Page 18 of Her Frozen Heart

“That boy didn’t walk out on that ice, I promise you,” Mr. Williams had said before the call ended. “Don’t waste more time on him.”

Normally, Nikki wasted no time interviewing suspects, but given the holiday and the parents’ insistence, she decided to wait until tomorrow afternoon to call Dion.

She checked her watch. It was nearly four p.m., and Nikki had promised Lacey that she would be at the Todds’ in time for dinner at 5:30 p.m.

“What’s the BPD detective’s name again?” she asked Miller as the video call came through.

“Wiley.”

Nikki sipped coffee while Miller made the introductions. She noticed the detective appeared to be calling from a home office. He was also not far from retiring, and Nikki suspected he was eager to pass this case on.

“Detective Wiley, thanks for talking with us today.”

“No problem,” Wiley said. “I just looked at the photos you sent on the secure server, Sheriff Miller. It’s definitely Kesha Williams. I would have preferred to tell the parents myself.”

Nikki bit her tongue and let Miller field the lie. When Wiley had initially been informed about Kesha’s body, he’d instructed Miller to talk to the family. Now that he knew they’d found out in the worst of ways, he was eager to deflect blame.

“We had intended to hold her identity until local police were able to inform her parents, but unfortunately, the news media had other ideas.” Miller sounded friendly, but Nikki picked up on the edge in his tone. That was the only fib he was going to let the detective get away with.

“Her dad chewed most of my ass out,” Wiley said. “Please make it clear this screw-up wasn’t mine, nor did it have anything to do with her skin color.”

“We will,” Nikki said, not bothering to hide the edge in her voice. “Did you send over the file?”

“Emailed it to both of you,” Wiley said.

“Did you have any suspects?” Miller asked.

“Initially, the boyfriend. He said he’d waited for her the whole time, but then changed his story when the mall police got him on camera doing differently.”

“What was he doing?” Miller asked.

“He said that he stayed in the same spot except getting up to go to the bathroom, and then he came back. Security cameras show he browsed a kiosk and paid cash at a vending machine during that time. The vending machine was in the direction Kesha had walked in, but Dion not only forgot about getting up, in his version, he walks a couple of minutes back to where Kesha left him instead of just going to find her. Why backtrack?”

“Because that’s where they were supposed to meet,” Nikki said. “With all the people in the mall that day, it would have been easy for them to miss each other walking. His decision makes sense to me.”

Wiley looked unimpressed. “Because the mall was so busy, there’s at least fifteen minutes he’s unaccounted for.”

“You think that in those fifteen minutes, he did something to her, hid her, came back and then contacted mall security because she wasn’t answering her phone?” Miller’s jaw was tight, his voice steely. Nikki couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be a black cop in situations like this, especially in the current climate, so she waited to hear the detective’s reaction.

“I’m saying he wasn’t truthful, and we had no one else,” Wiley retorted.

Nikki unlocked her tablet and opened Wiley’s email. She scanned the documents. “You interviewed her family and boyfriend, and a couple of other friends. What about witnesses at the mall?”

“We talked to the employees at every store Kesha was known to shop at. No one noticed anything unusual. We followed every possible lead, which, to be honest, weren’t many. Kesha was a senior in high school. Honor student, honor band, and she played soccer. She worked part-time at the local YMCA. Never reported any issues or concerns. By all accounts, she was happy and getting ready for college. She planned to attend Mankato State in the fall.”

“And now you’ve eliminated her boyfriend as a suspect?” Miller asked.

Wiley shrugged. “Not necessarily. Dion Johnson is a year older than Kesha. He’s the one who brought her to the mall, and they’d recently fought about her decision to go to school and leave him behind at the local college. He wasn’t happy about it.”

“What actual evidence did you have against him?” Nikki asked, tired of the detective’s blasé attitude.

“Nothing solid, or we would have charged him. Just a feeling more than anything, not to mention it made the most sense.”

Nikki doubted that, but she decided not to argue with him until she’d thoroughly looked at the file. “I assume you’ve kept an eye on him the last month?”

“As best we could, but it’s a busy time of year. He said he took leave from work and school, and the local police have kept up with his movements. He hasn’t done anything suspicious, but they weren’t able to watch twenty-four hours a day. He goes to work, school, home. He does have a sealed juvenile record.”

“We’re aware,” Nikki said.

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