Jenn Vakey - Rilynne Evans 07 - Revenge with Murder (13 page)

“What can you tell us about your mother’s relationship with her husband?” Perez asked.  Rilynne glanced back toward him, but he didn’t meet her gaze.  It was obvious that even with the daughter’s confirmation that it was likely she was having an affair, he still wasn’t willing to move past John Burton.

Ashton rolled her eyes and started twisting the tissue in her hands.  “She only married him to make herself feel young again,” she stated.  There was a bite of annoyance in her tone.  “I knew things with them were spiraling, and they had been for months.  Everything he did seemed to annoy her.  I almost felt bad for him.  Even the things he did in an attempt to be sweet she would mock him for.  It wasn’t even like she would talk about him just behind his back.  She would tear him down in front of him, and to anyone who would listen.  Are you sure he didn’t have anything to do with this?  There is only so much a man like him can take before he snaps.  She was definitely flirting with that line.”

Rilynne pushed her chair back and stood up.  “We’ll keep looking into it.  Let us know if there’s anything else you can think of.”

Ashton nodded as she reached up and brushed a tear off of her cheek.

“I’ll see you out,” Perez said.  “Would you like a ride to where you’re staying?”

Ashton reached for her purse and let him help her to her feet.  “Just to the dock, please.  I have to get back home to my daughter.  I didn’t want to bring her down here to see all of this, but I don’t have anyone to watch her.  My neighbor is leaving town tomorrow, so I have to get back and pick her up.  Will you call me the moment you find out anything, though?”

Rilynne sat down on the edge of the desk Ben was still using while Perez walked Ashton out the front door.

“What are you thinking?” Ben asked as soon as the door shut behind them.  “Were you able to get anything off of either of them?”

Rilynne watched through the front window as Perez pulled the car door open for Ashton.  “I didn’t see anything more than John Burton angrily leaving the house after their fight.  As far as what I could make of the two of them, the daughter doesn’t seem to have anything to do with it.  The husband’s angry.  If she really was having an affair, it would have definitely given him reason to want to hurt her.  If we can verify it, he has a pretty solid alibi.  And if he was telling the truth about her second cell phone, I think it might have something to do with her death.  From what I can tell, it was the only thing missing from the stuff in her purse.  If her keys or wallet had been gone also, I would have considered the possibility it might have just been on her when she was killed,” she stated.  As the car disappeared down the road, she turned and looked back at Ben.  “Were you able to find anything?”

“I can’t have
Summers try to trace it unless we have a phone number.  I’m having her finances searched to see if there’s anything for a phone in them.  You might try talking to any of the local stores that sell phones.  She could have either signed up for a new phone or bought one of those prepaid ones.  I don’t imagine there are too many of those sell out here, so even if it is a disposable one, we might still be able to get a number for it.  As for the number that Mr. Burton gave you, I haven’t been able to find anything.  It looks like it was activated about four months ago, but it was disconnected on Monday after the victim’s body was found.  We’re trying to have the history run on it to get the victim’s number, but Summers is having some difficulty.”

“So it’s likely that the owner shut it off so he wouldn’t be able to be connected to her,” she added.

Wanting to avoid any drama, Rilynne sent Burton on his way before Perez returned.  Although they had no reason to keep him, she knew he would try.

Perez didn’t say a word when he walked back in five minutes later.  Rilynne grabbed the stack of papers Ben had printed up and walked over to join him at his desk.

“What do we know about her partner?”  Rilynne asked, flipping through the pages in her hands.  “Paul Herrera.  Do you know if he’s been out here at all since the victim arrived?”

“Well, why don’t you just ask him?” Perez said abruptly.

“People lie,” she replied.  “I would also rather know as much as I could before interviewing him.  Catching someone in a lie as it’s happening is better than finding out afterward.  It gives them less time to come up with another one, so it’s easier to actually get the truth.  Maybe he’s the man she was having an affair with.”

