Wanted with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Five) (11 page)

“They couldn’t have known for sure,” he said in a reassuring tone. “I imagine Wilcome is just covering his bases. He wouldn’t want it to come out that you were hiding out in the woods and he didn’t make an effort to find you. With no confirmation that we are actually on the way to Wisconsin, he had to do something.”

“Well, if they didn’t know before, they do now,” she stated. “I can only imagine what they’re thinking now that they found a trail of blood leading toward the river.”

Ben chuckled and shook his head. If he was feeling even half as nervous as she was, it wasn’t showing.

“What are we supposed to do now?” she asked. “We could actually leave, but chances are they would have set up a road block as soon as they realized I’m still here.”

He shook his head and stood up. “We don’t need to do that,” he said as he held his hand down to help her up. “No one will look for us here. We just can’t risk leaving unless it’s necessary. We have enough food to get us through the next few days. After that, we’ll figure something else out. Hopefully you will have the case completely solved and wrapped up in a neat little bow for the department by then.”

“Well aren’t you the optimist,” she said.

His head bobbed animatedly as he pulled the case files out of the pack. “Always. Now let’s get this figured out.” He looked around for a moment before pulling open one of the doors off the living room. There was only a small window in the eight-foot room, so Rilynne assumed it was to be a large storage closet of some kind.

“Here,” he said, handing her the files as he pulled out a box of thumbtacks.

“You’re going to tack things into their newly installed walls?” she asked, genuinely shocked.

He shook his head. “No, we are,” he said, holding the box out for her. “Besides, the walls haven’t even been textured yet. While I’m sure they will be annoyed, it won’t be an inconvenience in any way.”

She looked at him skeptically before flipping the file open. “All right, so let’s start with what we know.”

“This guy,” Ben said, grabbing the picture of Marshal Teich and tacking it to the wall. “If I had to guess, I don’t think he has anything to do with why you were set up. He’s just the instrument used.”

“You don’t think that someone might have wanted him dead and used me to keep the investigation away from them?” She already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear his prospective.

“No,” he said after a few seconds thinking it over. “Not with the extremes that were taken. It would have been one thing to just have someone come forward as a witness, but this is different. Your house was broken into and your safe cracked with no evidence left behind. It doesn’t sound like a spur of the moment kind of thing. If I had to guess, I would say your gun was taken prior to your altercation with Teich, and whoever was setting you up just waited for a good victim to appear. If it hadn’t been Teich, it would have been someone else.”

Rilynne felt a sudden relief by the notion that it had been Teich instead of an innocent victim. The thought filled her with guilt, though, and she quickly pushed it out of her mind.

“His apartment does tell us a few things, though,” she said, tacking the photos from the scene next to the one Ben had put up. “We know there was one shooter. Do you have any paper?” Ben darted out of the room and returned moments later with a small notebook and the carpenter’s pencil that had been on the floor of the kitchen. He drew a large question mark and tacked it to the middle of the wall. “Did Summers ever determine the height of the shooter based on the spatter patterns?”

Judging by the look on his face, he had.

“Let me guess,” she said dryly. “The shooter was my size?”

“Well, he wasn’t able to give an exact height, but he estimated between 5’3” and 5’6”.”

She let out a sigh and pulled the notebook out of his hand. “So either a woman or a short man. We also know he or she is very adept at picking both locks and breaking into safes.”

“So what you are saying is you and I were in on it together,” he joked.

She chuckled, but stopped abruptly. “You can break into safes?”

Ben grinned and turned back to the wall. “You don’t know everything about me.”

“Apparently not,” she stated.

“Well,” he said, turning his attention back to the case. “We know Teich was killed between ten and midnight. Is it possible anyone could have seen you? Maybe that neighbor of yours?”

She could hear the annoyance in his voice, but didn’t acknowledge it. “No, I’m pretty sure he was out with Lori. She mentioned something that day about having a sitter staying at her place to watch both kids.”

“The one night he decided to do something other than walking around his yard half naked,” he said, shaking his head. Rilynne just grinned. “Did you happen to go out for one of those midnight runs that you like to take? You know, the ones you think I don’t know about.”

