Wanted with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Five) (8 page)

R
ilynne was shocked by the tone in his voice. She had never heard him sound so scared. More than anything, though, she was stunned to hear her name. He never called her Rilynne. “You could lose your job for this,” she said as she jumped off the bed and ran to the closet. “You have too much going on right now to take a risk like this.”

“You’re my partner,” he said simply. “Now go.”

Before she could say anything else, she heard the line go dead. With one last heartfelt look at the phone, she shoved it into the pocket of her pajama pants and grabbed a handful of clothes.

“What’s going on?” Ben asked as she shoved the clothes abruptly into the pack she had grabbed from the top shelf.

She considered not telling him for a moment. She knew what it would mean if she walked out of the house now, and didn’t want him to have to make the same decision. Before she could respond, though, he seemed to see the truth in the situation. He was off the bed and out of the room before she knew what was happening.

Rilynne stuffed everything she might need into the bag and rushed out of the room. She found Ben in the kitchen.

“Send Lori a text and tell her you’re on the way to visit your mom,” he stated. “Ask her if she can keep an eye on your house while you’re gone. Tell her you shouldn’t be more than a week.” She was taken aback by his statement, but she quickly complied. “Go put that in my car. Then grab the sleeping bags out of the hall closet. How long did he say we have?”

“You don’t have to do this, Ben. You don’t have to give up your life like this,” she stated.

“How long?” he asked again as he pulled the pantry door open.

“About fifteen more minutes,” she replied.

“We have five,” he said as he filled the bag in his arms full of bottled waters and numerous cans of food. “Where’s the little stove for camping?”

“With the sleeping bags,” she said as she hurried toward the door. She could feel the overwhelming sense of panic sweeping over her, but she quickly pushed it aside as she
ran to his car and threw the bag in. She was just going back in when Ben met her at the door, arms filled with the sleeping bags, stove, and bag of food.

“Let’s go,” he said, quickly slipping his jeans back on. “Get in the car. I’ll grab everything else we need on the way out.”

“Where are we going?” she asked as she climbed into the car.

Ben slammed the trunk door and sat down. He barely had the door shut before he swung the car out of the driveway. “We’ll figure that out,” he said. Rilynne could hear the panic in his voice. She reached down and gently placed her hand on his thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze. She then took in the sight and let out a little laugh. She was in her pajamas with her shoes in her hand, and Ben’s pants were unbuttoned and his shirt was only half on.

“What?” he asked, flashing her a confused grin.

She shook her head and dropped her head back onto the headrest. “This is crazy,” she said. “We shouldn’t be doing this.
You
shouldn’t be doing this. You’re going to lose everything you’ve worked so hard for. I can’t let you just throw away your life like this.”

“You are my life,” he interrupted. Rilynne’s heart jumped as she turned toward him, but he didn’t take his eyes off of the road in front of them. “We’re going to figure this out, we just need time. That won’t happen if you get arrested. I can’t do this without you, and you can’t do it alone.”

“Okay,” she said after a few moments. She grinned at him before turning and looking out the window. “So what do we do now?”

“There’s a small camping store on the other side of town. We’ll stop by there and pick up everything we need. After that, we’ll find somewhere we can stay for a few days until we get everything figured out. I should probably stop and get some money so we don’t have to use our cards,” he replied.

Rilynne nodded as she watched the buildings pass by the window. “Give me your phone,” she said a moment later. He handed it to her without question. She quickly popped the battery off before reaching for her own. “It won’t take them long to realize you’re with me, especially since you sent that email in last night. When they can’t find me, they’ll go looking for you.”

“Well, when Lori tells them you left to visit your mom, they’ll just think we’re on the road headed out there. It will buy us a few days to try and figure this out before it starts to look like we ran,” he replied. “We just need to get it figured out by then. If anyone can, it’s you.”

Neither of them spoke again until they pulled up in front of the store. “Wait here,” he stated. “I’ll run in and get what we need. You might want to put some actual clothes on while you wait. I’ll probably run in the store next door, too. I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to run by my place to grab clothes. Do you think it would be safe to call my neighbor and ask him to feed my fish?”

“Matthews will take care of them, I’m sure of it,” she replied. “He’ll realize as soon as he sees my car in the driveway that I’m with you and will know we won’t be making stops to take care of your fish.”

He nodded and shut the door, pulling his shirt the rest of the way on as he walked.

Rilynne climbed into the back seat after she watched Ben walk into the store. She pulled her pack open and grabbed the shirt and pants off the top. After quickly pulling them on, she climbed back in the passenger seat and closed her eyes while she waited for him to come back.

As hard as she tried, she couldn’t force herself to see anything. She refused to give up, though, and was still trying when Ben climbed back in twenty minutes later.

“So here are our options,” he said as he started the car. “We can either head out of town, or try and find someplace in Addison Valley where we can hide out. I’ll leave that up to you.”

“I know it’s riskier to stay here, but I think that’s our best chance of trying to get this situation taken care of,” she replied. “Is it feasible, though? Are we going to be able to find someplace where we can stay that we won’t be found?”

“I was thinking about it, and our best bet would be to head out to one of the caves on the property Matthews bought,” he replied as he pulled out of the parking lot. “It will provide us with good shelter, and there isn’t really any chance of someone stumbling across us. If Matthews does find us there, he’s the least likely person in town to turn us in.”

Rilynne thought about it and nodded. She didn’t relish the idea of putting Matthews in a compromising situation, but she didn’t see that they had any other choice.

