by Darby Kane
With one hand clenched on her cell and the other resting on her stomach over the soft cotton of her pajama top, Lila continued to watch, forcing her eyes to stay open until fatigued by the strain, tears pooled at the edges. Still, she stood in the darkness of her quiet house and scanned every inch of sidewalk. Studied every tree and every branch, looking for movement.
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed since she’d started her impromptu sentry duty. Five minutes . . . an hour. Seconds blurred even though she felt a loud ticking deep inside. A sort of countdown to the inevitable end.
Her mind heard sounds. Aaron’s voice. His footsteps. Him haunting her in his supposed death as he had in life.
Cradling her cell in both hands, she backed away from the window and the desperate scene she provided to anyone watching. Inch by inch, never breaking her surveillance, she moved. She only stopped when her heel slammed into the far wall. She’d slid from one side of the room to the other, so sure a shadow would spring to life and attack her.
Aaron and his games had reduced her to this.
With her back against the wall, she lifted the phone and dialed. It rang once.
Before she heard a voice, she jumped in. “I’m in trouble. I need to see you.”
Chapter Eleven
PETE RUSHED INTO GINNY’S OFFICE THE NEXT MORNING BEFORE she had a chance to take her jacket off and sit down. She knew she should have shut the door behind her. She might have if he hadn’t been closing in on her from across the busy floor at the time. Only his wise decision to bring her coffee saved him from getting a door slammed in his face.
“You’re awfully energetic this morning.” She dropped into her chair and turned on her computer. “For the record, I hate that about young people.”
“I’m not that young.”
She peeked up at him as she signed in, not bothering to look at the keys as she typed in her password. “Uh-huh.”
“I do have news on our most recent case.” He slipped a thin file from under his arm and waved it in the air.
“Your youthful energy level just got less annoying.” She leaned back in her chair and gestured for him to take a seat across from her.
“First, no sighting of Aaron or his car. No hits on his credit cards or bank accounts. No calls. No pings to hunt down.” He smiled. “You know what that means.”
“You’re too excited.” She had to admit the haze was clearing in an unfortunate way. With each new piece of information, Aaron Payne looked less like a runner and more like a victim.
“I’m enthusiastic about my job.”
It was too early for this disagreement. “I see it’s going to be that kind of day. The news?”
“Before we get to that, I checked with the principal and the brother.” He words sped up as if they were trying to catch up to the eagerness in his voice. “Nothing. Aaron never checked in or showed up. He’s missed work for a second day, which the way the principal made it sound bordered on apocalyptic.”
“What did Lila say? Did she hear from him last night?”
He winced. “I figured she was the least likely to give me a straight answer about her husband’s whereabouts.”
“She’s not a step you can skip.”
Loud shouts from the outer room grabbed their attention. From the two sheriffs making the noise, she guessed the cheers were sports related, likely college football—the office’s favorite pastime.
“I had a car go by the house this morning. All quiet.” He dropped the file on his lap. “Because I was curious, I drove by as well, and no sign of him or his car at the house.”
The move didn’t surprise her. They’d already started collecting information and picking through the couple’s lives. “But clearly you’re keeping an open mind as to his wife.”
“Of course.”
Possibly the least convincing response she’d ever received from a partner. “This easily could be a guy needing space. Don’t jump to conclusions. That will just keep you from seeing what you need to see.”
Ginny stumbled trying to sell the line. It rang hollow in her head and sounded even worse when it came out.
Pete snorted. “Doubt it.”
No need to argue since she felt the same way and sucked at hiding it. Save the lectures. They had a case, and it promised to be messy. Which led to her biggest concern. “Any sign this has spilled out into the media?”
Once word got out, the phone lines would light up with neighbors tattling on neighbors, conspiracy theories, and fake sightings. That was nothing compared to the wrath that would fall on Lila. The press would stake out her house and rip apart her life.
“Not yet, but he works at a school as a teacher and coach. Kids know him. Parents know him. There will be talk. There’s no way to keep a lid on it and . . .” Pete exhaled. “Should we? The louder this gets, the more likely we’ll find something.”
That theory backfired in the biggest case of her career so far. The one that didn’t resolve clean with a jury finding, despite the battle she waged and all it cost her. “I find that the more people involved, the more likely we’ll all trip over one another. So we need to get moving before the good citizens of this county descend with their theories. But you mentioned news. I’m still waiting to hear it.”
Pete looked down at his file but didn’t hand it over. “I think I know what your first line of questions to Lila will be about.”
Yeah, he looked far too pleased with himself. “You have something big in that file and you didn’t lead with it? I’ve been in here for twenty minutes. What’s wrong with you?”
He put up a hand. “I was drawing it out for maximum dramatic impact.”
She felt her eyes bulge. “What is it?”
“I found one very big piece of the puzzle.” His smile fell a bit. “Even though I’m not sure what it means.”
Her patience expired. “Tell me before I fire you.”
“Fine. Ruin the moment.” He leaned forward and dropped the file in front of Ginny. “Lila Ridgefield is a hard woman to track.”
