Suspicions with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Four) (15 page)

“She didn’t have to do that,” Rilynne said, though she wouldn’t have been upset if she had.

Lisa shrugged as she turned back to the food on the counter in front of her. “She always does. Personally I think it would just be easier to put them off for another day, but she’s a stickler for her schedules.”

Rilynne walked back to her room to see what she was scheduled to do for the rest of the afternoon. She now understood why Nancy had held resentment toward Brittney. Though her morning chores were relatively easy, it must have been frustrating to be given extra work whenever Jared Lewis decided to get creative. Judging by the hateful look Nancy tossed her when they passed in the hall, she now shared the same feelings toward Rilynne.

She turned and watched Nancy round the corner before the hallway disappeared around her.

“Back off,” a soft, yet firm voice rang out.

Brittney Price was looking into the bathroom mirror while Nancy stood just behind her. The feeling of frustration was bubbling within her. Nancy on the other hand looked almost desperate.

“You aren’t together, and you haven’t been for a while. Just tell him you want to put that stupid pact behind you. Tell him he’s free,” Nancy pleaded.

Brittney took in a deep breath as she ran her fingers through her short black hair.

“The arrangement that Danny and I have is between us. I don’t see how it’s any of your business,” Brittney stated without looking at her. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m trying to get ready for bed. It’s been a long day and I don’t really need any of your drama on top of everything else.”

“Come on, Brittney. Hasn’t it been long enough? It’s not really fair to keep him tied down like this.” Nancy leaned against the counter and turned to face her. “Don’t you think it’s time you let him go so he’s free to date anyone he wants?”

Brittney seemed to be holding her tongue, though it was getting harder with every word Nancy said.

“You can’t punish him for breaking up with you forever,” Nancy continued.

Brittney slammed her hairbrush down. She had heard enough. “First of all, Danny didn’t break up with me, I broke up with him. That doesn’t mean, however, that I would even think about doing anything to hurt him. Second, the reason Danny isn’t with you has absolutely nothing to do with me or the arrangement we have.”

Nancy’s jaw tensed. For a split second, she thought she was going to hit her. Instead, her expression just changed from desperation to anger.

“If you aren’t going to free him, I guess I’ll just have to take matters into my own hands. The pact is null and void if you’re no longer here.”

Before Brittney could react, Nancy pushed off of the counter and stormed across the room, slamming the door behind her.

“Whoa,” Rilynne said to herself as the hall reappeared. Though the reflection in the mirror hadn’t shown it, she could still feel the twinge of fear Brittney had felt.

“
M
iss Howard, I’m going to need you to come with me,” Mrs. Lewis said with a look of pure distain. “Bring your supplies.”

Rilynne picked up her caddy and followed her silently out of the room. Despite the current look of anger sitting on her face, Mrs. Lewis seemed to have warmed up to Rilynne after she offered to watch the police investigation in the garage. She had even offered Rilynne a pleasant farewell when their paths crossed the night before. Like Rilynne, Cyndi Lewis appeared to have been unable to fall asleep, resulting in a middle of the night refrigerator raid. Rilynne was sure she would be scolded when Cyndi walked in and found her digging into a bowl of ice cream. Instead, she just grabbed a quick something for herself and headed back toward her room, but not before saying goodnight to Rilynne.

By the time they stopped outside the door, Rilynne had all but lost hope that it would be a relaxing morning.

“Mr. Lewis decided the statues were hungry, so I’ll need you to carefully clean the peanut butter off of them,” she said dryly. “I want it finished before you do anything else.”

Rilynne stared curiously around the room when Cyndi Lewis left. It was a good guess that he had indeed felt the statues were hungry, because peanut butter had been stuffed into each of their mouths. In addition, there were half eaten sandwiches carefully placed in their polished marble hands. She let something between a groan and a chuckle as she began digging the peanut butter out. Surprisingly, it was easier than she would have imagined. As soon as she got the bulk of it out, it just took a little wiping to get the rest off.

She had almost finished minutes later when she heard voices coming from a door at the end of the room. As she stepped closer, she realized it led to the kitchen.

“This is ridiculous, Lisa. I thought after Brittney was gone things would get better, but it’s just the same with this new girl.” She could hear the frustration in Nancy’s voice. She stood up and moved closer to the door, trying to look into the room without being seen.

Nancy was sitting on a stool at the end of the island, watching Lisa prepare the Lewis’ dinner.

“You’ve been saying the same thing for twenty minutes,” Lisa said impatiently as she put the cut vegetables into the pan. “I still don’t see how it can be as bad now as it was. I can’t actually see myself getting angry enough with this one to want to slap her. I was lucky I didn’t lose my job after that argument with Brittney.”

