Jenn Vakey - Rilynne Evans 07 - Revenge with Murder (11 page)

“Mr. Burton, my name is Rilynne E-Davis,” she chastised herself silently for making the mistake.  It was still going to take a little getting used to.  “I’m a homicide detective working with Sergeant Perez on Caitlin’s case.  Were you aware of any conflicts she might have had while on the island?”

He quickly shook his head.  “She never said anything to me about any problems she was having.  She was getting frustrated with the pace of the renovation, but that’s the only thing she mentioned.  That was more to do with the delay on materials she needed coming in than anything to do with anyone here, though.”

“Her daughter told Sergeant Perez that you were supposed to be down here with her for the duration of the project,” she stated.  She leaned back in her chair and eyed him carefully.  At the mention of him joining her on the island, his body quickly tensed up.

“I came out for a little while, but hopped a ride with a family sailing back to Hawaii last week,” he said.  “Maybe if I had stayed this wouldn’t have happened.”

“I understand the two of you had a falling out,” Rilynne said.

Despite an obvious attempt to hide it, his face turned to stone.  He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, but didn’t respond.

“Now, I heard the talk around the island, but why don’t you tell me what happened in your own words?” she continued.

He seemed to be mulling it over for a moment before nodding and leaning forward against the table.  “Nothing I could do seemed to be good enough for her,” he said.  His tone was cold; he hadn’t gotten past the disagreement between them.  “I gave up everything to be with her, and she didn’t appreciate anything I did.  Sure, she was supportive to my face, but the things she said behind my back…”

“How did you know what she was saying behind your back?” she asked.

He ran his hands roughly over his face before dropping them down hard on the table.  The move actually startled her, but she didn’t show it.  She was relieved moments later when Perez joined them.  “Because she wasn’t actually making any attempt to hide it!”  His voice echoed through the room.  “She insisted we get matching phones, so we got them mixed up several times.  Imagine my surprise when I go to send a text message and find a conversation between her and her best friend where they are doing nothing but bad mouthing me.  She was putting me down about quitting my job to relocate with her, then even went in on my decision to go back to school.  Apparently my degree plan, even though she was adamant I do what would make me happy, wasn’t good enough for her.”

The more he spoke, the angrier he seemed to get.  Rilynne sat back and studied his body language.  He was still furious, which was undeniable.  His face also held
something else, though.  He was hurt.

“When you love someone, you’re supposed to have their back,” he continued.  “You don’t put them down or talk about them like that.  I don’t care how pissed off she made me; I never talked bad about her to anyone.  You just don’t do that.”

He had a point.  Rilynne had seen many relationships crumble because one party got angry and started ranting to their friends or family members.  Once those things are out there, they can’t be taken back.  Even after the anger subsided, there were always the little voices in their ears reminding them of their significant other’s flaws.  It was more than most could take.

“So that’s what caused you to leave?” she asked.

He shifted again in his seat.  “That in addition to the fact that she was having an affair,” he replied coldly.  Rilynne sat back quietly and waited for him to elaborate.  It didn’t take long.  “She was texting a guy she met here on the island.  I knew they were talking and that he had made advances, but she said she had just shrugged them off.  When I found pictures on her phone that he had sent to her, sexual pictures, I thought that it might have just been him continuing to try to sway her attention his way.  Then I saw a message she had sent asking for them.  What kind of person does that?” he asked.  He folded her arms tightly and leaned back in his seat.  “What kind of wife does that?”

“I image that left you pretty angry,” Rilynne stated.

He let out a quick laugh.  “Angry is an understatement,” he said, his voice again growing louder.  “I was furious and incredibly hurt.  But I see where you’re going with this.  I didn’t kill my wife.  I wasn’t even in this country.”

“Did you recognize the man in the pictures?” she asked.  “Have you met him before, or is it possible you had seen him around on the island and could identify him?”

John shook his head.  “She always referred to him as ‘that guy’, and the pictures weren’t of his face,” he said coldly.

“Where were you on Sunday?”

For the first time since sitting down, a smirk crossed his face.  “I was back home making a list of all of our assets while I started the divorce process.  She was crazy if she thought I’d just walk away without taking what I deserved.”

“I guess that’s something you won’t have to worry about now,” Sergeant Perez
stepped in.  Given his feelings toward her interviewing the husband in the first place, she was surprised he’d remained quiet for as long as he had.

John glared at him with a look that resembled pure contempt.  He held his gaze for several tense moments before turning back to Rilynne.  “Part of our pre-nup agreement said that if either of us were involved in an extramarital affair that the other person would get almost everything.  The remaining ten percent of our assets wasn’t enough for me to kill her over.  If I were you,” he shifted his eyes back toward Perez, “I would look into the person she was having the affair with.”

As the tension built up to an almost uncomfortable level, Rilynne decided it was a good place to stop things.  She had a feeling that Perez would only continue to push his buttons to the point that he would end up completely shutting down.  Leaving him in his seat, she stood up and moved toward the door.  To her relief, Perez followed.

“Why isn’t that surprising?” Perez said when she shut the door behind them.  “I guess the easiest way to deflect suspicion from
yourself is to find someone else to blame, though.  I guess he couldn’t come up with anything more original than a secret affair.  Personally, I’d have gone with a stalker or something.  At least that one would have occupied more time looking into it.  Why don’t you start checking into Mr. Burton’s so called alibi while I look for the mysterious affair.  If it was happening on this island, someone would have known.  It won’t be hard to prove wrong.”

