by Jenn Vakey
He hadn’t even put the car in park before she pushed the door open and climbed out. The moment her feet hit the road, her head started spinning.
“Rilynne!” Matthews called out, running around the car without taking the time to turn it off. She moved both of her hands up to her head as she felt the ground spinning beneath her. Matthews reached her just in time to catch her before she collapsed into it again. “We’re going to the hospital,” he said, pulling her up and taking a step toward the car.
“No,” she gasped. She closed her eyes tightly as a searing pain spread through her head. It was like nothing she had ever felt before, but she somehow knew exactly what it was. Her memories were trying to come back at the same time as a flash, and the two were colliding violently within her. “I’m all right. This is the place. I just need a minute.”
She knew without needing to look at him that he wanted to fight her on it, but he just held her steady until the pain subsided and she could stand. The result of the collision in her head was one she hadn't expected. Neither came to her. Frustrated, she dropped her hands down as she opened her eyes and she looked up and down the road. Not wanting to take the time to come up with an explanation for what had just happened, she pulled herself free of her partner’s hold and started walking down the road. She only made it twenty feet before finding something that caught her eye.
“Over here,” she yelled as she heard him shut off the ignition behind her. He rushed up beside her and looked down at the road below. On it, they saw a set of dark tire tracks. By the look of them, they were relatively fresh.
Rilynne followed them the where they appeared to swerve off the road. Just a few feet beyond the edge of the road, the ground made a steep drop off. Rilynne looked down at the thick brush below, and found almost instantly what she was looking for.
Chapter Twelve
“Ben,” she said under her breath before she started moving as fast as she could down the embankment. Just through the trees, she could see what looked like the bumper of a black SUV.
She held her breath as she grew closer, her body finally taking over and pushing all of her emotions to the surface. She was shaking so violently in the final feet that she feared her knees were going to buckle before she could even reach it. Matthews was right behind her, though, and swept past her and reached the side of the car before she had even reached the dented bumper.
“Matthews,” she said, tears running down her face. She felt like she was going to be sick. “Is he...”
“He’s not here,” he called back quickly.
The air left her lungs and she fell down to the ground. Her relief was short lived, though, as the panic once again crept in. If Ben wasn’t there, then where was he?
“Davis!” Matthews yelled, moving quickly through the area surrounding the car. Rilynne couldn’t move. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t force herself to stand. She held her breath in, pleading with herself to do what she knew she needed to. When her lungs began to burn in her chest, she let it out and closed her eyes as she breathed in the warm air around them.
The smell of the gentle breeze moving through the woods toward her hit her like a punch in the gut. She tried to keep it out, forcing herself not to breathe, but she couldn’t. With every breath she took, the sick, harsh smell grew stronger until it was all there was aside from the sound of Matthews’ voice. “Ben Davis! Can you hear me?” With every echo of his name through the woods, hope built within her. Every ounce of her wanted to believe Matthews would have located the source of the putrid aroma by now, so each call meant it wasn’t him.
She stared blankly at the ground as she listened to her partner yelling behind the trees. As his voice grew further away, she started looking around the ground for any sign of where Ben had gone, doing everything she could to convince herself there was nothing more than an ill placed animal awaiting them just beyond the tree line.
If she’d managed to get out of the car, there was a chance he had to. If he was hurt, surely he wouldn’t be far from where she now stood. Her hopes were short lived when her eyes reached the passenger side of the crumpled vehicle. Trees didn’t have blue paint on them, and that’s exactly what she was looking at on the side of the car.
“Matthews!” she screamed, quickly finding her footing and moving to the car. She pulled the large branch blocking it back to get a better look, nearly falling as she tossed it aside. Sure enough, there was a definite impact mark on the side of the vehicle, just behind where she would have been seated. “Matthews!” she yelled again, louder than before. When she heard him thundering toward her, she looked up with wide eyes and said, “I don’t think he’s out here. I think he’s gone.”
A look of confusion moved over his face as he worked his way around to her. The moment his eyes found what her’s had, he seemed to know exactly what she meant. This wasn’t a simple accident.
“We were going west,” she said. “If a car was either passing us or coming from the opposite direction, it would have struck the driver’s side. There’s no reason an impact should have occurred on this side of the car. And even if I was in a haze and had no idea what was going on, I don’t honestly think I would have walked away and left him in the car. I think someone hit us and took him while I was unconscious. Even if the blow to my head wasn’t enough to trigger my amnesia, coming to and finding him gone would have surely pushed me to that point. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Evans,” he said, his somber tone carrying away nearly every bit of hope she had managed to muster.
She looked up to meet his heavy eyes and rapidly shook her head as the harsh smell once again filled her nostrils. “That isn’t him,” she insisted, trying to convince herself as much as him. Perhaps even more so. “Someone ran us off the road and then left with him. That isn’t him out there.”
“I know,” he said, his words shocking her, bringing tears to her eyes. “That isn’t him out there. But I believe I found who belongs to the third sample we collected from your clothes.”
