Suspicions with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Four) (19 page)

“
W
hy hello, Detective Evans.”

She stopped in her tracks, surprised not only by the sound of her own name, but the confident voice speaking it. When she turned around, she found Jared Lewis leaning against the doorway, an air of sophistication surrounding him she hadn’t seen before. “I wasn’t entirely surprised you didn’t leave with the officers yesterday after my wife was arrested, but I thought for sure you’d be gone by today. Don’t tell me your stint as a maid was so pleasurable that you decided to stay in my employ.”

She didn’t know how to respond other than to stare at him curiously. The man standing before her wasn’t the same man she had been conversing with the past week. If she hadn’t known better, she would have thought him an entirely different person all together.

He seemed to take pleasure in the confused look sitting on her face. “That right there,” he said, though the statement didn’t provide any clarification. When her bemusement only intensified, he continued. “The look on your face is the answer to the question you’re asking yourself. Well, one of answers,” he stated with an amused grin. He glanced up and down the hall before walking in the room and shutting the door.

“You’re not crazy,” Rilynne stated bluntly. As she did, she felt her cheek growing warmer. She opened her mouth to apologize, but he held his hand up to stop her.

“No,” he laughed loudly. “Not strictly speaking, at least.”

“Then why do you pretend to be?” she asked, still not entirely sure about what was happening. “You not only have your family and staff fooled, the entire city thinks of you as… eccentric.”

He smiled as he sat down on the chair in the corner. “I never actually wanted this life,” he told her. “Don’t get me wrong, having money is great, but it’s also incredibly stressful. You never know if people actually like you as a person, or just like what you’re able to offer them. Take my wife.”

“She doesn’t know?” Rilynne asked, though she already knew the answer. She sat down on the edge of the bed as the information started to soak in.

“Of course not!” he exclaimed. “She’s another reason, actually. See, I realized not too long after we married that my money was the only thing important to her. With the ridiculous pre-nup we signed, I’d have to leave her nearly half of everything if I left. Now, if she were to leave me, she would receive much less.”

“So you’ve convinced her that you’re crazy?” she asked as a smile stretched across her face.

He shrugged. “It would have worked,” he said confidently. “Although that isn’t an issue anymore, because there are also stipulations in there about the commission of a felony and having an affair. Both of which would result in her being awarded nothing. While there’s always the possibility of her being able to talk her way out of serving any time, she won’t be so lucky when it comes to the divorce proceedings.”

“I don’t know if that’s clever or genuinely crazy,” Rilynne said as she thought over it.

“I’m going to go with clever,” he stated. “It also keeps things interesting, and I love to watch people’s reactions when they see something I’ve done. You should have seen Cyndi’s face when she walked into the study last week. I nearly died!”

“I’ve actually been wondering about that,” she said. “How is it that you managed to cover the walls and ceiling in paint, but everything else was left clean? There wasn’t even a drop on anything else in that room.”

“That one I had to time very carefully. I knew that Cyndi would be busy with the party arrangements all morning, so I went down in the middle of the night and moved all of the furniture to the middle of the room. Then I laid tarps out on the floor and over the furniture,” he explained. “I actually painted the entire room before anyone woke up, and was left with plenty of time to move everything back into place. After breakfast, I put the paint-covered clothes back on, splashed some in my hair, and started walking around the house. I knew as soon as she saw me, she would go looking for the scene. She just didn’t know I’d done it hours before.”

Rilynne didn’t know whether to be amused or annoyed. “Then I was left with a mess that took hours to clean up,” she said.

He shrugged again. “It prevented you from spending half of the day scrubbing oil stains off of the driveway,” he stated.

“That’s right,” she thought back. “I was supposed to start on those shortly after your wife pulled me out of the library. You planned that?”

“Of course,” he said with an impish grin. “Everything I do has a good reason behind it.”

“I take it you planned your events around Brittney’s cleaning schedule?” she asked. “Nancy was complaining about having to always do her work whenever you made one of your messes. You were getting her out of the hard jobs, I’m guessing.” The grin on his face told her she was right. “And that explains why they were so unusually easy to clean up. That doesn’t explain the peanut buttered statues, though.”

“Now that one was actually quite improvised,” he said leaning forward. The look on his face reminded him of an old man with an exciting story to tell his grandchildren. “I was just leaving the kitchen with a snack when I heard Nancy and Miss Finley walk in. They were speaking very angrily about Brittney, as well as you. I knew it was something you should be hearing, so I was forced to sacrifice my snack. It was actually lucky that Cyndi walked by when she did, so I didn’t have to waste time looking for her.”

“And the car?” she asked curiously.

He leaned back in his chair and pulled his hands up behind his head. “I’m sure if you think hard enough, you won’t have any trouble figuring out that one all on your own.”

She thought back to the events surrounding the incident when a spark of recognition hit. “You wanted me to see the blood stain in the trunk, so you sabotaged the car the cook was supposed to take,” she stated confidently. “It’s one of the maid’s jobs to help bring in groceries, so you knew that I would see it.”

“Bingo,” he replied.

She thought over everything before she asked, “How long did you know?”

“Even before you arrived,” he stated. “The department did a great job setting up your identification, surprisingly so. If I hadn’t made it my business to research the members of the department after Brittney was killed, even I wouldn’t have known it was a farce. For fun, I even tried to find fault in it, but I couldn’t. Give my compliments to whoever set it up.”

“I will,” she stated. “But if you knew who I was, why didn’t you just come to me with the information you had instead of playing games? Wouldn’t it have been much easier that way?”

