Betrayal with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Three) by Jenn Vakey Page B

how it would look if she were to knock on his door in the middle of the night. Instead, she lay down in the middle of the bed, listening to her heart thumping in her ears. “Only a dream,” she said again to herself. She repeated it several times until she drifted back to sleep.

Chapter Seven
    “ Y ou’re back!” Nick seemed to be almost unable to contain his excitement when they walked into the station the next morning. “Did you find the fugitive? Is he really here in our town? Dad says I can’t tell any of the guys until your investigation is over, but they’re going to flip when they hear. Who’s this guy?” he asked, motioning toward Ben.
    “This is Ben Davis. He’s come up from Addison Valley to help with the investigation any way that he can,” she explained. “Your father asked me to come back in this morning to speak with your detective. Is he available?”
    “Yeah, he just got in. I’ll go get him for you,” he said as he jumped up from his seat.
    “He’s an energetic little thing,” Ben said as they watched him rush to the second door on the back wall, next to the door leading into Sheriff Stigent’s office. After quickly rapping on the door, he pushed it open and entered. “Looks young too; shouldn’t he be in school?”
    “I imagine he’s on a work program,” she replied. “I only had to go to school for one class a day my senior year. It was nice getting out around nine-thirty every morning.”
    “I bet. I think I got out just after three. Then I spent at least two hours a day doing my community service. Add that to my after school job, and I was left with very little free time.”
    Ben had caught the father of a fellow student attempting to take advantage of his girl friend as she lay passed out in his yard after a party. Instead of filing a report with the police, which would have meant telling his girl friend what had almost happened, he took matters into his own hands and vandalized the man’s house.
    In lieu of jail time, he was sentenced with community service, which he completed at Addison Valley Hospital. It was his time there that motivated him to make something of himself and go to college.
    Nick emerged seconds later followed by a man who was just over a head taller than him, which said a lot, because Nick had to be just a few inches shy of six-feet. Instead of a uniform, he was wearing an olive green tee shirt and jeans. Unlike his clean-shaven colleagues, it looked like it had been several days since his last shave. The look wasn’t a bad one for his handsome face, though, nor was the untidy look of his short, light brown hair.
    “I’m Detective Korey Byman,” he said as they stood up to meet him. “Sheriff Stigent told me to be expecting you this morning, but I’m afraid he didn’t give me much information as to why. Please come on back,” he motioned toward the door he had just exited.
    The office was smaller than that of the sheriff, but only just. Both the right and left walls were lined in filing cabinets, leaving just enough room for a desk in the middle.
    “Have a seat,” he said as he walked around and took his seat. “It’s Detective Evans, correct?”
    “That’s right,” she replied. “And this is Ben Davis.”
    “It’s nice to meet both of you,” he said as he extended his hand. “What is it that I can help you with?”
    “We believe this man-” she slid the photograph across the desk, “-was here around nineteen months ago. He’s responsible for killing at least two people in Bodker, Wisconsin, and we’re hoping that someone in the area might know where he could be hiding out.”
    He examined the photo carefully before looking back at Rilynne. “Sheriff Stigent said that you were from Texas,” he said curiously. “Why are you interested in a case from Wisconsin?”
    She could see Ben tense up from the corner of her eye, but continued without acknowledging it. “I won’t lie,” she replied, “This case is very personal for me.