Found With Murder (11 page)

Rilynne closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair.  She tried to concentrate on Maloy, but she realized she had never actually seen his face.  The only vision she’d had of him was from his perspective, and she hadn’t been in the office since she asked Matthews to pull up his file.  She considered pulling it up herself so she could have more to work with but decided against it.  Instead, she just concentrated on what she already knew.  It only took matter of moments.

She was standing behind a tree, Lori’s house just visible behind it.  Through the window, she could see Lori staring out blankly into the yard.  She looked so sad.  She wanted to go up and hold her, to let her know that everything was going to be all right, but something stopped her.  There were voices coming down the sidewalk toward her.  With one last fleeting look at Lori, she turned and walked toward the voices.

The air left her lungs as her eyes opened.  It had been her and Ben walking to Lori’s house.  They had walked right past him.  She couldn’t believe she’d been so close without knowing it was him.  If he had Kim and she let him walk right by her, she would never be able to forgive herself.

“How’s Sibrian?” Matthews asked as he walked in behind her.  He looked tired.  If she had to guess, she would say he didn’t get any sleep the night before.

“She’s about as you would expect,” she said.  “She was much better after getting to talk to Kim yesterday, but she apparently went back to where she was before after the ransom call didn’t come in.  How’s Katy?  You look exhausted.”

“I am, though for once it’s not because of Katy,” he explained.  “She actually had a pretty restful night, which was surprising.   Usually either one or both of the babies will get the hiccups around two in the morning and wake her up.  On average, she’s been getting up close to a dozen times a night for the last month or so.  I think she was only up twice after I got home last night.”

Rilynne grabbed a bottle of water out of her desk and unscrewed the cap.  “So if Katy didn’t keep you up, why does it look like you’ve been run over by a truck?”

He groaned and glanced at himself in the mirror hanging on the wall next to him before answering.  “I camped out in that office building until midnight before heading down to pick up the ransom bag.  Then I had to make sure it was taken care of before heading home, and by then I was too wired to sleep.  After a couple hours of trying, I finally gave up and started combing over the files again.”

“Where’s the money now?” she asked.  She hadn’t considered what would happen to it after the kidnapper failed to take it.

He eyed her curiously but seemed too tired to put much thought into whatever was going through his mind.  “Ben said to just keep it in the evidence lockup until we find Kim.  That way
it’s on hand if we should need it again.  I offered to drop it off at your place on my way home, but I don’t think he was too keen on the idea of having it lying around.  It would make you a target for anyone who wanted it.”

Ben must have already talked to him about the big reveal.  She was sure that if he had been more rested, he would have definitely enjoyed probing the topic to receive a reaction.  More than just having good gossip to share with his wife, he loved to get a rise out of her whenever he could.

“Have you found anything on Maloy?” she asked, trying to shift the subject before he found the energy to pursue it.

He shook his head.  “I only made it halfway through the list of places he could be staying in town before I got called out for the ransom drop.  I’ll start on the rest now.  I’ve already sent his picture out to each of them; I just need to call and follow up.  Do you know if they were able to pull anything off the coins from the payphone?”

“Luckily the phone had been emptied just a few days ago, so the only coins in it belonged to our kidnapper.  The prints are being run through every database, but so far nothing has turned up.  Wooldridge is working on getting Maloy’s prints for us to compare them to,” she explained.  “He’s been surprisingly good at avoiding arrest, though, so they aren’t in the system.  He sent someone out to print the front doorknob at his house, so hopefully that will get us what we need.”

Matthews let out a long yawn before picking up his phone.
 After running his finger down the list in front of him, he started dialing.

Rilynne took advantage of his distraction to look through the report Elise had emailed her.
 Dr. Andrews wasn’t able to pinpoint her exact age, but she appeared young enough to be the owner of the voice Rilynne had heard in her dreams.  She looked over the pictures at the bottom of the report.  The close-ups of her ankles showed marks from some kind of ligature.  It was very possible that they could have been caused by ropes.   Then she thought back to the rope she saw Kim playing with.  Her heart sank.

There was only one reason she could think of for a man to hold a young girl for so long.
 The autopsy report would likely tell her whether she was right, but she couldn’t make herself look.  If this same man had Kim, she didn’t want to think about what he could be doing to her.

“I’ve got it,” Matthews announced.  He slammed his phone down and held up a small slip of paper.  “The Saddle Light Motel has Brett Maloy currently checked in.”

“Good work,” Wilcome called out from across the room.  “Have a team assembled.  I want you ready to move out in five minutes.”

As Matthews nodded and picked the phone back up, Rilynne leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

“Saddle Light Motel,” she said quietly, concentrating on it as well as Maloy.  It didn’t take more than a few seconds for the images to flash in front of her, like photos dropping down one at a time.

The sign reading Saddle Light Motel.
  A door with the number nine.  The bed with something sitting in the middle: Kim’s other shoe.  Then an image of the bathroom door cracked open with tiny fingers grasping the edge.

Rilynne had her desk drawer open before the office came back into focus.  She grabbed her gun and pushed it shut as she rose from her seat.  “Let’s go,” she said eagerly.  Matthews grabbed his own gun and followed her downstairs.

*     *     *

“He’s in room six,” Matthews said, walking out of the office with a key.

Six?  That’s not the room number she had seen in her flash.  Knowing she had no way to question it, she followed him around the building, gun drawn in front of her, until he stopped in front of the door.

When she saw it, her reservations quickly disappeared.  The number on the door had come loose and was hanging upside down, making the six appear as a nine.

