Found With Murder (10 page)

“Hmmm…” he mumbled.  “Maybe someone from one of her past cases did it.  Perhaps a parent whose child was arrested and they wanted to both get revenge and fill the empty roll in their lives.  It would do more damage to Lori to keep her child than the money.”

Rilynne glanced over to him with an amused smile.  “You've been reading my mystery books, haven't you?”  Ben grinned but didn't respond.  “I knew it.  That story was even a little farfetched for me.”

“Yeah, but it got you to smile,” he said.

“That it did,” she said.  “I need to be working, though.  Smiles won't get me answers.”

Ben wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close.  “Sometimes the only way to crack a case is to take a break.  Even if you didn't have your visions, the best chance of getting answers is to take a step back and clear your head.”

She groaned.  Though she wanted to, just for the satisfaction, she knew there was no point in arguing.  He was right.  She wasn't going to be any help to Kim unless she could relax and focus.

“Let's go in,” he said.  “You haven't eaten anything all day.  I'll make you a snack before we head to bed.”

She nodded tiredly and let him pull her to her feet.  After grabbing the puppy and carrying her in the house, Rilynne sat down at the island and watched Ben make her a sandwich.

“Aren't you going to eat?” she asked when he was done.

He smirked and handed Rilynne the plate.  She gave him a suspicious glare, which only made his smile grow.  “I ate at the manor,” he said finally.  “Well, Jared had food put together and we ate it in the helicopter on the way to San Antonio.”

“Of course you did,” she said, slowly shaking her head.  “So what did you eat?  Caviar… or maybe some steak tartar?”

“Nothing special,” he said.  His tone said otherwise.  When Rilynne gave him another disbelieving look, he continued.  “They were these little steak sandwiches which were actually pretty incredible.  He said he would have his cook send over the recipe.”

“Lisa does make a pretty good steak,” she said.  “That’s the cook, Lisa Finley.  Or are you opposed to calling staff by their first name?”

He grinned at her tone before reaching down and picking up the puppy who was trying to climb up his legs.  “Well, as I don’t have a staff in my employ, at least not a household one, I don’t really have an opinion on the matter. 
Although, if I ever get around to hiring a bodyguard to keep you out of trouble, I’ll be sure to ask which he prefers.”

Rilynne laughed.  He had often joked about her needing a bodyguard, but it wasn’t until that moment that she actually considered he might get one.  She couldn’t seem to settle on how exactly she should feel about it.

“Is your mom already in bed?” he asked as they walked into the living room when she was finished.

Rilynne shook her head and dropped down heavily on the couch.  The moment she landed, her head dropped back and her eyes closed.  “She's still at the Matthews'.  She's been staying with Katy so she won't be alone if her labor starts.  If he gets off too late tonight, she might just end up staying there.”

“Ah,” he said.  He sat down next to her and pulled her close, wrapping his arm around her in a way that made her feel almost as if the past few days hadn't happened.  The moment she gave into that feeling, though, she was again overcome by guilt.  It didn’t matter what the situation was, it didn’t seem right to feel anything but worry or grief.

“Do they make GPS trackers for kids?” she asked.  “You know, so if you lose them or if someone takes them, you can just log on and get a location for where they are.”

“No,” he laughed.  “At least, not as far as I know.”

“Well they should,” she said.  She snuggled up against him and took in a deep breath, enjoying the sweet smell of peaches for a moment before continuing.  “Think of what it would do to the number of kidnappings each year.”

“True, but would you really want someone to have to ability to track you everywhere you went?” he asked.

Rilynne shrugged.  “It would definitely ease the worry you had about me getting lost in the woods,” she said with a grin.  “But I’m not talking about something you have forever.  They can microchip babies when they’re born, then remove it when they become legal adults.”

Ben groaned and shook his head.  Before he could answer, though, Rilynne felt her mind drifting away.

“
W
ill that be all, ma’am?” a tall, bald man in a tuxedo asked.  His thick English accent made her smile.

“Yes, Winston,” she said with a wave of her hand.  He offered her a low bow before turning and leaving the room.

