Found With Murder (5 page)

She ran through the yard of the next house, banging on each window as she passed, but no one responded.

Where was everyone?  As she looked from house to house, she saw that not a single light was on.  In addition to that, she found that every car was gone.

Rilynne went to the front of the next home and grabbed the water hose at the side of the house.  After turning it on, she aimed it at the giant wall moving toward her.  The water hit the smoke and bounced right off.

She yelled and dropped the running hose at her feet.  It wasn't smoke.

With one last look around, she turned and ran down the street.  She ran until she reached the station, which had the first light on that she saw.  The relief she felt at seeing it was quickly squashed, though, when she stepped into the empty lobby.

It wasn't just empty.  It looked like everyone had just dropped everything where they stood and left.  There were papers and files scattered across the floor and a pair handcuffs hanging loosely from the bar at the closest desk with the key still in them.

“Is anyone here?” she yelled.  She stood quietly for a moment to listen but the station was silent.

She was torn.  She didn't know if she should run and get further from the mysterious wall or if she should search the station.  After a few long seconds, she grabbed the phone off of the first desk.

First she tried Ben.  No answer.  After the third attempt, she tried calling Matthews. 
Again, no answer.  Finally she called her mother.

“Rilynne?”
  Amber was in a near panic when she answered the phone.  “What are you still doing in Addison Valley?”

“Mom, what's happening?” Rilynne asked.  “Everyone's gone and there's a smoke-like fog sweeping through town.”

“Get out of there!” she yelled.  “You have to get out before…”

The line went dead.

Rilynne looked down at the phone as a wave of terror engulfed her.  She dropped it and ran for the door.  When she stepped out, she saw the fog only half a block away.

She turned and ran, faster than she had ever run before.  Her heart was racing in her chest as she looked back to find the wall moving faster.  It was catching up to her.

Suddenly she heard something that made her stop in her tracks.

“Make it stop!  I promise I'll behave, just make it stop!”

The voice belonged to a young girl, though she couldn't see where it was coming from.  She spun around in place, looking between every building to find its source.  “Please, I'll listen!” it called out again.

Rilynne had been so concerned with finding the girl belonging to the voice that she forgot about the fog until she turned back around.

It was ten feet away… one foot… one inch…

“
B
abe.”  A voice came from just beside her.  Rilynne gasped when her eyes shot open.  As several other voices filled the background, it took several moments for her to realize where she was.  She sat up, her body aching from the awkward angle she had been lying, and turned to face him. 

“Did you stay here all night?” Ben asked.  She nodded and looked up at the clock on the wall.  It was just before seven.  “I thought you were only going to stay for a few more minutes after I left.  I didn't know what to think when I woke up and you weren't there.”

“I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to worry you,” she said.  She let out a yawn as she stretched in her chair.  “I guess I just lost track of time.”

He ran his hand gently down her cheek.  “Did you find anything?”

She closed her eyes and shook her head.  When she opened them again moments later, she found Ben's knuckles dragging along his unshaven chin.  She liked the scruffy look on him, though she rarely had the opportunity to see it.  Like her, he was a bit of a workaholic and almost never took off long enough to let it grow out.

“I'm going to run home and change,” she said.  “That charlatan is due in soon, and I'd rather not be around when she gets here.”

Ben furrowed his brow as he turned toward her.  “Are you sure she-?”

“Is a fake?  Yes,” she interrupted, though it didn't ease the expression on his face.

“No,” he said, shaking his head.  “Are you sure she isn't involved?  What better way to make a name for yourself than by solving a child abduction case.  More than just that, a cop's child.  It would almost guarantee future work with the department.”

Rilynne let out a deep sigh but didn't have an answer.  She was angry at herself for not considering it, though.  She had been so hung up on the flashy show Young had been giving that she hadn't even entertained the possibility that she could be more than just a fraud.

“I'll have Steele look into it,” she said.  “He's adamant that psychics don't exist, so I trust he can do a thorough job without getting sucked into her show.”

Ben grinned.  “Poor naïve man,” he chuckled.  “Come on, I'll drive you home.”

She nodded and grabbed her purse.  After sending Steele a quick message, they started toward the elevator.

“What were you dreaming about?” he asked when the doors closed behind them.  “Did you see anything useful?”

She thought back over the dream before shaking her head.  “At least not anything that stands out.  I'm still not used to deciphering them.  The most I've been able to do is tie things together after the fact.  That's not really going to help us right now.”

