“I don’t know,” she began, but at the other woman’s firm nod, she followed her into a narrow hall and then another room in the office suite, no more than fifteen feet away.
Once they were inside the room, with two fancy copy machines on one side, a wall of staff mailboxes on the other, and two school chairs oddly placed in the middle, the principal closed the door.
“Let’s sit.”
Mrs. Sumpter indicated the two chairs. Rachel did as she was told, taking the seat facing the front window, while the administrator took the one with a clear sight of the door, a narrow window offering a peek at the hall.
“Now, I’m guessing that something went wrong with our protocols today, and we want to make sense of it so that it isn’t repeated,” the principal said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You clearly had reason to suspect that your daughters might have been abducted.”
“Well, they just weren’t out there like they were supposed to be, and—I don’t know what I thought.”
“Miss Hoffman, our goal is always to keep our students safe. We can only do that if we have all relevant information.” The woman waited as though she expected Rachel to fill in a blank. “Like, for example, if there’s a problem we should know about regarding your daughters’ noncustodial parent. There was nothing about that in the girls’ records. We checked.”
She tapped the folder she’d rested on her lap.
“Noncustodial?” She shook her head, none of this making sense. “There’s no problem with him. He’s not involved in the twins’ lives—or mine—in any way.”
Mrs. Sumpter nodded, her carefully blank expression suggesting that she didn’t believe her.
“Then has there been a falling-out with any members of your family? A reason for your reaction?”
She didn’t sayoverreaction, but it was implied.
“Instead of tiptoeing around it, could you please just say whatever it is you’re trying to?”
“Thirty minutes before the end of the school day, our office received a call, requesting for a change in today’s pickup. I don’t have to tell you that this is highly irregular since those requests are expected each morning.”
“Who called?” she managed though it felt as if someone was choking her from behind.
The woman’s eyes narrowed before she continued. “As I was saying, we received this call, letting us know that there was a family emergency and an alternate person would be picking up the girls. Even then, he said he would be about ten minutes late, so he asked if we could keep your daughters until he arrived. If it were much longer, I would have been forced to leave them in the after-school care room and charge—”
The principal stopped and glanced over her shoulder to the parking lot as though she still expected this tardy driver to arrive. All the cars were gone now, except for those of a few straggling staff members, parked in the angled spots.
“Mrs. Sumpter.Please. Who called?”
Rachel pressed her elbows tight to her sides to stop the tremor that started at her center and forced its way out. She didn’t know what the administrator saw in her expression, but it caused the woman’s eyes to widen.
“Your brother, Mr. Hoffman, of course.”
At Rachel’s gasp, Mrs. Sumpter flipped open the file and produced one of the same green emergency cards that Rachel had to complete in duplicate at the start of each school year. She pointed to the lines where parents and guardians could list up to three names of other responsible adults to whom the school could release their children. This year, Rachel listed just one name: Riley. Since her father’s death, she had no one else.
“I don’t understand.” The principal pointed to Riley’s name. “I’ve heard some rumors that your brother might be having personal problems. This is a small town, after all. But if you wanted us to remove him from your trusted-adults list, you needed to—”
“Mrs. Sumpter, my brother is absolutely still a trusted adult in my children’s lives. One of only a few.” She let those words sink in before continuing. “But right now, Riley’s also inpatient at Forward Path Rehabilitation Center. He only occasionally has access to a phone.”
The principal blinked several times, her lips forming the wordwhat, but she produced no sound. “That doesn’t make any sense. Was it a prank?” She shook her head and continued. “They couldn’t have made it out of this building with those sweet girls without showing proper ID and putting their names in the sign-out book, but why would they even try…?”
“That I don’t know, but I will try to figure that out,” Rachel said. “All I can tell you is whomever your staff member spoke to, it wasn’t my brother.”
Pressing her lips together, the principal nodded.
“And for the time being, my children are to be released to no one—not even the name on my emergency list—except me.”
Chapter 21
