Page 14 of Her Frozen Heart

“You won’t,” he said. “I never saw her until today. At least, not in person. Just on the news. God, my wife’s going to be pissed.”

“Is she able to come get you?”

“Oh, she’s already on her way to talk to you.” He looked embarrassed. “Hopefully she’ll let me ride home with her when she finds out about the truck. I better call and tell her now.”

Nikki nodded. “Sheriff Miller and I will be outside.” She shrugged her coat on and followed Miller out into the freezing weather. “God, it’s still snowing?” She dug her knit cap out of her pocket and pulled it on.

“It’s supposed to peter out soon,” Miller said.

“Where are the evidence techs?” Nikki asked. She spotted Reynolds in his patrol car, labeling the evidence bags.

“There weren’t any available to come out,” Miller told her. “But it’s more intimidating if he thinks there are. Reynolds called the tow truck, and it should be here soon. He’s going to handle logging the evidence. We need to find her hands and feet. There could be DNA under fingernails that might help us nail this bastard.”

Nikki chewed her bottom lip, trying to figure out their best move. She scanned the lake, her stomach knotting. “More divers are out of the question until at least after the New Year, and the earliest we can get search volunteers out is the day after Christmas. I can put in a request for a cadaver dog to search for her hands and feet, but again, the holiday is going to mess everything up.”

“Let me make some calls,” Miller said. “One of the K9 handlers owes me a favor, and I know he’s around. I can’t promise I’ll have an answer before Saturday, but I’ll try.”

“Check in with me when you get a chance,” Nikki told him. “We won’t be able to follow up with the Mall of America security until the day after Christmas, but if you’re able to get a dog, I might be able to cobble together volunteers for Saturday.”

Liam wasn’t technically allowed in the field, but he could help with a search if he felt up to it. Since he was dying to get out of the house, Nikki was confident she could count on him to help.

An aging gray minivan peeled into the parking lot, coming to a stop next to Stanton’s truck. The dark-haired woman in the driver’s seat glared at them through the dirty windshield. She shoved the minivan’s door open and got out, immediately lighting a cigarette. “Who’s in charge here?”

Nikki hid a smile as Miller put himself between the woman and Stanton’s truck. “Sheriff Kent Miller. This is Agent Hunt with the FBI. I take it you’re Mrs. Stanton?”

Flour dotted her Vikings sweatshirt. “Sheri Stanton. Why can’t my husband take his truck home?”

Miller explained the situation, but Sheri didn’t appear to be as understanding as her husband. “He’s done nothing wrong.”

“The blood in the truck bed, and the blood on the knives and axe in the toolbox are things we can’t ignore. Mr. Stanton says all of the blood is deer blood, but we can’t know that definitively until it’s tested.”

“He should be treated like a hero since he’s brought this family closure,” Sheri said. “That’s what I was told when I called in about the GoFundMe reward. They were very appreciative.”

Nikki tried to bite her tongue and failed. “You contacted whoever set up the reward before we released any information to the public. Do you realize that means her parents probably found out that way instead of being informed in person by an officer?”

Sheri didn’t seem to care. “What’s the difference? Bad news is bad news. For all we know, they wouldn’t have found out until after Christmas. At least now—”

“They know their child was found discarded in a freezing lake,” Nikki cut her off. She’d had enough of the woman’s lack of empathy. “I suggest you collect your husband and go home. The truck has to be processed by my forensic people. You’ll hear from us after the holidays.”

Sheri’s pale cheeks turned bright red. “You’ll hear from my attorney before that.”

“Let me make something clear to you, Mrs. Stanton,” Sheriff Miller said. “Your husband is lucky we aren’t bringing him in for getting high and operating a vehicle or giving him a ticket for poaching since he admitted to it. I’m even going to make sure he’s not charged an impound fee, providing the blood all turns out to be animal.”

“This is just ridiculous,” Sheri snapped.

“It’s procedure,” Nikki said through clenched teeth. “But feel free to call your attorney and be charged for something he can’t legally do anything about. Mr. Stanton is inside.”

Sheri looked like she wanted to claw Nikki’s eyes out, but she brushed past them and marched into the contact center, yelling for her husband.

“No wonder he wanted out of the house on Christmas Eve,” Nikki muttered.

“Right,” Miller agreed.

A fresh gust of wind blew cold snow into their faces. Nikki tucked her chin into her coat collar. “We need to talk to the Bloomington detective and the family.”

Miller nodded. “The DNR will help keep the area secure. I checked with BPD, and the detective is off for Christmas, but I’ve got his contact information. We can call him and the family from the sheriff’s station. Reynolds is going to wait for the truck to be towed back.”

“I’ll follow you there.” Nikki’s mind barreled ahead as she walked to the jeep. In addition to BPD and the family, they needed copies of the case files so they could talk to all of the witnesses. They needed to request CCTV footage from the county’s traffic cams nearest the lake along with the Mall of America’s security videos. They were already so far behind Kesha’s killer, and the autopsy results would definitely be affected by the cold water, which made figuring out Kesha’s time of death difficult, if not impossible.

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