Wanted with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Five) (15 page)

He groaned and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “You know, I’ve been chasing after her for so long, part of me never really believed it would be over,” said Douglas. “For the first few years, I thought every day about what I would say to her when I could finally go home. So much time has gone by now that I wouldn’t even know where to start. ‘Hey honey, I know you thought I’ve been dead for the past twenty-five years, but I’m back now. How have things been?’”

“Don’t forget the part about having another daughter,” Rilynne threw in.

He chuckled and shook his head. “As much as I know I should be the one to tell her, I think I’ll leave that up to you. You can tell her as little or as much as you want.” He gave her a weak smile and stood up. “I’m actually going to head back to the hotel, though. Just let me know what you decide. I’ll stop back by in the morning, if that’s all right. I can tell you more about Elise and set up a time for the two of you to get together.”

Rilynne nodded in agreement as she stood and walked him to the door. When she pulled it open, she found herself with an uncomfortable feeling. He was her father and she wanted so much to reach out and hug him, but on the other hand, he was a complete stranger. Douglas seemed to know what was going through her mind, because he just smiled and kissed her forehead before walking silently down the sidewalk.

She pushed the door shut and watched him through the window until he disappeared into the darkness. Part of her wondered if she wasn’t still unconscious from the blow she received that morning, and the entire day hadn’t just been a dream. She made her way through the entire house, completely lost in thought, as she made sure every window and door was secured. When she found herself back in the living room, she grabbed her phone and headed toward her bedroom. Her chest tightened with every step she took as she ran her thumbs over the keys.

The phone only rang once before her mother picked up.

“What the hell has been going on?” she asked, anger and worry both present in her voice.

Rilynne had to fight through the knots growing within her just to make herself talk. “I’m all right, mom. It’s been a week like you couldn’t believe, but everything’s all right now.”

“I have been receiving calls from your station asking if I knew where you were,” Amber spouted out. “They wouldn’t tell me anything, but insisted that if you showed up here, I should call in immediately.”

“I’m sorry,” Rilynne started, but couldn’t get anything else out before her mother jumped back in.

“I would have been in a complete panic had your partner not called me. Even he wouldn’t tell me anything, though. All he told me was that I should say you called from the road and said you and Ben were headed out my way, but it would take a few days because you wanted to take the scenic route.”

Rilynne rolled her eyes and sighed. While she hadn’t thought about the possibility of Matthews calling her mother, it didn’t surprise her in the least. “Mom,” she jumped in, trying to get Amber to calm down. “It’s really all right. I’m sorry I couldn’t call you myself, but we were kind of on the run.”

“How can you kind of be on the run?” Amber asked.

“In the sense that we were actually on the run because I was framed for murdering that suspect I told you about and we left before they could serve the arrest warrant,” Rilynne stated. Her words seemed to leave her mother completely speechless. “But it’s all over now. We caught the person responsible, and I’ve been cleared of any wrongdoing. I just knew I couldn’t do anything if I was locked up.”

“And you dragged Ben along with you?”

Rilynne chuckled. Of course she would be worried about Ben. “Actually, he insisted. It was his idea to text Lori and tell her we were taking a road trip to your place. That way they thought we were just out of reach and not actually running from the law. That wouldn’t have been nearly as easy to clean up.”

Amber groaned, though she seemed to have calmed down.

“Mom,” Rilynne said hesitantly. She felt her chest tighten again as she put all of her force into saying what she knew she needed to say. “I have to tell you something.”

R
ilynne almost threw her phone across the room when it started to ring. The sun wasn’t even completely up, and all she wanted to do was sleep.

“What?” she asked abruptly when she pushed it against her ear.

“Something’s not right,” Matthews said. The tone of his voice pushed all of resentment she had been feeling away and caused her to bolt up in bed.

“What is it?” she asked. She didn’t even wait for his response before sliding off the end of the bed and rushing toward her closet.

He mumbled for a moment before he seemed to be able to find his words. “Harris has a partner,” he stated. “She has to. I had sent her face out last week to be checked against security camera footage. I wanted to prove that she couldn’t have possibly witnessed you killing Teich. Well, I received an email from a buddy of mine this morning. Evans, I have footage of her across town during the time Teich and Baker were killed. She couldn’t have done it.”

Rilynne fell back against her closet door. Her dad had been following Harris for twenty-five years and hadn’t mentioned anything about her having a partner.

“I don’t want to have to even suggest this,” Matthews broke the silence several moments later.

“I’ll bring him in,” she answered, not needing to hear the rest of his statement.

