Betrayal with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Three) (11 page)

“
T
hanks, Summers,” Ben said. “Call me as soon as you know anything else.”

He slid the phone back into his pocket, but none of them seemed to know what to say. After several minutes, Detective Byman pushed his chair away from the desk and walked silently out of the office, closing the door behind him.

“Are you all right?” Ben asked, placing his hand gently over hers.

Her initial reaction was to say ‘yes’ but she knew it would only be a lie. After contemplating an answer for several moments, she finally just shrugged helplessly and dropped her head down on his shoulder.

He wrapped his arm around her, gently brushing her hair away from her face.

“I know,” he said softly. He kissed her gently on the forehead before resting his head against hers. He was still holding her when Detective Byman walked back in ten minutes later.

“We’re going to head out,” Ben said as he rose from his seat and pulled Rilynne to her feet. “It’s been a long day,” Ben said as Rilynne walked out of the office. When she reached the front desk, she turned to find that Ben wasn’t behind her. Instead, he was still standing in the office talking to Byman. He glanced over and caught her watching him, but it didn’t halt their conversation. As he turned his attention back to Byman, she watched his hand move up to his face and he began dragging his knuckles along his chin.

She stood at the desk watching them for another minute before he shook Detective Byman’s hand and walked toward her.

“What was all that about?” she asked as they stepped out the door.

“Nothing important,” he replied causally. “What would you like for dinner? We could go to the diner again, or try to find something else.”

“I don’t guess there’s any chance they would have a place here that has good Mexican food,” she asked hopefully.

He chuckled and took her by the arm. “Doubtful,” he replied. “Even if they do, chances are it wouldn’t be close to what you’ve grown accustomed to at home. They have a term for the Mexican food that you’ve been eating: Tex-Mex. As I’m sure you can guess, it’s mainly only found in Texas.”

“Eh,” she groaned. “The diner it is, then.”

*

“So let’s look at this from the beginning,” Ben said, watching her flip her food carelessly with her fork. Her appetite seemed to have vanished; instead of eating, she had been playing with the food since the waitress had delivered it. “Let’s play the game.”

Rilynne grinned for the first time since Ben took the call from Summers. The game was actually one suggested to them by Nicole while they were investigating her case. Though she had only recommended it so she could see where the case stood, it was actually beneficial. Since then, anytime they were stuck on a case, they would play it.

“Okay, you start.” She dropped her fork and sat back in her chair, waiting for him to begin.

“All right, what do we know?” he asked. Not waiting for her to respond, he stated, “We know that he was either here or in a place with the Penland beardtongue just before he buried Christopher.”

“The anonymous source I had named this place specifically. We hadn’t released the details about the trace found, so it would be an outstanding coincidence if someone randomly picked a small town that evidence actually backed up,” she interjected.

“Right,” he pondered it for a moment. “What else did the source say? Was there anything else that could help to get us back on track?”

She thought back to her dream and the vision she had when she was at the scene. “He told me all I needed to do was look,” she said without thinking. She panicked, trying to think of a good story in case he asked for more. To her relief, he didn’t.

“Well, that’s a big help,” he said sarcastically. “What else do we know?”

“I don’t know,” she said sullenly. “He made a trip out here just prior to Christopher’s death.”

He nodded. “We considered that he might have been here to dispose of the first victim’s body,” he said. “What if he was here for another reason?” She raised her eyebrow and waited for him to continue. “Whether planned or not, he killed his girlfriend. He must have known that it would only be a matter of time before it was traced back to him. If it were me, I would have been planning to disappear the entire time. Maybe he was out here looking for the perfect place to do so.”

She considered his suggestion. “The only thing that doesn’t make sense about that is Christopher. If he was just going to plan his escape, why kill someone else and make things even worse? The Melissa Roberts case was a big one, but it was nothing compared to Christopher’s. He was connected to the department, and I was stabbed. If anything, it drew attention to him even more.”

“You said that the first victim lived close to you, right?”

She studied his face, trying to see where he was going with this.

“Christopher wasn’t supposed to be home. Maybe he went to your house to try to frame you or Christopher for her death. I would say Christopher because you knew she was having an affair,” he said. Rilynne could see the wheels turning in his head. “You were supposed to be working late, and he was supposed to be out of town. Maybe he went to your house to plant evidence, but Christopher interrupted him.”

“He would have had no choice but to kill him, too,” she stepped in.

