Page 7 of Little Child Gone (Nikki Hunt #10)

FOUR

Nikki helped Blanchard unload her equipment, including the rolled blue tarp. “You brought the furniture dolly, right? I don’t want to ask Matt Kline to help. That’s one more person to account for in the chain of custody.”

“I’ve got it,” Blanchard said.

Matt Kline approached and introduced himself. “Thank you for coming on your day off. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem,” Blanchard said. “I have to admit, my morbid curiosity is pretty strong right now.”

“It’s morbid all right.” Matt looked at Nikki. “Come in when you’re done.” He turned to leave.

“Wait,” Nikki said. “We can’t avoid stairs. Do you have anything we could use as a ramp?”

“Will drywall work?” Matt asked. “I’ve got plenty of that.”

“It should,” Blanchard answered. “I’ve got plenty of straps, so hopefully we can guide it down without having to step on the drywall.”

“I’ve got it in the old laundry room. I’ll set it up while you guys are doing your thing.” Matt ducked under the carport.

“We go in the same way, but the apartment is to the right.” Nikki tucked the blue tarp under her arm.

Blanchard followed. “Walk me through this again.”

Nikki quickly explained everything they’d discovered. “Pretty clear it’s a homicide since people don’t usually end up in trunks on their own.”

“How bad are those remains?”

“Messy.”

They found Courtney on her hands and knees in front of the closet, booties and gloves still on. “Don’t worry,” she said before Blanchard could chastise her. “I haven’t touched any remains. I’ve been looking at the floor under the carpet. It’s old wood, lots of cracks.”

“Find anything?”

Courtney held up two evidence bags, each containing a small object. “A Lego figure and some kind of little toy car.”

“A child.” Nikki felt half-sick. “The victim in the corner is at least a teenager. You can tell by the bones. Did this belong to them, or do we have another missing kid?”

“I don’t know,” Courtney said. “I agree about the remains, and we don’t know if this belonged to the victim. It could have been here before them. It sounds like this apartment was used a fair amount before Karl boarded it up. Doctor Blanchard, what do you think?”

Blanchard leaned over Courtney to look at the skeleton sitting in the corner, its skull atop the rest of its body. “Agreed. Femur looks long enough to be at least pubescent. But boys keep those little cars a long time, too. It still could have been his.”

“It’s a male?” Nikki asked.

“You can tell by the pelvic bones,” Blanchard said. “I’m confident about that, but I can’t tell you age at death or how long it’s been here, of course. I did arrange for the forensic anthropologist to come to my office tomorrow to look at these.”

Dr. Willard was one of a handful of forensic anthropologists in the state and worked for the University of Minnesota.

Because she was in such high demand, Willard usually had to focus on current cases and therefore older remains, like the ones in the closet, were often back burned until she had a free moment.

“She owes me a favor,” Blanchard said. “And she’s as curious as I am.”

They spent the next hour meticulously collecting evidence from the flooring and other places in the room. Several hairs were found amid the cracks in the floor.

Blanchard laid out the large blue tarp next to the chest. It took a few minutes to get the chest onto the tarp without causing more damage, but they managed to get the tarp secured around the chest with bungee cords.

It took all three of them to get the trunk on the furniture dolly. Blanchard secured the chest to it with another long strap. She hooked two more bungee cords to the front of the dolly so they could pull it down the hall, the wheels rubbing against the cheap paneling.

Matt had set a big piece of drywall against the steps, with a cement block anchoring the lower part to the ground. The three of them shimmied the trunk out, putting it carefully on the drywall.

“Worked like a charm,” Courtney said after they hefted the trunk into Blanchard’s SUV. “I’ll go back and get the carpet if you’ll let Matt know we’re done.”

Nikki thanked Blanchard again before heading back into the main house. Matt opened the leaded-glass door before Nikki knocked.

“Are you guys done?”

“Yep,” she said. “The drywall worked well. Blanchard will take the remains so she and the forensic anthropologist can do the autopsies. Courtney’s finishing up right now.”

“What about the flooring?” Matt asked. “I know blood can soak into wood.”

“Right now, she’s planning to use the light and swab it, but we might have to come back and pull some up,” Nikki said.

“You know better, but make Luke realize he should stay out of the house until we can come back and go through and clear it. Courtney will either come back or send Arim. He’s the only other person she’d trust, and he’ll keep quiet about it. ”

“Thank you.” Matt leaned against the doorjamb. “I’ll get all of the paperwork I have so you at least have all the information I do about the Hendricksons.”

Heavy sleet battered the window, making them both jump. “It was snowing just a few minutes ago.”

“I’m glad you have that big Jeep. Just be careful.”

Nikki gripped the wheel as sleet pelted the windshield. Taking Manning Trail to the McKusick south was the fastest route home, but Nikki was starting to think the interstate might have been the better way to go, even if it did add on a lot of time.

She glanced at Courtney white-knuckling her seat belt. “Don’t worry. This new Jeep can handle anything.”

Nikki’s Christmas present to herself for the next five years had been trading in her Jeep for the Jeep Trailhawk 4xe. Getting used to the electric model had taken a little bit of time, mostly because the acceleration was so much faster, and Nikki had a lead foot.

“This is a cold case, right?” Courtney asked. “I still don’t see this being connected to Eli or Scott, do you?”

