Revealed (Colorado Crimes Book 2)

Chapter 5

Raelyn pulled into Grandma Jo's driveway and dropped her head onto the steering wheel. She had almost crashed twice during that drive. She didn't want to face Grandma Jo and was lucky she was at bingo night.

Trudging into the house, she switched her jeans for black joggers, but left her crewneck on. It matched the joggers well.

She wiped her face clean of makeup and then flopped onto the couch with a big bowl of popcorn. She flipped on the TV. She needed a movie that would distract her from life. Something intense. Or simple. She could go with a classic Disney film.

There was a knock on the door. Great. Hopefully just Grandma Jo, who forgot her garage door opener. Raelyn rubbed her tired eyes and went to open the door.

Damon.

She sighed, "Is there something I can help you with?"

~~~~~

She looked awful. Not the 'I have been crying for the past twenty minutes awful' but a different awful. Her face looked haunted. Tired. Exhausted. She had looked tired before at work, but not exhausted like this.

"I came to apologize. Again." Damon added. He noticed she had changed out of her jeans and into sweats. He hadn't seen this relaxed side of her before.

Raelyn shot him a tight smile, "Deja vu?"

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have gotten angry. I was exhausted from today's work, jealous of how you figured something out that was so smart, selfish about my promotion, and completely stupid. I've been a terrible person." He dumped all his feelings on her.

Raelyn cracked her neck. "I warned you this would happen. But it's okay. I forgive you. I shouldn't have pushed you into being rude. I'm sorry too." 

Damon felt like she was just being nice. He definitely didn't deserve to be forgiven. "I don't deserve to be forgiven."

Raelyn smiled, "But the Bible says to forgive. Because we all sin and were forgiven. I promise Damon, I forgive you. It's forgiven and forgotten."

"Okay." Damon saw headlights bounce off the windows. Grandma Jo maybe?

Raelyn strained her neck to see who it was. Damon noticed a long scar going from her ear and all the way down to her jaw. What on earth? He realized she must cover it with makeup, which was why he hadn't seen it before. Whatever it came from, it must have been painful.

Raelyn caught him staring at her. Then she noticed he was looking at her scar. Her hand flung up to cover it. "It's not polite to stare."

Damon blinked. "Right. Sorry. It's just, there must be a story behind that."

The casual way she shrugged and said, "Not really" told him there definitely was a story behind it. Also, the way she covered it up with her hand told him that she didn't want to talk about it.

But he was curious.

He stuck out his hand, "From now on we're friends. Okay? Not enemies, not co-workers, but friends. We should've started out this way."

Raelyn took his hand and shook, "Friends. I like that." She smiled at him and it was then that Damon noticed her smile was gorgeous. Like her eyes.

Whoa, where did that come from, God? 

Raelyn dropped his hand when he didn't let go of hers. "See you tomorrow."

"G'night Raelyn."

"Night." She shut the door behind her and Damon drove home wondering what secret her scar was hiding.

~~~~~

The next morning Raelyn was working hard at her computer. She had gotten good sleep the night before, with things being resolved with Damon. Only two more memories had come. Which was good.

Her face lit up. "Bingo."

Damon leaned across his desk, "What?"

"We have a connection, people."

Soon, everyone was surrounding her computer. Raelyn pointed to something on her screen. "I started with Kurtis. The first man who was murdered. I found his high school and looked through his yearbook. This is a digital copy of it." She showed everyone Kurtis' high school photo. "But then look." She swiped a few pages and circled a few pictures. "Roger, Dave, Jordan, Drake, and Henry."

Holly's jaw dropped, "All our dead men."

Damon ran to his desk and dug out his sketch. "Is there a way we can age this thirty years, but backward?"

"Enough to make that woman look like she could graduate in 1996?" Jake was grinning. They were finally onto something.

"Yeah we can." Holly smiled. "This is great Raelyn."

"This is. So we know they are connected by their high school. There must be a reason. Maybe we can contact the other men and women in this class and see what they all had in common."

"Maybe it's just them being in the same graduating class." Jake had opened up the digital yearbook on his computer.

"Maybe. But if the woman is from their graduating class, it's more than that." Damon told him.

Raelyn smiled at her friend, "Exactly."

~~~~~

Two months had passed with plenty of activity. The sketch had been altered and sure enough, matched the high school picture of Ava Uruola. They had a match and someone to search for. The problem was finding her.

Damon and Raelyn were making good progress as well. They had never had an argument since and they were being kind to each other. Not fake kindness either. Real kindness. And hidden in their friendship was a mutual attraction none of them had acknowledged yet.

Raelyn had practically moved in with Grandma Jo, but it was nothing new to her. She had worked long assignments before.

Everyone was working on contacting the friends and classmates of the dead men to see if there was anything that tied them together besides being in the same class. The next challenge for everyone was locating all the single men from the graduating class of 1996 Rampart High School and warning them about dangers.

Damon struggled to keep his eyes open at the computer. He had been staring at it all day. His job was to locate where all the people who graduated from Rampart High School in 1996 were. And it was a large school. So far, he had sent emails to half of them asking if they could meet and talk about something important. He left out gruesome parts of the case, but kept in the fact that men were dying. Maybe some of them have big hearts and are willing to reach out.

One look around the damp, dark, office told him everyone else was drained. Holly was drifting away. Jake was poking at the same key on his computer. Raelyn had been staring at the same tab on her laptop for fifteen minutes. They needed a break.

"How about I order pizza? By the looks on all of your faces I can tell we all need a break." Damon reached for his phone to call in pizza.

Jake stood at the same time Holly did, "Sorry, family dinner with my in-laws."

Holly shoved a few things in her purse, "I have a date, sorry."

The two of them were out of the room before Damon could blink. Raelyn looked up from her new favorite spot on the ground, "Pizza is good."

Damon laughed. "Pepperoni or cheese?"

Raelyn closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall. "Pineapple."

He looked at her blatantly, "Pineapple?"