Page 63 of Little Child Gone

“Christy gave us the same impression.”

“She’s probably been gaslit into believing it,” Kelsey said. “Once they were married, everything changed. Sometimes the sex was so rough she couldn’t walk the next day. Jared would tell the kids she had a bad hangover and needed to be in bed all day.”

Disgust rolled through Nikki. “He broke her spirit.”

“He really did,” Kelsey agreed. “She told me more than one story like that. He made her look unstable in front of her kids every chance he got.”

“Did she try to leave?”

“She had nowhere to go,” Kelsey said. “He told her she could leave whenever she wanted. By then, Jared had adopted Taylor and Amelia. Six months before the arrest, Christy had gone to the store and wound up with a DUI. She was driving erratically and then became combative. She hadn’t been drinking and swore she didn’t do drugs, yet she tested positive.”

“Jared’s a surgeon,” Nikki said. “He could probably get his hands on anything he wants.”

“He’s a bastard,” Kelsey spat. “The only time she fought back caused the fight Taylor overheard. She’d caught Jared watching underaged porn. He said they just looked young, but this wasn’t on Pornhub. She didn’t recognize the site name, but Christy was positive that the address ended with a dot onion, not dot com.”

“The dark web.” Tor users weren’t all criminals. Regular users did use the Tor network for anonymity. But porn with a dot onion almost always meant child pornography.

“Christy wasn’t going to let him hurt Amelia or Penny. She told him they were leaving. He cut himself with his own knife, slammed the bottle to the floor to break it and screamed. Taylor ran in and believed Jared. That was supposed to be the last straw for her,” Kelsey continued. “That’s why she came to me. I think she was shocked that I believed her.”

“Was that first appointment the only time you talked to her?” Nikki asked.

“She was supposed to come back three days later for a second appointment, but didn’t show. I called her a few times and she didn’t answer. I finally found out she’d gone with a public defender and taken the plea. I had no idea they’d moved until I saw the news tonight.”

After ending the call with her, Nikki did a deep dive on Kelsey Richard to make sure she didn’t have anything controversial in her past that would suggest she was making up the story. For all Nikki knew, she could have been an old girlfriend of Jared Hall’s looking for revenge.

Kelsey was in her mid-fifties with grown children, a lifetime public servant fighting for families and kids. She’d received several awards over her career and had worked with the state on several child safety initiatives. Nikki hadn’t been able to find anything derogatory about her on any database or social media. Nikki had decided to go through social media in search of Christy’s life in Indiana, but her only profile consisted of Facebook updates on her kids. And the account had been opened after she married Jared.

Nikki opened the copy of Christy’s arrest report Liam had emailed her, hoping someone had written her maiden name down, but she didn’t see it. She switched gears, logging onto Indiana’s public database. It took a few moments to narrow down the long list of Jared Halls to the right marriage certificate, but Nikki finally located it.

“Christy Martin,” Nikki said to the empty office. Within seconds, she had Christy’s old Facebook profile pulled up on her laptop. The account was still technically active since Facebook couldn’t be bothered to delete accounts, even when a deceased’s relative requested it. Her old account was set to private, so only a handful of public posts from a few years ago were visible to Nikki. A healthier-looking Christy posed with two other individuals wearing the same black, button-down dress shirts. Nikki had confirmed the bar Christy had worked for in Indianapolis had permanently closed, but she didn’t recognize any of the names tagged in the photo captioned “Besties forever.” Every person from Indianapolis that Jared and Christy had told them to call appeared on her new Facebook profile, clearly friends of Jared. Nikki scrolled through every photo Christy had uploaded since starting the newer profile, checking for the young man and woman from the photo with a happier version of Christy.

They didn’t appear in a single image, including the dozens from the large goodbye party Jared’s hospital had thrown him before they moved.

Nikki debated messaging Christy’s old friends, but decided an email from her official FBI address might get a faster response. She kept it brief, stating they were searching for Taylor Hall. Both work numbers were included in her email signature, and she added her personal cell, urging them to call her day or night.

Email sent, Nikki stared at her computer, the adrenaline from Kelsey’s call dissipating. A yawn made her jaw pop.

She headed to bed, making sure her cell wasn’t on silent.

TWENTY-TWO

Nikki left before Rory and Lacey woke up, leaving the house when it was still dark and cold. She’d only slept a few hours, her mind racing with the information from Christy Hall’s former attorney.

She texted Liam to meet her at the sheriff’s. He lived with Caitlin and Zach in downtown Stillwater, only a few minutes from the sheriff’s station. Despite the early hour, both he and Miller were waiting for her in his office.

Nikki took a donut from the box on Liam’s lap and sat down. “Thanks for meeting me here. And for the donut.”

He and Miller sat in silence as she told them what Kelsey had said.

“Logan’s mother picked up on that, too,” she reminded Miller after she’d finished.

“She did,” he agreed. “Let’s say this is all true. Is there any indication that Taylor somehow knew? Did he run away?”

“I don’t think he’d leave his sisters in that situation if he did,” Nikki said.

“Is it possible he could have confronted Jared?” Liam asked. “Taylor is close to Jared, right? The guy’s his hero. Finding out the truth would shatter him.”

“And if he confronted Jared, who knows how he would have reacted?” Nikki said. “I asked hospital security to go through all of their footage from the day, every entrance, in search of Taylor. They hope to get back to me today.”

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