Page 55 of Little Child Gone

“I’m sure it was Spencer or his uncle Pat, although I don’t know if Patrick was even visiting then,” Bancroft answered. “You’d have to ask him.”

“What about Stephanie? Portable carpet cleaners aren’t that heavy.”

Bancroft laughed. “No. She never did any sort of manual labor, and she hated that her father refused to pay for services like that. He lived pretty lean despite the money in the bank. Stephanie is the opposite.”

“I know you were living in Wisconsin, but do you have any idea what she thought about Ms. Smith?”

“Hated her. She saw her and her kids as a rival for her inheritance. Guess she was right.” Bancroft snickered. “I would have loved to see the look on her face when the will was first read.”

“Did she think Ms. Smith was trying to charm her dad into marrying her?” Nikki asked.

“Who knows?” Bancroft said. “Stephanie’s got a temper and when she lands on an opinion, it’s really hard to change it. To be honest, I assumed that’s why the Smiths left.”

“You think Stephanie threatened them?” Nikki asked.

“I know she did at least once,” Bancroft said. “When Stephanie drinks, she gets aggressive and brings up everyone she thinks has wronged her. She called me one night drunk and accusing me of cheating, even though she and that damn Atwood were running around behind my back for months. Anyway, she told me that she’d talked to Rebecca, the oldest daughter, and told her that if she didn’t get her family out by the end of August, Stephanie would do it for her. At the time, I assumed that’s why they left.”

“Spencer didn’t mention that.”

“He doesn’t know unless his mother or Rebecca told him, and I think he would have said something to me about it if she did. He really liked that girl.”

Nikki thanked him for the information and promised to let him know if they were able to identify the bodies as the Smiths. “Did she mention anything about her past to you?”

“I only met her once,” Bancroft said. “She was very nice, well spoken. She asked about my work and seemed knowledgeable about engineering in general. I thought she was likely educated, but Stephanie had a more derogatory opinion, given Ms. Smith’s heritage.”

“She was an immigrant?” Nikki asked.

“No, I don’t think so, but she was a Latina without a doubt. I don’t remember Rebecca or her younger brother having an accent either. Whether or not she was born here wouldn’t have mattered to Stephanie, I assure you.”

Nikki jotted down the note about her being Latina. “How old do you think she was? At least, a ballpark figure?”

“She had teenagers, so I would say forty, give or take a few years. But she looked youthful.” Bancroft snickered again. “I remember Stephanie complaining about Ms. Smith not having any wrinkles. She insisted the woman had Botox done, but I don’t think she did. She just took care of her skin and had good genes.”

Something he’d said a few minutes ago nagged at her. “You mentioned her cheating with someone named Atwood. Do you know his first name?”

“Rodney Atwood,” Bancroft said. “By that summer, she’d moved on to a younger guy named Brandon Kelly. I’d hear stories about them bar hopping and her telling lies about me. That’s a big part of the reason I accepted the job here. I just needed to get away from her.”

Nikki barely heard the last few words.

Rodney Atwood was Scott Williams’ stepfather and the main suspect in his death.

EIGHTEEN

Nikki’s alarm yanked her out of an uneasy sleep. She’d spent the night at the station going over the same information with Miller until they were both nearly in a stupor. Nikki turned off the alarm and sat up, rolling her neck muscles. Why did she always end up sleeping on the same couch in the break room? It gave her a neckache every time. She’d have been better off sleeping in the Jeep.

“Nikki.” Miller poked his head in the break room. “Making sure you’re up. Hendrickson’s attorney is going to be here in twenty minutes.”

Nikki gave him a thumbs up and reached for the overnight bag she kept in the Jeep for cases like this one. She normally wouldn’t take time on a cold case like this, especially with a missing teenager, but the new connection between Scott Williams and Stephanie Hendrickson changed everything. Were all these missing kids, these cases, connected? Was there a serial killer on the loose? Nikki shuddered as she checked her messages, hoping for an update about Eli Robertson from Lieutenant Chen, who’d promised to let her know when they planned to raid the suspect’s apartment in the city, but she’d yet to hear anything.

She went to the women’s locker room and splashed ice-cold water on her face until she didn’t feel like her eyes were going to glue themselves shut any second. She changed clothes, brushed her teeth and freshened up with seven minutes to spare.

“God!” Nikki almost ran into Miller in the hallway outside the locker room.

“Sorry. The lawyer’s here. I put her in the small interview room with a window.”

Nikki grabbed her work bag and hurried across the sheriff’s office to the conference room reserved for victims’ family members. She paused at the open door to collect her breath.

“Thanks for meeting with me on short notice.” Nikki put her things on the table. “Especially on your way to the airport for a transatlantic flight.”

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