She was taken aback by his statement. Rilynne went for a run in the middle of the night at least once a week, and she really didn’t think he knew about them. “Wait, how did you know about those?” He answered with a raised eyebrow. “I’ve never said I
didn’t
go for late night runs,” she explained. “I just knew you would worry if I told you about them, and I already do enough stuff for you to worry about. Take my newly stitched leg, for instance.”

He seemed amused by her attempt to distract him. “Well, did you go for a run?” he asked with a chuckle.

“No,” she replied. “I really did just take a bath and climb into bed early. There was that knock on my door just after eleven, though.”

“Do you know who it could have been?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I really wish now that I had gotten up to answer it. It could have prevented all of this.”

“Wait,” he said, digging through the file. “I saw a note on the back of one of these pages from Matthews. Ah, here it is,” he said, holding up the back of one of the pages for her to see. Rilynne took it from him and found a hand written note.

“I didn’t see this,” she mumbled before reading over it. “The guy who lives across the street from me said he saw a man knocking on my door sometime between eleven and eleven-thirty. He didn’t get a good look at him, but saw him walk back down the street when I didn’t answer.”

“Well, that’s good, isn’t it? That shows that you were actually there at eleven,” he said.

Rilynne shook her head. “It doesn’t prove anything. They will try to say that either I sent someone to my house to knock, which would never actually hold up as a valid argument in court, or they’ll say I could have committed the murder either before or after the man knocked. There was a two hour window, and it was only about ten minutes from my house. The only thing we can do is add it to the list of reasonable doubt.”

He looked disappointed. He seemed to zone out, but she knew exactly what was going through his mind.

“What are we going to do if we can’t solve this?” she asked. He turned toward her, but he didn’t seem to have an answer. “It’s not like we can run forever. We only have a few more days before our story about getting away for a while becomes unbelievable. After that, we’ll be looking at charges even if we manage to get the murder case dropped.”

He didn’t appear at all surprised by her statement. It was obviously something he had given thought to as well. “I’m with you, no matter what you choose to do. If you want to turn yourself in, I’ll be by your side until the investigation clears you. If your decision is to run, then we’ll run. We could find some nice little island somewhere and start over. I’ve always wanted to live in a giant tree house.”

Although he had a joking tone, the look on his face told her he was completely serious. He shifted his gaze between her eyes before turning back to the wall. She tried to find words to express how she was feeling, but she couldn’t.

“Let’s just hope it doesn’t get that far, though,” he added. “It would be really hard to take my fish wish us, and I happen to be very fond of them.”

Rilynne laughed aloud and rolled her eyes. Though she wanted to continue the conversation, she decided to save it for another day.

“Even with a warrant out for you, the guys aren’t going to stop looking into your past cases and the list we gave Matthews, looking for anyone who might be behind this,” Ben said confidently. “Is there anywhere else we could start looking for someone?”

It was the same question Rilynne had been asking herself for days. While she had angered many people, she found it hard to believe that anyone who would commit murder just to get back at her.

When she didn’t respond, Ben started throwing out his own suggestions. “What about Sarah?” he asked.

She had actually considered the idea herself, but knew it was an unlikely possibility. “She’s still serving time for her role in everything that happened. While she undoubtedly blames me for Christopher’s death, I don’t think she would do anything that would keep her from her baby. She’s already missing six months. Besides, I doubt she could orchestrate such a perfect crime.”

“Nothing’s perfect,” he said abruptly. “We just need to find the right string to pull that will unravel the entire thing.”

Rilynne knew he was right. “You finish this. I’m going to go out for a little fresh air.” She half expected him to argue, but he didn’t. Instead, he just nodded and kissed her quickly on the cheek before turning back to the wall.

Her leg was aching as she walked out the back door. After adjusting her shorts carefully over the bandage to make sure it wouldn’t rub, she started walking through the large yard. She tried to picture how it would look when it was finished. Without any hint as to what would be put up on the exterior walls, it was too hard.

She circled around the entire house before sitting down on a slab just outside of what she assumed was the master bedroom.

The sun was starting to sink below the trees, leaving the sky a brilliant mix of pink and purple. She took in a deep breath of the warm air and closed her eyes.

Rilynne concentrated as hard as she could on everything she had learned so far. She pictured Teich’s face and the details as she knew they had played out. A slamming sound echoed toward her, causing her to jump. For a split second, she thought Ben had stepped out the backdoor. Before she could open her eyes, a scene started playing out in front of her.

