Found With Murder (8 page)

“I know she bothers you,” he said gently.  “And I know how much you despise people like her.  I can't blame you there.”

“It's people like her that make me so sure I can't tell anyone what I can do.  I would lose the respect of everyone, because that's what people think of when they hear psychic visions.”  She knew she was ranting, but it felt good.  When she looked up at Ben, she was surprised to see him staring wide eyed down at her.  “What?”

“You just referred to yourself as a psychic,” he said.  “Well, in a way.  She must
really
be getting to you.”

Rilynne let out an involuntary chuckle and shook her head.  Ben had always been good at helping her relax, no matter what the situation was.  This one definitely called for it.  If he hadn't held her back, she had a feeling she would inevitably go off on the fraudulent psychic, which could very well end up exposing her secret. 

After taking one last breath to calm herself, Rilynne dropped her head down against Ben's shoulder and closed her eyes.

She was sitting in a car watching the road block that was set up a block away.  The sun was shining brightly as she looked back to the little girl sleeping in the back seat.

“We have the ransom money,” a voice sounded out through the car.  It was Wilcome's voice.  She looked to the police radio sitting on the passenger seat as she felt the air leave her lungs.

“What?” a man's voice said
softly.  “That's not possible.”

Her eyes shifted back to the road block as a wave of panic spread through her.

Suddenly she was in a room.  It was too dark to make out anything around her, but she could tell she was sitting on the edge of a bed.  There was a soft snoring coming from just beside her.  Kim was sleeping.

Then she turned to the clock on the nightstand.  Guilt weighed down heavily on her as she looked at the time.  It was five minutes after nine.

She bolted up, fighting off the urge to scream.

“What is it?” he asked.  There was a note of panic in his voice.  “What did you see?  Is Kim okay?”

Rilynne turned to him.  She didn't know exactly what to say, or even what to think.  She had been unsure enough about Kim's safety when it appeared to be a simple kidnapping for ransom.  With the thought that ransom wasn't actually the motive, she was scared to think of what could happen.

“Rye, what is it?” Ben asked.  His voice was low and demanding.  “Tell me what you saw.”

She struggled to catch her breath as she nodded.   “It's a ruse,” she said.  Her voice was shaky.  “He isn't going to pick up the money.  I'm guessing that's why the number was so unbelievably high.  He didn't want her to pay it.  He wanted her to give him a reason not to have to give her back.  He wants Kim, not the money.  He isn't giving her back.”

T
he tears started rolling down her face.  She let out a deep sob as he pulled her toward him and held her tight.  The warmth of his body reached through her clothes, making the chill of the evening air disappear.  Her body shook in his arms.  “W-what do I do?”

He nuzzled her hair and mumbled something she couldn't make out.  After several minutes, her tears dried and she sat up.

“You will find her,” he said.  There was a confidence in his voice that surprised her.  It wasn't something she was feeling herself.  The sound of it gave her strength, though.  Strength that she wouldn't have thought she could find in that moment.

“Okay,” she said, “They're on the wrong track.  We need to find out who would be more concerned with having Kim than taking the three million.  It has to be personal.  That's a lot of money to give up.  You wouldn't do it unless she was important.”  She knew as she said it that it wasn't something she needed to explain to him.  As it was, he had given up that much just to get her back.

“I think it would be safe to say it isn't a random child predator,” he said.  “I don't see someone like that being so attached to a child that he would willingly pass on the money.  Not when he could just as easily find another kid.”  The thought of it made him sick; she could see it on his face.

“We can also eliminate anyone with a personal grudge against Lori,” Rilynne said.  “That leaves anyone with an attachment to Kim. 
Or perhaps anyone who's desperate to be a parent.”  She thought it over.  “Even then, three million dollars is a lot to part with.”

His knuckles pulled up to his chin, dragging roughly against the stubble covering it.  “Are you sure he didn't accidently miss the pick up?” he asked after several minutes.  “Or
is
accidently going to miss it, I guess.”

She shook her head.  “I could feel what he was feeling,” she explained.  “He loves her.  He didn't care about that money at all.  Nor did he choose not to take it for fear of being caught.  There was something else.  He was incredibly guilty.  It was like he made a deal and felt bad for backing out at the last minute.”

Ben looked down at her but didn't speak.  He didn't need to for Rilynne to know exactly what he was thinking.  It was visible in the pained expression on his face.

“No,” she said.  “I don't think he intends to hurt her.”

