Jenn Vakey - Rilynne Evans 07 - Revenge with Murder Page 6

  Matthews chuckled and said, “No, actually. Believe it or not, the girls slept through the night last night. I was so freaked out when I woke up that I rushed in to make sure they hadn’t been taken in the middle of the night. Katy thought it was hilarious.”

  “Well, congrats,” she said. Even before the birth of his twin daughters, Todd Matthews had collected his share of sleepless nights. It was amazing how different he sounded when he was actually able to get a full night of rest. “How are those beautiful god daughters of mine doing?”

  “Growing faster than I think I’m really comfortable with. I’m glad that eventually slows down, because I’m going to go broke if I have to completely replace their entire wardrobe every couple months. We have an entire bag of clothes they didn’t even wear once before outgrowing. Katy recommended we save them for you and Ben. Any news on when they could go to use?” he asked. There was a note of searching in his voice that was impossible to ignore. “Katy keeps asking and I would love to actually be able to give her an answer.”

  “We’re getting off topic,” she stated. She glanced quickly to Ben, thankful he hadn’t heard the question. “You called about the case. Were you able to turn anything up on the woman we found? I tried to access the system on my end, but the network wouldn’t let me in.”

  “Uh huh,” he muttered. He could tell she was avoiding the subject, but he didn’t push it. She was thankful. “They came in this week to upgrade our systems. You won’t be able to get in until you have your new security profile setup. Same goes for your husband.”

  “Great,” she groaned. “Well, have you been able to find anything out on the victim?”

  “Not much.” She could hear papers shuffling over the line. “Her name is Caitlin Burton. She’s fifty-two years old, and she has made her living restoring and preserving historical buildings. I spoke with her daughter this morning, and she told me she was living in Spicer Island for two months while she oversaw the renovation and restoration on a bed and breakfast. She spoke with her last week, and she didn’t mention any problems she was having. I put in a call to her partner to have everything about the current project sent in. She also has a husband, but I haven’t been able to track him down yet. I sent all of the information I had for him to Sergeant Perez. With the remoteness of the island, it won’t be hard to track who was in the vicinity at the time.”

  “No, that definitely won’t be a problem,” she said. “As of right now, there are only eighty-three people on the island. That includes residence, seasonal workers, and tourists.”

  “Well, at least you have a suspect pool to work with. Assuming both you and Ben weren’t involved, you only have eighty-one people to look at,” he stated.

  Rilynne grinned and leaned back in her chair. “I don’t know,” she stated. “That’s a pretty big assumption. You know what they say about the people who find the body.”

  “Very true,” he chuckled. “I could see Ben trying to stop someone from disrupting your honeymoon. You would be at the top of that list, though.”

  Rilynne’s gaze shot over to Ben. His eyes were growing heavy and his head started to bob. She couldn’t help but smile. “That’s still a possibility. Let me know if anything turns up. And give both of those beautiful babies a kiss for me.”

  Rilynne hung up the phone but didn’t take her eyes off of her new husband. Her partner had been right; none of this had been in Ben’s plan for their honeymoon. She considered letting it go for a brief moment, but she knew she couldn’t. The locals had never handled anything close to this before. She owed it to the victim’s family to do what she could to catch the person responsible.

  “Any news?” he asked, though he didn’t open his eyes.

  She pushed herself up from the chair and crossed the room to sit on the bed next to him. “Nothing that would tell us who dropped her into the ocean,” she said. She dropped her head down and rested it on his shoulder. As she did, she took in the sweet smell of peaches. Over the last year and a half, it had become an unbelievably calming aroma. “She was here to oversee renovations to an old bed and breakfast. Neither her partner nor daughter could think of anyone who would want to do this. Hopefully Perez won’t have any trouble tracking down her husband. That’s always a good place to start in a murder case.”

  “Other than how she died, have you seen anything that could help us?” he asked.

  She shook her head before positioning it back against him. “The flash I had last night during dinner just showed her getting flowers, and my dream last night was about the girls.”

  “The same one?”

  Rilynne nodded. “With the exception of a few details here or there. I asked Matthews to inform me if anything new turned up, but he hasn’t said anything. With no physical evidence, we aren’t likely to get anywhere unless I can see something useful.”

  As much as she hated to admit it, she felt completely hopeless when it came to that case. Over the last several years, three young girls had been found dumped in the woods, each showing signs of having been held for close to a decade. Though the case had reached out to Rilynne, which was an uncommon occurrence seeing as she had no connection to it, she hadn’t been able to see anything that would help her find answers.

  Rilynne could feel Ben nodding before he slowly drifting to sleep. She sat with him for another ten minutes before slowly moving off the bed. He let out a low moan, but didn’t wake.

  She considered lying down to try to get in a nap herself, but decided against it. Instead, she took advantage of him sleeping and headed toward the bathroom. After filling the bathtub up with steaming water, she stripped down and slid into it. The water heater didn’t last long in the small house, providing just enough hot water for a single bath, but what it did put out was pleasantly hot.

  As she felt the warmth spread through her, she closed her eyes and let out a deep, relaxing breath. This wasn’t how she saw their honeymoon going. It wasn’t entirely surprising, though. Wilcome was right; trouble seemed to follow her around.

