Max sat at his desk, wrestling with the dark thoughts that clouded his mind. He tried to convince himself that everyone had their moments of darkness and that it was a normal part of life. "It's normal," he mumbled to himself. "Everyone has bad days."

Deciding to shift his focus, Max approached his colleague, Officer Riley. "Hey, Riley, got a minute?"

Riley looked up from his paperwork. "Sure, Max. What's up?"

Max leaned in, his expression serious. "I'm heading over to Rose Peterson's former school to follow up on some leads. Want to come along?"

Riley nodded. "I'm in. Let's go."

At the school, they spoke with several teachers and staff. Mrs. Ellis, a teacher, revealed some unexpected details.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Mrs. Ellis said. "We've had a couple of students missing recently. Emily, Rose's cousin, hasn't been here for a few days. And Jack, a classmate of Rose's, has also been absent."

Max's interest piqued. "Emily and Jack? What's their story?"

Mrs. Ellis hesitated before continuing. "Emily recently transferred here, but I heard she and Jack were involved in some sort of relationship. They broke up shortly before both of them stopped coming to school. It's quite unusual."

Max noted the information, his mind already spinning with possibilities. Emily had previously appeared as a broken girl devastated by her cousin's murder. When Max had spoken to her, she had seemed genuinely distraught and uninformed about the details of Rose's death. But now, he wondered—could it have all been an act?

As Max and Riley left the school, Max's thoughts turned to his earlier conversation with Emily. Her emotional facade had seemed convincing, but was it possible that she was hiding something? Her absence, along with Jack's, and the timing of their breakup made the situation seem even more suspicious.

Max's mind flashed to his wife, Lisa, who often criticized him for getting too wrapped up in his cases. "Well, this should show Lisa how intriguing these cases can be," he thought with a hint of satisfaction.

Feeling a renewed sense of purpose, Max was determined to delve deeper into the connections between Emily, Jack, and the murder of Rose Peterson. The investigation had taken a new, potentially revealing turn, and Max was ready to explore every angle to uncover the truth.