Clarissa Odele and The Case of The Slain Newlyweds, Odessa McNiel [phonics readers TXT] 📗

asked?
“Yea, the other investigators found these in the bags.” He handed me two ids. One of them said that our vic was Brandon Cizio, but the other one had the picture of a woman named Sierra Mace.
“So who’s the chick in this picture?”
He shrugged his shoulders, “Don’t know. She’s not here; they’ve searched the entire house.”
“Maybe she shot him and ran for it, huh?”
Marks laughed, “Maybe.”
“Where’s the house keeper?”
“In the living room in one of the recliners,” he stated. I walked into the living room to find the house keeper just like Marks said.
I approached her and pulled out my badge. “Detective Odele,” I said to her, “Are you Mrs. Winter the house keeper?”
She looked me up and down with her beady eyes. “Yes, but I was not part of this murder, detective.” She answered me.
“I didn’t accuse you of anything, Mrs. Winter. However, if you don’t cooperate with our questioning I can accuse you for being an accessory to murder.” I said blatantly, “Mrs. Winter, I’m just looking for some answers; I’m just hoping you have some.”
“I…”she started.
However Ashley had just entered the house throwing around apologies like they were nothing but air. “I’m so sorry you guys really!” she exclaimed. She had rushed through the door as if she had a rocket on her back. Ashley looked like hell too. Her hair was untidy, loose and frizzy. Her clothes were mismatched and unironed, and she looked like she’d just had a panic attack. “Where’s John Doe?” she asked as if she wasn’t paying attention to the fact that we were staring at her in awe.
I turned back to the house keeper. “Here’s my card,” I said flinging it at her. “We’ll call you later in the week to bring you in for questioning.” I lead Ashley back to the master bedroom. We entered the room as most of the others were finishing their jobs of lifting prints and taking pictures.
Ashley looked around the room like she was taking a sample of everything mentally. She set her bag on the floor next to the victim and put some gloves on. She took out a notebook with the M.E.’s report in it and was writing down simple things. It took her awhile, but then she spoke.
“He’s been dead about eight hours.” She stated slowly.
“How do you know that?” Chief asked. He must’ve just entered the room because I hadn’t noticed that he was standing right behind me.
She laughed, “I thought you’d never ask.” She grinned delighted. “The lividity isn’t fixed because the skin blanches when I apply pressure to it,” she demonstrated. “He feels warm, and he’s stiff,” we chuckled softly. “I didn’t mean it like that!” she exclaimed letting out a giggle herself. “Also, if we use the Glaister equation and subtract his rectal temperature from ninety eight point four, that gives us eleven point four. Then if we take that answer and divide it by one point five, that gives us about seven point six, and if we round that number up, that gives us about eight hours from the vic’s time of death.” She took her gloves off satisfied with her work and the fact that the question ‘how does she do it?’ was sprawled across our faces.
She took out a body bag, put fresh gloves on, and handed me a pair of gloves so that I could help her. Together we lifted this man and put him in the body bag and then onto a gurney so that we could take him back to the coroner’s office. I don’t know how just the two of us did it, but we did. Ashley wheeled the gurney out of the house while Marks blocked the media from getting too close to the body.
It wasn’t until Rookie and I got back to our vehicle that we realized that Chief wasn’t there anymore. I hadn’t been aware that he’d left. In fact I didn’t even know he was gone until then. Then we heard a phone ringing.
“That yours,” Josh asked?
“It has to be ‘cause it’s not yours, right?” I found my phone and saw that the Chief was calling me. How coincidental.
“Odele here,” I answered.
“Go down the highway, from the house that you guys are at now, about two miles. We’ve got ourselves another body.” Then he was gone.
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We got to the next scene fine, and sure enough there in the ditch, mangled but still intact, was our other body. Rookie and I got out of the car and trotted over to where the chief was.
“What we got?” I asked him. Ashley came up behind me carrying the same bag she carried to the other crime scene. She knelt down next to the body and pulled something out of her bag.
“Jane Doe here is Sierra Mace. It looks like there’s about a half hour difference between John Doe’s death and this one. Do you think they could be linked our just a coincidence?”
“We’ll find out when we get back to the lab.”
Answers

Two days later, I arrived at the office to find the tox screens from both victims, a medical examiner’s report for each victim, and a gun and bullet tracing on my desk.
The toxicology report showed that neither had taken any drugs, but it did say that they were a little on the tipsy side of things when they died. Next I looked at the M.E.’s reports.
Victim number one, Brandon, had taken a six bullet hits, but only the one to the head was fatal. He had nothing wrong with him internally, and the blood analysis came back as being that of victim number one. That was good.
Next came the autopsy report for our road-kill victim, Sierra. Hers showed that she’d been hit multiple times by a vehicle and shot in the head with a bullet. I guess her murderer wanted to make sure she was dead. Unlike Brandon, there was something that I found interesting about her internal exam and her blood analysis; she was about four months pregnant and had gestational diabetes. That confirmation brought up three questions for me: 1. Who was the father of the baby? and 2. Was this woman married? and 3. Who knew this woman enough to want to take away her happiness?
The interesting thing about the bullets that were found in both victims was the same caliber. This meant that they most likely came from the same gun, and most likely the gun we found at the crime scene: a ’48 caliber pistol.
I decided I’d better bring the pregnancy up with Ashley to see if she had tested the baby’s DNA. I entered the lab and got a huge whiff of alcohol. She was sitting in the corner doing some tests on other specimens.
“Have you tested the DNA from the baby of our road-kill victim yet?”
“I have,” she answered without hesitation.
“And… Who’s the father?”
“Oh! Brandon Cizio.” She said.
“Why wasn’t it on the report?”
“Did I really forget it? SHOOT!” she shouted.
“It’s alright. I’m gonna go to Miles and see if he’s found any marriage certificates tied to these two yet.” She nodded in agreement and went back to what she was doing.
I went to Miles only to find my assumption proven correct. These two victims were married, and we were looking at a double homicide. He even uncovered some missing pieces that I wasn’t expecting.

Murderer

We had brought in Mrs. Winter earlier that week for questioning. She told us that she had known both victims, however briefly, and had confirmed the accusation that our two victims were married. Mrs. Winter also said that they had rented the lodge they were staying in for their honeymoon because they were newlyweds. She also told us the name of her boss and gave us her business card.
I was the one the business card was handed to and immediately recognized the name of an old friend of mine, Alex Cizio. I remembered her wanting to open a chain of resorts for newlyweds after her own marriage was crushed. We brought her in for questioning and knew a lot about her before she even came in.
We knew that the prints we lifted from the gun belonged to her. Then we matched the tire tracks in the mud wear Sierra was found to her vehicle. Next, we uncovered that she had a registered gun carry permit in her name. Lastly, the most interesting part of the whole matter was that she was married to Brandon Cizio before he married Sierra. The only thing we needed was a confession.
Three days later I was put in charge of interviewing her.
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I entered the room cool as a cucumber. She sat across from me as I sat across from her. I spread my evidence across the table and explained each piece to her. She sat there calmly and practically smiled through the whole thing.
What really surprised me though was what she said to me.
“I couldn’t help myself,” she said to me. “I couldn’t just let that bitch marry the love of my life.” She smiled like she was happy. “I can still see her face of misery while she lay on the pavement dying. I can see Brandon, my sweet, sweet Brandon, as I put a bullet in every limb. It was so much fun.”
“You’re a very sick person Ms.