Pretty Little Wife

by Darby Kane

  “Ryan Horita’s name came up more than once in my meeting with Ginny.” Tobias flipped the pages of his notepad and seemed to be silently reading from it.

  “She’s had him in for questioning.”

  “You know what I’m saying, Lila.” Tobias glanced up at her. “What do I need to know about this guy?”

  In every way, Ryan had been irrelevant to her thinking on Aaron. She didn’t start her plan because she wanted out of her marriage or a divorce. She’d plotted and researched because she wanted to stop Aaron. It was that simple.

  She thought about the affair and the videos. Tobias needed to know about the existence of both. What he did with the information or how he spun it in her defense would be part of the legal dance they’d do later. Hopefully never, but she suspected later.

  “I need to tell you about Ryan and about some evidence I found.”

  “When?”

  “The evidence? Weeks ago. Before Aaron went missing.” She knew the explanation sounded ridiculous. “They’re unrelated, but together might make it look like I did something to Aaron.”

  He stared at her for a few seconds before saying anything. “Do you know where he is right now?”

  “No.” She needed him to believe her on that. “I really don’t.”

  “Okay, good.” He nodded. “I was going to tell you not to tell me, if you did.”

  She couldn’t help but smile at his practical way of dealing with this case stress. He rarely judged, not even clients. Other lawyers would trade stories once the trials ended or talk in hypotheticals. Tobias never did. He insisted good people could be driven to do horrible things, which was why he was the first person she called.

  “Tell me the worst.” He flipped his notepad to a blank page. “So we can plan.”

  He intended to protect her just like he did with the secrets about her past. But this time, she’d tell only part of the story.

  She’d made her decision about Aaron, and she’d face the consequences alone.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Five Weeks Earlier

  LILA DID NOT SNOOP. SHE DIDN’T GO THROUGH HIS JACKET AND pants pockets. She never listened in when he talked on the cell or when he hung out with a visiting friend. She’d never so much as stumbled over a hidden Christmas present, because she never went to places in the house where someone might hide something.

  That all changed after she found the videos. With the trust shattered, any and all violations of Aaron’s privacy seemed like fair game. If he didn’t like the intrusion, he never should have acted like a piece of shit.

  If he’d kept his bastard tendencies from her, they’d be in the same place, stuck in a revolving cycle where their marriage switched from mundane to tolerable and never reached higher. He’d pushed them into a new cycle.

  But now she had a purpose. There were things about Aaron she needed to know. Her plan to expose who and what he really was depended on her gathering as much intel as possible. He’d lied and cheated his entire life. When slammed against the wall and hanging on the edge of being outed for what he’d done, he’d come out swinging. She needed to lessen his leverage. Take away part of that arcing swing.

  That was the only reason for her being up before six and in a car on an overcast Saturday morning. He mentioned checking out a field. Field hockey session started early in the school year and ended with the state championship in November. He suggested the team had a chance this year, at least at playoffs, but that he needed more information on the opposition.

  In other years, his excitement would have made her smile. Coaching gave him somewhere to go and guaranteed her some alone time. But this year his schedule filled her with dread. Road games. Time after and before school. Coach and player training sessions. Every aspect of the game sounded suspect to her now.

  She rubbed her eyes, sorry she hadn’t managed to drift off to sleep last night. The steady thump of the tires against the road lulled her into a calming sense of exhaustion. The miles passed as she followed Aaron’s car. Him in his SUV. Her in a rental he wouldn’t recognize. She hoped the baseball cap she wore hid her face but decided the slight distance between the vehicles and Aaron’s own ego that reassured him he was getting away with it all would protect her from being found out.

  But where the hell was he going?

  The double yellow line passed by as they drove around Cayuga Lake and kept going north. They drove deeper into the trees and away from residential areas. Cars passed them, and a refrigerated truck separated their vehicles right now, giving her a slight buffer.

  After two hours, her mind wandered to more sinister options for this trip. They skirted Canada and drove north, then east. Through wooded areas and near streams. Objectively picturesque, but knowing what she now knew about his needs, she found the remote area scary and obscene. A place to take someone when you didn’t want to be seen.

  The idea that he could be out here, where no one knew him, scouting other girls, ran through her head. This spot, so far away from where they lived and worked, might provide enough distance for him not to worry about being found out.

  She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost missed him turning off the main highway. He cut to the right, onto a side road that dipped deep into a wooded area. She slowed just on the other side of the entrance then stopped. She could see the top of the sedan as he drove into the distance.

  She looked around for signs in a desperate attempt to spy buildings or something familiar. Frustrated, she checked the map on her phone for landmarks or schools. Nothing pointed to the existence of an athletic field nearby. She saw trees and greenery. Not another car or person, except for the few that passed by on the main road.

  She toyed with the idea of following him down what looked like a quiet two-lane road. The type where it would be impossible for her to hold back far enough to hide the fact she was tailing him.

  He’d see her and know. He’d stop and she’d never figure out why he’d done this drive on this day.