Perez groaned and leaned back in his seat.  “I can’t believe you are still buying that story,” he stated.  “For someone who’s supposed to be good at investigating things, I would have thought you could see past when someone is pulling your chain.  It’s clear the husband was involved.  With her so unhappy in the marriage, he had the motive.  We’re just wasting time dragging this out.  I should be out arresting him instead of sitting here looking over all of this again.”

“Careful, Perez,” Rilynne stated, not looking up from the report in her hands.  “Keep talking like that and people will start to think you’re more concerned with protecting your citizens than actually finding the person responsible for this.  Especially since the victim’s own daughter confirmed that it wasn’t unlikely that the victim was engaged in an extramarital affair.  I can pretty much guarantee that’s the claim any good defense attorney would make if you arrest a tourist without adequate evidence.”

“Don’t fool yourself, girl,” he responded sharply.  “The only reason the mayor has the two of you assisting me with this is to eliminate any possibility of that.  I’m not going to sit on my hands for long, though.  As soon as I can prove he wasn’t where he said he was, I’m arresting him and charging him with this murder.  The people of Spicer Island don’t need to wait any longer than they have to for assurances that the island is safe
again.  I’m not going to let you keep them from that.”

Rilynne opened her mouth to counter, but closed it again without a word.  There wasn’t any point.  Whether he truly believed John Burton was guilty or not, he was dead set on pinning this on him.  Nothing she could say, aside from identifying the person actually responsible, was going to change his mind.

“She has a name,” Ben said.  His tone startled her as she looked up at him.  He was still holding the file he had been reading with one hand, but this other was dragging roughly along his chin as he looked across the desk to Perez.  His tone was cold, which confused her.  She was about to ask if he had come across something in the file when he continued.  “And I would appreciate you using it instead of addressing her as ‘girl’.”

It took another couple seconds before Rilynne realized what had just happened.  She had completely overlooked Perez’s comment, but apparently her husband had not.  There was a look of fury in his eyes that she hadn’t seen in a while.  When her gaze shot to Perez, he seemed to find nothing but amusement in Ben’s statement.  That was a mistake on his part.  Ben might come off as timid or relaxed the majority of the time, but Rilynne knew better.  In the time since they first met, Ben had been involved in several altercations when it came to defending her honor.  The first had even resulted in him striking a police officer.  It wouldn’t have surprised her a bit to see it happen again.

Although amused, Perez looked shocked by Ben’s statement, but nothing about his demeanor led her to believe he was even considering apologizing for it.  On the contrary.  From the look of joy in his eye, she would have bet all the money they had that he was planning on pushing this newly discovered button as frequently as he could.  Rilynne braced herself, ready to step in to hold Ben back, but it didn’t come to that.  His eyes stayed on Perez for several long moments, the look of determination never leaving his face, before he shifted his gaze back to the reports.  Had their involvement in the case not hinged on the rapport with the locals, she was sure he would have pushed it further.  As good as it made her feel when he stood up for her, it just wasn’t the time or place.

“The partner’s daughter still hasn’t had her child, so I’m scheduled to video conference with him in five minutes,” Perez said, not acknowledging Ben’s statement.  “You can find out anything you want to know then.”

*     *     *

The interview with the victim’s partner, Paul Herrera, was far from enlightening.  Although he hadn’t been to the country himself, he was in contact with her regularly during her time in Spicer Island, and he wasn’t aware of any confrontations she had been in with anyone.  Like her daughter, he said the victim had actually found everyone on the island to be very hospitable.  He also wasn’t aware of any affair she might have been having.  Unlike Ashton, Herrera wasn’t forthcoming about her past affairs.  While insisting that he didn’t have knowledge of one she might have been recently involved in, he unconvincingly stated that he didn’t know anything about the reasons behind her past divorces.  Despite Rilynne statement that her daughter had already filled them in, he still refused to acknowledge them.

After ending the call, Perez grumbled a short goodbye and walked out.  Rilynne glanced over to Max, who had been sitting quietly at his desk by the door throughout the entire process.  He shrugged in an amused sort of way.  Rilynne decided to take Perez’s lead and motioned for Ben to follow.  After saying bye to Max, she pushed the front door open.