“Meaning?” Ginny grabbed the cover and flipped it open.
Before she could read more than a few sentences, Pete started the explanation. “She appeared out of nowhere thirteen years ago at age twenty-one.”
Ginny glanced up. “And before then?”
“Before then, Lila Ridgefield didn’t exist.”
Chapter Twelve
A MIX OF EXHAUSTION AND SUFFOCATING WARINESS WOUND around Lila as she sat at her kitchen island the next morning. She’d turned the coffeemaker temperature to scalding. Anything to revive her. To force her brain to restart and work through the very real problem in front of her.
A curl of steam rose from her coffee mug. She watched it twirl then vanish. In her sleep-deprived state, the puff of heat hypnotized her. Seemed much more interesting than it probably was.
She hadn’t managed an hour of sleep. Common sense told her to stay in all night when she really wanted to leave this house. Get out. She settled for a few stolen minutes on the phone. Those weren’t enough to settle her restless brain.
For the hundredth time, the possibility of Aaron being very much alive skittered through her mind.
Impossible. Had to be. She had killed him. She’d checked. Waited until his breathing stopped before dumping him in his SUV. A guy couldn’t just come back from that.
Still, she half expected him to walk through the door in a storm of outrage, dragging chaos behind him. Blaming. Calling the police. Kicking her out. But then, that would be risky, because she had something on him. Something that could destroy everything he’d carefully built, lie by disgusting lie.
She set the mug down and mentally ran through the last few days. Backtracked and relived every moment. She needed answers, and she couldn’t exactly ask someone . . . or could she? There had to be a stray piece of paper, a note—something that told her where he was and how he’d escaped.
She slid off the bar stool and walked around the kitchen. Paced without
any discernible pattern. Walked from the kitchen, down the hall. Stopped at the doorway to Aaron’s office. She knew from previous missions to uncover answers that he didn’t keep anything of value in here.
The empty safe mocked her. The blank calendar with page after page of blocks devoid of any notes. She had no idea why he’d bought it if he didn’t intend to fill it with a record of his activities. Just one more way for him to be secretive as he pretended to be like everyone else.
Now she knew better.
She gave the room one last look before backing into the hallway. She had the door halfway closed and was thinking about where else to look when the shadow cleared in her head. There, in one of the panes of the double French doors to the outside patio, she saw the reflection of a square . . . or what looked like one.
“What the hell?” She whispered the question to the empty room.
Forgetting the exhaustion and the threat closing in around her, she stepped across the oriental carpet he’d insisted on buying from the antiques shop on their way back from a long weekend in Vermont.
The crisscross panes rose from the inside of the glass. The straight edges of the flier or whatever it was were slipped into a space on the outside. It hadn’t been there yesterday, but it was now. That meant someone had walked through her backyard. The idea of anyone getting that close to her sphere of privacy sent her stomach plummeting.
She unlocked the door and opened it. What looked like an unlined index card, folded in half, lay tucked into the edge of the door. The wind whipped it around, but it held.
The thick paper felt heavy under her fingers as she slipped it out of its hiding place. A typed message in block letters.
THAT DIDN’T GO AS PLANNED, DID IT?
Not specific, but she understood. Enough to make her heart stop.
This person knew what she’d done . . . or tried to do. That could only mean one thing.
Aaron was alive.
Chapter Thirteen
ON THE THIRD MORNING AFTER AARON PAYNE VANISHED, HIS boss and best friend visited the sheriff’s office. Brent came without being asked. Sat and waited, insisting he speak to someone handling the investigation.
That level of interest raised a flag. Put the spotlight on him. Ginny assumed he didn’t know, and she didn’t bother cluing him in. She also didn’t rush around and jump to do his bidding.
She finished her call with Aaron’s brother, Jared, becoming more and more convinced that something bad had happened to Aaron. No one had seen him. He wasn’t touching his money. Everything—his car, his wallet, and his phone—seemed to be missing.
None of that sounded good.
Neither did Lila’s name change. Pete had dug around and not found anything. He was extending the search, and Ginny wanted to talk with Lila, surprise her with the information they did know, but she wasn’t answering her phone. Next stop, a home visit. But Ginny had to get through another talk with Brent first.
Twenty minutes after he showed up unannounced, Ginny walked into the interrogation room with a blank notepad in her hand and the video running. The office recorder cataloged everything that happened except when a conversation occurred between a person and their attorney or when someone from the department turned the equipment off. Today it was up and running.
She slipped into the seat across from the principal and watched him fidget and squirm in the metal chair. “Did you need to tell me something, Brent?”
He put his joined hands on the table then lowered them to his lap again. “Any word on Aaron?”
She bit back a sigh. “We’re investigating.”
“What does that mean?” The chair scraped across the cement floor as he leaned forward, elbows on the table now. “Look, you have to know this isn’t normal. There’s no need for delay . . . or whatever is happening.”
She knew how he felt about the investigation needing to move very quickly because he’d told her. He’d also told Pete when he went to visit the school to ask follow-up questions yesterday. He made it clear one last time when he called the office for a status check earlier that morning. The one thing that Brent had done was make his point.
