by Vakey, Jenn
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?”
Rilynne bobbed her head dramatically. “Like you should even have to ask. Good looking, good job, and a great body to top it all off.” She decided to leave out the fact that he was one of the men on the list that Ben had an altercation with.
“I may just have to make that visit pretty soon then,” she said with a grin. “So, back to Ben. What’s going on with the two of you?”
Rilynne let out a deep sigh. “Eventually we’ll get around to actually making it through a date.”
“So, have you two… you know?” Lori asked, glancing over at Kim before returning her gaze to Rilynne.
“No,” she replied abruptly. “We haven’t even kissed. I don’t know, it’s just…”
“Awkward,” Lori finished her sentence.
“Exactly. We’ve been through so much, and he’s one of my best friends. As excited as I am, I have an equal level of apprehension,” she explained. “I will say that what we were able to get through on our first date was nice.”
“That’s all understandable,” Lori replied. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about, though. From what I could tell, he seemed like a great guy. In my opinion, you two will make a very cute couple.”
Rilynne leaned back in her seat and smiled warmly. “I get knots in my stomach just thinking about it.”
“Happy knots?” Lori asked.
Rilynne grinned. “Happy knots.”
After dinner, Rilynne followed Lori back to her house. She tucked Kim into bed and read her a story while Lori took the dog out for a walk. By the time she returned, Kim was already sound asleep and Rilynne was opening a bottle of wine.
“Did she give you any trouble?” Lori asked as she unhooked the dog.
“Of course not,” she replied, pouring two glasses and walking into the living room. “She’s an angel. You did an amazing job with that one. I’ve never had such an adult leveled conversation with anyone so young. She really is the smartest child I’ve ever seen.”
“She’s a clever little thing,” Lori said with a proud grin. “She’s started drawing people with all of the important facial features, as well as cheeks for some reason.”
“Wow,” she replied after taking a quick sip. “I didn’t think three year olds drew people at all.”
“They usually don’t. Generally, children don’t start drawing people until four, but don’t start adding features until five,” she explained. “She can also write all of the letters in the alphabet unassisted.”
“Like I said, smart.” Rilynne held her glass up. “So, I’ve been meaning to ask; what ever happened with that guy you were dating?”
“Donald?” she asked, though she didn’t wait for a response. “I found out he had another girl friend in Madison. They had apparently been together for close to two years but the distance left him a little lonely.”
Rilynne drained half of her glass before responding. “That’s horrible,” she stated shortly.
Lori shrugged. “You tried to warn me that something wasn’t quite right. It’s my fault for not listening.”
“It’s his fault, not yours,” Rilynne said firmly. She couldn’t help but blaming herself a little, though.
; Shortly before leaving for Addison Valley, Rilynne had a flash of Donald with a petite, dark haired woman. She knew she couldn’t tell Lori what she had seen, so she tried to just convince her something was a bit off. She couldn’t blame her for not leaving him at that, though, because even knowing the truth, Rilynne never saw any sign of it from him. He was remarkably good at covering it up.
“How did you find you?” Rilynne asked curiously.
“Apparently, one of her friends was in town and saw us together. She called his girl friend and followed us around while she made the drive in. We were already back here by the time she arrived. She barged right past me when I opened the door and attacked him. I ended up having to arrest her after she took my lamp to his head.” She seemed to be almost chuckling as she finished.
“Wow, that’s a story every girl wants to tell. You find out your long term boyfriend is cheating on you, then you end up getting arrested by the other woman when you confront him.”
“I definitely felt bad for her,” she replied as she refilled their glasses. “I don’t think he pressed charges, though. Actually, last I heard he was trying to win her back. I was just glad I got out of it before anything became too serious. I hadn’t even introduced him to Kim yet, which I’m glad about now.”
“You were together for months,” Rilynne stated. “How on earth did you swing that one?”
“We would meet for lunch while she was at daycare, and he never came in the house unless she was already asleep,” she explained. “My mother always had men stopping by, and I didn’t want Kim to go through that. When I brought her home from the hospital, I made myself a promise that I wouldn’t bring a man into her life unless things were serious.”
In a lot of ways, Lori reminded Rilynne of her own mother. Amber had sacrificed a lot to raise Rilynne on her own. She knew that like herself, Kim would never be able to express how much it meant.
After saying goodnight to Lori, Rilynne took the long way back to her hotel. On the way, she stopped by her old house; the one she had shared with Christopher.
She parked the car on the street and passed the real estate sign as she walked toward the front door. Rilynne reached out to unlock it, but stopped just before her key touched the lock. Instead, she dropped her keys back into her purse and walked along the front deck to the gently swaying porch swing. Stopping it with her leg, she turned around and lowered herself carefully down.
As her feet left the ground, she let her mind drift away as the chilled breeze brushed her cheeks.
“It’s perfect,” she heard herself say from just inside the front door. She looked down the deck just in time to see Christopher stepping out of the door, herself following close behind.
“You would even finally have that porch swing you’ve always wanted,” he chuckled, watching her as she almost bounced toward it.
She felt a surge of excitement as she dropped down onto the seat. “There’s no better place to grow old together than sitting on a porch swing.”
“Are you sure you want to buy a house now?” he asked as he sat down beside her. “We could wait until after we get married to buy.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to wait. It’s perfect, and I want to spend everyday of the rest of our lives in it.”
