She Was Out of Reach, page 25
“Nikki Braun?” Zachary asked, trying to keep his voice calm and even and not reveal how important this was.
“Yes. You talked to her, didn’t you? So you know what kind of a person she is. Kidnapping Claire? She would never do something like that.”
Yes, Zachary had talked to her and, shortly thereafter, had been delivered a package that was supposed to kill him. A coincidence? If Nikki was a friend of Anthony’s and had resented Rose turning him in and ultimately getting him killed, then it was more than possible that she had decided to act, retaliating against Rose by taking away someone she loved.
“How close were they? Nikki and Anthony?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t stick my nose into other people’s relationships. Were they boyfriend and girlfriend? I don’t know. I suppose they might have been. I didn’t see them pairing off, but I wasn’t that involved socially with the group. I saw Amir outside of the group, and that was all.”
“They might have been a couple?” Zachary pressed.
“Yes… I suppose they probably were, now that you bring it up. Nikki was pretty upset when I reported the child porn on Anthony’s computer. But I thought… she must have been upset to find out he had it in his possession. She told me I should have minded my own business, but I don’t think she knew he had it before I found out. And that’s kind of a deal breaker for most relationships, don’t you think?”
Zachary nodded, but he wasn’t trying to figure out whether Nikki had been upset that her boyfriend was watching child porn or upset that Rose had turned him in. He was working out how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
44
As soon as Zachary left the computer lab, he called Campbell again.
The sergeant obviously thought Zachary was harassing him when they hadn’t had a chance to follow through on all the latest information yet.
“Zachary. I don’t have anything for you yet,” he growled.
“Have you had a chance to look at any of the delivery vehicles in Rose’s neighborhood? Was there a Nikki Braun? B-R-A-U-N?”
“I have to check with my detective to find out whether he has gotten them yet or if we have any plates from nearby traffic cams. Why Nikki? And is this person a male or female?”
“Female. She was Anthony Jacobs’s girlfriend. She drives a delivery vehicle, which could drive around Rose’s and my neighborhoods without anyone noticing anything amiss. Nikki could have dropped a package on my doorstep and no one would have thought a thing about it. If you are a courier with a delivery van, then people expect you to be dropping off packages. And no one expects you to sign for them anymore. They just drop it on your doorstep and go to the next house.”
“I’ll check on her in particular. Any indication that she was a part of the kidnapping or the bombing? Or are you just jumping to conclusions based on the fact that she was Jacobs’s girlfriend?”
“I talked to her Thursday last week. And Friday the package was dropped on my doorstep. When Rose turned Anthony in, Nikki told her she should have minded her own business and just stayed out of it.”
“None of that is proof.”
“I know. That’s why I’m hoping her vehicle was seen in Rose’s neighborhood or mine. Or both.”
“I’ll look into it. Thanks for the info.”
Zachary was on pins and needles, hoping that Campbell would call him back and let him know what was going on. He was unable to focus on any of the other projects he tried to do. If Claire were still alive, then her survival could depend upon Campbell acting quickly and being able to arrest Nikki before she knew she was being investigated.
Eventually, he couldn’t just sit at home waiting, and had to go to Nikki’s house. Maybe he couldn’t do anything there, but he could keep her under surveillance and let Campbell know if he saw anything suspicious or concerning. The police might not yet have enough to arrest her or search her house, but Zachary was free to watch her if he liked.
He drove over to the duplex and looked for a good spot to watch Nikki from. She was probably at work, so he wouldn’t see anything until she got home. But by then, he would be comfortably in place, and she would never even guess he was nearby.
He watched the neighborhood for other nosy neighbors like Cora Johnson who might notice his presence. It was a quiet neighborhood with most residents working during the day. The kids were at school. There was an occasional dog walker, but no one paid any attention to Zachary’s car parked by the curb.
He became aware of an unusual amount of activity going on around Nikki’s house. People walking around, looking into Nikki’s car and the windows of the house. Nothing too obvious, but Zachary recognized police activity when he saw it. The various watchers didn’t talk to each other or appear to notice each other, but they would all be wearing earbuds to communicate with each other covertly.
He turned on his radio and scanned the most likely frequencies for them to be transmitting on. He heard some staticky chatter and stopped to listen.
“Someone sitting in a white compact on the street,” one of the voices commented. “Not moving on.”
