Delusions With Murder: A Rilynne Evans Mystery (3 page)

Nicole, who seemed to be very well known within the precinct, often joined her at the bar.  Within only a couple of days, Nicole had her well informed about the majority of the detectives, as well as several officers.  Aside from her gossipy streaks, Rilynne found that she really enjoyed Nicole’s company.  It was nice to have someone who gave her that little extra push to go out and do things for herself, instead of obsessing solely about work.  She also seemed to be very eager to find Rilynne a man.  With this one, Rilynne stood her ground, however, and told her she just didn’t have the time.  That was not entirely true.  Rilynne knew that, although work always took up much of her time, she couldn’t start a relationship for many other reasons.  She just didn’t want to get into it with Nicole.

Three weeks after their initial meeting, Ben joined them for a night out.  He made a good buffer when sat between Rilynne and Nicole. 

After a few drinks, Nicole walked across the bar to a group of officers Rilynne did not know, and proceeded to sit on the lap of a particularly nervous looking one.  Rilynne just shook her head and laughed to herself.  “She does tend to get like this,” said Ben with a grin of his own.  “She’s very…eh, popular with the men.”  Popular was an understatement.  Over the past couple of weeks, Rilynne had seen flashes of Nicole with nearly half of the officers in the station, and Thomas LaShad, a well-built detective, who had been a marine prior to joining the police force. 

“I thought there was a very strict no fraternization rule.  It is an automatic removal, isn’t it?” she asked, looking quite puzzled. 

Ben stroked his chin with his knuckles, waiting for a few moments before answering.  “Nicole’s actually the reason they implemented it.  She had a thing with Officer Jacobs,” he pointed to an officer sitting at the other end of the bar. “His wife found out and caused a pretty big scene in the middle of roll call a couple years ago.  Then a few hours later, his own partner attacked him in the locker room.  Apparently, she had been seeing the partner openly, and Jacobs started seeing her on the side.  Needless to say, with that much drama in one day, they decided it would be best to eliminate all inner departmental dating.  Of course, that hasn’t really stopped her, she’s just more discreet about it now.”  Rilynne couldn’t help notice that he had an almost resentful look about him.

“So, how’s our fair city treating you?” he changed the subject quickly.  “I heard you are in the same building as Nicole.”  Now that the wind was not blowing his hair in his face, she could see the gold flecks flickering in his chocolate brown eyes.  Although holding eye contact with her seemed to make him very nervous, so he quickly looked back to his glass. 

“It’s great.  Everyone seems so friendly.  Plus, it’s nice having a place so close where I can take my bike out or go for a run.  And I’m one floor above her.  Which actually helps on nights like this,” motioning to a stumbling Nicole. “I can just drop her off on my way up.” 

Ben watched Nicole for a few moments as she moved between several groups of people, talking to everyone.  There was something in his look.  It was not the resentment she had seen before, but she couldn’t seem to make out just what it was.

“She’s very sweet, but I have to say I don’t envy you.  Lately it’s been hard to get much work done because all she wants to do is gossip.”  Again his ears turned red.  “But she’s very nice, and a great person to talk to if you ever need someone.  She does seem to actually know the difference between private conversations and gossip worthy material.”  With a quick glance at Rilynne for any sign of a reaction, he shifted his eyes back to Nicole, who appeared to have fallen asleep at one of the tables. 

“Well, so much for walking home,” said Rilynne as she joined him in watching Nicole.  “Knowing my luck, we will get half way there and she will pass out again.  That’s if I can even get her to wake up when we leave.”  She turned back around to her drink, trying to decide if it would be her last, or if she would have one more.

“I’m just a block down from you.  I’ll help you get her there if you want to walk,” Ben stated, and then quickly followed it by emptying his glass. 

“Yea, if it’s not too much trouble.  I would like another drink, though, if you aren’t in a hurry,” she answered while motioning for the bartender.

