Jenn Vakey - Rilynne Evans 07 - Revenge with Murder (16 page)

It felt like her head was going to explode and her heart was going to vibrate out of her chest.  She moved her hands from her ears to pull herself across the floor to the door.  As she inched forward, the pain built both within her ears and chest.

She didn’t know how much more she could take.  She was on the verge of screaming when it came to an abrupt stop.  Suddenly, there was only deafening silence.

The moment she opened her eyes, a smile stretched across her face.  She looked up and was surprised to see Ben sitting up looking down at her.

“You were squirming in your sleep,” he stated.  “What happened?”

Rilynne reached up and pulled him in excitedly for a kiss.  When he sat back up moments later, she smiled again and said, “I know what happened.”

“
A
re you sure?” he asked for the third time.  His eyes lit up.  He dropped the towel to the floor and reached for his pants.

Rilynne quickly pulled her shoes on and grabbed her phone.  “Just as positive as I was the last time you asked.  I still don’t have everything worked out, but I know enough.  Let’s go to the station and get Perez.  We’re going to need the mayor for this.”

Rilynne had to struggle to keep from sprinting as they headed down the deserted road.  If Ben hadn’t been walking beside her, she wouldn’t have been able to hold back.

She only slowed when she heard Ben’s phone ringing.

“Yeah,” he said as he pulled it up to his ear.  Rilynne studied his face for any hint of where the conversation was going.  “Thanks, Matthews.  We’ll see you in a couple days.”

“What did he say?” Rilynne asked the moment he hung up.  “Were you right?”

Ben grinned and nodded.

Rilynne looked back to the road ahead, filled with both excitement and pride.  “I’m not going to lie; I’m pretty excited about this.  It’s going to be fun.”

“I love that look,” Ben said.  Rilynne looked up at him curiously, finding a large grin looking back down at her.  “The excitement you get when you’re working a case.  It builds until you get ready to solve it, and by that point you can see it in your eyes.  It’s part of the reason I fell in love with you in the first place.”

Rilynne reached out and took Ben by the hand, lacing her fingers with his.

“Well, after we get this taken care of, I promise I’ll be all yours,” she said, the sweetness of her tone barely masking the excitement.  “And I’m going to do whatever I can to make these last few days up to you.  I’m amazed at the patience you have with me.  My stubbornness even annoys me sometimes.  I don’t know how you put up with me.”

Ben pulled his hand from hers and wrapped his arm snugly around her.

“Trust me, it’s a constant struggle,” he grinned.

Her heart was pounding as they climbed the steps and walked into the station twenty minutes later.  Sergeant Perez was occupying his desk chair as normal.

“I still haven’t been able to get a hold of Lucas,” he said dryly, not looking up from his crossword puzzle.

“That’s not why we’re here,” she replied.  Perez looked up, but there wasn’t the slightest note of interest on his face.  In fact, he looked almost like he had been run over by several large trucks.  She had to fight the urge to ask him if he had been up drinking all night.  From the smell wafting toward them, she already knew the answer.  “Can you call the mayor and ask her to meet us at the bed and breakfast.  We may have found something that she is going to want to see.”

He looked confused, but he nodded and reached for the phone.

She had considered the best way to handle the situation as they walked to the station.  Though she ran over all of the possible scenarios, she still hadn’t really settled on the best one when they walked in.  She decided just to wing it.  The one thing she knew for sure was she needed to instill a sense of false security.

After making his call, Perez grabbed his keys and they walked out to his car.  He didn’t say a word as they made the drive to the bed and breakfast.  He still held the look of confusion, but there was also something with it.  Something besides just a hangover.

“The mayor should be right behind us,” he said as they neared the entrance of the driveway.  They rounded the corner and the front of the house came into view.  Sitting in front of it was the jeep they had seen in front of the police station days before.  “Or she’s already here.”

The sight of her seemed to only agitate the feeling he was battling with.  Rilynne watched him from the corner of her eye, not wanting him to know where her focus was.

“Sergeant Perez said there was something you needed to show me,” Mayor Lomax said when they stepped out of the car.  “Have you found the person responsible for that woman’s death?”

“I think so,” Rilynne said simply before walking into the open bed and breakfast doors.  Ben followed her in, with the sergeant and mayor close behind.

They found Holly with her head stuck under a table in the large sitting room to the right.  “Can I help you with something else?” she called out as she glanced up just long enough to see them walk in. 

“We actually wanted to come out to clear up some last minute things about Caitlin’s death,” Rilynne said. 

Holly slid out and stood up, wiping something dark from her hands.

