Jenn Vakey - Rilynne Evans 07 - Revenge with Murder (12 page)

“Oh really?  When all of this is done, I might just have to see a few of those,” he laughed.  “As far as these are concerned, though, I don’t think that would have been a problem.  They pretty much consisted of asking about building materials or making sure the repairs were on schedule.  It’s the same for the messages between her and the manager of the bed and breakfast.  You should look back over them.  With you skills, you might see something I missed.” His eyes shifted quickly to Sergeant Perez, who was closely listening to their conversation.  After a brief pause, he added, “See if your profiler training will help you look between the lines.”

Rilynne fought as hard as she could to keep from laughing.  Whenever they worked a case together, he would always try to subtly hint that she should try to see something off and evidence. 
Most of the time he wasn’t very successful with the subtle part.  Barely managing the keep a straight face, she nodded and again grabbed the phone.

“You’re right,” she said after a few minutes reading through them.  “There’s nothing in here that could be seen in any light as being related to an affair.”

“There isn’t a single person on this island who suspected she was having an affair,” Perez stated firmly, folding his arm and shifting frustratedly from side to side in his seat.  Rilynne had wondered when he would finally break his silence.  She was surprised it had taken so long.  “There isn’t much of anything that happens here that doesn’t make its way around.  Especially if it had been going on as long as the husband said.  I would be more likely to believe it if he’d said it had just started.  Then it could be possible it just hadn’t gotten around yet.  I know these people, though.  Many have an uncanny ability of detecting people’s secrets.  They also happen to be the same people that start most of the local gossip.  If there was even a hint that she might be involved with a local man, it would have spread through here in under an hour.”

Rilynne was tired of arguing with him.  He was pushing so adamantly that she knew there wasn’t anything she could say that would change his mind.  As much as it frustrated her, she decided to just let it go.  His beliefs on the matter weren’t going to get in the way of her finding out what really happened to the victim.

“Well, before we do anything else, let’s see what Burton has to say about it,” Rilynne said, pushing up and walking back toward the interview room.  She hoped Perez would stay where he was, but he didn’t.  With him right behind her, she walked back in and found John Burton pacing around the room.

“Mr. Burton, we went all through your wife’s phone and found no signs of an affair,” Rilynne stated, taking her seat and looking up at him.  “We even had the phone company send us a record of all incoming and outgoing calls and messages.  The only local numbers that were on it were the bed and breakfast she was overseeing and the contractor.  From what we can tell from their messages, everything was business related.”

“On the main phone, but the messages I found were on her other one,” he stated without hesitation, leaning down and resting both hands on the back of his chair.  “I didn’t even know she had a second phone until I found it.  It was definitely hers, though.  It looked like she obtained it just for the purposes of her little tryst.  The only number that was on it was the one she’d been texting.  I was actually surprised I didn’t know about the phone until then.  From what I could tell, they were talking pretty much all day since she’d gotten the phone, which was shortly after we arrived here.  There were even messages sent during times when I knew we were together.”

Perez rolled his eyes and leaned back against the wall.  Rilynne had a feeling Burton would already be in handcuffs if she weren’t there.  “We didn’t find a second cell phone for her,” she stated calmly.  She hoped that if she kept a cool tone, it might help to lull Perez in the same direction.  She wasn’t holding her breath, though.  “Her purse was discovered in her house, along with her phone and other personal objects, but there was no sign of a second one.”

“Well, maybe she had it on her when she was killed,” he offered, finally sitting back down.  “Or maybe she didn’t have a need for it any longer after I left.  I don’t know what to tell you, but she definitely had it the last time I saw her.  She almost threw it at my head when I told her I’d seen the messages.  I couldn’t believe it.  She was the one cheating and she was going off on me for looking through her phone.  The very phone she had gotten in secret to hide her transgressions.  She actually called it a violation of our trust.  Can you believe that?”

