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Brent took a deep inhale as his gaze wandered over the neighbors’ houses. It took a few seconds before it landed on her again. “The investigator isn’t going to let this go. You know this is just the beginning, right?”
He still viewed her as the only suspect. Probably not a surprise, but not comfortable for her either. He could work on the press and on Ginny. On Jared. “I should hope not.”
“I want to believe you didn’t do something...”
She looked at him, really looked. The dark circles under his eyes spoke to his exhaustion. He came off as deflated. The steam he’d built up on the way here had all but disappeared. Under it all she looked for something more. Brent had a reason to go to the school early each day. He was the principal. He had access to the grounds and the parking lot by the field. And he would have saved Aaron.
He’d been pushing her, and she wanted to shove back. “I’d think I’d earned your trust by now. The things I know about your marriage... I’ve never shared them. All those times when you hid out at our house, or spent the weekend with Aaron instead of with the kids, as promised.”
He stood up straight again. “Are you threatening me with something?”
“I’m trying to make a point.” One conversation kept spinning in her mind. She and Aaron agreed on how he should handle a certain uncomfortable request Brent had made, butBrent didn’t know that. “If the investigators are going to look at people with motive, they might talk to you.”
His mouth dropped open. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You asked Aaron for a loan. He said no.”
The last of that fiery anger vanished. His skin took on a chalky white hue.
“Why do you think we fought?” It wasn’t true, but all she needed was for him to think it was. To get him twitchy and panicked. To make him mess up.
“I don’t believe you.”
She had his attention now. “Ginny will.”
Chapter Thirty-One
THE LONGEST DAY OF LILA’S LIFE GOT LONGER WHEN SHEpulled up to her house a few hours later after a drive to calm down. She saw the message. White paint splashed across the brown garage door in a scrawl.
WHERE IS HE?
MURDERER
STUPID BITCH
The words crisscrossed one another. Looked like two different sets of handwriting. Not that she was an expert on such things.
Cassie stood in front of the doors with her hands on her hips. Seeing her there smashed through the last of Lila’s energy. She didn’t have the strength to argue with one more person today about how much she sucked.
She really needed Cassie to shove her nose into someone else’s life and leave her alone.
A mental debate started as she turned off the engine andsat there. She could unload on her busybody neighbor and possibly end the unscheduled visits for good. The idea of walking right past her, ignoring her, sounded even better.
When Cassie turned around and waved, Lila didn’t wave back. But then she saw the bucket in Cassie’s hand and noticed how some of the words looked faded. Her mind refused to take in the visuals and come up with a reasonable explanation.
Forcing her legs to move, she got out and walked toward Cassie. Each step brought her closer to reality. The bucket with soapy water. A scrub brush in Cassie’s hand. A can of what looked like unopened paint.
Tobias was out talking with local defense attorneys, trying to get a sense of how Ginny operated and what they were looking at going forward. He’d teamed up with one, in case the worst thing happened and Ginny arrested her without a body or evidence.
That left Lila and Cassie. Here, with the hate-filled graffiti.
“What are you doing?” Lila heard the confusion in her voice.
“Cleaning up.”
“Why?” Because it’s not as if she’d been all that nice to Cassie. She’d ignored half of what she said. Made excuses not to spend time with her.
Cassie pointed at the doors. “This is not okay.”
