“She’s great,” he said. “She was just saying the other day that we should have you and Ryan over for dinner. I read in the paper that he was named Chief of Surgery. That’s fantastic.”

  She smiled brightly. “I couldn’t be prouder of him,” she said. “Though it does keep him at work a bit more.”

  “I can imagine,” he replied. “Linsy, this my partner, Rilynne Evans. Linsy and I went to college together.” He said as he turned to Rilynne.

  “Very nice to meet you,” Linsy said as she reached out for Rilynne’s hand. “What is it I can help the two of you with today?” She led them through the door at the back of the room, into a cozy little office. “Please, have a seat,” she said as she closed the door behind them.

  “We were hoping that you might be able to give us a little information about a couple of students that were here a few years back,” Matthews explained as she rounded the desk and took her seat. “Stephen and Jerry Peterson.”

  “Ah,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “The Peterson brothers. Both brilliant, but they preferred to use their intelligence for the dark side. They’re still a bit of a legend around here.”

  “Do you have anyone on the staff who was particularly close to them, or would be able to give us some good insight into them?” Rilynne asked.

  She rolled her chair over to a row of large filing cabinets lining the wall. “Let’s see,” she said as she pulled two thick files out of a drawer. “The eldest, Stephen, was highly skilled in math. He had completed every math class that we offer by the time he finished his sophomore year. After that he took on the roll of a teacher’s aide to our calculus teacher. She’ll have a free period in an hour, and you can speak with her.” She handed his file to Rilynne to flip through.

  The discipline portion took up nearly three quarters of it. He seemed to have pushed himself to come up with more elaborate pranks and stunts as the years went on. He had even gone so far as to mix a chemical into the school swimming pool right before a swim meet, which turned the members of both teams blue. It had taken over a week for the swimmers to get back to normal.

  “Jerry was always stronger in science. Although we could never prove it was him, his science knowledge would have contributed to this one,” she said as she pointed to the report in Rilynne’s hand. “They were always just clever enough to make sure they could not be tied to anything, but everyone always knew who was responsible. As for staff members, Jerry wasn’t particularly close with anyone. Do you mind me asking why you’re looking into them?”

  “Their names have popped up in a case we have been working,” Matthews explained. “We’re trying to find anyone who can give us some insight to the type of men that they are.”

  Linsy sighed and leaned back. “Off the record, I wouldn’t put it past them to get into some trouble with the law. They always had a bit of a superiority complex,” she stated. “They felt that their higher intelligence made them smarter than everyone, and because of that, they could get away with anything.”

  Rilynne couldn’t help but feel more hopeful the more they learned about the Peterson brothers. Between their high intelligence and the history of being able to keep their names clean, they were starting to look more and more like the men who were leading the crime ring.

  She continued to read through the files while Linsy and Matthews caught up. Before long, a bell rang echoed through the building.

  “I’ll take you to Liz Fagan’s room,” Linsy said as she walked them through the door. “Hopefully she’ll be able to give you all of the information that you need.”

  They found Liz Fagan grading papers at her desk.

  “Liz, this is Detectives Matthews and Evans,” Linsy introduced them. “They were looking for some information about Stephen Peterson.”

  “I can’t say that I haven’t been expecting this visit,” she said as she moved the papers into a drawer.

  Matthews leaned against one of the empty desks, looking taken aback by her bluntness. “What makes you say that?”

  “Stephen Peterson is the brightest student that I have ever had,” she explained. “On the other hand, he has no remorse. He enjoyed watching the affects that his pranks had on others, no matter the pain it caused them. He prized himself on always being one step above everyone else. I knew that it was only a matter of time before he moved past pranks and began breaking the law.”

  “Is there anyone that he was close to in school?” Rilynne asked. “Any friends that he might still be in communication with?”

  “Stephen didn’t have friends. He had people who admired him and followers,” she replied. “He surrounded himself with people who would take the blame for things he did without a second thought.”

  Matthews pushed himself up and offered Liz his hand. “Thank you for your time. If you think of anything else, please give us a call.”

  *

  “I have a good feeling about this,” Matthews said as he pulled the car back out onto the road. “From everything we learned, it sounds like the Peterson boys are the ones we have been looking for.”

  Rilynne could see the optimism sweeping over him. He seemed more at ease than he had been since the case started as he weaved lightheartedly through traffic on the way back to the station.

  Detective Jerkins met them as they walked back into the homicide office.

  “We found four warehouses that have been purchased under the Peterson brother’s mother’s name,” he said. “However, they were all acquired after she died. We compared their locations with the list that Tylers and Steele pulled together, and one of the four was a match for the trace that was found on Villarreal. We sent some plain clothes officers out to have a look around.”

  “Good,” Rilynne said. “Has the tail been set up on them yet?”

  “They have a team sitting on the house right now, but they haven’t gotten eyes on them yet.”

  “Was there anything in their finances that could be used to locate them if they cannot be found at home?” Matthews asked.

