Delusions With Murder: A Rilynne Evans Mystery (27 page)

“So is anyone else coming to help?” he asked, hauling a particularly heavy looking box. 

“What, you don’t want to spend the entire day over here getting all sweaty?” she asked.  The words had just left her tongue when she felt her cheeks growing warm.  Ben seemed to have noticed it, because he just flashed his playful smile as he carried the box past her.

“Good one,” she said quietly to herself.  Over the past few months, Rilynne and Ben had started to grow very close.  Feelings that were only compounded when she allowed herself to be abducted by a known serial killer in order to save his life.  Although the department had lifted the zero-fraternization rule, Rilynne still knew that she could not pursue anything further than friendship.

She had just made it through the front door with a box of pillows when her phone started to ring.  “It’s Matthews,” she said.  “Knowing him, he’s probably lost.”

“Hey,” she said balancing the phone on her shoulder, “Are you having trouble finding the place?”  She placed the box down on the coffee table.  “Okay, see you in twenty,” she said hanging up the phone.

“Is he on his way?” Ben asked.

“No, change of plans actually,” she said in an irritated tone.  “Apparently the news report didn’t go out letting the criminals know that today was supposed to be my day off, and not to murder anyone until tomorrow.”

“Shame on them,” he joked.  “So what are you going to do?  Aren’t you supposed to have the moving truck back tonight?”

She grabbed a box off of the dining room floor labeled ‘work clothes’ and pulled it open.  “I’ll just have to take it back a day late.  It’s not a big deal,” she said.  “I’m going to go change and I’ll walk out with you.” 

It was hard to maneuver around her bedroom.  Between the disassembled pieces of her bed and dresser, and the boxes stacked halfway to the ceiling, she had just enough space to squeeze through to get to her bathroom.  When she changed and walked back out, she was surprised to see Ben still hard at work.

“Hey, Tylers just called and said that he’s about ten minutes away.  I’m going to stay here and wait for him so we can get the heavy stuff out of the truck since you won’t be able to get it yourself.  I’ll lock up when we are done, if that’s okay with you,” he said.

She was slightly taken aback by his offer.  “You don’t have to do that.  I’m sure you have better things to do on your day off.”

“Let’s see,” he said, putting on his best thinking face.  “No, not really.  Besides, it saves you the trouble of having to look for someone to help you tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” she said with a smile as she reached for her purse.  “There’s a key on the kitchen counter, and the keys to the truck are around here somewhere.  The next time we go out, drinks are on me.”

She gave him one last heartfelt smile before rushing to her car.

Rilynne was not used to driving to work.  Her apartment had been only three blocks from the station, so she would run whenever the weather permitted it.  Now she was just over two miles away.

Detective Todd Matthews had just walked out of the station when she stepped out of her car.  After the Pirate Killer case was closed, nearly half of the detectives in the unit transferred to other squads, leaving only nine homicide detectives including Detective Patrick Wilcome, head homicide detective.  Rilynne and Matthews had worked so well together on the case that Detective Wilcome made them partners.

“Let’s go,” Detective Matthews said.  She could tell by the look on his face that things were more serious then he had said on the phone.  Before she could ask, he continued.  “We just got the ID back on the victim.  He is an undercover cop.”