“And then you walked in and interrupted him again. He was close with you, which is probably the only reason he didn’t kill you also,” he said. His last statement seemed to not sit well with him, because his hand pulled up and his knuckles dragged across his chin.

“If that’s the case, hopefully he liked it enough to stick around,” Rilynne said.

Ben had a prideful look about him as he leaned back in his chair. Rilynne chuckled softly to herself as she reached back down for her fork. Even with the new theories, she couldn’t force herself to feel anything other than the disgust that was still coursing through her.

“
S
omeone better have died,” she called out as she reached for the doorknob. She had been in the middle of the first pleasant dream she’d had in weeks when it was interrupted by a sharp rapping at the door.

Ben stood in the doorway smirking at her, apparently amused by the look of abhorrence she was giving him. “Now I think we have had enough of that,” he said as he handed her the cup of coffee in his hand. “I’m assuming you have your tennis shoes, right?”

She fought the urge to shut the door in his face and climb back into bed as she slowly nodded.

“Good. Get dressed-something warm and comfortable,” he said. “We’re going to take advantage of this beautiful Colorado weather.”

He turned and walked away, leaving her standing in the open doorway feeling utterly confused. After draining her mug, she gave up on the prospect of getting anymore sleep and dug through her bag for the running clothes that she had packed.

After dressing and quickly tidying her hair, she walked downstairs and found Ben waiting in the dining room.

“About time,” he said. “Hurry up and eat so we can get going.”

“Where exactly are we going?” she asked as she sat down at the table next to him.

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied with an impish grin. “Some of us were actually being productive this morning instead of trying to sleep through it.”

She glared at him curiously before turning her attention to the plate he had waiting for her. She had barely finished the last bite when he took the plate and carried it to the kitchen. When he returned, he took her by the hand and led her silently out the front door. Fighting the urge to ask again where he was taking her, she resigned to climbing in the seat of the awaiting car and let him take the lead.

Although the town was tiny, it was nearly an hour before he pulled off the road and let the car come to a stop in a small parking lot in the middle of nowhere.

“The packs are in the trunk,” he said as he stepped out. “I talked to the man at the Park Service station, and he said this was the best hiking trail in the area. I figured you could use a day away from it all.”

“It’s perfect,” she said with a warm smile. “Was it the older man with the scratchy voice?”

He nodded with a curious grin. “Same one you spoke with?”

“Was he as grumpy with you as he was with me?”

He chuckled, pulling the first pack out and handing it to her. “He was a little blunt with me, but I wouldn’t consider him grumpy.”

“Well, he was with me. I think he was concerned that I would disturb the endangered plants, though. He was almost insistent that I have a guide if I went out looking for them,” she explained.

Ben seemed to think that was incredibly funny, because he was still laughing when he closed the trunk and headed toward the entrance of the trail. “I guess that’s one of the downsides to trying to remain inconspicuous. You don’t have people’s trust the way you would with your badge.”

“I sure don’t.”

Although the cold air brushed her cheeks as they made their way down the tree-lined path, the further they went, the less she noticed it.

“It’s so beautiful out here,” she said. There had been a light snow the night before, which left the trees looking like someone had sifted powder sugar down on them. Somewhere to the left of the path she could hear what sounded like a waterfall, but she wasn’t able to spot it through the trees.

“I like the snow,” he replied without turning around to face her. “Believe it or not, I actually haven’t seen much of it since I was a child.”

She stopped for a moment out of shock before continuing after him. “How’s that possible? I mean, I get that it doesn’t snow in Addison Valley, but you do a lot of traveling. How is it that you haven’t gone to an area with snow?”

He shrugged and lifted a low hanging branch up for her to duck under. “Just coincidental, I guess. I’ve been to areas that get snow, but always during the summer. Usually during the winter I end up some place like Las Vegas or Florida. I imagine it’s designed that way, though. There’s less chance of it getting cancelled due to weather conditions, I guess. I was actually surprised when I saw that next weeks conference is being held in Denver. I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the snow much there, though. I’m usually stuck inside most of the time during these things.”

“You’re usually gone for a week at a time when you go,” she stated. “Does it really take you that long to get your stuff set up and present?”

“My actual work takes about two days. It usually takes a day to get everything set up and ready for my presentation, then the second day I speak and spend several hours after sitting down with different cities to discuss how they could implement it within their departments. After that, I sit in on all of the other presentations,” he explained. “I’m always looking for something new, or just a refresh on an old idea.”