“What about a car?” Rilynne asked. “It’s not like we can exactly drive around it yours. I’m sure it will be included on the APB.”

“Not a problem,” Ben said quickly. “I’ve got a buddy who runs an auto shop. He has several cars he lets people rent out while he is doing repairs.”

Rilynne looked at him hesitantly. “Is he going to turn us in if your face ends up on the news?”

He shook his head. “Nope,” he replied confidently. “He owns me a favor. Besides, he’s not really a news kind of guy.”

She wasn’t completely sold on the idea, but she didn’t really see any other option at the moment. She still couldn’t believe any of this was actually happening. Twice on the drive to the auto shop she closed her eyes, hoping it would all have been a dream when she opened them again.

As her face had been all over the news, Rilynne stayed in the car while Ben made the arrangements. In a matter of minutes, he walked back out with a new set of keys. “Let’s go,” he said, pulling the bags out of the car and carrying them to an SUV sitting just a few spaces over. She was surprised at just how smoothly the changeover had been.

“We’ll park in one of the lots off of the main road that campers use,” he said as they drove out of town. “From there
, we’ll just hike to the cave. It will take us about an hour, but it’s the best shot we’ve got at getting in and out without being seen.”

Rilynne nodded, trusting his knowledge of the area. He seemed oddly composed given the situation. She was glad, because she wasn’t. Her head was still spinning when the car stopped twenty minutes later.

She climbed out and pulled her pack on before following Ben into the woods. He had been surprisingly accurate with his approximation, because they came upon the cave almost exactly an hour later.

“This is the same one we came to last year,” she stated, looking around curiously.

Ben shrugged and grinned. “I thought it would be fitting. We got lost out here on accident, so why not get lost on purpose?”

Rilynne laughed. For a split second, she was able to forget about what was waiting for them back in town. It felt good. She dropped her pack down at the mouth of the cave and walked in to have a look around. It was clear by the lack of empty beer bottles that local kids were no longer using the cave for drinking, or at least hadn’t since they had been there last.

After making a complete round, she walked back out to find Ben.

“What are you doing?” she asked. He was sitting in the middle of the clearing, staring blankly out at the woods surrounding them. He didn’t even move until she sat down next to him.

“I’m letting everything finally sink in,” he admitted.

She reached out and set her hand on his shoulder. When she did, he pulled his gaze away from the trees and looked at her. “You don’t have to do this,” she said. “You can just go back and say you saw me off this morning and as far as you know, I’m on the way to my mom’s house.”

He grinned and dropped his chin down on her hand. “Are you kidding? You wouldn’t make it a day out here without me. You would get lost and accidentally wonder straight into the police station.”

Rilynne laughed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, hush,” she said. “Just promise me when the time comes that you’ve had enough, you will go back. I would never forgive myself if you lost everything because of me.”

“Now who’s the one being funny?” he joked. “You’re going to have this thing solved and be back in your own bed by tomorrow.”

Rilynne grinned, but she wasn’t convinced. Not only had she not been able to see anything relevant, she knew it was going to be an
uphill battle even if she did. There was so much evidence stacked up against her that she would have to have absolute proof to forgo being arrested. One of her hunches wouldn’t suffice this time.

“I don’t suppose you grabbed anything for breakfast,” she said, glancing toward the packs on the ground. “I was going to suggest stopping for breakfast tacos, but that seemed a little out of the question.”

He laughed and draped his arm around her shoulders. “I could just see it now,” he said, waving his other hand out in front of them. “Fugitive found and captured after ordering breakfast tacos from a drive thru. There would be no living that one down, even after your name was cleared.”

She dropped her head down on his shoulder and laughed.

“So I was thinking about it,” she said a few moments later. “Something else must have turned up overnight. I don’t think they would have issued an arrest warrant just with what they had.”

Ben didn’t seem nearly as convinced. “You didn’t see Greene yesterday after you left. She was furious. I honestly don’t think it would have taken more than the news story to push her over the edge.”

“This is why I hate politics,” she groaned. “I can almost guarantee that if the election wasn’t coming up, she wouldn’t be nearly as determined to pin this on me as quickly as possible. You should have seen her when you were accused. She wanted to keep it as quiet as possible and was very hopeful that you would be found innocent.” She paused for a moment, thinking back to Greene’s reaction. “Maybe she just has a little thing for you. It would explain why she now has it out for me.”

Ben gave her a look that told her he thought the idea was ridiculous. The more she thought about it, though, she wasn’t so sure.

“Maybe she did it,” he popped off, pulling her attention back to him. After he did, he seemed to actually be considering the option. “I can’t think of a better way to win the hearts of all those voters than by bringing down a corrupt cop.”

“She may really love her job, but I doubt she would actually kill for it,” Rilynne said. “Besides, you remember how annoyed she was with the
fallout from Nicole. I don’t think she would ever do anything to intentionally go through that again. She’s still trying to find ways to put the criminals we were forced to release back behind bars. She would be facing far more backlash than any benefit that could possibly come.”

“That’s true. Think of how many people would have to be released if you were arrested,” he said.

“I bet Cyndi Lewis would try to get released. Jared would be furious!”

Ben laughed and nodded. “That one case alone would force her into retirement. Lewis would go off on the mayor, who would in turn take it out on Greene. She’s one
scary woman when she wants to be, but even she wouldn’t last a minute against the mayor. I’ve seen Reed leave full grown men on the verge of tears.”

“You know the mayor?” she asked, not trying to hide the shock in her voice. “I mean, I know you’ve met since he’s given you several awards, but you actually know him?”