by Vakey, Jenn
She wasn’t completely sold on the idea, but she didn’t really see any other option at the moment. She still couldn’t believe any of this was actually happening. Twice on the drive to the auto shop she closed her eyes, hoping it would all have been a dream when she opened them again.
As her face had been all over the news, Rilynne stayed in the car while Ben made the arrangements. In a matter of minutes, he walked back out with a new set of keys. “Let’s go,” he said, pulling the bags out of the car and carrying them to an SUV sitting just a few spaces over. She was surprised at just how smoothly the changeover had been.
“We’ll park in one of the lots off of the main road that campers use,” he said as they drove out of town. “From there, we’ll just hike to the cave. It will take us about an hour, but it’s the best shot we’ve got at getting in and out without being seen.”
Rilynne nodded, trusting his knowledge of the area. He seemed oddly composed given the situation. She was glad, because she wasn’t. Her head was still spinning when the car stopped twenty minutes later.
She climbed out and pulled her pack on before following Ben into the woods. He had been surprisingly accurate with his approximation, because they came upon the cave almost exactly an hour later.
“This is the same one we came to last year,” she stated, looking around curiously.
Ben shrugged and grinned. “I thought it would be fitting. We got lost out here on accident, so why not get lost on purpose?”
Rilynne laughed. For a split second, she was able to forget about what was waiting for them back in town. It felt good. She dropped her pack down at the mouth of the cave and walked in to have a look around. It was clear by the lack of empty beer bottles that local kids were no longer using the cave for drinking, or at least hadn’t since they had been there last.
After making a complete round, she walked back out to find Ben.
“What are you doing?” she asked. He was sitting in the middle of the clearing, staring blankly out at the woods surrounding them. He didn’t even move until she sat down next to him.
“I’m letting everything finally sink in,” he admitted.
She reached out and set her hand on his shoulder. When she did, he pulled his gaze away from the trees and looked at her. “You don’t have to do this,” she said. “You can just go back and say you saw me off this morning and as far as you know, I’m on the way to my mom’s house.”
He grinned and dropped his chin down on her hand. “Are you kidding? You wouldn’t make it a day out here without me. You would get lost and accidentally wonder straight into the police station.”
Rilynne laughed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, hush,” she said. “Just promise me when the time comes that you’ve had enough, you will go back. I would never forgive myself if you lost everything because of me.”
“Now who’s the one being funny?” he joked. “You’re going to have this thing solved and be back in your own bed by tomorrow.”
Rilynne grinned, but she wasn’t convinced. Not only had she not been able to see anything relevant, she knew it was going to be an uphill battle even if she did. There was so much evidence stacked up against her that she would have to have absolute proof to forgo being arrested. One of her hunches wouldn’t suffice this time.
“I don’t suppose you grabbed anything for breakfast,” she said, glancing toward the packs on the ground. “I was going to suggest stopping for breakfast tacos, but that seemed a little out of the question.”
He laughed and draped his arm around her shoulders. “I could just see it now,” he said, waving his other hand out in front of them. “Fugitive found and captured after ordering breakfast tacos from a drive thru. There would be no living that one down, even after your name was cleared.”
She dropped her head down on his shoulder and laughed.
“So I was thinking about it,” she said a few moments later. “Something else must have turned up overnight. I don’t think they would have issued an arrest warrant just with what they had.”
Ben didn’t seem nearly as convinced. “You didn’t see Greene yesterday after you left. She was furious. I honestly don’t think it would have taken more than the news story to push her over the edge.”
“This is why I hate politics,” she groaned. “I can almost guarantee that if the election wasn’t coming up, she wouldn’t be nearly as determined to pin this on me as quickly as possible. You should have seen her when you were accused. She wanted to keep it as quiet as possible and was very hopeful that you would be found innocent.” She paused for a moment, thinking back to Greene’s reaction. “Maybe she just has a little thing for you. It would explain why she now has it out for me.”
Ben gave her a look that told her he thought the idea was ridiculous. The more she thought about it, though, she wasn’t so sure.
“Maybe she did it,” he popped off, pulling her attention back to him. After he did, he seemed to actually be considering the option. “I can’t think of a better way to win the hearts of all those voters than by bringing down a corrupt cop.”
“She may really love her job, but I doubt she would actually kill for it,” Rilynne said. “Besides, you remember how annoyed she was with the fallout from Nicole. I don’t think she would ever do anything to intentionally go through that again. She’s still trying to find ways to put the criminals we were forced to release back behind bars. She would be facing far more backlash than any benefit that could possibly come.”
“That’s true. Think of how many people would have to be released if you were arrested,” he said.
“I bet Cyndi Lewis would try to get released. Jared would be furious!”
Ben laughed and nodded. “That one case alone would force her into retirement. Lewis would go off on the mayor, who would in turn take it out on Greene. She’s one scary woman when she wants to be, but even she wouldn’t last a minute against the mayor. I’ve seen Reed leave full grown men on the verge of tears.”