“So you mean for us to believe that the one thing that actually backs up your story about your wife having an affair just happens to be the only thing that’s missing?” Perez jumped in.  He finally seemed to have had enough of standing in the background.  “I think this is a far more likely way things happened.  Maybe your wife had finally had enough of you and decided a divorce was in the future.  You had a good thing going, practically being a kept man, and you didn’t want to have to go back to a life of having to earn your own way.  That big fight you had was actually her telling you
she
was leaving.  You got onto that boat back to Hawaii and flew back to the states so you would have an alibi, then you came back.  Your wife thought you were gone, so it was probably pretty easy to sneak up on her.  Then you killed her and disposed of her body.  Not being familiar with the island, you left her in a spot that is popular for scuba divers, so it only took a day for her to be found.  That gave you just enough time to make it home before we went looking for you.”

Though he had shared more than she would have liked, Rilynne was actually impressed by the way he went at Mr. Burton.  Not only was his explanation plausible, he made it sound that they could actually prove anything he’d stated.

“That’s ridiculous,” Burton announced.  He slammed his fists onto the table and leaned toward them defensively.  “I was in and out of meetings with my attorney during the time I was home. 
I
was the one filing for divorce.  There’s no way I would have been able to do any of the stuff you said.  And she had a second phone.  Why don’t you stop protecting your precious locals and try looking for the man she was having an affair with?  Knowing her, she probably expected him to commit after I left.  She wasn’t exactly one who liked to be single long.  If he was also having an affair, I doubt he was looking for a long term kind of thing.  Caitlin came on strong; she wouldn’t have taken no for an answer.”

“So you think the other man killed her become she was expecting a relationship and he didn’t want one?” Rilynne asked.

“He might if he was married,” he offered, although he appeared less confident in his argument.  “If she threatened to tell his wife, he might have killed her to keep the secret.  Either that or he’s a psychopath and took advantage of her being alone and killed her.”

Rilynne sat back in her seat.  She hadn’t considered the fact someone might have killed her for no reason other than wanting to.  It wasn’t something that happened often, but it wasn’t unheard of.  Perez continued with the line of questioning as she sat back and considered the possibility.

The level of pleasure the killer seemed to have right before inflicting the post-mortem wounds could have been due to a deep seeded desire to kill instead of a joy of killing her because of some personal grudge.  When working on serial killer cases, she had felt a similar emotion during her flashes.  With no one really standing out as having a reason to want her dead, she had to at least consider the possibility they were looking at this from the wrong direction.

When it seemed like Sergeant Perez was done, she stood and they moved toward the door.  Just before reaching for the knob, she turned back around.  “Do you happen to remember the phone number of the man she was texting?” she asked.

Burton’s face twisted as he thought it over before quickly lighting up.  “Yeah,” he said, pulling his own phone out.  “I searched for the number online to see if I could find out who it belonged to.  It should still be in my search history.”

After a few moments of searching, he sat the phone on the table and spun it around
toward her.  Sure enough, the number on the screen was a local one.

Rilynne jotted it down before she and Perez walked out, leaving Mr. Burton sitting alone in the small room.  For the first time, the nervousness that had been hanging around him was gone.

“I’ll call and have the number run to see if we can get a name for the man,” Ben said, taking the note from Rilynne.  He had apparently been standing outside of the door, listening to the whole interview.

“You can’t actually be taking any of this serious,” Perez declared.  “For all we know, he could have either made up the entire thing or got the second phone himself and sent messages just to back up his story and give us someone else to focus on.”

“So you think we should just ignore it all together and put all of our focus on him?” Rilynne asked.  She was shocked he was still holding on so tightly to his beliefs.  She could feel anger building within her as she went on.  “His lawyer is a pretty solid alibi.  If I had to guess, I would also say that he informed his attorney of the affair before she was actually killed.  Unless the entire thing was an elaborate scheme from the beginning to kill her, I think it’s time to stop fighting this.  We can look into the possibility he was working with someone else, but our best bet is to start looking elsewhere.  That includes looking into everything that we come across, even if you see it as a waste of time.  If it pleases you, feel free to search into the husband.  I’m going to start looking into what might have happened to the phone since we didn’t find it in her house.  It’s possible she had it on her when she was attacked and the killer took it, or it could have been taken when her house was broken into.  If her death was related to an affair she was having, it could have been taken to cover up any evidence of it.”

