Found With Murder (18 page)

Rilynne felt a twinge of guilt as she pulled away.  She’d had
a dream months before about Katy having complications, but she had completely forgotten about it until now.  Luckily, reality didn't have the same outcome.

“Stick around,” he said quietly.  “Katy will want to see you and I want you two to be the first to meet my girls.”

Rilynne and Ben both nodded before walking back to their seats.  After sitting, she dropped her head down on his shoulder.  “This has been an eventful week,” she said.  “We should be married and sitting in some beach chairs right now.”

Ben laughed. 
“On the second day of the honeymoon?  I wasn't even planning on venturing out of the hotel room until at least the third or fourth day.”

Rilynne felt her cheeks start to burn.  She turned and buried her face in his chest so no one else would notice.  When she regained her composure, she sat back up and said, “I'm actually glad it got pushed back a little.  I would have hated to not be here for Katy and Matthews.”

He pushed her off and looked down at her suspiciously.  “Glad?”

She smiled and chuckled to herself.  “Careful, Mr. Davis, you're starting to sound a little nervous.”

“You're the one who said glad.”

She dropped her head back down and rubbed it gently against him.  “Glad the trip was pushed off,” she said as she laced her fingers with his.  “Not glad our wedding was delayed.”

“Not even a little bit?”

Rilynne shook her head.  “Are you kidding?  Do you know how excited I was to get a piece of that cake?  It was, by far, the best cake I've ever tasted.”

He groaned.

*     *     *

“Oh, Katy,” Rilynne said as she cradled one of the babies.  “They’re gorgeous.”

She wasn’t lying.  They were strikingly beautiful for newborns.  Though their heads were slightly cone shaped, they were both covered in thick dark hair.  Their eyes were huge, and one of the deepest blues she had ever seen.  Looking down at them, she almost forgot her own fears about having children.

“That one’s Jordan,” Katy said.  “And Ben has Teagan.  I think.”  She hesitated as she looked a little closer.  “Jordan has the purple socks and Teagan has pink.  Luckily, Teagan has a small birthmark on her lower back, so I won’t have to worry about mixing them up.”

As Rilynne gently bounced Jordan, she glanced over at Ben and grinned.  He seemed strangely comfortable holding a newborn, especially given his lack of experience with them.  He smiled down at Teagan, making funny faces at her, completely oblivious to everything else going on in the room.  She had a strong feeling that he would be volunteering them to babysit whenever Katy and Matthews were ready to start going out.

“Did you see where Todd went?” Katy asked.

Rilynne nodded as she peeled her eyes away from her fiancé.  “He went out to get some coffee,” she said.  “Of course, that was awhile ago.  Here, you take this precious little thing and I’ll go find him.” 

Careful to support her head, she handed the baby to her mother before looking back to Ben.  She considered asking if he would care to join her, but he was too captivated by the child to even notice she was leaving.

She chuckled as she stepped out the door and started walking down the hall.  It didn’t take long for her to find her partner.  He was sitting down on a bench next to the coffee machine, sound asleep.

Rilynne sat down next to him for a few moments, allowing herself to truly feel the joys the day brought, before elbowing him gently in the side.

His head jerked up so fast that she couldn’t help but grin.  It took a moment for the scene around him to register.  When it did, he looked over at her with a dumbfounded expression.

“What happened?” he asked.

Rilynne laughed.  “Well, you left about half an hour ago to get coffee, and it appears you stopped to take a little nap on the way.  You were so close, too.  The coffee machine’s only a few feet away.”

“Sure, laugh at the exhausted man,” he said.  “Just remember this the next time you do something and wonder why I laugh.”

She nodded and patted his knee.  “Come on, I’ll help you get the coffees.  Your wife is starting to miss you.”

“Already?” he chortled tiredly.  “I didn’t think I was on duty until after we left the hospital.  Aren’t the nurses supposed to be picking up the slack for me now?”

“Don’t worry,” she said, reaching down to help him to his feet.  “My mom is helping take care of everything so the two of you can get as much rest as you can.  She’s even somehow managed to talk them into allowing her to supervise everything that takes place in the nursery, so she can make sure all of Katy’s wishes are upheld.  She apparently threatened bodily harm to a medical student who tried to give Teagan formula.”

