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“I took some photos.” Pete took his cell out of his pocket and held it up.
“Any surprises?” Lila had invited them in and basically told Pete to go hunting, so Ginny doubted it.
“All of the husband’s clothes are in the extra bedroom. Looks like he’s been sleeping there.” Pete smiled. “That could mean something.”
Or nothing.“You’re so single.”
“What?” He sounded offended by the comment.
“I love my husband, but when we go on vacation we get a room with two double beds.” She loved the man and had since she saw him walking across the quad at Howard University her freshman year, but he sprawled and snored, and she craved a night or two of quiet.
Pete laughed. “How sexy.”
“A good night’s sleep can be better than sex.”
“That’s the kind of comment that will keep me single.”
Ginny swallowed her smile. “Back to Lila.”
“The house? Not too messy. Not too picked up. The bedrooms looked lived-in but sterile.”
So, just right. Nothing to raise suspicion. “I guess bloodstains would have been too much to ask for.”
Pete stepped away from the car. “You think she did it?”
“We don’t even know what ‘it’ is yet. I basically stopped to do a wellness check on the way back from another incident and now we’re off and running. We need to give Aaron time to wise up and come home.” He hadn’t been missing even twenty-four hours yet, so Pete needed to slow down a bit. “People who cared about him called in—”
“But not his wife.”
“We only have her word he left this morning. If this doesn’t get resolved, we’ll have to verify that.” The open questions would let Ginny poke around, but right now she was waiting for a little time to pass.
Aaron could have a girlfriend on the side or be sick of his life, or it could be nothing. She half expected him to walkthrough the door while they were there. In most cases he would. Despite what televisions suggested, these issues rarely spun up and into actual cases.
The immediate concerned calls and all that talk about howAaron would neverandhe was never even latehad Ginny thinking something was wrong here. The picture everyone painted showed Aaron as a guy who wouldn’t just run, but then it was amazing how often what people thought was going on was very different from what actually was.
“We now know Aaron Payne’s got millions. So, just divorce and go live on a beach with some hot thing if he’s done with his marriage,” Pete said.
If only people who made bad decisions picked common sense instead. “He wouldn’t be the first guy to think divorce would kick his ass. He could have worried that his former lawyer wife would figure out a way to take part of his money or that a judge would stick him with a big alimony payment.”
Pete groaned.
“If this blows up, I’ll need to know everything. Money. History. Family. Why she really left her law practice. Who her friends are. What people in and around the school and this neighborhood think about this couple. Security camera footage. Phone records.”
“I want to take a peek at that trust fund.” Pete shook his head. “That was weird.”
Ginny guessed that was the point. “Notice how she switched the focus off her and onto her brother-in-law.”
“It was subtle.” Pete glanced at his watch. “By this time tomorrow, her husband’s face is going to hit the news. The press will descend on her front lawn. Every inch of her life, every movement, will be dissected.”
Exactly.“Then we’ll see how chilly she really is.”
Chapter Nine
Two Weeks Earlier
THE ALARM SCREAMED THROUGH THE QUIET HOUSE FOR THEsecond time that night. The first came around two. Now, barely an hour later, it wailed again.
Lila heard footsteps and swearing. Lights flicked on as the house scrambled to life.
