Wanted with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Five) (12 page)

Rilynne sighed. “If you mean tied up in a dark room together, than yes. It does seem a little familiar.”

Ben looked around and said, “So if you had to guess-”

“-the person who grabbed us is the same one who’s setting me up for Teich’s murder,” she finished his thought. “How did they find us?” she asked. “I didn’t see anyone following us.”

“That’s actually pretty simple,” a new voice sounded. Rilynne spun around to see boots moving down the stairs. “I just slid a tracker under your car. You actually did me a favor by picking such a remote location to hide out. It would have made this so much more difficult if someone had seen me.”

Rilynne squinted through the darkness as the footsteps stopped.

“You?”

I
t took just moments for her to recognize the woman leering down at them. “You’re the witness that came forward after the news story broke,” she stated. “I supposed you leaked the story to the press, also.”

She reached up and pulled her long, dark hair into a hair tie and chuckled. “Actually, no. It appears that your little department has its very own leak. I just took advantage of the situation. I have to thank you for that move, though. I would have never considered exposing myself to the department had your little boyfriend not suggested it.”

“You were there?” Ben asked.

“Of course,” she stated. She seemed to think it was a ridiculous question. “I have to say, though, that your decision to run was a bit of a shock. I had completely lost track of you until I found you parked out near the station. I knew someone in the department must have tipped out off, and I figured you would try to make contact again to keep track of the case. I just slid a tracker under your back bumper. It was almost too easy.”

“You tried so hard to frame me for murder, why not just call in an anonymous tip when you discovered where we were?” Rilynne asked.

The woman shrugged. “When you ran, I realized you were even more stubborn than I originally thought. You would never just roll over and let this all play out, even if you were to be found innocent.”

Rilynne sat back and studied her. She seemed to be taking incredible pleasure in the situation she found herself in. There was something else, though. She seemed filled with curiosity.

“Why are you doing this?” Rilynne asked. “I’ve never met you. You aren’t involved with any of the cases I worked. You wouldn’t have risked coming forward as a witness if you had been. You seem intelligent enough. You’d have known the unit would be looking into all of my past cases. So who am I to you?”

She folded her arms and leaned against the stair railing. “Why don’t you tell me,” she said smugly. “See what you can see.”

The statement hit Rilynne hard. There was a subtle emphasis when she said ‘see’ that made her insides lurch. Was it just a coincidental play on words or was she hinting
at something. The stranger’s eyes widened just slightly as her grin widened. She knew and she could tell that Rilynne had realized it. With a sideways glance at Ben, Rilynne let out a deep, resigned breath and closed her eyes. She concentrated as hard as she could, but she couldn’t make herself see anything.

When she opened her eyes again, the woman was staring intently down at her. “Anything come to mind?”

“I have no idea who you are, or why you are doing this to me,” Rilynne said. She had a strong urge to look back at Ben to see if he had any hint of a reaction, but she forced herself to keep her eyes on their abductor.

The woman, however, did turn toward Ben. She seemed to be trying to figure out whether or not he knew what had just happened. When her eyes flicked back to Rilynne’s, she appeared even more amused by the situation. She knew it wasn’t a conversation Rilynne and Ben had had.

“I can understand why you haven’t connected me to the case,” she said, the confidence in her voice not waning. In fact, she seemed to be bragging. “After all, I went to a lot of effort to keep myself hidden. Truth be told, this isn’t the first time we’ve met. You wouldn’t remember, of course. You were only around two at the time.”

Rilynne didn’t make an attempt to keep the confusion from her face. To her surprise, her confusion was quickly reflected on her captor’s face. “I have a friend in the Bodker police department,” she continued, “and he notified me immediately when you began digging around in the case. I monitored the progress that was being made, and to my surprise, you started to get a little closer. I knew I needed to shut the investigation down. The easiest way to do that is to shut down the person looking into it.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Rilynne insisted. “I left Bodker a year ago, and have only been involved in one case since then. That case is solved, and had nothing to do with you.”