“Well, what do you want to do the rest of the day?” Ben asked.

Rilynne thought about it for a moment before answering.  “Let’s go get lost.”  She grinned at his bemusement.  “Let’s just walk around and not really pay attention to where we go.  Maybe we’ll find ourselves somewhere interesting.”

“
W
e haven’t done this in a while,” Ben stated as they stood at a fork in a small dirt road.  He pulled a coin out of his pocket and flipped it before heading left.  “In fact, I think the last time we were trying to get lost from other people instead of just for fun.  I think I like this one a little better.  I won’t lie, though; I do have a few fond memories of that adventure.  I still can’t believe I didn’t ruin the surprise when I took you to the house.  I thought you’d surely recognize it, or maybe you’d see something that told you what it was.  I guess it was a little lucky you sliced your leg open on the second day.  Between the initial shock of being on the run and drinking so you could stitch your thigh up, your senses were probably dulled.”

“I’m actually surprised I didn’t realize it too,” she admitted.  “When I look back, I can’t see how I didn’t figure it out.  If the spiral staircase in the master had been installed, I’m sure I would have.  Although it was pretty hard to tell what anything was going to be with only half the walls put
in.  I can’t wait to get everything in there and start to unpack.  I’m glad mom is going to come down and stay with us for a little while so we can get it all situated.  Between the two of you, I don’t think we will have any difficulty getting it nicely decorated.”

“Do you think she’s still entertaining the idea of permanently moving to Addison Valley?” he asked.  The tone she would expect to hear from most men when talking about the idea of his mother-in-law moving nearby was absent in his voice.  To her enjoyment, Ben was perhaps even more sold on the idea than she
was, which said a lot.

“Just say the word and I will have the plans put together for a guesthouse.  She can even design it if she wants,” he offered.  “I can have it ready for her to move in
in just a few months if you want.  The team I used to build our house I’ve actually been working with for years.  They can build quickly but still with the quality you’d want in a home.”

“What else have you had them build for you?” she asked curiously.  It had only been a few months since she learned her husband wasn’t just an everyday working man.  In fact, she still didn’t know if she knew about all of the properties he owned.  He’d offered to go over everything with her, but at the moment she knew just as much as she needed to.  With the task of re-planning their wedding after the first was delayed, she
already had enough on her plate to focus on without adding to it.  She decided that she would wait until after their honeymoon before actually becoming acquainted with everything that he now called theirs.

“A few buildings here and there.”
  He spoke like it was a common occurrence to own several buildings, or even one for that matter.  Rilynne still thought it was strange.  “A few of them I fixed up and sold.  One building I purchased had to be practically stripped to studs and rebuilt.  It looked great by the time they were finished.  I turned a nice profit on it, too.”

Rilynne stopped and turned toward him with puzzled amusement.  “So what you’re saying is you were flipping entire buildings?” she asked.  “I didn’t know people actually did that.”

Ben shrugged and smiled, pleased with the shock and impressment she expressed.  “That wasn’t my original plan with it,” he explained.  “I was going to rent it out for office space, but I ended up needing the funding for something else I was working on.”

“Well, I guess that’s as good of a reason as any to sell something,” she chuckled.  Even the thought of it still seemed so abstract to her, like they were talking about nothing more than a game with play money.  She had a feeling it wouldn’t start to feel real until she found herself actually seeing the things he had and did.  “And as for my mother, I’m actually surprised she hasn’t already sold her house and made the move.  Honestly, I think she’s just waiting for an official invitation.”

“Well, make one,” he said.  “I know how happy it would make you if she were closer.  Besides, it’s good for her and Elise to spend the time together, too.  Since she never knew her own mother, I think yours has started to fill that gap.  I was actually surprised your mom accepted her and made her feel like she was part of the family as quickly as she did.  I didn’t really know what to expect out of that situation.  Elise might not talk to you much about it, but it means a lot to her.”