“It’s a man, not a woman.”
“She could have an accomplice. Someone she left to watch for trouble while she was gone.”
Zachary chuckled to himself. He opened the door and got out, looking around so that they would be able to see him.
“It’s the stupid PI,” a male voice said in irritation. “Someone get him out of here.”
Zachary got back into the car and settled in. He had no intention of moving. He rolled down the window to talk to whatever cop came over.
The police officer who came over to the car was Samsonov, a cop that Zachary had dealt with before. A cop who, unlike Campbell, would not give Zachary or any other PI the time of day, even if he came to them with information about a case. A hardliner.
“Goldman,” he blasted Zachary with his baritone. “What do you think you’re doing here? You want to screw everything up? Get on your way. Go home.”
“This is a legal parking space. I’m not doing anything wrong. I have the right to be here.”
“Not interfering with an investigation, you’re not. I told you once and I’m not going to tell you again, get out of here.”
“You and your guys didn’t even notice me for half an hour. I was here long before you were. I’m not getting anywhere near the house. I’m not interfering. I will stay out of the way, in my car, and not do anything to get in your way or impede your investigation. But if my client’s daughter is in there, I want to see her brought to safety.”
“You’ll find out when everybody else does. After the family is called.”
Zachary made no further argument or move to leave. Samsonov stood with his feet apart forming a wide, solid base, and his hand on his hip, by his gun, glaring at Zachary.
“I said I’m not going to ask you again.”
“Good,” Zachary approved.
Did Samsonov really think that his approach would scare Zachary? He’d had to deal with worse reactions from the police department than one cop’s angry glare. He’d been arrested and put behind bars to keep him out of the way of an investigation before. But Zachary knew they wouldn’t arrest him for sitting in his car well away from the premises being searched. He hadn’t done anything to keep them from pursuing their investigation.
“Who do you think you are?” Samsonov demanded. “You think you get special treatment here? You’re Campbell’s informant, not mine. We’re doing everything by the book here, and that means no civilian involvement. You think we want a case like this thrown out in court because of irregular procedures?”
“I’m not involved. You didn’t even know I was going to be here. I didn’t approach you. I’m not trying to get involved. I’m not telling you what to do.”
“You’re here.”
“That doesn’t have any bearing on your investigation.”
Samsonov gave him another glare and stomped off. He consulted with his buddies in lowered voices, off radio. Apparently, they convinced him that Zachary wasn’t causing any problems and wouldn’t be the cause of evidence being excluded from trial, and just going on with their search.
Zachary watched with interest as a single figure approached Nikki’s duplex and rang the doorbell. He couldn’t see her face but, from the slim figure, he guessed it was a woman.
There was no answer. She knocked sharply, but did not announce that she was with the police. They knew, of course, that Nikki should be at work and lived alone, but they wanted to be sure.
There was still no response from the house. The woman moved in front of the door, obscuring what she was doing, and then opened the front door. Technology made picking most any residential locks a breeze. The cop didn’t have to have any skill to use a lock pick gun.
The cop swung open the door, staying back to avoid any gunfire that might erupt from the house. After waiting to make sure it was safe, she ducked inside. Two of the plainclothes policemen who had been watching the house and car entered quickly after her.
Zachary watched anxiously. As promised, he did not get out of the car or approach any of the law enforcement officers. He listened to the radio as the duplex was searched. They went quickly from room to room to start with.
“She’s not here,” the woman cop who had entered first announced. “No sign of a child.”
Zachary hit his steering wheel hard with the heel of his hand. No sign of her? What had Nikki done with her? He had held on to a thread of hope that they would find Claire there, unharmed, and be able to take her safely home to her mother. But she wasn’t there. Whatever Nikki had done with her, she had not taken her home and cared for her there until the police showed up.
He sighed. Nikki had probably killed Claire immediately. With a revenge kidnapping, there had been no incentive to keep her alive. Nikki wasn’t asking for a ransom or an apology. She just wanted to hurt Rose by taking away something she loved.
He covered his eyes with his palms, trying to soothe away the tiredness and the grit. He had known that this was one possible outcome.
The radio continued to transmit their comments to each other and the rest of the team outside the house, who were still acting like regular walkers, runners, or service people. The law enforcement officers searched the house more thoroughly, giving a running report.
