Betrayal with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Three) (5 page)

“You know,” he said in almost an amused tone. “He told me what you could do. Christopher told me all about your abilities. I told him he was crazy, but he insisted it was true. He said that’s how you’re able to solve all of those cases when everyone else gets stumped. I guess it didn’t help you here, though.”

She let the shovel fall from her shoulder, but didn’t release her grip. So much anger was flooding through her that she couldn’t seem to form any kind of response.

“I thought for sure after he told me that you wouldn’t be too far behind, no matter how many precautions were taken,” he continued. “How does someone hide from someone like you? Apparently it’s easier than I thought.”

“How could you?” she asked furiously.

Her question left him with his own look of anger. “How could I? How could you!” Mifflin yelled back. “You live a life of lies. In that moment, all I felt was anger toward you.”

He turned around and walked away, reaching out to grab the string of the kite sitting just feet in front of him.

“I am going to find you!” she yelled. “I don’t care where you hide, it’s only a matter of time.” She picked up the shovel again, swinging with all of her might, but it just floated right through him. She lost her balance as it swung around, and landed hard on her side. By the time she pulled herself up, he was gone.

“No!” she yelled, throwing the shovel down the beach.

“
I
didn’t wake you, did I?” she heard as she answered the phone. “I didn’t think you even had it in you to sleep this late.”

She glanced over to the clock sitting on nightstand and was shocked to see that it was just before ten. “It’s okay,” she mumbled. “I didn’t get back in until a little after four. I’m actually glad you called when you did, though. I wasn’t having the best dream.”

“Well, you’ve had a lot going on,” Ben said. “I take it going out to the scene had some unpleasant effects.”

“More so than I thought, I guess,” she said, pulling herself up. As she did, she felt a sudden twinge spread through her side. Rilynne couldn’t think of what could be causing it until she lifted up her shirt and found a bruise from where she had hit the nightstand the morning before. She slowly shook her head, thankful her shirt hid it so she wouldn’t have to answer curious questions. “Have you been able to start the analysis of the evidence yet?”

“Just about finished, actually,” he said with a note of pride.

Rilynne walked across the room and pulled the curtains open, allowing the morning light to flood into the room. “How on earth have you been able to process all of that?” she asked, looking back to the clock. “I know you couldn’t have made it back to your lab before seven last night.”

“More like a little after ten. I got stuck behind a pretty bad accident on my way out of San Antonio,” he explained. “I know how important this is for you, so I worked through the night.”

She was left with a lack of words as she felt a wave of heat pass through her. She knew that no matter what she said, she could never express the level of gratitude she felt toward him. She was glad that he didn’t wait for a response before continuing.

“The DNA won’t be finished until this evening, but I was able to process the rest,” he said. “I have someone working on his phone also, but it’s still too early to know if we’ll be able to pull anything off of it. It was pretty damaged, from both being smashed and being exposed to the elements for so long.”

“Have you found anything that could help us track down his killer?” she asked with an obvious hopeful tone, still reeling from her dream.

“I did find some trace in the soil samples around the body that wasn’t consistent with the area,” he replied. “I found the same trace tucked under one of the pieces of metal on Christopher’s wallet. I know it’s vegetation of some kind, but I haven’t been able to identify it yet. After spending the majority of the night going through the list of all known plant life in the state of Wisconsin, I called in a few favors to widen the search to all of North America. It shouldn’t take long to identify it.”

“Good,” she said, though in her still drowsy state, she couldn’t see the significance of putting a name to the vegetation found by the body.

As if Ben could sense her reservations, he elaborated on his findings.

“If the plant life isn’t found in the area, it might be able to tell you where Mifflin was just prior to burying the body,” he said. “After this long, I’m sure that chances aren’t great that he would still be in that area, but it’s a place to start.”

She couldn’t think why, but a sudden wave of hope overcame her.

“Did you find anything else?” she asked.

