Wanted with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Five) (3 page)

“
D
amn,” she said. Her head was reeling. The frustration bubbled within her, though she couldn’t help but feel a little relieved. She would much rather have been able to prosecute him for his crimes, but at least she knew he would never kill again. “Who’s the other one?”

Dr. Andrews reached over Marshal Teich and slid the wallet out of the second man’s pocket. Matthews plucked it from in between his fingers and flipped it open. “That would be Sam Baker.”

“Isn’t he the man Teich named as his alibi for the Fields murder?” she asked.

Matthews just nodded, his eyes sweeping around the room.

“Well, it would appear at first look that they were both shot with the same caliber rounds. I’ll have the bullets sent to ballistics when I remove them, and they can give you a definitive answer as to whether or not they came from the same gun,” Dr. Andrews stated. Rilynne turned away as he pushed his thermometer into both men. She didn’t know why, but something about it always left her stomach twisted. “I’m putting time of death sometime between ten and twelve last night.”

“What do you have, Summers?” Rilynne called out over her shoulder. Daniel Summers was in the process of digging something out of the nearby wall.

“Judging by the spatter patterns, it would appear that there was one shooter standing about there,” he said, motioning about four feet from where Matthews was. “I have one round here in the wall, which looks to have been a through and through. I also pulled several prints off of the door.”

Rilynne looked around the room before turning back toward Matthews. “Is this Teich’s apartment?” There was a note of excitement in her voice that she couldn’t hide.

He pulled the driver’s license back out and examined it. “Yes.”

She grinned and turned back toward Summers. “Tear it apart,” she stated. “Look for
anything
that might connect him to any crimes he may have been involved in.” She paused before adding, “It could give us a good idea of where to start looking for suspects.”

Matthews just grinned and slowly shook his head.

When they left twenty minutes later, Summers-accompanied by two other investigators-had finished with the living room and was working through the rest of the apartment. Rilynne wanted to wait until they found anything connecting Teich to the Fields murder, but finally conceded after Matthews’ third request to leave.

“I need more coffee,” he said when they climbed into the car. “Would it be terribly cliché if we stop at the donut shop down the
street?”

“Yes,” she said bluntly. “But I wouldn’t say no to a few sugar ones.”

*

“What have you got?” Wilcome called out from his desk in the corner.

Matthews spun around in his chair to face him. “We aren’t at a shortage of people who had issues with the victim,” he stated. “In addition to his muggings and recent murder-sorry, suspected murder-he seems to have had this thumb in just about everything: drugs, extortion, carjacking, and the list goes on. Just in his apartment building, which he actually owned, there are a handful of people who didn’t seem the least bit upset when they were informed he had been killed. As far as landlords go, he was definitely one of the more despicable ones.”

“What about Andrew Fields’ family?”

“His parents are still on their way in to claim his body,” Rilynne said. “Their flight is scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning. As far as we know, no one connected to him was even in town last night. We’re running their finances now. I don’t think it’s likely, but they could have hired someone to kill him if word got out he had been released. With it so early in the case, though, I doubt they even knew he was a suspect.”

Wilcome groaned and ran his hands across his face.

“We should have a better idea of where to start looking as soon as we hear back from the lab,” she continued without waiting for him to respond.

“Have you heard anything back from them yet?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I saw them bringing in several boxes of evidence. With what little they found in the living room, which is where the shootings took place, that leaves me hopeful they found stuff relevant to the other cases me may have been involved in. I don’t expect to have to wait much longer.” She glanced to her watch. “I know Ben came back in to help Summers process everything.”

He nodded.

After a few moments, it became obvious that he had nothing more to ask, so Rilynne turned back to Matthews.

“Gut instinct,” she said, leaning forward onto her desk. “If you had to pick one person out of the stack to start looking at, who would it be?”

Matthews groaned. She could see the wheels turning in his head.

“Honestly, there are too many people on the list right now for me to even know where to start,” he stated. “What does that clever little mind of yours see?”

She studied his expression, trying to decide if he was teasing her. If he was, he gave no hint of it. “Since he was shot in the face, chances are it was someone with very personal motives. There’s anger behind it.” She paused and stared at the stack of papers on her desk. “I think we should start with the people he’s victimized. Just look at how scared Miss Taylor was. That feeling, that level of fear; some people will go to great lengths to overcome it.”

“That doesn’t really narrow the list much,” he groaned. “Not to mention, we have no idea how many people he could have attacked who were too afraid to report it.”

Before she could respond, her phone chimed.

“Ben has some results for us in the lab,” Rilynne said as she read the text message. She pushed her phone back into her pocket and walked out the door.

She was filled with excitement as they rode the elevator up to the fourth floor. At the same time, she was still reeling with disappointment.

“What did you find?” she asked when they walked into the lab.

Ben spun around in his seat and motioned them over. “These were found in a box at the top of his closet,” he said.

Rilynne took the evidence bag from his hand and look through it. Inside she saw close to a dozen driver’s licenses.

“Before you ask,” he said, “I found your girl in there. The one who changed her story about Teich attacking her.”

“He kept their ID’s so they would be less likely to turn him in. He knew exactly who they were and where they lived,” she said, handing the bag to Matthews. “I’m guessing either him or his buddy reached out to Libby Taylor and threatened her before she could
come in and pick him out of a lineup. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in this bag has received a visit since Andrew Fields died.” She knew their suspect pool for Teich’s murder had just grown.” It’s funny, not a single person mentioned their ID being taken. They must have been living in terror.”

