Ed shook his head. “Not much. Of course, I have all boys, and they’re a bit older than the Sturvins. My view might be a bit skewed, considering that.”
“The Sturvins have two girls.” Emery was around two years or so older than the eldest Sturvin daughter. “Seven and four. Olivia and Ava. I probably have recent photos of them from the party on my personal phone. If I don’t, Jac Jones does. She…knew the mother better than I.”
Ed nodded.
Brynlock Academy was small, exclusive, and pricey. He and Emery’s mother agreed fully on one thing—Emery deserved the best education they could provide. Pamela had enough income to make that happen. Max would handle everything else, but Pamela paid for Emery’s education.
Brynlock had some seriously tight security, thanks to a few extremely wealthy families—including Ed Dennis’s children and grandchild as well as the teenage brother of one of the wealthiest men in the world.
The school would be in turmoil over what had happened to the Sturvins.
Emery was there now; he’d dropped her off on his way to the scene. Max wished he’d kept her home with the housekeeper today.
Worry for what was happening at Brynlock now snuck in.
Personnel at the school might have heard about this by now. The news vans would have ensured that. Even some of the older kids would have heard. Brynlock was a small school. Rumors would spread fast.
Max forced himself to focus on what he had to do. Brynlock had two licensed psychiatrists on staff. Personnel at the school were excellent. He knew that. Emery would be fine until he could get to her tonight. She was safe.
“Anyone call the school to see if the children were there?” Max asked. “It’s a wild shot, but…”
Ed nodded. “I did so myself. No signs of them. The school is going to play it by ear. They are already getting phone calls from worried parents. They don’t want older kids spreading rumors and scaring the lower grades. That’s inevitable. I’m sure my own boys will be talking about it.”
Max shoved his own worry for his daughter aside. He had a duty here—to catch the bastard who’d done this. And find the Sturvins’ daughters. Those girls had been in Max’s house. They’d played with his daughter, laughed with her, and eaten food Max had prepared himself. He was going to find those little girls. So that he could look at his daughter and tell her honestly that he had done his best to do just that.
“I met the father at Emery’s party,” Max said. He hadn’t been impressed. Paul Sturvin was the type of man who grated on other men’s nerves. The man was older than Max’s own thirty-six and had come across as believing he was superior to most of the other guests that day. Except for Max—and Ken Chalmers, former-pro NFLer turned PAVAD: CCU team leader.
Paul had obviously wanted Ken’s attention.
Max hadn’t forgotten that initial impression. Attention-seeking. External validation.
But Paul had been involved with his daughters, and he and his wife had seemed happy together. That Max hadn’t cared for him personally didn’t mean the man had done this.
No. He couldn’t jump to conclusions here.
Paul Sturvin could be out there somewhere, hurt. Or somewhere completely innocent with his daughters. Or Paul and the girls could be out there, all of them injured. Dying. At this point, he couldn’t make any definitive predictions.
Max tried to force those images out of his head now. He had to follow the evidence. Not speculation. “I know the mother better.”
“Rachel Mills Sturvin. Her thirty-first birthday was last month. I gave her a card,” someone said quietly behind him. “I…just saw what happened to her.”
Max turned at the familiar voice. He winced. He’d hoped he would be able to break the news to her himself, back at PAVAD. He’d wanted to protect her from seeing…this. “I didn’t realize you were here.”
“They just called me in. My…address and phone number are on a note stuck to the fridge. We had made plans to meet Saturday. She was going to help me plan my landscaping for the new house. Rachel offered to help me get my yard in order. She worked as a landscaper before she met her husband. She was planning to get back into it once Ava was in school all day. I was going to help her out, be her first client. She wanted to turn my whole yard into a sample brochure this summer. She was planning it in great detail.” Jac was shaken. He could tell that with one look at her green eyes, though her outward appearance showed nothing but cool professionalism.
And wouldn’t until the case was over and they’d found their answers. Everything was bottled up now. Compartmentalized. Zipped up inside so she could face what she had to do.
It was how she dealt with things. Work first; fall apart later. He’d seen it dozens of times before. Max had always been there to help her put herself back together again. He made a vow that he would do just that this time, too.
“You were friends?” Ed asked quietly. “Close?”
“No, not close. More casual than anything. I spent a good deal of time with her at Emery’s party, at sporting events, Brynlock field trips, that sort of thing. We worked snacks at Brynlock together several times, supervised field trips, she helped with sports events that I attended. She seemed lonely, and very shy with the crowd. Intimidated by people. She’d mentioned her closest friend moved away about six months ago. I think she was looking for connections. Outside of the girls. We’ve run into each other before, at Brynlock. Helped in the group A events.” Brynlock grouped different grades and classes into larger groups for assemblies and celebrations so the children could mingle outside of their classes and grades. Emery was group A. She’d asked Jac to help so many times before because it was usually mothers that helped with the classes.
Max had many