“You know the mayor?” she asked, not trying to hide the shock in her voice. “I mean, I know you’ve met since he’s given you several awards, but you actually know him?”
“Oh yeah,” he said nonchalantly. “Reed and I go way back. You remember that I worked in the hospital in high school?” Rilynne nodded. “Well, Reed was one of the surgeons I liked to watch. He was fantastic. After a few weeks, he kind of took me under his wing. He would tell me every time he had a really interesting surgery, and never let anyone tell me I couldn’t sit in the observation room and watch. He also helped me get a job as a caddy at the golf course across town.”
“Wow,” she replied. She hadn’t really thought of the mayor outside of his current position. “How did he go from skilled surgeon to mayor? That’s not exactly a step up as far as pay goes.”
“About six years ago he was in a really bad accident and almost lost his hand. While they were able to save it, he lost a good deal of function. I was actually there when they told him. I had been called out to the scene because the other driver took off,” he explained. “Well, he decided that he wasn’t going to be satisfied being a surgeon if he couldn’t work at the level he was used to, so he decided to find something else he could do. Lucky for us, it just happened to have been an election year. I actually worked on his campaign. It was a landslide. He was very popular, even back then. He always went above and beyond to do everything he could for his patients, and people appreciated it.”
“Is he up for reelection this year, also?” she asked. She hated to admit it, but she had never been one for following local politics. She knew she really should, as it often affected her directly, but she always had so many other things going on. This last year had been no different.
“Yes, but he’s running unopposed. He’s really done a lot for Addison Valley since he took office.”
“So that’s how you manage to pull invites to big events, isn’t it?” she asked, eyeing him curiously. “You know all the right people in town.”
He shrugg
ed. “What can I say? I pick my friends well.”
Rilynne knew he was sidestepping her question, but she decided to let it go. Despite trying on several occasions, she still had not managed to find out how he had received an invite to the large party the Lewis’ had thrown a couple months before. At this point, she couldn’t decide if Ben truly didn’t want to tell her, or if he was enjoying making her squirm.
“So is there anyone in Addison Valley you don’t know?” she asked.
He turned toward her with an impish grin. “I don’t know anyone who would want to frame you for murder.”
“Well, you’re a big help. I was hoping you would know exactly who was after me so all I would need to do is use my handy detective skills to find some evidence.”
“I think you’ve got that a little backwards,” he chuckled. “You use your skills to detect who the person is, and I worry about collecting the evidence.”
“Oh that’s right,” she said on a long breath. They both laughed. “So how exactly are we supposed to find a suspect out here in the woods?” she asked. “We don’t even have access to the internet, or any of the case information.”
“We’ll just have to make do,” he said. “We don’t need the internet or case files to find out who’s doing this. The whole case is surrounded around you. You’re our clue.”
“But I don’t want to be a clue,” she stated.
Ben shot her an amused glance before lying back on the ground. “You know your life better than anyone else does,” he said. “So let’s figure this out. Think outside the box. Who would want to see you behind bars? It doesn’t even have to be a big reason. The smallest things can make people snap.”
“So we need to make a list of everyone I’ve angered. That’s not going to be easy. My job leaves me with quite a few resentful people,” she stated.
“They’re looking into all of your cases at the station,” said Ben. “We need to look at anyone else.”
She let out a deep sigh and dropped back next to him. “All right,” she said. “Where should I start?”
Ben reached back and pulled his pack toward them. After digging through the front pocket, he pulled out a small notebook and a pen. “We can start with when you moved here,” he said. “Then we can go back further if we need to.”
“Well, let’s see…” she thought back to her first few months in town. “I started working immediately after moving here. I didn’t really do anything other than work at first. It wasn’t until I met you and Nicole that I even started to go out.”
“Well, when you did start going out, did you make any enemies? Or maybe turn someone down who was interested in you?” He glanced over at her, but she kept her eyes on the sky above.
“Nope,” she said, trying hard to keep the grin off of her face. “Nicole had been insistent on getting me to start dating, but you were the only guy in my life at the time.”
He grinned and looked back to the paper. “What about anyone who knew Nicole. You talked to her friends; would any of them have been angry after she was killed?”
“No,” she said confidently. “They were more upset with her than anyone else. There’s Hartley, though. He and his fiancé both held a lot of resentment toward me for not stopping her before he was taken.”
“They moved out of Addison Valley,” Ben said, although he still added the names to the list. “I heard they received an anonymous check for a million dollars and packed up and left.”
Her head shot toward him. “Seriously?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, there was talk about them trying to sue the department, but they didn’t have a case. Right after every lawyer they tried to hire turned them down, someone slid a check under their door.”
“Wow,” she said. “I wonder who sent it.”
“Who knows,” he stated. “Maybe it was Jared Lewis. He certainly has enough money for it.”
Rilynne was still thinking in amazement about it when Ben elbowed her several minutes later.
“Did you hear me?” he asked. She shook her head. “What about the two guys at the bar?” he asked again. “The ones that tried to jump you after that news story about Hartley being alive.”
