Mistaken Malice

After many persistent and in depth questionings by the police they let her in peace. Alice asked and received permission to go through her sister's desk and look for her will. She found it where she thought she would, her sister wasn't as thorough as she was but she was at least neat and organized. Nothing she read in the will before she turned it over to the police surprised her. It all essentially left it all to Alice since there was no one else. Alice left soon afterwards after she assured the police that she was fine to drive. She went home and found cameras and reporters around her own condo. Not saying a word to them she made her way inside and closed off the world from her and her thoughts. She made herself a meal before heading upstairs. She thought about viewing the disks once again and then dismissed it from her mind, she needed her sleep if she was going to be in top form.

She woke to the phone ringing off the hook. Her answering machine full and she saw her cell phone was blinking. Apparently the news was out and friends and enemies were calling with their condolences. Constance had been well known and very social. The funeral would be well attended and most notably by their new 'friends' the Senators. Alice's yellow gold eyes narrowed in contemplation of that. She wished she had been a fly on the wall when the Senator's had been told.

"They found her" Ken told Cecilia quietly as they were in their adjoining offices in Washington well away from Capitol Hill.

"Just say nothing; she was nothing more than a friend. They have no reason to suspect..." she answered and then left off as a knock sounded on the door. "Yes?" she called.

"Ma'am you might want to turn on Channel 9?" an aide told her as she nodded and reached for the channel changer.

"Good friend of Senator's Edwards, the married couple from California" the news commentator was saying.

"Good Lord, it made the news here" Ken ejaculated as he stared and listened.

They told how one Constance Weaver a three time widow from California had been found strangled in her Brentwood mansion and an investigation had begun into her apparent murder.

Ken and Cecilia exchanged a meaningful look and dismissed it.

Alice planned the funeral with her usual meticulous care. It would have to wait a good week while they did an autopsy on the murdered body and continued their investigation, finding nothing. She already had her answers to what had killed her sister and where. They already knew the body had been moved and that she had not died in her own home but been dumped there. Nothing they told Alice surprised her, she pretended alarm and amazement at all their 'news' or it would have looked suspicious. She acted the appropriate part of a grieving sister.

"What do you think Al?" one detective asked the other after one of the countless interviews with the sister.

"She's one cold cookie but damn I wish I could have met her under different circumstances" the other detective responded.

"Think she had anything to do with her sister's murder?" he asked as he acknowledged what his partner had said.

"Naw, she loved her, finding her like that must have been quite a shock" they dismissed her other odd behaviors as part of her shock.

Alice knew that nothing she had done or how she had behaved would arouse suspicions of her. Although appropriately shocked and dismayed over her sister's death, there were certain things she could not hide. A certain coldness that permeated her being and could not be hidden behind her artificial behavior over her sister's death, fortunately human nature being what it is made these 'mistakes' seem to be part of her shock over the death. It gave her a buffer that could well have directed an investigation closer into her whereabouts and lifestyle. Instead she was thought to be an investor and a wealthy woman and nothing more. She quietly closed her sister's accounts and transferred the funds out of the country before the banks and government could even find the monies and tax them or freeze them. Her sister's main spending accounts she didn't touch and wouldn't until it had all gone through probate. She saw no reason to let on about the other millions of dollars that quietly disappeared. The houses her sisters owned of course would be sold but not until well after the funeral and probate. The will was clear and there was no way anyone could dispute it but it would take time.

Alice thought it was interesting that neither of the Senators had called to express their condolences to their 'friend.' A coldly dispassionate bouquet of flowers and a generic card were all she received. They made no attempt to reach her otherwise in her 'grief.' She filed this information away and wondered if they had realized the theft from their mansion here in California yet.

She found it strange that a death that had apparently happened months ago appeared on the television a week after sisters. A retired police officer's body from the L.A.P.D. had been found by his son dead apparently for several months in his condo. For that she found a new anger, that the boy had been the one to find his father's corpse and it had to of been badly decomposed, the psychological damage alone would screw up this innocent boy for the rest of his life. She alone knew who was responsible for all of this.

The funeral of Constance Weaver was well attended. Enough time had lapsed from the announcement of her death to the announcement of the funeral that people from all over could attend. Most notably the Senators Ken and Cecilia Edwards came to offer support to their friends, one dead and one very much alive. Alice thought to herself that they were convincingly upset over the murder of their beautiful and vivacious 'friend.'

An ongoing investigation was still in the works as far as the police were concerned but they had been honest with Alice that they had little to go on. Her body had been moved from the crime scene and there was no known boyfriend or anyone they could even question. She had partied and been a socialite and had been well known but no one had seen her for days prior to her murder and they were at an end to what they could find. Alice knew that everyone at the funeral was being watched but she also knew the Senators would be over looked on their reputations alone. Few if any people knew of their private behaviors and the police certainly would never suspect them. Alice however was judge and jury and would wreak havoc the like of they would never knew what hit them...someone had made a mistake and it was not Alice.

~The End~ K'Anne ;-P