Matthews chuckled as he pulled a cup of coffee from the machine and handed it to Rilynne.  “Are you sure she doesn’t want to stick around for a little while?  You know, until they’re potty trained or something.”

“Careful saying that around her or she might just take you up on it,” Rilynne said, taking a second cup from him.  “I don’t think we’ve had a single conversation over the last year that didn’t somehow turn to me having kids.  It only got worse after Ben and I got engaged.  I see her moving down here as soon as I get pregnant.”  She struggled to keep her uneasiness from showing.  Other than her mom and the few short conversations she and Ben had had, she’d never really talked to anyone about the prospect of her having children.  “I would honestly be surprised if her house wasn’t already on the market.”

“It’s not,” he said.  He grabbed the last two cups and they started back down the hall.  She looked at him with puzzled amusement.  “She was talking to Katy about it,” he explained.  “She’s been talking to a realtor, but that’s as far as things have gone.”

Rilynne shook her head slowly as they stepped back into the room.

“
W
hat are you doing here, Evans?” Wilcome asked.  “The case is closed.  Don’t you have wedding plans you should be taking care of?”

“Do you really think I could take off without getting all of the answers?” she asked with a grin.  “That would be like stopping a puzzle without putting in the last few pieces.  We both know I would go crazy.”

He nodded in agreement.  “Well, lucky for you... Who am I kidding, lucky for your fiancé who I’m sure is anxious to get your wedding back on track, I happen to have a list of answers for you.”

Rilynne grinned and sat down on the edge of his desk.  “So what made him wait so long before trying to make contact?” she asked.  “Why didn’t he come forward when Kim was born and try to get custody of her?”

“Well, it would appear that Kim’s biological mother was not the only girl to get pregnant in that school.    Erin married his girlfriend right after graduating and they had a little girl just a few months after Kim was born,” he said.  “Last month his wife and daughter walked in on a home invasion.  He came home an hour later and found them.  She had been brutalized badly but was still hanging on.  Erin found his daughter in the backyard.”  He slowly shook his head.  “It appeared that she tried to run away but they stopped her.  His wife survived the attack but has been in a coma since.”

“Oh, that’s horrible,” she said as she thought back to the vision she had the night Kim was taken.  Despite everything he had put them
through, she still couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.  “Did they find out who was responsible?”

He shook his head.  “They know from the DNA collected from his wife’s body that there were at least two attackers, but there was no match in the system.”

“So he lost his child and hoped he could replace her with another.”

“That’s what it looks like,” he replied.  “All he would say was he ‘found her a new one.’  I’m assuming he was talking about finding his wife another child.”

“I can’t even imagine everything he must have been going through,” she said.

Wilcome leaned back in his chair and said, “We were able to match his prints to coins in the payphone, and we found both his and Kim’s prints all over his motel room.  It would appear that he was working entirely on his own.”

“Where was he staying?” she asked curiously.

He let out a quick laugh.  “Believe it or not, he was staying at the same motel as Maloy,” he said.  “He was just a few doors down in room nine when you raided Maloy’s room.  He said that was one of the reasons he decided to move her when he did.”

Rilynne cursed under her breath.  The vision had been telling her where to look the whole time.  She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought to check into room nine after Maloy was cleared.  If she hadn’t been so caught up with her assumptions, she might have been able to find Kim sooner.

“You know, of all the people in the office, you were probably one of the last I would have imagined taking the word of a psychic,” he said.

Rilynne struggled to keep from laughing but was unsuccessful.  “She is
not
a psychic,” she said dramatically.  She grinned at his bemusement and continued.  “Everything she knew about the case she either picked up while hanging out at Travis Bar or from the news.  The few guesses she did make were wrong.  Like with the tattoo.  She was adamant that the kidnapper had a tattoo, but Erin doesn’t have a single one.  He doesn’t even have a birthmark that could have been mistaken for one.”

“She still called it on the woods,” he said.