A surge of gratitude spread through her.  “I won’t
lie, I was kind of concerned about their first meeting, also.  I knew mom wouldn’t ever be anything more than pleasant to her, but she really went above and beyond.  Elise may not be her daughter, but I think she sees her that way.  They even talk on the phone nearly as much as we do.  As for her moving her, having her close doesn’t mean she has to live on the same property as us,” she stated.  “I know you’ve offered because it’s what you think will make me happy, but she could just get a place in town somewhere.”

“It’s not like I’m saying she should move in with us,” he said.  They stopped at another fork in the road.  After looking up and down both paths, they again went left.  “We have twenty acres, and I’m in talks with the neighbors behind us to buy their property, which stretches out into the hills.  We could build the guesthouse anywhere on there.  There’s a pretty nice spot toward the other end that would even give her a private driveway that come out close to the hospital.  That way she will be close enough any time you needed her, but we would still have our privacy.  You know I don’t like the idea of you being alone when I’m out of town.  And it would be nice to have her close when we have kids.”

Rilynne was glad he was a couple steps in front of her so her face didn’t betray her.  The color leached from her cheeks.  “That would make things a bit easier,” she said, not wanting to broach the subject.  The more he spoke of them having children, the more nervous she became.  She hadn’t even realized how hesitant she was until he mentioned it the first time after they married.  Not wanting to talk about anything so serious while on their honeymoon, she just avoided the topic altogether.  “I think Matthews would enjoy having her here, too.  She offered to watch the girls for him any time he and Katy wanted a night out to themselves.  I swear he’s asked me about her a dozen times since they were born.  Now that they’re sleeping through the night, I bet that’s going to only get worse.”

“I imagine part of that has to do with the face Katy’s mom was driving him crazy while she was here,” Ben laughed.  “He’s so protective of her, even when it comes to her mom.  I really thought he was going to snap at the party they threw to introduce the girls to everyone.  When she told Katy that she was being foolish allowing them to be surrounded by everyone’s germs, I thought he was going to kick her out right then and there.  I was actually amazed he didn’t.  I’m pretty sure Katy was, too.”

Matthews’ love for his wife wasn’t something anyone who’d met them would ever question.  It wasn’t a secret that he would do anything in the world to make her happy.  When her mother brought her almost to the point of tears at that party, Ben and Katy weren’t the only ones who believed he was going to kick his mother-in-law out in what would have been a very public display.  Rilynne, on the other hand, wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d evicted her from their lives instead of just their home.

“I’ll saw one thing, I couldn’t see my mom ever doing anything like that,” she admitted.  “And it would be nice to have a nurse around to stitch me up when I get hurt.  I won’t pretend it doesn’t happen often enough for it to be considered an upside.”

“It was pretty sexy watching you stitch your leg up, though,” Ben said.  “I didn’t see that going as well as it did.  You should have seen Matthew’s face when I told him you did it.  I think he assumed you must have been joking when you told him to ask me about it.  And to think, the guys were actually worried when Wilcome told everyone he’d hired another woman to join the unit.”

“Really?”
Rilynne asked, her shock turning into a laugh.  “What did they think, that I was going to be a little weakling who couldn’t take care of herself?”

“Pretty much,” he said.  “But you can’t really blame them for being a little hesitant.  The only female detective that had ever been in homicide before you was Detective Butcher, and you know how everyone felt about her.  Despite the fact she was actually pretty skilled, her tendency of wanting to flirt with everyone was pretty damaging to their views of females on the squad.  The general consensus was that you would either be a little princess they had to guard or a homely girl they had to deal with unwanted advances from.  Instead, they got a stubborn, clumsy detective with a knack for getting herself into trouble.”

“True, but…” she started, pausing to figure out where she was heading.

Ben didn’t wait.  “But you are a fantastic detective with wonderful taste in men.  You should have heard the talk after your first few days.  No one was worried about you making advances anymore.  Instead, there was a lot more talk about the absurdity of that old rule.”