She had been waiting behind the door when Teich walked in. She could feel the surprise by the appearance of the other man, but it didn’t change anything. With the gun firmly in both hands, she kicked out with her right foot and slammed the door shut.

Teich jumped as he turned toward her. He was yelling, though she couldn’t make out anything being said. The anger on his face was quickly replaced by fear as his focus shifted to the gun that was now pointed at his head.

He looked toward the door, but before he could try to reach it, she pulled the trigger.

Bang. Bang.

Baker must have been in shock, because he didn’t move as he watched his friend crumble to the ground, blood flowing from both his face and chest. He was still looking at the blood that had splattered across his shirt when she squeezed the trigger again.

Bang.

Rilynne opened her eyes. While she now knew exactly what had happened that night, it didn’t tell her anything that could be useful. She closed her eyes again, thinking this time of herself and trying to concentrate on a single feeling: hate.

She sat with her eyes closed for over five minutes before giving up. Too much had happened during the day. She knew with as tired as she was, it would be nearly impossible for her to see anything other than facts she already knew.

With a resigned sigh, she pushed herself up and walked back into the house.

When she walked back into the closet, she was stunned by what she had found. The entire back wall had been covered with pictures and papers from the file, along with notes Ben had added. The wall itself wasn’t what turned her stomach, though. It was the striking resemblance the room now had to the one she had seen in her vision. Her heart suddenly ached. The obsession she had felt during the vision had been overwhelming. Was that what Ben’s future held?

“Did the fresh air help?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder. With the sun sinking down, he had brought the lantern into the room. Its glow left the room with almost an eerie feeling.

“No,” she said as she struggled to keep her voice steady. She looked at him instead of the wall. Though he had been insisting on staying with her, she now knew what she needed to do. Although chances were great that she would not be able to get out of this, she had to turn herself in. If she didn’t, there were only two possible outcomes. Either they would both be arrested, or her vision would catch up with her. The only way for her to protect Ben would be to face what was coming.

R
ilynne watched him study the wall. She knew he wouldn’t let her just walk into the station without doing everything he could to clear her first. She was going to have to do it without him. As Ben concentrated on the wall, trying to find anything they had missed, Rilynne started to plan how she was going to sneak away.

By the time the sun had fully sunk below the horizon, she knew exactly what she was going to do. She would leave before he woke up the next morning. While she knew she would probably only have a fifteen minute head start, it would be all she needed.

“Are you all right?” he asked. She looked up to find him starting at her.

“Yeah,” she responded, wondering how long he had been watching her. “I’m just tired. It’s been a long couple of days.”

Ben walked behind her and wrapped his arms around her. She had to fight back the tears as his warmth spread over her. “We’re going to get through this,” he whispered just above her ear. “We’ve faced worse. At least this time I haven’t been shot.”

Rilynne laughed and gently shook her head before dropping it back against his chest. “You better knock on some wood,” she stated. “We
are
on the run, after all.”

“I’ve got my good luck charm with me,” he replied. “I’ll be fine.”

She twisted her head up to look him in the face. “You’re kidding, right?” she asked, raising her eyebrow at him. “Let’s make a list. You’ve been in three fights, been beaten into several broken bones, and have been shot. All of that was because of me. I would hardly call myself a good luck charm.”

“But I survived all of that,” he said with a stubborn grin. “I would call that some good luck.”

“You’re a nerd,” she replied.

He grinned down at her. It was a grin that warmed her from within, making everything around her seem unimportant. “That’s right,” he replied. “But you love me anyway.”

She felt the blood rising to her cheeks and she couldn’t keep the grin off of her face. “True.”

Ben rubbed his thumb over her cheeks, causing them to tingle. He always seemed pleased with himself every time he caused them to redden. He leaned down and gently kissed her forehead then walked back to the wall.

Rilynne feigned interest as he thought aloud about where they should start looking next. She sat back and watched, her mind still very much on what the morning would bring. After half an hour, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“I’m going to call it a night,” she said. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, despite her efforts to keep them away. “Are you coming?”

“I’m too wired to sleep right now,” he said, crossing toward her. “You should get some sleep, though. You look exhausted. I’m going to look over this for a little while longer.”

