Betrayal with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Three) (14 page)

They walked in silence, Ben’s hand still firmly around hers, until they finally reached the car. After unlocking the doors, Ben pulled the pack off of Rilynne’s back and carried it to the trunk. While he did, she climbed into the passenger seat. The coldness of the leather seats reached through her clothes and sent a shivering chill through her body. She reached over to turn on the car, hoping that it wouldn’t take long for the hot air to start blowing. Luckily, the car Ben had rented came with seat warmers, so she was able to warm up slightly while she waited.

“Well, there’s not much we can do today as far as the case goes,” Ben said as he pulled his door open and climbed in. “What do you want to do?”

“First things first, we eat,” she said firmly.

After stopping by the diner and picking food up, they headed back to the bed and breakfast. Near the check in desk was a small library of movies that were available for guests. Rilynne had suggested a horror movie, but Ben quickly turned it down. When they finally settled on an action film, they took everything up stairs.

“We’ll have to watch it in your room,” Ben said as they made their way down the hall. “The player in my room isn’t working. I tried to watch something the other night and it kept freezing on me.”

Rilynne nodded in agreement as she unlocked her door.

“I’m going to go rinse off before we eat,” she said as she reached in the suitcase for her toiletries bag. “Why don’t you get everything set up and I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She dug through the suitcase for a clean pair of pajamas and left him in the room as she walked to the bathroom down the hall.

As she peeled her clothes off, she examined the damage that had been done by her fall. In addition to the large bruise on her hip, she had several smaller ones covering her arms and legs. There was also a long scrape stretching across her back. When she added those to the one she had received days before, she was left looking like she had been badly beaten. After quickly jumping in the shower and rinsing off, she put on the clean pajamas and walked back to her room.

Ben had laid the food out on the small corner table and was sitting in the chair waiting for her. “You better hurry before it gets cold,” he said when she walked in. She threw her stuff back in the suitcase and joined him at the table.

She felt like she hadn’t eaten in days. She hardly took a breath, finishing her food in a matter of minutes. After putting her fork back down, she leaned back in the chair and waited for Ben.

“You’re going to make yourself sick eating that fast,” he said as he gently shook his head.

“I know,” she replied. “But it was so good.” She ran her fingers through her hair before tying it back up. As her arms dropped back down on her lap, she caught the stunned look sitting on Ben’s face.

“What?” she asked curiously.

He reached out with his free hand and pointed toward her arm. “Is that from your little tumble?” he asked. “It doesn’t look comfortable.”

She looked down to see the rectangular bruise reaching up her left arm and stopping just short her shoulder. Her long sleeves and jacket had hid most of the damage, but the spaghetti strap shirt she now wore left it very visible. “That’s nothing,” she said. “You should see the one on my hip.”

She hadn’t thought about her statement until after it left her lips. As her face began to burn, she looked up to Ben for his reaction and was met by a puckish smirk.

“Maybe next time you’ll think twice before diving down the side of a hill,” he joked.

“Oh hush,” she replied as she watched him finish the last of his food. She soon as he was done, she got up and put the movie in. He was still sitting in his seat when she climbed onto the bed. “Come on,” she said as she scooted to the end. “You aren’t going to sit over there in the corner while we watch this. You might as well get comfortable.”

He hesitated for a moment, looking like he was going to argue with her, before resigning and walking over to the bed and sitting down next to her. Rilynne chuckled softly inside, knowing that the arrangement undoubtedly made him uncomfortable. She laid back against the wall of pillows lining the headboard, as she held out the remote to turn the movie on.

“So what is it you were talking to Byman about the other day,” she asked as the opening credits began to play.

Ben smiled and leaned back himself, apparently amused by her curiosity. “I was asking him where I could take you in town to get your mind off of things,” he said smoothly. “That’s where I got the idea to go hiking.”

“Ahh,” she replied, almost disappointed that it wasn’t something more salacious.

Not more than twenty minutes into the movie, Rilynne heard a gently snoring coming from the other side of the bed. She looked over and could just make out Ben’s face through the gentle light coming from the television. He was sound asleep.

She laughed to herself as she returned her attention to the screen. “What a day,” she said softly under her breath.

She closed her eyes for what felt like second herself, but when she opened them again, the room was filled with darkness. The only light came from the street light outside the window where the curtains hadn’t been fully closed. She reached over quickly, but found only an empty bed beside her. With twinge of amusement mixed with disappointment, she closed her eyes again.

“
W
e know that he didn’t stay in a hotel while here,” she said the next morning when they walked into Detective Byman’s office. “What about a place he could have rented, like a cabin or apartment?”

“Do you really think he would have rented a place here?” Byman asked.

“We were talking about it Friday night after we left. If he wasn’t here disposing of Melissa Roberts’ body, he might have been in the area looking for a place to hide out. It’s out of the way, and it’s not like anyone would ever think to look for him here,” she replied. “He would have needed somewhere to stay at least until the news coverage died down, and after everything escalated, he would have wanted to be somewhere familiar. Since we know he was in the area before the murder, he might have returned.”

“I’ll call our real estate agent and set up an appointment with her. She’s the only one in town, so pretty much everything goes through her,” he stated as he pulled out his cell phone.