“Have you found something?” she asked.  “Did you find out who hurt her?”

Rilynne nodded.  “We think we might.  Since you spent more time with her than anyone else, we were hoping you would be able to fill in some of the gaps.”

“Of course,” she responded.  “Would you like to have a seat?  We can just pull the covers off of some of these chairs.”

“No, that’s all right.  We won’t be long.  I just have a few questions,” Rilynne said.

Holly wiped the last bit of gunk off her hands and sat the rag down on the table she had just climbed out from under.  Like Perez, she looked like she had been up all night.  By the amount of dirt and paint covering her, however, Rilynne knew it was for a completely different reason.

“We heard that the victim was having an affair with someone during her time here in Spicer Island,” Rilynne stated.  “It was the reason behind the argument you heard that she’d had with her husband shortly before he left her.”

Holly shrugged.  “I know they fought, but I can’t say for sure that’s what it was about.  If she was having an affair, she was keeping it pretty quiet.  Honestly, she really didn’t share much about her personal life,” she replied.  “I guess if you were going to be up to something like that, though, you would probably want to keep it a secret.”

“The real problem is, it’s impossible to keep secrets,” Rilynne said, turning to face Perez.  He looked at her curiously for a moment before the color drained from his face.  He knew exactly what she was saying.

Panic swept over his face as his gaze shifted from Rilynne to Mayor Lomax.  He then turned to the door.  Rilynne was sure he was considering running, but instead he turned back toward her.

“I don’t know what you think you know,” he stated.  His voice shook slightly, despite his attempt to steady it.  He opened his mouth to continue, but Rilynne stopped him.

“I know,” she said simply.  She watched his expression carefully before continuing.  Through the corner of her eye, she could see an amused look sitting on Ben’s face.  It took all of the energy she had to keep from grinning herself as she continued.  “I know that you knew Caitlin Burton before she was killed.  It’s your job to keep an eye on what’s going on here.  I doubt there’s anyone on the island for more than a week that you don’t have an encounter with.  Like Holly here, you also noticed that something was happening between her and Lucas in the weeks leading up to her death.”

As she spoke, she watched his expression tighten.  There was something about seeing the recognition in people’s eyes when she told them what she knew that she found immensely gratifying.  It was only intensified when they truly believed no one was on to them.

“As you’ve said yourself, there isn’t much that can stay hidden in a small community like this,” she continued.  “Would you like to fill in the rest, or should I go on?”

Perez’s eyes shifted again to the mayor before returning to Rilynne. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.  His voice was cold as his eyes burned into her.  She couldn’t tell if he was trying to intimidate her or if he was somehow hoping his words would erase any truths she might possess.  The effort he was putting into keeping his secrets actually impressed her.

Rilynne just grinned and leaned back against the back of the covered sofa.  “All right,” she said.  “The victim started to act different over her last few weeks.  Holly noticed it and thought she was having problems with her husband.  You noticed it, too.  Like her husband, you knew Caitlin Burton was hiding something.  Since the two of you had developed a nice rapport during her time on the island, you felt a little betrayed by the fact she didn’t include you in what was going on.  The problem is
, you let your imagination take over instead of actually asking her what was going on.”

Mayor Lomax tensed up as she glared at Perez.  There was something that closely resembled pleasure as she considered his guilt.

The wheels in Perez’s head were turning as he tried to find his words.  After several tense moments, he seemed to give up and said, “I didn’t kill her.”

Rilynne grinned.  “I know,” she said.  Shock swept over everyone’s faces, including Sergeant Perez.  The only person who didn’t seem the least bit surprised was Ben.  While she had told him everything she had managed to put together, she hadn’t discussed how she was going to go about revealing any of it, starting with her decision to gather everyone at the bed and breakfast.  He knew her well enough to trust her moves, though.  Not a single person in the room could have known he was nearly as in the dark as the
rest.

“You-you know?” he asked.  He sounded both confused and angry as he rubbed his hands over his shaven head.  “Then why…?”

“Because it’s part of the reason,” she replied.  “The sad truth is, if you had just confronted Mrs. Burton about the odd behavior, she might still be here.  It wasn’t what you thought, though.”  Again he was overcome with confusion, but she didn’t give him time to question her statement before going on.  “Caitlin Burton found something during her time on the island.  I’m sure it actually happened often in her line of work.  She oversaw the renovations of historic places like this, and there’s no telling what kind of treasures could be hidden within the walls.  That’s exactly what happened here.”

