Page 52 of Pretty Little Wife

“I somehow doubt he’s earned that. Even Jared seems to recognize his brother’s faults. But let’s not forget that Lila’s attitude toward Aaron being missing can be described as lukewarm, at best.”

She watched as Charles, with the help of the road patrol and police officers who didn’t even work for him, organized the volunteers into groups. People stood around, some playing on phones. But they’d showed up and she admired that.

Outcry and theories were fine for others. She followed evidence. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of that. All they didn’t have ran through her brain. “She doesn’t financially benefit from him being gone. As to happiness or urgency, Jared and Lila describe the marriage as—”

“‘Not a great love affair,’ which sounds like an understatement.”

She didn’t comment on the state of the marriage. She wasn’t convinced the way Lila approached it now was any different from how she discussed it before Aaron went missing. “The only impressive thing is the lack of evidence. The forensics team didn’t pick up any signs of blood or cleaning solutions inthe house or her car. Both of their prints were everywhere, as you’d expect, but that means Lila didn’t have a need to clean those up either. She doesn’t have an alibi for that morning, but being asleep at four in the morning seems logical, and her phone was at the house. No pinging off cell towers.”

Pete nodded. “I showed the video the forensic team made as they walked through the house to Jared and he didn’t see anything missing or out of order in the house.”

Whether he’d know or not about missing items wasn’t clear, but the point was nothing jumped out. Nothing soaked Lila in a spotlight or pointed to another explanation for his absence.

“The home computers checked out. No signs of troubling searches or attempts to dump programs and documents. Every number on her cell phone and office phone records is accounted for.” That one frustrated Ginny. With all those computers she’d hoped to find something interesting.

Pete smiled. “But... Ryan Horita.”

“She has a logical explanation.” Then again, she had an explanation for everything. It wasn’t that she’d scrubbed her records clean. It was more that she was careful not to create troubling records in the first place.

“You think there’s really nothing happening with Lila and Ryan?” Pete asked.

“I think they’re having an affair.” Ginny smiled at Pete’s stunned expression. “But does Lila strike you as a woman who would have trouble divorcing a husband to run off with a boyfriend? No kids. She has money of her own. She doesn’t stand to inherit much from him.”

“But Aaron is still gone.”

“Which means we’re missing something.” The reality of that kicked around in her gut, keeping her up at night.

“Her father?”

“It’s not her fault he’s a killer.”

The volunteers started to spread out in a line through the park. “I wonder if this crowd will agree once they find out Daddy is in prison for killing a young girl.”

Ginny knew people, so she knew the answer. “Not likely.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

LILA STOOD AT HER KITCHEN COUNTER, DEBATING WHAT TO DOnext. She’d searched the area around the lake. Every place Aaron had gone fishing. Every open field and secluded street. Before the police came with the search warrant, she’d turned the house inside out, even looking in air-conditioning vents and under loose floorboards. There wasn’t a single stray piece of paper or evidence in this house that pointed to where Aaron might be now.

She even forced herself to watch those damn videos again, hoping she’d see something in the background, that maybe the girls were sitting there, filming in a location she could identify. And nothing. He’d brought one young girl to their bedroom and the others to what looked like a cheap motel. The stingy asshole.

She refused to sit around, waiting for Aaron to stumble back in and upend everything. Being reactive was the wrong strategy. Proactive. She was done letting life happen to her.

The front door slammed, making her jump. She shiftedand stared down the hall, ready to yell at Tobias for scaring the crap out of her on his way back from the coffee run.

Not Tobias.

Jared shouted as he stomped toward her. “What the hell are you doing?”

Anger deepened his voice. Fury pulsed off him and into the area around him. The air went still, and a red haze filled the room.

She’d never seen him like this and didn’t like it. “What are you talking about?”

“There was a search for Aaron today.” He tugged down his coat zipper and tore at the material until he had it off and threw it over one of the bar stools.

The whole time, he watched her. Concern gone. Distrust and disappointment floating through every word.

She sat down on the stool closest to him but didn’t touch him. “Brent got a bunch of people together to walk around the lake. That’s not a search. It’s not even a thing.”

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