Wanted with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Five) (14 page)

“I tried,” he said. “When I knew she had gone after him, I came here. I didn’t know how to stop her, but I thought I could at least make sure you were somewhere else when it happened.”

“It was you,” she stated, recalling the knock from that night. “You knocked on the door at eleven that night.”

“It was the only thing I could think of, but you didn’t answer.”

“Why didn’t you just call the police?” Ben asked.

“And tell them what?” he chuckled. “I’ve been tailing an assassin for twenty-five years and I think she’s going to kill a man tonight. I don’t know his name or where it’ll take place, but I had to let you know. Do you really think anyone would have taken me seriously? Would you have?”

Rilynne thought about it and shook her head. “It would have at least provided them with an alternate place to start looking, though.”

“If Tori thought for a second that they weren’t buying the set up, she would have killed you,” he stated. There didn’t seem to a doubt in his mind that he was right. Rilynne agreed with him.

They sat in silence for several moments as everyone seemed to absorb what was going on. Douglas finally seemed to relax, as did Ben. Rilynne on the other hand still felt as though she was spinning like an out of control top.

“Wait,” she said after a few moments. “Wouldn’t it have been a major risk if she knew you were tailing her? She’s a professional. How on earth were you able to get close enough to her in the bar that night without her seeing you? It’s not a big place.”

The relaxation that had settled on his face quickly vanished. His reaction left her with an even more unsettled feeling. For a brief moment, she wasn’t sure she wanted an answer. Ben must have sensed it, because he grabbed her hand and held it tight.

“I’m not proud of it,” he stated. The look on his face reflected fear more than anything else. “You have to understand that I never wanted anything like this to happen. I loved your mother more than anything and I still do. It had been three years since I left and I’d completely lost Tori’s trail. I was working as a cook in some little dive.” He was struggling to push the words out. “One night I had too much to drink and ended up making a very poor decision. It was the first time it had ever happened and the last. It may seem strange, but I still consider myself married to your mother. My plan has always been to go home to her as soon as I stopped Tori and I knew the two of you were safe.”

“What are you trying to say?” Rilynne asked, afraid to venture a guess herself.

“There was a woman who had been working as a waitress in the diner across the street. After that night, I didn’t see her again. I didn’t even know what had happened until eight months later when I got a call from the hospital.” He paused as if to gather his strength. “She had a brain aneurysm and it ruptured during labor.”

Rilynne left like she had been punched in the stomach. Her chest tightened as she struggled to draw a breath. “You mean,” she started, forcing the words out. “I have a-”

“Sister,” he finished. A tear rolled down his cheek; his eyes were fixed on his hands on his lap. He didn’t seem to be able to look up at her. “Her name is Elise. With her mother dead, it’s just been the two of us. As soon as she was old enough, I told her the truth of our lives. I’ve been able to keep her away from it all, but as soon as she heard Tori was going after you, she insisted on being involved. She’s incredibly stubborn.”

“Well, that’s one thing the two of you have in common,” Ben blurted out. Rilynne gave him a sideways glance and found his familiar impish grin. She rolled her eyes and turned back toward her father.

“So she’s here?” she asked. Rilynne had always wanted a sibling. She was left almost numb by the prospect that she actually had one. “She’s in Addison Valley?”

He nodded. The expression on his face softened just slightly. The fear in his eyes seemed to have been replaced by relief. Rilynne apparently hadn’t taken the news nearly as hard as he had expected. “She’s back at the hotel now,” he stated. “I went back there after I left the station to check on her and fill her in.”

Rilynne leaned back, her jaw hanging open. “So…” she started several minutes later.

“Yes,” he interrupted. “She would really like the opportunity to get to know you. She understands that you might need some time to adjust to the idea, so we’ll leave it up to you. Whenever you’re ready, you let us know and we’ll set it up.”

“I want to meet her,” she announced without hesitation. Douglas lit up at her enthusiasm. Before she could say anything else, Ben’s phone chimed.

He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced down. “They need me back at the station,” he groaned. “Some crisis with one of the pieces of equipment. I swear I can’t take any time off without the entire place falling apart.”

When Ben stood, so did Douglas. “Thank you,” he said, extending his hand. “I know what you do and how much you risked when you chose to run with my daughter. I also know this isn’t the first time you put yourself in harm's way to keep her safe. I can’t thank you enough.”

Ben peered at Rilynne as he took his hand. He didn’t seem to know how to react. He just nodded to Douglas before kissing Rilynne on the forehead and walking toward the door.

“Don’t forget to call your mom,” he said over his shoulder. “I’m sure she’s frantic right about now.” Rilynne nodded and watched him walk out. So much had happened, she hadn’t even thought about the fact that her mother had more than likely heard at least some of what had been going on.

When Rilynne heard the door click, she turned back toward her father and eyed him carefully.

“How did Tori know?” she asked him, several moments later. “She told me to ‘see what I could see’. I could see in her eyes that she knows, just like I can in yours right now.”

He gave her an impressed grin as he leaned back in the chair, arms folded in front of him. He eyed her just as intently as she had him. “I’m afraid that’s my fault,” he said after a few long moments. “You see, we came face to face about ten years ago, and she was left with her suspicions. After that, I guess she started putting all the pieces together. That was only exacerbated by your unbelievable solve rate after you joined the department. I guess she just figured some things run in the family.”

“Wait,” she stated, leaning toward him. “You mean to tell me that what I can do, you can do?” He raised his eyebrow and grinned. Neither of them seemed to want to be the first to say it.