“What are you talking about?” Holly jumped in.  She looked at Rilynne like she had lost her mind.  “People have been in and out of here since it was turned into a bed and breakfast fifty years ago.  Before that, it was owned by one of the oldest families on the island.  If there was anything hidden here, someone would have found it years ago.”

“Not necessarily,” Ben said.  “If something had been sealed up within the walls, no one would have known it was there.  Several of the walls had to be opened up to repair termite damage, which would have exposed anything hidden inside of them.”

Holly’s eyes moved along the walls for several long moments before she shook her head.  “No,” she stated firmly.  “That’s impossible.”

“But it happened,” Rilynne interjected.  “She found something when the walls were removed to replace the damaged boards.  Whatever was in there, it was worth enough for her to throw her integrity away and take it.  The only problem with that is, she wouldn’t have opened up the walls herself.  While she would have definitely been present when it was done, the work would have been done by someone else.”

“So the contractor knows what was found?” the mayor asked.  “Lucas was here with her.”

Rilynne nodded.  “The only conclusion they seemed to come to was that they should split what was found between them.  It was their discussions about this that were noticed by the both of you.  After they settled everything, Lucas decided that he didn’t need to stay and complete the job and he quit.  The problem that arises with situations like this is obvious; greed takes over.”

“So Lucas wanted to keep it all for
himself, and he killed Caitlin Burton for her share,” said Mayor Lomax.

“I-I think I have his information,” Holly said, shaken by what she had heard.  “I’ll go get it for you.”

Rilynne shook her head.  “There’s no need for that,” she stated.  Holly stopped in her tracks and turned toward her. 

“I called the hotel Lucas usually stays at in Hawaii, but he hasn’t checked in there,” Perez said.  “I can try to get a hold of his family and see if they’ve heard from him.”

“That would be a bit of a waste of time,” Rilynne stated.  “He didn’t kill Caitlin Burton, but I know who did.”

“Who?”
Perez asked curiously.  She could tell that drawing it out was making him anxious.  She would have felt bad had he not given them such a hard time over the last week.

Rilynne didn’t look toward him.  Instead, her eyes were on someone else.

“You did.”

“
M
e?” Holly asked.  Her voice cracked, but she tried not to let her nervousness show.  She tried to keep her expression calm, but her eyes betrayed her.  “You’re crazy.  What reason would I have to kill her?  We can’t fix the damages on the property without her, and I’m out of a job if we don’t open back up.  I consider Spicer Island my home, but I won’t be able to stay if I can’t work.”

Rilynne stepped toward her, but it was Ben who spoke.

“That’s not exactly true,” he said.  There was a smugness in his voice that made her grin.  “I have some experience with pretending to have less than you really are.  It actually gives me a unique ability to notice when someone is doing the same.  You may appear to simply manage this place, but that’s not the case.”

“My husband told me there was something off when we first met you, so we looked into your background a little deeper,” Rilynne stated.  “Like you said, one of the oldest families on the island owned the property before it was turned into a bed and breakfast.  What you failed to mention is that it never left the family.  Your grandmother took possession of it under her married name.  It only looked like it switched hands.  Then when your mother left to go to school, she met your father and had you.  When you came back with his last name, no one even suspected that you had any connection to the family.  By all outwards appearances, you simply moved to the island and took a position as the manager of the bed and breakfast.  The truth is
, you’re actually the owner.”

Rilynne could hear a small gasp escape the mayor as she watched Perez’s eyes light up.  Clearly, neither expected Holly had any connection to one of their historical families.

Holly shifted her weight to the foot nearest the door.  Before Rilynne could react, Sergeant Perez quietly positioned himself in her path.  With her back still to the door, Holly didn’t seem to notice. 

“I don’t see how that has anything to do with anything,” she said.  There was a nervous note in her voice that wasn’t there moments before. 

“I think it’s pretty obvious,” Rilynne stated.  She moved toward her, causing Holly to slowly take a step back.  “You hired Caitlin and Lucas to get the bed and breakfast restored.  In doing so, they found something.  Instead of telling you what they uncovered, they decided to split it between themselves.  Like everyone else, they thought you were nothing more than a simple manager, so they weren’t as concerned with their behavior while around here as they should have been.  Between their secretive conversations and Lucas quitting, you knew something was up.  You said it yourself; you didn’t think Mrs. Burton was the type to engage in an affair.  Besides, nothing about their relationship ever struck you as having a sexual aspect, did it?  The only thing you really saw was an increased interest in opening up the walls.  Since they just thought you were a manager, I doubt they thought you would pay any notice to it.  They might have even told you the owner wanted to make sure all of the damage was found, which you would have known instantly was a lie.  If it were me, I would have been looking for an explanation.”

