Delusions With Murder: A Rilynne Evans Mystery (17 page)

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Every officer in the station seemed to be talking about the break in.  Even people she had never spoken to were coming up and asking if she was all right.

She finally decided to spend the rest of the day hiding out at her desk.  She was fighting the urge to call Ben and try to explain things when a voice came from the door behind her, causing her to jump.

“Have either of you seen Skinner?” LaShad asked, rushing in. 

“No, but I just got back in,” Rilynne answered.  Detective Matthews, who was sitting at his own desk across the room, just shook his head.  LaShad looked around quickly and hurried back out of the room.

“He seems all excited about something,” Matthews said.  Before they could follow him, Wilcome stood up and called everyone into the conference room.

“Okay, so here is what we have,” he said when everyone sat down.  Rilynne looked around the table and saw that just over half of the detectives in the unit were in the office today.  She was about to ask where the rest were when Wilcome started talking again.

“The blood type from the bedpan does not match Derek Hartley, or the previous four victims.  As Hartley was injured and would not be able to make a speedy escape, it would be a good guess to say that he wounded the perpetrator.  With any luck, we will find a match in the national database.  If not, we have a good sample for comparison when we catch this guy.

“Based on a tip from the caretaker, we have a helicopter flying over the property now looking for a hidden bunker.  LaShad and Skinner are still going through the victims’ pasts looking for a connection.

“Hopefully we will hear back from the cabin owners today with a list of everyone who rented the cabin during the three years prior to foreclosure.  When we get that list, I want everyone looked into.  See if they are willing to provide a voluntary DNA sample.  Anyone who refuses I want put on the top of the list until they can provide an alibi that clears them.”

Wilcome stood up and looked around the table.  “We are getting closer to this guy, I can feel it.  He is a creature of habit, and now that he has lost one of the pieces of his puzzle, he’s going to start making mistakes.  These mistakes are what we will be able to use to put an end to…” Before he could finish his thought, the door burst open. 

“We found it!” LaShad came running into the room so fast, he did not have time to stop before hitting the table.  “We know how he’s choosing his victims.”

“
T
here is only one thing they all have in common.  They have all crossed paths with this police department in some way or another.”  He laid out a stack of police reports for them to see.  On top was a report that was filed by Derek Hartley when his apartment was broken into. 

He was right.  All of the victims had been connected to a case that was investigated in their station, whether they were the victim, perpetrator, or just a witness.  And the police officer, who had been the third victim, had worked narcotics in their precinct before retiring.  Although this narrowed their suspect pool, it delivered a heart-stopping blow; the perpetrator was more than likely one of their own.

“Who would have access to this information?” Matthews asked as the reports were spread across the table. 

“That is what I want to know,” Wilcome announced.  “I want a list of everyone who worked on these cases, as well as anyone who would have had had access to the reports once they were made.  No one leaves until we are done.”

Everyone seemed to get up at once, other than Detective Wilcome, who did not budge from his seat.  This was not going to be an easy task.  In addition to the officers who handled the cases, there were also going to be crime scene investigators, reporters, attorneys, courtroom staff, and judges.  Not to mention any hospital or medical staff if there were injuries involved.

They knew it would be impossible to track down every person the third victim had come in contact with during his time working out of their precinct, so they concentrated their focus on the other eight.  Rilynne had picked the cases that came in contact with the fewest people.  If they could find a common person on these, then it would be easier to compare it the larger ones.  She and Detective Matthews were half way through the third case when the last ray of sunlight disappeared from the window.

“We are going to have an easier time eliminating people than anything.  Just on the three we have looked at so far, there are over twenty people in common,” she said to Detective Wilcome as he walked past her desk.  “It is not like we have a huge department.  There is going to be a lot of overlap.”

“It is a starting place.  We can use that list and start crossing people off who were not involved in any of the other cases.  We can’t eliminate any one entirely, though, unless they have a sound alibi.  As you said, it’s not a huge department.  Even if someone was not directly involved in a case, it does not mean that they didn’t know the details of it,” he explained.

“It should only take us another hour or so to finish up with this last one.  How are the lists going on the other six victims?” she asked.

The other cases had been split up between the other teams of detectives.  Ellis Reynolds, the fourth victim, had been involved in six separate cases, and had to be split up between two groups.

“Slowly.  Some of the cases were pretty big, and it will take a little while to track everyone down.  I’m going to have them start checking their lists against what you have so far.  I want to get this as narrowed down as possible before word gets around where our focus is now.”  He was right there.  The public was going to panic when they found out the serial killer that had been terrorizing them could be a member of the police department.  That would lead to distrust, and inevitably a rise in crime. 

Rilynne couldn’t help but think that if the perpetrator knew how close they were getting, he might try to run, or worse, kill as many men as possible before he got caught.

It was almost midnight before the final list was made, showing everyone who handled every case.  While it had been shortened, there were still fifteen names on it.  They wouldn’t be able to start looking into people’s alibis until the morning, so Wilcome told them to call it a night.

Rilynne was asleep before her head hit the pillow.  As tiring as the past few days had been, the thought of what would come tomorrow left her exhausted. 

Suddenly she found herself back in that darkened hallway.  Her feet were throbbing, with several pieces of glass now stuck deep in them.  It was all she could do to push forward, but nothing was going to stop her from reaching the door.  Looking down at the dark puddle coming from the room, she reached her free hand up and pushed gently on the doorknob.  The door swung open, revealing a scene of utter horror. 

