Page 67 of Little Child Gone

“He got Rebecca pregnant,” Nikki said after she ended the call. “Remember, the Facebook page said that Bianca left after she found out he’d moved on to her daughter. If Rebecca gave birth, then she has a kid out there. Bailey. Where the hell is he?”

“Trailhead’s up here on the right,” Miller said. “Maybe you should have had Courtney come work the scene.”

“There isn’t going to be a scene,” Nikki said defiantly. “We’re going to save those kids.”

Since the vehicle had been spotted by the drone pilot, she and Miller were the first to arrive. Miller turned on the SUV’s brights as they crept closer to the black Tahoe. He flashed them several times. Nikki didn’t see any movement or shadows inside the vehicle, but they couldn’t take any chances.

“Your CSIs are coming out, right?” Nikki asked Miller. “I can have Courtney send Arim.”

He nodded, checking his Kevlar. Nikki had put on her bulletproof vest before they’d left the Halls’ house, and between the heat in the vehicle and the restriction of the vest, it felt like a hot flash. “They’re about ten minutes out.”

Nikki checked that her SIG Sauer was loaded and grabbed another clip, sticking it into her tall boot. She and Miller exited the vehicle, both using the door as a shield. Miller aimed his long rifle at the Tahoe and shouted for Jared to get out of the vehicle. Seconds went by, the night silent save for the sleet hitting the vehicle.

She kept her pistol pointed at the Tahoe, shifting behind the open door to get a better look at the side of the big SUV. “There’s half an inch of sleet on the doors. This thing’s been sitting for a while. Likely right after he peeled out. Cover me.”

Gun secure in her hand, Nikki dropped to a crouch and approached the Tahoe, trying not to slip on the frozen ground. She shined her big flashlight inside the rear-side window, her heart pounding, fear of what she was about to see choking her.

“Empty.” She looked out at the dark lake. This time of year, most of Minnesota’s lakes had several inches of ice on them. Hard to get rid of a body, but not impossible. Nikki knew that from prior cases.

Miller flanked the Tahoe’s left side, pointing his light at the ground. Despite the sleet that had been coming down for the last hour or so, they could still see footprints leading away from the Tahoe. They stopped about ten feet from the vehicle. “Tire tracks,” he said. “Smaller tread than the Tahoe and Suburban.”

“He must have had a smaller vehicle here, waiting.” Nikki checked the passenger door. It opened easily. She shined her light inside the expensive vehicle. It was clean as a whistle, with no sign of a struggle of any kind. “I think two different sets of prints in the snow on this side, probably Caden and Amelia’s. One of them probably carried Penny.” Nikki hoped Jared had taken warm clothes for the kids.

She and Miller checked the rest of the Tahoe but didn’t find anything useful.

“There’s my crime scene guys.” Miller pointed at the headlights coming down the main road.

Nikki’s phone rang. “Chen,” she said to Miller. “We’re at the Tahoe. Looks like he had another car…”

Chen spoke rapidly, the words as bizarre as anything she’d heard tonight.

“We’ll meet you at the sheriff’s station in fifteen minutes. The house is still being processed.” She ended the call and looked at Miller.

“What?” he asked. “Did they find one of the kids after all?”

“Taylor Hall just came home.”

TWENTY-SIX

Chen had already brought Taylor Hall into a conference room by the time Nikki arrived with Miller and Liam. The woman sitting next to him looked familiar.

“Where are my mom and siblings?” Taylor demanded. Nikki checked Taylor’s shoes before she sat down across from him. “I’m here to tell you everything. But you have to tell me about Mom and the others.”

“Your mother’s in surgery, fighting for her life,” Nikki said. “We believe your siblings are with Jared.”

His face turned white. The woman next to him grabbed his hand, muttering something in Spanish. Nikki remembered his mother bragging on how easily Taylor had picked it up after Jared had offered to teach it to him.

“You’re Elena Carrero.” Nikki recognized her from the Facebook page. “What are you doing with Taylor?” Nikki knew the answer as soon as she asked the question. It should have been obvious from the start. “Jared is the boyfriend your sister ran from, isn’t he?”

Elena nodded. “I think it’s best if you hear the story from Taylor. He found me.”

Nikki waited, her eyes on Taylor.

“A couple of days after Thanksgiving, Mom asked me to go to the garage to get Christmas stuff out of storage. I couldn’t find the box that has garlands, so I started checking the ones sitting under Jared’s workbench. I found an envelope of pictures and stuff taped underneath the bench. This photo was inside.”

He slid a photo of a dark-haired woman. “She looks like Caden.” Taylor blinked back tears. “I started looking at the other photos, and they were of the same girl, a few years older maybe. They look like stills from a video. One is a school photo, the last three she is on the bed…” Nikki let Taylor take a breath. He didn’t need to finish his sentence. It was clear he’d worked out that Jared had been abusing Caden’s mother.

“Rebecca,” Elena said. “It’s Rebecca in the photos.”

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