by Vakey, Jenn
“Your husband?” Rilynne asked curiously. “You and Christopher are married? You know it’s illegal to get married when you’re, in fact, already married.”
“We have both been declared dead,” she said, though she seemed to know that her argument wasn’t valid as she made it.
“Well, I hate to be the one to tell you, but Christopher was declared dead last night,” she said. “This time for real.”
“You killed him?” she exclaimed as she jumped from her seat.
“No,” Rilynne said calmly. “I was actually tied to your oven with a gun to my head at the time. He shot a forensic investigator working on the case, and was shot in return. Unfortunately, Christopher didn’t survive his injury.”
Rilynne couldn’t get a read on Melissa in that moment. While she was outwardly furious with everything she had just learned, there was also something hidden behind it that took Rilynne several minutes to recognize. Of all the emotions she could have expected from Melissa, relief wasn’t one of them.
“It wasn’t as easy as you thought, was it?” Rilynne asked. “Starting over with a new identity and going on the run; it’s harder than you thought it would be, isn’t it?”
She nodded and looked up at Rilynne. “I’m so sorry,” she said firmly. “I was selfish and never considered that Christopher wasn’t being honest with me. I never in a million years could have thought he would attack you, or that he was even capable of killing someone. I feel like such a fool.”
“You shouldn’t,” Rilynne said quickly. “You’re not the only one he deceived. I wouldn’t have thought him capable of anything that he did. Some people are just really good at fooling people, and apparently he was one of them.”
“I know what I did was wrong, and I’m prepared to face the consequences. I just want it to be known that I had no knowledge of anything that Christopher did beyond our original plan.”
Rilynne nodded and placed the photos back in the file. “In addition to what we’ve talked about, they’re also going to want to talk to you about the insurance fraud.”
“What insurance?” Melissa interrupted. Rilynne’s first instinct told her that Melissa was lying to protect herself, but the look on her face said something different.
“Christopher told me that he faked his death to receive the two million dollars from his life insurance,” she said, carefully watching Melissa. “Because it’s already been paid out, there will be charges filed for insurance fraud.”
Melissa didn’t respond, but the anger on her face said enough.
Rilynne picked up the file and walked out without either of them saying another word. As the door shut behind her, she was left with a mix of emotions. Not wanting to be affected by them, she shook them off and pushed open the second door.
Sarah didn’t say a word when Rilynne sat down across from her. Instead, she glared at her, the same look of hatred she had been giving her for years. Rilynne folded her arms and stared back at her, not knowing what to say.
“This is all your fault,” Sarah said, breaking the silence after several minutes.
The tension was so thick in the room that Rilynne could almost feel it as she took in a quick breath.
“How did you come to that conclusion?” she asked, fighting off the urge to reach over the table and slap her. The comment itself didn’t surprise her, though, because blaming her seemed to be Sarah’s favorite thing to do.
“I told him it was a mistake to marry you,” she said coldly. “If he had just listened to me and waited for someone better, none of this would have ever happened.”
Rilynne was baffled by the arrogance coming from her. “Explain to me how it’s my fault that your brother chose not only to fake his death, but murder someone in the process? Wouldn’t it have just been easier to file for divorce?”
“Stop being so dramatic,” she snapped angrily. “Don’t you dare try to justify that man shooting and killing my brother by saying he was going to kill you. He would never murder anyone, and you know it.”
Rilynne opened her mouth to respond, but closed it again without a word as she stared dumbfoundedly across the table at Sarah. It was several seconds before she finally found her words.
“Christopher murdered a man named Lamar Mifflin, dressed him in his clothes, knocked the teeth out of his head, and buried him along with his personal belongings. He then proceeded to frame Detective Mifflin-that’s right, he was a detective-for both his and Melissa’s deaths. And before you try denying it, he told me himself that he did it.”
With each word, she felt the anger building inside of her again. She couldn’t remember anytime in her life where she had ever felt as angry as she had the past two days.
“You’re lying,” Sarah replied abruptly, but the look on her face told Rilynne that she knew it could be true.
“You know that this isn’t an official interview and you don’t have to tell me anything, but I just want to know why,” Rilynne said as soothingly as she could muster. “All Christopher had to do if he wanted to be with someone else was file for divorce. Why would he go to the extreme of faking their deaths, stabbing me, and killing my partner? It doesn’t make sense why he did it, or even more so, why you went along with it? Weren’t you even concerned about what could happen to your daughter?”
For the first time, the gravity of the situation seemed to have hit her.
“I’ll tell them anything they want to know,” she said. “Just please don’t let them take my baby.”
“I’m not in any position to make a deal with you, Sarah,” Rilynne said as she watched the tears starting to roll down Sarah’s cheeks. “But I’m sure Chief Wooldridge will visit the subject with you when he arrives later today.”
She took one last look at Sarah before leaving the room. She could just make out the desperation on her face as she stared blankly at the table.
