Suspicions with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Four) (8 page)

“Were you able to look around the rest of the manor?” he asked.

“I tried, but I kept getting interrupted. I’ll have to do the majority of that while I’m working, or it could raise too much suspicion,” she explained. “I’ve made a list of several possibilities for the item used to strike her, and I’ll start examining the ones I can tomorrow. I would have started today, but I got stuck cleaning up a monstrous mess Jared Lewis made. He really is as eccentric as everyone said.”

“We tried to warn you,” he said with a small chuckle.

“I did get the impression that there might have been something going on between him and Brittney,” she said.

“Like an affair?”

“I’m not sure,” she said hesitantly. “I know he was always pulling her away from her duties for special tasks, but I didn’t get more information than that. The chauffeur insists that it wasn’t anything salacious, but it’s certainly worth looking into.”

“He definitely wouldn’t be the first wealthy man to have an affair with a member of the household staff,” he said. “Affairs are always a good motive for murder. Either he could have killed her to prevent his wife from finding out, or the wife could have found out and killed her. I’ll see if I can find anything on my end.”

Matthews had a point. She had worked several cases where someone had been killed due to an affair, although usually the spouse was killed. Either the affair was discovered, resulting in the betrayed taking vengeance, or the guilty party killed their spouse to be with his or her lover. She knew this case would be different, though, because it would have drawn too much attention if either spouse had been murdered.

“I’ll keep talking to the staff and see if anyone else had any suspicions,” she said. “I did also get the feeling that some of the members of the staff had some issues with her.”

“That’s bound to happen. See if anyone had a reason worth killing for. I’ve got a dinner date with Katy tomorrow, so let’s do our checkin around lunchtime. She would kill me if I brought work home when it wasn’t an emergency,” he stated.

“Yes, yes she would,” Rilynne chuckled. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Rilynne glanced over at the clock when she hung up. The party wouldn’t be over for several more hours, but she knew it would be nearly impossible to sneak back in without risking her position within the household.

Instead, she grabbed her toiletries bag and headed to the staff restroom. The woman’s restroom was large. There were four doors coming off of the main room, which in itself had a large double vanity and a cushioned bench strategically placed in the middle of the room. The two doors to the right were bathroom stalls. The smaller door on the left was a linen closet, and the last housed a large bathtub.

She turned on the water in the tub and hung her robe on the bathroom door as she closed it behind her.

When she stepped into the steaming tub, a wave of warmth instantly spread through her. No matter what happened during the day, a hot bath always seemed to carry it away. She eased herself down,
lying back until her head sank below the surface. Keeping only her mouth and nose above the water, she let out a deep sigh and felt her entire body relax.

She could have spent the rest of the night wrapped in the warmth of the water had Nancy not rapped on the door a few minutes later.

“How much longer are you going to be?” she called through the closed door. “After scrubbing the driveway clean for you today, I have to shower off before getting in bed.”

Rilynne could hear the distinctive note of resentment in her voice, though she was sure removing the stains from the driveway hadn’t had the dirtying effects Nancy claimed. “Just a few more minutes,” she said as she sat back up and reached for her shampoo. After quickly washing her hair, she wrapped herself in her robe and walked back to her room.

Not being able to look over case files during her free time was going to take some getting used to. She found herself almost lost with boredom as the night progressed. There was a small television in her room with a few basic channels, but she wasn’t accustomed to being stuck in a room with nothing else to occupy her time. Rilynne felt as though she would burst by the time the lights from the driveway started streaking through her room.

She glanced out her window and saw the cars starting to make their way down the driveway. The third one to pass her window was the familiar black SUV Ben had bought
a few months before. When Nicole Bennett framed him for murder, his car had been pulled apart by the forensic team. Though they put it back together, he complained that it never drove the same. Rilynne finally convinced him it was time to upgrade, and even helped him pick out a new one.

She waited until he was out of sight before reaching for her phone. She wondered for a moment as she dialed if he would have the disposable phone he’d been given by the department on him.

“Care to explain?” Rilynne asked when he answered after just two rings.

She heard him chucked before sighing. “Explain what?” he asked coyly.

“How’d you swing an invite to the party tonight?”

“You know me,” he stated. “I have my ways.”

She rolled her eyes at his attempt to avoid the question. “Well, then how about you tell me what you were doing here?”

“I would have thought that was obvious,” he said. “I just really wanted to see you in your maid outfit. It was definitely worth a night of mingling. I will admit, though, I was hoping it would include more lace.”

She sighed and shook her head, still watching the trail of cars slowly leaving. “I will say, I was incredibly shocked when I saw you get out of your car, and not just because you were here. A tuxedo is a good look for you.” She grinned and walked to her bed. “You should have seen the other maid drooling over you. I think she spent the entire party camped out behind that plant, just watching you. Well, at least until Cyndi Lewis kicked us out.”

“Yeah, I noticed her standing there. At first I only saw the uniform, so I thought it might have been you,” he stated. “I was hoping I could sneak away from the rest of the guests, but it was nearly impossible. You should have seen the mayor when he saw you, though. He wasn’t aware there was an undercover operation going on at the time. Luckily, only the chief and I were with him, because he didn’t hide his shock well.”

“That wouldn’t have gone over well at all,” she stated.

“No, but I won’t lie, it would have been really funny to watch. From what I’ve heard, Cyndi Lewis doesn’t always restrain herself well. Finding out a detective was
working undercover in her household would have probably caused a pretty public scene. Especially with the chief and mayor present.”

“That’s the last thing we need on this case,” she said as she dropped back onto the bed.