No children’s clothes. No surveillance pictures of Rose or Claire tacked haphazardly on a corkboard with red yarn running between them. No weapons.
“There is a child’s room,” the female cop reported. “But it hasn’t been touched. Dust over everything. A nursery. Baby crib, change table, that kind of thing. Not for a five-year-old.”
Zachary felt sick. A carefully preserved nursery? For a baby that Nikki had never had?
She hadn’t just lost her boyfriend. She must have been carrying his baby when he was arrested. And she had lost it, too. Anthony had been killed, leaving her all alone when she had been prepared to start a family.
Somehow, she had carried on without him, but then something set her off, triggering her to seek revenge on Rose for what she had done.
He sat listening as they finished their search. They had a warrant for the car as well and conducted a very quick search, checking the glove box, under the seats, and the trunk for any evidence of the kidnapping, running over it quickly with an alternative light source to check for any blood or bodily fluids, and pressing lift tape over the carpet of the trunk to gather hair or fibers that might indicate Claire’s body had been in the trunk.
And then they were packing everything up and leaving. No one bothered to report to Zachary what they had found—or not found.
45
Zachary continued to sit there in his car, trying to decide whether he should still be there when Nikki returned. He could watch her, tail her if she went anywhere else, as he had planned to. But was there any point? The police had not found anything to indicate that Nikki had taken Claire.
Did that mean she hadn’t?
Was it all just a wild goose chase?
Or did it just prove that Nikki had been more careful than expected? The kidnapping had not been a random, spur-of-the-moment thing. She had known what she was doing and planned it out very carefully.
Zachary’s phone vibrated. He had placed it in the mounting bracket on his dash so it was visible without fighting to get it out of his pants pocket or one of the various pockets of his coat.
Roxboro Police Department
Zachary already had his earbuds in and tapped to receive the call.
“Zachary here.”
“Well, I gather you’re already aware that was a bust,” Campbell said without preamble.
“I know you didn’t find Claire,” Zachary amended.
“And nothing to show that she was there. Unless something turns up in the forensics we gathered. But I’m not hopeful.”
“Does that mean you don’t think it was her or that she covered it up better than you expected?”
Campbell blew out his breath. “That’s the question, isn’t it? It’s not a dead end like it was when we found out that Anthony was dead. But still… it’s pretty hard to prove she had any involvement in the kidnapping without some kind of hard evidence. Just saying she was the most motivated to do it doesn’t make her guilty.”
“They did find one thing at the house.”
“What?” Campbell demanded, sounding irritated.
“The untouched nursery.”
“Claire wasn’t kept there, obviously. Or there would have been some sign.”
“I know. But it tells us something else.”
Campbell was silent for a moment before offering, “We know that at some point, she was pregnant or expecting to start a family. Presumably with Anthony Jacobs.”
“Yeah. But that dream was crushed when Rose Bircher reported Anthony Jacobs and she lost her baby. Rose took her child away.”
He could hear Campbell breathing as he considered this possibility. “So she took Claire. Out of revenge. And then… whatever happened to the baby. Did he die? Did she adopt him out because she didn’t have the father in her life anymore?”
“I think it’s safe to assume that the baby was miscarried, stillborn, or died soon afterward. And I don’t think Nikki was trying to replace her own dead child with Claire as a substitute.”
“You think she’s dead.”
“Probably. If this was revenge for her baby dying, she wouldn’t be likely to keep Claire alive.”
Campbell grunted, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
“Did you find her delivery truck on Rose’s street?” Zachary asked. “Is that why you went ahead with searching her house?”
“Yes. We managed to get the information about delivery trucks from Cora. We had to go back a few weeks to find Nikki’s. We had to get in contact with each courier company to find out which she worked for, because the delivery trucks are owned by the company, not the driver. Tedious work. But Nikki Braun did make a delivery to Rose. A legitimate delivery that went through the regular system at her employer, by the way, not something that she was planting.”
“Unlike the package she delivered to me.”
“They don’t have any record of her making deliveries in your neighborhood that day. But they’ll pull the GPS trails on the vehicle she was driving to see if she spent any time on your street. It will take some more time. It’s a good guess, but we won’t know for sure for a while.”
Zachary nodded to himself. “So… what’s next? Are you dropping the line of inquiry on Nikki since there wasn’t any physical evidence at the house?”
