Deception with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Two) (13 page)

After dropping the wrapper for her sandwich in the trash, Rilynne sifted through the information Matthews had found on the Peterson brothers. “How long is it going to take before a tail can be put on the Peterson brothers?”

“I spoke with Shane’s sergeant, and he said that they should be able to get it set up within the hour,” he replied.

“Good,” she said, examining the pages. “We need to find out as much as we can about them, and see if we can find out who they’ve been working with. Do they have any family, other than the one brother?”

Matthews dropped the rest of his lunch in the trash and reached for his keyboard. “No,” he answered a few minutes later. “Both parents are deceased, and it doesn’t look like they have any other family in the area.”

“Did they grow up here?” she asked.

“Yes. They were both born here, and it looks like they stayed until at least after high school.”

“Maybe someone they went to school with will be able to tell us something about them,” she thought aloud. “Or perhaps a teacher. It has only been what, three years since the younger of the two graduated. It could be worth looking into.”

Matthews stood up. “I know the principle there. She should be able to tell us if they were particularly close with any of the staff. Skinner,” he called out across the room. “Can you and Jerkins look into the finances of these two men? See if they have any property other than the house, as well as any unusual purchases they’ve made that would be considered beyond their means.”

*

Addison Valley High School was located in the center of town. Despite having ventured to most parts of Addison Valley, this was the first time that she had seen the school. It was large, looking more like a small university than the high schools she was used to seeing.

“There was a fire three years ago, and the entire school had to be rebuilt,” Matthews said after she let out an involuntary ‘wow’. “Luckily it happened over the summer when the school was for the most part empty. Some kids thought it would be fun to sneak in, and someone left some candles burning in the auditorium. After the curtain caught fire, it spread pretty fast from there. By the time the kids got out and called for help, nearly half of the building was ablaze.”

The principle, Linsy Carnes, was waiting for them when they walked into the office. “Todd, it’s so great to see you. It’s been far too long,” she said as she embraced him warmly. “How’s Katy doing?”

“She’s great,” he said. “She was just saying the other day that we should have you and Ryan over for dinner. I read in the paper that he was named Chief of Surgery. That’s fantastic.”

She smiled brightly. “I couldn’t be prouder of him,” she said. “Though it does keep him at work a bit more.”

“I can imagine,” he replied. “Linsy, this my partner, Rilynne Evans. Linsy and I went to college together.” He said as he turned to Rilynne.

“Very nice to meet you,” Linsy said as she reached out for Rilynne’s hand. “What is it I can help the two of you with today?” She led them through the door at the back of the room, into a cozy little office. “Please, have a seat,” she said as she closed the door behind them.

“We were hoping that you might be able to give us a little information about a couple of students that were here a few years back,” Matthews explained as she rounded the desk and took her seat. “Stephen and Jerry Peterson.”

“Ah,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “The Peterson brothers. Both brilliant, but they preferred to use their intelligence for the dark side. They’re still a bit of a legend around here.”

“Do you have anyone on the staff who was particularly close to them, or would be able to give us some good insight into them?” Rilynne asked.

She rolled her chair over to a row of large filing cabinets lining the wall. “Let’s see,” she said as she pulled two thick files out of a drawer. “The eldest, Stephen, was highly skilled in math. He had completed every math class that we offer by the time he finished his sophomore year. After that he took on the roll of a teacher’s aide to our calculus teacher. She’ll have a free period in an hour, and you can speak with her.” She handed his file to Rilynne to flip through.

The discipline portion took up nearly three quarters of it. He seemed to have pushed himself to come up with more elaborate pranks and stunts as the years went on. He had even gone so far as to mix a chemical into the school swimming pool right before a swim meet, which turned the members of both teams blue. It had taken over a week for the swimmers to get back to normal.

“Jerry was always stronger in science. Although we could never prove it was him, his science knowledge would have contributed to this one,” she said as she pointed to the report in Rilynne’s hand. “They were always just clever enough to make sure they could not be tied to anything, but everyone always knew who was responsible. As for staff members, Jerry wasn’t particularly close with anyone. Do you mind me asking why you’re looking into them?”

“Their names have popped up in a case we have been working,” Matthews explained. “We’re trying to find anyone who can give us some insight to the type of men that they are.”

Linsy sighed and leaned back. “Off the record, I wouldn’t put it past them to get into some trouble with the law. They always had a bit of a superiority complex,” she stated. “They felt that their higher intelligence made them smarter than everyone, and because of that, they could get away with anything.”

Rilynne couldn’t help but feel more hopeful the more they learned about the Peterson brothers. Between their high intelligence and the history of being able to keep their names clean, they were starting to look more and more like the men who were leading the crime ring.

She continued to read through the files while Linsy and Matthews caught up. Before long, a bell rang echoed through the building.

“I’ll take you to Liz Fagan’s room,” Linsy said as she walked them through the door. “Hopefully she’ll be able to give you all of the information that you need.”

They found Liz Fagan grading papers at her desk.

“Liz, this is Detectives Matthews and Evans,” Linsy introduced them. “They were looking for some information about Stephen Peterson.”