She didn’t wait for him to argue, knowing it would likely go on if she allowed it.  Instead, she grabbed the file off the desk and opened the door to the second interview room before calling Ashton
Lunieski back.

“Did he kill my mother?” Ashton asked as she walked up to her.  Without waiting for an answer, she stepped past Rilynne and took a seat at the small table.  To her surprise, Sergeant Perez also joined them.  “I told her it was a big mistake to marry him.  Is that what got her killed?”

“As of right now, it doesn’t look that way,” Rilynne said softly.  “Mr. Burton was already back in California when she was killed.  We will continue to look into the possibility he might have conspired with someone else to commit the act, but we have started considering other avenues.  Did your mother mention anything to you about any problems she might have been having with anyone?”

“No,” Ashton replied without needing to give it any thought.  “From what she told me, everyone here was very accommodating.  In the past she had ended up butting heads with the occasional client, but this job was going very smoothly.  She also really liked the island.  She said everyone was very friendly.”

“Was there maybe anyone back home who might have had a problem with her?” Rilynne asked.  “What about her business partner?  Or someone on a past job?”

Ashton shook her head and wiped a tear from her cheek.  “The business was going really well,” she stated.  “Mom and Paul, he’s her partner, practically grew up together.  He’s been like an uncle to me.  He would never do anything to hurt her.  The truth is
, the business would fall apart without her.  Paul is a great people person, and he’s fantastic at bringing in business.  He doesn’t really have to knowledge to actually oversee the restorations.  He was a business major; mom was the historian.  He’ll be the first to tell you they wouldn’t have anything without her.  And as for past jobs, I can’t think of anyone who would have actually been angry enough to do this.  Definitely not anyone who would make the effort to go to a different country just to kill her.”

“Mr. Burton has mentioned the possibility that your mother might have met someone after arriving in Spicer Island,” Rilynne said, careful to choose her words.

Ashton looked discomposed by the question.  Rilynne was on the verge of apologizing and explaining when she surprised her and nodded.

“My mother wasn’t a perfect woman,” she said after letting out a deep breath.  “She never actually outright said anything before, but I’d gotten the impression several times over the years that she was seeing someone outside of her marriage.  I’m pretty sure it’s what actually ended her second and fourth marriages.  If John suspected that she might be having an affair, it could be possible.  Have you been able to identify who it was?”

“Not yet,” Rilynne stated.  Her eyes shifted quickly to Perez.  He mumbled something under his breath.  Rilynne couldn’t make it out, but the sour look on his face said enough.  “Did she ever mention anyone to you?  Maybe someone she was spending time with?”

Ashton shook her head again.  “She didn’t talk about anyone specifically.  But I did get an unexpected email from her early last week.  We never really emailed.  It was strange; I couldn’t make any sense of what she was actually saying.  It had been sent in the middle of the night, though, so I just thought she’d been drinking before she sent it.”

“Do you still have the email?” Perez jumped in.

“No,” she replied.  “I was gibberish, so I erased it.”

“Do you remember what it said?” Rilynne asked.

“It was nothing,” she insisted.  “She said something about sending me to cooking school like I always wanted to do and something about Paris and Spain.  Every time she had a little too much to drink she would start fantasizing about what she would do if she won the lottery or something.  That’s all it really looked like to me.  I’ve received similar messages in the past.  She never even usually remembered sending them after, so I didn’t think much of it at them time.  I think there was something in there about shedding unwanted persons and moving on to better things.  She could have been talking about another man, I guess.”