“It’s not over. She could have killed the kid and dumped her somewhere. Or she could be using a building other than her house to hold her. Or have an accomplice. The boyfriend, maybe. We’ll be watching her, investigating her more thoroughly.”
“Yeah, good.”
“This was not unexpected. Other than familial kidnappers, it’s not unusual to hold the victim in a remote location. For exactly this reason. It’s much easier to avoid detection if you don’t have the victim right there in your house. We asked the judge for a warrant to search the house covertly so that if Claire wasn’t there, we wouldn’t tip Nikki off that she was under suspicion. So no harm done, as long as she didn’t have lookout man in the area and no neighbors ask what was going on today. The boys took a good look around to avoid surveillance.” Campbell cleared his throat and waited, saying nothing.
“Which is when they spotted me,” Zachary filled in. “Samsonov wasn’t too happy about my being there.”’
“So I hear. He had some choice words for you.”
Zachary couldn’t help grinning at that. He wasn’t unhappy to watch Samsonov spinning his wheels and not getting anywhere.
“I didn’t see anyone else,” Zachary said, “and I was watching for at least an hour before your guys showed up. Maybe two. I’m confident she didn’t have a lookout man. Can’t guarantee no nosy neighbors, though. Most people seemed to be working today, but there were still a few dog walkers and others in the neighborhood. No one was standing with binoculars at the window, but someone still might have seen something.”
“I think we’re as safe as we can be. It’s still possible that she is our kidnapper, and she will give herself away sooner or later.”
“Can you search her delivery truck? If she didn’t transport Claire in her car, she might have had her in the delivery truck.”
“The judge said we didn’t have enough for a warrant for her work vehicle. We’re lucky we were able to get as much as we did. He was stretching because it was a child abduction and we hoped that Claire might be at the house and we could still rescue her.” Campbell blew out a long stream of air. “Wouldn’t it have been nice if it had worked out that way?”
“Yeah.”
“Anyway, we are going to have someone tailing Nikki, and we don’t want her to get the idea that she is under surveillance. So that brings us to you sitting there on her street.”
Zachary knew what that meant. He turned his key in the ignition. “Okay. I’m leaving.”
“Yes. You talked to her, didn’t you? So you know what kind of a person she is. Kidnapping Claire? She would never do something like that.”
Yes, Zachary had talked to her and, shortly thereafter, had been delivered a package that was supposed to kill him. A coincidence? If Nikki was a friend of Anthony’s and had resented Rose turning him in and ultimately getting him killed, then it was more than possible that she had decided to act, retaliating against Rose by taking away someone she loved.
“How close were they? Nikki and Anthony?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t stick my nose into other people’s relationships. Were they boyfriend and girlfriend? I don’t know. I suppose they might have been. I didn’t see them pairing off, but I wasn’t that involved socially with the group. I saw Amir outside of the group, and that was all.”
“They might have been a couple?” Zachary pressed.
“Yes… I suppose they probably were, now that you bring it up. Nikki was pretty upset when I reported the child porn on Anthony’s computer. But I thought… she must have been upset to find out he had it in his possession. She told me I should have minded my own business, but I don’t think she knew he had it before I found out. And that’s kind of a deal breaker for most relationships, don’t you think?”
Zachary nodded, but he wasn’t trying to figure out whether Nikki had been upset that her boyfriend was watching child porn or upset that Rose had turned him in. He was working out how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
44
As soon as Zachary left the computer lab, he called Campbell again.
The sergeant obviously thought Zachary was harassing him when they hadn’t had a chance to follow through on all the latest information yet.
“Zachary. I don’t have anything for you yet,” he growled.
“Have you had a chance to look at any of the delivery vehicles in Rose’s neighborhood? Was there a Nikki Braun? B-R-A-U-N?”
“I have to check with my detective to find out whether he has gotten them yet or if we have any plates from nearby traffic cams. Why Nikki? And is this person a male or female?”
“Female. She was Anthony Jacobs’s girlfriend. She drives a delivery vehicle, which could drive around Rose’s and my neighborhoods without anyone noticing anything amiss. Nikki could have dropped a package on my doorstep and no one would have thought a thing about it. If you are a courier with a delivery van, then people expect you to be dropping off packages. And no one expects you to sign for them anymore. They just drop it on your doorstep and go to the next house.”
