by Jenn Vakey
She waited until he pulled away to answer. “Okay,” she said in agreement.
He smiled at her and turned to retrieve his box. “I’ll see you tomorrow night then,” he said as he walked towards the back of the room, allowing his arm to brush tenderly against hers as he passed.
Rilynne found it very hard to concentrate on the work laid out in front of her. Between Ben and the commendation, she really just wanted to go for a long run to clear her head. She was just about to get up when Detective Wilcome walked towards her.
“So, we have decided to reconsider the rule that has given us so much trouble,” he said as he sat on the corner of her desk. It was amazing how different he looked. The circles under his eyes were gone, and his face seemed more full of life. He was starting to look more like the man Rilynne had seen doing the interview when the case started.
“Oh yeah?” she asked, glancing quickly over at Ben and back, hoping Wilcome had not noticed.
“We had a good, long talk about it last night, and decided the best course of action moving forward would be to abolish it. That is not to say that certain behaviors would not be frowned upon, but provided there was no interference with the work, we would leave it up to the discretion of the members of our department.” He gave her a quick smile before walking back to his desk. Rilynne swore she heard him humming as he went.
She flicked her eyes back to Ben. If only it were that easy, she said to herself.
DECEPTION WITH MURDER
Book #2 in the Rilynne Evans Mystery series
by Jenn Vakey
Chapter One
“Don’t get me wrong,” Ben Davis said while setting the large box down. “It’s a really great house, but what was the big hurry to move out of your apartment? You still had eight months left on your lease.”
“I don’t suppose saying it just wasn’t big enough would be a sufficient answer?” Rilynne asked with a hopeful tone.
“Well, since you spend all of your time at work, I’m going to have to say no.”
Rilynne smiled and sat down on the chair she had just carried in. “Well,” she said. “It was worth a try. The truth is, I just couldn’t take it there anymore. Between the looks from Hartley and still feeling violated, I just don’t feel comfortable there anymore. And don’t even get me started about the closet.”
Rilynne Evans moved to Addison Valley four months before in search of a serial killer. Between being a skilled profiler and her visions, she had been eager to get involved. After Derek Hartley, the man living in the apartment above hers, was abducted by the perpetrator and escaped, they learned the killer was none other than Nicole Benson, a member of their own department. Although Derek Hartley managed to escape with his life, he still suffered a leg amputation. Because Rilynne had developed a close friendship with Nicole, he held a great deal of resentment towards her, which he did not hide when their paths crossed.
“Okay, I can understand still feeling violated after Nicole broke into your apartment, but why would you have issues with your closet?” he asked with a touch of amusement. “She built the shrine in her closet, not yours.”
Nicole had been in love with Ben’s older brother Justin. After his passing, she built a shrine to him behind a secret panel in the back of her closet.
“Yeah, but since the apartments have the exact same layout, I couldn’t walk into my closet without thinking about it,” she explained stepping back out into the yard.
Ben rolled his eyes and walked past her towards the moving truck. The cool October breeze hit his shaggy, dirty blonde hair making it dance around his face. As it flew out of his eyes, she could just make out the half-inch scar above his left eyebrow where Nicole had attacked him. The twinge of guilt she felt at the sight of it was quickly forgotten as the sweet smell of peaches floated after him towards her.
Rilynne had found a quaint two-bedroom house that backed up to the woods surrounding Addison Valley. Despite having a giant kitchen and a whirlpool bathtub that could easily sit four people, her favorite thing was that she only had to take three steps past her back gate before stepping through the tree line. It would make her early morning jogs convenient.
“So is anyone else coming to help?” he asked, hauling a particularly heavy looking box.
“What, you don’t want to spend the entire day over here getting all sweaty?” she asked. The words had just left her tongue when she felt her cheeks growing warm. Ben seemed to have noticed it, because he just flashed his playful smile as he carried the box past her.
“Good one,” she said quietly to herself. Over the past few months, Rilynne and Ben had started to grow very close. Feelings that were only compounded when she allowed herself to be abducted by a known serial killer in order to save his life. Although the department had lifted the zero-fraternization rule, Rilynne still knew that she could not pursue anything further than friendship.
She had just made it through the front door with a box of pillows when her phone started to ring. “It’s Matthews,” she said. “Knowing him, he’s probably lost.”
“Hey,” she said balancing the phone on her shoulder, “Are you having trouble finding the place?” She placed the box down on the coffee table. “Okay, see you in twenty,” she said hanging up the phone.
“Is he on his way?” Ben asked.
“No, change of plans actually,” she said in an irritated tone. “Apparently the news report didn’t go out letting the criminals know that today was supposed to be my day off, and not to murder anyone until tomorrow.”
“Shame on them,” he joked. “So what are you going to do? Aren’t you supposed to have the moving truck back tonight?”
She grabbed a box off of the dining room floor labeled ‘work clothes’ and pulled it open. “I’ll just have to take it back a day late. It’s not a big deal,” she said. “I’m going to go change and I’ll walk out with you.”
It was hard to maneuver around her bedroom. Between the disassembled pieces of her bed and dresser, and the boxes stacked halfway to the ceiling, she had just enough space to squeeze through to get to her bathroom. When she changed and walked back out, she was surprised to see Ben still hard at work.
“Hey, Tylers just called and said that he’s about ten minutes away. I’m going to stay here and wait for him so we can get the heavy stuff out of the truck since you won’t be able to get it yourself. I’ll lock up when we are done, if that’s okay with you,” he said.
She was slightly taken aback by his offer. “You don’t have to do that. I’m sure you have better things to do on your day off.”
“Let’s see,” he said, putting on his best thinking face. “No, not really. Besides, it saves you the trouble of having to look for someone to help you tomorrow.”
“Thanks,” she said with a smile as she reached for her purse. “There’s a key on the kitchen counter, and the keys to the truck are around here somewhere. The next time we go out, drinks are on me.”
She gave him one last heartfelt smile before rushing to her car.
Rilynne was not used to driving to work. Her apartment had been only three blocks from the station, so she would run whenever the weather permitted it. Now she was just over two miles away.
Detective Todd Matthews had just walked out of the station when she stepped out of her car. After the Pirate Killer case was closed, nearly half of the detectives in the unit transferred to other squads, leaving only nine homicide detectives including Detective Patrick Wilcome, head homicide detective. Rilynne and Matthews had worked so well together on the case that Detective Wilcome made them partners.
“Let’s go,” Detective Matthews said. She could tell by the look on his face that things were more serious then he had said on the phone. Before she could ask, he continued. “We just got the ID back on the victim. He is an undercover cop.”
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
>
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Excerpt