Rilynne groaned.  As hard as she tried to sidestep it, she knew there wasn’t any argument she could give to convince him it was just a coincidence.  It would undoubtedly be easier to just let Young have the win, but she couldn’t. 

“Do you know who she got that idea from?” she asked, trying to appear both casual and amused.  “Elise was on the phone with Ben ten minutes before she came rushing in the office with her ‘vision’ about the woods.  She was telling him that she would bet money that he would try to take her out through the woods if the roadblocks didn’t come down.  When she saw Young rushing out past her, she called me to tell me she might be on the way here.”

“Then why did you go along with it?” he asked.  “Was it just because it was your sister’s idea?”

“No,” she said.  “She and Ben were just shooting ideas back and forth.  I knew that if we didn’t check it out and she was miraculously right, the department would face major backlash.  I honestly didn’t think for a second that we would catch him trying to get her out of town through the woods.  I did consider the possibility that he was camping out there with her, though.”

He didn’t seem to know whether to be stunned or impressed.  She thought for a moment that he might question it further, and was relieved when he didn’t.

“Have there been any developments with the other case?” she asked.  “Were we able to identify either of our Jane Does?”

“Not yet,” Wilcome replied.  “We’ve had several calls come in about other possible victims, though.  LaShad and Donovan are looking into them while Tylers and Steele search for possible locations of where our guy could be holding them.”

Rilynne nodded disappointedly.  She was hoping that they would have at least been able to identify the girls.  With any luck, one of the neighboring counties would get back with something useful.

“Now, I trust your questions have been sufficiently answered,” Wilcome said.  “Go home.  That’s an order.  I don’t want to see you back in here until you’re either married or have another date set.”

She laughed and rolled her eyes.  “Yes sir,” she said.  “I will keep you apprised.”

Rilynne stepped back out of the station and let the sun warm her face.  The effects were short lived, though, as she started running down the sidewalk.  The chilled November air bit at her nose as she went and burned the back of her throat with every breath.  It felt good, though.  It had been over a week since her last run.  She had almost forgotten just how relaxing it was.

The events of the last few days had almost completely been pushed out of her mind by the time she reached her block.  She might have actually been successful in doing so had she not run right past Lori’s house.

“Where have you been?” Ben called out when she pushed her front door open moments later.

After kicking off her shoes, she followed the smells coming from the kitchen.  He was just turning off the stove and assembling the bacon, egg, and cheese tacos.

“Those smell fantastic,” she said.  She grabbed her plate and followed him into the dining room.  “I went for a run.  I stopped by the station on the way.  After filling in all of the blanks on the case, Wilcome ordered me to stay out of the office until we are either married or have set another date.”

“Don’t we have to set a date in order to get married?” Ben asked before he took a bite.  As he did, juices ran from the end of the taco and splattered the plate.  “It’s not like this is Las Vegas where we can just be driving down the street and decide to swing into a drive thru chapel.”

“What, it isn’t your lifelong dream to get married without even having to get out of the car?” she chortled.

He raised a bemused eyebrow before taking another bite.

“We really do need to set a new date,” she said.  “That way our out of town guests can make additional arrangements.”

He nodded and walked down the hall toward the bedroom.  After a few moments, he returned with his tablet.

“These are the only things I have scheduled,” he said as he pulled up his calendar and spun it around for her to see.

After two hours and several phone calls, they finally agreed on a new date.  Though Rilynne didn’t want to have to wait another two months, she knew it would be too much to ask of their guests to make the trip again any sooner than that.

They spent an additional two hours calling both vendors and guests to inform everyone of the change.  By the time they finished, Rilynne felt like she needed a nap.  Ben’s idea was equally appealing, though, as he grabbed a few beers and the puppy and retreated to the back yard.  After dropping Marti down in the grass, he took his usual spot on the porch swing.

“So now that this crazy mess is over, maybe it's time we talk about everything,” Ben said.  He slid over to make room as she took the beer he held out for her and sat.

Rilynne grinned and took a sip before politely saying, “We don't have to if you aren't ready,” she said.  She fought hard to keep the eagerness from her expression.  Though the fact that he had money wasn't important, she found the list of questions she had growing longer by the day.  After taking another drink, she looked down at the bottle to avoid his gaze.  She knew if she met his eye that he would surely see right through her.

