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“For someone who ran through the woods and got punched and hit with something—maybe a piece of wood, though I’mnot sure yet—her body is debris-free. She has broken fingernails and defensive wounds, so she clearly fought back.”
Good for you, Karen.“Did you get anything from those?”
“A speck of human tissue under one nail, which I hope will lead us somewhere. I’ll put a rush on it.”
“Any sign of sexual assault?”
“I can’t rule it out or say it happened, but no bodily fluids.”
In any other case, a defense attorney would be all over the lack of blood and DNA evidence, claiming contamination or some other thing that explained the trace levels pointing to Aaron here. That was the least of her worries right now.
“So you’re saying the evidence suggests someone—and the only ‘someone’ evidence might be from Aaron—stripped her, fought her, chased her through the woods, maybe more than once, beat her, strangled her, killed her, froze her, and then at some point thawed her and placed her on the bed, tied up with the same rope he used to kill her.”
“It’s a lot, I know.”
“But is the series of events right?”
Lori shrugged. “Strange, but I can only tell you what the evidence says. I’m working on the timing for you, but I can’t promise, and I certainly can’t answer the biggest question.”
Ginny was impressed the doctor could narrow it down to only one question. “Which is?”
This time Lori sighed. “If Aaron killed her, then who killed him?”
Chapter Forty-Six
“YOU WANT ME TO BELIEVE THAT MY BROTHER WENT TO Acabin in the middle of nowhere, where a missing woman happened to be, and he got stabbed while someone killed her.” Jared sat up higher in the chair, no longer sprawling and looking half-asleep.
It sounded ridiculous when Jared spelled it out. The connections also stuck out as obvious. “You have the right pieces but maybe not the right order,” Lila said.
“Did he walk in on some horrible scene at the wrong time?” The shock never left Jared’s voice. “And GPS. If Aaron knew about the place, he wouldn’t need that. He had a great memory for directions.”
If the cabin had been down the block or next door or a cabin that belonged to someone he knew, maybe. The distance and the way he set off with that destination in mind after Lila tried to kill him suggested something bigger to her. “If he’d never been to the cabin, how would he have known to go there? And why?”
Jared made a strangled noise. “Maybe he thought he was helping Karen.”
“Oh, please.” The snort escaped her lips before she could stop it.
Both men stared at her, but Jared was the one to voice the confusion. “What?”
The words had come out more dismissive and more flippant than she intended, so she tried to backtrack. Now was not the time for this discussion. She doubted Jared could handle a real talk, heart-to-heart. “Nothing.”
But Jared wouldn’t let it go. He leaned forward in his chair. “Say it.”
Tobias started to stand up. “Maybe we should take a break.”
“Say. It.” Jared made the demand through clenched teeth.
Tobias sat back down. “This is not the time. Trust me on this.”
“Ignore him,” Jared said. “Talk.”
Fine.If he wanted her theories, a walk through the sordid truth, she’d drag him there. “He was screwing his students, Jared. That type of guy doesn’t somehow uncover evidence about a missing woman that every law enforcement agency in the state has been searching for and missed, then without word to anyone run out there to be a hero.”
“What exactly are you saying?”
How could he not get this? “Aaron is not a fucking hero. He’s the villain in this story.”
They’d stepped right into a heated argument. Before this,they’d never raised their voices to each other. They’d listened and supported. Now they sat on the edges of their respective seats and yelled back and forth, not caring about the fallout that would come later.
