Free Tempting Evil by Allison Brennan Page A

together.”
    “You know a lot about the family.”
    “I did. Until my mom died two years ago she kept in contact with Ginger’s mother.”
    “Do you know if Ginger’s mother is still alive? Do you have an address?”
    “I don’t think so. The Christmas card I sent last year was returned. She was the same age as my mom, eighty-three. Maybe she went to a home. My mom thought she had Alzheimer’s, but Ginger’s mom hated going to the doctor.”
    “Do you know where Ginger Doherty is now?”
    Annie shook her head. “I heard from friends that when Aaron was a sophomore in high school—frankly, it was amazing he didn’t flunk out of school what with Ginger moving him every couple of months—she left him with her great-aunt in Los Angeles. Glendale, I believe. She was supposed to come back for him in two months—she told everyone she had a job on a cruise ship—but she never returned. Not surprising. She never showed up when she promised she would his entire life.”
    “You never knew what happened to her?”
    Annie shook her head slowly. “I thought she’d either just forgot about him completely, or hooked up with some other guy who didn’t want kids. I had Aaron for eight months while she shacked up with a sugar daddy in Florida. The bastard didn’t like kids, so she never told him about Aaron. Aaron was seven then, and that was the only stable year of his entire life. Then you know what she did? She showed up one morning
two weeks
before the end of the school year and just took him. The relationship didn’t work out and she wanted to spend time with Aaron. Then I heard from my mom that she left him with her mother not a week later.” Annie’s voice cracked. Every time she thought about Aaron or Ginger she became upset.
    “So you can see why the judge was wrong to give that poor boy the death penalty. I never doubted he did what they said he did—there was evidence, I know—but I wish the system could see that he was just a wounded little boy.”
    Agent Peterson was taking notes, his face solemn and nonjudgmental. Annie liked him.
    “And you never heard from Aaron after his mother took him when he was thirteen?”
    “Well, I visited him in prison after his arrest for killing poor Rebecca Oliver.” She sighed. “I ache over that. If only I’d had the money to fight Ginger for custody. But—it wasn’t just money, I suppose. What claim did I have to him? Why didn’t the schools do something? His grandparents? His father?”
    “Do you know Joanna Sutton?”
    “The romance writer?” Annie glanced down again. “He asked me if I would bring him her books. He’d read one in the prison library and wanted more. They were wonderful family romances. I thought he could learn what love was really about, that his mother wasn’t typical and, in fact, was abnormal.”
    “Did you know that Aaron was writing her letters?”
    “I—” She swallowed uneasily.
    “Did you send letters for him? Receive letters?”
    “Am I in trouble?”
    “No, ma’am.”
    Annie bit her bottom lip and played with her coffee cup. “I know I broke the rules—but just that one time. When he asked me to send a second letter, I read it first and never mailed it. I realized what he was doing.”
    “And what was that?”
    “He was turning her into another Rebecca Oliver. He had this idea that the actress was in love with him. He wrote me letters, at least twice a month, telling me about their dates, what she said to him, how much he loved her. I had no idea it was all in his head. And then he started writing that he and Joanna Sutton were pen pals, that she was helping him write a book, and the prison gave them special permission to be together.
    “I didn’t believe it, not after reading the second letter he asked me to send, but I didn’t want to hurt him so I played along with his fantasy. I mean, he was in prison. Who could he hurt? Why are you asking me about her? He didn’t—oh my God, he didn’t hurt her since the