“Why didn’t you ever tell mom?” she asked.

“Why haven’t you told Ben?” he replied.

Rilynne fought off the urge to laugh as she mirrored his image, leaning back with her arms folded.

His face twisted in contemplation before he answered, “I told by best friend when I was young, and he never spoke to me again. It’s kind of hard to get over that. I would have eventually told her. I just never found the right time.”

She squinted and pursed her lips. “I told my former husband. Although he accepted it after a few days, he used it as an excuse to fake his death and murder my former partner so he could run away with his mistress.”

He didn’t seem surprised at all by her statement. She had the feeling he knew every major event that had happened in her life.

“At least the one you have now seems like a good one,” he responded. “He certainly cares about you.”

“That he does,” she replied. “Just like mom did you. She was nothing but supportive when she learned what I could do. I can only imagine she would have been the same with you. Then, perhaps, you wouldn’t have needed to go on the run.”

He seemed intrigued by her comment, but didn’t respond.

“I’ve made a living spinning tales when it came to explaining events,” she stated confidently. “Because of that, it’s easy to tell when people are thinking on their feet. It’s part of what makes me such a good detective. I can detect when people are lying. So, what really happened? I know you didn’t see her watching us.”

Douglas gave her an impressed grin and nodded. “I was walking back up to the house when I found a package waiting for me. I pulled it open and found a binder filled with pictures of everyone I loved, including you and your mother. Then I saw what she was going to do,” he said. He shuttered as if thinking back to it. “She wasn’t just going to take me out. You and your mother would have been caught in the middle of it. I saw that it was going to happen during the day, so I did the only thing I could think of in the moment. I headed back the way I came and dropped the food in a trashcan where I knew it was likely to be found, and I left. I figured as soon as your mother reported me missing, she would leave the two of you alone.”

“If mom had known, you could have just told her what you had seen and you could have figured out what to do together,” Rilynne said. As she said it, she knew it wouldn’t have worked. If one man disappeared, anything could have happened. He could have been killed. If a whole family left, it would mean they had something to run from. That would have given her even more motive to go after them.

He seemed to know she had come to the conclusion on her own, because he didn’t offer an explanation. Instead, he just sat back in silence and let Rilynne process everything.

“She left me a very different kind of threat,” she said, remembering the flash she had that first night. “She snuck into my bedroom when Ben and I were sleeping and using her hand as a gun, she made it clear what she had planned. I guess she figured I would see it and know what it meant.” The thought of it still sent a chill down her spine.

“It wasn’t enough for her to kill people,” Douglas explained. “She liked to terrorize them first. She wanted them to see what was coming before it happened, knowing nothing could be done to stop it.”

In a way, Tori reminded her of Nicole. While they had killed for very different reasons, they both took a sickening pleasure in causing fear.

“So when you said you kept an eye on me and always knew when I moved,” she thought aloud. “You what, concentrated on an address?”

He grinned, but again remained silent.

“I couldn’t see anything about her,” Rilynne said. “I tried to concentrate on hate, but it didn’t work. It’s because she wasn’t motivated by hate. She didn’t hate
me; she just wanted me out of the way. I think I would have had better luck if I concentrated on pleasure.”

“I don’t think she’s capable of hate,” he said, running his hands through his silver hair. “Not really. Even if she is, it was never the motive behind one of her killings. She will say it was just for the money, but she truly enjoyed it. If she hadn’t found her calling killing for hire, she would have likely become a serial killer.”

Rilynne thought back to the pleasure she had seen in Harris’ eyes as she held the gun to her head. He was right. Then she thought back to the other visions she had over the last week.

“Can I ask you something?”

Douglas looked amused by her hesitation as he nodded.

“I’ve never been able to see things before they happen, or at least not more than a day before. How were you able to keep track of Harris? You wouldn’t have been able to if you only had a days notice to track her down.” It wasn’t really a question, but she seemed to get her point across.

“Like most skills, it will progress with age. I’m sure if you look back, you’ll see that you’ve seen more of the future than you realize,” he said. “A lot of it comes in your dreams. You have to know to look for it, though, or it’ll just seem like nonsense.”

The water will keep you safe.
Ben had said it in her dream. She hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, but now it completely made sense. The water had kept her safe. It helped her get away from the dogs and her inevitable arrest. That was a full five days before their trek in the woods.

“Is Elise like us?” she asked after several long minutes. “Or does she at least know about it?” She had so many questions flowing through
her; she was having trouble keeping herself from rattling them all off at once.

“Yes,” he said. “She knows. It would appear that she didn’t take after me in that aspect, though. Truth be told, I think the only part of me she seems to have inherited is my stubbornness. She looks just like her mother, who I’m ashamed to admit looked very much like yours.” There was a deep regret in his eyes, but Rilynne couldn’t really blame him for his actions. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how she would have handled things if it had been her.

“Part of me hoped it would develop as she grew older, but on the other hand, I’m glad,” he continued. “You know as well as I do that, although it has its benefits, it’s a hard secret to have to keep. Elise didn’t have the easiest life. We moved around a lot. I think things would have only been harder on her if she had the gift.” He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. “Truth be told, I considered for a while sending her to go live with you and your mother. It was when she was young, just before starting school. I was going to send her with a letter explaining everything. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, though. It might have been selfish, but having her with me was just about the only thing that kept me going most days. Besides, I didn’t even know how to begin that letter to your mother.”

“What the hell am I supposed to tell mom?”