Page 37 of The Girls in the Snow

“You’ve been wrong before.”

Nikki’s patience ran out. “I have a warrant to search Ricky’s vehicle. He’s under suspicion of dealing prescription drugs on your property. And I’m interviewing him in relation to the murders of Kaylee Thomas and Madison Banks.”

Rory flinched and looked at Ricky, who’d come back outside. “Is that true?”

Ricky still hadn’t confirmed that he’d had other customers come to sites to pick up from him, but Nikki could read the truth all over his face.

Nikki pointed to the rusting pickup truck next to the house. “Ricky, is that yours?”

“Why?” Rory asked.

Nikki waved at Courtney and gave her a thumbs up. “I told you, my CSI is going to search for physical evidence tying you to Kaylee. So if she was in your truck for any reason, you’d better tell me now.”

“Girl was never in my truck.”

“Ricky, get back to work,” Rory said. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Ricky disappeared again, tail between his legs. Nikki was fairly certain he was telling the truth, but she needed to be sure. Ricky’s truck had to be searched.

“A judge seriously signed that?” Rory said. “With no probable cause?”

Nikki resisted the urge to tell him to lay off the true crime shows. She’d dealt with more than one jury expecting to see forensic tricks that didn’t even exist. Armchair detectives turned up in every high-profile murder investigation, usually wasting precious time. “We had probable cause and we’re talking about the murders of two teenaged girls.”

“I’m the one who got the search warrant, and it’s absolutely necessary,” Miller added. “Ricky didn’t tell us everything before. He’s a suspect.”

“In other words, you need to back off,” Nikki said. “Unless you want to be charged with harassing an officer.”

“Fine,” Rory said. He glanced at Miller and then back to Nikki. “Can we talk privately?”

“About what?” Anxiety rippled through Nikki. She didn’t want to have a private conversation with Rory. Too many of her worst memories had already been dredged up. “I’m working.”

“It will just take—”

“Look,” she burst out. “I can’t say this enough: I’m here to find out who killed two innocent girls. I can’t do that with you breathing down my neck about Mark.”

“I know why you’re here. I’m just asking for a few minutes.”

Why did he have to do this with an audience?

Ricky peered out of the framed-out window, and Miller hovered between the house and Rory, scratching his head.

Nikki shook her head and started walking across the frozen snow to join Courtney.

“Really?” Rory said. “You’re just going to ignore me and take the easy way out?”

Nikki turned so quickly her boot cracked through the thin ice coating the snow. Her heart pounded. After her parents were murdered, her life in Stillwater had been a sideshow until she was able to escape it. How long before someone other than Caitlin and Rory started following her around, wanting answers she didn’t have to give?

“Easy way out?” Nikki laughed bitterly. “I became a cop because I already knew how monsters worked. Leave me alone.”

She stalked over to help Courtney with her equipment.

“What’s going on? Why is the owner giving you so much grief?” Courtney asked.

“It’s Mark Todd’s brother.” Nikki put her hands in her pockets to hide their shaking. She wasn’t going to be pushed around while she was trying to do her job. “If you find anything questionable, Miller has people on standby who can impound the vehicle for you.”

Courtney’s head moved up and down, but her gaze focused over Nikki’s shoulder. “He’s coming over here.”

Nikki turned around, bracing for another nasty remark.