Deception with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Two) (3 page)

“He’s the one who went through the academy with Villarreal right?” Matthews nodded. “What kind of behavior?”

“It seemed like he was hiding something,” Rilynne answered. “We did check into his whereabouts for the time of death, and he was working. He was definitely holding something back during his interview, though.”

He nodded while pushing himself off of the desk. “Keep an eye on him. Let me know if anything turns up.” He walked to his desk in the corner without waiting for a response.

Matthews split the stack of reports in two and handed half to Rilynne. Villarreal had been meticulous about including every detail he could in the reports. By ten o’clock she had only managed to make it half way through her stack.

“Have you found anything yet?” Matthews asked, rubbing his eyes.

Rilynne sat the stack down in front of her. “Everything is pretty standard so far. There’s a good deal of information about the two men he had been working closely with, but nothing as far as the ringleaders. You?”

“The same here. Clark did say it wasn’t until recently that he thought he was onto something, but he wouldn’t have included it in these unless he was positive. We need to find his journal,” he said.

“Hopefully his wife will have an idea where he would have kept it.” After locking the reports up in her desk drawer, she turned off her lamp and walked out with Matthews.

H
er drive home seemed to take no time at all. Despite being much further from the office than her apartment had been, the drive time was still shorter than if she had taken her usual walk.

She hadn’t noticed until she reached up to unlock her front door that the moving truck was no longer parked in front of her house where she had left it. She was pulling out her phone to call Ben when she discovered why.

He had not only unloaded all of her stuff, but he had even started to get everything arranged for her. Her sofa and chairs were set up around her assembled entertainment center in the living room. The dining room table and chairs were in place over the rug her mother had given her when she moved into her first apartment after college. All of the boxes had even been placed in the room they belonged in. But the most surprising part of all was the bedroom. He had assembled all of her furniture, moved the boxes of her clothes to her closet, and even made her bed.

“Huh…” she said on a long breath as she leaned against the doorframe, taking it all in.

After several moments she reached again for her phone.

“I owe you way more than a round of drinks,” she said when he answered. “You really didn’t have to do all of this.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said in a casual tone. “Tylers told me about the case you were called out on, and I knew you wouldn’t be getting in until late. I figured you might actually like a place to sleep other than on your couch, surrounded by boxes. Although, you could have made a fort out of them; that would have been fun.”

“Still, it must have taken you all day. I really do owe you.”

“I think I’m okay with that.” She could hear the smile in his voice.

“And what happened to you never going in a woman’s bedroom?” she asked curiously.

“Well,” he paused. “Technically it isn’t really a bedroom until it has been slept in. I just went into an empty room and built stuff. I’m pretty sure that makes it a workshop instead of a bedroom.”

“Uh huh. And how long is my bedroom going to be a workshop in your mind?” she asked playfully.

After stammering for a few seconds, it was clear that he could not think of a response. As much as she wanted to let him continue, she decided to rescue him. “You’re pretty great. How about I add a steak dinner along with those drinks?”

“Sounds good,” he replied. “So, tell me about the case.”

Rilynne groaned as she climbed up onto her abnormally tall king-size bed. “What all did Tylers tell you?”

“Not much. Just that the victim was an undercover cop who had been found in a vacant house by Detective Steele’s sister. He also said that Steele’s sister was beautiful and single, but I don’t see what that had to do with anything.” He had a bit of a tone with his last statement that sounded as if he was fishing for a reaction, but Rilynne ignored it.

“The victim is Shane Villarreal. Did you know him?”

“I’ve heard the name, but I don’t think that we have ever met. What happened to him?” he asked.

“He was shot three times and left in a vacant house. That’s not the strange part, though,” she explained. “It appears that the perpetrator then planted drugs in his nose and pockets to make it appear like a drug related death.”

“And there’s no way the drugs were actually his?”

“Not according to Dr. Andrews. Plus, anyone who knew him has said that there’s no way he would have gotten caught up in any kind of drug activity,” she replied. “They were all pretty adamant about it.”

“Interesting.” He paused to think over everything. “So the perpetrator would have to be someone who didn’t know him well.”

“My thoughts exactly,” she said with an impressed tone. “I told you you’d make a good detective.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he pushed off the compliment. “What physical evidence is there?”

“There was skin pulled from under his nails, and an unknown black substance taken from his hair. There are also the drugs to analyze and the bullets from the wall and the body. There was quite a bit of blood, also.”

“Sounds like I’m going to have a busy day tomorrow. Do you know who was working the scene today?” he asked with almost a worried tone. Rilynne knew he was not very pleased with the performance of the new crime scene investigator that had been hired to replace Nicole Benson. While she was capable, she was not up to Ben’s standards.

“Daniel Summers.”

“Good. Then he should have plenty of blood samples to run. He’s actually the best blood guy I have ever worked with. He can read it almost as well as you can read people.”

Rilynne was still smiling when she continued. “Let me ask you something. You know quite a bit of the officer related talk.” It was more of a statement than a question. Prior to trying to kill him, Nicole and Ben had actually been very close, and she had been the office gossip. Nothing seemed to happen in the department that Nicole did not know about.

“More than I would like to. Why, what do you want to know?”

“We interviewed an officer Julio Vega today. He was Villarreal’s closest friend, but Matthews and I both noticed he was hiding something. I was just wondering if you had heard anything about him or Villarreal?” she asked.

“Julio Vega I do know, but I haven’t heard anything about him. From what I have seen, though, he’s on the straight and narrow.”

