Page 39 of Her Frozen Heart

Maria glared at her. “I met him at work, and all we did was flirt. I never even let him know I was interested until I was legal. I’m going to be a lawyer, by the way.”

“That’s great,” Nikki said. “But you’re still a high school student. That said, I’m not here to bust you or Danny for that, but I will if I find out you’re lying.” She wanted to tell Maria that she was just setting herself up for a big fall, but Nikki knew that once she started in on the girl, she wouldn’t be able to stop, and she didn’t have the time to be distracted. “Where do you work?”

“West End Diner.”

“Is that in Marine on St. Croix?”

Maria shook her head. “You can Google it.”

“I want to show you a photo.” Nikki opened her phone and showed the girl Kesha’s photo. Maria’s facial features were nothing like Kesha’s, but she had a similar build, hair and skin tone. All three often played a large role in victimology. “Do you recognize her?”

“From the TV, and I know Danny found her.” Maria shuddered. “He’s a wreck about it.”

“How long have you known him?”

Maria shrugged.

“Are you the only girl he’s seeing?”

“I better be.”

Nikki didn’t bother to point out her hypocrisy. “You’ve never felt unsafe around him or noticed anything that set off alarms?”

Maria shook her head. “I really need to get to work.”

Nikki gave her back the license along with a business card. “If you think of anything else, call me.”

“Sure. But you need to promise you won’t say anything to my parents.”

“I don’t have to promise anything of the sort,” Nikki said evenly. “But your cooperation goes a long way.”

Maria flipped her shining hair over her shoulder. “I know he’s a good guy that’s treated like crap by his wife. She’s the one selling—”

“Maria, you’re going to be late for work.” Stanton reappeared wearing a black sweatshirt.

Maria smiled smugly at Nikki. “See you around. Danny, call me later, okay?”

He grunted a response. Nikki didn’t try to hide her disgust as Maria sauntered to her car.

“Agent, I know what it looks like—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Nikki said flatly. “She might be legal, but it’s disgusting. And if you had sex with her when she was still a minor—”

“I didn’t, I swear.”

“Is she the only one?”

“Why does that matter?”

“Because I asked.”

“Yeah, fine. It’s obviously just a physical thing—”

“Again, gross,” Nikki said. “I’m here to get a DNA sample to test against the blood found.”

He stared at her. “It’s deer blood, Agent.”

Nikki nodded. “Our lab confirmed deer blood in the bed of the truck and on the knife’s blade. But there’s human blood on the hilt.”

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