Page 54 of Little Child Gone

“No, no, no,” Jared said. “Christy would never hurt the kids, no matter how much she’d had to drink.”

“Has she ever gotten physical with any of the kids?” Nikki asked.

“No.” Jared’s eyes shined with intensity. “Agent Hunt, I promise you my wife would never hurt her kids. Even Taylor.”

Nikki told him about the mysterious female caller yesterday but omitted the information about the money in the shoes, for now.

“You’re kidding me,” Jared said. “That’s… Taylor would never run away. He knows Amelia would be devastated. There’s got to be more to this situation, Agent, I promise.”

SEVENTEEN

After talking to Jared, Nikki drove back to Washington County to meet up with Miller and go over things. Inside the government center, she followed the smell of pepperoni to the big conference room. “Thank God. I’m starving.”

Two large pizzas sat on the table, one of them half eaten. Miller motioned for her to sit, quickly washing down a bite. Nikki grabbed two pieces before calling Liam on FaceTime. She balanced the phone against her bag so that he and Miller could see each other.

“Wisconsin troopers are going through CCTV near the bridge that goes into Hudson,” Miller said. “So far they haven’t seen anything, but it’s hard to spot a passenger in a car on CCTV sometimes. They’ve checked the bus station and train station, too. No sign of him.”

“No sign in Indiana, either,” Liam said. “And I was able to track that internet phone number to a server at a coffee shop near the University of Minneapolis. It’s very popular with students because of the free Wi-Fi. That’s available to everyone, too.”

“We’ll never be able to get a warrant for their CCTV yesterday with just that,” Nikki said.

“Nope,” Liam said.

“I’m not ruling out a kidnapping because we’re talking about a minor, but right now it looks like Taylor left on his own,” Miller said while Nikki ate her second slice. “Or he was at least manipulated into doing so. My deputies looked at the CCTV on the route Taylor takes to Menards and went to each business to ask to look at their security footage. I’m confident Taylor never went in that direction because we’ve got a traffic camera at the intersection. If Taylor had planned on going to work, he would have reached that intersection and turned left. He never showed up. Between leaving school an hour earlier than he was supposed to and everything else we’ve learned today, I don’t think he was kidnapped. There’s nothing related to Eli Robertson either.”

“Jared and Christy both insist that Taylor wouldn’t put his siblings through this,” Nikki said. “I wanted to ask Amelia more, but I didn’t have the chance. I did notice that Taylor’s closet was arranged by color just like Christy’s master closet. The kids say she has OCD and seemed fearful of her finding out about the shoes. But Christy seemed genuinely shocked when I told her about the woman pretending to be her yesterday.”

“Is that why you had me call the internet number earlier?” Liam asked.

Nikki nodded. “She’d made sure her phone was turned up and said something about being afraid the ringer would be off. It’s not a guarantee, but if she had notifications set up from that internet number, her phone would have made some sort of noise. It didn’t.”

“It sounds like Christy and Taylor don’t get along,” Liam said. “Maybe he just needed a break from her and didn’t tell his siblings so they wouldn’t have to keep his secret.”

“That’s what I’m wondering,” Miller said. “Nikki, do you think Amelia knows anything else?”

“She might, but like I said, I don’t think she’s capable of pretending to be surprised given her emotional state. I don’t think either one of those kids know where their brother is.”

A familiar number flashed in front of Liam’s face. “Daniel Bancroft is calling me back; I have to take this. FaceTime Miller, Liam. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Nikki excused herself to take the call. “This is Agent Hunt.”

“Hi, Agent, this is Daniel Bancroft returning your call.” His deep voice seemed loud on her cell phone. “Spencer called me, too. I cannot believe this has happened.”

“I appreciate your calling back.” Nikki wished Spencer hadn’t said anything, but she’d expected him to fill his parents in. “How much did Spencer tell you?”

“That human remains were found in the apartment’s closet, and it’s likely Karl’s former housekeeper.” He cleared his throat. “Spencer’s mom and I were separated, and I hadn’t moved to Wisconsin yet, so I’d check in on Karl now and then. I remember specifically seeing him just a couple of weeks after Ms. Smith and her kids disappeared. I was in that apartment, Agent. Granted, I didn’t scour the place, but—and I know this sounds crude—I should have smelled something. I didn’t.”

Nikki was surprised at how forthcoming he was being after everything she’d heard about Stephanie. “It’s nice that you checked up on him even after the divorce.”

“I’d known Karl since I was eighteen,” Bancroft said. “He and I always got along well. He was devastated about Ms. Smith. Karl kept insisting she wouldn’t have left without telling him, regardless of missing items. I’d already planned on seeing Spencer that trip and I visited Karl. He and Spencer were both devastated. He liked the daughter.”

“You said you went into that apartment,” Nikki said. “Why didn’t you move the mattresses from in front of the closet door?”

“These were old, heavy mattresses and box springs,” Bancroft answered. “At the time, I was dealing with a herniated disc in my back. We just assumed she and the kids put them back where they found them when they moved in.”

Nikki hadn’t heard that detail. “Really? Why were they standing up?”

“If I remember correctly, Karl had the apartment’s carpet cleaned before Ms. Smith and her kids moved in. It was thick with dust. I’m pretty certain that’s how the carpet guys left the beds.”

But who outside of Karl and his immediate family would have known that? “Do you remember who cleaned the carpet?”

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