by Darby Kane
“Tell that to my cracked rib.” Lila put her hand against her side.
“I heard about the injuries.” Broken rib. Dislocated shoulder. Shock. It had all been in the medical report. “You okay?”
“It’s one last gift from the Payne brothers.” Lila stepped back and gestured for Ginny to go first. “Come in.”
The house was so quiet. No podcast or music blaring. Boxes piled everywhere. Garbage bags filled and closed, waiting to go outside or be donated. Ginny wasn’t sure of the contents, so she could only guess.
She waited until Lila stepped into the kitchen to talk again. “Are you worried about being able to sell the house after everything that’s happened? It has quite a history.”
Lila put a used coffee cup in the sink, likely the neighbor’s. She got a clean one out of the cabinet. “I was concerned at first, but apparently there is a thriving market for people who have an unhealthy interest in serial killers.”
“That can’t be true.”
She refilled her mug. “We listed three days ago and Christina has received two offers so far, one from out of town.”
“Damn.”
“My life story is very lucrative, usually for other people.” She held the pot up. “Coffee?”
Ginny nodded then held on to the mug to make pouring easier. “Meaning?”
“You didn’t hear?” She set the pot down and turned to face Ginny again. “Ryan already got a new book deal.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“I’ve been using ‘bastard,’ but your words work, too.” Lila cradled her mug. “A true-crime, forensic I was part of this case personal insights thing. Got a crap ton of money for it.”
Bastard. “Unbelievable.”
“Is it?”
“Maybe not.” He’d seemed nice enough and said the right things. Liked to talk and clearly viewed himself as the most important person in the room . . . yeah, Ginny didn’t get what Lila had seen in him. “I guess you’re not together.”
“No.” Lila leaned back against the refrigerator. “He avoided criminal charges thanks to Jared’s admission about planting the phone and ended up with exactly what he wanted—a front seat to a real crime.”
The industry that had grown up around death had never sat right with Ginny. “That’s bloodless.”
“He insisted it was business and we could continue to sleep together.”
Ginny saluted Lila with her mug. “Nice of him.”
“My taste in men sucks.”
“It really does.” Ginny sat on one of the bar stools. Being there, talking like this, it would be easy to forget they operated on opposite sides of this case. Anyone walking in might see them as two friends gossiping. But that wasn’t why she’d shown up today. She needed Lila to know. “You did okay in the end.”
Lila stared at her over the top of her mug. “How do you figure that?”
“The trust fund.”
“Aaron’s trust went to Jared.”
Ginny thought she saw a small smile come and go on Lila’s mouth. Whatever game they’d been playing clearly was not done. Ginny threw down her last card. “Jared was Aaron’s beneficiary, but no one mentioned that you were always listed as Jared’s only beneficiary. Not Aaron. You.”
“So it appears.”
“Since Aaron died first, his trust went to Jared. As Jared’s beneficiary, you get his estate plus whatever will go to him from Aaron.”
“Yes.” Lila set her mug down on the counter.
“Between the houses and Jared’s other accounts and the trust, we’re talking about ten million dollars.” Pete had wanted to run into Charles’s office and show him after she’d told him the number, walked him through the assets.
Ginny knew better. This fact, even though it provided some pretty juicy motive, wouldn’t matter. The search for more remains continued. Everyone—maybe even her—was fine with letting the case end this way. Pretty, with a bow but no real answers about who’d killed Aaron and why.
“It’s closer to eleven million.”
Ginny felt the emotions in the room shift. An odd sensation wound around them. Not really tension. More like a mutual understanding. “That’s a nice payday.”
Lila winced. “I worked hard for it.”
She sure as hell had and somehow had still come out as the hero. “Convenient how it all worked out in the end. The money, I mean. Not the killings.”
Lila shook her head. “Again, the Payne brothers were anything but convenient.”
“True.”
“What’s your theory?” Lila smiled, and for the first time since they’d met it looked genuine. Warm. “You want to tell me, so say it.”
Almost, but not yet. “Why not turn the brothers in as soon as you found out about them?”
“Maybe I did.” She shrugged. “You don’t know.”
“Let’s pretend you didn’t. Let’s pretend you found out about Aaron and waited.”
