Page 78 of The Girls in the Snow

“I know it has. Losing a parent is awful, especially when you’re young.” She almost laughed at the irony of her saying those words to someone who believed her own parents’ killer might be innocent. She didn’t know how Bobby’s father had died, but she knew what it was like to lose someone. “If I’d stayed in Stillwater after I graduated, I don’t know what would have happened to me. It’s great to come back and see friends and family, but it’s okay to live your own life and heal. I’m sure that’s what your father would have wanted.” She turned and started walking toward the main building’s front entrance before her emotions spilled into unprofessional territory. “Good luck, Bobby.”

Nikki ducked her head against the wind and wished she’d parked closer to the front entrance. She’d just made it into the warm lobby when her cell vibrated in her pocket.

Adrenaline rushed through Nikki at seeing Courtney’s name on the screen.

“Please tell me you have the results of the DNA and fingerprint testing.”

“Well, hello to you, too.”

“Sorry.” Nikki shouldered her phone and rubbed her hands together. She kept forgetting her gloves, and her hands were constantly freezing.

“We found prints on Madison’s belt and they match those found on Janelle,” Courtney said. “The weird thing is that they don’t match any of the prints lifted from Janelle’s motel room.”

“What about her ex? His prints are in the system.”

“Negative for both. If you can get a warrant for John’s prints, I can analyze them.”

Nikki worried it was too soon to take John’s fingerprints. She wanted to have a solid case first so that he didn’t have the opportunity to run. “Thanks, Court. I’ll let Liam and Miller know. They’re headed home for the day, but I’ll be available if you find anything else.”

Nikki went straight to the administration desk. She showed the attendant her badge. There was something else she needed to do.

Thirty-One

Nikki set the case file aside and dug into the Chinese food she’d picked up on the way to her hotel. She moaned in appreciation as she bit into the sesame chicken. Tao’s had always been her favorite Chinese restaurant in Stillwater, and the food was just as amazing as she’d remembered.

She ran through her notes from the day while she ate, hoping something would jump out at her.

Liam had spoken with the two dancers John always requested at The Doll House. Both said that nothing specific about him stood out other than being a good tipper. He’d complained about his wife, but no more than any other guy. He never mentioned children. None of the girls felt he acted inappropriately with them, and none of them remembered any specific interactions between John and Janelle.

The information should have eased her mind, but Liam had saved the best for last. John had told Nikki that he started going to The Doll House after Madison went missing, but both dancers said John started coming to the strip club a full two months before the girls disappeared. The club’s owner had emailed Liam six months of archived security footage. Liam and Miller had stayed late at the sheriff’s office and were currently going through the recordings. John seemed to visit the same time every day, between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

If Brianna’s information was accurate, the Bankses’ marital problems had started well before the girls disappeared and he’d lied to Nikki. And if what Briana said about the pictures Bailey had found was true, were the women simply sleeping or had they been drugged? And if he’d drugged those other women, what had he done to Nikki that night? Is that why her tox screen had been buried all those years ago? Nikki wondered just how far John would go to bury this.

Minnesota was a no-fault state, and Amy would get half in a divorce regardless of the reason for it. Did he have a motivation for keeping his affairs a secret?

Madison’s injuries were key. Whoever had killed the girls had treated them very differently. John could have killed someone in a fit of passion, but would he beat up his own daughter and leave her to freeze to death?

John certainly knew the press strategy regarding Frost. He also knew how stubborn Nikki could be when she made up her mind about something. Staging Janelle’s killing to look like a Frost victim could have been his way to lead her off course.

But if John had been getting away with drugging and raping women for years, he knew how to choose the right victim, how to lure her and how to cover his tracks. Leaving fingerprints was a rookie move. Unless the stress of covering up his crimes caused him to make a costly mistake.

Everything pointed to John, and yet nothing added up. Maybe stepping away from the case for a little while would help her figure out what she’d missed. She grabbed the remote and turned on the television, searching for anything to take her mind off the case and clear her head. Infomercials and reality television didn’t exactly help.

She glanced at the table, half-wishing she hadn’t asked the district attorney to send her copies of her parents’ case file. Did she really want to do this?

She had to. If there was any chance Mark was telling the truth, Nikki owed it to her parents to find their real killer. And to help get Mark out of prison. Nikki had put her trust in John, and for the first time in her life she was questioning him. What if everything he’d told her was a lie? What if he’d slipped the liquid ecstasy into her drink? What had he intended to do to her?

Nikki lifted the lid and tossed it aside. A copy of the evidence log sat on top. Her father’s bloodstained pajamas and slippers, her mother’s nightgown and the bottom bedsheet, and various items from Nikki’s room and the nightstand were listed, with the chain of custody stating they were currently in the prosecutor’s office pending testing, in addition to the swabs taken from her mother’s face.

She started with the photos. Her hands shook, and the contents of her stomach threatened to make an appearance. The images had already been scorched into her brain, but the photos contained details she’d forgotten. She had to look at them with a trained eye. The first few shots consisted of the exterior of the house. Then photos of the bloody footprints on the stairs and upstairs hallway. The photographer had followed crime scene protocol and worked from the outside of the scene in, so the first picture was a full shot of the bedroom. Her mother lay on the bed, arm dangling off the side, blankets on the floor, including her grandma’s quilt. Nikki couldn’t stand to have it around afterwards, so she’d put it in storage, along with other items she couldn’t look at but would never get rid of.

There were defensive wounds on her mother’s hands. Her face was slack, sightless eyes wide.

Nikki spread the pictures out on the table and then dug through until she found the coroner’s report. A bullet had grazed her mother’s shoulder and then embedded into the wall as she likely fled the killer after she’d gone to check on her husband. Marks on her feet showed she’d probably been dragged and then thrown back into the bed. Had she fought him off and then tried to get up, only to have him shoot her in the stomach?

The coroner estimated she took several minutes to die.

Your mother died instantly. She didn’t suffer.Hardin had made it a point to comfort her with the information. He’d said it several times in the days after the murder.

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