Page 23 of The Girls in the Snow

“She’d cut class and then was caught with a joint. I took her phone and grounded her.” Jessica closed her eyes. “If she’d had her phone, maybe—”

“Don’t do that to yourself,” Nikki said. “You did what any parent would do in the situation.”

Jessica grabbed a lighter from the small pile of odds and ends on the table. Nikki didn’t see any cigarettes, but the landlord probably didn’t allow smoking inside.

“Do you need a break to smoke?”

“I quit. Too expensive. I just like to have something in my hands, you know?” Jessica cleared her throat. “I worked a double shift at the nursing home that day and didn’t get home until after dinner time. I was so angry she wasn’t home, but I knew she’d be with Madison, so I just drove over there. No one was home. I texted Amy then, and she told me the girls were at the Hansons’. I told her I’d go get them and drop Madison at home.”

Nikki looked at Miller. “Why didn’t Madison go with her mother and brother to see her grandparents?” Nikki asked.

“She begged off, saying she had a big test on Monday,” Miller answered.

Exactly what Nikki expected from what she knew of Madison.

“The Hansons had just gotten home from dinner. Miles said the girls never showed up. That’s when I called the police.”

“I know Kaylee got in trouble this summer,” Nikki said. “Were things any better when she got back to school?”

“I thought so. She seemed happier,” Jessica said. “But middle school was rough. Do you know how much social media can mess a teenaged girl up?”

“I can only imagine.” Stillwater had two middle schools, and everyone was thrown into the mixing bowl freshman year.

“Most girls spend an hour making themselves look perfect before they even think about taking a picture. But not Kaylee. She never obsessed about how she looked until she started getting teased. I don’t think she ever got her self-confidence back. Then a couple of girls on her volleyball team started picking on her.”

“Teenaged girls can be awful,” Nikki agreed. “Is that why she left volleyball?”

“She was kicked off the team because she stood up for herself.” Pride swelled in Jessica’s tone. “Madison Banks was the only girl on that team who stood up for her to the coach. All the rest fell right in line behind Jade.”

“Good for Kaylee,” Nikki said. “And the girls became friends after that?”

Jessica dabbed her eyes with a Kleenex. “I thought it was great. Madison was a good student, good kid, she was nice,” Jessica said. “They spent all their free time together. Sometimes Madison came here, but Kaylee mostly went to her house. Madison’s mother didn’t want her over here. But Madison never seemed to care that Kaylee didn’t come from a well-off family or have money to blow at the mall. I think that really helped Kaylee’s self-confidence.”

“Amy Banks didn’t like your boyfriend.”

Jessica snorted. “That woman doesn’t like anyone below her income level. But yeah, she didn’t like Ricky. Neither do I. Why in the hell I hooked up with him, I’ll never know. It’s over between us.”

“I think we all have at least one of those guys in our past,” Nikki said, and Jessica smiled back at her. “Did Kaylee like him?”

“Kaylee hated him, so he was never over here when she was by herself.”

“Why did she hate him?”

Jessica hesitated. “She said he’d said some inappropriate things to her. He denied it, but I couldn’t trust him.”

Miller glanced at Nikki. “I’m sure you saw that in the case file. That’s why Ricky was originally a suspect, but his alibi’s solid.”

“I did,” Nikki said. “Is that why you broke if off?”

Jessica’s gripped tightened on the lighter. “That was part of it.”

Nikki let the silence simmer, watching Jessica become more uncomfortable as the seconds ticked by.

Miller leaned forward, his brow furrowed. “Jessica, is there something you haven’t told us?”

Jessica’s bouncing knee made the table shake. “I found pictures of other women on his phone.”

“This was before Kaylee disappeared?”