She leaned back in her chair, taking on a more relaxed stance as Brent’s frustration ratcheted up. “What do you think is happening?”
“I don’t . . . it’s just . . .” He sat up again, mirroring her position, then slammed his back against the chair.
So many jerky movements. An air of nervousness. Every twinge highlighted how uncomfortable he felt.
Some people got twitchy around officials with a badge. She got that, but she found it hard to believe this guy could handle a lecture hall full of teens without falling apart, but not her. “It feels like there’s something specific you want us to know.”
“You’ve met Lila.”
Ah. This could get interesting.
“I really like her. She’s very nice.” He was speed-talking now. “I mean, not nice in the usual sense. More like . . . do you know what I mean?”
“No.” There was no way she was helping him through this babbling.
He returned to shifting and moving and generally making her dizzy. He lifted his cell phone out of his pocket and checked the screen. Whatever he saw there had him frowning.
She could hardly wait to analyze the video from this meeting. “Brent?”
“Okay.” He put the cell facedown on the table. “She’s . . . attractive. She has this thing about her.”
“What thing?” Ginny thought Lila had a thing, but who knew if they were talking about the same thing.
“Aaron liked to show her off.”
Creepy but okay.
“Like she was some sort of prize.” Brent stopped and gulped in a big breath. “He never said, look what I snagged, but you could feel the pride. He liked that people saw them a certain way. She’s beautiful, apparently really smart, but aloof. It gives her this almost larger-than-life feel.”
“What are you trying to tell me?”
He gave her full-on eye contact. “It all stopped.”
Ginny slipped her pen out of her pocket. She wasn’t sure what to write, so she waited. “What did?”
“Them. They stopped working.”
“That’s a big statement.” The kind that could matter and provide motive. “When?”
“More than a month ago.” He rubbed his palm with the thumb of his other hand. “Something happened.”
“What?”
Brent shrugged. “Who knows? They’re super private.”
Not helpful. She tried again, crossing one leg over the other, aiming for calm. She hoped that would ease some of the tension he sent jumping around the room. “What makes you think there was a problem?”
“Again, I just want to be clear. He didn’t say there was. He actually insisted everything was okay, but it wasn’t.”
One more time. “How do you know that?”
“He stopped mentioning her.” He cut her off before she could ask for clarification. “I know that sounds ridiculous.”
“Confusing, yes.”
“Being married to her matters to him. It’s part of his persona. He has this mysterious, glamorous wife who rarely comes to anything school-related, but he’d drop references about her. Something she said or somewhere they went. It was kind of a teacher’s lounge joke that no one would believe she existed except we had met her or seen her around town.”
“Okay, but—”
“He didn’t tell bad stories about Lila. Ever. If they fought, you’d never really know, because he never mentioned a negative thing.”
“Brent.” She held up her hand to get him to stop talking at record speed. “I don’t think I’m getting your point.”
“Starting a few weeks ago, he acted as if she no longer existed. Not a word about her or anything that’s happening away from work since then.” Brent stopped moving. “And now he’s missing.”
“Do you think Lila did something to Aaron?” That sounded to her more like Aaron had done something to L
ila, but that wouldn’t explain the missing husband.
Brent frowned. “I think something happened that changed everything between them. Figure out what it was and you’ll find Aaron.”
Chapter Fourteen
GINNY AND PETE WALKED INTO LILA’S REAL ESTATE OFFICE IN downtown Ithaca the next morning. She didn’t own the place or run it, but she worked out of the brokerage firm. Had a desk there, which was empty.
They’d tried her house first and no one answered, so they’d come here as the logical second choice. Finding her empty desk took two seconds. The lack of personal photos and a nameplate gave it away.
Ginny waited until the woman at the big desk in the office in the back got off the phone. The badge didn’t impress the woman into cutting short the conversation about some lake property with a strange smell in the back bedroom. Neither did Pete’s dramatic sighing.
When the woman finally hung up, Ginny shot her a you can’t out-attitude me glare. “Are you ready now or do you need to get coffee or make lunch plans first?”
The woman took her time meeting Ginny’s gaze. “Don’t tempt me.”
Pete sighed one last time before nodding in the direction of Lila’s unoccupied desk chair just outside of the glassed-off office they all stood in. “She’s not here?”
“Lila?” The woman shrugged. “Should she be?”
“Tell me your name.” Because Ginny was done with this bullshit.
“Christina Torres.” She straightened her nameplate. “This is my firm and Lila works here.” She hesitated before providing the rest of the information. “But she’s not here now.”
Clear, concise, and totally not useful. Ginny couldn’t help but be a little impressed.
She sized up the business owner. Fortysomething, possibly fifty, and wearing a white silk blouse. She had that put-together vibe that suggested she could go all day without getting a stray pen mark on the damn thing. Ginny appreciated the skill and the perfectly styled black hair that fell just above her shoulders. The lack of helpful information? Not so much.
