Silver Falls - Anne Stuart [49]
She blinked, startled by the change of subject, then realized that Stephen Henry was giving her his royal dismissal. “You know me—I watch Sophie like a hawk. And as you’ve already mentioned, I don’t fit the victims’ profiles. Women like me don’t get murdered.”
“Anyone can be killed, Rachel,” he said, his voice eerily sober. “Just keep your eyes open, and don’t trust anyone.”
“Not even my husband?” she said with a laugh.
But Stephen Henry didn’t smile. “Not anyone.”
10
Sophie wasn’t waiting for her when Rachel pulled up outside the school, five minutes late thanks to Stephen Henry’s manipulations and the rain-slowed traffic. She left the car on as she ran into the school, but the halls were deserted except for a few stragglers and no one had seen Sophie.
She raced back to her car, praying that they might have just missed each other, but the car was empty, and her hands were shaking so hard when she tried to dial Sophie’s cell that it took her twice as long.
It went straight to voice mail. She’d either turned it off, when Rachel had told her never to do so, or she’d let the power run out.
Or someone had taken her and she couldn’t get to her phone to call for help.
No answer on the phone. David was next. He was in class, the department secretary said, and no, Sophie hadn’t been there. Rachel wanted to bang her head against the steering wheel in frustration. Of course she wasn’t. Sophie didn’t really like David.
That wasn’t true. Why did that thought pop into her mind, when she’d always been nothing but sweet?
Because Sophie was sweet to everyone, and Rachel knew her daughter.
Please, God, let her be all right, she thought over and over and she drove back to the house. She hadn’t specifically told her to wait to be picked up—their normal plan was to have Sophie walk or get a ride with Kristen.
So she must already be home. Rachel tore out of the school parking lot, narrowly missing a cheerleader, and raced back home at dangerous speed, half hoping that Maggie Bannister would stop her. At least she’d set her mind at ease.
She dropped her keys when she scrambled out of the car, fell when she went to pick it up, and it took forever to get through David’s complex system of locks. By the time the door opened she was ready to scream, but she took a moment to calm herself. “Sophie?” she called out, trying to sound ordinary.
No fucking answer. She didn’t care how it sounded, she raised her voice in a panic. “Sophie, are you here? Goddammit, answer me!”
The house was deserted. No sign of her daughter. Rachel ran back outside, out into the street, hoping to see her coming down the sidewalk, huddled against the cold rain.
If her daughter came back, that she wouldn’t even yell at her. But the streets were empty, and she stood there as the rain came down, feeling sick inside, frozen in fear.
She mentally kicked herself into gear. “She’s okay,” she muttered beneath her breath. “She’s going to be fine. Nothing’s happened to her—I’d know it if it did. I just need to calm down and find her. She’s okay.”
The sound of her own voice helped to steady her, and she climbed back in the car, reaching for her cell phone. No answer at the Bannister’s, which meant Sophie wasn’t there. Maybe they’d gone with another friend, maybe they were up in Kristen’s room, maybe, maybe…
“She’s okay,” she said again, and it calmed her. She set the cell phone down on the seat beside her and pulled out of the driveway. She could drive over to the Bannister’s, see if anyone was home, and the next stop was the police station, just to set her mind at ease, and by that time Sophie would be home…
The phone made a blessed, beeping noise, signaling messages, and she grabbed it, pushing the buttons to get her voice mail. David, wanting to know why she’d called, and she deleted his message halfway through, as she realized she was crying. She disconnected, and then immediately another beep. Someone had tried to call her while she was checking messages.
“Hey, Ma, I’m up with Caleb at his