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“I'm not going anywhere.” He glowered back.
“You’re not welcome here!” Mrs. Ormont yelled.
“This isn’t about you. This is about Avery,” Leon retorted.
“If you cared about my daughter then you would have broken up with her when you could see that you were causing a rift between her and her family.”
“Ifyoucared about your daughter, you wouldn’t keep trying to run her life. She’s nineteen. She knows what she wants. We’re happy together. You should be happy for her. You should be supporting her, not trying to ruin things for her.”
She’d had enough of this childish arguing. “Enough,” Chloe said firmly. “This isn’t about either of you. This is about Avery, and standing here bickering like five-year-olds isn’t going to help us get her back. Now, everyone sit.”
Reluctantly, both Leon and Mrs. Ormont took seats, at opposite sides of the lounge room. Avery’s mother went to sit next to her husband, who had been sitting quietly on one of thesofas, his head in his hands. While the others were channeling anger to keep their fear at bay, Mr. Ormont just looked lost. Destroyed. Chloe couldn’t imagine what it felt like to lose your only child this way.
“Now, who reported Avery missing?” she asked, surveying the group.
“I did,” Leon replied. “She was supposed to call me last night, but she didn't. I thought she might have just fallen asleep early—between school and her job, she was exhausted. I thought I’d stop by early and surprise her, take her out to breakfast and then drop her off at work. When I got there, I saw all the smashed windows, and I knew something was wrong, so I called 911.”
“You didn't call us,” Mrs. Ormont muttered.
“Youdidn't even notice someone coming here and taking her,” Leon shot back.
Before a bickering match could ensue again, Tom intervened. “Did you see or hear anything last night?” he asked Avery’s parents.
Both shook their heads.
“We were out late at a dinner party at a friend’s house. When we got back, we went straight up to bed,” Mrs. Ormont said. “The next thing we knew, sirens and cop cars were coming down our driveway.”
“Did you see anything when you got here?” Chloe asked Leon. She already knew he wouldn’t have. The killer would have been waiting for Avery to get home and had grabbed her in the bath, but still, she had to ask.
“No,” Leon said quietly. “I parked on the street because I knew her parents didn't approve of us dating. I came in around the back, and I didn't notice anything off until I got closer and saw the broken glass.”
“What about over the last few days or weeks?” Tom asked. “Have you noticed anything strange? Anyone hanging aroundthe house or at Avery’s work or school? Has she mentioned anything? Emails or phone calls or messages that upset or worried her? Anyone following her?”
“I didn't see anything unusual,” Mrs. Ormont said quietly. Her husband said nothing.
But Leon’s brow crinkled.
“She did say something,” he said slowly. “About a week ago. She had a late class, and she thought someone was following her to her car. It was just that one time and she never actually saw someone, but it freaked her out. She asked me to come and pick her up the next time she had a late class.”
“She didn't see anyone?” Chloe pushed.
“No, she just thought she heard footsteps following her.”
“She didn't see a car?” Tom asked.
“Just the footsteps following her,” Leon repeated.
There was a chance that whoever had been following Avery that night had nothing to do with this case. She was a pretty, young woman. There could be any number of people who might have wanted to follow her for a variety of reasons. But that both Taylor and Avery had reported being followed shortly before their abductions had to mean something.
“She didn't tell me,” Mrs. Ormond said quietly. Tears welled in her eyes and then began to trickle out. “Avery never told me that someone had followed her. She didn't tell me that she was scared. She didn't come to me. Why didn't she come to me?” Her face crumpled, and she began to sob as her façade broke away.
Chloe half expected Leon to jump in with some retort along the lines of her mother’s interference in her life made Avery reluctant to come to her with problems. She expected her husband to snap out of his daze and comfort her.
Instead, it was the young man who stood and went to sit beside his girlfriend’s mother. He put an arm around her shoulder. “Avery loves you so much,” he told her. “Sometimesyour meddling drives her crazy, but she adores you. She wanted the two of you to be friends, to continue to get closer as she gets older.”
Mrs. Ormont gave him a grateful smile and leaned into him as she continued to weep.
Tragedy either brought people together or tore them apart.
