Found With Murder

by Jenn Vakey

  Rilynne was missing something. Despite the determined look on Elise's face, she didn't see how this had anything to do with Kim. When she didn't react, Elise continued.

  “There were several signs that she’d been restrained prior to her death. If I had to guess,” she paused and let out an unsteady breath, “I would say she was held for close to ten years.”

  “Meaning she was taken as a young girl,” Rilynne finished. Her heart sank. The reason for Elise’s apprehension was now clear.

  Elise nodded. “After looking at the insects collected from the body, I'm confident that our Jane Doe was killed sometime late Friday.”

  “The day before Kim was taken.” Rilynne closed her eyes and let out a soft groan. She tried to think about the girl and concentrated on the scene where she was found, but nothing came. When she opened her eyes again, she found her sister staring at her desk. “Keep this as quiet as possible,” Rilynne instructed. “Only tell people who need to know. I don't want this getting back to Lori before we have a chance to look into it.”

  Elise nodded and turned her attention back to the reports.

  Rilynne’s head was in a fog as she made her way back down to the office. She thought back to the immense joy the man had felt when he took Kim. There was no doubt in her mind that it could have been due to the fact that he’d found a replacement for the girl he’d lost. While such a situation would increase the chance of Kim being found alive, such an encounter would inevitably leave her emotionally scarred.

  She stood in the doorway and looked around the homicide office, trying to decide who to entrust with the new lead. While Matthews was her first choice, she decided against it. He would undoubtedly perform a thorough investigation, but she felt it might be too much for him to take. He was already having a hard enough time not thinking about his own children going through the same horrific thing. Especially with Katy's due day so near.

  “LaShad,” she called out. When he looked up from his desk, she pointed to the conference room.

  He nodded and followed her in.

  “You’ve heard about the body from last night, right?” she asked.

  He appeared confused but nodded again. “I was just about to go downstairs and talk to Dr. Andrews about it. My main priority, of course, is still to find Sibrian's little girl,” he said. He was concerned; she could see it on his face.

  She raised her hand to dismiss it. “Elise found evidence that shows she's been held since she was a child. With her death just the day before Kim was taken, I think it's an avenue we need to look into,” she said. His jaw dropped. “I need you to do me a favor, though, and keep this as quiet as you can. Lori’s already in a panic after being informed the ransom wasn't picked up. I don't want her to hear about this, especially from the news.”

  “We sealed the leak,” he said with an impish smirk.

  Rilynne couldn't help but grin herself. After someone in the department leaked to the press that she was the prime suspect in a murder, tracking the source become a priority in the homicide unit. It didn't take long for Wilcome's plan to play out and the man, Officer Ross, to be identified. As a favor to both Rilynne and Ben, Wilcome agreed to hold off on taking action until after Ben could exact a little justice of his own.

  LaShad, head of the department boxing team, approached Ross to join. In his first match, with the entire homicide unit present, he was paired up against Ben.

  Rilynne had expected it to be over long before it was. Ben was known for knocking people out with a single, well placed punch. Between the bad blood they already had between them and the effects the news report had on Rilynne, though, Ben drew it out. The match actually progressed to the fifth round before Ben had enough and hit Ross with an upper cut that left him unconscious on the floor. A few days after that, Ross was brought in front of the disciplinary board and let go.

  “That doesn't mean another one won't pop up. Though I imagine after Ross' outburst in the lobby about being intentionally paired with Ben as punishment, people might think twice,” she said. “But back to the point…”

  “Right,” he said. The mood in the room instantly dropped. “I'll get on it. Is Evans… the other Evans, handing everything?”

  Rilynne leaned against the table and nodded. “I know everyone is putting all of their attention into finding Kim, but I think this case needs to be really looked into.”

  He gave her a reassuring smile and pushed the door open.

  Rilynne watched him walk out, but didn't follow. Instead, she shut the door and turned off the lights before dropping down into a chair in the corner. As she let out a slow, calming breath, she closed her eyes and let everything around her dissolve away.

  “There was the dark bedroom and the rope,” she muttered softly to herself. “And the frightened young girl.” She thought back over everything she had seen or dreamt of over the last few days. She hadn’t thought much of random scenes at the time, seeing them as nothing more than every day nightmares, but now they were so much more.

  It wasn’t until she really thought about it that she realized the young voice had been the same in both dreams.

  She concentrated hard on the terror the girl had felt and the way she sounded when she begged for him to make the fog stop. Then she thought about how relieved she’d felt when he took option three off the table. She didn’t dare to think of what it could be, but she could feel how much it terrified her.

  Rilynne felt herself shutter at the thought of it, but she didn’t let it break her concentration. She was determined to see something, no matter how hard she had to try.

  They came as just glimpses, each more forced than the one before. The dark room she had seen before. A large cabinet filled with ropes, chains, and leather straps. She felt the air leave her lungs as she struggled to maintain her focus. It took nearly all of the energy she could muster, but she saw one last flash. The young girl in the yellow dress, a bucket at her side, was scrubbing a dark stain off of the bedroom floor.