Rilynne nodded, her head rubbing against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. She could hear his heart pounding in her ear. She closed her eyes and let it lull her into a sense of pure comfort. She didn’t want to let go. There was a chance, as slim as she tried to convince herself it was, that this could very well be the last time he would hold her. As she felt her chest tighten again and the tears trying to force their way out, she quickly leaned up and kissed him before walking out of the room.

There was just enough light coming from the closet for her to see her sleeping bag on the floor. By the time she climbed into it, the tears were freely rolling down her cheeks. She closed her eyes tightly, and concentrated on keeping her breath steady so he couldn’t hear her crying. She knew if he caught her, he would know instantly what she was planning. If he tried to stop her, she didn’t know if she would have the strength to do what she needed to.

With one last deep breath, she felt herself drifting away.

Rilynne looked around at the large courtroom surrounding her.

The large bench in front of her seemed to be twenty feet tall. Sitting on top of it was a large man in a long white wig. His long black robes hung over the bench and came just feet from touching the floor.

To her right, she could see the filled jury box. If she had hoped for friendly faces, it was not what she found. She wouldn’t have expected such a cold reception if she had publicly murdered the most liked man in town. Every eye was on her, and there was only one thing in them: hate.

“You shouldn’t have done this,” she heard a voice just behind her left ear. She turned around to find Ben staring mournfully down at her. “This was a mistake,” he continued. “They’re going to execute you. You should never have done this.”

“I didn’t have a choice,” she whispered. She looked just behind him to see her fellow homicide detectives. The looks resting on their faces ranged from sorrow to anger. Matthews looked the worst of all. He seemed to have lost at least ten pounds and didn’t appear to have slept in weeks. The thing that truly made her heart sink was his left hand. His wedding band was gone.

“I couldn’t let you give everything up,” she whispered as she turned back to Ben. “There was no happy ending. Not this time. We would have been running for the rest of our lives, and I couldn’t do that to you. I love you too much for that.”

“I’d made my choice,” he said firmly. “And it wasn’t to sit back and watch you be executed for a crime you didn’t commit. You had no right making the decision for me.”

His words stung. Ben wasn’t hiding the anger coursing through him. She had never seen such a look in his eyes. Even the affection that she usually saw within them had been replaced.

A tear rolled down her cheek when he reached out and took her by the hand.

“I won’t sit back and watch this happen,” he said. “I know I promised to be by your side while you went through this, but you can’t ask me to watch them kill you. I won’t do it.”

More tears accompanied the first as he pulled her hand up and pressed his lips against it. Before she could respond, he let go and walked out of the room.

“What do you mean?” she called out after him.

Her eyes were wet when she turned toward Matthews, pleading for an explanation. His eyes knew something, but he turned away without sharing.

If she didn’t know him, his words would have seemed like a simple goodbye. There was something else behind them, though. She could feel it.

Her mind raced. She closed her eyes and tried to think of an explanation, but she already knew what he had planned.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself sitting in a van, her hands cuffed on her lap. She could hear the guards in the front talking, but she was only catching every few words. “Guilty…prison…execution date…”

Rilynne’s heart sank. She looked out the window and watched the trees dance by. Despite what was going on around her, she found it almost relaxing. The feeling did not last long, though.

The tires let out a loud shriek and Rilynne found herself flying forward into the back of the passenger seat. She had barely had time to react when the door beside her swung open.

A man in a black ski mask grabbed her firmly by the arm and pulled her from the van. His fingers dug into her arm. It was almost painful, she was sure there would be a mark. As he drug her toward an awaiting car, she looked back to see two others relieving the guards of their weapons.

“Don’t hurt them,” she pleaded to her abductor.

He let out a laugh that left her feeling both confused and uplifted.

“You’re never going to change, are you?” The voice was so welcomed when it hit her ears that tears instantly rolled down her face. “And you don’t have to worry about them.”

It took every ounce of strength within her not to reach out and embrace him as he pushed her into the car and climbed in next to her. Just moments later, they were joined by the others.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked the moment the car lurched forward. She reached out with her still cuffed hands and pulled the mask off of Ben’s face. “Why?”

“Because you’re innocent.” It was a voice in the front that answered, although she didn’t recognize it. Ben took her hands onto his lap and started working on the lock.