Rilynne sat back in her armed chair and looked around the large, empty hall.  To call it grand would have been an understatement.  Three football fields could easily fit within its walls with room to spare.  Each wall was covered in elegant portraits and thick, vibrant curtains.  When she looked down at the chair she was seated in, she recognized what the room was.  It was a throne room.

After slipping her shoes on, which were just to the left of her feet, she rose from her throne and walked toward the other end of the room.  When she pulled the large double doors open, she was greeted by a plethora of household staff members. 

Rilynne nodded nervously as each bowed and offered her a verbal welcome.  She began to feel claustrophobic by the time she reached the other end of the foyer and pushed open the front doors.

“Where are you going, ma’am?” Winston asked as he followed her out onto the large driveway.

She glanced over her shoulder toward him, but didn’t stop walking.  “I’m going to work,” she said.  “I’m right in the middle of a kidnapping case, and I can’t waste time just sitting around here.”

“Work, ma’am?”
  He sounded as though it were a preposterous idea.  “Your work is here, ma’am, monitoring your household.  You needn’t worry about the goings-on elsewhere.  They are beneath you, ma’am.”

She stopped and spun around to face him, her long dress swaying with her movement.  “You think the life of an innocent child is beneath me?” she asked.  Her tone was cold as she glared up at him.  She would have thought it impossible to strike terror in the man with a simple tone, but the look on his face said otherwise.  “I don’t care how much money I have or what responsibilities there are here, my sole concern right now is
to find her and make sure she’s safe.  Now I suggest you back off, because I’ve been looking for a reason to pop someone for a few days now.”

He nodded but didn’t move.  “Shall I call your whipping boy, ma’am?”

“Whipping boy…” She let out an astonished gasp and spun back around.  As she stormed down the driveway, she muttered under her breath, “Who has a whipping boy?  This is outrageous.  I don’t want any of this.”

When Rilynne rounded the corner ahead, her dress snagged on something.  She pulled to free herself, but was unsuccessful.  After letting out a frustrated yell, she yanked at it as hard as she could.  As she did, the dress ripped up her side and the whole thing fell to the ground around her ankles.

She stood in shock as she looked down at her naked body.  She didn’t move until she heard voices coming up the driveway just behind her.  Leaving her dress on the ground, Rilynne ran for the tree line to hide herself.  When she stepped through it, though, she found herself standing in the middle of town. 

Panic shot through her until she looked down and saw that her bare body had been covered by a small, yellow sundress.  It wasn’t what she would prefer when it came to clothing, but it was better than walking around the streets of Addison Valley naked.

“In here, young lady,” a man’s voice called from the store just to her right.  She glanced through the open doors but couldn’t see the man it belonged to.  “Do as you’re told,” he said, harsher than before.

A twinge of fear hit her as she nodded and stepped into the building.  It wasn’t like any store she had ever seen.  In fact, it wasn’t a business at all.  She was standing in a dark, gloomy bedroom.  

Against the back wall was a twin-sized bed, donned in a faded pink comforter.  To the right of it was a toilet and sink.  Though they were impeccably clean, they both appeared old and had several chips knocked out of them.

“Now which would you prefer, the rope or the leather?” the man asked.  She turned around to look at him but saw only a dark shadow in front of her.

“I don’t understand,” she said.  Her voice was soft and younger than she had heard it in years.

The shadow moved closer, but she was still unable to make out any of its features.  “You know the rules,” he said sternly.  “You chose to disobey them, so you must face the consequences.  That is, unless you would prefer option three?”

She shook her head violently.  “No,” she said as an overwhelming fear struck her.  It felt like her insides were being twisted as she waited for him to speak again.

“All right,” he said.  “Then you can choose between the rope and the leather.”

She let out a sigh of relief as she considered the options.  “Rope,” she said timidly after a few short seconds.

Her eyes tightened as the shadow moved toward her.  She didn’t open them again until she felt the coolness of the room disappear as a bright light shined through her eyelids.

When she opened her eyes, it took a moment for them to adjust so she could see the scene around her.  A sigh of relief left her lips as her whole body relaxed.  She was back on her beach.