When the doors opened to the lobby, Ben took Rilynne's arm and they walked quietly toward the front door.  Just before they reached it, Ms. Young stepped in.

“Good morning, detective,” she said.  She smiled briefly before her eyes widened and she pulled her hand up over her mouth.  “Oh dear,” she gasped.  “You must be careful today.  Horrible things will happen to you if you don't look around the corner before you turn.”

Rilynne looked her up and down, trying to keep the baleful look from her expression.  “I'll keep that in mind,” she said politely.  She turned to Ben, who seemed to be struggling not to laugh, and walked out the door without giving her another look.

The moment the door shut behind them, Ben let out the laugh he had been forcing in.  “Isn't that something a fortune cookie would say?” he chortled.

Rilynne wasn't as amused by the encounter.  She was never one for catty drama, but it took everything she had within her to restrain herself around that woman.  She was going through more than enough already without having to watch someone make a mockery out of something that was such a big part of her life.

“Maybe I can help you make sense of your dream,” Ben said when they climbed into the car.  “Or possibly see something you overlooked.”

Rilynne nodded, thankful for a change of subject, and went over every detail she could remember as they drove back to her house.  Despite his offer, though, he was also unable to find anything useful in it.

While she jumped into the shower to quickly rinse off, Ben took Marti out in the backyard.
He was still chasing her around ten minutes later when she finished getting dressed and walked into the kitchen.  As she watched him through the window, she couldn't help but wonder how he would be when they had kids.  As the thought passed through her mind, the current situation hit her like a punch in the stomach, causing a tear to roll down her cheek.

She watched him for several more minutes before finally pushing the door open and stepping out.

“I think we should go over to Lori's,” she said.  He nodded and picked up the bouncing puppy as he followed her back into the house.

With Lori just a few doors down, they decided to walk instead of drive.  Rilynne's stomach tightened with every step.  Not because she thought something new might have come up, but because she knew it hadn't.

She was trying to brace herself for the conversations to come when something at the corner of Lori’s yard caught her eye.  Though at first glance nothing seemed out of the ordinary, it still made her stop in her tracks.  Ben made it a few steps further before turning around and facing her.

“What is it?” he asked, tracing her gaze to the small pile of cigarette butts just to the side of the sidewalk.

“It's…” she trailed off, trying to make sense of the knots she had at the sight of them.  Rilynne closed her eyes and thought about it for several long moments before the heart wrenching realization hit her.  She had seen a similar pile before.  She'd seen them in a vision she had, right across the street from Lori's old house.

“Oh, I'm so stupid,” she berated herself.  She didn't know why it wasn't one of the first things she thought of.  When she took in the perplexed look on Ben's face, she continued.  “Lori moved here to escape a stalker.  I saw something in a dream I had her first night here.  He was standing in front of her house watching her with a pile like this at his feet.  And this-” she
stepped back toward the large tree on the edge of the yard “-is the perfect place to watch the house without being seen.”

He pulled out his phone without needing to hear another word.  Minutes later,
Summers rolled up in front of the house.  As she watched him carefully place each one of the butts into an evidence bag, she pulled her own phone out.

“Matthews, do me a favor,” she said when his voice sounded across the line.  “I want to keep it as quiet as possible, though.”

“Did you find something?” he asked.  There was an unmistakable note of fear in his tone.

“Maybe.
  I need you to run a name for me and see if he's in town.”

“What's the name?”

Rilynne opened her mouth to respond before realizing she didn't have one.  She looked at Ben helplessly for a moment before the answer sparked.

“I don't have one, but Wooldridge will know it,” she said.  “Ask him for the name of Lori's stalker in Bodker.  Try to keep it quiet, though.  She has enough going on right now.  She doesn't need to have to deal with this on top of it.”

After hanging up, she leaned against the tree and closed her eyes.  She concentrated as hard as she could but nothing came.  When she opened her eyes minutes later, she found Ben's gaze on her.  Shrugging and giving him a half hearted smirk, she turned back to Summers.

“Work with Wooldridge and Matthews,” she instructed.  “They should be able to provide a DNA sample for you to compare these
to.  I also want it run through the system.  Someone's been standing here watching the house, even if it wasn't the stalker.”

He nodded as he slid the last one into the envelope before sealing it.

Rilynne and Ben stood in place after he left instead of going inside.  He seemed to be studying her face, trying to get a read on what she was thinking without asking her.

“You don't want to tell her.”  He said minutes later.  It wasn't a question.