She hung up without waiting for a reaction. She had been hit with so many things in the past twenty-four hours; she couldn’t even begin to sort out the truth. Rilynne reached in her closet and pulled out the first thing she touched, not caring what it was. She was half way out the door before she even looked down and realized she had pulled on a thick winter sweater. After quickly changing into something that wouldn’t cause her to suffer a heat stroke in the ninety-degree weather, she grabbed her purse and walked out the front door.

She was so numb as she drove down the block that she had completely forgotten her father was planning on meeting her at her house until she came upon him walking down the street.

“Get it,” she said when she pulled the car to a stop next to him. He looked at her quizzically, but climbed in without argument. “We need to go into the station for a few minutes. They have a few more questions before they can finally put this thing to bed.”

He just nodded and looked out the window. Rilynne couldn’t tell if he noticed the dryness of her tone, but he gave no reaction.

Neither of them spoke again until they pulled up in front of the station five minutes later.

“So are you going to tell me what’s really going on now that we’re here?” Douglas asked. “Or should I just wait until we get up stairs.”

Rilynne let out the deep breath she had been holding onto and turned toward him. “Tori Harris didn’t kill Marshal Teich,” she said bluntly. “We have her on a surveillance tape across town.”

He looked genuinely stupefied. “That’s not possible,” he said. “Unless…”

“Unless she isn’t working alone,” Rilynne finished his sentence.

He pulled his hands up and ran them over his face before letting out a low groan. “Twenty-five years,” he said. “Twenty-five years and I never considered the fact she was working with a partner.”

“There was never any sign of one?” she asked. Something inside of her was yelling, telling her that he had nothing to do with the murders. She pushed it aside, not allowing herself to entertain the notion. If she convinced herself he was innocent, even a little bit, it would be too heartbreaking if she learned otherwise.

“No,” he stated, turning toward her. “You’ve seen the file I’ve put together. I had come close to her twice, and never saw her with anyone else.” When Rilynne didn’t respond, he nodded his head and grinned. “And now you’ve been asked to bring me in for questioning.” It wasn’t a question. “Well, let’s not keep them waiting.”

She sat almost stunned in the car as she watched him step out and walk to the front doors. He stopped before entering and waited for her to join him.

The elevator ride up to the homicide office was long and tense. She was almost relieved to see Wilcome and Matthews waiting for them when the doors opened.

Though she assumed Wilcome would have allowed it, Rilynne decided against sitting in on the interview. She didn’t even have a desire to watch it, so she dropped down into her desk chair and waited for it to be over. To her surprise, she didn’t have to wait long. Just fifteen minutes after it began, her father walked back through the office toward her.

Before she could even try to think of something to say to him, Wilcome called everyone into the conference room. She pushed herself up and hurried in, her father following closely behind.

“As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, Tori Harris, aka Tori Rose, has an alibi for the murders of Marshal Teich and Sam Baker,” he announced as everyone took their seat. “Unfortunately, this means her accomplice is still out there. Our priority now is to identify and locate this person before he or she decides to leave town.”

“What about Evans?” Matthews asked. “Is it likely that the partner will attempt to finish the original plan and go after her?”

Rilynne could see by the look on Wilcome’s face that he had been asking himself the same question. “Harris was going after Evans in an attempt to keep her identity hidden. Going after her again would have no benefit now that she’s in custody. Now, that’s not to say that the partner won’t still try. Since we were able to keep the arrest away from the press, chances are the partner doesn’t even know that we have her. If he or she does, it’s unlikely they will know how much evidence we currently have.”

“In other words, I’m still a target until we catch the partner,” Rilynne stated.

Wilcome nodded. “We can have you moved to a safe house until we’re able to bring him in,” he said.

Rilynne laughed, loudly. “That’s not going to happen,” she said stubbornly. “I’m not going to hide out and wait. If I’m a target, he will be coming after me. That’s the best chance we have of catching him.”

Wilcome leaned forward against the table, putting his weight on his hands as they propped him up. Rilynne knew what he was going to say before he could even open his mouth.

“I know these aren’t just your everyday criminals,” she continued before he had a chance to speak. “I know the risks that would come from being out in the open. But I’m not going to just hide out until we know it’s safe.”

“Fine,” he said in a resigned tone. “You will have plain clothed officers posted on your street, and no more camping trips.” She turned toward him to argue, but he cut her off. “That’s non-negotiable. If you really want to argue, I’ll find a reason to lock you up. I’m sure it won’t be difficult.”

She was stunned by his brazen tone and could think of nothing else to do but nod.

“Good, now that we’ve got that out of the way,” he said, dropping down into a chair. “I want Tori Harris’ life torn apart. She was using an alias, which may mean something in her true identity will help us locate her partner. The lab is processing everything she had on her when we picked her up. I also want you to go through the file Mr. Evans provided us with and see if we can find anything in there. You all know what you need to do.”

