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Ginny stepped out of the office and put her hand on the chair at the nearby desk. “Does Lila sit here?”
“Usually. She mostly uses the conference room for signings, but she reviews listings there.”
Pete walked around to the far side of the desk. Using the end of a pen, he moved a file and uncovered a pile underneath... and one more important thing. “Is this laptop hers?”
“Wait a second.” Christina came out of her seat and followed them into the outer office. She motioned for the man in the office to step outside before continuing. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t dig around there. That computer belongs to the office.”
They were waiting on the phone records to come in. Ginny wanted to move on a search of Lila and Aaron’s home, including grabbing the computers for analysis. She didn’t want to miss one. “Is this the computer she works on while doing business?”
Christina shook her head. “It’s an office laptop. She uses it sometimes. As do other people.”
“Does she ever take it home with her?” Pete asked.
Christina didn’t break eye contact with Ginny. “She’s an independent contractor. I don’t watch every move she makes.”
Pete touched the closed computer. “Then we can take it with us.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Ms. Torres, it feels like you’re fighting us when all we’retrying to do is figure out if Aaron is missing or if he chose to leave.”
Christina opened her mouth then shut it again. She shifted her weight from one foot to another. Ginny could almost see the battle waging in her head. How much to say? What to disclose? She got it, but she needed help, and right now Christina was one of the people with easy access to Lila, and almost no one else enjoyed that.
After all the fidgeting, Christina shook her head. “I don’t want you to twist anything I say and use it against Lila.”
Friendship. Admiration. Maybe a mix of both. Whatever the feeling, it snuck in and got in the way. “What do you have to say?”
“Nothing.”
Each question took them further away from an answer. Christina could have a natural distrust of people asking questions, but Ginny couldn’t tell if that’s what was ticking off the alarm ringing in her head. “Let me try this again. Do youknowwhere she went?”
“No.”
“Would you say if you did?” Pete asked.
Christina’s eyes narrowed and her body stilled as she clicked right back into defensive mode. “Are we done here?”
Sensing they’d need to get answers elsewhere, Ginny offered her card and the usual spiel about calling if Christina saw Lila. A quick goodbye and she retreated with Pete to the street.
She abandoned her planned lecture, the one where shequestioned Pete’s bedside manner, when she saw his confused expression. “What is it?”
“I interviewed people at the school today and a few neighbors. Christina is the first person who seems to like Lila more than Aaron. The school people were pretty lukewarm on her. Everyone talked about how she dressed and how put together she was. Nothing personal.”
“I don’t think we can draw any conclusions from that. Could just be that they see him more.” Made sense to Ginny. “Christina and Lila have the connection. Aaron is thespouse ofand probably not much more.”
“Possibly. I wonder if Christina knows what Lila’s real name is and why she changed it.” Pete glanced at the people going in and out of the downtown coffeehouse before looking at Ginny again.
“She’s not the right person to ask, but I agree that Lila’s behavior continues to be odd.” Ginny couldn’t use the word “suspicious” because Pete would leap on it.
“With her husband missing, you’d think she’d be on top of us. She’s not checking in or asking about Aaron.”
Ginny had an easy answer for that one. “She wouldn’t be waiting around and worried if she knew he wasn’t alive anymore.”
Pete shot her a wide grin. “Now who’s jumping to conclusions?”
“Just stating the obvious.”
Chapter Fifteen