A wave of mixed feelings swept over her. She was relieved that he hadn’t found Ben, but there was no denying that the smell floating toward them meant the woman hidden by the trees was dead. As guilty as she felt for the relief she still had, not even the sadness of knowing someone had lost her life during the incident that caused all of this could take away the happiness she now felt.
Matthews looked around desperately for anything that could answer all of their questions, but nothing seemed to come to him. “Let’s get back up to the street and wait for the forensic team to arrive. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but someone taking him is probably the best thing that could have happened. It will increase the chances of us finding him alive. If the plan was just to kill him, it would have been easier to do here and make it look like part of the accident. Whoever did this wanted him for something.”
Rilynne didn’t allow herself to really believe what he was saying, at least not entirely. Although she couldn’t remember the events that led up to the accident, she could remember everything they had been through in the past. It would be stupid for her to think that their luck could go on much longer.
“I’m going to stay here,” she said when he held his hand out.
“We should really wait for the team to arrive,” he replied.
She shook her head violently. “I don’t care what I should do,” she snapped. “I have to find him, and the best way for that to happen is if I can remember what caused all of this. I’m staying here.”
He wanted to argue; that was clear by the look on his face. Instead, he just nodded before turning and climbing back up toward the road.
Rilynne watched him until he disappeared. As soon as he did, she turned and walked around to the passenger side. Her fingers shaked with hesitation as she reached through the broken window and carefully touched the door handle. They stayed in place for several moments before she finally squeezed and pulled it open. The door, which was hanging in place ag
ainst the car, though still not closed, let out a loud screech that echoed through the woods. She held it open and climbed into the passenger seat, careful not to touch more than she had to. She knew even sitting there could cause evidence to be lost, but it was the only chance she had of seeing something that could help her to find Ben before his fate became the same as the woman Matthews had found. It was a chance she was all too willing to take.
The car didn’t resemble the one she remembered. Both air bags were hanging out of the front, and nearly everything was cracked or bent. It was the blood that forced the air from her lungs. It was everywhere. The passenger airbag was covered, and the window was broken. If she had to guess, that was where her head hit. Her eyes passed over everything in front of her on her side before she could build the strength to look to the left.
Ben’s airbag also had blood on it, but only small amounts. She reached out and brushed her fingers against it, careful not to risk corrupting anything that could help them find him.
“Please tell me where you are,” she whispered, closing her eyes. “Tell me where you are so I can find you. Please.”
Rilynne closed her eyes as tight as she could and pleaded to herself over and over again.
“You need to do something about this!” she heard herself yell. She was sitting in the passenger seat, the dash as impeccable as the day they had left the dealership with it. “Do you actually think that it’s just going to go away? I can’t believe you’ve been hiding this from me. Did you really think I wasn’t going to find out?”
She could feel the anger coursing through her. She glanced over to him briefly, but returned her gaze to the road in front of her.
“I told you I would take care of it,” he said. Though he was struggling to keep his voice steady, she could tell he was frustrated. “I just want to handle it my way. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll let you take over. Just give me some time.”
Rilynne let out an exasperated breath. As he moved over to pass the car in front of them, she turned back face him.
“Ben, I just...”
Before she could continue, a crash came from just behind her. As the airbags erupted in front of them, she could just see the world spinning around. With the second roll of the car, her head slammed into the window and everything went dark.
When Rilynne opened her eyes, she didn’t think, didn’t move. She just sat staring at the shattered car around her as tears started rolling down her face. She could hear the sound of him groaning as the car crumpled around them over and over in her head. As much as she tried, she just couldn’t help but feel that it was the last time she would ever hear him. Even if Matthews was right and the person who hit them needed him for something, she couldn’t see them keeping him alive when they were finished. It had already been five days. Despite trying as hard as she could to keep her hopes up, it was hard to picture them holding on to him for this long.
“Did you remember anything?” Matthews said through the broken driver’s side window.
Rilynne nodded, but didn’t look toward him. She hadn’t heard him come back down and wondered briefly how long he had been standing there watching her. It was the least of her worries, though. In that moment, she didn’t care. Nothing mattered, not even her secret being discovered, more than finding her husband.
Without waiting for her to elaborate, Matthews walked around the car and pulled her door open. Rilynne didn’t fight when he reached in and pulled her out. When her feet touched the ground, she realized they couldn’t support her. Matthews didn’t hesitate to step in, as he braced her as they walked slowly back up the hill.
As soon as her feet touched the hard road, she suddenly felt her strength build.
“There was a car driving slowly in front of us with its flashers on,” she said. “I wasn’t paying attention to it; I can’t even tell you what it looked like. We were fighting about something, but I don’t remember what it was. Something was going on that I told him needed to be taken care of. I just remember being worried about it and angry he’d kept it from me. Then the car slammed into us as we attempted to go around it. I remember rolling down the hill, and then everything went dark.”