“Is your theory that I knew about who both brothers really were and what they were doing but withheld the information from the police so that I could plot their murders, one after the other, in order to maximize the benefit I’d receive?”
The way the scenario rolled off her tongue. She didn’t stammer or laugh. She spelled it out as if it were true . . . and Ginny was pretty sure it was. “It’s a good theory.”
“I’d have to be a psychopath.”
“Or very smart. A person with a law degree who knew how the pieces worked.” But that was only part of it. Stopping there made her sound calculating and most concerned with the money, and Ginny didn’t buy that. “A woman who was done with the sick men in her life and took them out before they could do more damage. And just happened to earn a big payday doing it.”
“Interesting hypothetical.” Lila’s smile grew wider. “I especially like the last part.”
“We both know it’s true.”
Lila played with the mug. Spun it around but didn’t pick it up again. “Have any evidence to prove it?”
“You know I don’t.”
Lila let out a long breath. “Well, if it makes you feel better, I have Tobias working with the student victims to pay out settlements and get them help. They’ll be taken care of once the estate settles.”
Of course she did. Ginny should have seen that coming. The blood money would bother Lila.
“He’s also reached out to the families of Karen, Julie, and Yara about setting up some sort of foundation in their honor.”
Ginny ran a quick calculation in her head. “That doesn’t sound like ten million dollars.”
“About half.” Lila glanced around the now near-empty family room area. “I don’t need big houses and fancy watches, but it will be nice not to worry about how to pay the bills.”
“Any chance you’re going to spend some of your remaining share of the wealth on getting help?”
Lila’s smile fell. “Like a gardener?”
“Ryan might be an ass, but that doesn’t mean his diagnosis of you was all wrong.” Ginny could see Lila’s body shut down. She hadn’t moved, but that shield she threw up whenever anyone dug into emotions or health went up and stayed there. “You don’t have to be a victim.”
“I’m a survivor.”
That’s how she would describe Lila, too. If anyone asked her about this case in the future, she would use that word. “True.”
Some of the tension left Lila’s shoulders. “That’s good enough for me.”
“Okay.” Ginny got off the stool and set her untouched coffee on the counter, closer to Lila. “Then we’re done here.”
“You’re leaving?”
“I came to say goodbye. To let you know that you won. The case as to who really killed Aaron will slowly fade then be closed, but I know the truth. We both do.” Ginny remembered one more detail. “And the information you provided about Jared admitting to setting up Brent? The computer analysts are double-checking to make sure that’s true, but you likely saved him from jail time for something he di
dn’t do.”
Lila studied Ginny for a few seconds. Let her gaze wander over her. “You should be sheriff, not Charles.”
“I’m not a desk job type.”
“You’re a leader. The only one in this case I ever worried about.”
“I’m assuming that’s as close as you’ll ever get to confessing to planning the Payne brothers’ deaths.”
“Hypothetically, yes.”
Then she’d take that. She’d make it be enough. “Goodbye, Lila. I hope wherever you go you find whatever it is you’re looking for.”
“Honestly? I’ve given up on finding anything worth keeping.”
“I hope that’s not true.” She started down the hall, mentally debating if she could tolerate this ending. If she could let that last string about Aaron’s murder sit there without pulling it. And she decided what she’d told Roland days ago was right—she could.
Lila being in prison wouldn’t make anyone safer, and they didn’t have the proof to put her there anyway. A form of justice had been served, just not the type Ginny spent her life fighting for. Vigilante justice just invited more and eventually the innocent would be hurt, but this was one case not a lifetime statement.
She would never grieve for Aaron or Jared Payne. Not one minute. She’d save that energy for their victims. For the survivors who had to figure out how to move on. For the next case.
“Ginny?”
“Yes?”
Lila hesitated for a few seconds before talking. “There’s a place called Fischer’s Farm in Pennsylvania. I think the Payne family killing started long ago, when Aaron and Jared were young, with their father and some very powerful men who looked the other way. Their mother might have been Jared’s first victim, but she wasn’t the family’s first.”
She didn’t think. She knew. Ginny could see it on her face. “Jared told you that?”
“He learned how to kill from an expert.”