*     *     *

“Thanks for helping me get her in,” Rilynne huffed as she lowered Nicole into her bed.  Ben had carried her from the bar to her apartment, but stated he wouldn’t go into her bedroom.  When Rilynne shot him a perplexed look, he just gave her a shy smirk, ears growing redder by the second, and said he was just an old fashioned kind of guy.  He then insisted on walking Rilynne to her door before saying goodnight.

Despite the late hour, Rilynne wasn’t even slightly tired.  After pouring herself a glass of wine, she pulled her photo album down and retreated to her bedroom.

Her king sized bed was very inviting, and one of the most comfortable places she had ever been.  As she was packing up her room to make her move to Addison Valley, her mom had tried to convince her she should just get a new bed when she arrived.  “A king sized bed is too big for just you,” she had said.  Rilynne knew she was probably right, but she couldn’t bring herself to part with it.  It was the bed Christopher had picked out.

After changing out of her jeans, which she insisted on wearing instead of the dress Nicole had picked out, she put on her favorite plaid bottoms and curled up under her fluffy down comforter.  Although she had the bed to herself, she still remained just on the right side, the side furthest from the door. 

Placing her glass on the oak nightstand, she opened the photo album to the middle.  She flicked a few pages ahead until she found the photo she was looking for.  It had been taken three years before just after Christmas.  She had taken a couple weeks off work, and surprised her mom at her quaint Wisconsin home.

Amber was a perfect example of a woman aging gracefully.  She looked at least ten years younger than she was, and was as petite as ever.  And as the photo showed, she was just as animated.  Amber and Rilynne sat on a thick blanket against a snow covered tree, and right as the picture was being taken, Amber had reached up and smashed a giant snowball on Rilynne’s head. 

Rilynne let out a little laugh before rubbing her fingers along her mothers perfect face.  After taking a quick drink of her wine, she let the tips of her fingers rest on the picture while she leaned back and closed her eyes.  She thought hard about all her mother had done for her. 

After her father had disappeared, it was just the two of them.  Her mother, who had been a housewife, was left to support them.  She had taken a job waitressing at the steakhouse down the street from their home, where she worked very long hours, often only seeing Rilynne for a few moments before putting her to bed at night, but she did what she had to. 

Before long, she started taking night classes at the local college working towards her nursing degree.  Rilynne knew it was very hard on her mother to be away as much as she was, though Amber never showed it. Even at her young age, Rilynne knew her mother was doing it for her, and she tried to make things as easy for her as possible.  On days her mom was working long shifts, she would make sure the house was as clean as her adolescent self could get it.  It was moments like that that really pushed Amber hard, and helped her get through the tougher days.  It took her eight years to graduate.  After that, things became much easier at home.  She was able to work while Rilynne was at school, and they spent their evenings together. 

A warmth of admiration swept over Rilynne, as she lay snuggled up in her bed.  She could not imagine being able to raise a child by herself working the hours she did.  Her mother was a truly remarkable woman for doing it.

Then, through the warmth, came a flash. 
It was her mother’s dimly lit face.  She was sitting on her porch swing looking up under the stars.  She seemed to be at peace, with a breeze blowing through her hair and the light purple robe Rilynne had gotten her for her last birthday.  Entangled in the breeze were thin wisps of smoke, which was coming from the cigarette that was tucked between her small fingers
.  “Oh mother,” Rilynne said aloud to herself as she opened her eyes and sat up.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head while she reached for her phone, which she had left sitting on her nightstand.  After a few moments of contemplation, she decided against calling her mom, and sent her a text instead. “I thought you gave up smoking.  You know how bad it’s for you
.
” She chuckled to herself as she sat her phone back on the nightstand.

She started flipping through the album again wondering how everyone else was doing.  She tried two of her friends from college, both of which seemed to be sound asleep at the time.  Finally she flipped to the last page, back to the smiling couple.  It had been several months since she tried to get anything off of the picture.  She always got the same flashes: the wedding cake, the flower girl in her dress, and the groom pacing around his dressing room, half dressed and talking to himself.  Although it had been seventeen months, she still saw the day like it had just happened.