“The mayor wasn’t entirely pleased he hadn’t been notified about your assignment,” he continued. “The chief had to cool him down and explain that it was necessary in order to conduct the investigation, and assure him the Lewis’ would never find out. So, how’s the case going?” he asked. “Have you solved it yet?”

“I just started investigating. I’m good, but I’m not that good,” she said. “Besides, it’s hard to get much work done when you’re responsible for a list of chores to complete each day.”

“Well, do you have any leads yet?” he asked. “Surely you’ve been able to get someone comfortable enough to open up.”

She didn’t know how much to tell him. Though she was sure he would understand the steps she was taking, it wasn’t really a conversation they should be having over the phone. “I’m working a few angles, but no one’s sticking out yet,” she replied simply. “Although it’s apparent that a few people had issues with her, I haven’t found an obvious reason why anyone would have wanted her dead. Despite their disagreements, everyone for the most part seemed to like her.”

“Are you sure someone at the manor killed her?” he asked.

She had been wondering the same thing herself, but didn’t see any other possibilities. “With the timeframe Dr. Andrews gave, I would have to say yes. Unless she sneaked out without anyone seeing her-which I don’t think is feasible-she was killed here. The question then remains, how’d someone kill her and move the body without being seeing in the process?”

“You’ll figure it out,” he said with a yawn. “You always do.”

“Hopefully it doesn’t take too long,” she said as she rolled over onto her stomach, propping herself up on her elbows. “It’s one thing to clean up my own house, but I don’t enjoy cleaning up after others. If it were just basic cleaning, that would be one thing. This guy is unbelievably messy, though. I spent half of the day scrubbing paint off of the walls and ceiling in his study. Don’t even ask me how it got there.”

“Well, rest assured that your house is still as clean as when you left it. At least it was when I stopped by after work today,” he stated.

“Good,” she replied. “How’s Lori doing? Has she been able to get with Avery about finding a place?”

From the rustling coming from the phone, she had the feeling he was nodding. “I took her over there yesterday morning, and they spent the entire day shopping around. I believe she actually found a house on your street that she likes,” he said. “She also stopped by the preschool Jerkins uses and secured a spot for Kim. She mentioned something about being eager to get her back, but I don’t know if she’s planning to have her come down before she gets settled in her own place.”

“Good,” Rilynne said. “I told her Kim could stay at my place with her for as long as she needs, so make sure she knows it’s really all right. I know how much she hates being away from her. And thank you again for looking out for her while I’m doing this. I hate that I can’t be there myself.”

“Of course,” he said before pausing. “Are you really trying to set up Lori with that guy who lives next door?” Ben asked in an uncertain tone. Rilynne rolled back over and laughed to herself. Though they hadn’t interacted in several months, there was still an incredible tension between Ben and Joe Ackerman. This had only compounded when they were set to face each other in the boxing ring again. Had it not been cancelled when Ben was shot, the front yard encounters would have become inevitably unbearable.

“I think they would be perfect together,” she stated. “They’re both single parents and Lori was very pleased when I told her he was a boxer.”

He scoffed, “If you call that boxing.”

Rilynne shook her head as her eyes settled on the abstract painting on the wall. “You can’t judge someone’s boxing skills solely by how they
fared against you when you were angry,” she said.

“I wasn’t angry,” he said defensively. Again Rilynne laughed, but this time it was much louder. “Okay, I was a little angry. He was pushing my buttons, though. Anyone who actually heard the things he was saying would have wanted to clock him.”

She knew exactly what Joe had said. When Ben arrived at the bar after the match, Rilynne had seen the entire encounter. While she wouldn’t have wanted to hit him, she could understand why Ben had. He had always been very short fused when it came to men disrespecting her. She pushed the comments off-knowing he only said them to get to Ben-but Ben didn’t take it nearly as well. Instead, they resulted in Ben knocking Joe out cold just minutes into the match.

“Other than your utter dislike for him, I can’t think of anyone better for her,” she said.

“There are tons of single guys at the station. Can’t you just pick one of them to play matchmaker with?” he pleaded.

She was amused at his insistence. “Lori won’t date cops,” she replied. “Besides, I would think you’d want him to start dating someone.”

“No,” he said abruptly.

“You’re hilarious,” she said as she slowly shook her head. “So are you going to tell me how you really managed to swing an invite to the event tonight?” she asked again. “I glanced over the guest list, and it appears that you were on it even before I took the case. That pretty much kills your wanting to see me in my uniform story.”

“Like I said, I have my ways.”

Rilynne rolled her eyes and grinned. “You aren’t going to tell me, are you?”

“We all have our secrets, you should know that better than most. Besides, life would be boring without a little mystery.” She could hear the mischievous grin on his face.

Her first urge was to ask what secrets she had, but quickly stopped herself. “I have plenty of mystery in my life already,” she said, trying not to allow the knots building within her reveal themselves as she spoke. “Take this case, for example. I feel like I’m stuck inside of a murder mystery game. You know who died, and who was in the house at the time, but you have to figure out who, what, and where?”

“I’ve got it!” he stated loudly. “It was the butler in the library with the wrench.”

“Now you sound like Matthews,” she chortled. “Besides, there aren’t any stairs in the library. Ladders, but no stairs.”

“Well, I tried.”

She could hear the distinctive ding over the line that told her exactly where he was. “Shouldn’t you be going home instead to the office?”

“How’d you know I was at the office?” he asked curiously. “You’re following me, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I actually sneaked into the back of your car before the valet returned it to you. I figured it was a far more comfortable place to
lie down than this ridiculously soft mattress they put in this room,” she said sarcastically, rolling back over and staring at the ceiling above her. “You just wanted to show off your tuxedo, didn’t you?”