The smile on the woman’s face disappeared. She seemed to be studying Rilynne, as if trying to determine if she was telling the truth. As she did, Ben let out a quick gasp. Both women turned toward him.

“This is my fault,” he told Rilynne. “The case I’ve been looking into these past few months has been a cold case in Bodker. Chief Wooldridge has been giving me everything I needed to look into it. I haven’t made any progress, though,” he stated firmly, turning back toward the stairs.

The woman stared at him in silence for close to a minute before sitting on the bottom step. “I had just assumed the collaboration was being done with her,” she said to Ben. “You didn’t even tell her? I must say, it’s almost sweet. So do you want to tell her, or should I?”

Rilynne turned back toward Ben, searching his face for an answer as to what was going on. “I should have told you,” he said gently. “I just wanted to see if I could find anything before I did.”

“Tell me what?” she asked. Her mind was racing as she tried to put it together, but nothing made sense. “What’s going on?”

“The case I’ve been looking into,” he hesitated, trying to find his words. “I’ve been looking into your father’s disappearance.”

She tried to absorb his answer, but it left her with only more questions. The ones she had for Ben would have to wait. “What do you know about my father?” she asked the woman. “Were you involved with his disappearance?”

She appeared to be considering just what to tell them.

“You’re going to kill us anyway,” Ben said. “Why not give her the answers she wants?”

“You’re right,” she said, resting her elbows on her knees as she leaned toward them. “You know, I’m really good at what I do. I’m not trying to sound conceited, it’s just a fact. See, I like to think of myself as a problem solver. The best way to solve many problems is to make them just go away.”

“You’re a hit man,” Ben interrupted. Rilynne glanced over at him to find a look of recollection sitting on his face. “I honestly didn’t think anything of the report until now.”

“What report?” Rilynne asked.

It was their abductor who answered. “Not even the doctors or police had suspected that my jobs were connected. I had no idea how he was doing it, but he started to look into them more closely. The last thing I needed was for someone to start raising flags. He became a problem that needed to be solved.”

“You killed him?” Rilynne asked. She felt a surge of anger spreading through her.

“I had to stop him. I watched him leave your house that night,” she stated. “Your mother took you out in the yard to play while he was gone. I have to admit, you were a cute little thing.” She paused as if thinking back to the night. “Well, I would love to continue this little walk down memory lane, but I’ve got a plane I need to catch. I’ve got a job waiting for me, and I would hate to miss it.”

When she stood up, Rilynne saw her pull a gun out from behind her. It was her gun, the same one used to kill Teich.

“How did you get that?” she asked, trying to stall her. She didn’t know what use it would do. No one knew they were there.

The woman looked down at the gun in her hand. “This little thing? I thought it was almost poetic when I grabbed it. Your father’s gun, I believe.”

“That’s right,” Rilynne said. “But how’d you get it? It was locked in my safe. It wouldn’t have been as easy to grab as my backup, which would have been sitting out.”

“That’s assuming I didn’t go into your house when you were at work, and use the skills my daddy taught me to break into your safe,” she said. As she did, she seemed to be searching Rilynne’s face for something.

Rilynne grinned. “You didn’t, though. You want to prove you’re better than me. You would have gone in when I was off work. Like when I was out for a run,” she paused, looking the captor in the eyes, “or sleeping.”

The woman’s face lit up with excitement as she crouched down next to Rilynne, scratching the side of her face with the barrel of the gun.

“Clever, clever,” she said. “You hadn’t even left, actually. You were sitting outside, the two of you. It was cake getting into the safe. I could have easily slipped back out without you having been the wiser. I thought I’d wait around, though.” She paused, looking to Ben then back. “Wasn’t sure you received my message.”

“I did,” Rilynne said bluntly.

The woman smiled and pushed herself back up. “So, how do we want to do this?” she asked, moving the gun from Rilynne to Ben. “Murder-suicide is so played out,” she said. “Why don’t we go with a double suicide? Consumed with your guilt from killing your suspect, you take your own life. Then Romeo over here comes down to find you. Overcome by grief, he shoots himself.”