“I can’t say that I haven’t been expecting this visit,” she said as she moved the papers into a drawer.

Matthews leaned against one of the empty desks, looking taken aback by her bluntness. “What makes you say that?”

“Stephen Peterson is the brightest student that I have ever had,” she explained. “On the other hand, he has no remorse. He enjoyed watching the affects that his pranks had on others, no matter the pain it caused them. He prized himself on always being one step above everyone else. I knew that it was only a matter of time before he moved past pranks and began breaking the law.”

“Is there anyone that he was close to in school?” Rilynne asked. “Any friends that he might still be in communication with?”

“Stephen didn’t have friends. He had people who admired him and followers,” she replied. “He surrounded himself with people who would take the blame for things he did without a second thought.”

Matthews pushed himself up and offered Liz his hand. “Thank you for your time. If you think of anything else, please give us a call.”

*

“I have a good feeling about this,” Matthews said as he pulled the car back out onto the road. “From everything we learned, it sounds like the Peterson boys are the ones we have been looking for.”

Rilynne could see the optimism sweeping over him. He seemed more at ease than he had been since the case started as he weaved lightheartedly through traffic on the way back to the station.

Detective Jerkins met them as they walked back into the homicide office.

“We found four warehouses that have been purchased under the Peterson brother’s mother’s name,” he said. “However, they were all acquired after she died. We compared their locations with the list that Tylers and Steele pulled together, and one of the four was a match for the trace that was found on Villarreal. We sent some plain clothes officers out to have a look around.”

“Good,” Rilynne said. “Has the tail been set up on them yet?”

“They have a team sitting on the house right now, but they haven’t gotten eyes on them yet.”

“Was there anything in their finances that could be used to locate them if they cannot be found at home?” Matthews asked.

Jerkins shook his head. “It looks like they were making the majority of their purchases in cash. The only things other than a few small items here and there that they charged were their utility bills. It appears that they have been covering their tracks.”

“Okay,” Matthews said as he dropped down at his desk. “I’ll call and have teams go out to look at their other warehouses, also. We need to get eyes on them before they make their next move or it could be weeks before we have another chance.”

“So how did it not come up earlier that James Peterson has brothers who could have been involved?” Rilynne asked after Jerkins walked back to his own desk.

“They have the same father, but didn’t grow up together. James Peterson didn’t move here until shortly before the robberies started,” he explained. “I didn’t even make the connection until I started to run checks on his parents. The father was killed in a car accident five years ago, so no one would have looked into him.”

Rilynne opened her mouth to ask another question when his phone rang. “This is Matthews,” he said. She sat back and waited for him to finish the call, trying to make out what the voice on the other line was saying. “Get a sample back to the lab.”

He seemed to be smiling as he sat the phone down on his desk. “They found an American Smoketree just outside the back door of the warehouse that has a small chunk taken out of the trunk that looks fairly recent. They’re collecting a sample to have it tested against the one pulled off of Shane. They also said that there was quite a bit of black dust around it. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that we have found where the meeting took place the day Shane was killed.”

Rilynne could see the excitement in his eyes as he started flipping through his files.

Linsy Carnes had given them a list of any student who had been friendly with the Peterson brothers in high school. Matthews and Rilynne split the list and began tracking down everyone on it in hopes that someone could be involved with the robberies.

It was almost nine when Rilynne reached the end of her list. Out of the twenty-two names on it, only four people were still in Addison Valley. Three of them had lived blue-collar lives after leaving high school, and although the last one had several run ins with the law, he had spent the last year in prison, being release only two weeks before.

“Okay,” Rilynne said as she grabbed her purse. “I’m going to call it a night. Let me know if anything comes up.”

After stopping by the locker room to grab her jogging clothes, Rilynne walked out of the station and headed toward the bar at the end of the block. Despite being under new ownership and the name changed to ‘Travis Bar’, it was still the local hangout for the members of the police department. After greeting several of her fellow detectives, she took her favorite seat at the end of the bar.

“Why am I not surprised to see you here?” Ben joked as he dropped down into the seat next to her a few moments later.

She was trying to form a clever response when she looked over at him and quickly forgot what she was thinking. “What happened to you?” Rilynne reached up and brushed her thumb gently across his busted lip. Despite the obvious pain that he felt by her touch, he smiled down at her. He seemed to take pleasure in her worried expression.

“It’s okay,” he said, still grinning. “Unlike all of the other ones I have gotten since you walked into my life, this one was for sport.”

“How was it for sport?” she asked. “And it’s not like I caused…” she trailed off. “Okay, so maybe I did. But they were all unintentional.”

She had in fact been the cause of three separate incidences resulting in Ben being injured since moving to town, a fact that left her both flattered and distressed.

“You remember that bar fight a couple months ago?” he asked after ordering a beer.

“How could I not?” Two large men had cornered Rilynne at that very bar before Ben stepped in and dropped both of them with almost no effort. One man had been knocked out cold from just one punch, and the other had been brought down to his knees before the other officers in the bar could even get across the room. The only thing that Ben had walked away with was a bruise lining his jaw after one of the men threw the first punch.