Page 36 of Pretty Little Wife

“I’ll need the hotel information and any names of people who can confirm you were there.” Ginny waited until Jared nodded to continue. “Did Lila get in touch with you that morning as well as Brent?”

“She didn’t do this.”

That was quick and adamant. His voice still rang off the walls when Ginny started poking around in his response. “What exactly?”

“Anything to my brother.” Jared sat back, taking the cup with him. Holding it in a tight grip that suggested he needed it to keep from fidgeting or flailing. “Look, I know she’s different, but so is he. They’ve both had these horrible things happen to them. They’re... I don’t know, careful.”

“Broken?”

“Not really. They both function fine.” He took a long sip. “She had a successful legal career. Now she sets her ownschedule and sells houses without trouble. I’ve been told people like her no-bullshit style as an agent.”

Pete nodded. “I can see that.”

“My brother has exactly the job he’s always wanted. He loves kids. Always talked about being a coach.” Jared smiled as he played with the handle on the mug. “I thought he’d go on and teach at the college level, but that wasn’t his thing. He wanted to mentor kids through the teen years. The tough years.”

“Why did they move to New York from North Carolina?” That question stuck out in Ginny’s mind as an area to pursue. Pete had made some calls, but no one offered much.

Jared shrugged. “Aaron wanted to coach but couldn’t there. He and the guy in charge of the athletic programs argued about it, so when a position came open here, near where we grew up and where I live, Aaron grabbed it.”

Sounded reasonable. Ginny still wanted another opinion before she’d drop it, but for now that explanation worked. “You and your brother are close.”

“We are. Some kids who are close together in age fight. Some are close. We’re lucky to be the latter.”

He had a smooth style. Didn’t offer too much or too little. Smiled when it was appropriate to smile. Ginny tried to read deeper and hit a roadblock. But the way he described his brother and Lila made them sound pretty normal. He seemed to be alone in thinking that. Brent suggested, at least recently, they tolerated each other more than they loved each other.

“Are you... What was the word you used to describe your brother and his wife? Different?”

“Yes, and careful. I haven’t dated a woman for more than a month my entire life, so yeah, I’d say I have some issues. It’s hard not to.” His fingers tightened on the mug. The clench lasted for a second, then he relaxed again. Not fully relaxed, but his shoulders slumped and he blew out a long breath. “I should probably explain a bit about our upbringing.”

She had the basics. The kind of stuff that’s included in an official file, which she knew from experience was never the full story. By the time he’d finished talking about his mother’s death and the accident that took his father, Ginny hadn’t learned one new piece of information. “Lila told me the same thing.”

It was almost like listening to a tape. Mom shot by accident by hunters. Dad killed in an unsolved hit-and-run. A nearly word-for-word description that mirrored Lila’s telling of the same events.

Where Jared was warm and smiling when talking about Aaron and Lila, his voice remained flat when walking through his parents’ deaths. Could be some sort of post-trauma issue. Since those deaths were long ago handled by other law enforcements officials, she didn’t bother digging too deep. They needed to stay focused on Aaron, the possible third catastrophe for this family.

“Do you know about her parents?” Jared asked.

Ginny wasn’t sure if she was being tested, so she played along. “Her father is in prison. Does she ever talk about him?”

“Never. Would you? He sounds like a psychopath.”

Probably not a surprise. Ginny couldn’t imagine havingthat man as a father or the destruction he’d unleashed on Lila’s life. But there was one more player. “And her mother?”

Jared’s eyes narrowed. “She died.”

“How?”

This time he drained the cup before speaking. “The official story is she fell off the rooftop of her office building. People went up there to smoke, and she smoked. It was one of those misty, rainy days, and she fell.”

Pete stopped taking notes. “What’s the unofficial story?”

“She killed herself.” Jared let out a long breath. “Lila thinks she jumped. The pressure of having a pedophile for a husband was too much. The trial was all over the news. Someone tried to burn down their house. Lila couldn’t go to school because she was getting beaten up and threatened.”

Pete whistled. “That’s pretty awful.”

“Unimaginable, actually.”

The words sounded defensive. Rough, as if he wanted to do battle for her. An interesting idea, since Lila struck Ginny as a pretty self-reliant and tough woman. The kind that didn’t need a savior. “You’re fond of your sister-in-law.”

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