She lowered her fingers slowly to touch the photo, but at the last second she pulled it back.  She had had enough reminiscing for one night.  She tucked the photo album back into its spot on the top shelf and refilled her wine glass, before returning to the comfort of her bed.

Lying awake in her darkened room, she thought back on the evening.  Aside from having to get a passed out Nicole back home and into her bed, it had been a fun night out.  She had gotten to chat with a few of her fellow detectives about their lives outside of the station.  She often got so involved in her work that she forgot people had identities other than just being detectives. 

Brent Jerkins, a husky, quiet man who seemed to just sit back and take everything in at work, was very outgoing and friendly on his time off.  He and his wife just had their second child, a chubby little baby girl with the brightest green eyes Rilynne had ever seen.  She must have gotten them from her mother, because Brent’s were a deep brown that always made her think of dark chocolate.  When he and Rilynne had first met, she had gotten a quick flash of him sitting at a child-sized table, fluffy hat on his head, enjoying a tea party with his three-year-old daughter.  Even to this day, it was what she thought of every time she saw him.  Tonight, he had spent the majority of the time showing everyone the latest pictures and videos on his phone of the children.

Todd Matthews was another example of how different people were outside the walls of the station house.  Matthews had received numerous awards for his outstanding work for the City of Addison Valley, and he was one of the best detectives Rilynne had ever worked with.  He saw things other people just didn’t see, and was the person whom everyone asked for advice when they were stuck.  He seemed to walk around the station like he owned it, but in a good way.  He was confident, but not conceited.  Rilynne admired that.  Too many officers and detectives she had worked with would let everything go to their heads, which ended up causing them to make mistakes in the end.  One, she recalled, even ended with the officer shooting an unarmed man.  Detective Matthews, although praised regularly, was a humble man.  Now, outside of work he was like a completely different person.  He was a little shy, and seemed very nervous and unsure about anything that was going on around him.  The confidence, which had shown so brightly at work, seemed to stop at the doors.

She had also enjoyed talking to Ben.  He too had won several awards, showing outstanding work with forensics, although you would never know by looking at him.  His hair, while almost abnormally shiny, was always a bit of a mess.  He looked as if he had just gotten out of bed and dragged his fingers through it before going to work.  Rilynne had noticed, though, it always smelled really good, like fresh peaches, and looked so soft that she wanted to touch it just to see if it really was.  He also did not dress like most of the forensic techs she had ever worked with.  In lieu of khakis and a button-up, she often saw him in jeans and a polo.  She had found it a little comical that while at the bar, he seemed to be dressed more like she would have expected to see at work, wearing a cobalt blue long sleeve button up.  Almost every time she had seen him, he was either dropping something or running into people or things.  Rilynne was a little curious as to how such a clumsy man could be so great at handling forensics.  She had also never seen a man flat out refuse to enter a woman’s bedroom before.  He was an attractive man, and she couldn’t help but think he surely had spent some time in a few women’s rooms.  It reminded her almost of a vampire who couldn’t enter a house without being invited. 

She had found in the past, though, that people will often act certain ways in front of people they are just meeting, which is nothing like the way they are normally.  That was a concept she had never understood.  But she couldn’t say much about it, for she was always hiding a part of herself from the rest of the world.

*     *     *

Rilynne had just fallen asleep when her phone rang.  “We need you to come in,” said a deep, scratchy voice on the line.  She didn’t even need to ask Detective Wilcome what had happened.

She wondered if she would see Nicole on her way out of the building, like she often did, but she didn’t.  Her car wasn’t even on the street outside where she had left it the night before.  She must have already been called out to the scene.  It had been three weeks to the day since the last victim was found.  That meant the perpetrator had taken his next victim, and they only had seven days to find him.