by Vakey, Jenn
Rilynne nodded, her head rubbing against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. She could hear his heart pounding in her ear. She closed her eyes and let it lull her into a sense of pure comfort. She didn’t want to let go. There was a chance, as slim as she tried to convince herself it was, that this could very well be the last time he would hold her. As she felt her chest tighten again and the tears trying to force their way out, she quickly leaned up and kissed him before walking out of the room.
There was just enough light coming from the closet for her to see her sleeping bag on the floor. By the time she climbed into it, the tears were freely rolling down her cheeks. She closed her eyes tightly, and concentrated on keeping her breath steady so he couldn’t hear her crying. She knew if he caught her, he would know instantly what she was planning. If he tried to stop her, she didn’t know if she would have the strength to do what she needed to.
With one last deep breath, she felt herself drifting away.
Rilynne looked around at the large courtroom surrounding her.
The large bench in front of her seemed to be twenty feet tall. Sitting on top of it was a large man in a long white wig. His long black robes hung over the bench and came just feet from touching the floor.
To her right, she could see the filled jury box. If she had hoped for friendly faces, it was not what she found. She wouldn’t have expected such a cold reception if she had publicly murdered the most liked man in town. Every eye was on her, and there was only one thing in them: hate.
“You shouldn’t have done this,” she heard a voice just behind her left ear. She turned around to find Ben staring mournfully down at her. “This was a mistake,” he continued. “They’re going to execute you. You should never have done this.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” she whispered. She looked just behind him to see her fellow homicide detectives. The looks resting on their faces ranged from sorrow to anger. Matthews looked the worst of all. He seemed to have lost at least ten pounds and didn’t appear to have slept in weeks. The thing that truly made her heart sink was his left hand. His wedding band was gone.
“I couldn’t let you give everything up,” she whispered as she turned back to Ben. “There was no happy ending. Not this time. We would have been running for the rest of our lives, and I couldn’t do that to you. I love you too much for that.”
“I’d made my choice,” he said firmly. “And it wasn’t to sit back and watch you be executed for a crime you didn’t commit. You had no right making the decision for me.”
His words stung. Ben wasn’t hiding the anger coursing through him. She had never seen such a look in his eyes. Even the affection that she usually saw within them had been replaced.
A tear rolled down her cheek when he reached out and took her by the hand.
“I won’t sit back and watch this happen,” he said. “I know I promised to be by your side while you went through this, but you can’t ask me to watch them kill you. I won’t do it.”
More tears accompanied the first as he pulled her hand up and pressed his lips against it. Before she could respond, he let go and walked out of the room.
“What do you mean?” she called out after him.
Her eyes were wet when she turned toward Matthews, pleading for an explanation. His eyes knew something, but he turned away without sharing.
If she didn’t know him, his words would have seemed like a simple goodbye. There was something else behind them, though. She could feel it.
Her mind raced. She closed her eyes and tried to think of an explanation, but she already knew what he had planned.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself sitting in a van, her hands cuffed on her lap. She could hear the guards in the front talking, but she was only catching every few words. “Guilty…prison…execution date…”
Rilynne’s heart sank. She looked out the window and watched the trees dance by. Despite what was going on around her, she found it almost relaxing. The feeling did not last long, though.
The tires let out a loud shriek and Rilynne found herself flying forward into the back of the passenger seat. She had barely had time to react when the door beside her swung open.
A man in a black ski mask grabbed her firmly by the arm and pulled her from the van. His fingers dug into her arm. It was almost painful, she was sure there would be a mark. As he drug her toward an awaiting car, she looked back to see two others relieving the guards of their weapons.
“Don’t hurt them,” she pleaded to her abductor.
He let out a laugh that left her feeling both confused and uplifted.
“You’re never going to change, are you?” The voice was so welcomed when it hit her ears that tears instantly rolled down her face. “And you don’t have to worry about them.”
It took every ounce of strength within her not to reach out and embrace him as he pushed her into the car and climbed in next to her. Just moments later, they were joined by the others.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked the moment the car lurched forward. She reached out with her still cuffed hands and pulled the mask off of Ben’s face. “Why?”
“Because you’re innocent.” It was a voice in the front that answered, although she didn’t recognize it. Ben took her hands onto his lap and started working on the lock.
Rilynne’s eyes were still on the two in the front seat. “Who are you?” she asked. The passenger, the one who had spoken just moments before, turned toward her. He was just reaching up to pull off his mask when she heard the familiar sound coming from the lock as Ben picked it.
Click.
Her eyes shot open, but she hesitated before looking around. There was something off; she could feel it in her chest. She carefully slid her hand over, but it met only an empty sleeping bag. She took in a deep breath before rolling onto her back. As she did, she caught sight of a quick flash of silver before everything went dark.
Her head was still aching as her feet sank into the warm sand beneath her. She grinned and slowly started walking forward. About ten feet in front of her stood Ben, his shaggy hair blowing in the breeze. While she was happy he was there with her, part of her wished he could be anywhere else.
