Pretty Little Wife(64)

“And yet you didn’t report the existence of the videos or suggest we come back and look at the ceiling.” Pete stepped to the table and glanced at the device over Ginny’s shoulder.

“I’m telling you now.”

The device clacked against the table as Ginny put it down without watching the videos or looking at any of the content. “Your story isn’t very convincing.”

“Lila.” Tobias’s voice rang out in the quiet room. “You can tell them the truth.”

She thought back to all she’d told him and the bits of story she’d confided. This was the time to lay the groundwork and ensure the investigation would go deeper than one man. “There’s a reason for my hesitation. I was trying to figure out if this mess with his students was bigger than Aaron.”

“How so?” Pete asked.

“How did Brent not know?” There were other targets, and he might be clean, but something felt off about him to Lila. Call it a mutual mistrust club. “Teens talk. They brag. They get pissed off and want revenge. And, nothing? It doesn’t make sense the gossip didn’t get out.”

“You think Brent and Aaron are in this together? Like it’s some sort of pedophile ring?”

Tobias held up a hand to keep her from answering Pete’s follow-up question. “No one is using that phrase. We don’t know what’s going on. That’s the point.”

“If that’s true, you should have told us and let us investigate.” Ginny moved the tablet to the side.

The condescending tone rang in Lila’s ears. Ginny might be right, but the words, the delivery, hit Lila wrong. “Next time I find out my husband inappropriately touched his students I’ll know the proper reporting etiquette.”

Ginny didn’t back down. “If most people found evidence pointing to a school-wide problem, they’d immediately report it. That would be the most logical choice.”

“You’ve made it pretty clear I’m the lead suspect in Aaron’s disappearance.” The only one, as far as Lila could tell.

“As a result, Lila worried you would see the videos and get the wrong idea,” Tobias added with his usual smooth delivery.

Ginny kept her attention on Lila. “Which would be?”

“That I was angry he was sleeping around and killed him.” Lila had to force the words out. Sleeping around sounded voluntary. The phrase absolved Aaron from blame, and she hated doing that.

Pete’s eyebrow lifted. “You weren’t?”

Ginny’s elbows slid across the table as she leaned in. “Pete’s right. These accusations hit close. They must stir up certain memories. Make you furious for being put in this position. Again.”

“Hey.” Tobias tapped the tip of his pen against the table. “Let’s keep the focus on Aaron.”

Ginny held Lila’s gaze with an unblinking stare. “But Lila’s father had a similar problem controlling himself around young girls. This is a pattern with the men in her life.”

Faces blurred in her mind. An endless line of weak men. Some sick and some pathetic, and all whining about how they weren’t responsible for their putrid actions. “You don’t need to sugarcoat it. My father stalked and killed a child. What Aaron did . . . he . . .”

“Your father raped and murdered your best friend,” Ginny shot back.

She’d answered these questions decades ago, and here she was again.

You had to know how he felt about Amelia. The way he looked at her. What exactly did he ask you to do to get her to come to your house that day?

Tobias tapped the pen harder. “We’re off topic.”

Ginny’s hand inched across the table. “Some people thought you were in on it back then. I’ve read the notes in the case file. There’s a theory that you helped lure Amelia for your dad. A sort of father-daughter kidnapping team.”

New images swam in front of Lila. Her father rubbing Amelia’s back. His insistence on taking them to the pond to swim. The way he watched for hours from the front seat of his car.

I need to know you can handle yourself in the water. I might even jump in and join you.

Pain wound deep in her gut. Disappointment. Surprise. Sitting in her kitchen back then, trying to work through exactly what the adults were asking when they talked about “inappropriate touching.”

Her father barely paid attention to her, but Amelia was special. Lila recognized it, too. Sunny and sweet. She wore a big smile and her blond hair in that perfect ponytail.

“You have a child.” Lila cleared her throat, hoping to even out her voice. When Ginny frowned, Lila rushed to get to the point. “It’s not a secret. There was a spotlight on you in the paper when you got promoted to this job.”

“You’re investigating me?”

She refused to be knocked off her path. A deep, aching part of her needed Ginny to understand. To hear her and get what it was like to be so alone that the cold inside never warmed. To walk around always one word away from bursting into a fine powder and getting carried off with the wind. “What would you do for your son?”

Ginny shrugged. “Anything, but I don’t see—”

“Right.” Just what Lila expected. “No hesitation.”

Pete shrugged. “What does that prove?”

This was between her and Ginny, so she ignored the male voice. “Your son knows that security. He knows his parents love him, because I’m assuming your husband would give the same answer.”