He was relieved.  After letting out a low sigh, he looked down at his watch and stood up.  “It's time for me to go,” he said.  “I won't be long.  Are you going to be here when I get back?”

Rilynne nodded.  “Lori's going to need all the support she can get when the call comes in that the money didn't get picked up.  She won't take it well.”

“Just tell her what you think it means,” he said.  “If you're confident, it will give her strength.  If you're optimistic about the new place to start looking, she will be, too.”

When they walked back into the house, Rilynne was relieved to see the psychic was gone.  She glanced over briefly at Lori, still sitting on the couch, and then walked to the table.  She knew she couldn't, but she found herself wishing she could tell Lori what she had seen.  At least then, maybe she would know Kim was all right.

“Okay, you know the plan,” Wilcome said, sliding the large bag across the table to Ben.  “Just drop it under the bench and leave.”

Ben nodded and picked up the bag.

“This should be me,” Joe said.  “I should be the one doing this.”

“Lori needs you,” Ben said.  There was a kindness in his voice Rilynne had never heard before. 
At least not when it came to Joe.  “Chances are the kidnapper will be calling again before I even get back.  You should be here for that.”  His gaze shot quickly to Rilynne before returning to Joe.  Though he was trying hard to hide it, there was still a touch of guilt in his eye.

Ben kissed Rilynne on the cheek before quickly walking out the door.  While she was sure it just looked like he was anxious to get there, Rilynne knew he was trying to avoid any further conversation.

*     *     *

“Why hasn't he called yet?” Lori asked.  As soon as nine o'clock rolled around, she abandoned her spot on the couch and started hovering over the phone.  She even picked it up on three separate occasions just to make sure it was working.  Rilynne was sure she would have kept doing it had Jerkins not warned her that it could cause the line to be busy if he attempted to call while she was checking.

When Ben walked back in, Lori only became more anxious, as did Rilynne.  She sat back in the corner and watched the room around her, dreading the call she knew would be coming soon.

“I can't take this,” she whispered when Ben walked up next to her.  “I can't just sit here and wait.”

Ben looked around the room at all of the anxious faces before nodding and taking her by the arm.  He led her quietly through the kitchen and out the backdoor.  Lori's yard was smaller than her own, but it had been nicely arranged.  In the middle of the large deck that took up nearly half of it, Joe had installed a fire pit.  Lori had worried fiercely about it, afraid that one of the children might fall in, but gave in at Joe's insistence.

Rilynne considered sitting down in one of the patio chairs next to it, but decided just to sit on the top step.  As she leaned her head against the banister, Ben sat down beside her and let out a pained groan.

“I hate this,” she said.  Her voice cracked from the tears building in her throat.  “I hate lying to everyone.  Lori's my best friend and all I do is deceive her.  I try to rationalize everything by saying it's necessary, but it doesn't help.  Stuff like this just makes it harder.”

“I know,” he said, running his fingers gently through her hair.  He was being sweet, but he didn't really know; he couldn't understand what it was like.  While he had also lied to everyone, his
lie was one of omission.  It wasn't like anyone out right asked him how much money he happened to have stored away.  With her it was different.  She had to concoct stories to tell just so no one would wonder how she arrived at some of the things she did.  With Lori, she had to completely keep things that she knew, things about her missing child, to herself. 

For the first time in her life, Rilynne found herself seriously considering telling everyone what she could do and what she had seen.  While she knew it could end up costing her everything, she wouldn't care as long as it meant they had a better chance of bringing Kim home.

“It wouldn't make any difference if they knew what you had seen,” Ben said, as if he could read her mind.  “Everything of importance is being looked into.  The only things you're holding back are the things Lori never needs to hear.  If you told her what you saw while we were out at our spot, what do you think would happen the next time it rained?”

Our spot.
  Though there trips to the clearing had become more frequent, she had always considered it Ben's special place, to which she was an occasional guest.  What he said was right, though.  The only thing that would come from telling Lori that one particular vision was worry.

“What about the other ones?” she asked.  “Don't you think it would help to shift the investigation if I could tell them what I felt from the man who took her?”

“Rilynne,” he said gently, taking her hand into his.   “You may have felt what he was feeling, but you didn't see the reasoning behind it.  What if you did tell them and they decided to focus on sex offenders, being that it's the first thing to come to mind.  If there was another reason behind the feeling, it might be overlooked completely.  You know how to keep from being distracted or led by what you see; it won't be the same for them.  For right now, it's better that you can give them the idea to work with on their own.”  He smiled and gently pulled her chin up so she would meet his eye.  “If you decide that you want to tell everyone what you can do, I will stand beside you and support you one hundred percent.  This isn't the time to make the decision, though.”