All of the fear she had felt moments earlier vanished when she looked out at the waves crashing ahead.  She was safe; nothing could hurt her here.

A small laugh came from just behind her. With it, it brought even more joy.

“Kim!” she yelled.  She turned around and saw the bubbly little girl laughing and jumping around.  When she saw Rilynne, her sweet face lit up with a bright, happy smile.  “What do you have there?” Rilynne asked
, shifting her eyes to the object she was swinging around her.

“It’s a rope, Auntie Rye,” Kim responded.  “Do you want to play with me?  You can have a turn with it.”

The sound of an alarm ringing made Rilynne bolt upright in bed.  She let out a sharp gasp as she looked quickly around the room.  There was just enough light coming through the window for her to make out where she was.  It was her bedroom.

“Sorry,” Ben groaned from beside her.  “I forgot to turn it off.”  He reached over and silenced the alarm clock before rolling over to face her.  The grogginess in his eyes quickly vanished when he took her troubled expression.  “Are you all right?”

Rilynne slowly shook her head before answering.  “I’m not sure.”

“
H
ey, can you come up here?” Elise asked when Rilynne answered her phone.  There was something in her voice that Rilynne couldn't make out.  It wasn't the fear or panic she had grown uncomfortably accustomed to over the last several days.  It was something else.

Rilynne agreed and walked quietly to the elevator, riding it up to the fourth floor.  When she walked into the lab, she found her sister sitting with her face buried in her hands.

“What is it?”  Rilynne asked.  She sat down in the chair next to her and placed her hand gently on Elise’s back.  “Did you find anything out about Kim?”

Elise opened her mouth several times to respond, but always closed it again without saying a word.  She looked perplexed as her eyes moved from Rilynne to the papers in front of her.

“Okay,” she finally got out.  “Growing up with our father, I learned to always look outside of the box when I got stuck.  Sometimes it’s the only way to find an answer at all.  Now, this might be way out in left field, but I thought I would run it by you.”  She sounded almost nervous, more so than Rilynne had seen since she introduced her to Amber at their father's funeral.  “The Jane Doe we found last night has… well…  We didn't find a lot of the stuff I would have expected.  Stuff like dental care or medical treatment for either of the broken bones she’d sustained within the last several years.  I asked Dr. Andrews to run some tests for me, and he said she didn't even appear to have received a vaccine after her five year ones.  Now I could be wrong, but I don’t think you’re even allowed to enroll a child in school without their vaccinations being up to date.”

Rilynne was missing something.  Despite the determined look on Elise's face, she didn't see how this had anything to do with Kim.  When she didn't react, Elise continued.

“There were several signs that she’d been restrained prior to her death.  If I had to guess,” she paused and let out an unsteady breath, “I would say she was held for close to ten years.”

“Meaning she was taken as a young girl,” Rilynne finished.  Her heart sank.  The reason for Elise’s apprehension was now clear.

Elise nodded.  “After looking at the insects collected from the body, I'm confident that our Jane Doe was killed sometime late Friday.”

“The day before Kim was taken.”  Rilynne closed her eyes and let out a soft groan.  She tried to think about the girl and concentrated on the scene where she was found, but nothing came.  When she opened her eyes again, she found her sister staring at her desk.  “Keep this as quiet as possible,” Rilynne instructed.  “Only tell people who need to know.  I don't want this getting back to Lori before we have a chance to look into it.”

Elise nodded and turned her attention back to the reports. 

Rilynne’s head was in a fog as she made her way back down to the office.  She thought back to the immense joy the man had felt when he took Kim.  There was no doubt in her mind that it could have been due to the fact that he’d found a replacement for the girl he’d lost.  While such a situation would increase the chance of Kim being found alive, such an encounter would inevitably leave her emotionally scarred.

She stood in the doorway and looked around the homicide office, trying to decide who to entrust with the new lead.  While Matthews was her first choice, she decided against it.  He would undoubtedly perform a thorough investigation, but she felt it might be too much for him to take.  He was already having a hard enough time not thinking about his own children going through the same horrific thing.  Especially with Katy's due day so near.

