Page 47 of Little Child Gone (Nikki Hunt #10)

THIRTY-TWO

Nikki wasn’t surprised to see Stephanie Bancroft sitting with Rodney Atwood in the interview room. She was surprised that it had taken Stephanie two weeks to crawl out of her hole. “My client is willing to confess, for a plea deal.”

“Wow.” Nikki looked across the table at the pock-faced redhead.

“What made you suddenly decide to admit your guilt, Rodney?” Especially when they still didn’t have any damn evidence to convict him.

Nikki had been considering pulling out every possible mostly legal trick in order to entice a confession, and now Atwood was sitting at the sheriff’s station, practically gift-wrapped.

“I thought it was time we let Scott rest in peace,” Stephanie said. “I called Rodney and we talked. I told him I would fight for him to get the best deal, but that he couldn’t keep running from this.”

“How generous of you,” Miller quipped.

“I thought so.” Stephanie looked at Rodney. “He’s prepared to tell you everything in exchange for manslaughter.”

Nikki laughed. “That’s not going to happen, and we can’t make those deals. The DA might agree to a lesser murder charge, but not without knowing the actual story.”

Stephanie nodded at Rodney. He talked for forty-four minutes, explaining how he’d gotten sick and tired of his stepson disobeying his orders and defying him.

The kid was lazy, never listened, his mother babied him too much.

“I told him he wasn’t going nowhere that weekend because he was going to help me in my garage.

His mom calls me from work that night and tells me little precious is going to spend the night at his friend’s, he’s been there all evening.

” Rodney’s eyes looked like blue ice. “I called him from my burner phone and told him I was picking his ass up. I also told him to say nothing to his mom or his friend, just that he had to come home.”

“You have a burner phone?” Nikki asked.

“My wife paid the bills, so she saw the phone records. I had a couple of girlfriends on the side.”

Nikki was tired of hearing his whining voice. “Scott left and met you?”

“A block down the road, and then three houses over. I was pretty sure it was a dead spot for cameras.” He wiped the spittle out of the corner of his mouth. “He gets in the truck and starts yelling at me, like I did something wrong. I told him to shut up. I warned him. He kept talking.”

“What did you do?” Miller demanded.

“I warned him first,” Atwood said. “Told him I was going to knock him out with the wrench.” He shrugged. “I guess I hit him too hard.”

“He was breathing when he went into the water,” Miller said through clenched teeth.

“Don’t worry, there wasn’t anything left up here, if you know what I mean.” Atwood pointed to his own head. “Swollen to the size of a melon. He was barely breathing, too.”

Nikki almost vomited in disgust.

Miller kept talking. “I’m not asking the DA for shit,” he said. “Because you planned this.”

“My client did no such thing.”

“He basically just told us.” Miller pointed to the camera in the corner. “Want me to play the part about parking out of sight from any cameras back to you, Stephanie?”

“No.” Stephanie stood up and looked down her nose at Rodney Atwood. “I’m sorry, I’m no longer able to represent you.” She looked at Nikki and mouthed “you’re welcome.”

Fuming, Nikki followed her out of the room and grabbed Stephanie’s skinny arm.

“Jared said you were the one who tipped him off,” Nikki lied, confident she was right.

“Somehow, you found Bianca’s driver’s license or other form of identity and let Jared know where she and her children were so that he could kill them. ”

Stephanie opened her mouth to retort but Nikki held up her hand.

“Don’t speak. And don’t worry. I’m not going to charge you.

I don’t have anything but his word, and Jared is dead.

I just wanted to make sure you spend every day of your life knowing that I know exactly who you are.

I’ll know it every time I see your face in court.

So will the sheriff and Agent Wilson. You’re no longer invincible, Stephanie. ”

Nikki left the woman standing in the hallway, shell-shocked.

She wished arresting Stephanie was an option, but they didn’t have the physical evidence, only Brandon Kelly’s word against hers that she knew about Ms. Smith being in the will.

Stephanie would chew them up and spit them out in court.

At least she’d been taken down a peg. She knew her bad deeds were on Nikki’s radar.

Her phone vibrated with a text message. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized it was from Chen. Her finger trembled as she unlocked her phone to read the message, praying that Eli and his family had a happy ending.

Eli safe, suspect in custody.