“Could the thing you were arguing about have had something to do with him being taken?” he asked.
“Maybe,” she replied, watching the team driving down the road toward them. “It would be too much of a coincidence if it wasn’t. I’m pretty sure I found out about it that morning before we left to run our errands, so it must be somehow connected.”
After ensuring she had her footing, Matthews released her and walked to greet them. Rilynne walked slowly back down the road and leaned against the front of his car while she watched everyone bustling around. The forensic team and half the detectives went down to what was left of Ben’s black SUV. The others walked up and down the road looking for any trace of the car that hit them.
Part of her wanted to help them, to try to be useful, but she couldn’t move. The gravity of the week’s event was too much for her to push through. It felt like the crushed car was sitting on top of her, and as hard as she struggled, she couldn’t get out from under it.
“Let me take you home,” Matthews said from somewhere behind her. She turned and saw him walking up to the car, the flashing red and blue light illuminating his face. She hadn’t realized the sun had sunk beneath the trees.
Rilynne shook her head without even considering his offer. “I’m staying here,” she said firmly. “Anything they find can trigger a memory that could help to make sense of this. I’m not going to risk missing out on that. Besides, I’m not overexerting myself just sitting here. It would be far more stressful for me to be sitting at home waiting for someone to call with information.”
He glared stubbornly down at her, but he didn’t say a word. After a few moments, though, he just nodded and leaned against the hood next to her. “If you have another episode like you did when we got here, I’m taking you to the hospital. You can argue all you want, but I’m not going to let you kill yourself. I’ll handcuff you if I have to. We will get him back, but he won’t ever forgive me if I let you sacrifice yourself to do it.”
She nodded, knowing it wasn’t a fight she could win.
“What can you tell me about the girl?” Rilynne asked as she watched the black body bag being lifted up the hill and placed gently on an awaiting stretcher. Dr. Andrews nodded and motioned for them to put her in the back of the awaiting van before climbing in himself. “If I had her blood on my clothes, she must have some connection to what happened to us. Could she have been in on it?”
Matthews shrugged. “It’s possible, but I would consider it less likely than her just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Judging by her clothes, I’d say she was probably jogging down the road and either saw what happened or came up shortly after. At some point, it appears she was shot in the head, then dragged out to where we found her.”
Rilynne pulled her eyes off the coroner’s van and looked at Matthews. “With my gun?” she asked.
He shrugged again. “We won’t know until ballistics look at the round.”
“Did...” she hesitated, finding it hard to force the thought out. “Did I shoot her?”
The long pause that followed her question made it clear that the thought had also crossed his mind.
“Where was her blood found on my clothes?” she asked. “Was it cast off that could have occurred if I was standing in front of her when she was shot?”
“There was a spray found on both your shirt and shorts,” he answered, though it was clear he didn’t want to. “But your gun hasn’t been found, which would suggest it was taken by the person who took Ben. The likely scenario is she witnessed something she shouldn’t have and he killed her. That would also explain how she made it so deep into the woods. In the state you were in when you were found, I don’t think you would have been able to move her that far.”
“What if I woke up confused and she was there?” Rilynne asked. “I could h
ave mistakenly thought she was trying to hurt me and shot her.”
Matthews quickly shook his head. “If that had been the case, you wouldn’t have moved the body. That was done with the purpose of hiding it. I just can’t believe that’s something you would have done, no matter how confused or scared you were. We won’t have a clear picture of what happened until we get the report back on the car, but if I had to guess, I’d say she was standing near you when the person who ran you off the road shot her. Since you were left alive, I’m guessing you were probably still in your seat and she was outside your window. With the blood on your head, it’s possible he thought you were killed in the accident. Even if you weren’t, you were unconscious and didn’t see anything.”
“That sounds like a lot of speculations,” she said, though she couldn’t find much to argue with.
“For now, that’s all we really have.”
Neither of them spoke again as they sat back and watched everyone moving about. Rilynne let her mind wonder, picturing what her future would hold if they proved she was responsible for shooting the woman they’d found, or what it would be like if Ben was really gone forever. While she ran over several scenarios, not a one had a happy ending.
When the street had been cleared and the tow truck pulled the SUV out of the woods and drove it to the garage at the station, Rilynne finally conceited to Matthews’ request to leave. She didn’t, however, let him take her home.
“You don’t need to be here,” he said when they walked into the station fifteen minutes later. “Most of the auto shops are closed for the night, so we won’t be able to look into any cars that were dropped off for repair until morning. They’re looking over all of the evidence collected to see if they can find anything, but there isn’t going to be anything to do here tonight.”
“I’m not leaving,” she said firmly. She swept quickly through the lobby and pressed the button on for the elevator before turning back to face him. “We lost days because I couldn’t remember what happened. I can’t just sit at home and do nothing while he spends even more time out there. We have no idea who took him or why. If I’m going to get the rest of my memories back, I have to be here.”
