Page 37 of Her Frozen Heart

“I can’t take much more of just sitting in the office,” Liam said after Kendra left the room. “My next evaluation is in two weeks. If I have to fake feeling good, then I will.”

Nikki rolled her eyes. “Like you can hide that from me or Caitlin. You know we aren’t going to let you get away with that.”

“I’m doing all of the eye therapy and other exercises, and I don’t have any vision issues. Every once in a while I get dizzy, but the headaches are getting better and I’m having less. They’ve got to let me work.”

“In the meantime, you’re stuck here,” Nikki said. “I want you talking to any potential witnesses from the fishing boards, preferably over Zoom. I’d have you contact the sex offender too, but I don’t want to spook him. And check in with Forest Lake police, let them know where we are. Don’t mention the mass grave—Parker’s only been missing for a week, so even if he turns out to be a victim of the same guy, he’s not going to be buried in the woods.” Personally, Nikki was hedging her bets on something domestic with Parker, especially after Liam’s update.

“Fine,” Liam said. “I’m not sure the sex offender’s a good suspect given his age. Chelsea said the guy looked like he was in his early forties. He told them not to shine the flashlight directly at him because he had sensitive eyes, right?”

“We don’t know for sure that was the killer,” Nikki reminded him. “But, yeah, I have my doubts on someone so young being this organized, but I want someone with experience sitting down with him. With you sidelined, Miller’s the only one I trust to do it. He’s got enough experience to play it cool, and it’s not unusual for the county sheriff to check in on sex offenders. The FBI, not so much.”

TWELVE

Nikki hadn’t been to the Mall of America since last spring, when Frost had targeted Lacey. She’d never been a fan of the place, and now it represented more than crowds and commerce to Nikki. Her life had changed forever in this mall, just like Kesha Williams’. She chugged down the last of her coffee and forced herself not to think about what Frost could have done that day. Since the Mall of America would be insanely busy today, she’d arranged to meet security before the mall opened. Still, shoppers were already waiting in their cars when Nikki drove past them down to the separate entrance for security.

Unlike most shopping centers, the Mall of America’s security team was a nationally recognized department, patrolling both the interior of the mall and the maze of parking garages. They also employed a K9 unit and had a state-of-the-art dispatch center located in the basement.

“Agent Hunt, it’s good to see you again. How’s your daughter?” Head of Security Ashley Stack greeted her at the security office entrance. Stack had been part of the team that helped Nikki search the mall in the spring when the serial killer Frost had spoken to Lacey when she’d become separated from Rory and Nikki.

“She’s good,” Nikki answered, hoping Stack didn’t bring up her ex-husband’s murder. “Thanks for meeting with me on such short notice.”

Stack ushered Nikki into her office. “Of course. I’m still sick we weren’t able to keep Kesha Williams and her kidnapper from leaving the mall that day.”

“Try not to be too hard on yourself,” Nikki said, double-checking the notes app on her phone. “Can you walk me through that day?”

“Of course.” Stack opened the file on her desk. “At 2:32 p.m. on November twenty-seventh, Dion Thompson flagged down a security guard and asked for help finding his girlfriend. She wanted to shop a couple of stores not far from the area, and he didn’t feel like going, so he decided to wait. He played a game on his phone, not paying any attention to the time. When he realized Kesha had been gone for around forty-five minutes, he texted her.”

Nikki had already looked at the phone records from the Bloomington police’s file on Kesha. “He texted her seven times in the next twenty minutes, with no response.”

Stack nodded. “During that time, he left the food court and went in the same direction she did, checking stores.” She grabbed a map of the mall and turned it around so that it faced Nikki. “They had eaten here, at the pizza joint on the first floor, before he found a place to sit and wait for her nearby.” Stack traced a route on the map with a pencil. “It’s not far to Victoria’s Secret, maybe five minutes. She also mentioned that she wanted to stop at Bath and Body Works and Barnes and Noble, which are here, near the east parking ramp. While my officers helped search for Kesha, I pulled up CCTV footage. The mall was busy, so we never found her in any corridor videos, but she went into Bath and Body Works and purchased lotion. Then she went to Victoria’s Secret and picked up a bra and some perfume. We never saw her enter Barnes and Noble, and I’m confident that we would have seen her on the CCTV if she’d made it to the bookstore. There’s only one entrance.”

Nikki studied the map. “Kesha could have taken a few different routes towards the bookstore—”

“We checked and confirmed with the store that she never came in,” Stack said.

“What about Dion?”

“We confirmed he was sitting near the pizza place during the time, but he did get up and walk away for about fifteen minutes. He said he went to the restroom, but we didn’t pick him up on security cameras. That said, the mall was busy, and the men’s room was heavily trafficked during the lunch hour, so it’s possible we could have missed him or he went to a different bathroom.”

“But he came back to the same spot?”

“Near it,” Stack said. “The seat was taken, so he found another place to sit, and we were able to confirm that.”

“What about all of the exits?”

“We didn’t pick her up on any of those cameras, but it would have been easy to miss her given the foot traffic.”

Which was likely the reason Kesha’s kidnapper had chosen that day to act, whether he’d been following Kesha, or she’d been a victim of opportunity.

Nikki knew Stack had worked for the Bloomington police before joining the Mall of America’s security team. “Do you still know anyone over at Bloomington P.D.?”

Stack snickered. “I left because of racial tension and harassment. They don’t like it when a black woman stands up for herself. Or they didn’t back then, but that was probably fifteen years ago. I’d like to think they’ve changed, though I will tell you that the main culprit is now heading the investigations division.”

“Fantastic,” Nikki said, handing Stack one of Liam’s cards. “Would you mind emailing all the footage of both Kesha and her boyfriend to my colleague? He’ll want to get fresh eyes on it.”

On the way to her jeep, Nikki checked her email. The warrant had come through, so it was time to pay Stanton a visit.

Danny Stanton lived outside of Marine on St. Croix, a tiny village in northeast Washington County and only a short drive from the lake. The craftsman-style house had seen better days, its wooden siding badly in need of a fresh paint job. The property was at least two acres, with the house, a detached garage, and a big yard with a rusting swing set. A tire swing hung forlornly from the oak tree in the front yard.

---