The wall above her bed was streaked with blood, and the sheets, which had once been a soft blue, were now stained red.  She could no longer keep herself upright, and fell down to her knees.  “No,” she moaned loudly.  She knew she needed to go in, but she couldn’t make herself.  She reached down for her phone and pulled it to her ear.  “There is too much blood,” she heard herself saying.  “He’s…he’s… there is just too much blood.”  She let the phone fall to the floor without another word.  I have to see, she told herself.  I need to know.

She finally forced herself to her feet, but before she could even take a step, the pain she was feeling inside was surpassed by something else. Fire spread across her back and she was dropped back to the floor.  As everything started to go black, she saw a shadowy figure coming toward her.

After her eyes opened, it still took several moments for the pain in her back to vanish.  She rolled over to check the time, and found it was just after four.  While her body told her to go back to sleep, she couldn’t make herself close her eyes again.  It felt like her insides were being twisted and her heart was being ripped out all over again.  She curled up in a ball and let herself cry like she had not cried in a long time.  When her tears dried up ten minutes later, she leaned over and grabbed her phone.

“Did I wake you up?” she asked when the ringing stopped.

“No sweetheart.  I have the morning shifts all week,” her mom replied.  “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah.  I just had a bad dream.”

“The same one?”  Amber asked.

“My back actually hurt when I woke up this time.  Now I’m too afraid to go back to sleep.  I really hate this sometimes.”

“I know babe.  Just try to take your mind off of it.  Tell me about work?  How is your case going?”

“Not great.  We have narrowed our suspect pool to people who have access to police reports.  I don’t have to tell you what that means.  We are starting to look into people’s alibis tomorrow, well… today I guess.”

“That’s not going to be easy.  On one hand you want to be able to rule out all of the good guys.  On the other, you just want to find the guy and end this thing.”

“Yeah.  Some of the people on our list are friends of mine.  Talk about an awkward interview. ‘I had a really great time at the bar the other night.  So tell me, where were you when the last victim was abducted?’  I’m not looking forward to it.”

“So speaking about friends, are you still hanging out with that crime scene tech?” asked Amber.

“Yeah, she lives downstairs.  I couldn’t stop spending time with her even if I wanted to.  She tends to push herself into people’s lives.”

“No, not that one.  The guy, you know, the cute one.”

“Okay, now you are starting to sound like Nicole,” said Rilynne.

“She thinks he’s cute too I take it?”

“No, she thinks I should think he’s cute and that we would make a really cute couple.  She’s trying very hard to get us together,” explained Rilynne.

Her mom chuckled.  “I can’t say I blame her.  It is about time you started dating again, and he seems like a good place to start.”

“Even if I wanted to start dating again, which I do not, the department has a strict no fraternization rule.  I would lose my job if anything ever happened between us.”

“Honey, I really do think that it’s time for you to get back out there.  If you can’t date this, what was his name again?”  asked Amber.

“Ben.”

“Right.  If you can’t date Ben, why don’t you get out there and find someone that you can?  It will be good for you.”

“You know why I can’t mom,” stated Rilynne.

“It’s been over a year baby.  You know you can’t hold on forever.  Eventually you will have to stop waiting.”

“I know mom.  I know.”

“Well, I have to start getting ready for work,” Amber said.  “Good luck today.  Call me if you need to talk.”

“I will mom, thanks.  I love you.”

“I love you too, sweetheart.”

Deep down, she knew her mom had a point, although she would never admit it to herself.  She knew that eventually she would have to let go, but she was not ready yet and didn’t see herself getting there anytime soon. 

At last, she let her eyes close again.  To her relief, she slept dreamlessly for the rest of the night.  When she woke up two hours later, the knots in her stomach were gone and she actually felt refreshed. 

When she stepped in the shower, the hot water felt like the best thing to have ever touched her.  Instantly her entire body relaxed, and she had an overwhelming desire to stay in there forever.  If the water heater hadn’t gone out fifteen minutes later, she might have.

Today is going to be a big day, she told herself.  They were going to start interviewing the officers involved first before branching out to the other people on the lists.  It would be easier to keep the investigation under wraps that way. 
             

Rilynne had just poured herself a cup of coffee when there was a knock at the door.  “Come in,” she yelled, without turning around.

“Seriously?” Ben asked as he walked in.  “Your apartment was just broken into yesterday, and you still aren’t locking your door?  I swear you have a death wish.”

She turned around to see Ben holding two evidence boxes in his arms.  It was the first time she had seen him since he came across the photograph in her album.  While she knew that eventually they would have to talk about it, she wasn’t ready to have that conversation yet.  She just hoped he would not bring it up before she was.  “I would love to see someone try to get in while I was here,” she said quickly, hoping to direct the conversation to a safe place.  “I’m an excellent shot you know.  What do you have there?”

“All of the stuff we took yesterday,” he said casually.  If he had any desire to question her about what he had seen, he was not showing it.  Actually, he seemed abnormally at ease.  “I stayed late last night to make sure everything was processed so we could get it back to you as soon as possible.  You were already gone by the time I finished, so I thought I would drop it off this morning before you went in.”

“You could have just given it to me at the station you know,” she said, though she couldn’t keep the grin off of her face.

“I have to take my car in to get looked at this morning, so I won’t be making it in until late if I go in at all,” he explained.  He put the boxes on the table, and took the chair across from where Rilynne had sat down.