“Well, the cat's already out of the bag,” he chuckled.  “Besides, knowing you, there are a dozen questions floating around that clever little head of yours.”  When she didn't deny it, he grinned and shook his head.  “So...” He didn't seem to know where to start.

Neither did Rilynne, so she just sat in silence.  His knuckles pulled up to his chin.  For the first time in a long time, he resembled the nervous, uneasy man he had been when they first met.  After several long minutes, he finally seemed ready to speak.

“My parents left me a little bit of money,” he started.  It was clear that it wasn't a conversation he was used to having.  “Between their assets and the life insurance, I was... let's just say comfortable.  Then when I turned twenty-five, I had access to the trust fund my grandparents set up for me.  After Justin died, I was also left with control of all of his assets.”

“Which left you with enough money to cover a three million dollar ransom?” she asked.  “So, how much are we talking?”  She felt a little rude for asking, but her curiosity overpowered her ill feelings.

A guilty smirk crept across his face.

“So more than just a few million…”  Her head was spinning, trying to make sense of what she was hearing.  Then she thought back to a comment Matthews made the year before. 
Modest, given his circumstances.

“A bit,” he said simply.

She sat back on the swing, staring blankly out at the yard.  It didn't seem real.  Part of her expected a guy with a cheesy smile to jump out from around the corner and tell her it was a practical joke and she was on television.  “So that's why you didn't invite me to the Lewis' fundraiser,” she pondered aloud.  He nodded.  She thought about it for another moment and laughed.  “Nancy would be furious if she knew you had money on top of being incredibly attractive.”

Ben groaned and ran his hands over his face.

“She's relentless,” he said.  “I ran into her when I went to the manor.  You should have seen her.”

“Still throwing herself at you?” she asked.  Ben chuckled and nodded.  “Does she know we're getting married?”

“You remember how I told you I ran into her while shopping about six months ago?”  She nodded.  “Well I was at the jewelry store buying that.”  He motioned to the ring on her left hand.

Rilynne glanced down at it and grinned.  “That doesn't mean anything.  She tends to block out everything going on around her when her mind's on something,” she said.  “When she was trying to get your attention during the Price investigation, she didn't even notice that you were pulling the boards off the stairs.  So, what did she say to you?”

He shook his head and leaned back.  After letting out a low groan, he said, “More of the usual.  She tried to imply again that you were involved in some illicit affair with the chauffeur.”

“What did you say?” she asked curiously.  She couldn’t help but smile.

“Nothing,” he said.  “Jared walked out and I left with him.  I was more concerned with getting Kim back than anything she had to say.  Besides, I'm kind of looking forward to seeing her face when she sees us show up for dinner.”

She gave him a bemused look.

“I told him we would go over for dinner after everything settled back down,” he explained.  “Could you imagine how she'll react when we arrive together?”

Rilynne chuckled. 
“And engaged to top it off.  Now I'm glad you waited.  I would hate to miss that.”  As she thought about it, though, she was hit with a sudden twinge of guilt.  While she was working undercover in the Lewis' manor, she had become close with Danny, the chauffeur.  When he found out it had all been an act, he was understandably hurt.  While she was sure Nancy would have informed him immediately of her relationship with Ben, it still wasn't an encounter she was looking forward to.

“Well, back to the subject at hand,” she said.  “Were you ever going to tell me?”

Ben grinned and shrugged playfully.  He finally seemed to have relaxed.  “I'm sure it would have eventually come up.  Like if we ever had to go on the run again and you wondered how we were able to actually afford to buy a deserted island.”

“Or when it came time to buy a house and they requested our financial information.  Speaking of, why do you rent an apartment if you could easily afford a house?”

He struggled to keep the smile off of his face as he took another swig from his bottle.  “Technically, I don't rent the apartment,” he said.  “I actually own the building.”

“You what?” she exclaimed.  He grinned.  “But there are several officers living there.  My sister lives there.  How has it not gotten around that you own the building?”