“As of now, no,” Nikki said. “It was pretty obvious no one had been in that room in a long time. We profiled Eli’s killer as someone close to him or the family, because he’d last been with his younger cousin and friends playing baseball.

Miller managed to find out the immediate family’s alibis were confirmed, but we don’t know much more. ”

“What about Scott Williams?” Courtney asked. “I know he disappeared walking home at night, but his body was recovered. Was Blanchard able to figure anything out from his remains?”

“Too decomposed,” Nikki said. “She didn’t find any bullet fragments. There was a trace of water in his lungs, so we think he was at least breathing before he went into the water.”

“And the river is nowhere near the route Scott walked home?” Courtney asked.

“No.” Nikki turned her windshield wipers on high as the snow came down faster.

“As soon as Miller heard about Eli, he checked up on Scott Williams’ stepdad.

The only connection between the boys is Stillwater High School, and Rodney Atwood—Scott’s stepdad—was confirmed to be duck hunting in the north woods the day Eli disappeared.

And I still haven’t found anything to support Atwood’s arrest.”

“Do you know if Atwood has any connection to the Hendrickson property?” Courtney asked.

“Not that we’ve discovered. Atwood’s a mechanic, and we were able to verify his work history. Nothing about the Hendricksons came up.”

“Well, the remains may not be as old as we think,” Courtney reminded her. “If they’re only a year or so old, then maybe there is a connection to Eli. Maybe we have another serial on our hands.”

The idea made Nikki’s blood run cold. “The Hendrickson place has been closed up until Matt bought it,” Nikki reminded her.

“He said Spencer, the grandson, kept an eye on the place and would have noticed a break-in.” She wasn’t sure which was scarier—a serial child killer or multiple child killers operating on different levels.

“And we don’t know anything about the remains in the trunk. ”

Nikki flinched as a gust of wind rattled the windshield wipers, already working overtime against the sleet. The massive buck came out of nowhere, emerging from the ditch to Nikki’s right, unconcerned with the weather or the headlights bearing down on him.

She knew better than to swerve not to hit an animal, especially in conditions like this. But she couldn’t bear the thought of killing the deer—or worse, maiming it so it was in misery, and she’d have to put it down. “Hang on.”

Nikki double tapped the brakes in an effort not to slam them down and slide on the slick road, pulling the wheel toward the empty left lane.

The big Jeep had almost come to a stop, but her front tires connected with a patch of black ice.

Nikki threw her arm out in front of Courtney, cursing as the vehicle nose-dived into the deep ditch.

Somehow, Nikki managed to stop the slide before the new Jeep slammed into a snowbank.

Courtney clung to Nikki’s arm for a few moments, both trying to catch their breath. The Jeep’s headlights made the snowbank a few feet ahead of them glow. The massive buck meandered down the ditch, crossing in front of the Jeep without any clue he’d almost been hit.

She and Courtney looked at each other for a minute before breaking out in nervous, relieved laughter.

Thankfully the engine was still running, and she had plenty of gas, so they didn’t have to worry about freezing.

“Do you know how many times Rory has reminded me to just hit the deer, never swerve?”

“I would have done the same thing. Killing it would have haunted me.” Courtney smirked at her. “But do put the call on speaker.”

Nikki rolled her eyes, Rory’s cell already ringing. “Hey, babe. How close are you? The roads aren’t getting any better.”

“Um, I’m still on Manning Trail,” Nikki said.

“What’s wrong?”

“We’re fine,” Nikki said. “But we’re in a ditch.”

Rory sighed. “How did you end up in the ditch with that Trailhawk, honey?” Suspicion rose in Rory’s voice. “I’ve seen you drive on solid ice and not slide.”

Courtney snickered.

“You swerved to avoid a deer, didn’t you?” Rory demanded.

“He was a beautiful, majestic buck who deserved to live,” Nikki said defensively. “I don’t think we’ve got much damage, but I have a feeling we’re going to need to be pulled out of here.”

He sighed. “Text me the location, dingus.”

While they waited for him to arrive, Nikki and Courtney went over everything they’d learned today. “I need to talk to Stephanie and Patrick.”

“Is Karl a suspect?”

“The bodies would have to be a few years old at least, I think,” Nikki said.

“Karl was ninety when he died. I have a hard time seeing a man in his eighties overpower two people. But who knows? It sounded like he bolted up the apartment at some point. Did he do something and try to hide it? The anthropologist might tell us the bodies are older than we think.” Nikki loved working cold cases, even though she didn’t get a chance to do so very often.

“Hopefully Garcia is okay with my working this case, at least until something urgent emerges.”

“He won’t tell you no,” Courtney said. “He rarely does.”

Nikki had been at Quantico with their boss, Henry Garcia, and their interactions hadn’t always been friendly. She’d been apprehensive when he was assigned to be their SAC, but he’d proven to be a good leader with an open mind.

“Liam’s been gone for ten days, so I’m sure I’ll be on my own,” Nikki said. “He’ll have reams of paperwork to catch up on.”

Rory’s F-250 arrived a few minutes later. Lacey jumped out of the passenger seat in her bright-pink snowsuit and half-slid down the ditch, flashlight in hand. Nikki climbed out of the Jeep to hug her, snow stinging her eyes, but Lacey shook her head like a disappointed parent.

“Mom, you’re supposed to hit the deer, not the ditch.”