She reached for a roll of duct tape and pressed another piece over Ben’s mouth. “I can’t have you distracting me,” she said. She grabbed Rilynne by the arm and dragged her back across the room. Rilynne kicked out, but it was no use. The woman was much stronger than she had appeared, and with her hands behind her back, she couldn’t get leverage. “Ladies first,” she said, sitting Rilynne up. Ben was screaming and struggling with all his might to get to her.

She pressed the gun against Rilynne’s head. As a tear rolled down her cheek, Rilynne closed her eyes and readied herself.

The sound that followed was not the one she expected. Ben’s muffled screams stopped abruptly and she heard a small thud followed by a louder one. The ground below her shuddered as she opened her eyes.

At first she thought Ben had freed himself, but she quickly realized he was not the man standing over the unconscious woman. This man was much older, but incredibly familiar.

She quickly turned back around to find Ben staring at them both in awe. His face was bright red, and the panic had still not entirely left it.

When she turned back toward the strange man, she found him on his knees, slapping handcuffs on the woman. Rilynne wanted to both question and thank him, but she found herself unwilling to say anything. When he was finished, he grabbed Rilynne by the arms and lifted her into a chair with a groan of effort. As he looked her over for any sign of injury, she examined his face.

“Dad?”

“
I
already called the station and they’re on the way,” he said, examining the lock on her restraints.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. “How…why…?” There were so many questions swimming through her head that she couldn’t decide where to start. He seemed more interested in the events going on, though, rather than in the questions she was asking. He was tossing things around the room, looking for something.

“Stop!” she yelled. He stopped in his tracks and turned toward her. The look sitting on his face was somewhere between relief and guilt. Rilynne didn’t even try to determine which was dominant. “You tell me what’s going on right now.”

He nodded in acceptance before walking toward Ben. “How much do you want to know?” he asked her, pulling the tape away from Ben’s mouth.

She started to tell him to start from the beginning, but the look on his face when he glanced over his shoulder stopped her. Before she could say anything else, however, a thundering sounded out from the ceiling above.

Her father stood up and rushed up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

“Don’t leave!” she called out after him.

He stopped midway up and turned around to face her. He gave her a warm smile. It was just like the one she had seen in old photos. “I’m not going to,” he said softly.

When he disappeared through the door, Rilynne turned to Ben. The look on his face said he was just as shocked as she was. Neither of them seemed to be able to speak.

After just moments, her father returned, followed by nearly every member of the homicide unit.

“Evans,” Matthews said, pushing through the crowd to get to her. He looked her over quickly before turning his attention to the restraints around her wrists. “You want to fill me in on what the hell’s going on here?”

She opened her mouth to respond, but no words came. She was relieved a few moments later when Ben stepped in for her. “We decided to go camping instead of heading to Wisconsin. When we woke up this morning, that woman jumped us and knocked us out. We came to here.”

Rilynne watched him as he spoke. He was so confident in his words that even she wouldn’t have known he was lying.

“Who is she?” Wilcome asked, standing over the unconscious body.

“She killed Teich,” Rilynne stated. “She told us she had gone to the station and stated to have witnessed me killing him. Apparently framing me wasn’t satisfactory enough, because she decided to kill us.” She thought over everything quickly, trying to decide exactly what to tell them. Before she had a chance to even pull together a story, he father spoke up.

“Her name’s Tori Rose. She’s a professional killer,” he stated. All heads turned toward him.

“And you would be?” Matthews asked. Rilynne noticed as he stood up that he very carefully placed himself between Rilynne and her father. She turned away so no one would see her smile. As she did, her eyes passed over Ben. He looked from her to Matthews and grinned. He knew exactly what he was doing, whether intentional or not. Even in a room full of detectives, Matthews was still trying to protect her.

“I’m Douglas Evans,” her father said, drawing her attention back to him. His eyes were on Rilynne as he spoke. “I’m Rilynne’s father.”

All eyes in the room widened as everyone shifted between Rilynne and Douglas. “Twenty-five years ago I started to notice something curious about some of the victims I picked up,” he continued. “I was a paramedic and noticed some suspicious circumstances surrounding several deaths. They appeared completely unrelated and accidental, but I began looking into them. I must have been onto something, because when I was on the way back to my house the night I disappeared, I noticed her watching my family. It took me a moment to recognize her, but I had seen her at several of the pickups that I made.