  Jerkins shook his head. “It looks like they were making the majority of their purchases in cash. The only things other than a few small items here and there that they charged were their utility bills. It appears that they have been covering their tracks.”

  “Okay,” Matthews said as he dropped down at his desk. “I’ll call and have teams go out to look at their other warehouses, also. We need to get eyes on them before they make their next move or it could be weeks before we have another chance.”

  “So how did it not come up earlier that James Peterson has brothers who could have been involved?” Rilynne asked after Jerkins walked back to his own desk.

  “They have the same father, but didn’t grow up together. James Peterson didn’t move here until shortly before the robberies started,” he explained. “I didn’t even make the connection until I started to run checks on his parents. The father was killed in a car accident five years ago, so no one would have looked into him.”

  Rilynne opened her mouth to ask another question when his phone rang. “This is Matthews,” he said. She sat back and waited for him to finish the call, trying to make out what the voice on the other line was saying. “Get a sample back to the lab.”

  He seemed to be smiling as he sat the phone down on his desk. “They found an American Smoketree just outside the back door of the warehouse that has a small chunk taken out of the trunk that looks fairly recent. They’re collecting a sample to have it tested against the one pulled off of Shane. They also said that there was quite a bit of black dust around it. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that we have found where the meeting took place the day Shane was killed.”

  Rilynne could see the excitement in his eyes as he started flipping through his files.

  Linsy Carnes had given them a list of any student who had been friendly with the Peterson brothers in high school. Matthews and Rilynne split the list and began tracking down everyone on it in hopes that someone could be involved with the robberies.

  It was almost nine when Rilynne reached the end of her list. Out of the twenty-two names on it, only four people were still in Addison Valley. Three of them had lived blue-collar lives after leaving high school, and although the last one had several run ins with the law, he had spent the last year in prison, being release only two weeks before.

  “Okay,” Rilynne said as she grabbed her purse. “I’m going to call it a night. Let me know if anything comes up.”

  After stopping by the locker room to grab her jogging clothes, Rilynne walked out of the station and headed toward the bar at the end of the block. Despite being under new ownership and the name changed to ‘Travis Bar’, it was still the local hangout for the members of the police department. After greeting several of her fellow detectives, she took her favorite seat at the end of the bar.

  “Why am I not surprised to see you here?” Ben joked as he dropped down into the seat next to her a few moments later.

  She was trying to form a clever response when she looked over at him and quickly forgot what she was thinking. “What happened to you?” Rilynne reached up and brushed her thumb gently across his busted lip. Despite the obvious pain that he felt by her touch, he smiled down at her. He seemed to take pleasure in her worried expression.

  “It’s okay,” he said, still grinning. “Unlike all of the other ones I have gotten since you walked into my life, this one was for sport.”

  “How was it for sport?” she asked. “And it’s not like I caused…” she trailed off. “Okay, so maybe I did. But they were all unintentional.”

  She had in fact been the cause of three separate incidences resulting in Ben being injured since moving to town, a fact that left her both flattered and distressed.

  “You remember that bar fight a couple months ago?” he asked after ordering a beer.

  “How could I not?” Two large men had cornered Rilynne at that very bar before Ben stepped in and dropped both of them with almost no effort. One man had been knocked out cold from just one punch, and the other had been brought down to his knees before the other officers in the bar could even get across the room. The only thing that Ben had walked away with was a bruise lining his jaw after one of the men threw the first punch.

  “Well the officers that were there couldn’t seem to stop talking about it to the coach of the department boxing team, and he approached me about joining. I figured it would be fun,” he explained.

  She reached up and grabbed his chin to get a better look. “Well, I would hate to see the other guy. You should put some ice on it, it’s starting to swell.”

  “I’ll be okay. He only got one punch in before I knocked him out.”

  She ran her thumb over it one last time before returning her attention to her drink. “So, who were y’all fighting?”

  “The construction workers,” he said almost in a nervous tone, though Rilynne couldn’t think why. She was about to ask him when she got her answer.

  She was in a ring surrounded by close to two hundred cheering fans. In the corner just behind her she could see Thomas LaShad, a handsome, muscular detective from her unit. He was saying something that she couldn’t make out above the crowd.

  There was a loud ding and she turned to face the opposite side of the ring. The man she saw in front of her was wearing yellow shorts and a look of pure contempt.

  “Let’s see what sweet Rilynne thinks when she hears how I’m going to destroy you tonight,” he said. “I bet she’ll be in my arms by the end of the week.”

  She could feel the anger building inside of her.

  She had just made out the man’s face when his gloved fist landed on her lip. He smiled and raised his arm again to deliver another, but before he could move, her left fist connected with his cheek, immediately followed by her right one hitting his eye.

  The smile seemed to be frozen on his face when his unconscious body hit the floor. She was overcome with a sense of satisfaction and glee.

  “You were saying?”

  “My neighbor’s a construction worker,” Rilynne said shortly, thinking back to the face in her mind.

  “Yeah,” Ben said on a long, low breath. He wouldn’t meet her eye.

