Pretty Little Wife(66)
The openness that usually radiated from Tobias dried up. “Try suggesting any of that fantasy in the press, and I’ll sue everyone in this building.”
Ginny made a noncommittal sound before turning back to Lila. “What was that big fight about? The one that happened a few weeks back that had Aaron sleeping at his brother’s house?”
A good shift. Lila had to give her adversary credit for never taking the easy way out of a conversation. “I didn’t like how much time he was devoting to the school.”
“You, who likes her time alone, wanted more attention?” Ginny scoffed. “Nah. Don’t think so.”
“Even I have limits.” And Aaron had found them.
THE QUESTIONING WENT round and round for another twenty minutes. By the time Ginny and Pete stepped into the hallway, Ginny needed a glass of wine and something to kill the headache spreading down her neck and through every limb.
Ginny tipped her head back against the wall and closed her eyes for a second. They stood just out of range of the main room and the view from Charles’s office. She needed the quiet to mentally untangle the discussion. The part about Lila’s upbringing and feelings on abandonment from her parents struck her as genuine. The most real thing Lila had ever said. Her voice had shaken and her eyes had turned glassy as she’d spilled the personal details. Every cell inside Ginny told her that Lila had revealed a bit of honest weakness in those moments.
She’d offered a confession wrapped in a therapy session. Nothing Ginny could use in court, but almost as if, on some level, Lila wanted her to know she killed Aaron for a valid reason. For the girls he’d gone after. For making Lila relive that horror and be unable to stop it. Not for the sex or the weirdness or for any other reason, but for the girls.
“What the hell was that about back there?” Pete whispered the question, keeping it between them only for now.
Ginny didn’t have the patience to discuss the concept of nuance with Pete. “Where is Samantha?”
“She’s waiting to talk with you and the sexual assault specialist.” He glanced at his watch. “The specialist is on the way over.”
The expert worked with all of the local units and had been almost exclusively attached to the state police during the Karen Blue investigation. Ginny needed her now. “We have to watch the videos frame by frame. If Samantha is right about other girls—”
“Seems convenient.” Pete was already shaking his head. “No one at the school hinted at this.”
Maybe . . . but maybe not. “Circle back to the one teacher who didn’t give Aaron a glowing report and poke around. There might be something there.”
Pete nodded. “Right.”
“And you asked what the hell that was back in the room.” Ginny pointed at the closed door that separated them from where Lila and Tobias sat. “That was motive. Tobias knows it. The really strange thing is Lila knows it, too, but offered up the videos anyway.”
“Why would she do that?”
“I don’t know yet.” But Ginny silently vowed to find out.
Chapter Forty-Two
JARED SAT IN A DAZE. LILA COULD SEE THE CONFUSION IN EVERY line of his body. He’d slumped down in one of the chairs in the sheriff’s office waiting area. Ginny warned that his questioning would be next, but, for now, she left him out there with her. Stewing and shaking his head.
He leaned down with his elbows resting on his thighs and stared at the linoleum floor between his feet. “I don’t understand.”
Lila glanced at Tobias before trying to reason this through. “Jared, listen to me.”
“Girls.” Jared shook his head but never lifted it.
Tobias shifted out of the way as two men walked through the open area and into the main room where the employees sat. He looked out of place here, as he did in most places. The expensive suit and perfectly shined shoes. He was smart and loaded and totally in control of his surroundings. Lila hoped he would help her maneuver through the mess she’d made.
“His students. Girls on the team.” Jared made a groaning sound as he looked up. “How does Ginny know this woman is telling the truth? She gets things wrong. Really wrong.” The metal chair made a cracking sound when Jared sat back hard in it.
Lila hadn’t seen that side of Ginny, and the idea intrigued her. “What do you mean?”
“She’s asked me about you and your background. She suggested the existence of the trust fund proved motive, first for you and then for me, once she realized the money came to me if anything happened to Aaron.”
“When was this conversation?” Tobias asked.
“A week ago. In the middle of asking if Aaron had life insurance and, if so, who would inherit it, she brought up how Aaron’s trust would go to me if something happened to him.” He shrugged. “I’m assuming she searched his bank accounts and found the trust.”
Lila knew the answer to that one. She’d fed Ginny the information, hoping to derail her for a short time as Lila chased down confirmation for herself. Sounds as if that one plan went the way she intended.
“I’m assuming the insurance goes to you?” Tobias asked her.
“I don’t think Aaron going missing has anything to do with money.” It also wasn’t much of a motive. Aaron didn’t believe in insurance. He thought paying money now to receive a possible settlement later amounted to waste. He insisted her getting the house and having a law degree was protection enough against future surprises.