“Look, thanks. I know you have a job to do, but I’m not certain that the girls are missing. Not yet. This is just the kind of stunt they’d pull.”

“Stunt?”

“Well, prank, I guess.”

Jase had thought of Selma, the way her frail body had seemed on the verge of collapse in Brianna’s arms.

“They would do this?” Jase had probed. “Put everyone who cares about them through an emotional wringer?”

“They’re kids,” Carson had responded. “And sure, now they’re supposedly legal adults. You know. Twenty-one. But we all know that twenty-one is the new seventeen. They’re all about themselves, still.”

Jase had checked his notes. Both girls had been good students and athletes, no arrest records, no real sign of trouble. Chloe worked at a coffee shop near campus. Jase had already spoken with the owner, who’d sung her praises. Chloe had never missed a day of work, and aside from one time when she’d been late due to her car not starting, she’d been on time, a stellar employee. Zoe, who was employed by an accounting firm, had gotten a similar review from her boss. “Tons of energy, always a smile,” Peggy Tavernaro had said. “Always eager. Never complains. At least not to me. To tell you the truth, I wish I had three more Zoe Dennings on my staff. I’d love to replace a few slackers.”

Both the coffee shop owner and Ms. Tavernaro had expressed concern that the girls hadn’t shown up and had asked Jase for reassurance that they were “all right.”

“I don’t know,” he’d admitted, and said he’d hoped so.

But Peggy Tavernaro hadn’t been put off. “If someone from the Observer is calling,” she’d pointed out, “this can’t be good news. What’s happened to Zoe?”

“I don’t know,” he’d admitted honestly.

“Well, please, have someone keep me in the loop.” She’d sounded worried, and he hadn’t blamed her.

Considering everything Jase had learned about the girls, he had been pissed by the flat response of the twins’ father. Did Carson Denning really think his twins would “pull a stunt” and thoughtlessly put their mother, and presumably him, through hell? Did he really think they would disappear for a few days as some kind of twisted joke?

No. He didn’t think so.

Nonetheless, Jase hadn’t been able to convince Carson to grant him an interview.

Yet.

“All in good time,” he said, though patience definitely wasn’t a virtue that could be attributed to him. Eager. Pushy. Anxious. Now, those were his character traits, and they had served him well in his profession. Just not in his private life. Especially not with women. And so he staved off his new feelings for Brianna. These were emotions best left alone, considering the mess with her sister. Jase cringed a little when he thought of Arianna Hayward.