“Will she be willing to assist us?” Rilynne asked. “I know that a lot of people can be hesitant to release any information without a court order.”

Byman grinned as he pulled his phone up to his ear. “I certainly hope so,” he said with a playful tone. “She’s my girlfriend.”

As soon as Byman finished with his call, he stood up and reached for his jacket. “She can see you now,” he said. “It’s only about a block down, so you can just walk over if you’d like. I have an appointment of my own that I need to get to, but I’ll be back here within the hour if you need anything.”

He walked them out the door before heading in the opposite direction down the street. Ben took Rilynne by the arm-as usual making sure that he was positioned between her and the street-and they made their way down the block to the small building with the ‘Realty’ sign above the door. Inside, they found a petite woman with a warm smile awaiting them. Her soft brown hair was held up with what appeared to be a pencil, leaving the dimples on her cheeks clearly visible.

“Please come in,” she said as she walked over to greet them. “I’m Leann. Korey told me to be expecting you. Come have a seat.” She directed them to two large wing chairs sitting behind a dark, rectangular coffee table. The decoration within the office wasn’t what Rilynne had expected. Where the exterior had looked close to a hundred years old, the interior was warm and inviting. The elegant furniture was strategically placed around the room, with accents of vibrant colors that almost made her forget the chill that was waiting for them when they stepped back outside.

After Rilynne and Ben took their seats, she sat herself down on the small, cushioned bench opposite them. “Korey informed me that you were looking into the possibility that someone who may have rented a place out here was involved in a crime you’re investigating,” she said. “What can I do to help?”

Though Byman had stated that she would be willing to cooperate, Rilynne was taken aback by her almost eagerness to. All she could think to do was smile.

“We found evidence to suggest that the man we’re looking for was in this area nineteen months ago,” she said. “We already checked with both the hotel and the bed and breakfast, and they don’t have any record of him staying. We were wondering if he might have rented something while he was here.”

“You said nineteen months?” she asked as she walked over to the desk in the corner and began tapping away at her keyboard. “Okay, I’m showing twelve property rentals and eight purchases. Now, that does not include cabin rentals for tourists. I do have a list of the four cabins in the area that are available to be rented out, and the owner’s information is on there. I’m sure they’ll be able to provide you with any information about who rented the properties. I happen to know that they all require identification before renting, so they’ll have pictures along with the names provided. There’s also one apartment complex in the city, so you’ll probably want to give them a call as well. As for these properties, I’ll get you what I can now. The rest will take a few hours to pull together, but as I’m sure you know, I won’t be able to provide much more than names and a copy of their driver’s licenses without a court order.”

“Of course,” Rilynne replied. “Just get us what you can.”

After printing up a list of names for them, Leann went into a locked room at the back of the office.

“Does anything stand out?” Ben asked as he glanced over the list.

She ran her finger down the list, but nothing sparked anything for her. “It’s going to take her a while to get all of this together, so let’s head back to the station and see if we can get a hold of the cabin owners to get their lists,” she replied. “You start calling and see if they can either fax the information to the station or drop it off.”

By the time she told Leann where they were going, Ben had already finished his first call.

“These records will be at the station in about fifteen minutes,” he said as he dialed the second number.

After giving him an impressed grin, she pulled out her own phone and dialed the number for the apartment complex that Leann had written down for her. After several minutes on the phone, she was able to eliminate that as a possibility. The man who answered informed her that all renters over the last two years had either been teenagers moving out of their parent’s house for the first time or the occasional person going through a divorce, but all had been locals.

By the time they walked back to the station, two of the lists had already arrived and the other two were expected within the hour.

“Okay,” Rilynne said as she sat the stack down on Detective Byman’s desk. “Here are a few pictures of Mifflin, including his driver’s license and police department photos. I say we just jump in and start sifting through them.”

Each of them grabbed a page and they began examining each picture carefully. After a few minutes, an elderly man arrived and handed them another stack to sort through.

“Most of these renters are locals,” Byman said as he reached for another page. “I haven’t seen anyone so far that even comes close to resembling your man.”

Rilynne wasn’t doing any better. She had found one face that was close, but when she looked closer, she discovered that it was actually a woman. She was just beginning to lose hope when Leann walked in with the real estate records.

“I put the single men on top, but I included all of the names, including the single females,” she said as she sat the stack down on the desk.

Instead of walking out like Rilynne had expected, she pulled up a chair and joined them in sifting through the pictures.

Rilynne made it through the single males in a matter of minutes, and her heart sank as she started sifting through the rest.

“Well, we still have the one other property we’re waiting on,” Ben said as he picked up the last page in the stack. He quickly glanced at the picture before tossing it aside. “It was-”

He stopped abruptly when Rilynne’s eyes widened and she quickly reached for the page before he had even taken his fingers off of it.

“What is it?” he asked, leaning around her to see what he had missed. “Do you know this woman?”

She was afraid to even blink for fear that her eyes were playing tricks on her and the face would be different when her eyes opened again. “I don’t,” she stumbled over her words. “It doesn’t…” She couldn’t get her thought out, so she looked up to Ben, halfway hoping he would somehow read her mind and finish the sentence for her.

“Who is it?” he asked firmly.

She took in a deep breath and managed to let out a single word.

“Sarah.”