Here is chapter four.
Disclaimer: The only connection I have with CSI is when I am sitting in front of the TV, watching marathons of it. :}
The woman pressed a wad of tissue paper to her nose. "I can't believe that she is dead!" She blew her nose loudly, and then apologized. "I just can't get over it…"
"I was told that you and Regina had a falling out a few days ago," said Sofia. "Can you tell me about that?"
Across the table, the woman, Bethany LeClaire, looked up, startled. "You think that I killed Regina! I would never do that! She is… was… my best friend." Her black mascara was running down her cheeks from crying and was starting to mix in with her curly red hair.
"We have never accused you of killing Regina," Sofia said calmly. "I just want to know about your fight. When was it?"
Bethany pulled the tissues away from her face and started to fold them into squares. "It was two days ago at her house."
Regina has been dead at least two days, according to the autopsy report, thought Sofia. Harwood said that he had dinner with her so, if he is not lying, than she died later that night.
"Well, actually, first we went out to lunch," Bethany added.
"Where?"
"It was a café outside of the city," she said as she wrote down the address. "It is a nice place, but there is not much Regina can eat there. She always lets us go there, since she knew how much that I liked it."
This caught Sofia's attention. "Why could she not eat there?"
"Leo didn't tell you?" Bethany seemed surprised. "Regina is deathly allergic to seafood."
That would explain her asphyxiation. If she unknowingly ate seafood, it would cause her death.
"All right, continue," commanded Sofia.
Bethany started to unfold the tissues. "Then, later we went back to Regina's house and we started arguing. I told her about a job interview that I had gotten down at a big name magazine company. Then she told me that she had gone to the same place weeks earlier—and that she had gotten the job. I was so mad at her for not telling me before! I thought that I did so well on that interview and then she had to go and ruin it. I never would have gone if Regina had told me that she put in an application. We just started arguing about it, and Regina told me how it was not her fault for not telling me, since she thought that her work life was none of my business. I never would have guessed that the last thing I would ever tell her was that she was a… well you understand." Her green eyes started to water again.
Sofia set her arms on the cool table. "And did you get so mad that you poisoned her? You could not take it that Regina got everything that she wanted, and now she took something that you wanted. You snapped."
Her eyes grew wide. "No! I could never kill her. I might have hated her that day, but I would never do that!" Bethany's hair fell around her face and she pulled it back hastily. Sofia watched as strands of hair floated down to the ground.
"Thank you." Sofia got up from her chair. "That is all—for now."
***
Zoë sat in the chair across from Catherine. Her grandmother was waiting in the room down the hall. Zoë had sent her away, telling her that this was something that she should not have to hear, even if was her daughter that was being discussed. This was the first time Catherine had seen the girl. She was wearing a black t-shirt, dark jeans, and sneakers. Her belt and bracelet was studded. Catherine would never let her own daughter, Lindsey, dress like that. Despite the fact that her outfit was beyond Catherine's taste she thought that the girl had a nice face. Her blonde hair was slightly frizzy and she had large, black, square glasses.
However, she eyes were dead from sorrow.
"When we tested the blood that was on your clothes from the day of the attack," she said, showing Zoë a picture of her clothing, as if they were another person's clothing. "The blood was not yours, nor your attacker. All of the blood was Roxanne's, your mother."
Zoë stared at the picture, her face blank. "I tried to help her. I ran up to her, but before I got there, he rushed up to me and pushed me. I could not help her…."
She started to stare at the paper with so much hate that Catherine wondered if she would answer any more questions. "We found something at your home that we would like to ask you about." Catherine took back the photograph of the clothes and traded it for two other pictures. One was of the first part of the statue and the other was of the entire thing, which they had printed from off the internet. "Have you ever seen this statue before and if you have, was it in pieces or was it whole?"
"No, I've never seen that statue before" Zoë said slowly.
Catherine had been hoping that the answer was different.
"The Chimera," Zoë alleged. "That's what it is, right?"
"How did you know?" Catherine seemed surprised. She had not known what it was, but the girl had. "You said that you have never seen it before."
A small smile came across her face, as if it let her forget her misfortune for a moment. "I love Greek mythology. When we learned about it at school, I thought it was awesome. I've taken time to learn as much as I could about it. The Chimera is a great creature. So far I have found so many references to it in books and literature."
Well that is interesting, thought Catherine. Did our killer know that and sent it as a message?
"This means that there might be things in your home that were not there originally," Catherine said. "We would like you to look around your house to see if Roxanne's killer left anything else behind. You may refuse, but we think that it will help us in our investigation."
"Did he leave these things for you to find?" Zoë looked confused at the thought. "Why?"
Catherine took a deep breath before saying, "We think that there might be other murders—if they are committed yet or not we do not know."
"So, you want me to try to find something out of place," said Zoë slowly. "Are these other 'clues' from Greek mythology, too?"
"We have no idea."
The girl bit her lip, not saying anything for five minutes. "Okay, I'll do it."
---
The house was dark when Catherine, Sara, and Zoë walked in. Catherine had made sure that they were all wearing rubber gloves, just in case they touched something. Zoë did not look at the bloodstain that covered the rug. Her grandmother had not wanted her to come, but the girl insisted. Maybe, she had said, this will give me closer.
She gazed through the shelves of the movie case and then the furniture. Zoë ran her hand over the couch as she walked by. "I was standing here when it happened. I heard screaming coming from here when I was in the other room," she muttered to herself so quietly that Catherine could barely hear. "So I ran into the living room, and that's when I saw my mom getting stabbed. That was when the blood hit me—it was her blood. Then I tried to run to her, to help her, but he was quicker. Next thing I know, I'm falling, and then… everything went black when I hit the floor."
This was exactly what Zoë had told them earlier when they asked exactly what had happened, from the point she realized that there was an intruder in the house to when she had been knocked to the floor. It was, in Catherine's opinion, horrible to put her through all of this, but it had to be done. And this, the searching of the home, was something that Zoë had agreed to.
Suddenly, Zoë stopped moving. Slowly, she moved toward the bookcase. On the top shelf was a flower and around the flower was a small piece of paper.
"That wasn't here." Zoë said it as if it pained her. "That was never here. I know it."
Sara took a picture of the flower and paper and then took them down. She unrolled the paper. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. What do you think that means if the murderer left it?" Sara asked. She showed them the paper.
"That is a narcissus flower," Catherine commented.
Zoë gazed at the objects as if they held all of the answers to the world. "You said that the statue really was a Chimera from Greek mythology, right?" she asked. "Well, I think that your Chimera Killer struck again."
To be continued…
There was a lot of talking and interrogating in this chapter, but it had to be done. I love having other cases going on at the same time the Chimera Killer case is.*sigh*
I absolutely love reviews. Predict what you think is going to happen, guess who the killer is, or just tell me what you thought! I love knowing what you thought! :}
R&R