Rilynne’s eyes were still on the two in the front seat. “Who are you?” she asked. The passenger, the one who had spoken just moments before, turned toward her. He was just reaching up to pull off his mask when she heard the familiar sound coming from the lock as Ben picked it.

Click.

Her eyes shot open, but she hesitated before looking around. There was something off; she could feel it in her chest. She carefully slid her hand over, but it met only an empty sleeping bag. She took in a deep breath before rolling onto her back. As she did, she caught sight of a quick flash of silver before everything went dark.

Her head was still aching as her feet sank into the warm sand beneath her. She grinned and slowly started walking forward. About ten feet in front of her stood Ben, his shaggy hair blowing in the breeze. While she was happy he was there with her, part of her wished he could be anywhere else.

“I’m sorry,” she said. He turned around and smiled. “All I’ve done is bring immense chaos into your life. No matter what I do, I don’t see a happy ending. Not anymore.”

He reached out and took her hand, but didn’t say a word. Instead, he just turned and looked back toward the waves as they crept up onto the beach.

“Maybe you were right,” she said. She pulled in a deep breath, feeling the coolness of the salty air hitting the back of the throat. “We should have just left and found a nice place like this. I could have been happy here. As long as I knew you were safe, I could have been happy anywhere.”

“Then let’s do it,” he said, turning back toward her with a flash of excitement on his face. “We can go somewhere where they could never find us.”

She smiled, but it quickly faded away.

“It’s too late for that,” she said, looking up to see the storm clouds rolling in above them. The sweet smell of the beach faded and was replaced by a much less pleasant one. It smelled almost like mildew. By the time she looked back over to Ben, the vibrant blue sky had been completely hidden by the thundering black clouds. It was so dark.

“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I don’t know if we’ll make it out. Not this time.”

As she reached out for him, the sky opened above and rain startled pelting down on them.

Drip, drip, drip. The sound was so loud she could hardly think. She pulled her hands up over her ears as it sounded again.

Drip, drip.

A steady drip moved toward her as her eyes opened again. The vacant house had been replaced with a dark, damp room. There was just enough light coming from a small boarded up window for her to make out her surroundings.

She was flat on her back, staring up at the rafters above. It looked like a basement. Her hands were bound behind her back, leaving her arms numb under her. She pushed against the ground with her fingers as she struggled to sit.

“Ben?” she whispered when she finally made it up. She heard movement in the back corner and spun around to find him struggling against his own restraints. “Are you all right?” she asked, using her legs to push her across the damp floor. He nodded and started making his way toward her.

When they reached each other, he pushed his cheek gently against hers. She wanted more than anything to be able to wrap her arms around him, but she couldn’t pull them free. Her eyes swept over his face, and were relieved to find no visible injuries. As hard as she tried to push it back, the only thing going through her mind was the vision she had had of her own funeral. She had walked right into it, and she brought Ben with her.

His mumble pulled her back to reality around her. “This may hurt,” she said, examining the duct tape over his mouth. She grabbed the corner with her teeth and pulled it off.

“Are you hurt?” he asked before she had even gotten it completely off.

She spit the tape on the ground and shook her head.

“What happened?” she asked. “Where are we?”

Ben shrugged. “I went out to get something from the car and someone hit me. The next thing I knew
, we were here. Looks like a basement of some kind,” he said. “Can you do anything about these?” He motioned over his shoulder to the restraints encasing his wrists.

Rilynne pushed herself behind him to get a better look. Unlike the duct tape around their ankles, their wrists were in padded restraints. They were the kind you would expect to find in hospital. She didn’t mention it to Ben, but the restraints left her with a sickening feeling. Usually when someone used them, it was because they didn’t want to leave marks. The only reason she could think of for their abductor to do this was to hide
the fact they were being held. That wouldn’t be necessary if the plan was to release them.

“Is your kit still in your pocket?” she asked.

“No,” he replied. “I checked as soon as I came to. All of my pockets have been emptied. Where’s yours?”

“Probably still in my jeans,” she stated. “Our captor didn’t see fit to dress me, though. I kind of wish he had. These are my favorite pajama pants. I would hate to get a strangers blood all over them.”

Ben grinned at the cockiness of her comment. “It feels like we’ve been here before,” he said.