Rilynne shook her head, not needing to think about it.  “There's nothing she can tell us that we can't learn ourselves.  Besides, I don't want to give her another reason to blame herself.  She's doing enough of that as it is.”

Ben nodded without arguing.  He reached out to take her hand before leading her to the front door.

When they walked in, they found Lori sitting on the couch, staring out the window with Kim's favorite teddy bear in her arms.  She didn't even notice they were there until Rilynne sat down next to her.

“She's going to be so scared without Mr. Fuzzy,” she said, squeezing the bear tightly.  “She can't sleep without him at night.  He keeps her safe from the dark.  She says he scares the monsters away so they don't go in her room.”

“She'll be glad to see him when she gets back,” Rilynne said.  She felt helpless.  She didn't even know how to ease her own mind, let alone her friends.

Rilynne put her arm around Lori and sat with her in silence, watching the others in the room. 
Jerkins was sitting with the equipment he had set up on the table, sound asleep in his chair.  He was still in the clothes he was wearing the day before, as was Lori.

When her eyes shifted to the kitchen, she found Ben talking with Joe, each working on a large cup of coffee.  The scene actually shocked her.  Though they had been more tolerant of each other over the last several months, this was the first time she had ever seen them appear almost friendly.

“I've tried to search my memory for anything that stands out as odd, hoping that I had seen someone watching us but didn't give it any thought at the time,” Lori said.  “My head isn't working, though.  I can't even remember little things like what the newspaper article I read the other morning was about.  If I can't recall something so mundane, how am I supposed to remember anything important?”

For the average person, not remembering something from a newspaper article wouldn't be anything to fret over.  She knew why it was troubling Lori, though.  Lori had a photographic memory and a genius level IQ.  There was no question as to why she would be worrying over something so small.  Rilynne didn't see reason to give it any thought, though.  Lori was always very observant of her surroundings, especially when Kim was with her.  If she had seen anyone, she wouldn't have overlooked it.

“The only things in my head right now are the numbers,” Lori continued.  “According to a recent study, 46 percent of abducted children are sexually abused, 31 percent are physically abused, 40 percent are killed, and 4 percent are never found.  Of the children killed, 76 percent are killed within the first three hours and 89 percent are killed in the first twenty-four.”

Lori always rattled off statistics when she was concerned or nervous.  Rilynne knew all she could do was sit back and wait for her to calm.  Short of telling Lori what she had seen, there wasn't anything she could say to convince her Kim wasn't part of the latter category.

As bad as it made her feel, she was relieved when her phone rang moments later and she had an excuse to step away.

“I need to take this,” she said, pushing herself off the couch.  Lori slowly nodded but didn't turn to face her.  She swept quickly out of the room before pulling the phone up to her ear.  “What do you have?”

Matthews let out a low sigh before speaking.  “We found a flight from Milwaukee to San Antonio in Maloy's name two days before Kim was taken.  We haven't found any record of him in town, but if I had to guess, I'd say he found her.”

The air left Rilynne's lungs as she dropped back against the wall.  “He's here, I know he is.  Put in a call to all motels and cabin rentals.  Send a picture and see if anyone has seen him.  I want eyes on him by the end of the day.  No one is to approach, though.  If he has Kim, we need to follow him until he takes us to where he's holding her.”

“What about Sibrian?” he asked.

“I don't want to tell her anything until we have an answer.”

He hesitated for a moment.  Rilynne didn't need to ask why before she continued.

“I know she'll be furious with me for keeping her in the dark, but I don't want to give her either false hope or something else to worry about,” she said.  “I'll accept full responsibility for the decision.  She can be as angry with me as she wants when all of this is done.”

“All right,” he said uneasily.  She could tell he still wasn't happy with the choice she made, but he didn't argue.

She let out a low groan as she slid her phone back into her pocket.  After taking several slow breaths to compose herself, she turned to find Ben and Joe watching her.  She cursed under her breath and walked over to meet them in the kitchen.

Joe's eyes shifted quickly to Lori and back.  “What's going on?” he asked quietly.  She wondered to herself if Ben had mentioned the decision to keep the new development from Lori, or if he had come to it on his own.  “You know something; I can see it on your face.  Tell me,” he demanded.  “I want to know.” 

With a resigned sigh, she leaned against the island and ran her hands back over her face.  “I assume Lori told you why she moved here?” she asked.  The question made her feel uncomfortable.  It was one thing to tell Matthews so he could look into it, but it felt almost like she was betraying her friend by telling Joe.  “The real reason, that is?”