“I’m sorry,” she said. He turned around and smiled. “All I’ve done is bring immense chaos into your life. No matter what I do, I don’t see a happy ending. Not anymore.”
He reached out and took her hand, but didn’t say a word. Instead, he just turned and looked back toward the waves as they crept up onto the beach.
“Maybe you were right,” she said. She pulled in a deep breath, feeling the coolness of the salty air hitting the back of the throat. “We should have just left and found a nice place like this. I could have been happy here. As long as I knew you were safe, I could have been happy anywhere.”
“Then let’s do it,” he said, turning back toward her with a flash of excitement on his face. “We can go somewhere where they could never find us.”
She smiled, but it quickly faded away.
“It’s too late for that,” she said, looking up to see the storm clouds rolling in above them. The sweet smell of the beach faded and was replaced by a much less pleasant one. It smelled almost like mildew. By the time she looked back over to Ben, the vibrant blue sky had been completely hidden by the thundering black clouds. It was so dark.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I don’t know if we’ll make it out. Not this time.”
As she reached out for him, the sky opened above and rain startled pelting down on them.
Drip, drip, drip. The sound was so loud she could hardly think. She pulled her hands up over her ears as it sounded again.
Drip, drip.
A steady drip moved toward her as her eyes opened again. The vacant house had been replaced with a dark, damp room. There was just enough light coming from a small boarded up window for her to make out her surroundings.
She was flat on her back, staring up at the rafters above. It looked like a basement. Her
hands were bound behind her back, leaving her arms numb under her. She pushed against the ground with her fingers as she struggled to sit.
“Ben?” she whispered when she finally made it up. She heard movement in the back corner and spun around to find him struggling against his own restraints. “Are you all right?” she asked, using her legs to push her across the damp floor. He nodded and started making his way toward her.
When they reached each other, he pushed his cheek gently against hers. She wanted more than anything to be able to wrap her arms around him, but she couldn’t pull them free. Her eyes swept over his face, and were relieved to find no visible injuries. As hard as she tried to push it back, the only thing going through her mind was the vision she had had of her own funeral. She had walked right into it, and she brought Ben with her.
His mumble pulled her back to reality around her. “This may hurt,” she said, examining the duct tape over his mouth. She grabbed the corner with her teeth and pulled it off.
“Are you hurt?” he asked before she had even gotten it completely off.
She spit the tape on the ground and shook her head.
“What happened?” she asked. “Where are we?”
Ben shrugged. “I went out to get something from the car and someone hit me. The next thing I knew, we were here. Looks like a basement of some kind,” he said. “Can you do anything about these?” He motioned over his shoulder to the restraints encasing his wrists.
Rilynne pushed herself behind him to get a better look. Unlike the duct tape around their ankles, their wrists were in padded restraints. They were the kind you would expect to find in hospital. She didn’t mention it to Ben, but the restraints left her with a sickening feeling. Usually when someone used them, it was because they didn’t want to leave marks. The only reason she could think of for their abductor to do this was to hide the fact they were being held. That wouldn’t be necessary if the plan was to release them.
“Is your kit still in your pocket?” she asked.
“No,” he replied. “I checked as soon as I came to. All of my pockets have been emptied. Where’s yours?”
“Probably still in my jeans,” she stated. “Our captor didn’t see fit to dress me, though. I kind of wish he had. These are my favorite pajama pants. I would hate to get a strangers blood all over them.”
Ben grinned at the cockiness of her comment. “It feels like we’ve been here before,” he said.
Rilynne sighed. “If you mean tied up in a dark room together, than yes. It does seem a little familiar.”
Ben looked around and said, “So if you had to guess-”
“-the person who grabbed us is the same one who’s setting me up for Teich’s murder,” she finished his thought. “How did they find us?” she asked. “I didn’t see anyone following us.”
“That’s actually pretty simple,” a new voice sounded. Rilynne spun around to see boots moving down the stairs. “I just slid a tracker under your car. You actually did me a favor by picking such a remote location to hide out. It would have made this so much more difficult if someone had seen me.”
Rilynne squinted through the darkness as the footsteps stopped.
“You?”
Chapter Thirteen
It took just moments for her to recognize the woman leering down at them. “You’re the witness that came forward after the news story broke,” she stated. “I supposed you leaked the story to the press, also.”
She reached up and pulled her long, dark hair into a hair tie and chuckled. “Actually, no. It appears that your little department has its very own leak. I just took advantage of the situation. I have to thank you for that move, though. I would have never considered exposing myself to the department had your little boyfriend not suggested it.”
“You were there?” Ben asked.
“Of course,” she stated. She seemed to think it was a ridiculous question. “I have to say, though, that your decision to run was a bit of a shock. I had completely lost track of you until I found you parked out near the station. I knew someone in the department must have tipped out off, and I figured you would try to make contact again to keep track of the case. I just slid a tracker under your back bumper. It was almost too easy.”
