Page 66 of Little Child Gone

Chen shook his head. “Looks like a big fight in the house. Furniture overturned, glass, dresser drawers open and half empty. Looks like they left in a hurry.”

Nikki, Miller and Liam donned booties before entering the house. Her gaze landed on the massive flatscreen television on the wall. A heavy glass vase lay in pieces on the floor below, the television screen shattered. Chen led them to the kitchen, where the family laptop had been busted into more pieces than Nikki could count. Liam slipped on gloves and knelt over the destroyed computer. “Motherboard’s busted in three pieces. We aren’t getting anything off that thing.”

“Jared’s phone goes straight to voicemail,” Miller said. “We can get GPS from the carrier?—”

“It’s here.” Nikki pointed to the broken iPhone on the floor near the table. “If he’s behind this, we don’t have any way of tracking him.”

Chen’s eyes darkened. “I think it’s safe to say he is. Come upstairs.”

Nikki followed him, dread nearly choking her. She couldn’t stop thinking about what Kelsey had told her. Her heart fell to her stomach when Chen stopped in front of Amelia’s door. Her porcelain figurines had been broken with books strewn all over the floor.

Nikki didn’t see any sign of blood in the room. “He shot Christy and took the kids. Why? Did he do something to Taylor?” They hadn’t turned up a single thing to make them think that Jared would abuse the kids, but maybe they’d missed something.

Nikki’s phone rang, and she almost ignored the unknown number but decided against it. “Agent Hunt.”

“Um, hi. This is Caleb. I’m a friend of Christy Hall’s.”

Nikki snapped her fingers to get the others’ attention. “I’m putting you on speaker. The sheriff and my partner, Agent Wilson, are here with me. What can you tell me about Christy’s relationship with Jared Hall?”

“He finally did it, didn’t he?” Caleb’s voice shook. “We told her he’d never change. He moved her thousands of miles from her friends, who were family.”

“Christy’s been shot,” Nikki said. “We don’t know her condition. Jared and the kids are missing.”

“Of course they are.” Caleb’s voice shook. “He’s insane. Like the kind of guy you see onAmerican Monsteror something. Do you know he hurt himself right in front of Christy? That’s how she ended up having to go to anger management. No one believed her. You know she never drank or anything like that before he came into her life. She worked a lot, but she was sober.”

“Do you have any contact information for Jared’s former employer? Or have any idea where he might have taken them?”

“No,” Caleb said. “Jared claimed he came from the same kind of background as Christy. Foster care, all that. He liked to brag that he climbed out of poverty on his own, while simultaneously mentioning that Christy had needed him to do the same. He said this within the first month they started dating. Next thing we know, they’re engaged and he’s adopting the kids. I begged her not to marry him. Begged her not to go back to him or let him move her out of state.”

Caleb didn’t know anything else about Jared, and it sounded like that had been by design. “He was a foster kid like her, in Cincinnati. I wanted to confirm that, but I had no idea how—or if I even could.”

“Not without permission,” Nikki assured him. “Or a warrant. The kids all loved him, though, right?”

“That was the worst part. Taylor thought the sun rose and set on the bastard.”

Nikki promised to keep him updated, and Caleb said he would talk to their circle of friends to see what else they could find out about Jared, but it didn’t sound like they knew any more than he did.

“Christy’s attorney was right.” She looked at the others. “He could be anywhere.”

Chen had disappeared to take a call while they were talking to Caleb. He returned, excitement on his face. “One of our drones spotted the Tahoe parked on the trailhead near Lake McKusick.”

TWENTY-FIVE

Lake McKusick was only about a five-minute drive from the Halls’ home, so Nikki jumped in Miller’s big Suburban while Liam stayed with Chen and worked the scene.

Miller turned on his emergency lights as they sped down the highway, sleet and snow pelting them. Thankfully it wasn’t so cold that the highway department hadn’t been able to put down road salt to combat the ice.

Nikki checked her phone. “Liam just texted. APBs for Jared and the kids, as well as BOLOs have gone out to all law enforcement in Minnesota and Wisconsin. State police are in the process of setting up road checks on the major highways, and Wisconsin State Troopers are going to be checking every vehicle coming into the state.”

Courtney’s number flashed on the screen. Nikki knew she’d been working late the last couple of days, trying to get through the evidence collected from the Hendricksons’ while Blanchard and the forensic anthropologist worked on the skeletal remains.

“Hey, Court.” Nikki cradled the phone against her shoulder. “We’re headed into a wooded area so I might lose you. This Hall case is getting more and more confusing.”

“It won’t take long,” Courtney said. “I finished analyzing the DNA from the remains in both the trunk and skeleton in the closet. Mitochondrial DNA confirms they’re mother and son.”

“What?” Nikki said. “But the woman in the hit-and-run from that day had given birth…”

“I know,” Courtney said. “I ran the samples against that Jane Doe. Mitochondrial DNA means the hit-and-run victim is the daughter, not the mother.”

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