She pushed off of the banister and rested her head against his shoulder.  “You're right,” she said softly.  “There's so much going on right now that I'm not thinking straight.  It happens from time to time.”  She grinned as she thought back.  “The last time was when we found out that Nicole was behind the killings and she had you.”

He turned to face her, raising a bemused eyebrow.  “You considered outing yourself to find me?”

“Does that really surprise you?” she asked.

“Well, being that we barely knew each other, yeah,” he said honestly.

“We
didn’t just barely know each other,” she responded.  “The feeling of excitement I would get around you notwithstanding, I still considered you a very good friend.  I completely shut down when I found that note on my door, not unlike Lori’s been these past few days.  It didn’t do anything to stifle Wilcome’s curiosities about us.  I actually think it was one of the main reasons he pushed to have the zero-fraternization rule lifted.”

Ben thought for a moment and grinned.  “Worst rule ever,” he said.

Rilynne look up at him, confused by his amusement.

“You announced it rather loudly after we made it back to the station that night,” he said.  “So that’s what you were talking about.”  His smirk grew larger.  “You wanted me even back then.”

“I...” she hesitated, feeling her cheeks start to burn.  “I will neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of your assessment.”

Ben’s phone chimed.  “Uh huh,” he said, reaching in his pocket to retrieve it.

Rilynne sat up and looked at him when she felt his body tense.  Ben's face was white.

“What is it?” she asked.  She tried to look down at his phone, but her eyes refused to.  As an overwhelming dread passed over her, it was everything she could do just to draw a breath.

Ben pulled his gaze up from the screen and looked over to her.  He tried to speak, but nothing came out.  Finally, he just handed her the phone.

Rilynne took a deep, shaky breath before she found the courage to read the message.  When she did, though, she wished more than anything she hadn't.

It wasn't long, but four words stood out above the rest.

“Young female body found.”

“
N
o.”  Rilynne heard the word but didn't realize it came from her lips until she looked around to find they were still alone.  She turned back to Ben, her chest so tight she couldn't breathe, and she pleaded silently for an explanation.  More than anything, she wanted him to tell her it meant something other than the images flooding through her mind.

As the tears rolled down her face, she saw him motion through the window behind her.  She didn't need to turn to know who he was calling.  Moments later, the door opened and Wilcome stepped out.  He didn't need to do anything more than look at Ben's face to know something was wrong.

“The body of a young female was found in the woods,” Ben said.  Rilynne looked up just in time to see Wilcome close his eyes and drop his head down.

“I'm going to go,” Ben continued.  “I'll find out.”

“I'm going with you,” Rilynne said.

“No,” Ben said abruptly.  “You're going to stay here.”

His tone shocked her.  While he wasn't shy about voicing his opinions, he wasn't usually so demanding.  She looked up at him to argue, but the stubborn expression on his face stopped her.  It didn't matter what she said, he wasn't going to let her go.  He was right, she knew it.
Though she wanted to know if the body that had been found was Kim, she couldn't take seeing it if it was.

“I agree with Davis,” Wilcome said.  “You are to stay here.”  His tone was just as domineering as Ben's, though not so unfamiliar.

She looked down at her feet and nodded.  Ben kissed the top of her head and left without a word.  Rilynne sat in silence, Wilcome by her side, for what felt like hours, though only a few minutes actually passed.

“Don't say anything to her,” he instructed.  “We don't know anything right now.  There's no need to tell her until we have an answer.”

“An answer about what?”

Rilynne and Wilcome both jumped and spun around.  She hadn't heard the door open.  Joe reached back and pushed it shut, his eyes shifting between the two of them.

“What happened?”  There was a panic on his face that matched the one she felt inside.  She wanted to look away from it, but she couldn't.

Rilynne opened her mouth, but it was Wilcome who spoke.  “A call came in for a female found in the woods,” he said.  “We don't know anything at this point.  Mr. Davis went out to the scene, and he will let us know as soon as he finds anything.”

Joe gave him a stunned nod and dropped back hard against the wall of the house.  He raked his shaking fingers through his long brown hair.  She could see there were questions in his eyes, but he didn't ask them.  Instead, he just stared blankly out into the yard.

Wilcome placed his hand gently on Joe's shoulder and walked back inside.

As soon as the door shut, Joe looked at Rilynne with an expression somewhere between pleading and helplessness.  She knew what he wanted.  It was written all over his face.