Rilynne stayed in her seat as she watched the room quickly empty. In a matter of moments, only Wilcome and her father were left.

“I need to go pick up my prescription and grab something to eat,” Rilynne told him. “I’ll be back in about an hour.”

He nodded, although he didn’t seem entirely pleased with the idea.

“I’d like to join you if that’s all right,” her father said. Rilynne glanced at Wilcome who had returned his attention to the file laid out in front of him. If he had any reservations about Douglas’ offer, he gave no hint of it.

“Sure,” she said before turning and walking toward her desk. After grabbing her purse, the two of them headed to the elevator.

“What do you have a prescription for?” he asked curiously when the doors opened.

She waited until they closed again before she answered. “When you’re on the run, going to a doctor is pretty much out of the question. I managed to cut my leg open, and while I did a pretty good job cleaning it and stitching it shut, letting it soak in a puddle while being held in that basement wasn’t really conducive to the healing process. The medics looked at it yesterday and said it looked good, but recommended I get an antibiotic to prevent an infection.”

“You stitched yourself?” he asked with a bemused expression.

“Now you’re starting to sound like Ben.”

He grinned as they stepped back out of the elevator and walked cautiously through the lobby. Luckily, it was still relatively empty, so they were able to make it out without anyone taking notice.

After stopping by the pharmacy, Rilynne decided to drive back to her house to change the dressings. When they pulled into the driveway, she spotted her neighbor, Joe Ackerman, waving her down.

“Hey,” he called out when she stepped out of the car. “I have something for you.” He stuck his head inside the door and returned with a small package. “This came for you a couple of days ago. I signed for it since you were out of town.”

“Thanks, Joe,” she said as he handed her the package.

He smiled warmly before heading back toward his still open door.

Rilynne pulled the padded envelope open as she unlocked her front door and removed a small binder. Something about it startled Douglas because he let out a quick gasp before pushing her into the house and locking the door behind them.

“What?” she asked, looking at him like he was mad.

He pulled the binder out of her hand and flipped it open. She couldn’t see what it held, but the look on his face told her it was nothing good.

“What is it?” she asked, pulling the binder away from him. When she flipped through it herself, she saw her life. There were clippings cut from the newspaper about cases she had worked, pictures of her house, and what appeared to be surveillance photos of her and everyone she was in regular contact with.

“What the hell is this?” she asked, looking back toward her father.

The fear that was now sitting on his face scared her. As he dropped down in the chair opposite the couch, he seemed truly at a loss for words.

Rilynne sat down on the couch and turned her attention back to the binder in her hands.

There were pictures of everyone in the homicide office. The thing that truly startled her about them was the fact that they all appeared to have been taken in front of their homes instead of the station. Someone had been following them. There were even pictures of Katy entering her obstetrician’s office.

As she flipped forward several pages, her heart sank. There were six pages dedicated just to Ben. On the last picture, a giant red ‘X’ had been placed over his face.

“Is this some kind of joke?” she asked as a tear rolled down her cheek. She looked up at her father, hoping to find any kind of reassurance, but it wasn’t there.

“It’s a threat,” he said. “It’s just like the one I received. You understand now, don’t you? This is why I left. This is why you have to, too. None of them will be safe as long as they think you’re a danger to them. The only way you can protect your friends is to leave.”

“No,” she said abruptly. She ran her fingers across the picture of Ben as another tear streaked down her face. “I won’t leave him. He risked everything to be with me. I’m not going to repay that by walking away. I won’t walk away from any of them. It won’t keep them safe.”

“It’s the only way to keep them safe,” he insisted.

“Like I was safe?” she asked. She could feel an anger bubbling within her. “Do you really think they will just let it go if I left? Ben looked into your case just to give me answers. Nothing in the world would stop him from looking for me if I left.”

“Then we give them a reason not to look,” he said.

Her mind shot back to the vision she had of her funeral. This was what he was suggesting.

“I’ve seen how that would play out,” she said. “I’ve seen what it would turn him into. He will be consumed by the need for revenge.”

“Then bring him if you must,” he stated. There was frustration in his voice, a pleading. “You just can’t stay here.”

She stood up so fast it caused him to jump in his seat. “I’m not leaving!” she yelled. “I am a homicide detective, and I’m not going to sit back and allow this person to keep killing people because I’m afraid. And you better believe there’s nothing in the world that would make me put mom through that.”

He looked like he wanted to argue, but after studying the determined look on her face, he just let out a resigned sigh. “Then the only thing we can do is find the partner before he has a chance to make a move.”

Pacified by his willingness to help, she sat back down.

“So what do we do?” she asked.

He let out another sigh and leaned back in his seat.
After several minutes of silence, an idea flickered through his eyes.

“We set a trap,” he said plainly. “And I know exactly what to do.”