Page 57 of Her Frozen Heart

Nikki cupped her hands in front of her face, trying to warm her freezing nose. “What about the co-op? You ever see or hear anything?”

“I wasn’t working that day,” Colton said.

Nikki noticed the back deck had a perfect view of the Artists’ Co-op. She’d also noticed curtains and empty planter boxes on the second floor of the Victorian. “This diner’s pretty cool. Does anyone live upstairs?”

“Mom and me,” Colton said. “Why?”

“So you were home the day Parker disappeared?”

Colton scowled like his mother had. “Yep. Watching a movie with my mom.”

Nikki’s bones were starting to feel the cold. “Look, Colton. I can’t give you details, but I can tell you that I’m on your side. I’m not here to judge your relationship with Parker or whatever mistakes you might have made. I’m here to find out what happened. You work and live right next to the co-op. You’ve admitted to stalker tendencies. Are you going to tell me that you didn’t keep an eye on Parker’s work?”

Colton hugged himself, the cigarette balanced between his lips. “Maybe I did.”

“Good,” Nikki said. “Did you ever see anyone walking around the place when it wasn’t open?”

“Like casing it?” Colton shook his head. “It’s cold as shit here even during mild nights because the wind comes off the lake. No one’s out doing anything if they can help it.”

“Parker never seemed worried about his safety?” Nikki asked. “You’re certain? Think back farther, before winter. Someone might have been planning this for a while.”

Colton worried his bottom lip. He took a final puff and dropped the smoke onto the concrete. He ground the cherry out with his boot. “Maybe.”

“Maybe what?”

“Thanksgiving week,” he said. “It was the Tuesday or Wednesday before. Me and Parker got into a fight because I thought he’d tried to sneak someone into the building after hours.”

Nikki pushed off the wall, her pulse accelerating. “Before Thanksgiving? You saw someone sneaking around?”

“I thought I had,” he admitted. “But I’d also been drinking, and Parker insisted he wasn’t going behind my back. He’s a lot of things, but he’s not a cheater.”

“Do you remember what the person you saw looked like?”

Colton snorted. “A tall dude in a dark coat with a dark hat. Could have been a shadow, but…”

“What?” Nikki prodded.

“I just remember thinking it was either a creep or a phantom. We didn’t have snow then, and it was a really cloudy night, and I thought someone was standing under that big willow tree for the longest time.” He pointed to the massive willow about fifty yards from the diner. Its branches were weighed down with ice and snow, and some were so long they reached the ground. A month ago, without the starkness of snow and the benefit of night, someone could conceivably hide around the tree.

“You saw them from here?” Nikki asked.

Colton shook his head. “I was on the second floor, in the living area. So, looking at an angle, if that makes sense. I saw him and called Parker and went off, and I’m looking out the window the whole time, right? Parker’s going on about me being drunk and hallucinating, so I come downstairs and turned on the back floodlights. No one was there.”

“You didn’t mention this to Detective Dover?” Nikki asked.

“I forgot,” Colton said. “Nothing came out of it, and I’d convinced myself the booze and scary movie I’d been watching just played tricks with my mind.” His voice cracked on the last word. “Do you think Parker’s alive?”

Nikki hated giving anyone false hope, and she couldn’t tell Colton about the photo. “I hope so. We’re going to do everything we can to find him alive.”

“Oh my God.” Colton’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Your team’s working that case that’s on the news, with all those bodies. You think the same person took Parker, don’t you? That’s why you’re here?”

“I think it’s a possibility that has to be investigated,” she said. “We haven’t found anything that indicates he’s buried in the reserve at Big Marine.”

That seemed to pacify Colton enough. Nikki gave him her card. “The bottom number’s my cell. If you think of anything else, call me, not Dover. Let’s go back inside before our faces freeze in this position.”

The little hallway was warm and smelled like apple pie. Nikki’s stomach growled. The lunch smelled so good that Nikki debated placing an order, when she recognized the dark-haired girl sitting at the break table next to the kitchen. “That’s Maria Lopez, right?” she asked Colton. “Can I talk to her at work?”

“If she’s sitting there, she’s on break, so sure. But she didn’t know Parker very well.”

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