“I can't,” she said.  “Wilcome has ordered me to stay here.”  Even as she said it, the words just didn't seem right.  She had received a direct order not to go, but as the seconds passed, she cared less and less about following it.

“Please, Rilynne.  I can't just sit here.  I can't go back in there and look Lori in the eye knowing there's a possibility… I just can't,” he pleaded.  “You can go around the side of the house.  They'll never know you left.  They'll just think we're sitting out here talking.  Please.”

She looked through the window at everyone sitting around the dining room table.  They were waiting for a call that wouldn't come.  While there was a good possibility Wilcome wouldn't go back out, there wasn't a guarantee.  If he discovered she left, he would be furious.

She didn't care.  Rilynne nodded quickly and ran to the side of the house.  She didn't stop running until she made it to her front door.  Her keys were in her purse, which was still sitting on Lori's coffee table.  It would have been impossible for her to go back in and get them without Wilcome knowing exactly what she was doing.  She didn't need them, though.

Rilynne reached in her back pocket and pulled out the lock picking set Ben had given her.  It took her just seconds to get the lock open and grab her spare car key.

After climbing in her car and turning it on, she sat in her driveway and tried to remember where the message said the crime scene was.  She was just about to give up and call the station when she finally remembered.

The drive to the edge of the woods, though relatively nearby, seemed to take forever.  Her heart was drumming in her ears.  Rilynne was filled with both anxiousness and dread when she finally pulled off the road and stopped next to the police tape.  She turned the car off and reached for the door handle but hesitated.  She wanted to run, turn around and never hear what was lying just in front of her.

“Come on,” she said to herself.  Her insides felt like they were going to explode by the time she tugged at the handle as she let it out.

Her legs were quaking beneath her as she approached the tape.  She could see the crowd surrounding something just twenty feet past it.  Her hand trembled as she reached out to grasp the tape, despite her attempts to steady it.  As her fingers touched it, she heard footsteps moving toward her.

“You were told not to come,” Ben said.  He ran to her, ducking under the tape before he pulled her into his arms.

“Is it…”  She couldn't finish her question.  Tears built in her throat as she buried her face in his chest.

“No,” he said.  The relief in his voice was only eclipsed by the wave that flooded over her.  “It's not her.”

She pulled away and looked deep into his eyes.  “Are you sure?”

He nodded quickly, causing his shaggy hair to bounce around his still pale face.

“The victim is a teenager, at least fifteen,” he said.  “It looks likes she's been out here for a few days.  It's definitely a murder, but it's not Kim.”

Rilynne let out a satisfied laugh, but stopped abruptly, horrified with her reaction.  The young girl may not be Kim, but she was still someone's daughter.  Ben sensed where her mind was, because he pulled her back in and held her tight as he told her it was okay.

“I have to tell Joe,” she said after a few seconds.  Ben looked down at her curiously as she reached for her phone.  “He walked out and overheard Wilcome and I talking after you left,” she explained.  “He's sitting in the backyard waiting for an answer.”

“Wilcome isn't going to be pleased with you,” he said.

Rilynne finished sending her message and looked up at him.

“He doesn't know you left.”  It wasn't a question.

“He thinks I'm sitting in the yard with Joe,” she said coyly.  She glanced down at her phone as it chimed.  “At least until I got a call from you saying it wasn't Kim.  Then I went for a walk to clear my head.”  She waved her phone as confusion settled over his face.  “Well, that's what Joe's telling Wilcome.”

Ben groaned and walked her back to her car.  “One of these days you're actually going to listen when you're told to do something.”  She smirked at him and raised an eyebrow, causing Ben to reevaluate his statement.  “You're right; I think I would actually start to worry about you if that ever happened.”

*     *     *

Rilynne pulled the car into her driveway and walked back to Lori’s house.  Ben was already inside talking to Wilcome when she walked back in.  They had both thought it would look too suspicious if they walked back in together, so Ben parked his SUV in front of Lori's house instead of Rilynne's.  While she knew Wilcome well enough to know that he wouldn’t call her out even if he suspected the truth, she didn’t want to leave Joe in an awkward position.

Wilcome caught her eye when she walked in and tilted his head toward the kitchen.  After tossing a quick glance at Lori to make sure she wasn’t watching, she followed him out of the room.

“The ransom wasn’t picked up,” he said quietly.  “It’s been an hour now, and no one has so much as showed interest in the bag.  We've also been running the plates of everyone in the area, but nothing has popped.  Well, we did come across one stolen car, but it turned out to be a group of teenagers on a joyride.  Other than that, everything's seemed on the up and up.”