“I decided that the best way to keep them safe was if I left,” he explained. “I thought I would be able to watch her and gather enough evidence without her knowing, but she was good. Before I knew it, the years were passing by and I was still no closer to finding anything substantial.”

“So why did she go after Evans now?” Wilcome asked curiously.

“That’s my fault,” Ben stated as Steele cut the tape away from his ankles. He pushed himself up and crossed the room toward Rilynne. “I started looking into his disappearance, and came upon a report he had filed requesting more information about a death he deemed suspicious. I honestly didn’t think anything of it and pushed it aside, but she thought I was on her trail. She assumed Rilynne was looking into the case, and decided to stop her before she uncovered anything.”

Wilcome seemed to be processing over everything, and appeared satisfied with what he had been told.

“Get paramedics here to check her out before we take her back to the station,” he ordered. “Put in a call to Bodker, also. I’m sure they will like to hear what Mr. Evans has to say.”

He looked around the room again before shaking his head and walking back up the stairs, followed by everyone but Steele and Tylers.

“So, does someone want to get these off of us?” Rilynne asked, motioning toward the restraints still around their wrists.

An impish grin formed on both Steele and Tylers’ faces. It was only after Rilynne shot them both an odious look that they moved toward them.

“We’re going to need to find some bolt cutters,” Steele stated, examining the lock.

“Just find my pants,” Rilynne said. They both shot her the same, wicked smile. “Oh, shut up. Just find them. They’re probably with our bags.”

Tylers nodded in agreement and headed up the stairs. After a few minutes, he returned with Rilynne’s bag in hand.

“It’s the jeans right on top,” she said. She nodded as he pulled out the correct pair. “There’s a kit in the back pocket.”

He pulled the little black case out of the pocket and peered at it curiously before flipping it open. “You have a lock picking set?” he asked. He looked both impressed and surprised.

“You don’t?” she grinned. “Give it to Ben.”

Her statement didn’t do anything to ease the confusion in his expression. He placed the case in Ben’s hand and stepped back to watch him. Although he was working with
his hands literally behind his back, it took him just seconds to tug the lock open. After pulling her hands free, she took the kit from him and started on Ben’s lock.

“So this is what you two do together?” Steele asked. “I’ve heard of couples having similar hobbies, but picking locks? I’m almost afraid to ask.”

Rilynne rolled her eyes as she heard the lock click and tugged it open. As soon as Ben’s arms were free, he wrapped them firmly around Rilynne.

He didn’t let go of her until the paramedics came down the stairs a few minutes later.

“I want the two of you checked out,” Wilcome said, following them down. Rilynne was about to argue when she noticed the throbbing pain coming from her thigh. After looking down to make sure she wasn’t bleeding again, she pushed herself up and walked slowly up the stairs.

“Where did she hit you?” Ben asked when they approached the back of the second ambulance as it pulled up.

Rilynne ran her fingers along the back of her head before shrugging. “I’m not actually sure,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt. I don’t even remember being hit. I’d just woken up and reached over to see if you were there and everything went black.” She thought back to the fear she had felt when she woke up and shuttered. “I wish everyone else who decided to knock me out did it so smoothly. I don’t even have a headache.”

Ben glared at her and shook his head. “Only you,” he mumbled as he pushed her toward the approaching paramedic.

“Make sure you look at her leg,” he told him. “As well as her head. She says it doesn’t hurt, but she was still knocked unconscious. That’s the third time in a year. I’ll be back in a minute with some clean clothes.”

“Fourth, but who’s counting,” Rilynne said. She grinned at his stubbornness as she climbed into the back of the ambulance. After looking her over thoroughly, the paramedic cleaned and bandaged the wound on her leg and gave her a clean bill of health. She was just climbing out when Ben reappeared with fresh clothes.