By the slight rattling sound coming from the phone, she had a feeling he was shaking his head. “There wasn’t much for me to work with,” he said. “Assuming that he was buried when he disappeared, the clothes have been exposed to the elements for nineteen months. If they had been pure cotton, they would have been completely degraded by now. Luckily, the shirt was a blend so it was still mostly in tact.” He hesitated for several moments before continuing. “I did find a half-inch cut about two inches below the left arm, which is where the main concentration of the blood was found. My opinion would be that he was stabbed.”

“The coroner didn’t find any evidence of a stab wound,” she said.

“The cut was horizontal, so it’s possible that the killer was very lucky with the positioning of it and it slid right between the ribs.”

She tried to picture just how such a stab could happen, but it only made her stomach turn. “Was he in pain?” she asked. As soon as the words left her lips, she wanted to take them back. While it would have been a relief to learn that he hadn’t felt a thing, she didn’t know if she could handle hearing otherwise. Especially since she still felt that his death was her fault.

Ben let out a sigh that was just loud enough for her to hear over the line. She knew that his initial instinct was to say whatever he could to comfort her, whether it be true or not. “Honestly, I can’t answer that,” he said finally. “Given its position on the shirt and the amount of blood, it’s very possible that his heart could have been punctured. If that’s the case, I would say that it was all over very quickly.”

“Thank you,” she said. As hard it was to hear the findings, she was grateful that he was being as honest and forthcoming as he was. “Did they send you the evidence from the original scene also?”

“They sent detailed pictures which I’m going to have Summers look at as soon as his vacation is over,” he said. “If anyone can read the blood patterns and give you a story, it’s him. The only piece of physical evidence they sent-aside from a few blood samples-was the knife.”

She could hear him tensing as he mentioned it. At the same time, she felt a jolt of pain hit her back. It was almost as if she could feel it sliding into her again.

“I, uh…” he trailed off. “I’m going to process the handle and see if there’s any trace that I can pull off of it. You said it was your dad’s knife, right?”

“Yeah,” she replied. After her father disappeared when she was a child, she was left with very few things to remember him by. One of them was a pocketknife, which she had kept on display in her house. When she walked in and interrupted Mifflin, he had used that treasured possession to attack her.

“Was it used?” she asked hesitantly. For some reason, the thought of her father’s knife being used to take Christopher’s life was even more sickening than it being pressed into her back.

“The dimensions are similar, but I won’t be able to give you an answer without doing more tests,” he replied. “The test done on it originally didn’t show another DNA profile other than yours, but I want to test it myself. I’m going to need to take it apart, but I’ll make sure it’s put back together for you.”

Although it had been her father’s, she hadn’t given much thought to what would happen to it when the case was closed. She assumed it would eventually be returned to her, but she wasn’t sure she even wanted it. “Just do what you need to.”

Ben seemed to understand the conflict she felt, because he didn’t push the subject further. Instead, he tried to lighten the moment by talking about the happenings in the station, but Rilynne’s mind was so consumed with thoughts of the knife that she didn’t catch a word he was saying.

She was overcome with a memory from when she was around five and found the knife for the first time. Until that day, she had never really given much thought to the absent father in her life. When her mother saw her admiring it, she sat her down on the end of her stuffed animal covered bed and told her all about the man who had been missing for so long.

After that day, she always thought about her father and the stories Amber had told her about him when she looked at it. That is until the doctors explained that it had been pulled out of her back.

In a way, she was angrier about her memories being tainted than the betrayal itself. At least that part of it.

“Well, I better get back to work” she heard Ben say. “I’ll let you know as soon as I find anything else.”

“Yeah,” she said, shocked back into reality. “Thanks for everything. I’ll talk to you soon.”

