by Vakey, Jenn
“You’re not helping,” Rilynne said, throwing him a baleful look.
Ben grinned as he shrugged and said, “I’m not really trying.”
Rilynne just rolled her eyes and dropped the picture back into the file. “Do you see anything in here that we didn’t already know?” she asked. “At least as far as the evidence goes?” He flipped through the last of the reports and shook his head. “Well, we’ll just have to hope the answer is somewhere amongst the names Matthews provided. Any one of these people could have wanted to go after me, though. This guy-” she held up the photograph of a man in his late sixties “-sent me threatening messages for months after I locked his sons up. All four of them.”
“All four?” Ben asked. “What did they do?”
She thought back over the specifics of the case. Although it had been nearly four years, she remembered it clearly. It still sent an unpleasant shiver up her spine just thinking about it. “They were all pretty young, between sixteen and twenty-one. Well, the youngest, Nathan was his name, had a bit of a thing for one of his teachers. From the reports, he had been making advances for months. She finally decided she had enough, and requested he be transferred out of her class. As you can imagine, that didn’t go over well. He and his brothers showed up at her house one night and attacked her. It was one of the more horrific scenes I’ve been too. They brutalized her so badly, we had to wait for DNA results to come in before we could even confirm it was her.”
Ben looked repulsed.
“Well, as you can guess, their father insisted upon their innocence,” she continued. “They hadn’t even tried to cover their tracks, though. We found fingerprints from all four at the scene, as well as hair and blood under her broken fingernails. The jury only deliberated for twenty minutes, and they were each sentenced to life.”
“Why did the father blame you?” he asked.
She studied his picture for a few seconds before putting it down. “I guess it was easier than blaming his kids or himself. He claimed that we planted the evidence and just went after them because they were among the lower class.”
“Well, that’s definitely a good place to start looking,” Ben stated. “What better way of getting back at someone for planting evidence than to plant some against them? It’s almost poetic.”
“Do you know how many people have claimed evidence was planted?” she snickered. “We actually had a dirty cop in Bodker about a year before I made detective who was actually busted for planting evidence. It was a really big deal, all over the news for weeks. After that, nearly half of the people who I arrested try to claim it.”
“That couldn’t have been easy,” he said.
Rilynne shook her head and responded, “Not even in the slightest. It was actually one of the things I loved about working here. Criminals try to be a bit more creative with their stories than just claiming we’re setting them up. Some of them are just downright amusing.”
She kept combing over the files while Ben laid out their sleeping bags and fixed something to eat. Rilynne concentrated on every face she came upon in the files, trying to see anything of use. While she was able to rule out close to a third of them, she couldn’t make herself see anything related to Teich’s death or who was behind it. She knew when she was under a great deal of stress it was always harder for her to see anything. As hard as she tried to make herself relax, it just wasn’t going to happen.
Rilynne looked up from the files as she finished reading through them for the second time. The glow of the lantern was orange as it settled over Ben’s sleeping face. She grinned before closing the files and tossing them to the side. He looked so peaceful resting there on top of his sleeping bag. Had she just simply come upon him, she would have never known just how much he had been through over the last few days.
She watched him for a moment more before turning the lamp off and lying down beside him.
As she closed her eyes, the gentle sound of his snoring filled the room.
*
Rilynne sat down next to Ben and poked him in the arm until he started to stir.
“We should go out to the cave,” she said as soon as his eyes peeked opened. “Matthews might have left something in there for us.” She couldn’t tell if Ben was less pleased with her suggestion or her manner of waking him. “What?” she asked.
He seemed to be considering his position before making it. It wasn’t until she leaned toward him, her eyes staring intently into his, that he finally answered. “Matthews is your partner, so they will be monitoring him. That also includes watching his property. I think it might be too big of a risk. Even if they aren’t watching it, chances are they will have had your face all over the news. Probably both of ours. What if someone sees us out there and calls it in. The first thing they will do is start looking into Matthews.”
“It won’t take us long to get in and out,” Rilynne said. “If we go in through the woods, we won’t cross paths with anyone. Besides, it’s the only way we have of keeping updated on the case.”
Ben looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn’t. Instead, he just nodded and pushed himself up off the floor. After a quick stretch, he grabbed his toothbrush and sluggishly walked to the bathroom.
Rilynne jumped up on the half-wall and waited, the anticipation building within. She felt like she was about to explode by the time Ben emerged and walked toward the backdoor.
They made the entire drive to the other side of town in silence. Rilynne could tell Ben was more reluctant than he was letting on, but her desire to see if anything had been left for them outweighed everything else.
“We’ll park here,” he said, pulling into a small parking lot at the entrance of a trail. “It will be a bit of a hike to get there, but it’s our best chance to make it there and back without being seen. Besides, this is the only bridge in the area, so we will have a slim chance of you getting us lost.” Rilynne grinned and rolled her eyes as she pushed her door open and jumped out.