  Rilynne was overcome by several different emotions all at once. Not knowing exactly how to feel, she finished her drink and stood up. “I’m going to head home. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

  He threw money down on the bar and followed her out. “Rilynne, wait,” he said, catching up to her.

  “Were you going to tell me, or was I going to find out when Joe said something, or just started avoiding me?” She couldn’t even explain to herself why she was so angry, but she was. “You know, you’re starting to make a habit of knocking out men who talk about me.”

  “It was a boxing match,” he started to sound flustered. “The whole point of it is to hit people. It’s not like I sought him out looking for an altercation. And when have I ever knocked anyone else out for talking about you?”

  She didn’t even slow to think before she answered. “How about Officer Ross?”

  He stopped abruptly. “What? How…?” She stopped and turned to face him.

  “How’d I know?” she asked in response to him dumfounded expression. “How did I know he made a comment about me to you and you responded by clocking him?” She stepped toward him. “And that’s why he thought you could be a serial killer. That’s why you have this,” she said as she reached up to the scar that was just visible in the hairline above his left eye. “Did you really think I wouldn’t find out about it?” She was just a foot from him when she stopped. She knew that she shouldn’t have brought it up, but she couldn’t help herself.

  Ben didn’t seem to know how to respond. The expression on his face was somewhere between bewilderment and concern. He opened his mouth several times to speak, but didn’t manage to get a word out.

  In between the waves of anger she was feeling, she was hit by something else, heat. Rilynne could feel the fire rising in her cheeks. As her breathing grew rapid she added, “I’m going home.” She turned before he could respond and stepped into the street.

  “Rilynne!” he yelled as he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up against him just as a passing car sped over the exact spot where her feet had been.

  She could feel his chest rising rapidly against hers. With the hand that was free, he ran his fingers through her hair, brushing it gently away from his face. “Are you okay?” he asked, looking deep into her blue eyes. She felt all of her anger melt quickly away. “I didn’t hurt you?”

  She just shook her head, not moving her gaze from his. Her chest tightened as she felt his hand leave her hair and slide gently down to her waist. Her mouth opened slightly to let out her increasingly rapid breath. His gaze swept across her face before landing on her lips. She could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks, but she didn’t care as his head dipped ever so slightly and she felt her own chin rise.

  A wall of water suddenly flew over them as a passing car sped through a standing puddle a few feet away. Ben let out a shocked laugh as he released his hold on Rilynne and stepped back. “Where are you parked?” he asked shaking off the water.

  “I, err…” she hesitated. “I ran in this morning. I was just going to walk home.”

  He rolled his eyes and took her by the arm. “I’m just over here.”

  Nether of them spoke again until the car stopped in front of her house.

  “I’m sorry,” Ben said, looking down at the steering wheel. “I would love to be able to say that they had done horrible acts which prompted me to want to clobber them, but I can’t.”

  “No, I’m sorry,” she turned to face him. “I overreacted, and I honestly don’t even know why. Ross is an idiot and deserved to be clocked, and it’s not like you requested to be paired against Joe just so you could hit him. Besides, I’m sure you did the department proud.”

  Ben let out a low chuckle. “Actually, he requested the match. It would appear that you’ve made quite the impression on him.”

  Rilynne couldn’t think of anything else to do but laugh.

  Chapter Ten

  Ding, Ding. Rilynne was standing in the middle of a boxing ring, surrounded by thousands of cardboard spectators that appeared to be straight out of the fifties. In the corner to her left there was a masked man wearing giant red boxing gloves. He pulled his fists up and started to move toward her.

  “I’m not a boxer,” she said as she backed quickly away. “You have the wrong person.”

  As her back hit the ropes, she pulled her hands up to try and ward him off only to find that they were enclosed in bright pink alligator print gloves. She swung her fist when the large man reached her, and with one blow, he was sent flying to the other side of the ring.

  She stepped cautiously toward him, but broke into a run when she saw a pool of blood forming under him. “Don’t do this,” he said as she reached down and put her hands on the visible holes in his chest. “Stop. Don’t do this. I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”

  Her hands pressed on his chest, but the bleeding didn’t slow. As she pushed harder, she felt the last breath leave his lungs. She pulled her hands back only to find them blood free. “I’m sorry,” she found herself saying. “I had no choice. I had to protect myself.” She reached up gently and pulled the mask off of his face, but before she could see who was behind it, a loud bang sounded out behind her.

  Rilynne jumped up and looked around, seeing a door swinging shut in the corner. She turned back to the man at her feet only to find that a pile of rose petals had replaced him. With one last look around the ring, she slid through the ropes and made for the door.

  The light hurt her eyes as she stepped out onto the street. “Where am I?” she asked the passing crowd, but no one acknowledged her. She turned back around to see a blinking red sign. “Pickens? I’ve passed this club, but what am I doing here now?”

  As she finished her sentence, her answer walked out of the door. She was walking after the men as they made their way down the sidewalk when a ringing sounded quickly around her. She looked around, but couldn’t find its source, so she continued after the men. After another few steps, the sound rang out again, even louder.