  It was something she realized as a teenager. It didn’t help that she always managed to put herself in situations that could turn south. Between her natural curiosity and the bits and pieces her flashes gave her, she often found herself tied up in something or another. It wasn’t often something sneaked up on her like this, though. Part of her wished she could let it go and just enjoy their honeymoon. As she sat there, she actually tried to convince herself that she should. Despite all of the facts she told herself to support the idea, she just couldn’t get herself to take the final step. She was already too deep to just stop and walk away. The only thing she could do was find a way to make it up to Ben.

  She sat there, eyes closed as she considered different things she might do, until she heard Ben from the next room.

  “Where’d you go?” he groaned.

  “I’m in here,” she called back. “Is it about time for us to go?”

  Ben let out a deep yawn as he stepped into the doorway. “Yeah, we should probably start getting ready. Why did you let me fall asleep?”

  Rilynne grinned up at him as he tiredly rubbed his eyes. “You were out,” she said. “Besides, now you will be well rested for later.”

  She pulled the plug with her toes and reached out for him to help her up. After wrapping herself in a towel, she followed him into the bedroom. “Do you know where I put my pants?” she asked. He reached under the bed and pulled them out. “Thank you,” she said, taking them from him and pulling them on. She grinned up at him as he let out a deep yawn and rubbed his hands over his face.

  As she dug through her clothes for a shirt to wear, Ben grabbed his own clothes. By the time she was finished getting ready, he was sitting in the chair by the front door waiting for her.

  “Shall we?” she asked, reaching down to help him to his feet.

  The walk to the equipment rental store wasn’t as uncomfortable as Rilynne had expected. A front had blown in that seemed to take most of the humidity with it, in add
ition to providing a cooling breeze. She couldn’t have asked for better weather for a hike.

  Rilynne waited outside while Ben went in to grab the equipment they needed. She was about to go in with him when something caught her eye. When Ben looked over and saw it too, he slowly shook his head and entered without even asking if she was going to join. In a large cluster of trees not ten feet from the door was a mother monkey picking bugs off her young child. Rilynne took out her phone and snapped a few pictures before seeing just how close she could get to them. She made it about four feet away before stopping, not wanting to push her luck by venturing any further. The mother looked over at her, but she seemed unconcerned with her presence. Rilynne wanted more than anything to reach out and pet them, but she knew better. If there was one thing you never messed with, it was a mother with her child.

  “Why couldn’t I have the ability to talk to animals?” she muttered to herself. “That would be so much cooler than my flashes.”

  The monkey looked over to her as she spoke, appearing to ready herself to move if Rilynne made a motion toward them, but returned to grooming her baby after a few moments. Though she kept a conscious eye on Rilynne, she didn’t seem to view her as an immediate threat. It wasn’t entirely surprising. The store surely had decent foot traffic as it was the only supply rental on the island. With tourists going in and out, Rilynne probably wasn’t the first human to approach her.

  “The guys will never let you live it down if you get yourself attacked by a monkey,” Ben said, walking out behind her. “Come to think of it, neither will I.”

  “She’s not going to attack me,” she said, spinning around to face him. “Did you get everything?”

  Ben nodded. “I want to run by the station really quick before we head out, though. Chaz said he didn’t mind processing everything, but I don’t really want to saddle him with it all.”

  “Will anything be ready before tomorrow?” she asked.

  “I should have the results of the blood work,” he said, handing her one of the backpacks that was in his hand. “Well, at least the preliminary. Since we know she was drowned, I’m not actually expecting to find anything in her blood or her hair. I’m just checking to make sure she wasn’t exposed to poison prior to being killed.”

  “That would mean the difference between a heat of the moment killing and someone actually planning out her murder weeks or months before,” Rilynne added. “If it’s not going to be in her blood, how are you going to find out what she was injected with? I saw the syringe in the bag, so we know it was given after she died.”

  Ben nodded. “I had Dr. Forrest collect samples of the tissue around the injection mark. The needle didn’t appear to actually pierce a vein or artery, so there is a chance the poison is just sitting in her tissue. That test is going to take a bit longer. I’m hoping to have it back in a few days. I’m working on a hunch, so hopefully it won’t even take that long.”

  Rilynne looked up at him curiously as they started down the road toward the station. “A hunch?” she asked. “What kind of hunch?”

  He seemed to be considering his answer for a moment. “I’ll let you know if it pans out,” he said. “Right now it’s a little out there.”

  She wanted to push him further, but decided against it. Ben didn’t often keep things to himself. As much as she wanted to know what he was thinking, she was going to give him this one.

  Neither of them spoke again before arriving at the police station. Rilynne spent the time thinking over what Ben might have seen that she missed. Ben seemed to know that his secretive hunch was driving her crazy, because a satisfied smirk never left his face. She considered several times just asking him about it, but she talked herself out of it. She was glad when the station finally came into view, because she wasn’t sure she would have been able to stop herself again had the desire built back up.