“I’ll check on her in particular. Any indication that she was a part of the kidnapping or the bombing? Or are you just jumping to conclusions based on the fact that she was Jacobs’s girlfriend?”
“I talked to her Thursday last week. And Friday the package was dropped on my doorstep. When Rose turned Anthony in, Nikki told her she should have minded her own business and just stayed out of it.”
“None of that is proof.”
“I know. That’s why I’m hoping her vehicle was seen in Rose’s neighborhood or mine. Or both.”
“I’ll look into it. Thanks for the info.”
Zachary was on pins and needles, hoping that Campbell would call him back and let him know what was going on. He was unable to focus on any of the other projects he tried to do. If Claire were still alive, then her survival could depend upon Campbell acting quickly and being able to arrest Nikki before she knew she was being investigated.
Eventually, he couldn’t just sit at home waiting, and had to go to Nikki’s house. Maybe he couldn’t do anything there, but he could keep her under surveillance and let Campbell know if he saw anything suspicious or concerning. The police might not yet have enough to arrest her or search her house, but Zachary was free to watch her if he liked.
He drove over to the duplex and looked for a good spot to watch Nikki from. She was probably at work, so he wouldn’t see anything until she got home. But by then, he would be comfortably in place, and she would never even guess he was nearby.
He watched the neighborhood for other nosy neighbors like Cora Johnson who might notice his presence. It was a quiet neighborhood with most residents working during the day. The kids were at school. There was an occasional dog walker, but no one paid any attention to Zachary’s car parked by the curb.
He became aware of an unusual amount of activity going on around Nikki’s house. People walking around, looking into Nikki’s car and the windows of the house. Nothing too obvious, but Zachary recognized police activity when he saw it. The various watchers didn’t talk to each other or appear to notice each other, but they would all be wearing earbuds to communicate with each other covertly.
He turned on his radio and scanned the most likely frequencies for them to be transmitting on. He heard some staticky chatter and stopped to listen.
“Someone sitting in a white compact on the street,” one of the voices commented. “Not moving on.”
“It’s a man, not a woman.”
“She could have an accomplice. Someone she left to watch for trouble while she was gone.”
Zachary chuckled to himself. He opened the door and got out, looking around so that they would be able to see him.
“It’s the stupid PI,” a male voice said in irritation. “Someone get him out of here.”
Zachary got back into the car and settled in. He had no intention of moving. He rolled down the window to talk to whatever cop came over.
The police officer who came over to the car was Samsonov, a cop that Zachary had dealt with before. A cop who, unlike Campbell, would not give Zachary or any other PI the time of day, even if he came to them with information about a case. A hardliner.
“Goldman,” he blasted Zachary with his baritone. “What do you think you’re doing here? You want to screw everything up? Get on your way. Go home.”
“This is a legal parking space. I’m not doing anything wrong. I have the right to be here.”
“Not interfering with an investigation, you’re not. I told you once and I’m not going to tell you again, get out of here.”
“You and your guys didn’t even notice me for half an hour. I was here long before you were. I’m not getting anywhere near the house. I’m not interfering. I will stay out of the way, in my car, and not do anything to get in your way or impede your investigation. But if my client’s daughter is in there, I want to see her brought to safety.”
“You’ll find out when everybody else does. After the family is called.”
Zachary made no further argument or move to leave. Samsonov stood with his feet apart forming a wide, solid base, and his hand on his hip, by his gun, glaring at Zachary.
“I said I’m not going to ask you again.”
“Good,” Zachary approved.
Did Samsonov really think that his approach would scare Zachary? He’d had to deal with worse reactions from the police department than one cop’s angry glare. He’d been arrested and put behind bars to keep him out of the way of an investigation before. But Zachary knew they wouldn’t arrest him for sitting in his car well away from the premises being searched. He hadn’t done anything to keep them from pursuing their investigation.
“Who do you think you are?” Samsonov demanded. “You think you get special treatment here? You’re Campbell’s informant, not mine. We’re doing everything by the book here, and that means no civilian involvement. You think we want a case like this thrown out in court because of irregular procedures?”
“I’m not involved. You didn’t even know I was going to be here. I didn’t approach you. I’m not trying to get involved. I’m not telling you what to do.”
