Pretty Little Wife(30)
“Uh . . .” He skimmed down the page then shook his head. “Doesn’t say, but it happened after the trial when her father was awaiting sentencing.”
Ginny couldn’t imagine, but she couldn’t afford to get lost in sympathy either. “Devastating and awful, but none of this gets us closer to finding Aaron. I’d hoped the name change related to something she did, not her father.”
“Right.” Charles handed the papers back to Pete.
“Pete has been checking video from around Lila’s house around the time of the disappearance.” They’d only started the process, but Ginny remained hopeful they would get more.
“No video from their street yet, but I’m checking the alarm videos from every house. I got one from the florist shop across the street from the entry to their development. You can see Aaron’s SUV turns left at the light out of their neighborhood before four in the morning on the day he went missing, which was way earlier than Lila said he usually heads out,” Pete said. “We pick the vehicle up again going through some lights and then see it heading toward the school and around to the back entrance, but that’s where we lose it.”
“We can’t actually verify where it went at the school, but we don’t see it again, which is odd since it’s not there.” Ginny knew “odd” was an understatement, but she used the word anyway.
“Check again.” Charles made a sound that didn’t give away what he was thinking. “Do we know Aaron was the one driving around that morning?”
Ginny had reviewed the video with that in mind. “No. You can’t tell, but it does look like only one person in the car. The shadowed outline suggests someone wearing a tie.”
“Good work. Keep on it.” Charles nodded. “Also, do some digging into the father’s case and make sure it’s unrelated. I want us all to agree that what happened back then didn’t spin into something now.”
“Like revenge?” Pete asked.
“Possibly.” Charles turned to Ginny. “Also, the Ithaca Police Department offered us assistance on this, and so did the state police. Everyone is busy with the Karen Blue task force, but we can get reinforcements.”
“I appreciate it—”
He laughed, this hollow sound that lacked any sort of amusement. “No, you don’t.”
“—but everyone is spread thin enough already.” It was a good argument. Ginny refused to believe her stance had anything to do with Lila or wanting to win. For a safe area of the country, law enforcement was crawling all over the place. Fighting off public dissatisfaction only added to the load.
“Ever since the video of the police bringing in Karen’s ex-boyfriend for questioning got out, that podcaster has been digging up information,” Pete said.
The line between public and private information grew blurrier each day. Ginny did not want private citizens getting in the way in Aaron’s case. “There’s huge pressure on everyone to find her before the podcast blows up into a vigilante mess.”
Charles swore under his breath. “Armchair investigators.”
“They’re not all bad.” She believed that. Sometimes a person sitting in their living room held that one piece of information that tied everything together. She didn’t care if they came forward as a result of police pleading or a podcast, so long as they came forward . . . and didn’t mess up her case. “But as to bringing in the state police or FBI or whatever, I’d prefer to handle this in-house until we know more. Lila and Aaron lived outside of Ithaca, which makes this our case.”
“For now, but get something, and do it fast. I don’t want to get into a jurisdictional pissing match over a high school teacher.”
“Yes, sir.” She responded to an empty space because Charles had already headed back to his office and closed the door.
Pete stared after him. “Does he want us to make up evidence?”
“He wants us to find some, which means it’s time to put a lot of pressure on Lila.” Phone records and search warrants. Pick her life apart. Inadvertently, or maybe on purpose, put a target on her back.
“Sounds like she’s used to being under the microscope.”
Ginny remembered Lila’s blank expression and emotionless stare as she talked about her friend from childhood. “That doesn’t mean she welcomes it.”
Chapter Nineteen
GINNY USHERED JARED INTO THE EXAMINATION ROOM HOURS after Lila and her lawyer left. Pete followed a second later with coffee for everyone.
This was the informal talk. The getting-to-know-you part where she tended to shake loose information that would lead her where she needed to go. Her boss had given her the greenlight to press hard and demanded she make progress.
They’d started putting together profiles and timelines. Collecting security videos and records. But Jared was the brother, the one with the most intimate details about Aaron and, hopefully, some insight into Lila. He was a commercial real estate developer with a pristine reputation. No criminal record. No debts or addictions that anyone could tell.
Bottom line, he knew people, and none of them offered a negative word about him, except to suggest the man had an obsessive streak when it came to work. That likely also explained his lack of a meaningful personal life outside of his brother and sister-in-law.