A bit of a hike was an understatement. It took the better part of an hour for them to walk through the woods and find the cave. Ben waited outside while Rilynne ran in and quickly looked around. She searched every inch of the cave before walking slowly back out.
“There’s nothing in here,” she said. She didn’t know if she felt more annoyed or disappointed.
“That doesn’t mean he isn’t making progress,” he said in a reassuring tone. “If he’s onto something, he isn’t going to stop to make a trip out here. He will hunt it down until he clears your name.”
As much as she wanted to believe what he was saying, it was just too hard. “You know what I was wondering?” she asked a few moments later. “How are we going to know if they get the case cleared up? It’s not like anyone has a way of getting a hold of us to let us know.”
“Something tells me Matthews will find a way,” he said with an amused sort of grin. He reached out and took her by the hand before starting back through the thick brush.
She was just about to ask how he could be so sure when a sound from behind them hit her like a punch in the stomach.
“Oh no,” she whispered.
Chapter Eleven
Rilynne stopped in her tracks. She was afraid to say aloud what was now going through her mind. Ben didn’t seem to be operating on the same level of denial as she was. As panic swept over her, his hand reached out for hers and pulled her away.
“Run,” he said as he dragged her behind him. “Come on.”
As her feet carried her through the thick brush, she could hear the sound of the dog echoing toward them. She knew by the sound of the barks that it wasn’t a regular dog. It was a scent dog.
Unless there just happened to be a missing camper in the woods, there was only one reason for the Blake County search dogs to be in the area. They were hunting for her.
“Ben,” she called out. “Ben, what are we going to do?”
He pulled her off the path and deeper into the trees, but didn’t answer. She didn’t know much ab
out the area, but she knew enough to know they were not moving toward the car. She also knew that the Blake County dogs were among the best in the state. They were well adept to searching for the smallest hit of someone in the woods. Her heart was pounding in her ears as she heard them slowly drawing closer.
“We can’t out run them,” she said, struggling to catch her breath.
“We don’t need to,” he stated, not hesitating as he ducked under a low hanging branch. “We’re almost there.”
Rilynne turned to look back behind her. Before she could get a good look around, her foot hit something hard and she lost her balance. Ben’s hand slipped off of hers as she fell. She tried to turn her body to avoid the pile of rocks below her, but she wasn’t fast enough. She landed hard on her right thigh.
“Come on,” Ben said, reaching down and pulling her back to her feet. “They’re catching up. We have to hurry.”
There was no way to get back to the car before the dogs caught up with them, and she knew it. As the branches and thorns from the bushes ripped into her skin, she was only leaving a stronger trail to follow. It was only a matter of minutes and there was no way out that she could see. Within a few short hours, she would be booked for murder. As she accepted the thought, she looked up at Ben. She couldn’t pull him into this, no matter what he had to say about it. She was just about to pull her hand out of his when she heard another sound roaring above the barks of the dog behind them.
Before she could even register what it was, they emerged through the tree line and found the rushing river in front of them.
“Go,” Ben said, pushing her toward the bank. She didn’t even have time to question him before he pulled her into the water.
With all the rain they had received over the last few months, the water was deeper than it had been since she moved to town. When Ben tossed her in, the water immediately rushed up to her shoulders. It was surprisingly colder than she thought it would be. The chill quickly vanished, though, as they started floating with the current. Before long, the water was so deep she could no longer touch the bottom. That didn’t slow Ben, however, as he pulled them further downstream. He still had her firmly by the arm as the sound of the dogs slowly faded.
“How long do we need to stay in here?” she asked, finally allowing the feeling of relief to settle in.
“Another half a mile,” he said confidently. “We’ll get out just before the bridge and head straight to the car. Hopefully they haven’t tracked our scent back to it yet. We need to hurry, though. Because it will only be a matter of time before they do.”
She had been so concerned with getting away from the dog behind them, she hadn’t even considered the possibility of what they might be moving toward.
“Maybe we should split up,” she said. “They aren’t after you. You can get away clean and head back in after a few days and say I left and you needed some time to yourself.”
Ben stopped swimming and turned toward her. She had half expected him to be angry, but he wasn’t. Nor was he concerned or even considering that she might be right. Without saying a word, he slid his free hand around the back of her neck and pulled her in.
When their lips met, she forgot everything going on around them. There was an intensity behind it like she had never felt before. Her chest tightened as a low groan rose up within her. By the time he pulled away from her, she could no longer picture herself being able to do any of this without him. He gave her a strength she wouldn’t have considered possible.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said, looking deeply into her eyes. “We’re in this together, no matter what happens.”
“Why?” she asked, though she wasn’t displeased by his answer. “Why would you risk everything you have? They won’t hesitate to arrest you. Your career will be over.”
He gently squeezed the hand he still had on the back of her neck as a smile like she had never seen snuck up on his face. “Because I love you,” he said sweetly.
Her face was burning as she searched his eyes for any hint that she had misheard him. The look on his face said that he couldn’t have been more serious. With one last grin, he turned and started pulling her toward the shore on the other side of the river. She grabbed him before he could move more than a few feet and pulled him back to her.
