish country, because she talked about driving on the roads with the Amish, starting with Iowa. I told him there were Amish in several states, and he said that Ms. Smith said they came from ‘back east.’ The middle child was a fan of all the Pennsylvania sports teams.” Deandra held up her hands in frustration.

“Everything in my power wasn’t a lot. I looked through missing persons reports, called police departments all over Pennsylvania, and then Ohio. I just didn’t have enough information.”

“It was an impossible task,” Nikki said gently. “I would have been in the same boat.”

Deandra pulled a tissue from her bag and dabbed her eyes. “I’m just sorry that I couldn’t truly honor his last wish.”

“You are,” Nikki reminded her. “We’re going to find out who she was and what happened.” Nikki gave her a few moments. “One last question: what was Stephanie’s reaction when the will was read?”

“Utter shock.” Deandra grinned. “I’m familiar with the will because I wrote it, so I was able to look at Stephanie’s face when I read the amendment out loud. She had no clue. Her father got the best of her, somehow.”