Delusions With Murder: A Rilynne Evans Mystery (11 page)

“Your face is looking better,” she said, changing the subject.  With his hair combed and out of his face, the marks were much more visible.  They were indeed looking better, though.  The bruises had lightened, and the swelling around the cut had gone down.  She wanted to reach up to move the little bit of hair that was covering it away to get a better look, but decided against it.

Ben’s hand instinctively reached up and brushed the hair back himself.  “Yeah, it’s not looking too bad.  I’ve learned my lesson about getting in fights with those pesky doors, though.  I won’t be making that mistake again,” he chortled.

It felt good to laugh after the day she had had.  Before she knew it, it was nearly midnight.  She cursed under her breath as she glanced at the clock on the wall.  “I think it’s time to call it a night,” she said, draining the last of the beer in her glass.  “It’s going to be a long day tomorrow, and I haven’t really slept much in days.”  She pulled herself up off her stool, and headed towards the door, closely followed by Ben.

“Your building really isn’t the safest place in town right now.  Do you have a friend you can stay with tonight?” Ben asked.  “Or maybe you could call Nicole to stay with you.”

“There’s not really time to make friends when you are hunting down a serial killer.  And Nicole is great and all, but I have a feeling I would not get any sleep at all if I invited her over.  All she wants to talk about is the case or how I need to start dating.  Two things I don’t really want to talk about at this moment.” 

Rilynne tripped over a raise in the sidewalk, and would have fallen on her face had Ben not caught her by her elbow.  She steadied herself quickly, though Ben did not remove his hand.  Rilynne did not mind.  “She’s trying to get you to start dating?” Ben asked curiously.

“Yeah.  It’s funny, though; usually the people who try to get someone to start dating are the people who are in relationships themselves.  Nicole is single,” Rilynne explained.

“Well, as single as Nicole can be,” Ben spouted out quickly.  He seemed slightly taken aback at his own remark, but Rilynne just laughed.  He may not have wanted to say it aloud, but he wasn’t wrong.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s the history with you two?”  Rilynne knew if she had not been drinking, this was not a question she would be asking.  It was one of those questions that are often better not to have answered.

Ben’s free hand brushed against his chin.  “It isn’t anything like that, if that’s what you are thinking.  It is just very complicated, and a story for another day.”

“So, by not being anything like that, you mean you two were never,” she searched for the right word, “involved?”

He laughed quite loudly at her question.  “No!  And we never will be.  It was never like that between us.”

Rilynne didn’t like that she was so pleased with his answer, so she thought best not to respond.  Moments later they reached the front doors to her building. 

“You have got to be kidding me,” Ben said releasing the hold on her arm and stooping down.  “You would think with everything that has happened in your building over the last week that people would not be making it so easy for someone to just slip in.”  As he tugged the door open, he kicked aside the brick that had been preventing the door from shutting.  As she expected, Ben insisted on walking her all the way upstairs.

“I really don’t think you should be staying alone.  Especially since you have been drinking.  Are you sure you don’t want to call Nicole to stay, or maybe one of your other neighbors?” He asked as he walked her into her apartment.

“I’m not calling Nicole.  And I don’t know any of my neighbors well enough to invite them for a sleep over.  If it really worries you so much, feel free to stay,” she offered before she really thought about what she was saying.

Ben’s ears shot red again, as his eyes flicked quickly towards her bedroom door and back.  “I, uh…” he started, but appeared to be unable to continue.

Though watching him stammer was amusing, Rilynne decided to rescue him.  “The couch is actually much more comfortable than it appears.”

He seemed to be really thinking it over before finally agreeing to her suggestion.  She pulled some blankets and a pillow out of the hall closet for him, before retreating to her room to get ready for bed.  After changing into her pajamas, she pulled an old pair of men’s shorts out of the back of her drawer.  She ran her fingers against the smooth material for a moment before finally shutting the drawer and walking back out into the living room.

Ben had taken his dress shirt off, leaving the tight white undershirt on.    He was just finishing laying out the blankets when she walked in.  Rilynne couldn’t help but notice that this shirt showed his muscle tone much more than the shirts he normally wore.  She quickly looked back down to the shorts she was gripping.

“These should fit you,” she said, handing them to Ben.

Ben looked at the shorts for a moment before responding.  “You don’t have a boyfriend who is going to show up in the middle of the night and wonder why I’m wearing his shorts, do you?”  His eyes shifted quickly to her face, but did not meet her own.

How do I respond to that one, she thought to herself, before simply saying, “It’s already the middle of the night.”  She realized this completely avoided his question, and the quizzical look on his face said he realized it, too.  “If anyone breaks in and you need some assistance, you know where to find me,” she added to lighten the tension, before heading back to her room.

Through the slightly ajar door, she could hear the sounds of him tossing and turning for nearly half an hour before they were replaced by gentle snoring.  It did not bother Rilynne, though; on the contrary, she actually seemed more comfortable than she had in a while, and drifted quickly into a deep sleep.

Unlike most nights lately, Rilynne slipped into pleasant dreams, filled with beaches and fluffy puppies.  It was rare she had a dream that was just that, a dream.

She felt completely relaxed when she opened her eyes to the sun flowing through her windows.  She rolled over to check the time, just two minutes before seven.  She had almost made it to her alarm this morning.  After a good stretch, she pulled herself out of bed and walked into the living room.

“It’s almost…” she started as she walked in the room, but stopped when she did not find Ben where she had left him the night before.  The blankets had been folded and stacked neatly on the edge of the couch, next to the shorts she had lent him, but he was nowhere to be seen.