“You sound like Wooldridge,” she said. “I knew he would take time off from time to time, but I had no idea he was spending all of his time traveling around to the different conventions.”

“I think if more detectives made the effort, the solve rate for major crimes would go up. A lot of departments, especially the smaller ones, don’t have the resources to send their forensic investigators to the conferences. Unless the investigators take the initiative to go themselves, like I do, they aren’t going to know about the latest advances. Which way?” he asked as they came to a fork in the path. To the right, the path seemed to stay consistent with where they had already been, and the left began to incline.

“Let’s go up,” she said as she pointed to the left. “Maybe it’ll go up enough for us to get a good view of the area.” He let her take the lead, following only a few feet behind her as they started to proceed up.

“So the department doesn’t send you to the conferences?” she asked curiously. “I mean, you have to cover all of that traveling yourself?” She could see someone paying to attend one or two conferences, but Ben had been to half a dozen of them just in the time she had known him.

“The department has covered a few of them, and universities will also cover my expenses sometimes if they’re planning to include it in their curriculum,” he stated. “I do have to pay for quite a few of them, though. I consider it an investment in my future.”

“Wow,” she said as she glanced over her shoulder. “You must have tons of miles saved up then.”

“You have no idea,” he chuckled, flashing her an amused smile.

She smiled back at him, but before she could turn back around, she felt her foot drop down off of the path. Her body tensed as she fell sideways and her hip slammed into the ground. She reached out for something to stop her, but it was too late. She was toppling down the icy hill, hitting every rock and limb in her path. She reached her arms up to try to brace her head, but wasn’t fast enough. As she felt the sharp blow to the back of her head, everything around her went black.

She looked into the mirror stretching out in front of her and saw the long, white dress wrapped around her. She reached down and felt the silky material brushing against her fingers. It was softer than she could have imagined.

“You look beautiful, sweetheart,” her mother said over her shoulder. When she spun around to face her, the dress swayed with a soft crinkle. She felt like a princess. “You look even more amazing than I could have ever imagined. How do you feel?”

“Confused,” she said softly. “Everything is different. The dress, my hair; this isn’t how it happened.” She turned back around and faced the mirror again. The dress, though exactly the dress she had always pictured wearing, was not the same dress she had worn when she was married. Her hair was also up instead of lying in curls the way it had. “Why is everything different? I don’t understand?”

Amber reached up and adjusted the back of the dress before looking in the mirror at her daughter. “Your feelings are normal,” she said. “I remember how nervous I was on my wedding day. I thought for sure I was making a mistake, but it was just nerves. Trust me, baby, you’ve found an amazing man.”

“I know he is,” she replied, turning back toward her mother. “That’s not what I mean. This isn’t right; none of it. This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.”

“Everything will be perfect, trust me. I’m going to go take my place,” Amber said as she walked to the door. “Don’t be late.”

Rilynne turned back to the mirror and admired the dress before walking to the door herself. She yanked it open and stepped through, looking for Wooldridge to escort her down the aisle. Instead, she found herself standing along the bank of the lake in Addison Valley. She spun around quickly, but saw no one else around. Ignoring the confusion
flowing through her, she kicked off her shoes and lifted her dress up above her ankles. She dipped her toes into the warm water as the breeze brushed against her cheeks.

“It won’t last,” she heard a deep voice coming from behind her. The relaxation she had found quickly vanished as she let go of the grip on her dress and spun around. She heard the end of it drop down into the water, but she didn’t care.

“You!” she declared as she stepped toward him. Finally, something was the way it should have been. Of all things, though, she would have picked anything else. Mifflin stood in front of her in the same tuxedo he had worn almost two years before. “Not this,” she said as she moved closer. “You’re not going to ruin this memory for me.”

“It won’t last,” he said again. “When everyone finds out y
ou’re
a freak, you’ll be left with nothing. Even the people you’ve known for years will abandon you. You’ll have nothing but your memories.”

She threw the shoes in her hand and hit him square in the face, but he didn’t budge. “You aren’t going to take anything else from me!” she yelled. “I won’t let you. You can tell them anything you want to. See if anyone believes you!”

Despite the bravery in her voice, she was shaken. It had always been her greatest fear that someone would discover her secret. She couldn’t have imagined it would be someone like Mifflin; someone who wouldn’t think twice to use it against her.

With her dress dragging along the ground, she started sprinting toward him. When she was about five feet from him, a sudden fog overtook her. She pushed through it, but was unable to find Mifflin. She ran around, swinging her arms but all they met was air.