Nancy groaned and dropped her head down. “It
is
as bad as it was. My plan was so perfect, but it’s completely fallen apart already. What am I supposed to do now?”

Lisa didn’t seem to have an answer. She also didn’t appear to want to talk about it anymore, because she just let out an annoyed sigh.

“It was bad enough having to cover the extra work when Brittney had seniority. I still think that was ridiculous, though. She may have had more experience as a maid, but I’d been here longer. That should have given me seniority,” she rambled on. “Her leaving should have moved me up and left the replacement having to cover all of the extra work. There’s only one thing for me to do,” she said. She sat up straight with a determined look on her face. “I have to get rid of her.”

Before Lisa could respond, Danny and Cole walked into the kitchen. Though Lisa seemed relieved by their arrival, Nancy didn’t. Rilynne couldn’t help but feel annoyed by their poor timing herself.

She finished wiping the last of the peanut butter off of the statues and dropped off her caddy at the closest closet before joining the others in the kitchen. She was almost surprised that neither Lisa nor Nancy showed any signs of having the conversation she had just overheard. On the contrary, Nancy seemed almost excited to see her.

“Hey, Naomi,” she said as she dropped down at the table next to her. “I’m going into town tonight. Do you want me to drop you off anywhere?”

Rilynne hesitated before shaking her head. “No thanks,” she replied. “So are you going to meet up with that crime scene tech at the bar?”

Nancy’s head bobbed animatedly. “I have the perfect dress. He’ll go nuts when he sees it. Even if he isn’t rich like I originally thought, he’s definitely hot enough to settle down with. If I play my cards right, I can be out of here in a matter of months.”

Rilynne had to bite her tongue to keep from pointing out that Nancy had already said that exact statement. She had a feeling, though, that she was only repeating herself now so Danny could hear her.

The others around the table seemed to be ignoring her completely. She continued to drone on to Lisa while the guys began talking sports. Rilynne just tuned them all out and picked at her food. She hadn’t heard back from Ben or Matthews about the evidence collected, so she couldn’t seem to think of anything else. She had hoped as her eyes finally closed the night before that they would be ready to make an arrest first thing in the morning. With the lack of news, she was losing hope by the minute. If none of the physical evidence led anywhere, it would be up to her to come up with a viable suspect.

“Well of course he’s going to make it appear that way,” Danny said, snapping her back to the conversation they were having.

“How do you figure that?” Cole asked, seemingly unconvinced by his argument.

Danny grinned and leaned back in his seat. The fact that he seemed to know something Cole didn’t, appeared to leave him incredibly pleased. Rilynne thought for a moment he would try to preserve the feeling by refusing to explain, but was relieved he chose not to. “Take that necklace he gave her last Christmas. You know the one; it had close to twenty diamonds on it,” he stated. The look on Cole’s face said he knew exactly which one he was referring to. “A buddy of mine works for the company she uses to clean all of her jewelry. He told me the stones are fake. Every single one.”

Rilynne reached over and placed her hand on Danny’s wrist. “You’re joking,” she said with a flirtatious grin. Through the corner of her eye she could see the fury rising on Nancy’s face. With any luck, it would give her enough of a push to make her snap and say something revealing.

Danny on the other hand couldn’t seem to be more pleased. As guilty as the touch left her feeling, she knew at that moment he would tell her just about anything she wanted to know.

“No, I’m serious,” he replied animatedly. “If I had to guess, I’d say that all of the jewelry he’s given her over the past couple years has been fake. We all know there are problems between them. Apparently Mr. Lewis isn’t as naïve as we thought. I mean, if I
was in his shoes and knew my marriage was on the way down, I probably wouldn’t be spending an excessive amount of money on jewelry either.”

“I just can’t see him buying fake jewelry,” Lisa said. “No matter how things stood between them.”

Though Rilynne hadn’t spent much time with him, she couldn’t help but agree with Lisa. As they continued with the conversation, Rilynne found herself remembering the flash she had seen of Rick Olsen.
The last thing you need is to be caught with the valuables.

Nearly everyone had dispersed by the time she finished her lunch. She carried her plate to the sink and was walking out when Danny stopped her.

“I would have thought you’d have taken Nancy’s offer for the ride into town. Even if only to watch her make a fool out of herself around that crime scene guy,” he stated. “I have to admit I’d probably go out to watch it myself if I didn’t have to drive the kids around.”

Rilynne chuckled. She actually would enjoy watching Nancy throw herself at Ben. It would be impossible to maintain her cover at the bar, though. Between the number of officers who were bound to be there and the regulars, someone was bound to call her by name. “With my luck she would just leave me in town and I wouldn’t be able to get back without walking past the security stand. Something tells me that wouldn’t go over well.”

