Pretty Little Wife(53)

“If Aaron or Lila were hiding something they didn’t use computers to do it.” As smart people would refrain from doing. Calls from Lila to the boyfriend, yes, but not an extreme amount, and none on the days leading up to the disappearance. Nothing at all during the time Aaron’s car left the house. Her phone appeared to have been at home, on, and not in use.

Charles shook his head. “It was too much to hope she’d have searches on how to dispose of a body.”

“Not just a body. A car and a phone, too.” Ginny stood with her hands linked together in front of her. “All missing.”

“She’s been busy covering her tracks, or she planned all this out, which is pretty devious shit.”

“Maybe.” Ginny wanted to jump there, too. Grab that conclusion and run with it, but not one piece of evidence supported that. What they had was circumstantial and supposition.

“Ginny.” He sighed at her. Something he excelled at. “We both know she’s in this. Add in the boyfriend and it’s looking like Lila wanted a way out.”

A boyfriend, but no motive. Odd behavior by Lila, but not odd in the sense of giving away what she’d done. She hadn’t sold his clothes or talked about him in the past tense. There was no evidence of blood or a fight. She’d gotten a lawyer im mediately, but he was also a friend, and she was one, so even that choice wasn’t suspect.

“If this is about getting out of a marriage, why take the risk and go after Aaron?” That didn’t make sense to her.

“Men do it all the time.”

“Yes, to protect their money and their reputation. They replace the old wife with the younger and newer version. Get rid of the responsibility of kids.” She let her hands drop to her sides. Some of the tension inside her unwound. Charles wasn’t yelling at her this time or demanding more. He sounded as stumped and flailing as she was. “None of that fits here.”

“That leaves only a few explanations, and none are easy to tackle.” Charles tapped his pen against his calendar desk blotter—the one from three years ago that he’d never bothered to replace. “What about a lie detector test?”

“Her attorney told me he didn’t allow any of his clients to undergo them. Too suspect.”

“Convenient.” Charles grumbled something under his breath that sounded more like a string of profanity than an actual sentence. “Pete talked to one teacher here who had trouble with Aaron’s shiny reputation but claimed it was just a feeling.”

“The woman who owns the agency Lila works at gave the same impression.” That same feeling hit Ginny. Something about Aaron didn’t sit right with her. People had sides and flaws, but so few people recognized or highlighted his. It was unnatural.

She worked with Pete and could name fifteen flaws without thinking very hard, and she mostly liked him. That was the point. Seeing the full person wasn’t about gossiping. Not always. Sometimes it was about how genuine the person was in revealing who they were. She believed, on that score, Aaron might be as closed off as his difficult-to-read wife.

Charles hummed. “Maybe he’s not squeaky clean after all.”

“No one is.”

“Turn his life inside out, here and in North Carolina, and see if you find anything.” He put down his pen and handed the file back to her. “In the meantime, put pressure on the boyfriend. He’s lying, and water problem or not, the calls between them could mean a conspiracy. Get a warrant. It’s possible whatever incriminates Lila is at his house.”

Made sense to her. She’d actually suggested the same thing to Charles last night. Less than twenty hours later, it was his idea. What a shock.

But she stuck to the script and didn’t challenge him. “Done.”

She got to the door before he spoke again. “There’s one possibility we’re ignoring.”

“Some sort of random crime?” She hated that option.

Charles nodded. “He stopped to help the wrong person, or walked in on something.”

It was the nightmare scenario. The option that seemed impossible to solve because everything was unknown. “At four in the morning?”

“He was out that early on this one day—only this day—for a reason. Maybe someone called him out.”

That was the problem. Not being able to explain why Aaron made that choice poked at her. “If it’s a random crime, we’re screwed.”

“No, because you’re going to solve this while police and FBI, and the whole damn task force, are crawling all over our area looking for Karen Blue. Then we’ll ride that good press.”

There it was. The pressure passed from him over to her. “And solve the case.”

His ever-present frown deepened. “Get it done before I have to concede and bring in other jurisdictions for help.”

And now the launch of the full frontal threat. “Yes, sir.”

“Because that would piss me off, Ginny.” He stared past her, into the room behind her. The room where the desks were and the team sat. “Might even make me rethink the chain of command around here.”

“I hear you.” She heard the threat every time he made it.

“Then move it.”

LILA OPENED THE door for the first time in days. Hiding behind it, she ushered Christina inside before slamming it shut on the chaos lurking outside.