“It was worth a shot. Well, I’m going to go try out my big new bathtub and climb into bed. Thank you again for all of the help. I’ll see you tomorrow, I’m sure.”

“See you then.”

Despite the size of her whirlpool bathtub, it took surprisingly little time to fill up. Rilynne poured herself a glass of wine and put on some smooth music before sliding down under the bubbles. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back onto the built in headrest. It had barely touched down when a scene started to develop in front of her.

Ben was sitting in the middle of her bedroom floor, screwdriver between his teeth, as he positioned the pieces of her bed together. His shirt was off and sitting on the stack of boxes by the door, so she could see the beads of sweat running down his back.
Rilynne felt her eyebrow rise involuntarily.
Then he was carrying the boxes, two or three at a time, through the bathroom and into the closet. After moving the last box, he glided his hand gently along the side of her assembled and made bed, adjusting the sheets one last time before grabbing his shirt and heading for the bathroom. He ran the water in the sink, splashing it on his face before using his shirt to pat his sweat soaked body dry.

“Mmmm,” she said on a low moan as she opened her eyes. She had given up denying the feelings she had been having when it came to Ben. Although she knew nothing would ever be able to come from it, she had been unable to prevent herself from feeling them. It had been easier when the department had the strict no-fraternization rule, because it set a clear line that she knew she could never cross. Detective Wilcome had informed her, however, that the rule had been eradicated, which left her free to pursue a relationship with him if she so desired. The only barrier in place now was Christopher.

Christopher was Rilynne’s husband, who had been attacked by her old partner fifteen months before. Though his body was never found, based on the amount of blood left and the fact that there had been no signs of him since that night, he was believed to be dead.

That did not stop Rilynne from holding on. Christopher had been her college sweetheart, and the only person, other than her mother, to know of her secret. In her heart, they were still very much married.

That deep dedication, along with her feelings for Ben, left her twisted and confused inside. In some ways, she still felt like she was cheating on Christopher by just having feelings toward another man.

She reached up with her toe and pulled the drain on the tub, but did not move until all of the water was gone. By the time she climbed out and wrapped a towel around her, it was just past midnight. Rilynne hesitated, staring at the pile of boxes in her closet before deciding against searching for pajamas. She climbed into her soft bed, pulling her down comforter over her still damp body, and drifted into an instant sleep the moment her eyes shut.

The sun was shining through the canopy of trees above. The path ahead of her was lined in red leaves, making it look like a trail of flower petals. As she started to move forward, she could feel her feet taking off beneath her. The archway made by the trees lining the path became a blur as her feet carried her even faster. She felt free, as if she could fly if she wanted to.

Her eyes moved to the end of the path in front of her. A bright light the size of a pinprick was shining from just above the red trail. With each long stride, it grew larger and brighter until it was the size of a large door. By the time she reached it, the light was so bright that she could not keep her eyes open a second longer.

Suddenly the scene around her grew darker. She opened her eyes to find herself standing on the side of the lake, just before sunset. She was considering jumping in for a quick swim when she heard voices coming from the small grove of trees behind her.

“Who’s there?” she called out, unable to make out their faces.

“We’ve been waiting for you,” a familiar voice said. “What took you so long?”

Her heart jumped up in her throat as she stepped toward the trees. As she grew closer, she could make out a table set up in the middle of the small cluster. Of the three chairs placed around it, two of them had already been filled. The first held a tall man with neatly combed brunette hair and vibrant green eyes. He smiled warmly as she stared down at him.

“Christopher,” she said softly. “What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for you, of course,” he said. “We expected you almost an hour ago.”

Rilynne pulled her gaze away from him and found the man occupying the other chair. Even though there was not a trace of wind, his dirty blond hair was dancing around his face. As a streak of light flashed across his face, the gold flecks is his warm brown eyes sparkled brighter than she had ever seen them.

“Ben, where did you find Christopher?” she asked. “I’ve been looking for him for fifteen months. How did you find him so fast?”

He reached down and pulled a beer out of the cooler near his feet. “You look exhausted,” he said as he placed it on the table in front of her. “Sit down and tell us about your day. How was work?”

She looked from Ben to Christopher, then back before pulling the chair out and lowering herself into it.

“I don’t understand. What are you two doing here?” She looked at them again even more bewildered than before.

“So, darling, how was work? Are you making any headway on your case?” Instead of Christopher, it was Ben who asked.

“Darling?” she mumbled to herself. “It’s, uh… it’s only just started. We will hopefully know more tomorrow when we speak to his wife. Did you just call me darling?”

Both men started to chuckle. “Why wouldn’t he?” Christopher asked as he took a swig of his beer.

Rilynne couldn’t think of anything to say. She just leaned back in her chair, staring at both of them. Finally, she reached down and swallowed her beer in one gulp. After a few seconds of silence, the men went back to the conversation they had been having before she walked up. If she hadn’t known better, she would have thought they had been close friends for years. They were joking and carrying on as if it were an everyday occurrence.

A mix of emotions suddenly overcame her. On one hand she was happy that they were getting along so well, but on the other she felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. No matter how well they were getting along, or how all right he seemed to be with the relationship developing between her and Ben, Christopher was still her husband.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” she said, interrupting them. “Where have you been? Why haven’t you told me? You know I can help you if you only tell me where to look.”

Christopher smiled and placed his hand on hers. “You know that’s not how your visions work, my love.”

Rilynne’s eyes shot to Ben, but he did not appear to have a reaction to the statement. “I haven’t been able to see you at all, other than just flashbacks and an odd dream here or there. Why haven’t you let me talk to you? Where are you?”