“You’re here.”
“That doesn’t have any bearing on your investigation.”
Samsonov gave him another glare and stomped off. He consulted with his buddies in lowered voices, off radio. Apparently, they convinced him that Zachary wasn’t causing any problems and wouldn’t be the cause of evidence being excluded from trial, and just going on with their search.
Zachary watched with interest as a single figure approached Nikki’s duplex and rang the doorbell. He couldn’t see her face but, from the slim figure, he guessed it was a woman.
There was no answer. She knocked sharply, but did not announce that she was with the police. They knew, of course, that Nikki should be at work and lived alone, but they wanted to be sure.
There was still no response from the house. The woman moved in front of the door, obscuring what she was doing, and then opened the front door. Technology made picking most any residential locks a breeze. The cop didn’t have to have any skill to use a lock pick gun.
The cop swung open the door, staying back to avoid any gunfire that might erupt from the house. After waiting to make sure it was safe, she ducked inside. Two of the plainclothes policemen who had been watching the house and car entered quickly after her.
Zachary watched anxiously. As promised, he did not get out of the car or approach any of the law enforcement officers. He listened to the radio as the duplex was searched. They went quickly from room to room to start with.
“She’s not here,” the woman cop who had entered first announced. “No sign of a child.”
Zachary hit his steering wheel hard with the heel of his hand. No sign of her? What had Nikki done with her? He had held on to a thread of hope that they would find Claire there, unharmed, and be able to take her safely home to her mother. But she wasn’t there. Whatever Nikki had done with her, she had not taken her home and cared for her there until the police showed up.
He sighed. Nikki had probably killed Claire immediately. With a revenge kidnapping, there had been no incentive to keep her alive. Nikki wasn’t asking for a ransom or an apology. She just wanted to hurt Rose by taking away something she loved.
He covered his eyes with his palms, trying to soothe away the tiredness and the grit. He had known that this was one possible outcome.
The radio continued to transmit their comments to each other and the rest of the team outside the house, who were still acting like regular walkers, runners, or service people. The law enforcement officers searched the house more thoroughly, giving a running report.
No children’s clothes. No surveillance pictures of Rose or Claire tacked haphazardly on a corkboard with red yarn running between them. No weapons.
“There is a child’s room,” the female cop reported. “But it hasn’t been touched. Dust over everything. A nursery. Baby crib, change table, that kind of thing. Not for a five-year-old.”
Zachary felt sick. A carefully preserved nursery? For a baby that Nikki had never had?
She hadn’t just lost her boyfriend. She must have been carrying his baby when he was arrested. And she had lost it, too. Anthony had been killed, leaving her all alone when she had been prepared to start a family.
Somehow, she had carried on without him, but then something set her off, triggering her to seek revenge on Rose for what she had done.
He sat listening as they finished their search. They had a warrant for the car as well and conducted a very quick search, checking the glove box, under the seats, and the trunk for any evidence of the kidnapping, running over it quickly with an alternative light source to check for any blood or bodily fluids, and pressing lift tape over the carpet of the trunk to gather hair or fibers that might indicate Claire’s body had been in the trunk.
And then they were packing everything up and leaving. No one bothered to report to Zachary what they had found—or not found.
45
Zachary continued to sit there in his car, trying to decide whether he should still be there when Nikki returned. He could watch her, tail her if she went anywhere else, as he had planned to. But was there any point? The police had not found anything to indicate that Nikki had taken Claire.
Did that mean she hadn’t?
Was it all just a wild goose chase?
Or did it just prove that Nikki had been more careful than expected? The kidnapping had not been a random, spur-of-the-moment thing. She had known what she was doing and planned it out very carefully.
Zachary’s phone vibrated. He had placed it in the mounting bracket on his dash so it was visible without fighting to get it out of his pants pocket or one of the various pockets of his coat.
Roxboro Police Department
Zachary already had his earbuds in and tapped to receive the call.
“Zachary here.”
“Well, I gather you’re already aware that was a bust,” Campbell said without preamble.
“I know you didn’t find Claire,” Zachary amended.
“And nothing to show that she was there. Unless something turns up in the forensics we gathered. But I’m not hopeful.”
“Does that mean you don’t think it was her or that she covered it up better than you expected?”
