Pretty Little Wife(52)







Chapter Thirty-Four


Five Weeks Earlier

LILA DID NOT SNOOP. SHE DIDN’T GO THROUGH HIS JACKET AND pants pockets. She never listened in when he talked on the cell or when he hung out with a visiting friend. She’d never so much as stumbled over a hidden Christmas present, because she never went to places in the house where someone might hide something.

That all changed after she found the videos. With the trust shattered, any and all violations of Aaron’s privacy seemed like fair game. If he didn’t like the intrusion, he never should have acted like a piece of shit.

If he’d kept his bastard tendencies from her, they’d be in the same place, stuck in a revolving cycle where their marriage switched from mundane to tolerable and never reached higher. He’d pushed them into a new cycle.

But now she had a purpose. There were things about Aaron she needed to know. Her plan to expose who and what he really was depended on her gathering as much intel as possible. He’d lied and cheated his entire life. When slammed against the wall and hanging on the edge of being outed for what he’d done, he’d come out swinging. She needed to lessen his leverage. Take away part of that arcing swing.

That was the only reason for her being up before six and in a car on an overcast Saturday morning. He mentioned checking out a field. Field hockey session started early in the school year and ended with the state championship in November. He suggested the team had a chance this year, at least at playoffs, but that he needed more information on the opposition.

In other years, his excitement would have made her smile. Coaching gave him somewhere to go and guaranteed her some alone time. But this year his schedule filled her with dread. Road games. Time after and before school. Coach and player training sessions. Every aspect of the game sounded suspect to her now.

She rubbed her eyes, sorry she hadn’t managed to drift off to sleep last night. The steady thump of the tires against the road lulled her into a calming sense of exhaustion. The miles passed as she followed Aaron’s car. Him in his SUV. Her in a rental he wouldn’t recognize. She hoped the baseball cap she wore hid her face but decided the slight distance between the vehicles and Aaron’s own ego that reassured him he was getting away with it all would protect her from being found out.

But where the hell was he going?

The double yellow line passed by as they drove around Cayuga Lake and kept going north. They drove deeper into the trees and away from residential areas. Cars passed them, and a refrigerated truck separated their vehicles right now, giving her a slight buffer.

After two hours, her mind wandered to more sinister options for this trip. They skirted Canada and drove north, then east. Through wooded areas and near streams. Objectively picturesque, but knowing what she now knew about his needs, she found the remote area scary and obscene. A place to take someone when you didn’t want to be seen.

The idea that he could be out here, where no one knew him, scouting other girls, ran through her head. This spot, so far away from where they lived and worked, might provide enough distance for him not to worry about being found out.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost missed him turning off the main highway. He cut to the right, onto a side road that dipped deep into a wooded area. She slowed just on the other side of the entrance then stopped. She could see the top of the sedan as he drove into the distance.

She looked around for signs in a desperate attempt to spy buildings or something familiar. Frustrated, she checked the map on her phone for landmarks or schools. Nothing pointed to the existence of an athletic field nearby. She saw trees and greenery. Not another car or person, except for the few that passed by on the main road.

She toyed with the idea of following him down what looked like a quiet two-lane road. The type where it would be impossible for her to hold back far enough to hide the fact she was tailing him.

He’d see her and know. He’d stop and she’d never figure out why he’d done this drive on this day.

Concern ran both ways. Part of her feared what she’d see. The reality was she knew enough. She’d plotted the points for this drive as she went. She could lead the police back here. Let them see if there was anything to find.

She had a murder to plan.





Chapter Thirty-Five


Present Day

GINNY DREADED MORNING MEETINGS WITH THE BOSS. CHARLES, always “on,” shaking hands. He wore a big smile outside of the office that fell into a flat line every morning when he walked in the door.

She got it. He had political pressures and community pressures. That damn podcast tying three open cases of missing women together—something the police hadn’t announced publicly—added a crushing weight to all of their backs. The sheriff’s office only tangentially helped on those cases, but the outcry shot a bolt of electricity through the local law enforcement community.

Locals in charge fought not to lose control. All of that meant Charles was crankier than usual.

He stared at her over the top of his glasses from his oversize leather desk chair. “You’re telling me we have nothing on Aaron Payne.”

The file sat in front of him. Closed. That meant he’d read it and got ticked off . . . then ordered her to come in and give a verbal status report instead. He wasn’t paging through, picking apart the pieces. He silently fumed at the lack of anything he wanted to see in terms of progress.

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