“LaShad,” she called out.  When he looked up from his desk, she pointed to the conference room.

He nodded and followed her in.

“You’ve heard about the body from last night, right?” she asked.

He appeared confused but nodded again.  “I was just about to go downstairs and talk to Dr. Andrews about it.  My main priority, of course, is still to find Sibrian's little girl,” he said.  He was concerned; she could see it on his face.

She raised her hand to dismiss it.  “Elise found evidence that shows she's been held since she was a child.  With her death just the day before Kim was taken, I think it's an avenue we need to look into,” she said.  His jaw dropped.  “I need you to do me a favor,
though, and keep this as quiet as you can.  Lori’s already in a panic after being informed the ransom wasn't picked up.  I don't want her to hear about this, especially from the news.”

“We sealed the leak,” he said with an impish smirk.

Rilynne couldn't help but grin herself.  After someone in the department leaked to the press that she was the prime suspect in a murder, tracking the source become a priority in the homicide unit.  It didn't take long for Wilcome's plan to play out and the man, Officer Ross, to be identified.  As a favor to both Rilynne and Ben, Wilcome agreed to hold off on taking action until after Ben could exact a little justice of his own.

LaShad, head of the department boxing team, approached Ross to join.  In his first match, with the entire homicide unit present, he was paired up against Ben.

Rilynne had expected it to be over long before it was.  Ben was known for knocking people out with a single, well placed punch.  Between the bad blood they already had between them and the effects the news report had on Rilynne, though, Ben drew it out.  The match actually progressed to the fifth round before Ben had enough and hit Ross with an upper cut that left him unconscious on the floor.  A few days after that, Ross was brought in front of the disciplinary board and let go.

“That doesn't mean another one won't pop up.  Though I imagine after Ross' outburst in the lobby about being intentionally paired with Ben as punishment, people might think twice,” she said.  “But back to the point…”

“Right,” he said.  The mood in the room instantly dropped.  “I'll get on it.  Is Evans… the other Evans, handing everything?”

Rilynne leaned against the table and nodded.  “I know everyone is putting all of their attention into finding Kim, but I think this case needs to be really looked into.”

He gave her a reassuring smile and pushed the door open.

Rilynne watched him walk out, but didn't follow.  Instead, she shut the door and turned off the lights before dropping down into a chair in the corner.  As she let out a slow, calming breath, she closed her eyes and let everything around her dissolve away.

“There was the dark bedroom and the rope,” she muttered softly to herself.  “And the frightened young girl.”  She thought back over everything she had seen or dreamt of over the last few days.  She hadn’t thought much of random scenes at the time, seeing them as nothing more than every day nightmares, but now they were so much more.

It wasn’t until she really thought about it that she realized the young voice had been the same in both dreams.

 She concentrated hard on the terror the girl had felt and the way she sounded when she begged for him to make the fog stop.  Then she thought about how relieved she’d felt when he took option three off the table.  She didn’t dare to think of what it could be, but she could feel how much it terrified her.

Rilynne felt herself shutter at the thought of it, but she didn’t let it break her concentration.
 She was determined to see something, no matter how hard she had to try.

They came as just glimpses, each more forced than the one before.
 
The dark room she had seen before.  A large cabinet filled with ropes, chains, and leather straps.
 She felt the air leave her lungs as she struggled to maintain her focus.  It took nearly all of the energy she could muster, but she saw one last flash.  
The young girl in the yellow dress, a bucket at her side, was scrubbing a dark stain off of the bedroom floor.

Rilynne bent over in her seat from both exhaustion and disgust.
 Her insides twisted.  She pulled her hands up over her face as she tried to keep from being ill.  She’d just managed to settle her stomach when she heard the door open.

“What are you doing in here?” Ben crouched down in front of her.

She shrugged and shook her head.  Before she could stop them, tears started rolling down her face.  She’d been holding everything in so she could be strong for those counting on her.  This was too much, though.  No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't be brave anymore.

He rolled a chair up and sat down in front of her, pulling her knees between his.  She thought he was going to say something in an attempt to comfort her, but he didn't.  He slid his hands gently up her legs and sat with her quietly.  She was grateful.  Though she was sure he would be able to ease her worries, she just wanted to cry.