“Even I didn’t know who was involved with Brittney’s death. If I’d come to you with my information and let on that I had been putting on a show all these years, it would have just given you more reason to spend time looking at me,” he explained. “Now, I knew that I had nothing to do with it, so I decided it would just be easier to let you do what you needed to do, while putting you in the right place from time to time.”

Rilynne didn’t know what to make of him at all. While she understood some of the reasoning behind his behavior, it was still incredibly hard to believe that he had successfully pulled it off for so long. “Brittney knew,” she stated abruptly.

“See, I knew you were a clever one. She was my one confidant in the house,” he explained. “I would have surely gone completely crazy if I hadn’t had someone to talk to and she was a good listener. I’ll forever regret the last time we spoke, though. She wanted me to tell my wife it had all been a facade, and I snapped at her. I’ll never forgive myself for that.”

“One thing I’ve learned over the years is the last conversation you have with someone doesn’t define the relationship,” she said soothingly. “You were her friend, and she knew that. Having a disagreement doesn’t take all of that away.”

He smiled at her warmly as he stood up. “Thank you for finding out what happened to her,” he said as he extended his hand. “I’m in your debt.”

“I’ll have to remember that,” she said before he turned and walked toward the door.

“I did want to give you my assurances, though, that I didn’t know who was responsible for her death,” he stated again before he pulled the door open. “If I had, I wouldn’t have continued this façade. Even if it had meant putting an end to the plan I’d been working on. I truly loved Brittney. She was the best friend I’ve ever had.” He hesitated for a moment before continuing. “Can you just tell me one more thing?”

Rilynne nodded. “I can try.”

He took a deep breath and sat down on the edge of the bed beside her. She could see the pause on his face, and she knew exactly what was going through his mind. He was considering asking a question that he wasn’t sure he wanted an answer to. “Did her
choice to allow Brittney to succumb to her injuries have anything to do with the relationship we had?”

Rilynne reached out and gently placed her hand on his forearm. “This in no way was your fault,” she said firmly. “It’s our belief that Cyndi truly believed the fall had killed Brittney. While her decision to hide her instead of calling for help was foolish, it does appear that she only did it out of fear for your daughter.”

He seemed relieved by her statement, but the sadness didn’t leave his eyes. They sat in silence for several minutes before Jared stood and walked back toward the door. “I meant what I said,” he stated as he pulled it open. “If there’s ever anything I can do for you, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Rilynne was left with a wide range of feelings as Jared disappeared down the hall. While she did find herself having a newfound admiration toward him, she still couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. She knew he would never forget that last conversation he had with Brittney.

She had just finished putting the last of her stuff back in her suitcase when another voice came from the door. This one didn’t hold the same note of amusement.

“Who are you?” she heard the cold voice ask. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before turning around.

Danny stood much like Jared Lewis had-arms folded and leaning against the door-but his demeanor was very different.

“You’re not really a maid,” he continued. His tone was hardened and the kindness on his face had disappeared. Instead, he just looked hurt. “Your arrival could have been coincidental, but not your departure. I’m guessing police.”

“Detective,” she said softly.

She sat back down on the bed, but he didn’t move from the doorway. “Is your name really Naomi?”

She shook her head. “It’s Rilynne,” she responded. “Rilynne Evans. I’m a homicide detective. After Mrs. Lewis refused to cooperate, I was brought in to get information about Brittney’s death.”

He nodded in acknowledgement, but his expression didn’t change. Rilynne tried to push the guilt coursing through her aside. She couldn’t think of anything to say, so just stared quietly at him.

“You definitely are good at your job,” he said after several long minutes. The comment wasn’t what Rilynne had been expecting, and caught her off guard. When she didn’t respond, he continued. “I guarantee no one here knew that you were really an undercover cop, pressing us all for information.”

“Mr. Lewis did,” she said, trying to steer the conversation away from where she knew it would eventually turn. “He knew from the beginning, though he didn’t tell anyone, including me.”

He raised an eyebrow curiously. “How on earth did he know?”

“Apparently he did research into the police department prior to my assignment, and recognized me,” she said. As she said it, she heard the sound of tires rolling across the driveway outside of her window. To her relief, when she peered out the window, she saw Matthews stepping out of his car. “Well, that’s my ride,” she said quickly as she reached for her bag. Before she could grab it, though, Danny had his hand around the handle.

“After you,” he said as he stepped out of the doorway.

The walk to the front entrance was long and quiet, as neither spoke a word until they reached Matthews.

“Thank you,” Rilynne said as he sat the bag down.

“It was a pleasure, detective,” he said with a surprisingly sincere smile. “See you around sometime.”

Before she could respond, he turned and walked toward the kitchen. Matthews seemed to be amused by the tension, because he had a large smile sitting on his face when she looked up at him.

“Not a word,” she said as she reached for her bag. “I’m blaming you for that one.”

“What did I do?” he asked, pulling the trunk open when they stepped outside. Rilynne dropped her bag in before climbing into the passenger seat.

“You’re the one who told me to encourage him,” she said firmly. “How else would it have ended? I’m just glad you arrived when you did, or I would have been stuck in a very awkward conversation.”

He turned the car around, and headed down the long driveway. “I should have driven a little slower, I guess,” he chuckled. Rilynne reached out and hit him on the arm before rolling her eyes.

“It’s not funny,” she said. “Once you get past the whole murder suspect thing, he was actually a really great guy. This is why I hate doing undercover assignments. Next time it’s your turn.”

“Even if it’s another assignment involving a maid?” he joked.