  “I won’t be long,” he said when they walked in. Rilynne nodded as he crossed the room and stepped into the back. To her surprise, Perez wasn’t there. She was about to ask Max where he had gone, but all of his attention was directed at the video game in his hands. She decided not to distract him. Instead, she sat down in the chair across from Perez’s desk and closed her eyes.

  Rilynne thought over everything they had discovered about the victim. Since she had yet to meet her family or business partner, there wasn’t much to go on. She instead decided to focus on Caitlin’s house and the missing box. As hard as she tried, though, she couldn’t make herself see what had been so important that someone would have broken in to her home for. By the time Ben walked back out ten minutes later, she had given up on the notion and was instead glancing over everything atop Sergeant Perez’s desk. The only thing she had settled on before standing up and following Ben out was that he really enjoyed his crossword puzzles.

  “We aren’t actually very far from the head of the trail,” Ben said, glancing over the map he had picked up from the equipment rental store. “If we take the road to the right, there should be a small path that will lead us right to it.”

  Rilynne followed without hesitation. With an aptitude for getting lost, she wasn’t even about to question his suggestion.

  “So do you have any thoughts right now? Anything standing out?” Ben asked. Though he was asking, she knew him well enough to know it wasn’t exactly his idea of an ideal conversation.

  “Not at the moment,” she replied. She slid her fingers softly down his arm and wrapped them around his. “I don’t want to talk about the case right now, though. I don’t want to talk about anything having to do with work.”

  She didn’t need to look at him to know that a smile had stretched across his face. She could almost feel it through the warmth of his fingers against her hand.

  “Well, have you decided which trail you want to take?” he asked. He stopped to look at the large wooden map in front of them. There were three separate paths branching off around it.

  Rilynne stepped up beside him to examine the trails. Two of the three were long, weaving around the majority of the island. “Do you have all of the proper equipment?” she asked. Ben nodded and motioned toward the pack on his back. “Then I say we go with the red one.”

  Ben traced over the trail with his finger before nodding in agreement. “Looks like fun. Are you sure you can handle it?”

  An impish grin rose on her face as she pushed him toward the head of the trail. “Just watch me, baby.”

  Rilynne didn’t wait before working her way through the rocky trail. With Ben right behind her, it took a little over twenty minutes before it leveled off and they could just walk. “You know what this reminds me of?” she asked.

  “What?”

  “That hike we took while we were in Colorado,” she replied. “That’s the last time we really went out like this. At least for pleasure, that is.”

  Ben seemed to think it over for a moment before nodding in agreement. “Hopefully this time it won’t end the same as that one, though. Watching you take that fall scared the hell out of me. The sound of your head hitting that rock was sickening.”

  Rilynne’s hand moved up to her head like it tended to do whenever she thought back to that week. It was the first of two blows she took, both of which succeeded in knocking her unconscious. “Well, I wasn’t thinking about that part of it,” she responded. “We really talked while we were out there. It was pretty great.”

  “There were definitely some good parts of that trip,” he replied. Rilynne moved to step over a large boulder, but he pulled her back by her elbow and steered her to a narrow path to the left. She was nearing the end of it when she realized why. Had she continued along the path she had started, she would have likely slid right off the side of the last boulder in the set, which was propped up at a steep angle. She was enjoying their trip down memory lane, but she didn’t want to relive all of it. While it had left her and Ben closer in the end, it was one of the most difficult weeks of her life. “I did get a pair of pretty sexy scars out of it, too.”


  Rilynne had mixed feelings every time she saw the scars on his abdomen and lower back. While she did agree that they were sexy, he had gotten them saving her life. She felt responsible for him taking the shot that left him permanently marked. In fact, he had gotten several scars in the time they had known each other that were a result of their relationship.

  “That you did, my love,” she responded. “I just hope you don’t feel the need to obtain any more of them.”

  “No,” he laughed. “At least not from being shot.”

  “I’m just going to put my foot down and add stabbed to that list, as well as anything else that could leave you maimed,” she stated. She could hear him chuckling behind her. He found the overall situation more amusing than she did.

  “Does that mean I can’t get into underground fighting?”

  Rilynne stopped and looked up at him. “Yes, that’s exactly what that means,” she said firmly. “Besides, you’re already on the department boxing team. I imagine that’s a sufficient outlet for you.”

  Before Ben could respond, they came to the end of the trail. Rilynne turned and grinned at him before turning back ahead and looking up at the towering wall standing in front of them.

  “This isn’t like the wall in the gym,” said Ben. There was a hesitation in his voice that was barely noticeable. “Are you sure you want to try out the real thing here? If something goes wrong and you get hurt, it would pretty much put an end to the rest of our honeymoon. There are a few places we could go around Addison Valley that will build up your experience level.”

  Rilynne looked back up the tall mountain wall, trying to visually map out the best way to the top. A few moments later, she turned to Ben and nodded. “You insisted on us going scuba diving. That is far more dangerous than this in my view. You’ve been telling me since we first met that you would take me out rock climbing. There’s no backing out now.”

  “True,” he replied, the nervous look in his eye not dissipating. “But look how the scuba diving turned out for us. If we make it to the top and find another body, I’m just going to give up all together and officially declare the honeymoon over.”