Deception with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Two) (19 page)

When he rounded the corner into the same room he had been killed in, the path ended at a blanket laid out in the middle of the floor. He crossed the room and picked up one of the glasses of wine sitting on the tray next to it.
This doesn’t look related to the case, she thought to herself.
He walked through the candle lit room and into the kitchen, which was empty except for a bright pink alligator print purse sitting on the counter. “Hello lover,” a gentle voice came from behind him.

“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” he said, setting the wine glass down next to the purse.
An intense wave of passion flashed through her, along with a second feeling: guilt.

Rilynne sat up so fast that it caused water to splash onto the floor. “He was really having an affair?” she asked herself in disbelief.

She pulled the plug in the tub and stood up. After drying off and putting her pajamas on, she walked to the kitchen and found the back porch light shining through the window. Peeking quickly through the blinds, she pulled the back door open and walked out onto the wooden deck.

“Mother!” she said sharply. “You’re a nurse, you know how bad those things are for you.”

Amber was sitting in her robe and slippers on the porch swing with a lit cigarette in hand. “Would you believe me if I said I was just holding it for someone?” she asked.

Rilynne walked over and sat down next to her. “You were there when I was born, was it yesterday?”

“How was your bath?” Amber asked. “Were you able to clear your head and see anything useful?”

Rilynne rolled her eyes at her mother’s attempt to change the subject, but decided to let it go. “Yeah,” she said. “It looks like Villarreal was having an affair after all. He went to the house that he was killed in, and it was full of rose petals and candles.”

“Couldn’t he have just been meeting his wife there?”

“Usually you don’t feel guilty about having a romantic evening with your wife,” Rilynne explained. “And that feeling was undeniable. I really didn’t see that coming. I actually thought he was a really decent guy. Don’t get me wrong, I know that undercover assignments can change some officers, but I really didn’t think that he was one of them. He sincerely seemed to have loved his wife. I just didn’t take him for a cheater.”

Amber dropped the rest of her cigarette into the empty beer bottle at her feet. “Some people can really surprise you, babe.”

“I know,” she said sullenly. “I just thought I was a better judge of character.”

“Everyone makes mistake,” said Amber. “Besides, some people are just really good at hiding things. You should know that better than anyone. Now come on,” she added as she stood up. “I think it’s about time for us to be getting to bed.”

“
A
re you ready?”

Rilynne sat up, hearing the low voice coming from her doorway. She slid off the edge of her bed and grabbed her robe before pulling the door open.

“Are you ready? It’s time,” Christopher said before turning and walking toward the front door.

Rilynne followed him without question, stepping through the open door and out onto the darkened sidewalk. “Where are we?” she asked as she realized they were not outside of her house.

“It’s time,” he said, walking steadily down the moonlit street. “What’s taking you so long? Hurry up.”

“I’m hurrying,” she said as she broke into a jog to catch up with him. “Where are we going?”

He walked on as if she were not even there. After what seemed like hours, he turned abruptly and walked up to a darkened house. Dropping to his knee along the side of the house, he quickly entered a code into an awaiting lock box and popped it open, revealing a single silver key. He grabbed it and walked back to the front door, unlocking it before Rilynne could react.

“What are you doing?” she exclaimed as he walked in. “Christopher, you can’t
just break into a house. Get back out here.”

She couldn’t tell if he couldn’t hear her or if he was just choosing not to, but she knew she couldn’t just stand outside waiting for him to come back out. After looking up and down the street to make sure no one was watching, she followed him inside.

“We have to get out of here,” she said when she found him in the living room. “What are we, wait… I know this place. Why are we here?” Rilynne looked around to find herself in the room that Shane Villarreal had been killed in.

For the first time since leaving her house, Christopher turned to face her.

“You know as well as anyone that things are not always what they seem to be, Rye.”

Rilynne looked around the room, trying to see where he was going. After several minutes, she hadn’t found anything more than growing confusion. “I don’t understand, Christopher. Tell me what I’m missing. I know I have been missing something, but I don’t know what it is.”

He looked at her blankly. “The answer is right in front of you, Rye, it always has been. It starts with the house.”

“We have looked into the house, Chris,” she said as she felt herself growing frustrated. “We haven’t been able to find out what the house has to do with anything, or why Villarreal was there in the first place.”

Christopher reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a handful of something Rilynne couldn’t see. She moved forward to get a better look, but before she could make out what it was, he threw it at the wall. What appeared to have been dirt left
blood splattered where it had landed. She stepped closer and found that it was the same blood pattern that had been created when Villarreal was shot. If this was supposed to clear things up for her, it wasn’t working.

“I know he was shot here,” she said. “I have already seen that.”

“It all starts with the house,” he said as he threw another handful at the wall. “It all ends with the house.”

“He was having an affair,” she said. “Did someone find out? It that what got him killed?”

“No,” he said bluntly.

Rilynne watched him as he took a third handful out of is pocket and threw it onto the floor. “You would be amazed at the lengths people will take for love.”

She opened her mouth to ask him what he meant, but a heart wrenching feeling of betrayal overcame her. She tried to speak, but she felt as though someone was squeezing her heart with two hands.