Before Rilynne could even begin to process the mixed emotions she had about his statement, the look Ben shot her as she dropped down in the seat next to him said they were on the same page.  Perez was either more incompetent than Rilynne had assumed when it came to actually investigating a crime, or he was up to something.  With how quickly he pushed aside the thought that the victim might have been having an affair with someone on the island, he either thought he knew everyone well enough to feel the likelihood of it was slim, or he already knew who the man was.  From what she had seem from him so far, neither would have surprised her.  With a plan already in the works to look into it herself, she paid little mind to his suggestion.  If he was off on a search of his own, whether dedicated to it or not, then he wouldn’t be hovering over her while she looked into the victim’s life.

“Do you have the victim’s phone?” she asked Ben.  “I know I saw it when we were collecting everything from her house.”

He nodded, brushing his hand down her arm as he stood.  “It’s in the back with the other stuff I was processing.  I’ll go grab it.”

Rilynne glanced over at Ashton Lunieski as he walked into the back room.  She looked almost like a statue, sitting in the same position she had been when they arrived.  She appeared to be in a trance, not taking in anything happening around her.  With Perez ranting about the victim’s husband, that was probably a good thing.  If he truly was out of the country and unconnected to what happened, it wouldn’t do anyone any good for her to think he was responsible.

“What are you looking for?” Ben asked, walking back up beside her.  He reached into the back and pulled out the sleek black phone.

“The husband said he found evidence of an affair in her text messages,” she explained.  “While Perez talks to the locals in an attempt to disprove it, let’s see if we can actually find what he was talking about.  He also claims part of the reason they were fighting was because she was putting him down to her friends.  There might be something in those messages that could enlighten us as to what might have happened.”

“Why don’t you start checking on his alibi and I’ll see what I can turn up,” he said, reaching for his phone.  “It shouldn’t take me long.”

After giving him a quick peck on the cheek, Rilynne left Ben sitting at the desk and walked toward the front door.  With both men on the phone, she knew she wasn’t likely going be able to get the quiet she needed.  After quickly looking around both sides of the small building, she sat down in a small clearing off the path to the right.  It was a perfect stop.  Positioned there, she had a clear view of the station, but it wasn’t likely anyone would be able to see her unless they truly searched.  With a couple deep, relaxing breaths, she closed her eyes put all of her focus into concentrating.

John Burton slammed the front door of the small island house, dragging his suitcase behind him.  A level of fury coursed through him that was almost overpowering.  He looked around for a moment, apparently unsure what to do next, before he stormed off down the empty dirt road.

A bang echoed through the air as a passing car backfired, causing Rilynne to jerk back to the present.  She closed her eyes again and tried to see more, wanting to know what he did after he left the house, but it was no use.  Nothing more came.  After letting out a frustrated groan, she pulled her phone out of her back pocket and started to dial.  The moment it started to ring, she lay back on the soft plants covering the ground and watched the trees swaying gently above her.

It took only minutes for Lori to pull Burton’s finances and see that a plane ticket had been purchased for him to fly out of Hawaii just days before his wife’s death.  That still didn’t satisfy Rilynne.  Although they now knew he had booked a flight, it wasn’t proof that he had actually taken it.  Furthermore, it also didn’t eliminate the possibility that he had gotten on one flight just to turn back around and fly back.  It would take a little while to receive the records from the airport before they had a definitive answer.

She stayed in that spot for a few minutes after hanging up.  It was quiet.  In a way, it reminded her of some of the places she liked to go back home just to get away from everything.  With such beauty everywhere she looked, she didn’t understand how Sergeant Perez could be so cantankerous.  She thought to herself that he should investigate a crime in the freezing winters of Bodker sometime.  Perhaps it would help him appreciate how good he actually had it.  As she smiled at the thought, she finally pushed herself up.

“Rye,” Ben motioned her over as she walked back in the station and closed the door behind her.  When she walked over, she found him looking over a report on the computer.  “Matthews sent in the victim’s phone records.  We can’t see what were in the messages she sent and received, but we can see who she was texting, as well as whom she had been calling.  During the time she had been here, there were only three local numbers she called.  One was for the bed and breakfast, one was the contractor, and one was the diner.  I went through her phone,” he motioned to the evidence bag next to him, “and was able to look at the messages she’d sent and received over the last month.  It looks like she bought a new phone around then, so I won’t be able to look further back unless you can find the old one.  From what I can tell, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary going on.  Definitely nothing that sounds like she was having an affair.  I did, however, find the other messages the husband had been talking about.  She was in contact with several friends over the last month, and she didn’t have anything nice to say about him.  It was nothing more than venting.  I didn’t see anything that would make me think
she was worried he might do anything to her, or that she was afraid for her life at all.  It was pretty clear that the marriage was a sinking ship, though.  I gave Matthews their names, and he’s going to contact them for you.  Maybe she told one of them about having an affair or about something else that might have been going on that could have gotten her killed.”

“Is it possible she could have just erased the messages?” she asked.  “Not that I ever would, but if I was having an affair I wouldn’t exactly leave the evidence out there for anyone to find.  After he confronted her about it, maybe she erased them in an attempt to try to work things out.  Even in a bad relationship, it isn’t always easy to admit that it’s over and just let go.  Part of her might have tried to hang on a little longer.”

Ben smirked at her statement before shaking his head.  “That’s why I pulled the phone records instead of just looking through the phone.  Even if she had erased them, they would have still showed up on there.  From what I can tell, nothing was erased from the phone.”

Rilynne picked up the phone and concentrated on it, trying to see anything that would be helpful.  After a few unsuccessful moments, she sat it back down.  “What was she messaging the contractor?  Is it possible the husband could have misconstrued what was written out of jealousy?  Without the right context, even some of my messages could come out looking wrong.”