Before he could even react, she pulled him back in for a long, deep kiss. He released the grip on her wrist and wrapped his arm firmly around her, pulling her tightly against him. She could feel his heart pounding against her chest. The blood rushing through her ears almost covered the sound of the dog barking in the distance.
It took all of her will to pull away from him. “I love you, too,” she said, brushing the wet hair out of his eyes.
He stole one more kiss before turning and pulling her to the shore. Her clothes were heavy when her feet reached the ground. By the time they reached the car, her shoes had rubbed her feet almost raw.
“The seats are going to be soaked,” she said, pulling the door open. Before climbing in, she looked carefully around to make sure no one was watching them. To her relief, the parking lot was still empty and the sound of the dog had once again disappeared.
“It’s a good thing it’s not my car then.” He grinned, whipping it out of the parking lot as soon as her door shut. Though she had been certain they would not make it out of the woods without being caught, Rilynne couldn’t seem to keep the smile off of her face.
It wasn’t until they pulled back up to the vacant house that her adrenaline wore off enough for her to feel the aftermath of their run through the woods. When she stepped out of the car, pain shot up her right leg. She had been so panicked when she fell that she had forgotten about the pile of rocks she had landed on. As they walked toward the backdoor, she pulled up the bottom of her shorts to check out the damage. She definitely wasn’t expecting anything nearly as bad as what she found.
“What the hell happened?” Ben asked, staring down at her thigh. In the middle of the softball sized black bruise was a three-inch gash. He quickly pushed the backdoor open and pulled her inside. “Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt?”
Before she could respond, he picked her up and sat her down on the half-wall separating the kitchen and living room. He gently pulled her shorts up a couple inches and examined the wound. “How were you even able to keep up?” he asked. “This is going to need stitches.”
Rilynne glanced down at the stream of blood that was running down her leg. “I honestly didn’t even know I was hurt,” she explained. “I guess it happened when I fell. It would have probably been much more noticeable if the river hadn’t cleaned way most of the blood.”
He let out a groan as he stared down at it. “I don’t know what I can do,” he said honestly. “It’s deep. You must have landed on something sharp.”
“Go get my pack,” she said. “There’s a small gray bag in the front pocket. There’s also a small bottle of vodka.”
“You packed vodka?” He looked both confused and amused as he carried the pack into the kitchen. As he pulled it open, Rilynne hopped down onto the floor. As her feet hit the wet tile floor below her, she slipped and fell back against the wall. Ben didn’t seem to know whether to laugh or not, but Rilynne couldn’t seem to do anything else. “Are you sure you weren’t sneaking drinks out of it earlier?” he added after he was sure she was all right.
“I didn’t even really think about it before tossing it in the bag. I just grabbed it off the counter on the way to the car,” she stated. “And no, I haven’t been drinking. I’m just super clumsy if you hadn’t already noticed.”
“Maybe once or twice,” he chuckled as he handed her the gray bag.
She unzipped it and opened it out onto the floor. The small case was filled with numerous medical supplies. “I’m going to go clean this up in the restroom, then I’m going to need your help stitching it up.”
“You’re joking!” he stated, not hiding the surprise in his voice. “How on earth are we supposed to stitch this up?�
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She pointed down to the bag as she pulled herself up. “I’ve got a suture kit in there.”
“And anesthetic?”
“What do you think the vodka’s for?” she grinned as she limped to the restroom. Luckily, the water heater had already been installed, so she was able to clean the cut with soap and warm water. When she finished, she tightly held a stack of clean gauze against it and walked back toward Ben. He still looked stunned when she dropped down on the floor next to him and propped her leg up against the wall.
“You want me to stitch your leg?” he asked. Rilynne could hear the hesitation in his voice. She smiled up at him, enjoying watching him squirm.
“Don’t worry,” she stated after a few tense moments. “I trust your skills with just about anything, but I don’t think sewing would make the list. I’ll take care of it myself.”
He didn’t seem to know how to respond as his eyes shifted between hers and the wound on her leg. “Are you sure you didn’t hit your head on that wall?” he asked.
She laughed loudly. “Positive,” she said. “Besides, I’ve done it before.”
“I guess when you’re as clumsy as you are, being able to stitch yourself up would come in handy.”
“Oh, hush,” she said, reaching out and pushing him with her free hand. She used her left leg to push her away from the wall and sat up. Carefully peeling back the gauze, she checked to make sure the wound had stopped bleeding. As she placed the bloody gauze on the floor next to her, she looked up to see a concerned look sitting on Ben’s face. He still wasn’t confident in her plan. “It will be fine,” she reassured him. She reached for the vodka and unscrewed the lid.
“Isn’t that going to make it bleed more?” he asked.
She shrugged and took a long drawl from the bottle. It burned going down. The second drink wasn’t nearly as harsh. She considered taking a third, but decided that she would rather suffer through a little pain instead of trying to perform with a muddled mind. She could only imagine how the stitches would turn out if her vision became too clouded.