Though she already knew the ransom wasn’t going to be picked up, she didn’t have to fake her reaction when he told her.  She couldn’t picture people walking by a large duffle bag under a bench without paying it any mind, even if they weren’t involved in any way.  It wasn’t unheard of for a random person to even be curious enough on occasion to look inside of the bags, resulting in not only a trip to the station to be
interviewed, but a compromised ransom drop.  The park must have been incredibly empty for no one to have even glanced in its direction.

“How long are you going to wait before picking the bag back up?” she asked.  “I mean, you can’t leave that much money just sitting out there all night.”

“I told them to give it until midnight before going out and grabbing it,” he explained, rubbing his fingers along a small chip in the countertop.  “I’m hoping that our kidnapper is just sitting somewhere watching it, making sure there aren’t any cops ready to swoop in and pick him up.  Surely three hours is enough time to give him.  Then, at least, it will look like we went out after a call didn’t come in to see if it had been taken.”

Rilynne paused to choose her words carefully.  “So you don’t think a call is going to come in?” she asked, trying to seem shaken by the thought.  She didn’t need to work hard at it.  Although she had known for hours, the thought still left her nauseous.

Wilcome groaned and rubbed his face.  “With how much time has passed since the arranged time, I’m starting to think that it’s unlikely.  I could see someone staking the scene out early, or watching the area for a little while before moving in, but it’s been over an hour.  He had Kim with him when he made the ransom call, which leads me to believe he's keeping her close.  It would be difficult to stake out the park with a four year old in tow, especially one whose face is posted all over town.”

Rilynne shot a glance back over to Lori.  She had her elbows pulled up on the table and she was staring at the telephone as if she could will it to ring if she only tried hard enough. 
Her hair, which had been in loose curls the night of the rehearsal dinner, was now knotted and pulled up haphazardly in an off centered ponytail.  Lori was also still wearing the same clothes she had helped her into the day before.  Rilynne had a feeling she would stay that way until someone actually forced her to shower and change.

“What do we tell Lori?” she asked, not taking her eyes off of her.

It took several long seconds for Wilcome to answer.  Rilynne knew he was just as torn by the situation as she was.  There was a fine line between shielding her from the things she didn’t need to know and keeping her completely in the dark.  They were flirting with it.

“Nothing tonight,” he said.  “We won’t know anything for sure until midnight, anyway.  Hopefully she’ll be asleep by then and we’ll have a few hours to figure it out.  No matter what we tell her, she isn’t going to take it well.”

Rilynne didn’t even know where to start.  She had been trying to think of the best way to break it to Lori, but Ben’s call had distracted her.  She was just glad they only needed to explain that the ransom hadn’t been picked up and not that Kim had been found in the woods.

“We just need to make sure the television stays off,” she said.  “The news will no doubt report about the girl found tonight, and you know as well as I do that they'll try to connect the two cases.”

Like he always did when his mind was on something else, Wilcome just nodded and walked away without a word.  As soon as he rejoined Lori at the table, Ben crossed into the kitchen to meet her.  He glanced quickly over his shoulder at Wilcome before leaning in close.  “Did he bust you?” he whispered.

Rilynne shook her head.  “He informed me that the ransom hadn’t been picked up by the kidnapper,” she said, careful to speak low so Lori wouldn’t hear.  “He’s going to wait until midnight before sending someone in to collect the money.”

“Does he have any theories, aside from the ones we’ve already considered?” he asked.  Before she could answer, though, they were joined by someone else.

Joe took Rilynne by the arm and led her toward the back door.  It startled her for a moment, as it did Ben judging by his fist instinctively tightening, but they both followed without a word.

After glancing back at Lori, who was still hovering over the phone, Joe opened the back door and motioned them out.

“I want to know everything,” he said abruptly as soon as the door closed.  Rilynne took a step away when he released his hold on her.  She wasn’t afraid of him, but she also wasn’t comfortable with such close contact.  As she did, she also saw Ben's body relax.

“I know there are things you're holding back.  I want you to tell me everything,” he continued.  “Don’t leave me in the dark.”

Rilynne’s eyes shifted to Ben.  When he nodded, she sat down on the top step and turned back to Joe.

“The ransom wasn’t picked up,” she said.  “That’s why the call hasn’t come in.”

The determined look on Joe’s face disappeared and was replaced by fear.  He was regretting his request to know everything; she could see it in his eyes.