Pretty Little Wife(70)

“When?” Jared delivered the word in a louder voice, as if his brain cells had jump-started and he’d come out swinging.

Ginny frowned at the question. “Excuse me?”

“Aaron disappeared nine days ago. Has he been in the SUV all this time?” Jared’s voice rose with each word. By the time he got to the end, he sat up straight, demanding answers. Then his body fell. It looked like all the air rushed out of him, and he doubled over in his chair. “Shit. I can’t take this.”

Ginny stood up and reached for the door handle and called for help.

On instinct, Lila rushed to Jared. She dropped into the chair beside him and rubbed his back. Seeing him broken and struggling hit her as if she’d slammed full speed into a brick wall.

“Okay, breathe.” She whispered the plea directly into his ear. After a few minutes, his breathing seemed to settle. “You okay?”

A harsh laugh without any amusement erupted from deep inside of Jared. “No.”

Lila glanced up in time to see Ginny and Tobias exchange a look of concern.

“I’m fine.” Jared waved off the concern. “No need to call an ambulance.”

Ginny waited until Jared sat up again to answer. “There’s a possibility his body was moved to the SUV recently.”

Just when Lila thought her thoughts couldn’t be any more scrambled, her brain proved her wrong. She couldn’t decipher Ginny’s cryptic response. “He was alive and hanging out at some random cabin while we were all looking for him?”

Tobias shrugged. “Maybe the person who stabbed him held him captive there.”

“We’re not sure.” The more Ginny talked, the more drained she sounded.

“This is . . . I don’t know what this is.” Lila’s mind took off on another race.

Who other than her would want him dead? An accomplice. A victim? A parent who knew what he’d done? All sounded reasonable, but she couldn’t make the jump from there to the notes left at her house and office. Those were personal. Threatening. They suggested surveillance and a specific knowledge of her plans.

And they’d stopped.

It had been days since she’d gotten one, which might mean Aaron had been alive and leaving them and then something had happened to him. She couldn’t exactly ask, since no one knew about the notes. Just her and the person who’d left them.

“There’s something else you both need to know, and I’d prefer if you heard it from me.” Ginny shifted to serious investigator mode. Some of the haze cleared from her eyes as she stood there, ready to drop the next piece of information that would blow their lives apart.

Lila had run out of tolerance for surprises. “What is it?”

“There was another body on the property.”

Tobias’s eyes narrowed. “When you say ‘body,’ you mean—”

“Aaron wasn’t alone.”

Not possible. Not possible. Not possible. “In the car?”

“Again, we’re collecting information and trying to wade through the evidence, but no. The woman was in the cabin and . . .” Ginny didn’t try to hide the calming breath she took. “She’s dead.”





Chapter Forty-Five


LILA SAT SLOUCHED DOWN ON HER FAMILY ROOM COUCH WITH her head balanced against the back cushions. She thought about opening a bottle of wine, but in her current mood she might chug it, and she needed to stay rational and in control.

She and Tobias had spent the last few hours babysitting Jared. He moved sluggishly and kept mumbling to himself. They dragged him out of the sheriff’s office and back to her house but it took effort. He demanded more answers and wanted to talk to Samantha and know about the cabin. He’d yell one minute then look near collapse the next.

He sat in the oversize chair next to her fireplace and didn’t say a word. She and Tobias engaged in mindless chitchat, trying to give Jared time to find a mental equilibrium. He’d wanted to go home, but she didn’t want him to be alone. Brent had called. Work people had called. A few others she didn’t know had called. All were checking in on him. Cassie had called for her, and she’d said they’d talk later.

This time the call was for Tobias. He listened but didn’t say much. She heard him mention Ginny and then saw all the color drain from his face.

He got off the call, and his cell dangled from his lifeless fingers.

“What’s going on?” She didn’t know how the news could get worse, but it looked like it had.

“They identified the woman in the cabin.” Tobias finally seemed to focus. “It’s Karen Blue.”

GINNY HUNG UP the phone and turned back to the medical examiner. Her case had now run right into the task force’s jurisdiction, which meant her time on this might be winding down. Never mind that she had all the intel on Aaron and Lila and everyone they knew in town. The task force was too visible and had support from the FBI, and that trumped her.

That was the only reason she stood in the morgue, running out of patience and wanting to be anywhere else. Despite years of wading into violence and death, this part always unsettled her. People became faceless bodies and a source of information at this point in the process.

Dr. Lori Timmons moved around the room like she owned it. As the medical examiner, she basically did. This was her domain.