“Chief Wooldridge should be here in a few hours to do the official interviews,” she told Byman and Sheriff Stigent who were sitting in the desk just outside the door. “I’m going to head back to the hospital and check on Ben. If he gets here before I get back, can you have him call me?”
They nodded in agreement and she walked out of the station.
*
“I asked for the magic food for quick recovery, but they were all out,” she said as she pushed the tray over his bed. “I guess you’ll just have to settle for this.” She placed the takeout box on the tray and sat down on the foot of the bed.
Ben’s eyes widened as he popped it open. “A steak and baked potato? I would have been fine with a cheese burger.”
“You were shot; a steak sounded like a much better meal,” she said, handing him the silverware out of the bag. “Just don’t tell your doctors. I don’t think they would be too pleased.”
“Are you not going to eat?” he asked as he slid the knife into the medium rare steak. Rilynne watched as the juices spilled out.
“I don’t have much of an appetite right now,” she replied. “I’m going to be so happy when this day is over. I just want to go back home and curl up in my own bed and sleep for about a week.”
He nodded, as he pulled the fork away from his lips. “I bet,” he said a moment later. “How’s your head?”
“Physically or emotionally?” she asked with a small chuckle. She didn’t wait for him to react before continuing. “My headache is gone, and it only hurts when I touch it. I’m not looking forward to sleeping on it tonight. It feels pretty gross, though, hence the hair tie. Remind me not to take anymore blows to the head.”
He chuckled as he took another bite. “Seriously, though, who the hell hits someone with a frying pan? I mean, you see it a lot on cartoons and old television shows, but a frying pan…really?”
“At least it’ll make a comical story when we get back to the station,” she said.
Ben grinned, but it quickly faded away. His hand pulled up to his jaw. Rilynne watched curiously, unsure how she should confront him about what she knew he was thin
king. “We don’t have to tell anyone the specifics,” she said a few tense moments later. “Chances are the story won’t make the news in Addison Valley. Even if it did, by then enough time would have passed that…”
“It’s all right,” he interrupted. “News has no doubt already spread around that I’ve taken a bullet for you. My heroism won’t stay hidden, no matter how hard we try.” He was joking; it wasn’t the response she expected, though she was glad.
“Well, hopefully by the time you get back to work everyone’s questions will have been answered to their satisfaction, and you won’t have to deal with any of them,” she responded. “I’m sure you’ll grow tired of being asked how it happened. I can field any questions they might have.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. “No one in the department even knew that you were married, let alone anything about the case. I’m guessing that was for good reason; I know you’re a private person. If you want to keep it all under wraps, I don’t have a problem with that. We can just make up some fantastic story, or say that the details of the case can’t be discussed until after the court proceedings. That should keep everyone happy, for the most part at least.”
She smiled warmly at him. Ben wasn’t the kind of person to willingly keep things hidden, let alone lie. It felt good that he would even consider it just to spare her sense of privacy. “It’s fine,” she said. “I want to start with a clean slate, and that can’t happen by keeping things secret. I can’t move past all of this if I’m keeping it bottled up. Besides, it’ll get out eventually. It might as well come from me.”
“Oh,” he groaned as he leaned back against the pillows, “the guys are never going to let this go.”
She knew he had a point, and was glad he talked about it so lightly. Once the story got out, he would no doubt face a lot of jokes-jealousy being the subject of most. After all, he had killed her husband.
Chapter Seventeen
When the car pulled up in front of the station, it was the passenger side door that opened first.
“What are you doing here?” Rilynne asked as Lori rushed toward her, reaching her arms out and pulling her in for a hug. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but don’t you have a little one to be caring for?”
Lori squeezed her tightly for several seconds before pulling away. “I called my mom as soon as the Chief told me what happened, and she flew in to watch her.”
“I bet she’s loving that,” Rilynne replied.
“You have no idea. She hates being so far, but she would never leave Dallas to move closer to us. She’s never been able to handle the cold,” she explained. “Enough about me, are you all right? How’s Ben?”
Rilynne let out a low sigh and leaned against the hood of the car. “We’re all right,” she said simply.
“You know that I won’t settle for an answer like that,” Lori said as she sat down next to her. “So, we’ll just start simple, how’s Ben?”
“He’s already begging to leave the clinic,” she laughed. “The bullet nicked his appendix, so they removed it. Aside from that, he was very lucky. Emotionally, I don’t know, though. He didn’t just kill some random criminal; he killed my husband. He seems all right, but only time will tell, I guess.”
“I can only imagine,” she said. “It’s hard enough when you’re forced to kill someone when it’s part of your job description. Most people outside of our profession wouldn’t handle it well. I’m sure he’ll be fine, though. How are you handing it?”
For the first time since Christopher walked out of the cabin door, Rilynne felt like she was going to completely breakdown. She tried to gather her composure so she could speak, but after several unsuccessful moments, she just shrugged and looked down at her feet. Lori put her arm around her and sat with her in silence until Wooldridge stuck his head back out of the door half an hour later.
“Evans,” he called out and motioned her in. She hadn’t seen that look on his face since the night he told her that Mifflin had been responsible for Christopher’s death.