Matthews shook his head and handed the evidence bag back to Ben. “We’ll call her back in and see if she will be more receptive now that he can’t hurt her. I’ll make sure we find out where she was last night, too. Chances are, some of these people probably moved. It may take a little while to track the rest of them down,” he said. “Did y’all find anything else linking him to past crimes?”

“This was among the clothes Summers found in Marshal Teich’s hamper,” Ben said, laying the black shirt out on the desk. “If you look right here,” he ran a black light over it, “you can see a blood smear. It would appear that he wiped something consistent with the knife we recovered on his shirt to clean it. I’m running the blood now, so we should have the results back in the next day or two. There’s also what looks like a snag here on the bottom. I examined the fibers and they are consistent with the ones collected from the blade of the knife.”

While it seemed like the Fields case was wrapping up neatly, it didn’t leave Rilynne as satisfied as she had hoped.

“Have you found anything about Teich’s murder?” Matthews asked.

Ben shrugged and placed the shirt back in the evidence bag. “Summers is going over the blood spatter right now to see if he can determine anything about the perpetrator. He’s hopeful that he will be able to estimate the height of the shooter by the angle of the wounds and the spatter,” he stated. “I haven’t gotten a report back on the case, though.”

“I’ll let Wilcome know,” Matthews said as he started toward the door. “Thanks, Davis.”

Ben waited for Matthews to
disappear before turning to Rilynne. “Are you all right?” he asked. “You don’t seem exactly thrilled with the results.”

Rilynne spun in circles on the stool and shrugged. “It wasn’t my ideal outcome for the case,” she replied honestly. “I’m glad he won’t have to opportunity to do it again, but I still wish we had been able to charge him with his crimes. I was so looking forward to seeing the look on his face when the bars closed in front of him.”

Ben reached out and stopped the stool. “At least this guys off the streets. Steele and Tylers will be back in town tonight. Why don’t you see if they can take over his case?” he asked. “I know you could use a couple days off. Don’t bother denying it.”

She started to argue but knew he was right. As much as she didn’t like taking time off, she knew she could use it. This case had left her emotionally drained. It would also give Matthews some time to himself, which she knew he desperately needed.

“You always look out for me,” she said sweetly. “You might consider taking your own advice, you know. You’re going to work yourself to death at this rate.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m out of here for one night and the entire lab gets filled with bubbles. Could you imagine what would happen if I took a few days off?” He laughed and looked around. “I think I would actually be under even more stress just from worrying about it.”

“Have I told you how adorable you are?” she asked, hoping off the stool. “And yes, I will see about transferring the case to Tylers and Steele. I can’t honestly say that I would be able to perform a completely unbiased investigation.”

“Sure you would,” he said confidently, walking with her toward the door. “And I would say devilishly handsome is more accurate than adorable.”

“It could go either way.”

Ben leaned down and kissed her on the cheek before heading toward the evidence room to log the shirt back in. Rilynne watched him until he rounded the corner before pushing the down button on the elevator.

“Hey,” she called out to Matthews as she stuck her head through the homicide office door. “How would you feel about passing the case to Tylers and Steele?”

Matthews looked almost shocked by her suggestion. She knew why. Rilynne usually went out of her way to get cases. He had never seen her willingly pass one off.

“We already solved the Fields murder,” she continued. “If we hand it off, no one can claim we were working a biased investigation. Besides, you really look like you can use some sleep.”

He turned toward the mirror on the wall just behind him and nodded. “You’re right,” he said. “I’m beginning to look like a zombie. Yeah, I’ll talk to Wilcome about it. I’m sure he won’t take issue. Are you going to call it a night?”

“Yeah,” she said, stepping the rest of the way into the office. “It’s been a long day and I really want to go for a bike ride before it gets dark. It’s been so long since I took it out; my bike’s starting to collect a layer of dust. You should really think about heading home as well. Take advantage of having the house to yourself.”

“If you insist,” he said, almost jumping from his seat. There was a youthful excitement in his eyes. “Have a good ride. If you need me, call someone else. I plan on sleeping for the next twelve hours.”

Rilynne laughed and grabbed her purse. Matthews was already across the room and standing in front of Wilcome’s desk by the time she walked back out of the office.

The murder was the talk of the station as she walked through it. Although no one seemed at all mournful for the man, they all seemed to find it incredibly intriguing. She understood why. It wasn’t often a suspect ended up murdered just after being released. She heard several people throw out the word ‘karma.’

Traffic was unusually heavy despite having no obvious cause, and it took Rilynne much longer than expected to make it home. By the time she did, she had given up on the prospect of taking her bike out. There was just under an hour of daylight left, and she knew she would inevitably wind up finishing the last leg of her trek in the dark. She was clumsy enough when she was on her feet.

Instead, she slipped her running shoes on and headed out the back door. Like the streets, the trails were uncommonly busy. It more than likely had something to do with the weather. Though it was nearing the end of June, the temperate was hanging around the low end of the eighties. Ben called it the coldest summer they had seen in years.

Rilynne made her way along the trail and didn’t stop until she reached the lake. There were several groups spread out along the banks, with another handful splashing around in the water. Rilynne used to consider jumping in on hot days, but had given up on that idea all together after they pulled a body out a couple months before. She had a feeling she would never be able to look at it the same way again.