More bodies. More death. Possibly more closure for families who deserved it. “You didn’t share this information with the FBI?”
“I’m telling you. Someone needs to be there for those women. I think you’re the right person.” Lila’s head fell to the side. “Consider this my penance.”
“I thought you were innocent.”
“I never said that.” Lila walked back into the kitchen. “But finish it.”
Chapter Sixty-Two
This is Nia Simms and Gone Missing, the true crime podcast that discusses cases—big and small—in your neighborhood and around the country. And, boy, do we have a lot to talk about today. Events have unfolded at lightning speed.
Aaron Payne the serial teen girl abuser. Jared Payne the serial killer. A cabin in the middle of nowhere and a woman who stopped them both. The lines are open and . . .
Okay, I’m told we have a special caller. Folks, her identity has been checked and double-checked. This is Lila Ridgefield.
Lila?
I’ve followed your podcast. Thank you for keeping Karen, Yara, and Julie in the news.
Of course. I need to ask—
I wanted to say one thing first, if that’s okay. You’ve called me a hero, and that’s not true. The credit goes to your listeners who kept the pressure on. To the families of the missing women, who have to figure out how to survive such a horrible loss. To Samantha Yorke, for being so brave and coming forward. She exposed Aaron’s true self and made it possible for other girls to get help.
Okay, let me ask—
And to Ginny Davis, the senior investigator in the Criminal Investigation Division of the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office. She understood this case from the beginning. She knew her theories were right and never gave up. She’s exactly the type of person who should be in charge.
That’s great. Now, Lila . . . Lila? Okay, listeners. It sounds as if we got cut off. I’ll try to get her back on the line.
Lila hung up the phone. She’d covered every base and put the emphasis where it should be. Off the men who’d killed and on the women who’d made a difference.
No more talk about Aaron and Jared. Ever. She could leave town and start over. Erase her name and find a new life. Build something without a husband or father. Because she was in charge.
How long did it take to eliminate a family of monsters? Two months.
She won.
Acknowledgments
FIRST, APOLOGIES TO ITHACA, NEW YORK. YOU ARE STUNNING. I went to college nearby at Syracuse University. When it came time to figure out a setting for this book Ithaca jumped into my mind. The idea of setting something ugly in a place so bucolic appealed to me. But really, the story is from my imagination. It’s me, not you.
The tiny spark of an idea for this book was born during a lunch with my editor, May Chen, at a writing conference. We’d worked together on romantic suspense novels for years. Our usual conversation about our current reads turned into a “what if I wrote something totally different . . .” discussion. So, when I finally figured out what my domestic suspense would look like, she was the first person we called. The only one, actually. Because if I were going to try a new genre, I wanted May and the entire HarperCollins group on my team. I am grateful they wanted that, too.
A huge thank you to my agent, Laura Bradford, for listening to me talk about this book and work through my desire to pivot to try new things. When I need support, you provide it. When I need a kick, you gently deliver. Thank you for both . . . and for selling this book.
I happened to be on a writers’ retreat with friends (read: tax deductible vacation) when I got the book offer. Thank you to Lauren Dane, Shannon Stacey, Jaci Burton, Vivian Arend, Angela James, Megan Hart, and Sarah Wendell for being there, for celebrating with me, and for talking me out of the can I do this? panic. Also, thank you to Jill Shalvis who provides weekly encouragement via text.
Thank you to everyone who has talked about this book, been excited about the book, reviewed it, and bought it. I am grateful and humbled.
And, as always, thanks to James. I couldn’t have this career without you.
About the Author
DARBY KANE is the pseudonym of a former trial attorney and current award-winning romantic suspense author. A native of Pennsylvania, Darby now lives in California and runs from the cold. When she’s not writing, she can be found watching suspense, thrillers, and mysteries. Clearly, her interests are limited.
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Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
PRETTY LITTLE WIFE. Copyright © 2020 by HelenKay Dimon. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Cover photograph © Kiuikson/iStock/Getty Images
FIRST EDITION
Digital Edition DECEMBER 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-301641-5
Version 10212020
ISBN 978-0-06-301640-8 (paperback)
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-308013-3 (international edition)
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