Rilynne laughed as they came to another split in the road.  Without giving it any thought, they took the first path to the right.  It had been twenty minutes since they’d passed the last building.  The path was narrowing slightly, and they had begun walking over rougher terrain.  She was officially lost.

“I would have to agree with you there,” she chuckled.  “I am a pretty fantastic detective.”

Ben pushed her with his hip, causing her to almost lose her balance.  They both laughed as he steadied her and they walked hand in hand to the next junction.

“Hey, I think I know where we are,” Rilynne said, eyeing the road carefully.  “Isn’t the bed and breakfast down that way?”

Tracking her gaze, he pulled her down the path.  “Let’s find out.”

Sure enough, they came upon the bed and breakfast after just ten more minutes of walking.  Like before, the front door was wide open.  Just inside, they saw Holly moving around furniture.  Rilynne was just about to suggest they went in to talk to her when Ben started toward it.

“We’re not open,” Holly called out from the large room to their left when they stepped in.  When she turned around and faced them, recognition flashed through her face.  “Oh, it’s you.  Don’t tell me something else happened.”

“No,” Rilynne said, walking toward Holly, Ben following close behind.  “We were actually just out for a walk and thought we would stop in and see how you were doing.”

Holly wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.  After motioning for Rilynne and Ben to have a seat on the one sofa in the room that had been left uncovered, she dropped heavily down into a large cushioned chair.  “It’s still so hard to believe,” she said.  “I keep thinking I should have called someone when she didn’t show up Monday.  I really just thought she was dealing with stuff and needed the day off.”

“There’s nothing you could have done,” Rilynne stated, trying to reassure her.  “Whoever killed her did so before you even realized she was missing.”

Her words seemed to ease Holly’s mind, but the effect didn’t last.

“Do you have any idea who could have done it?” she asked.  For the first time she looked more frightened than just sad.  “Being in this old house alone was scary enough before you told me someone had killed Caitlin.  Now every noise I hear, I think someone is in here creeping around.  I’ll definitely sleep better once I know you have the person responsible.  This just isn’t the kind of thing that happens here.  This is supposed to be a safe place to live.  Most people here don’t even lock their doors.”

“Well, maybe you can help us out that,” Rilynne said, taking advantage of Perez not being with them.  “We’ve heard that Mrs. Burton was having an affair with someone on the island.  Do you have any idea who it might have been?”

Holly shrugged helplessly. 
“An affair?  I never saw anything that made me think she was doing anything like that.  She honestly didn’t seem the type.  I don’t want to sound harsh, but she was, you know, old.  She didn’t seem to really care about anything other than work.  Maybe that’s what she was fighting with her husband about, though.”

“Have you seen her spending time with any men in the time she has been here?” Rilynne asked.  “Or maybe she had an encounter with someone that just seemed a little off, like if she was trying to hide something.”

“The only time I’ve really ever seen her was when we were here working,” Holly said.  “She did spend a lot of time with Lucas.  He’s the contractor.  Well, he was before he quit last week.  He said something about personal matters, but he didn’t really give me an explanation.  He looked a little ill, so I just assumed he was having health issues.”  She looked down at her watch before jumping back up from her seat.  “Maybe he’s the guy she was involved with,” she added halfheartedly.  “Now that you mention it, I did notice things were a little different with them over the last few weeks.  They were spending a lot more time together in back rooms.  I just thought it was because we were branching into other areas of the house and that’s where they were working.  I just really don’t know.  Is there anything else I can do for you?  I really need to get back to work.  With Caitlin, well… you know,” she muttered uncomfortably, “and Lucas taking time off, we’re getting behind schedule.  I really need to get back to work.”

Rilynne and Ben thanked her for her time and saw themselves out.  The sun had vanished in the time they had been inside, leaving just enough of a glow in the sky for them to see the road in front of them.

“Do you know the way back?” Rilynne asked Ben.  She wasn’t going to pretend she could get them back across the island without actually getting lost.  She didn’t need to provide Ben with anything else to give her a hard time about.  The list was already abnormally long.