“You tried so hard to frame me for murder, why not just call in an anonymous tip when you discovered where we were?” Rilynne asked.
The woman shrugged. “When you ran, I realized you were even more stubborn than I originally thought. You would never just roll over and let this all play out, even if you were to be found innocent.”
Rilynne sat back and studied her. She seemed to be taking incredible pleasure in the situation she found herself in. There was something else, though. She seemed filled with curiosity.
“Why are you doing this?” Rilynne asked. “I’ve never met you. You aren’t involved with any of the cases I worked. You wouldn’t have risked coming forward as a witness if you had been. You seem intelligent enough. You’d have known the unit would be looking into all of my past cases. So who am I to you?”
She folded her arms and leaned against the stair railing. “Why don’t you tell me,” she said smugly. “See what you can see.”
The statement hit Rilynne hard. There was a subtle emphasis when she said ‘see’ that made her insides lurch. Was it just a coincidental play on words or was she hinting at something. The stranger’s eyes widened just slightly as her grin widened. She knew and she could tell that Rilynne had realized it. With a sideways glance at Ben, Rilynne let out a deep, resigned breath and closed her eyes. She concentrated as hard as she could, but she couldn’t make herself see anything.
When she opened her eyes again, the woman was staring intently down at her. “Anything come to mind?”
“I have no idea who you are, or why you are doing this to me,” Rilynne said. She had a strong urge to look back at Ben to see if he had any hint of a reaction, but she forced herself to keep her eyes on their abductor.
The woman, however, did turn toward Ben. She seemed to be trying to figure out whether or not he knew what had just happened. When her eyes flicked back to Rilynne’s, she appeared even more amused by the situation. She knew it wasn’t a conversation Rilynne and Ben had had.
“I can understand why you haven’t connected me to the case,” she said, the confidence in her voice not waning. In fact, she seemed to be bragging. “After all, I went to a lot of effort to keep myself hidden. Truth be told, this isn’t the first time we’ve met. You wouldn’t remember, of course. You were only around two at the time.”
Rilynne didn’t make an attempt to keep the confusion from her face. To her surprise, her confusion was quickly reflected on her captor’s face. “I have a friend in the Bodker police department,” she continued, “and he notified me immediately when you began digging around in the case. I monitored the progress that was being made, and to my surprise, you started to get a little closer. I knew I needed to shut the investigation down. The easiest way to do that is to shut down the person looking into it.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Rilynne insisted. “I left Bodker a year ago, and have only been involved in one case since then. That case is solved, and had nothing to do with you.”
The smile on the woman’s face disappeared. She seemed to be studying Rilynne, as if trying to determine if she was telling the truth. As she did, Ben let out a quick gasp. Both women turned toward him.
“This is my fault,” he told Rilynne. “The case I’ve been looking into these past few months has been a cold case in Bodker. Chief Wooldridge has been giving me everything I needed to look into it. I haven’t made any progress, though,” he stated firmly, turning back toward the stairs.
The woman stared at him in silence for close to a minute before sitting on the bottom step. “I had just assumed the collaboration was being done with her,” she said to Ben. “You didn’t even tell her? I must say, it’s almost sweet. So do you want to tell her, or should I?”
Rilynne turn
ed back toward Ben, searching his face for an answer as to what was going on. “I should have told you,” he said gently. “I just wanted to see if I could find anything before I did.”
“Tell me what?” she asked. Her mind was racing as she tried to put it together, but nothing made sense. “What’s going on?”
“The case I’ve been looking into,” he hesitated, trying to find his words. “I’ve been looking into your father’s disappearance.”
She tried to absorb his answer, but it left her with only more questions. The ones she had for Ben would have to wait. “What do you know about my father?” she asked the woman. “Were you involved with his disappearance?”
She appeared to be considering just what to tell them.
“You’re going to kill us anyway,” Ben said. “Why not give her the answers she wants?”
“You’re right,” she said, resting her elbows on her knees as she leaned toward them. “You know, I’m really good at what I do. I’m not trying to sound conceited, it’s just a fact. See, I like to think of myself as a problem solver. The best way to solve many problems is to make them just go away.”
“You’re a hit man,” Ben interrupted. Rilynne glanced over at him to find a look of recollection sitting on his face. “I honestly didn’t think anything of the report until now.”
“What report?” Rilynne asked.
It was their abductor who answered. “Not even the doctors or police had suspected that my jobs were connected. I had no idea how he was doing it, but he started to look into them more closely. The last thing I needed was for someone to start raising flags. He became a problem that needed to be solved.”
“You killed him?” Rilynne asked. She felt a surge of anger spreading through her.
“I had to stop him. I watched him leave your house that night,” she stated. “Your mother took you out in the yard to play while he was gone. I have to admit, you were a cute little thing.” She paused as if thinking back to the night. “Well, I would love to continue this little walk down memory lane, but I’ve got a plane I need to catch. I’ve got a job waiting for me, and I would hate to miss it.”