Instead of going straight to the station, Rilynne walked down the street to a small café. Her head was reeling. She was filled with both excitement and sorrow, and she didn’t know which to focus on. Although her father’s knife had been used to attack her, she couldn’t believe she had never considered it was the weapon used to kill Christopher. Her back ached. She tried to push the thoughts out of her mind as she sipped on her cup of coffee, concentrating instead on all Ben had found. With any luck, something in the evidence would lead her straight to her former partner.

*

“Are you sure you have to leave tomorrow?” Lori asked. Rilynne slid into the booth while Lori buckled Kim into the high chair. “Kim really should spend more time with her godmother.”

“I know,” she replied. “I have to get back to work, though. Who knows how long it’s going to take Ben to identify the trace. Until he does, there isn’t anything else for me to do on the case. I’ve also requested they hold off on the burial until then. I don’t want to have to deal with an exhumation in the event that they need to take another look.”

She could see the disappointment on Lori’s face. “I promise I’ll come back soon, though. I really do miss you guys,” Rilynne added. “You’ll have to come down to Addison Valley sometime, too. You’d love it out there. It has all of the charms of a small town.”

“And would some of that charm be that very cute forensic specialist of yours?” Lori asked as she handed the chattering toddler some crayons.

Rilynne felt her cheeks burning as she sipped on her drink. “So you think he’s cute?”

“Incredibly,” Lori stated with a playful giggle. “He wasn’t at all what I was expecting, to be completely honest. I’m used to seeing forensic guys more-”

“Professionally attired?” Rilynne stepped in. “Short, well kept hair and a tie?”

“Exactly. Don’t get me wrong, the t-shirt and jeans look is a good one for him,” she explained. “And that hair. It looks so incredibly soft.”

Rilynne giggled. “Oh, it is.”

Lori’s eyes widened and she gave Rilynne a look that begged for details.

“No, nothing like that,” Rilynne chuckled, her cheeks burning even hotter. “Between trying to clean blood out of it, and moving it out of his face to see different injuries he’s had, I’ve gotten a good enough feel to know how soft it is.”

“How often does he get hurt?” Lori asked curiously.

Rilynne chewed on her lip for a moment before rattling off the list. “There was the serial killer, the cop he punched, the bar fight, and-” she paused briefly “-I know I’m forgetting something. Oh yes, the boxing injuries.”

“Uh huh,” Lori said on a long breath. “And how many of those were you involved in?”

“All of them,” she replied bluntly, dropping her head back and running her hands across her face. “But it’s not like I started any of them. The serial killer would have gone after him either way. The only way that would have been avoidable was if I had caught her before she made her move.”

“You can’t blame yourself for that. No one suspected a woman was behind that. Of all serial killers in America, only eight percent are female. Eighty percent of those use poison, which your killer did not. Seventy-four percent are also committed for financial gain, which wasn’t part of your case,” Lori rattled off. “We went over the case before you left, and the thought never even crossed my mind that you could be looking for a woman.”

“I know,” she replied. “Even after the fact, it’s still hard to see.”

Rilynne picked up one of the crayons and started doodling on the mat in front of Kim.

“Okay,” Lori said. “So I get how you were involved with that one, but you’ll have to explain the others.”

Rilynne chuckled again, handing the crayon back to Kim. “The bar fight was pretty simple. A couple locals were drunk and got a little out of hand after a news release regarding the Pirate Killer case. They came after me and he laid them out so quickly, the officers at the other end of the bar hadn’t even reached us yet.”

“Wait, Addison Valley has it’s own news station?”

“I know, I was shocked, too,” Rilynne laughed at her surprised expression. “Now, the other two were actually relatively similar. He has a tendency to defend my honor, and really doesn’t like it when other men are disrespectful. Even if they’re officers in our department.”

“Oow,” Lori mumbled excitedly. “You have your own little knight in shining armor, don’t you? Maybe I should move down to a small country town and find one of those for myself.”

“Well, if you ever decide to, I may actually have the perfect guy for you in Addison Valley.”

Lori sat up straight and flipped her long, blonde hair off of her shoulder. “Oh, really? Is he cute?”