It felt good to get out of her damp pajamas, but Rilynne wanted more than just about anything to soak in a hot bath. With fresh stitches on her thigh, though, she knew that would be a while.

Her father was still standing in front of the house talking to Wilcome when she walked back up.

“Are you all right?” he asked. There was concern in his voice.

She nodded, unable to think of anything to say.

“We’re going to have to take you in, Evans,” Wilcome said to her. “Just until we get everything squared away.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, though her eyes stayed Douglas.

“Tylers and Steele will take you and Ben to the station,” he stated. “Matthews will accompany your father after we finish up here.”

Douglas gave her a reassuring nod before she turned and walked toward Ben, who was already waiting by the car.

She was in such a haze, she didn’t hear a word of the conversation the guys were having on the way back to the station. It must have been amusing, though, because they kept laughing. She just stared out her window, trying to make sense of the day.

“Are you coming?” she heard a few minutes later. She turned around to see Ben climbing out of the car. She nodded quickly and pushed her door open.

“Wilcome wanted to get you in during roll call,” Steele said quietly as they rushed through the nearly empty station. “That’s why we left when we did. He still hasn’t found the leak, and doesn’t want it getting out that we’ve made any developments on the case.”

She looked up at him curiously as they climbed into the elevator.

“With how much heat he’s taking right now, he doesn’t want any story to be released until it’s complete,” he explained. “He doesn’t want it to look like we’re on a fishing expedition to clear one of our own. Besides, I think he’s hoping to be able to find out who’s been talking to the press. I’m pretty sure he has his suspect list down to a handful of people. He plans to give each a different story and see which one gets reported.”

“Well, I still want first crack at the guy,” Ben said. “Just put me in the ring with him. After that, the department can take any action they deem necessary.”

“And if it’s a woman?” Rilynne asked with a note of amusement.

When the elevator doors opened to the third floor, an impish grin rose on his face. “Well, then we need a recruit a few female officers. After everything you were put through, I put my money on you to win that one, no matter who it was.”

“I’ll second that,” Tylers said.

Tylers and Steele walked to the interrogation room to get it set up for the interview with the assassin as Rilynne and Ben made for the conference room.

“Do you know what I would kill for right now?” she asked as they sat down in the chairs at the back of the table.

“A cheeseburger?” he answered.

Rilynne closed her eyes and nodded, a low moaning sound escaping her lips.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said, pushing himself back out of the chair. “You might want to avoid talking about killing anyone, though. I would rather not have another week like this one anytime soon.”

She grinned as she reached out and grabbed his wrist. “We aren’t supposed to leave,” she said.

“I don’t intend to.”

Rilynne let go of his hand and watched him curiously as he crossed the room to her desk and pick up the phone. After a matter of minutes, he hung it up and walked back toward her. She gave him a bemused look, hoping for an explanation. He just grinned and closed his eyes as he let his head fall back against the chair.

Not twenty minutes later, a young man in a blue shirt stuck his head into the homicide office. “I have an order for a Ben Davis,” he called out. Ben jumped up and rushed to meet him. When he walked back in, he had a bag from her favorite burger place in town.

“How?” she asked, looking up at him bewilderedly. “They don’t deliver.”

“You just have to know the right things to say,” he said, handing her a burger.

She was too hungry to question him further.

“How’s your leg?” he asked between bites.

“Good.”

“Did the paramedic look at it?” he asked.

She nodded and swallowed what was in her mouth. “He cleaned it and put a fresh dressing on it. I’ll call tomorrow and see if my doctor will call something in for it without me having to actually make an appointment.”

“I still can’t believe you stitched it yourself,” he muttered.

Rilynne leaned over and bumped him with her shoulder. “Consider it an amusing anecdote for the next time you’re out with the guys. Maybe after they hear that, they’ll finally stop giving me grief about that stupid maid uniform.”

“Fat chance,” he chuckled.

They were just finishing eating when the others arrived. In the middle of the large ball of detectives walked the assassin, hands cuffed behind her.

Rilynne stood up and watched her walk by. There was an air of confidence about her that was unsettling. “So would you still pick me to win if I was up against her?” she asked.