Free Deception with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Two) by Jenn Vakey Page B

take a desk job after the assignment was over, she had been talking about divorce. Every time they had arranged a meeting after that, however, he seemed to grow more and more cheerful. He had even mentioned renewing their vows.
    “Wow,” she found herself saying aloud. “He really loved his wife.”
    “He was very devoted to her,” Matthews said. “He told me that he knew after their first date that he was going to marry her. I think he would have proposed then if he could have.”
    “She was very lucky to have him for as long as she did. Most women aren’t lucky enough to be loved to that degree.” She couldn’t help but let her mind drift back to the night that Christopher had proposed.
    He had picked her up for their year and a half anniversary and taken her out for a night of miniature golf and bowling. After letting her win a round of golf, they had gone to the bowling alley next door. He had arranged with the manager before hand to change the pictures that popped up on the screen so when she bowled her first strike, his proposal flashed on the monitor in front of her. When she turned around, her jaw nearly on the floor, she found him down on one knee. It was something even she had not seen coming, but it made her happier than she could have ever imagined.
    With a long sigh, she returned her focus to the journal.
    “Check this out,” she said a few minutes later.
    Matthews walked over and took the seat next to her, kicking his feet up on the table.
    “Did you know that he had a beach house?” she asked. He shook his head and waited for her to continue.
    “It looks like he inherited it about four months ago from his uncle. Judging by this he hadn’t even told his wife yet. He was planning on fixing it up as a surprise for her. ‘The perfect start to our future,’” she read aloud.
    “Did he write down an address for the house?” he asked.
    She flipped through the rest of the book before shaking her head.
    “County records should have something,” he said. “If no one knew about it, he might have hid the journal pages there thinking they would be safe. I’ll see if I can find something. Does it say what his uncle’s name was?”
    “Yeah,” she paused. “He called him Uncle Mike. He didn’t give a last name, though.”
    “Let me know if you find anything else in the journal.” He pushed his chair back from the table and stood up. “I’ll find the address for the beach house so we can check it out.” He left the conference room with her still sitting at the table.
    It took her three hours to make it to the last page in the journal. “I figured it out,” she read aloud to Matthews as she walked out toward his desk. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. The ring leaders have to be…” She dropped the journal down on her desk. “That’s where the page ends. It looks like he either solved the case, or was getting really close. We need to find those missing pages. Did you have any luck tracking down the address of the beach house?”
    “Yeah, it wasn’t very hard,” he replied. “He added it to his home owners insurance policy. They were able to give me the address.”
    “Where is it?” she asked.
    “It’s about a three hour drive from here,” he answered. “Wilcome is looking into the jurisdiction issues for us to see if the locals will allow us to have the scene.”
    Rilynne pulled an evidence bag out of her desk and sealed the journal up in it. “I’m going to go drop this off in evidence and head home then. I’ve been putting off unpacking for days. If I don’t get it done soon, I have a feeling I’ll end up living out of boxes forever.”
    The line in the evidence room was abnormally long, even for a Friday. It took Rilynne nearly thirty minutes to get the journal signed in and make it back to her desk. After grabbing her purse, she reached in her drawer for the blood stained shirt and walked toward the elevator.
    She had just pushed the down button when Ben walked