“Kids are usually stuck sleeping wherever there’s room,” Nikki said. “Probably on air mattresses.”
In addition to the three bedrooms and single bathroom, the cabin had a decent-sized kitchen space that opened into a carpeted living area.
“Smells like mothballs and dust.” Courtney ran her gloved finger along the dirty windowsill. “I think it’s been a while since anyone stayed here.”
Nikki looked through the bag of groceries John had left on the counter. Fruit, cereal, bread, plus ham and cheese. He’d also left two gallons of water and a couple of blankets Bailey said his dad always kept in the truck.
“He never intended to hurt Bailey,” Nikki said. “He likely took him on the spur of the moment and then panicked. So, he gives him enough to keep him warm and fed for a couple of days and then leaves.”
“Counting on you to find Bailey quickly,” Liam said. “That’s a risk.”
“He must have known we’d find the cabin in his financials. He’s the sole owner, right, Court?”
“Bought the other guy out after Robert Vance’s death. The third friend, Larry, moved to Illinois to stay with family a couple of years ago. He’s got pretty bad Parkinson’s and didn’t use the cabin anymore. Says he hasn’t spoken to John since then.”
“He locked the Tahoe,” Nikki said. “But it does have OnStar. It would have taken a warrant, but we could have located him using their GPS. John surely knew that.”
“Agent Hunt?” One of the county deputies ducked his head into the doorway. “We got into the storage shed. Something you guys need to see.”
Dread weighed her down as they followed the deputy out back through the knee-high snow. They reached the open door, and Nikki’s stomach hollowed out.
A chest freezer sat against the back wall with its lid propped open. Another deputy snapped pictures of the inside.
“Did you find blood?”
“Some,” the deputy said. “And a fake fingernail.”
Nikki glanced at Courtney, and they both pushed past the deputy.
“It’s big enough he could have put one on the bottom and stacked the other on top, like we thought.” Liam stood behind them, able to look over both their heads.
The medical examiner believed most of Maddie’s bleeding would have been internal, save for her superficial wounds. But she’d torn her skin to leave the initials on her arm.
“Pink shellac nail.” Courtney used tweezers to extract the nail that had been partially stuck in the dried blood. “It’s definitely the same kind Madison wore when she died.”
“But this makes no sense,” Nikki said.
Liam looked at her. “It’s pretty clear to me. He brought her to the cabin, killed her, then stashed her until he thought it was safe—”
“That’s just it,” she said. “John’s the sole owner of this cabin. The storage shed has electricity and the shed is locked. Those girls could have stayed hidden in that freezer for years. Why dump them? And why aren’t his fingerprints on Maddie’s belt?”
“Perhaps he unraveled. Panicked. We agree the killer has been getting more and more desperate. It makes sense that he was struggling with what he’d done before we even got here. Perhaps someone else does use the cabin. Maybe John had an accomplice,” Liam said. “What if the second mark on Maddie’s arm was an unfished ‘T’? As in Todd.”
Nikki stopped what she was doing and stared up at him. “What?”
“The first initial on Madison’s arm could have been an unfinished ‘R’ instead of a ‘P.’ If the second was an unfished ‘T’—”
“Rory hasn’t even been on the suspect list.”
“What’s to say he wasn’t involved?”
“You’re not thinking clearly at all,” Nikki said. “There’s nothing that ties him to either girl.”
“But he helped you get to that conclusion,” Liam said. “He’s hung around you, showing up at the right times. Is his being involved really that far out there?”
Nikki knew people. She would have seen something in Rory. But she’d been wrong about John.
“He’s a local. How hard would it be to get information on John? How well do you really know the guy? Honestly, if he wasn’t good-looking and being so nice to you, wouldn’t you be asking the same question?” Liam held up his hands before she could respond. “That came out wrong, but you know what I mean. Hell, I don’t even know what I mean.”