  Concern ran both ways. Part of her feared what she’d see. The reality was she knew enough. She’d plotted the points for this drive as she went. She could lead the police back here. Let them see if there was anything to find.

  She had a murder to plan.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Present Day

  GINNY DREADED MORNING MEETINGS WITH THE BOSS. CHARLES, always “on,” shaking hands. He wore a big smile outside of the office that fell into a flat line every morning when he walked in the door.

  She got it. He had political pressures and community pressures. That damn podcast tying three open cases of missing women together—something the police hadn’t announced publicly—added a crushing weight to all of their backs. The sheriff’s office only tangentially helped on those cases, but the outcry shot a bolt of electricity through the local law enforcement community.

  Locals in charge fought not to lose control. All of that meant Charles was crankier than usual.

  He stared at her over the top of his glasses from his oversize leather desk chair. “You’re telling me we have nothing on Aaron Payne.”

  The file sat in front of him. Closed. That meant he’d read it and got ticked off . . . then ordered her to come in and give a verbal status report instead. He wasn’t paging through, picking apart the pieces. He silently fumed at the lack of anything he wanted to see in terms of progress.

  “If Aaron or Lila were hiding something they didn’t use computers to do it.” As smart people would refrain from doing. Calls from Lila to the boyfriend, yes, but not an extreme amount, and none on the days leading up to the disappearance. Nothing at all during the time Aaron’s car left the house. Her phone appeared to have been at home, on, and not in use.

  Charles shook his head. “It was too much to hope she’d have searches on how to dispose of a body.”

  “Not just a body. A car and a phone, too.” Ginny stood with her hands linked together in front of her. “All missing.”

  “She’s been busy
covering her tracks, or she planned all this out, which is pretty devious shit.”

  “Maybe.” Ginny wanted to jump there, too. Grab that conclusion and run with it, but not one piece of evidence supported that. What they had was circumstantial and supposition.

  “Ginny.” He sighed at her. Something he excelled at. “We both know she’s in this. Add in the boyfriend and it’s looking like Lila wanted a way out.”

  A boyfriend, but no motive. Odd behavior by Lila, but not odd in the sense of giving away what she’d done. She hadn’t sold his clothes or talked about him in the past tense. There was no evidence of blood or a fight. She’d gotten a lawyer immediately, but he was also a friend, and she was one, so even that choice wasn’t suspect.

  “If this is about getting out of a marriage, why take the risk and go after Aaron?” That didn’t make sense to her.

  “Men do it all the time.”

  “Yes, to protect their money and their reputation. They replace the old wife with the younger and newer version. Get rid of the responsibility of kids.” She let her hands drop to her sides. Some of the tension inside her unwound. Charles wasn’t yelling at her this time or demanding more. He sounded as stumped and flailing as she was. “None of that fits here.”

  “That leaves only a few explanations, and none are easy to tackle.” Charles tapped his pen against his calendar desk blotter—the one from three years ago that he’d never bothered to replace. “What about a lie detector test?”

  “Her attorney told me he didn’t allow any of his clients to undergo them. Too suspect.”

  “Convenient.” Charles grumbled something under his breath that sounded more like a string of profanity than an actual sentence. “Pete talked to one teacher here who had trouble with Aaron’s shiny reputation but claimed it was just a feeling.”

  “The woman who owns the agency Lila works at gave the same impression.” That same feeling hit Ginny. Something about Aaron didn’t sit right with her. People had sides and flaws, but so few people recognized or highlighted his. It was unnatural.

  She worked with Pete and could name fifteen flaws without thinking very hard, and she mostly liked him. That was the point. Seeing the full person wasn’t about gossiping. Not always. Sometimes it was about how genuine the person was in revealing who they were. She believed, on that score, Aaron might be as closed off as his difficult-to-read wife.

  Charles hummed. “Maybe he’s not squeaky clean after all.”

  “No one is.”

  “Turn his life inside out, here and in North Carolina, and see if you find anything.” He put down his pen and handed the file back to her. “In the meantime, put pressure on the boyfriend. He’s lying, and water problem or not, the calls between them could mean a conspiracy. Get a warrant. It’s possible whatever incriminates Lila is at his house.”

  Made sense to her. She’d actually suggested the same thing to Charles last night. Less than twenty hours later, it was his idea. What a shock.

  But she stuck to the script and didn’t challenge him. “Done.”

  She got to the door before he spoke again. “There’s one possibility we’re ignoring.”

  “Some sort of random crime?” She hated that option.

  Charles nodded. “He stopped to help the wrong person, or walked in on something.”

  It was the nightmare scenario. The option that seemed impossible to solve because everything was unknown. “At four in the morning?”

  “He was out that early on this one day—only this day—for a reason. Maybe someone called him out.”

  That was the problem. Not being able to explain why Aaron made that choice poked at her. “If it’s a random crime, we’re screwed.”

  “No, because you’re going to solve this while police and FBI, and the whole damn task force, are crawling all over our area looking for Karen Blue. Then we’ll ride that good press.”