  Rilynne bent over in her seat from both exhaustion and disgust. Her insides twisted. She pulled her hands up over her face as she tried to keep from being ill. She’d just managed to settle her stomach when she heard the door open.

  “What are you doing in here?” Ben crouched down in front of her.

  She shrugged and shook her head. Before she could stop them, tears started rolling down her face. She’d been holding everything in so she could be strong for those counting on her. This was too much, though. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't be brave anymore.

  He rolled a chair up and sat down in front of her, pulling her knees between his. She thought he was going to say something in an attempt to comfort her, but he didn't. He slid his hands gently up her legs and sat with her quietly. She was grateful. Though she was sure he would be able to ease her worries, she just wanted to cry.

  So she did.

  * * *

  “I didn’t expect to see you in today,” Rilynne said when Wilcome walked past her desk.

  He stopped and turned to face her. “I needed to get out for a little while. Sibrian has relaxed a bit after she slept, so I thought it was safe to leave her with her fiancé for a few hours. Jerkins went home to see his wife and kids, but he’s only a few blocks away if anything happens.”

  “How did she take it when you told her about the ransom?” she asked. She had considered going over after she woke up to be there when Lori was told, but it was more than she could take.

  “As well as can be expected. She had returned to her spot on the couch by the time I left,” he said. “I’m assuming you coached her fiancé last night, because he did a surprisingly good job at keeping her calm.”

  She nodded. “He pulled Ben and I out last night and insisted I tell him everything that was going on. We told him the gist, and then I told him the best way to go about explaining things when Lori was told. I must admit, he’s handling things better than I would have expected. He’s really stepped up.”

  “He’s
not the only one,” Wilcome said. He raised an eyebrow and looked at her curiously. She didn’t need to ask for clarification to know exactly what he was talking about.

  “Yes, well...” she started, unsure exactly how to continue. “I guess situations like this really bring out the best in all of us. Yourself not excluded.”

  “I have to say your future husband saved me a good deal of grief with his selfless offer,” he said. He folded his arms in front of him and leaned back against the desk next to hers. “Sherri would have understood, but I shudder to think what her initial reaction would have been.”

  Rilynne chuckled. She found it amusing that both Matthews and Wilcome seemed to fear their wives, even though they were two of the sweetest women she had ever met. “I can only imagine,” she said. “She would have definitely been shocked.”

  He seemed to want to ask her about the shock she’d received, but after a few moments, he just looked away. “I still can’t believe the ransom wasn’t picked up,” he said.

  “I should have known something was off when that call came in,” Rilynne said. “The whole thing was odd, starting with the abnormally large ransom demand. I’ve heard of abductors asking for a little more than what the family could afford, but that was an absurd amount. There’s no way he could have thought Lori had that kind of money. Then again, people can surprise you when it comes to how much they have put away.”

  He smirked but didn’t respond. “So when she said 'daddy'-” Wilcome started.

  “Kim's been calling Joe her daddy since they got engaged,” Rilynne explained. She paused and thought back to the conversation. Something about it didn't feel right. She’d noticed it during the call, but had put it out of her mind after their discussion about the ransom. Now that she thought back, though, she was sure she had missed something.

  “I noticed it, too,” Wilcome said. She looked up and found him studying her face. “He was angry after Kim spoke. Something she said didn't make him happy.”

  “Daddy,” she said after running through the conversation in her head. “She called Joe 'my daddy' which was when he took the phone back.”

  He moved to the chair and nodded. “You spoke with the biological father,” he said. “Are you sure he couldn't have been in the area when she was taken?”

  “He was at work at the time with three solid alibis,” she replied. “That doesn't mean he couldn't have sent someone else to take her.” She hesitated for a moment. “I honestly don't think he was involved, though. He appeared genuinely shocked when we spoke. Now, that doesn't mean a member of his family isn't behind it.”

  Wilcome nodded and pulled out his phone. “We know a man took her, but that doesn't mean a woman wasn't calling all the shots.”

  “Maloy,” Rilynne jumped in. Wilcome looked confused as he slowly lowered his phone. Rilynne glanced around to make sure no one was listening and continued. “Brett Maloy was stalking Lori, which was one of the main reasons she moved here. Ben and I found a pile of cigarette butts on the edge of her front yard. Summers is running them now, but we were able to confirm he was on a flight to San Antonio just days before Kim was taken.”

  “And as a stalker, he would become upset if Kim referred to another man as her father,” he stepped in. “He wants them to be a family.” He picked the phone back up and started dialing. Before holding it to his ear, he said, “Find him.”

  When she nodded, Wilcome stood and walked to his desk in the corner.