Matthews motioned the officers into place and quietly slid the key into the door.  Rilynne’s heart was drumming in her chest as she watched his hand slowly turn.  This was going to be it, she just knew it.  At the same time, she forced aside the feeling that they might be walking into something she didn’t want to see.  She knew that if Kim fought the reality Maloy believed to be true, he might turn violent.

As soon as the lock clicked, he pushed the door open and they stormed in.

The room was just like she had seen it, aside from the shoe in the middle of the bed.  At first sight, she wouldn’t have thought anyone was staying there at all had there not been a large photo album sitting in the middle of the table in the corner.  The bed, a single queen, looked like it hadn’t been slept in.  Rilynne would have considered the possibility that maid service had been in had it not been for the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door.

As Matthews pulled the closet door open, Rilynne quickly moved toward the closed bathroom door.

She took a quick, hopeful breath and yanked the door open.  Like the rest of the room, it was empty.

“His clothes are still in the closet,” Matthews said.

Rilynne slammed the side of her fist against the wall and turned back around to examine the room.  It was neat, abnormally so.  Even the dirty clothes were neatly folded and placed on a chair.

“Do you see any sign of Kim?” she asked.

Matthews rifled through the closet as Rilynne dropped down to look under the bed.  She pulled out the small suitcase that was near the edge and flung it open.  There were a few shirts but nothing that belonged to a child.  He must have moved her, or simply had her belongings with him.

“Let’s clear out,” she said.  “Get all police vehicles out of the parking lot.  I want an undercover car set up across the street to watch the room.”

Matthews nodded in agreement, and after taking one last look around, they hurried out of the room.  When they climbed into the car, Rilynne pounded her hand violently against the dash.  She was so sure this would be the end of it that the disappointment hit twice as hard.  Matthews looked over at her, no doubt wanting to scold her for abusing his car, but didn’t say a word.  He too looked utterly disappointed.

Neither of them spoke until they pulled up in front of the station.  Rilynne had kept her eyes closed the duration of the drive, trying to see where he could have taken Kim
after leaving the motel.  As hard as she tried, she couldn't force herself to see anything else.

“At least we know he’s still in town,” Matthews said.  “It’s not likely he would leave without his stuff.  That doesn't mean he had anything to do with the abduction, but you know how I feel about coincidences.”

“I was sure she would be there,” she admitted as she pushed her car door open.  “Even if they had gone out, I at least thought we would have found some sign of her in the room.  It’s unlikely he would have kept her in the clothes she had on at the rehearsal dinner.”

“He probably tossed those.  Despite posting the sign on the door, there’s no guarantee someone wouldn’t have gone in while he was out.  The Amber alert included a picture of her in that dress.  If I was the abductor, the first thing I would do is
get rid of that,” he stated.  “I definitely wouldn’t leave it sitting around to be found.”

He was right.  Even if Maloy was completely unstable, he more than likely would have had the sense to try and cover his tracks.

News of their failure must have already swept through the station, because all of the looks they were given as they walked through the lobby were far more sorrowful than the ones from an hour earlier.

Ben was waiting for Rilynne in the office when they walked back in.
 He didn’t ask how the raid went.  Instead, he just hugged her before sitting on the edge of her desk.  

She watched Matthews walk into the conference room before turning to her fiancé.

“Did you talk to Elise?” she asked.  “Did she tell you about the girl that was found last night?”

Ben gave her a puzzled look before shaking his head.
 Rilynne took in a deep breath before continuing.  “She believes the girl was held by her kidnapper for approximately ten years.  That would have put her close to Kim’s age when she was taken.”

“Do you think the cases are connected?” he asked.

Rilynne shrugged helplessly.  “I’m pretty sure the dreams I’ve had the past couple nights have been about last night’s victim,” she said quietly.  “Kim was in last night’s, but I don’t know if that means the same man took both.  It could have just been two separate dreams that overlapped.”

“What do you think the chances are of that?” he asked.
 “You told me that you only see things you have some connection to.  You were dreaming about this girl before her body was found.  Would that really have happened if it wasn’t connected to something you were emotionally invested in?”

Rilynne opened her mouth to answer, but stopped.
 She hadn’t even considered the idea.  She thought back to the first dream with the fog.  She was positive that the voice was the same as the one she’d heard last night.  Unless the dream was just that, a dream, there must be some connection.  After spending a few more moments pondering it, she started asking herself why she hadn’t considered it yet.  She now knew why Lori had been so concerned by the fact that her memory wasn’t to its usual level.  It wasn’t like Rilynne to miss as much as she had since this case started.  A wave of hopelessness overtook her, and she couldn’t help but think she would be able to do more for Kim if she wasn’t so caught up with her emotions.

She was still thinking about it when Ben leaned forward and nudged her.
 “Are you going to get that?” he asked.

Rilynne was confused by his question until she heard her phone ring.
 When she pulled it out, she felt her expression harden.

“What is it?” Ben asked.

Rilynne looked from the phone to Ben.  “It's Joe,” she said before answering.  “Hey, Joe.  Is everything all right?”

She felt the color drain from her face as she jumped up from her seat.  As she did, it flipped backward and slammed to the ground.  Although she could feel everyone turn toward her, she didn't acknowledge them.

“Call me if she shows back up.”  She groaned and dropped her phone down on the desk.

All she could do was think the worst.  Her chest seized as she felt her legs grow weak below her.  With shaking hands, she leaned forward against the desk and fought off a scream.

“What is it?” Ben asked more forcefully.  He grabbed her by the arm and spun her around to face him.  The strength behind it stunned her and was surprisingly calming.