Campbell blew out his breath. “That’s the question, isn’t it? It’s not a dead end like it was when we found out that Anthony was dead. But still… it’s pretty hard to prove she had any involvement in the kidnapping without some kind of hard evidence. Just saying she was the most motivated to do it doesn’t make her guilty.”
“They did find one thing at the house.”
“What?” Campbell demanded, sounding irritated.
“The untouched nursery.”
“Claire wasn’t kept there, obviously. Or there would have been some sign.”
“I know. But it tells us something else.”
Campbell was silent for a moment before offering, “We know that at some point, she was pregnant or expecting to start a family. Presumably with Anthony Jacobs.”
“Yeah. But that dream was crushed when Rose Bircher reported Anthony Jacobs and she lost her baby. Rose took her child away.”
He could hear Campbell breathing as he considered this possibility. “So she took Claire. Out of revenge. And then… whatever happened to the baby. Did he die? Did she adopt him out because she didn’t have the father in her life anymore?”
“I think it’s safe to assume that the baby was miscarried, stillborn, or died soon afterward. And I don’t think Nikki was trying to replace her own dead child with Claire as a substitute.”
“You think she’s dead.”
“Probably. If this was revenge for her baby dying, she wouldn’t be likely to keep Claire alive.”
Campbell grunted, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
“Did you find her delivery truck on Rose’s street?” Zachary asked. “Is that why you went ahead with searching her house?”
“Yes. We managed to get the information about delivery trucks from Cora. We had to go back a few weeks to find Nikki’s. We had to get in contact with each courier company to find out which she worked for, because the delivery trucks are owned by the company, not the driver. Tedious work. But Nikki Braun did make a delivery to Rose. A legitimate delivery that went through the regular system at her employer, by the way, not something that she was planting.”
“Unlike the package she delivered to me.”
“They don’t have any record of her making deliveries in your neighborhood that day. But they’ll pull the GPS trails on the vehicle she was driving to see if she spent any time on your street. It will take some more time. It’s a good guess, but we won’t know for sure for a while.”
Zachary nodded to himself. “So… what’s next? Are you dropping the line of inquiry on Nikki since there wasn’t any physical evidence at the house?”
“It’s not over. She could have killed the kid and dumped her somewhere. Or she could be using a building other than her house to hold her. Or have an accomplice. The boyfriend, maybe. We’ll be watching her, investigating her more thoroughly.”
“Yeah, good.”
“This was not unexpected. Other than familial kidnappers, it’s not unusual to hold the victim in a remote location. For exactly this reason. It’s much easier to avoid detection if you don’t have the victim right there in your house. We asked the judge for a warrant to search the house covertly so that if Claire wasn’t there, we wouldn’t tip Nikki off that she was under suspicion. So no harm done, as long as she didn’t have lookout man in the area and no neighbors ask what was going on today. The boys took a good look around to avoid surveillance.” Campbell cleared his throat and waited, saying nothing.
“Which is when they spotted me,” Zachary filled in. “Samsonov wasn’t too happy about my being there.”’
“So I hear. He had some choice words for you.”
Zachary couldn’t help grinning at that. He wasn’t unhappy to watch Samsonov spinning his wheels and not getting anywhere.
“I didn’t see anyone else,” Zachary said, “and I was watching for at least an hour before your guys showed up. Maybe two. I’m confident she didn’t have a lookout man. Can’t guarantee no nosy neighbors, though. Most people seemed to be working today, but there were still a few dog walkers and others in the neighborhood. No one was standing with binoculars at the window, but someone still might have seen something.”
“I think we’re as safe as we can be. It’s still possible that she is our kidnapper, and she will give herself away sooner or later.”
“Can you search her delivery truck? If she didn’t transport Claire in her car, she might have had her in the delivery truck.”
“The judge said we didn’t have enough for a warrant for her work vehicle. We’re lucky we were able to get as much as we did. He was stretching because it was a child abduction and we hoped that Claire might be at the house and we could still rescue her.” Campbell blew out a long stream of air. “Wouldn’t it have been nice if it had worked out that way?”
“Yeah.”
“Anyway, we are going to have someone tailing Nikki, and we don’t want her to get the idea that she is under surveillance. So that brings us to you sitting there on her street.”
Zachary knew what that meant. He turned his key in the ignition. “Okay. I’m leaving.”