Danny looked like he was struggling with something before grinning and motioning toward the door. “Walk with me,” he said as he pushed open the door.

Rilynne followed him out across the driveway to the other side of the house. When they were near the east wing doors he walked straight toward the tree line. “Where are we going?” she asked as she stepped onto a dirt path.

“I’m going to show you something. You’re part of our little dysfunctional family now. You might need this,” he said as he stepped off of the path and started walking deep into the woods. Rilynne hesitated for a moment before following him. She paid close attention to her surroundings so she could find her way back out if needed.

“You’re not taking me out into the middle of the woods to kill me, are you?” she asked several minutes later.

He chuckled and shook his head.

They walked for another fifteen minutes in silence before finally coming to a stop. Rilynne looked around for what he could have wanted to show her, but saw only one thing.

“You wanted to show me a wall?” she asked as she stared curiously at the giant stone wall that stretched out in front of them. “Well, it’s very lovely. Looks very sturdy.”

Danny laughed and shook his head.

“If you’re going to be working here, you’re going to need a way to get away from time to time. Mrs. Lewis monitors our entrances and exits through the front gate. This is the best way to avoid any awkward questions if you’re coming back late or just want to get away for a bit while you’re on shift.” He stepped toward the base of the wall and pulled back the thick bush leaning against it.

Rilynne looked down and saw a hole knocked out of the wall. At first it looked as if nature had taken its toll and knocked the stones away. Upon further inspection, though, she could see what looked like tool marks.

“Did you do this?” she asked as she looked over to him curiously.

He laughed as he let go of the bush. It snapped back into place, leaving the hole completely hidden. “No,” he replied. “I found it a couple years ago when I was chasing after Outlandish.”

“Wow,” she said as she reached down to pull the bush back and examined it carefully. “So anyone could come and go without being seen. I wonder how long it’s been here.”

“Who knows,” he said.

With her free hand, she ran her fingers through the leaves and twigs covering the base of the two-foot hole. It was hard to tell if anyone had been through it recently. The discovery of the hole did one thing, though. It opened up their suspect pool to anyone who could have fit through it.

“So how often do you use this?” she asked.

“Every now and then,” he said. He took a few steps back and leaned casually against a large tree. He had a look of triumph on his face. He seemed extremely pleased with the fact that he managed to impress her. “It’s useful when there’s a big event at the house. I can stay out all night if I want and they never even know I’m gone. Where do you think I went after dinner the other night?”

“You sneaked out?” she asked curiously.

“Met some of my friends out at a bar in town,” he said with a cocky grin. “I spent the night having drinks and playing pool. The downside of coming in late after you’ve been drinking, though, is trying to find your way around in the woods and get through a hole. It took me an hour just to find the right spot.”

Rilynne released the bush and stood back up. “I won’t lie,” she said as she stepped away from the wall. “That would have been pretty amusing to watch. It’s funny enough watching a drunk stumble around in a bar. Add trees and darkness to it and it must have been downright hilarious.”

“It’s a shame you still had work to do that night. You could have joined me and seen it firsthand. Besides, it would have been nice to have someone on my arm to show off around my friends,” he said. Rilynne quickly turned away from him as she felt her cheeks start to warm. She was trying to think of an excuse to head back to the manor when Danny spoke again. “We should probably start making out way back,” he said to her relief. “People will start to talk if we’re gone too long.”

“That’s just what I need on my first week of work,” Rilynne said, following him as he stepped back through the trees. “I’ve learned that people’s first impressions of you tend to stick.”

He smirked at her over his shoulder but didn’t say anything. Rilynne felt a twinge of guilt. She couldn’t decide if it was due to the growing feelings Danny had for her, or the fact that she had chosen not to inform Ben about the situation. Though she was still trying to convince herself that he wouldn’t care, she couldn’t blame him if he did. If the situation were different, Danny was the kind of guy she could see herself being interested in.

They made it back to the manor just in time for Rilynne to grab her caddy and head toward the study. Though she had spent several hours cleaning the walls and ceiling in the room just days before, she still had to clean the rest of it.

When she walked in, she found Jared Lewis sound asleep in his chair with his feet propped up on the large desk. She stood in the doorway for several moments staring at him before she cleared her throat to announce her presence.

“It was a ghost, I tell you!” he yelled as he flipped out of his chair and landed with a hard thud on the floor. The fall didn’t seem to faze him, however, because he was immediately back up on his feet. “Where did it go?” he asked Rilynne, wide-eyed as he looked around the room.