  Rilynne closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. She tried to concentrate on Maloy, but she realized she had never actually seen his face. The only vision she’d had of him was from his perspective, and she hadn’t been in the office since she asked Matthews to pull up his file. She considered pulling it up herself so she could have more to work with but decided against it. Instead, she just concentrated on what she already knew. It only took matter of moments.

  She was standing behind a tree, Lori’s house just visible behind it. Through the window, she could see Lori staring out blankly into the yard. She looked so sad. She wanted to go up and hold her, to let her know that everything was going to be all right, but something stopped her. There were voices coming down the sidewalk toward her. With one last fleeting look at Lori, she turned and walked toward the voices.

  The air left her lungs as her eyes opened. It had been her and Ben walking to Lori’s house. They had walked right past him. She couldn’t believe she’d been so close without knowing it was him. If he had Kim and she let him walk right by her, she would never be able to forgive herself.

  “How’s Sibrian?” Matthews asked as he walked in behind her. He looked tired. If she had to guess, she would say he didn’t get any sleep the night before.

  “She’s about as you would expect,” she said. “She was much better after getting to talk to Kim yesterday, but she apparently went back to where she was before after the ransom call didn’t come in. How’s Katy? You look exhausted.”

  “I am, though for once it’s not because of Katy,” he explained. “She actually had a pretty restful night, which was surprising. Usually either one or both of the babies will get the hiccups around two in the morning and wake her up. On average, she’s been getting up close to a dozen times a night for the last month or so. I think she was only up twice after I got home last night.”

  Rilynne grabbed a bottle of water out of her desk and unscrewed the cap. “So if Katy didn’t keep you up, why does it look like you’ve been run over by a truck?”

  He groaned and glanced at himself in the mirror hanging on the wall next to him before answering. “I camped out in that office building until midnight before heading down to pick up the ransom bag. Then I had to make sure it was taken care of before heading home, and by then I was too wired to sleep. After a couple hours of trying, I finally gave up and started combing over the files again.”

  “Where’s the money now?” she asked. She hadn’t considered what would happen to it after the kidnapper failed to take it.

  He eyed her curiously but seemed too tired to put much thought into whatever was going through his mind. “Ben said to just keep it in the evidence lockup until we find Kim. That way it’s on hand if we should need it again. I offered to drop it off at your place on my way home, but I don’t think he was too keen on the idea of having it lying around. It would make you a target for anyone who wanted it.”

  Ben must have already talked to him about the big reveal. She was sure that if he had been more rested, he would have definitely enjoyed probing the topic to receive a reaction. More than just having good gossip to share with his wife, he loved to get a rise out of her whenever he could.

  “Have you found anything on Maloy?” she asked, trying to shift the subject before he found the energy to pursue it.

  He shook his head. “I only made it halfway through the list of places he could be staying in town before I got called out for the ransom drop. I’ll start on the rest now. I’ve already sent his picture out to each of them; I just need to call and follow up. Do you know if they were able to pull anything off the coins from the payphone?”

  “Luckily the phone had been emptied just a few days ago, so the only coins in it belonged to our kidnapper. The prints are being run through every database, but so far nothing has turned up. Wooldridge is working on getting Maloy’s prints for us to compare them to,” she explained. “He’s been surprisingly good at avoiding arrest, though, so they aren’t in the system. He sent someone out to print the front doorknob at his house, so hopefully that will get us what we need.”

  Matthews let out a long yawn before picking up his phone. After running his finger down the list in front of him, he started dialing.

  Rilynne took advantage of his distraction to look through the report Elise had emailed her. Dr. Andrews wasn’t able to pinpoint her exact age, but she appeared young enough to be the owner of the voice Rilynne had heard in her dreams. She looked over the pictures at the bottom of the report. The close-ups of her ankles showed marks f
rom some kind of ligature. It was very possible that they could have been caused by ropes. Then she thought back to the rope she saw Kim playing with. Her heart sank.

  There was only one reason she could think of for a man to hold a young girl for so long. The autopsy report would likely tell her whether she was right, but she couldn’t make herself look. If this same man had Kim, she didn’t want to think about what he could be doing to her.

  “I’ve got it,” Matthews announced. He slammed his phone down and held up a small slip of paper. “The Saddle Light Motel has Brett Maloy currently checked in.”

  “Good work,” Wilcome called out from across the room. “Have a team assembled. I want you ready to move out in five minutes.”

  As Matthews nodded and picked the phone back up, Rilynne leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

  “Saddle Light Motel,” she said quietly, concentrating on it as well as Maloy. It didn’t take more than a few seconds for the images to flash in front of her, like photos dropping down one at a time.

  The sign reading Saddle Light Motel. A door with the number nine. The bed with something sitting in the middle: Kim’s other shoe. Then an image of the bathroom door cracked open with tiny fingers grasping the edge.

  Rilynne had her desk drawer open before the office came back into focus. She grabbed her gun and pushed it shut as she rose from her seat. “Let’s go,” she said eagerly. Matthews grabbed his own gun and followed her downstairs.