So she did.

*     *     *

“I didn’t expect to see you in today,” Rilynne said when Wilcome walked past her desk.

He stopped and turned to face her.  “I needed to get out for a little while.  Sibrian has relaxed a bit after she slept, so I thought it was safe to leave her with her fiancé for a few hours.  Jerkins went home to see his wife and kids, but he’s only a few blocks away if anything happens.”

“How did she take it when you told her about the ransom?” she asked.  She had considered going over after she woke up to be there when Lori was told, but it was more than she could take.

“As well as can be expected.
  She had returned to her spot on the couch by the time I left,” he said.  “I’m assuming you coached her fiancé last night, because he did a surprisingly good job at keeping her calm.”

She nodded.  “He pulled Ben and I out last night and insisted I tell him everything that was going on.  We told him the gist, and then I told him the best way to go about explaining things when Lori was told.  I must admit, he’s handling things better than I would have expected.  He’s really stepped up.”

“He’s not the only one,” Wilcome said.  He raised an eyebrow and looked at her curiously.  She didn’t need to ask for clarification to know exactly what he was talking about.

“Yes, well...” she started, unsure exactly how to continue.  “I guess situations like this really bring out the best in all of us. 
Yourself not excluded.”

“I have to say your future husband saved me a good deal of grief with his selfless offer,” he said.  He folded his arms in front of him and leaned back against the desk next to hers.  “Sherri would have understood, but I shudder to think what her initial reaction would have been.”

Rilynne chuckled.  She found it amusing that both Matthews and Wilcome seemed to fear their wives, even though they were two of the sweetest women she had ever met.  “I can only imagine,” she said.  “She would have definitely been shocked.”

He seemed to want to ask her about the shock she’d received, but after a few moments, he just looked away.  “I still can’t believe the ransom wasn’t picked up,” he said.

“I should have known something was off when that call came in,” Rilynne said.  “The whole thing was odd, starting with the abnormally large ransom demand.  I’ve heard of abductors asking for a little more than what the family could afford, but that was an absurd amount.  There’s no way he could have thought Lori had that kind of money.  Then again, people can surprise you when it comes to how much they have put away.”

He smirked but didn’t respond.  “So when she said 'daddy'-” Wilcome started.

“Kim's been calling Joe her daddy since they got engaged,” Rilynne explained.  She paused and thought back to the conversation.  Something about it didn't feel right.  She’d noticed it during the call, but had put it out of her mind after their discussion about the ransom.  Now that she thought back, though, she was sure she had missed something.

“I noticed it, too,” Wilcome said.  She looked up and found him studying her face.  “He was angry after Kim spoke.  Something she said didn't make him happy.”

“Daddy,” she said after running through the conversation in her head.  “She called Joe 'my daddy' which was when he took the phone back.”

He moved to the chair and nodded.  “You spoke with the biological father,” he said.  “Are you sure he couldn't have been in the area when she was taken?”

“He was at work at the time with three solid alibis,” she replied.  “That doesn't mean he couldn't have sent someone else to take her.”  She hesitated for a moment.  “I honestly don't think he was involved, though.  He appeared genuinely shocked when we spoke.  Now, that doesn't mean a member of his family isn't behind it.”

Wilcome nodded and pulled out his phone.  “We know a man took her, but that doesn't mean a woman wasn't calling all the shots.”

“Maloy,” Rilynne jumped in.  Wilcome looked confused as he slowly lowered his phone.  Rilynne glanced around to make sure no one was listening and continued.  “Brett Maloy was stalking Lori, which was one of the main reasons she moved here.  Ben and I found a pile of cigarette butts on the edge of her front yard.  Summers is running them now, but we were able to confirm he was on a flight to San Antonio just days before Kim was taken.”

“And as a stalker, he would become upset if Kim referred to another man as her father,” he stepped in.  “He wants them to be a family.”  He picked the phone back up and started dialing.  Before holding it to his ear, he said, “Find him.”

When she nodded, Wilcome stood and walked to his desk in the corner.