U
nfortunately, the fragment of metal that had been jammed in the stairwell door had not gotten them closer to finding the perpetrator.  The scent dogs had gone back out at first light, and were tracing the river, trying to pick up Hartley’s scent again.  The reports from the tech would still take another couple of hours to come in, which left Rilynne with not much to do.

After her third cup of coffee, she decided it was time to take a little break.  She dropped herself down on the bench just outside the front doors of the station, and took in the day.  Though it was still obnoxiously hot during the days, it was beautiful out.  The sky was again cloudless and a vibrant shade of blue.  The birds were singing and making their way from tree to tree, which were all rich shades of green. 

She had almost forgotten about the pressures waiting for her inside when a familiar voice brought her back to reality.

“So, Ben huh?  Spill,” Nicole sat down next to her, looking positively elated.

“Well hello to you too,” Rilynne quickly changed the subject.  “I haven’t really seen you all week.  Where have you been?  Well, other than falling down hills.”

“Nice try.  I saw a very sharp looking crime scene investigator sneaking out of the building at six thirty this morning.  Now, I know he wasn’t there to see me, so dish.”

Rilynne knew at that point there would be no way to avoid the conversation without making it look as if she was trying to hide something.  This is why she always steered clear of getting in close relationships with women, especially extremely nosy ones.

“There is nothing to tell,” she started, being very careful about what she said.  “We went out for a few drinks last night after work to blow off steam, and he slept on the couch.”

Nicole looked a little perturbed by her answer.  “You mean to tell me you went out and got drunk with, what any woman with eyes would consider a very attractive man, took him back to your place, and he just… slept on the couch.  No, I don’t buy it.”

Rilynne knew Nicole would be able to talk her into a trap if she was not careful, and there were still a lot of things she did not want to share.  “Really.  I handed him some blankets and a pillow, and went to bed.  He had already left by the time I woke up this morning.  Do you think I would really risk my job by breaking the no fraternization rule?  I’m just starting to get settled.  Besides, I have zero time in my life right now for any kind of romantic tryst.”

By the unconvinced look on Nicole’s face, Rilynne knew the conversation was still far from over. 

“So you are saying you have never even thought about it?  Throwing his firm body against the wall, the taste of his lips, or the feel of his hands moving along your body?  Not even for a second?”

Rilynne could feel herself becoming flustered.  “Why, have you?  You have certainly put a lot of thought into it.”  She spun it back around, hoping to shift the conversation.

Nicole looked slightly taken aback by the question, but answered it with a laugh.

“Really?  Not even once,” Rilynne pushed.

“Ben is like a brother to me.  I don’t see him that way at all.  But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.”

“I have far too much on my plate right now to think about anything other than what is waiting for me when I step back into the conference room.  I should actually be heading back up there and get back to work.”

“Oh, that’s right.  I heard the last victim was found in the woods yesterday.  That’s just horrible.  I have been waiting for evidence to show up from the body, but nothing has come in yet.”

“I’m sure Detective Wilcome will have everything sent down before too long.” 

Nicole looked a little annoyed.  She had been pushing to match Ben in the lab, and no doubt felt like she could do so by examining the high priority cases.  “Well, I better get back up,” Rilynne added, trying to relieve the tension.

“I’ll walk up with you,” Nicole said as she stood up and headed towards the door.  “But for the record, I do think you two would be very cute together.  Besides, it’s adorable the way he looks at you.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.  He doesn’t look at me, not even when we’re talking.”  Rilynne tried to throw her comment off, but it wasn’t working well.  Luckily the elevator door was opening to her floor.

“Just because he won’t look at you when you are talking, doesn’t mean he’s not looking when you aren’t,” she replied as Rilynne walked through the doors towards the office.  Try as she might, she couldn’t stop the blood from boiling in her cheeks that time.

“You okay?” Steele asked as he passed her desk.  “Yeah,” she responded as coolly as possible.  “It’s just really hot outside.”

After taking a moment to compose herself, Rilynne went in search of Detective Wilcome.  She found him sitting in the far corner of the conference room, talking on the phone.  He was just hanging up when she started to walk towards him. 

“Anything new?” she was almost afraid to ask after taking in the look on his face.  Rilynne had a feeling if they did not solve this case soon, it might very well be the death of him.

“Hartley is in stable condition, and the doctor is hopeful he will eventually regain consciousness.  The scent dogs are still having trouble picking up his trail, though, which leaves us no closer to finding out where he came from.  The tech said that judging by his clothes, he could have been in the water for some time before crawling back onto land.

“While traveling down the river probably saved his life, it did wash off most of the trace he had on him.  I’m afraid Mr. Hartley is not going to be any help to us before he wakes up.”

Rilynne knew, as did Wilcome, that even if Derek Hartley did regain consciousness, there was a very high chance that he would not remember anything from his time with his abductor.  If that were the case, they would really be no closer to catching him than they were two days before.  “I’m going to go for a run to try to clear my head.  I know there is something right in front of me that I’m missing, but I can’t seem to get to it,” Rilynne said as she turned towards the door.

“Alright, but keep your phone on you incase anything turns up.”  Rilynne glanced back to find that Detective Wilcome’s somber glare had returned to the stack of reports laid out in front of him.

Rilynne turned right out of the door to the station house, and ran until she met the tree line before turning and heading up the path.  She was more concerned with running than paying attention to where she was actually going, and was surprised thirty minutes later when she came upon the lake.  Other than a family picnicking on the other side, she was entirely alone for the first time in days. 

She picked a grassy patch just beneath a large shade tree and stretched herself out.  The sun was peaking through the leaves, and felt warm on her face.  She closed her eyes, and let her mind drift freely.