Page 7 of Little Child Gone

“Couple of reasons,” he said. “My parents were friendly with Karl. Members of the historical society and all of that. Even though the original house is gone, the property still means something. I also work with Spencer, Karl’s grandson, at the fire department, so I knew I’d be able to get a good deal. My mom was really passionate about preserving Swedish history, and it just felt like the right thing to do. Luke really wants to help me restore it. He’s excited to get started.”

Cold wind made Nikki’s eyes sting, despite the cover of the carport attached to the front of the house. They followed Matt through the carport, past his silver truck, into what amounted to a closed-in front porch, with green indoor-outdoor carpet. He gestured to the door directly across from the one they’d entered through. “Windows on both sides, plus the screen door. Designed for the wind to blow through.”

“A breezeway.” Nikki pushed back the pang of emotion welling up in her throat. Her parents had been thinking about adding a breezeway to their house the summer they were murdered. “Is this part of the original house?”

Matt led them through the front door, which opened up into a small living room. “No,” he said. “The original place burned in the sixties or seventies. I believe Karl helped his father rebuild it. Started out as two rooms and they added on from there.”

Matt gestured to the door to their right. “The addition is through there.”

“A storm door?” Courtney said. “Weird choice.”

“Hendrickson built the addition himself,” Mark said. “Until today, my biggest worries were how many code violations it would have.”

Nikki glanced at the door on the other side of the room. “Have you searched the main house?”

“I went through it with my lawyer before we closed the sale. It’s pretty shabby, some stuff has been stripped. It’s going to be a big remodel. But we looked at the closets and all of that. I really hadn’t been concerned about the apartment, so we just checked to make sure the water was running and electricity connected. Luke and I got to talking about security out here over the holiday, and we decided it would be good for him to stay here. He wanted to live in the apartment, get his first real taste of freedom. So, we came over today to start cleaning. I never dreamed we’d find something like this.” His worried eyes met Nikki’s. She didn’t know him well, but Matt Kline had experienced enough hell in his life that very little could shake him. His job as a firefighter had also led him into all sorts of scenes, including crime scenes.

A pit formed in the bottom of Nikki’s stomach as she took a pair of booties from Courtney.

“We’ll wear the booties. Even if they get dirty, it’s much less interference with the scene than just walking on it.”

Matt pulled the door open, and they followed him into a dimly lit, tight hallway, with wooden stairs leading to a dank cellar on their left, and a narrow water closet on their right. Nikki and Courtney followed Matt down the hallway.

“Who did Hendrickson build the addition for?” Courtney asked.

“Both of Karl’s kids lived in it at one time or the other but obviously haven’t been here for a long time.” The hallway led to a small open area with a stone fireplace. Several layers of dust covered the sailfish mounted over the mantle.

“Is that why this place sat empty for so long?” Nikki asked. “Family issues?”

“Pretty much. Karl sold the family machine shop about a decade before his death, making him pretty wealthy.” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “I guess he added some kind of addendum to his will. That’s what took the estate so long to settle, and the structures paid for it.”

“When did Karl pass?” Nikki asked.

“Four, five years ago,” Matt said. “By then, a lot of the acreage had been sold off already. Karl had gone into the nursing home and had his attorney start liquidating things. He’d had some cows and horses, but they were sold with the other acres. I only have twenty acres.” He pointed to a door at the left corner of the living area. “That’s the bedroom.” Matt led them to the open doorway.

Dust covered everything, including the wood floor.

“Did it look like something bad had happened in here?” Courtney asked. “Like dark stains and stuff on the walls or wood?”

“No,” Matt said.

Despite the dust, she didn’t see any obvious signs of an attack, like bloodstains. She walked to the closet. “The flooring over here is crusted with black mold or something similar.” She looked at Courtney and could tell her friend was thinking the same thing. Not black mold. Likely some kind of byproduct of a decomposed body based on what Matt had discovered.

“It’s in the right corner,” Matt said. “The remains, I mean.”

Courtney reached the closet first. She shined her blue light on that side of the closet.

“I thought it looked like a full skeleton,” Matt continued.

“I’d say so.” Courtney stood at the open closet door. “Nikki, come look at this.”

Dread washed through Nikki as she moved to stand next to Courtney. The closet was bigger than she expected. It wasn’t very deep—two feet at most—but the closet was the same length as the wall. She didn’t need Courtney’s flashlight to see the skull on the right side of the closet.

The bones were easy to spot against the dark wood. “Yeah, it really does. Courtney, this is your area, so I’ll follow you. I assume photos first. Do you have enough evidence collection bags for all of the bones?” She took a step closer to the bones.

“Probably, but I’m more concerned about that.” Courtney pointed to the ancient steamer trunk in the opposite corner of the closet. Some of the slats had split with age, the old carpet caked black with something that had leaked out of the trunk.

THREE

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