As the cold air filled her lungs, a tear rolled down her cheek. She brushed it off with the back of her gloved hand and pushed herself up, walking straight to her car without another look at the house.
*
She had just closed the hotel room door behind her when her phone rang.
“I hope it’s not too late.” She could hear the exhaustion in his voice. “I didn’t check the time until after the phone had already started ringing.”
“No, I went over to a friends house for a drink after dinner, so I’m actually just now walking in,” she explained. “You sound like you haven’t slept in days.”
She put the phone on speaker and sat it down before pulling off her shirt and throwing it onto the desk chair. As she did, she heard him let out a low yawn.
“It took a little longer to get everything processed that I expected,” he said. “So, you spent the night drinking with a friend? That sounds fun.” Behind the exhaustion in his voice, she could hear a note of searching.
“It was,” she replied, trying to decide how long to leave him wondering. “She thinks you’re pretty cute,” she finished after just a few seconds.
She pulled on an old t-shirt and sat down in the middle of her bed.
“Ah,” he replied. “Well, that’s because I am. So how was your girls night?”
“Pretty good. We went to my favorite restaurant up here. We had Kim with us, so we went back to her place pretty early.”
“So you were talking about me, huh?”
She could hear the grin on his voice.
“You may have popped up in the conversation,” she replied. “So have you found anything?”
“Quite a bit, actually.” He paused and she could hear papers shuffling.
“Are you still at the station?” she asked, glancing at the clock. It was just after two.
He mumbled a confirmation, followed by another long yawn. “Okay, the results on the DNA came back, and there were two profiles on the shirt. The blood did come back as a match for Christopher.”
Rilynne felt her chest tighten, though it wasn’t a surprise.
“The level of chemicals in the soil show that he was buried right around the known time of death,” he continued. “I heard back from one of my friends and he found a match for the trace that I pulled. The first was Acer gladrum, which is commonly known as Rocky Mountain Maple. As I’m sure you can guess, they’re found mainly along the Rocky Mountains.”
“Well, that doesn’t limit the search area by much,” she said sullenly. “What about the other one?”
“Now, that one actually does help to narrow it down a little. It was Penland beardtongue, which is only found in Colorado.”
“So we at least have it limited to one state. Are you sure it wasn’t left there some other time?”
“I found the remains of a flower and the Penland beardtongue only blooms in June and July. I’m pretty confident that it was left behind when he was buried. More than likely it was stuck in the tread of Mifflin’s shoes and dislodged when he was in the woods,” he explained. “Now, it actually does help to pinpoint where it could have come from. Penland beardtongue isn’t only limited to one state, it’s endangered.”
“So any places that it grows naturally will be documented,” she jumped in. A new rush of excitement flooded through her, and she felt like jumping up and down.
“Exactly,” he replied with another yawn. “It won’t give you an exact location, but you’ll at least have a list to work off of. With that, you can send out the information to the local officials and see if anyone has any record of him around the time of Christopher’s murder.”
She fell back onto the bed, as she let out a sigh of relief. Part of her had always believed that no matter how much time passed, it would never actually be over. Now, she felt that she could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“You’re amazing, have I ever told you that?”
“Maybe once or twice,” he replied.
“Well, now that you have all of the results in, you should go home and get some sleep or the department might start charging you rent.”
He chuckled softly. “I’m not here that much. I agree with you, though. I could really use come sleep. You’re still flying back tomorrow, right?”
“Yes,” she replied. “My flight gets in at one.”
“Well, then I’ll see you at one.”
Rilynne didn’t move as she dropped the phone down, but instead just laid in the middle of the bed, staring at the ceiling.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on everything she learned. After what felt like an hour of lying there, trying to will herself to see anything useful, she drifted off into a deep sleep.
Chapter
Five
Her bare feet sank into the snow, though it surprisingly wasn’t cold. Instead, it seemed almost warm and tickled her toes. The scene around her was beautiful. The trees lining the path were so tall she couldn’t see the tops. Their deep green branches were sprinkled with a fresh layer of white powder.
She started walking slowly down the road, her pajama pants dragging the snow-covered path.
After what felt like several miles, her feet started to tire. She was just about to stop and rest when she heard a rusting coming from the trees just to her left. She squinted and leaned forward, trying to see where the sound was coming from, when a long leg stepped out and hit the snowy path. She jumped back in fear before the rest of the body started to appear.
Though the tall man was standing with his back to her, she knew instantly who he was. Before she could even get out a word, he started walking down the path away from her.
“Wait,” she called out, but he didn’t stop. Instead, he seemed to be moving a little faster.
She let out a sigh of frustration before starting down the path after him. Every time she called out, he seemed to move further away.
She could feel the aggravation building inside of her as she stopped chasing him.
“We found your body!” she yelled.
He stopped walking and faced her. “Did you?” he asked, his eyes finally meeting hers. “How do you feel about that?”
“How would you expect me to feel?” she asked. The anger was now bubbling inside of her to the point of exploding.
He just looked at her curiously as if trying to study her.
She let out an exasperated gasp and ran her fingers through her hair. She heard the snow crunching beneath her feet as she took a step toward him.
“I’m pissed,” she said. “I’m hurt, but at the same time, I’m relieved to finally have an answer. Of course, when I feel relieved, I start to feel guilty.”
“Interesting,” he said, still staring intently at her.
She tried to move closer, but no matter how many steps she took, she was unable to actually move forward. “We have finally found you, but we still don’t know where to find Mifflin.”