  There it was. The pressure passed from him over to her. “And solve the case.”

  His ever-present frown deepened. “Get it done before I have to concede and bring in other jurisdictions for help.”

  And now the launch of the full frontal threat. “Yes, sir.”

  “Because that would piss me off, Ginny.” He stared past her, into the room behind her. The room where the desks were and the team sat. “Might even make me rethink the chain of command around here.”

  “I hear you.” She heard the threat every time he made it.

  “Then move it.”

  LILA OPENED THE door for the first time in days. Hiding behind it, she ushered Christina inside before slamming it shut on the chaos lurking outside.

  She’d ignored the press line out front for as long as possible. The cameras and trucks. The crowd of field hockey parents holding signs and demanding she tell what she’d done to Aaron. If it weren’t for the garage connected to the house, she’d have to run the gauntlet of fury every time she moved. Even with the barrier, they still surrounded her car and banged on the windows when she left the safety perimeter and crossed into the street.

  Christina flipped her sunglasses to the top of her head and glared at Lila. “You don’t need to do this.”

  “You’re trying to run a business, and I’m a distraction.” More of a liability. The brick thrown through the real estate office window last night proved that.

  “People are so disappointing.”

  Lila grabbed the box containing the contents of her desk and gestured for Christina to come into the family room. “Thanks for bringing this over. I’m sorry I missed being there for the search. I just couldn’t.”

  After unloading the box on the kitchen counter, she followed Christina to the couch. Even steamed and frustrated, she presented the perfect outward appearance in her navy-blue pantsuit and bright blue shirt. Everything about her said I’m in charge, so get out of my way, and smart people listened.

  She dropped her oversize leather bag on the floor and crossed her legs. “It’s everything CID didn’t take.”

  “They took stuff?” Lila had been careful about what she left behind. Gum. Pens. Some leads on possible future clients.

  Christina waved off the concern. “Your computer and notepads. Nothing big, as far as I could tell.”

  They fell into a comfortable silence. Lila made tea for both of them. They’d worked together long enough—shared stories about annoying clients and gossiped about other agents in the office—for her to know Christina’s preferences. The quiet company suited Lila.

  She handed a mug to Christina and sat down across from her. “I know all of this is a pain in the ass.”

  Christina shook her head. “Stop.”

  She meant it. Christina never said anything she didn’t mean. She wasn’t the type to placate or ignore nonsense.

  Lila appreciated the concern, but her life and her mess had leeched out and now infected other people’s welfare. “I’m really—”

  “I mean it. Stop.” Christina froze as she stared at Lila over the top of the mug. “Your time away from the office is temporary until the pressure is off.”

  On one level, they both knew this was the end. Her life would never be the same. It would never be easy to be the person who sided with her. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Besides that, this is on Aaron, not you.”

  Not totally true. “People blame me. Some people think he’s dead.”

  “People think a lot of things. None of that nonsense has anything to do with me.”

  Lila wrapped her hands around the mug and let the warmth seep into her skin. “I wish I could say that.”

  “Hey.” Christina focused all of her attention on Lila. “You stay strong. You are one of the smartest women I know. Whatever happened, and what is coming at you, you have it handled.”

  A laugh bubbled out before Lila could stop it. “Is that your subtle way of asking if I did something to him?”

  “We’re not talking about that—or the call in.”

  Everything inside Lila stilled. “What call?”
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  “The one that morning.” Christina cut off her response with a flip of her hand. “I was up working because, as usual, I couldn’t sleep. Someone had signed in from home to Dan’s computer. Since he’s been gone for a few months and since only the two of us knew his sign-in, I figured out it was you and tried to message you.”

  An electronic message meant a trail. Ginny could eventually figure out Christina sent it because she thought Lila was awake, not asleep as she claimed. That kind of back-and-forth chat at four in the morning was the sort of thing that could be traced if they knew to check it, and now they would.

  Silence filled the room as Lila struggled for the right thing to say. Come up with an excuse or deny? She went back and forth, but the bigger issue was Ginny. She needed the right excuse to throw Ginny off once she found the message, and she would.

  “The problem is fixed. I deleted Dan’s computer from the system and erased the backup logs. All anyone looking at the office computer system will see is me being online, working. No attempts to communicate directly with you. No evidence of Dan’s computer being used. Eliminating Dan’s account is easy to explain since he left.”

  Still, it was a potential hole. Lila had to double-check the street cameras that morning, the ones the county generously showed online so people could watch traffic and the weather. Two had been out, and she’d planned her return home from the school based on that but had a contingency if one or more had been fixed. Dialing in to the office meant the traffic check would be on Dan’s computer early that morning and not relate to her at all. Checking her computer or any of the computers actively in use wouldn’t show a thing.

  “Christina . . .” But Lila still wasn’t sure what to say.

  She shook her head. “It’s forgotten.”

  That was a huge burden to ask someone to carry. “Okay, but—”