The Stanford Park Hotel was among the nicest hotels in the area, though it didn’t look elegant from the outside. Set back from the busy El Camino Real, it looked more like condominiums than a luxury hotel. Max had traveled extensively for both business and pleasure, and the Stanford Park, though small, ranked close to the Biltmore Arizona, the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, and the Villa in Miami, which is why on the rare occasions she came home, she stayed there. If the clerk recognized her name, he didn’t let on. By now her family would know she was in town. Though nestled at the north end of the bustling, sprawling Silicon Valley, Atherton was a small, close-knit community of seven thousand. She’d met Jodi in a public place; inevitably someone who knew someone in her family would have reported in by now.
She needed to decompress before facing the family firing squad. They didn’t need bullets to inflict a mortal wound.
Max sat at the desk in her suite, put her cell phone on the charger, and booted up her laptop. She tried to put Lindy’s death certificate out of her head, at least for the time being.
She dealt with her e-mails swiftly. She preferred to use her phone for most communication, but if she had to type more than a short paragraph, she waited until she had her computer up and running.
A message from her current assistant Ginger popped up: You’re impossible to work for. I quit.
It was simple and to the point. If Max wasn’t so angry that Ginger had quit while she was on the road, she’d have admired the brevity of the statement. If she’d been that succinct while on her personal calls, Max might have tolerated more.
Max almost called David, but Ginger had cc’d him in the message and he’d know soon enough. She didn’t want to interrupt his limited time with his daughter. He gave her 24/7 anytime she asked, she could give him a week off.
She opened a browser and ran a quick search on the murder of Jason Hoffman, and clicked on the initial newspaper article dated Monday, December 2.
CONSTRUCTION WORKER SHOT AT ELITE COLLEGE PREP SCHOOL
ATHERTON, CA—Late Saturday night, a construction worker was shot and killed at Atherton College Preparatory Academy off El Camino Real in Atherton.
Jason Hoffman, 23, was found early Sunday morning by school maintenance staff. Atherton Police Department Chief of Police Ronald Clarkson gave a brief statement that the Menlo Park Police Department’s Homicide Squad was taking the lead in the investigation, but Atherton PD would remain closely involved. As of now, the police have no leads.
“It’s still extremely early in the investigation,” media representative, Officer Donna Corbett, said. “Our department is fully invested in solving this brutal murder and will devote all necessary resources and staff. Atherton Police Chief Clarkson has graciously offered his department’s resources as well.”
Atherton, a small, wealthy, residential community with no commercial business within its borders, maintains a large and impressive police force, but defers capital crimes to Menlo Park in a MOI that was recently renewed for three years. Atherton boasts one of the lowest crime rates in California. Hoffman is the first homicide within the town limits in thirteen years. The last murder, the strangulation of high school senior Lindy Ames, also occurred on the ACP campus.
Hoffman, a lifelong resident of San Carlos, had recently graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in architecture. He began working full time for Evergreen Construction, a family business owned by his mother, Sara Robeaux Hoffman, and her brother, Brian Robeaux.
Evergreen is contracted to build the new 80,000-square-foot sports complex, partnering with Cho Architectural Design where Hoffman had interned for three consecutive summers. Because the project was only recently green-lighted, security was not in place that might have prevented or recorded Hoffman’s murder.
Hoffman was shot twice and according to the medical examiner’s office, he died instantly. A full report will be released by MPPD when available.
The police had made no public comment regarding the murder other than the usual nonstatement. After skimming the press coverage for the subsequent weeks she determined that the police believed it was a robbery and Hoffman an unfortunate victim. There were no follow-ups by the press, other than a funeral notice. That was often the case with suburban media. Menlo Park didn’t often rate the dailies from San Jose or San Francisco unless it was a major investigation or event; a homicide, though tragic, wouldn’t get play unless it was high profile—or someone like Max came in and pushed.
This was the point where she wished she had a competent assistant who could pull together the preliminary information about the homicide investigation, Evergreen Construction, the family, Jason Hoffman, and any connection they had with Atherton Prep, including scouring social media for possible angles. Ginger had been the queen of social media—if she wasn’t gossiping on the phone, she was posting pictures on Instagram or pithy comments on Twitter. Max had often wondered how she could condense her incessant chatter into 140 characters or less.
Ginger’s ability to pull useful data from the Internet was diminished by her social life. But at least she knew how to type and answer the phone. Ashley burst into tears anytime Max looked at her. And Josh? He had been the bane of her existence the three weeks he was in the office.