“This doesn’t feel like love,” she finally got out as she dropped to her knees in pain. “You don’t do something like this if you love them.”

“There’s a lot of love here,” he said as he threw a fourth handful on the floor. “You can do anything if you love someone enough.”

“No,” she said. “If you love someone, hurting them is the last thing you want to do. You don’t put three rounds in them.”

“It all starts with the house,” he said again. “Look at all this blood.”

“No, you’re wrong!” she exclaimed as she shot up and looked around her dark bedroom. After waiting a moment for her surroundings to register, she dropped her head back down onto her pillow. She watched the shadow of the ceiling fan spinning in place as she thought about what her dream could have meant. As her eyes finally drifted closed, she was only sure of one thing; she needed to go back to that house.

“
T
here has to be some connection with this house,” Rilynne said to Matthews as they stepped into the empty entryway the next morning. “We haven’t found anything that would have brought Villarreal here for the case. He had to have another reason for coming here.”

Matthews paced around the living room, making an effort to avoid looking at the blood, which had still not been cleaned. “Well, where do we start?”

Rilynne took a deep breath, trying to figure out exactly how to get the conversation on track. She knew that Matthews had been very close to Villarreal, and she couldn’t just outright accuse him of having an affair. She would be lucky if he even let her get that sentence out before leaving.

“So, you have an apartment and a house of your own, why would you sneak into a vacant house?” she asked, hoping to get the ball rolling.

“Privacy,” he replied bluntly.

“He had an apartment that was just for him. How much more privacy would you need than that?”

Matthews leaned against the wall, rubbing his hands over his face. “I’m sure that the crew knew about his apartment, so he wouldn’t have wanted to do anything case related or anything that could expose him. Maybe he was working on the case here.”

“Then why wouldn’t he have mentioned it in his journal?” she asked.

“Well,” he said, pausing to think. “He was breaking into a vacant house. That’s not something that most officers would really advertise.”

“That raises another point,” she stated. “Why would he risk his career by trespassing. We know it happened at least four times. If it were me, it would have to be something really important to make me want to risk everything like that.”

“What would be important enough?” he asked.

Again Rilynne found herself trying to find the best way to get her ideas across. “There’s money,” she offered. “But I don’t think Villarreal was dirty. Top of the list would have to be family. A person will do just about anything to protect people they love.”

Matthews pushed himself off of the wall and walked toward the stairs. “I’m going to walk around for a bit,” he said. “I need to try to clear my head.”

Rilynne sat down against the wall and closed her eyes. “It all starts with the house,” she mumbled to herself.

“Don’t I mean anything to you?” She heard a woman yelling. Villarreal was sitting on a blanket next to the lake. “Of course you do,” he replied calmly. “I’m doing this for you.”

“You’re leaving me for who knows how long!” she yelled. “How’s that possibly for me? I don’t want you to do it. Tell them no!”

The scene changed and Shane was leading a blindfolded Jane down a sidewalk. “Where are we going?” she said, bracing his arm tightly. Rilynne could feel the excitement building with each step. “It’s just a few more feet. I promise you’re going to love it,” he said animatedly. They rounded the corner and he stopped abruptly. After looking around excitedly, he pulled the blindfold off of her. She turned to face him looking entirely confused.

“What are we doing here?” she asked.

“Do you want it?” He smiled down at her, excitement coursing through his body.

The scene changed again into the flower pedal and candle filled room. He crossed the room toward the blanket that had been placed on the floor, and picked up a glass of wine. After taking a sip, he crossed the room and entered the kitchen.

“Hello, lover,” a gentle voice called out from behind him. His heart began to race as excitement flooded through him.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” he said, setting the wine glass down next to the purse. The excitement that had been building within him only grew when he turned around and his eyes fell upon her face.

Rilynne jumped up as her eyes flung open.

“Matthews,” she called out. A few moments later he came stomping down the stairs.

“Did you find something?” he asked.

“What’s the only thing that Shane loved enough to break into a vacant house for? You said it yourself; he was a good, honest cop. Love really is the only thing that will make you risk it all.”

She watched the color leave his face, as the thought seemed to sink in. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before turning and putting his fist through the wall. Rilynne was so shocked that she couldn’t seem to get a word out, but she had a feeling he was glad for it.

“We need to be sure,” he said as he started for the door.

The ride back to the station was so silent that it left Rilynne uneasy. She had seen Matthews upset before, but never for anything like this.

After parking just outside the front doors, they walked without a word up to the office and found Detective Wilcome sitting at his desk.

“We need a word,” Matthews said dryly.

Wilcome looked from Matthews to Rilynne, then headed for the conference room.

After shutting the door behind them, Rilynne dropped down in the nearest chair and waited for Matthews to make his request.

“We need to have the DNA sample from under Shane’s nails run against the police database.”

Wilcome’ eyes shifted quickly from him to Rilynne, as if hoping she would tell him it was just an ill-humored joke. She could see the wheels turning in his head as he looked back to Matthews. “Who are you wanting to compare it to specifically?”

“Julio Vega.”