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Ginny shook her head. “You forget that we searched the house.”
“Your people missed them.” They didn’t know to lookonher or in a safety deposit box she kept in another name.
“More secrets, Lila? You understand that makes you complicit, right?”
Lila leaned back and crossed one leg over the other, trying to trick her nerves into calming down by acting calm. “I don’t know where he is and had nothing to do with his students. We both know you know that.”
“You keep saying you don’t know his whereabouts, but I notice you never say that you didn’t kill him.”
Because she couldn’t. Lying wasn’t a problem for her. It didn’t call up morality issues. She could lie with impunity ifthe situation called for it. But people like Ginny would expect her to feel sorry for making that choice, to do a performative dance of guilt and shame, and Lila felt neither.
“Shouldn’t your focus be on Ms. Yorke right now?” Tobias asked. “Does she know what happened to Aaron?”
“She has guesses. She thinks he went too far with a student this time and a boyfriend or someone defending another one of his students killed him, but there’s no evidence.”
The room fell silent at an unexpected knock. The door opened, and Pete stepped inside but didn’t come closer. He stood with his back against the door. He’d clearly been listening and wanted a closer look.
“The videos. Where are they?” Ginny asked.
“Here.” Lila lifted her bag and pulled out an electronic device about the size of an e-reader.
Ginny looked at the screen as she searched for the “on” button. “They’re on a notepad you carry with you?”
“Where was I supposed to put them?”
“Attitude, really?” Pete asked.
Tobias exhaled. “Tell them where you found the videos.”
“The tablet was tucked into a small space between a beam and the ceiling in the family room.” Now she’d lied. Head-on and big. “I did a full search after your people did.”
“And yet you didn’t report the existence of the videos or suggest we come back and look at the ceiling.” Pete stepped to the table and glanced at the device over Ginny’s shoulder.
“I’m telling you now.”
The device clacked against the table as Ginny put it down without watching the videos or looking at any of the content. “Your story isn’t very convincing.”
“Lila.” Tobias’s voice rang out in the quiet room. “You can tell them the truth.”
She thought back to all she’d told him and the bits of story she’d confided. This was the time to lay the groundwork and ensure the investigation would go deeper than one man. “There’s a reason for my hesitation. I was trying to figure out if this mess with his students was bigger than Aaron.”
“How so?” Pete asked.
“How did Brent not know?” There were other targets, and he might be clean, but something felt off about him to Lila. Call it a mutual mistrust club. “Teens talk. They brag. They get pissed off and want revenge. And, nothing? It doesn’t make sense the gossip didn’t get out.”
“You think Brent and Aaron are in this together? Like it’s some sort of pedophile ring?”
Tobias held up a hand to keep her from answering Pete’s follow-up question. “No one is using that phrase. We don’t know what’s going on. That’s the point.”
“If that’s true, you should have told us and let us investigate.” Ginny moved the tablet to the side.
The condescending tone rang in Lila’s ears. Ginny might be right, but the words, the delivery, hit Lila wrong. “Next time I find out my husband inappropriately touched his students I’ll know the proper reporting etiquette.”
Ginny didn’t back down. “If most people found evidencepointing to a school-wide problem, they’d immediately report it. That would be the most logical choice.”
“You’ve made it pretty clear I’m the lead suspect in Aaron’s disappearance.” The only one, as far as Lila could tell.
“As a result, Lila worried you would see the videos and get the wrong idea,” Tobias added with his usual smooth delivery.