She walked into the station behind him, Lori at her side, and followed him into Detective Byman’s office.
“I called Dr. Ramirez and asked her to go back over the body, looking for any sample of DNA she could find. She got back to me a little while ago and said that she was able to pull a small sample out of one of the bones, so it’s being run against Mifflin now,” he said sullenly. “I know that Christopher admitted to killing him, but we need a concrete identification.” Rilynne nodded as she thought back over all of the evidence that had been discovered.
“Daniel Summers, our blood guy in Addison Valley, is still working on the shirt. My guess is the second DNA profile that was pulled came from decomposition,” she stated. “He’ll be able to verify that. He can also look back over the knife. Ben was in the process of taking it apart when he came up here, so I don’t think he finished. We can see if Summers can pull another sample off of it, other than mine. With as many times as I was stabbed, it would have been nearly impossible not to get cut in the process. Chances are, Christopher would have left a little of himself behind.”
“Why do we need all of that?” Lori asked cautiously. “Christopher is dead, so we don’t have to worry about trying to build a case against him.”
“It’s not about him anymore,” Byman stepped in. “It’s about clearing the name of Detective Mifflin. There can’t be any doubt that he was anything more than an innocent victim in it all.”
Wooldridge nodded in agreement before continuing. “I’ve also spoken with Sarah Bennett, and she’s requesting a deal in exchange for information. She said that Christopher kept journals and although she doesn’t know what’s in them, she knows where they-along with any documents he believed were important-are located,” he explained.
“Okay,” she replied. “What is it that you need from me?”
“I spoke with the district attorney’s office and they’re willing to work out a deal with her, but only if you don’t pursue charges against her for assault. Normally they wouldn’t consider your opinion on it, but they’re going to leave it up to you since you’re at the middle of this case,” he stated. “Christopher is dead, so-like Sibrian said-they’re not worried about trying to form a strong case against him. The events of the case also appear relatively straightforward. At this point, it’s all about understanding why more than anything else.”
“Um,” she sat back and crossed her arms. “What kind of deal are they willing to give her? I mean, she isn’t going to just be able to walk away from this, is she?”
“She’ll still be facing charges for the insurance fraud, and they’re asking for six months in a minimum security prison,” he explained.
She thought about it for several minutes-everyone’s eyes on her-before she gave a gentle nod.
“All right,” Wooldridge said. “I’ll call them back so they can get things started.”
“What about Melissa?” she asked.
“I haven’t had the chance to speak with her yet, but if you’re right and she didn’t know anything Christopher had done, they may go lenient on her. After we got off the phone last night, I called all of the hospitals within two hundred miles of every home she and her husband had shared. I had them pull any records they had on her, and found that there were a surprising number of visits for broken bones and other domestic violence related injuries. The district attorney’s office will take that into consideration when determining what charges to file.”
Wooldridge pushed himself off of the edge of Byman’s desk and walked out of the room, cell phone in hand. Detective Byman nodded kindly to Rilynne before walking out himself.
“Are you really all right with all of this?” Lori asked as soon as he disappeared around the corner.
“Yeah,” she responded quickly, not needing to give it a second thought. “With Christopher dead, we’ll never know exactly what happened without the journals. After waiting for so long to get closure, I honestly just want it all to be over with alre
ady. I don’t want more surprises to pop up a few months from now and have to deal with it all over again.”
“Are you sure she wasn’t involved in Mifflin’s murder?”
Rilynne groaned as she leaned back and closed her eyes, rubbing her hands over her face. As she did, a blinding light flashed across her face.
“How much did you have to pay him to disappear?” Sarah asked, sitting on the sofa next to her brother.
“A quarter mil,” he replied. “I don’t want you to say anything about it to Mel, though. If she thought there was anyone else out there who could turn around and inform her ex that she was alive, she would never stop worrying.”
“Are you sure he won’t show back up and cause us any problems?” she asked, a distinct note of worry in her voice.
“He doesn’t know where to find us,” he said firmly. “And he wouldn’t dare tell anyone that he had taken a bribe to overlook a crime and obstruct justice.”
Rilynne opened her eyes and sat back up. “I believe her,” she said confidently. “Judging by the way Christopher spoke to her, he hadn’t told her that Mifflin was dead. She was also genuinely surprised when I told her.”
Lori reached over and rested her hand gently over Rilynne’s. “It’s still going to be a few hours before we’re ready to transport them back to Wisconsin. Why don’t you get out of here for a bit? I’m sure you could use some fresh air.”
“You have no idea.”
Lori smiled as she rose out of the chair. “I promise I’ll call you as soon as anything happens.”
She had no sooner reached the door when a burly man forcefully swung it open. Rilynne knew she recognized him, but it wasn’t until he spoke that she could put a name to him.
“Where the hell is she?” he yelled through the station. Every officer instinctively stood up and placed their hands over the guns strapped to their hips. When no one answered him, he took a large step forward and yelled again, “Where the hell is she?”