Pretty Little Wife(85)

“I still can’t believe it.” Jared shook his head as he let out a long exhale. “I mean, we were raised together. We did so much together. How could I miss the signs?”

Tobias left the bar stool and joined them. He sat in the chair across from them, ignoring the emotional uncertainty zipping around the room. “Did Ginny question you?”

“Oh yeah.” Jared leaned back into the cushions. “She clearly doesn’t believe I didn’t know.”

“She has to push, but I’m sure she knows. That’s how it works sometimes,” Tobias said. “I’ve read books about families who didn’t know they lived with a killer father. I’ve had clients not see the type of person who slept next to them each night.” He glanced at her. “And some friends and colleagues who suffered from the same blind spots.”

Jared winced. “I’m afraid I wasn’t at my best during the latest interrogation.”

“Meaning?”

But Lila knew the answer to Tobias’s question. She didn’t need a big explanation or lengthy apology. Jared went to the same place anyone in his position might go. “He’s saying he blamed me for Aaron’s death.”

“Ryan, actually. Well, more Ryan than you.” Jared’s wince didn’t ease. “But yeah. I lashed out.”

She got it. She understood. It’s not as if she had the high ground here. She’d done things, horrible things. Things a better person might regret, but she didn’t.

She reached her hand out and let it rest on the cushion between them. “It’s fine.”

Tobias laughed. “I think you should remove that word from your vocabulary. You clearly don’t know what it means.”

“He’s not wrong,” Jared said, already looking lighter and regaining some of his usual calm demeanor.

“My husband abused teens and killed women, all while I enjoyed some time alone and spent time with Ryan, thinking my marriage was just . . .” She stopped because the moment struck her as funny, and that hadn’t happened in weeks. “Normally, I’d say ‘fine’ here.”

Tobias rolled his eyes. “Uh-huh.”

“But while all of that was happening and I was living my life, Aaron was hurting women. I listened to the press conference. DNA evidence. Yara James and Karen Blue both have been found on his top secret property.” She couldn’t figure out how to make her inaction, her not seeing the truth, okay. Missing the opportunity to stop the abuse . . . again. Being older and still not seeing it before it was too late was a sin that she couldn’t find the right words to apologize for. “I didn’t stop him.”

“You didn’t know,” Tobias immediately shot back.

“Well.” Jared rubbed a hand up and down his leg. “That brings me to the Brent news.”

“What now?” She could hardly wait to hear what he’d accused her of without any proof. Talk about a wild card.

“He’s been suspended from his job, pending an investigation.” Jared stopped long enough to nod at her in affirmation. Whatever he saw on her face must have told her she needed it. “Apparently, there is a whisper campaign about how he knew what Aaron was doing with students and looked the other way, possibly took part in it.”

“I don’t know about the accomplice part.” Tobias made a humming sound, the type that said he was mentally working through an idea. “That sounds like idle gossip.”

Lila knew a bit about that. “It’s someone else’s turn. I’m tired of being the target.”

“I got the impression they did a search of his home and office and found something problematic.” Jared’s hand clenched and unclenched where it lay on his thigh. “The school has an investigator on it. The state police are looking into it. I’m sure Ginny is poking around in the accusations.”

“What did they find exactly?” she asked.

Jared winced. “The word is he had photos on his computer—”

She waved her hand, trying to bat the words away. “Oh, God. Enough.”

Tobias whistled. “Unbelievable.”

The news struck her as upsetting but not shocking. “Is it? I’m starting to think we can never really know what’s going on in someone else’s head.”

“But murder?” Jared asked.

That’s exactly what she was talking about. “Especially murder.”





Chapter Fifty-Six


THE NEXT DAY LILA STEPPED INTO GINNY’S OFFICE ON HER WAY back from a meeting with the sheriff and the prosecutor. Tobias was still with Charles, doing his schmooze thing in the hope of pulling a bit more information out of the guy. She took the opportunity to peek in on Ginny.

Before she got to the office door, she saw the board through the glass wall. Photos and newspaper headlines. Cards with notes about evidence. Her face. Aaron’s. It was disconcerting to have her life splayed open and put on display. But the more she stood there, her gaze scanning every inch of information, the more she realized this wasn’t her life. This was an exhibit. She played a role. A bit player in Aaron’s horrible opera.

She stood in the doorway and waited until Ginny hung up the phone to announce her presence. “I’ve seen those boards on television and in defense attorneys’ offices. Never been the subject of one, though.”