“Why would I want to go looking for a reason for them knocking holes in the walls?  That’s why I hired them.” Holly said, folding her arms in front of her.  “I told them to make sure everything was done correctly the first time, so we wouldn’t have to go through anything like this again.  When she was hired, Caitlin was informed the renovation would be in her hands, and she was authorized to make any decisions she needed to.  And it’s not uncommon for workers to quit.”

“That’s not actually accurate,” Mayor Lomax stated.  While she still looked confused, she had turned her attentions away from Perez and was eyeing Holly curiously.  “The only contractor on the island is Lucas, and he’s never been one to leave a job unfinished.  It would have been quite out of the ordinary for him to just up and quit without a very good reason.”

“I-I already told you that I just thought he was sick.  His condition was common knowledge, along with the fact that he would put his health above finishing a job if he needed.  I don’t have to explain myself,” she stated.  She took another step back, stopping just a few feet from Perez.  As she moved, his hand slid down to the gun on his hip.  “I didn’t do anything wrong.  I’m not saying anything else.  I think it’s time you all leave.”

Rilynne grinned.  “You know what I don’t get,” she started, unconcerned with Holly’s statement.  “Why didn’t you put her in the refrigerator instead of chaining her to it?  It’s something we’ve considered several times, but we never were able to come up with a reasonable explanation for it.  I can’t say that I would have wanted to open it up to see what was inside when we found it.  Putting her on the outside made the chances of her being found dramatically more.”

“I didn’t do it,” Holly replied.

“You must have been so surprised when we told you she had been found,” she continued.  “Of course, it wasn’t very smart to drop her in an area that is used by divers.  You’ve been in Spicer Island for several years now.  You should have known better.  Personally, I would have chosen something further out.  It’s a two hundred mile trip to Hawaii.  I would have taken her out and dropped her off somewhere in the middle.  The chances of anyone finding her out there would have close to impossible.  Is that what your plan was for the contractor’s body?”

Holly had been looking around the room, but her eyes shot quickly back to Rilynne with her question.  As when they first spoke with her and informed her of Caitlin Burton’s death, shock spread through her face.  This time it was different.  The shock she now showed wasn’t that caused by being told that the contractor had been killed, but by the fact that Rilynne seemed to know something about it.

“I haven’t talked to Lucas since he quit,” Holly said.  She was struggling to keep her tone level, but it wasn’t working.  “If what you are saying is true and they did find something on my property, I wouldn’t have had a reason to kill them.  Legally, whatever was found would be mine.  All I would have needed to do was call Sergeant Perez and I would have had everything returned to me.  The same can’t be said for Lucas.  Instead of accusing me, why don’t you go looking for him?  I’m sure he just didn’t want to share the find with Mrs. Burton, so he killed her and took off with it.  He’s probably half way around the world by now.”

“She does have a point,” Sergeant Perez stated halfheartedly.  The words seemed to taste bad in his mouth.  For the first time, Holly noticed his presence behind her.  She tensed up, likely feeling even more trapped than before.  “Legally, anything found on the property would be hers.  I don’t want to believe it, but if he was willing to take something in the first place, he could have also killed Caitlin so he could keep it all to himself.  I’d have never thought him capable, but I guess whatever they found could have pushed him to that point.”

Rilynne glanced behind Holly toward him.  “Would you have been capable of killing her?”

He pondered her meaning for a moment before she saw it register.  As an almost unperceivable smile touched his face, they both turned back to Holly.

“The problem with your theory is we have proof Lucas Palmer didn’t just decide to up and leave,” Rilynne continued.  “You did a pretty good job making it look like he did, by packing up things like his toothbrush and personal effects.  Unlike at the house Mrs. Burton was renting, you left his place looking completely untouched by anyone.  It was smart.  It would have been a little easier with Lucas, though.  He was still alive for you to question about the location of the stuff they’d stolen.  With Caitlin, the only thing you could do was search.  Not knowing if anyone would be coming looking for her, like her husband wanting to reconcile, you had to do it as quickly as possible.  That can’t be done if you are also concerned with remaining undetected.”

She paused for a moment and studied Holly’s expression.  Though her face was still cold and gave away nothing, her eyes were a different story.  Hidden within them was a gleam of excitement from the compliment Rilynne extended.  It wasn’t the reaction she’d expected.  Rilynne turned to Ben to see if he had seen the same.  She didn’t need to ask to know that he had.