“You mean the ones you took care of for me?” she asked with a grin before shaking her head. “With how high strung the case had everyone, they didn’t get anything more than some community service hours. I actually went to their court dates and spoke out for them.”
“Really?” He seemed surprised.
“Well, I figured they had enough embarrassment after the night was over. They were both pretty big guys, and you knocked one out in a single punch and dropped the other down to his knees.”
Ben laughed and nodded, seemingly content with her decision. “Well, who else can you think of?”
“Nancy,” she said bluntly. “The maid from the Lewis manor.”
“I thought we had heard the last of her after she approached me last month,” he said. Rilynne’s eyes shot back to him. He hadn’t told her he had an encounter with Nancy after the night she made a scene in Travis Bar. “It was nothing, really,” he said when he saw the look on her face. “I was doing some shopping and she came up to me. It took me a minute at first to even remember who she was. I have to admit, the entire encounter was a little amusing. She asked about you and said you and the chauffeur Danny were currently an item.
“After that she tried to transition the conversation over to me and the type of work I did. My attention was on the purchase I was in the middle of, so I pretty much just nodded every few seconds. Before long, though, I started to get a little annoyed,” he admitted, looking back to the notebook in his hands.
“What did you say to her?” she asked, staring wide-eyed at him.
“She started talking about you and that guy again, so I told her there wasn’t anything going on between the two of you and there never had been. I went on to tell her that you and I were together, and had been long before you even took the case.” He turned and looked her in the eye with a grin that warmed her from the inside. “You should have seen her,” he added. “I thought she was going to have a fit right there in the store.”
“Better add her to the list,” Rilynne chuckled. Ben nodded in agreement and started writing.
“I can’t believe she actually went up to you,” she said after a few moments. She had known that Nancy was the type to become attached to men, perhaps to the point of obsession, but she really didn’t see her walking up to Ben. At least not after that night in the bar. “And why didn’t you tell me?”
He shrugged and laughed. “I just forgot. It happened on one of those days where so much is going on, you just forget about anything unimportant by the time you get home.”
Rilynne knew all about those days. She had them more often than she cared to count.
“I have something important to ask you,” she said moments later. The smile on Ben’s face waned as he rolled onto his side and looked into her eyes. She let out a low sigh and took him by the hand. “Now that we’re on the run, can we get rid of the silly idea of throwing me a birthday party?”
Ben let out a loud groan and dropped back onto his back. “Not a chance,” he said stubbornly.
They spent the better part of the day picking through Rilynne’s life, writing down anyone who could have possibly held a grudge against her. By the time they were finished, they had a surprisingly long list.
“I don’t even think my list would be half this long,” Ben said. He closed the notebook and tossed it back toward the packs. “I can’t believe you cut that same woman off almost every day on the way to work.”
“Really? You can’t?” Rilynne chuckled. “You’ve been with me on occasion in the morning when I’ve done it. If I waited for her to get in front of me, it would take me an extra twenty minutes just to get to work. I try to time it where I can pull out of my driveway before she’s even near my house, but that doesn’t actually happen often. It’s not like she’s going to hit me when I pull out in f
ront of her. I’ve seen kids walking down the sidewalk move faster than she does.”
Their laugher was quickly interrupted a roll of thunder coming from behind them. Ben looked behind them and grimaced before turning back to Rilynne.
“We need to get everything in the cave,” he said. “Looks like a storm is moving in.”
Rilynne groaned and pushed herself up. “I’m glad you suggested the cave then. It would have been miserable if we were just out in the woods during a storm,” she said. She grabbed the packs and dragged them to the back of the cave. When she went back out, she found Ben climbing up the nearest tree. She chuckled and shook her head. She had forgotten just how good he was at doing it.
“I still say you move like a monkey,” she said when he dropped back down a few minutes later. “What were you doing up there?”
“Looking at the storm clouds,” he said, dusting his charcoal gray shirt off. “We have maybe ten minutes before it hits. It looks like it might last through the night, though.”
Rilynne looked up at him bewilderedly. “So are you a meteorologist now, too?”
He shrugged and threw her a causal grin. “I grew up around tornados,” he said. “I learned how to judge the weather. It’s not a for sure thing,” he admitted. “But I’m not too bad at it.”
Rilynne checked her watch before they walked into the cave. Sure enough, rain started to pelt down on them ten minutes later. When she gave him an impressed look, he just leaned back and smiled as he closed his eyes.
With the wind blowing from behind them, the cave remained surprisingly dry. The sound of the storm around them was incredibly relaxing. Rilynne even found herself drifting off a few times as they lie there talking. If they hadn’t been on the run, she would have actually considered it a pretty romantic outing.
Just before nightfall, the rain finally died down.
“Like I said,” Ben stated, looking out at the sky above. “Not an exact science.”
“It’s a shame,” she said. She stood up and walked across the cave to join him. “I was actually looking forward to it raining through the night. It would have been a nice sound to fall asleep to.”
