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He nodded. “My real estate agent.”
They’d uncovered that piece of information as well. For Ginny, a deeper dive was in order. “Her husband is missing.”
His eyes widened. “Missing?”
That look... Ginny wasn’t convinced he sold it. “The disappearance has been all over the news.”
“I must have missed it.”
“He failed to show up to work five days ago. No one has seen him since.” Pete studied the books on the shelves next to him. He stopped scanning long enough to stare at Ryan. “It’s unclear if he’s taken an unexpected trip, if something happened to him on the way to work, or...”
Ryan shrugged. “Or what?”
Pete shrugged right back. “We’re not sure.”
“Okay, but what does this have to do with me?” Ryan shifted to the front of his chair with his fingers linked and hands resting on the desk.
Ginny looked for signs of fidgeting or discomfort but couldn’t pick up anything. Ryan handled the conversation in the dispassionate way someone might if they only knew their real estate agent as their real estate agent.
She wasn’t convinced. “How did you pick Lila?”
“She was recommended by another professor.”
“Are the two of you close?” Pete asked.
He frowned. “She sold me a house. One of the new builds on Crescent Way.”
“That’s it?” Pete asked.
“I’ve never met her husband.”
The words fell with a plunk. He offered them fast, and it wasn’t the expected response to anything he’d been asked. To keep him talking, and potentially trip him up again, Ginny shifted to information she knew and didn’t care much about. “When did you buy the house?”
“About four months ago. We had a quick closing because the sellers needed to get into a new school district before the year started.” He rubbed his hands together. “We looked for houses on and off for a few months prior to that.”
“You started working together about seven months ago, according to the brokerage files.” The start date wasn’t Ginny’s main concern, though it did give them a timeline to trace back and see how, and if, Aaron and Lila’s marriage changed since then.
“The timing fits. That’s probably right.”
Pete made a strangled sound. “It took you that long to find a house?”
“Is that a lot of time?” Ryan’s gaze switched from Pete to Ginny. “I didn’t want to jump on the first one. I only plan to move once, so I wanted to get it right.”
She didn’t answer.
Pete made another noise but didn’t actually say anything.
“The home office mattered to me,” Ryan continued. “The whole mix of right size, right price, and office tripped us up for some time. She kept looking, and I kept calling.”
Ginny swallowed a smile. Silence and a lack of reaction almost always got people to continue talking. They chattered away to fill the quiet, convinced the silence was more damning. That assumption was almost always wrong.
Ryan leaned in closer. “I still don’t get why you’re here. Lila must have a lot of clients—”
“The two of you met for coffee.” Not news by itself, but there was more.
Ryan hesitated before responding. “Sure. To go over listings.”
“And you met for lunch,” Pete added. “Several times.”