After meeting her gaze, Ben turned back to Holly and continued where Rilynne had left off.  “I’m sure my wife would agree when I say you had two major flaws in your plan.  By making an effort to leave his place looking untouched, it means that you planned out what you did and you made a well thought out effort to cover up after yourself.  That eliminates any possibility this wasn’t premeditated.  The second mistake you couldn’t have seen coming, though.  Luckily for us, it’s the one that proves Lucas Palmer was killed three days ago, just two days after you killed Caitlin Burton.”

“What are you talking about?”  Mayor Lomax asked.  Panic rang through her voice as she quickly looked between Rilynne and Ben.  Perez had the same look of confusion, but he didn’t say a word.  Instead, he looked to Rilynne for any hint Ben was wrong.  When he didn’t get it, he cursed under his breath and turned to Holly as Lomax continued.  “You haven’t found another body, have you?”

“No,” Rilynne stated.  “But we didn’t need to.  As you may or may not know, Mr. Palmer was born with a serious heart condition.  About ten years ago, his condition took a turn for the worse and he had to have a pacemaker put in that helped to regulate his heart rate.”

“Everyone knows that,” Holly said coldly.  “There was a problem with it last year and he had to be rushed into surgery.  That’s why it didn’t raise any alarms when he looked ill just before quitting.  I just assumed he was having difficulties with his heart.”

Rilynne didn’t take her eyes off Holly.  She appeared to be growing more uncomfortable with every statement and was shifting her weight from side-to-side at a rate that almost mimicked the second hand on a watch.  “What you probably didn’t know was the replacement he had put in not only regulated his heart, but it monitored it and transmitted the information to his doctors.  That way they could use the data to reduce the chances of further episodes.  On a hunch, we contacted them this morning.  When they checked his readings, it showed that his heart stopped just after midnight three nights ago.  That was shortly after we spoke with you about the death of Caitlin Burton.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Holly stated quickly.  She had a look in her eye that Rilynne had seen before; it was one that scared her.  She looked like a wild animal that had been backed into a corner.

Rilynne looked to Ben.  Without her needing to say a word, he took a few slow steps back.  He had recognized it too.  When Holly looked to Ben herself, Rilynne slowly slid her hand behind her back until her fingers touched the familiar feel of cool metal.  She knew as she grabbed her gun out of the nightstand drawer that morning that she didn’t have the jurisdiction or authority to use it, but she was going to do whatever she needed to keep her husband safe.

“Lucas probably killed Caitlin for the stuff they found, then felt guilty and killed
himself,” Holly offered.  “Again, I’m not seeing how I’m in anyway responsible for any of it.  Have you ever actually met Lucas Palmer?  I don’t really think anyone who has would believe I would be able to overpower him.  He might be gentle hearted, but do you think that would have stopped him from defending himself.  Being such a kind person, he wouldn’t likely be able to live with himself after killing someone.  The far more believable scenario is he died by his own hand.”

“Except we know he didn’t,” Rilynne countered without hesitation.  “Lucas’s doctor was kind enough to send us the readings for the day Caitlin was murdered, as well as the day of his own death.  We know for a fact that he was sleeping during the time she was
murdered.  Even more telling was his heart rate before he was killed.  Are you ready to put an end to this little game and tell us what happened, or do I need to continue?”

Holly stopped moving and folded her arms in front of her.  “I have nothing to say to you.  You can keep spinning your stories, which is all they are without any actual evidence to back them up, but I’m not going to confess to something I didn’t do.”

Though she would never admit it, Rilynne was actually impressed by her persistence.  With situations like this, with no actual physical evidence to tie someone to the crime, the only way to convict someone was if they confessed.  Most criminals weren’t smart enough to realize that.  Seeing events that happened and being able to lay it all out as if they had evidence that supported it usually allowed her to extract the confessions from the persons responsible.  Holly was holding out longer than most.

“Okay then.  I’ll continue,” Rilynne said, not concerned in the least by her consistent denial.  She didn’t wait for Holly to react.  “After we left here on Tuesday, you panicked.  Caitlin you killed out of anger.  I don’t think before we came out here that you were intending on killing Lucas.  You knew there was a chance Lucas would tell us about what they had found, though, and that would lead us back to your doorstep.  You decided the best way to prevent that was to eliminate the only person who could turn the focus to you.” 

“You sneaked up on him just before eight that evening and knocked him unconscious.  That was only hours after we left here,” Ben stepped in without missing a beat.  “You could have just disposed of him then and there, but you got greedy.  You’d already found Mrs. Burton’s portion of the found treasures, but the other half was still out there.  You waited until he came to, which was probably a very agonizing half hour, then you tried to get the location out of him.”