Judge, Jury, & Executioner

Chapter 13

A rope hung, half burned from the fire, with her body completely burned. She was twenty nine and in the prime of her life. Her hair and nails had been perfectly done before the fire. The clothes she was wearing were non existent. The apartment was kept clean, besides the bedroom. Her clothes laid here and there. It reminded Maddox of her first apartment. She kept the outer rooms clean so if anyone stopped by they'd see everything was clean. Whereas her bedroom was a birds nest.

Not a lot of family photos. There were a couple pictures of what looked like her mother. That was about it. No boyfriend, or close friend. Just her mom.

Maddox had seen plenty of dead people. But this was something in itself. Being forced to commit suicide to protect your family. Suicide was much different than homocide. Motive, reasoning, and everything else was thrown out the window. And there was no way to truly know why.

The bedroom was burnt. The bed especially. A couple pieces of burnt paper floated through the room. Liam was trying to catch them, and failing. Tommy, assisted by his assistant Jane, pulled Fetzer's body from the door. They laid her onto a stretcher where a body bag laid. Maddox folded her arms and rested a hand over her mouth. Whoever this person was making them commit suicide, was twisted.

Reaves stood at the edge of the room. Staring at the door where Fetzer had been dangling from. Tommy waved his hand in front of Maddox breaking her concentration.

"Yeah?" She asked, stepping closer to him.

He pointed to the faint bruising on Fetzer's neck. "No fowl play. it was a suicide."

Maddox nodded and looked around the door. A chair was lying about a foot and half from the door. It had been knocked over, mostly in an attempt to ensure she wouldn't be able to stop it once it began.

Twisted.

Maddox cleared her throat and saw Drake examining the burnt bed and surrounding wall.

"What ya got?" Maddox asked, hoping to change her trail of thought.

"Neighbor's called about the smell of smoke coming from the apartment and when fire crews came in the bedroom was nearly engulfed. Fire originated from the bed. Most likely from this," Drake said holding up a bunker up cell phone.

"Have Emma take a look when you get back," Maddox ordered before looking around the room.

Reaves was still hovering at the edge. She made her way and he faked a smile at her.

"Recognize her from the jury pool?" Maddox asked.

Reaves gave a silent nod. Things were always different when you knew the victim. Even when it was a passing glance or one time hand shake. You didn't look at their death as something of an unfortunate event. Instead it was a reminder of short life is. And that was the truly upsetting part.

Maddox had experienced this once in her life. When she was living with her foster family, one of the new kids wasn't interested in staying and they ran off. A few days later their body turned up in the streets. They had been stabbed multiple time and left for dead. The foster parents, William and Taylor, were concerned some of the other kids might be bothered by the kid's passing and had a counselor brought in.

Two days a week for a year, Maddox had to sit and pretend she was even concerned. The lady was nice, but Maddox didn't want to talk to anyone about how she felt. The kid's death was a tragedy, but Maddox was more concerned with her father and that situation. Her foster parents had found that obsession to be destructive and not constructive.

So basically any mention of her dad ended with an argument. Maddox couldn't blame them now though. They were great parents, but Maddox just wanted her real parents. Maddox had done her best to let go of that situation and decided to move on. She'd kept in touch with her foster parents and typically referred to them as her mom and dad. Which confused some people.

"What was her name?" Reaves asked, taking a step closer.

"Natalie Fetzer. She worked at a restaurant in Clinton. She was chef," Maddox answered.

She could see it bothered him. Not that it was surprising. But for a moment, a brief and passing moment, she let herself feel sorry for him. And then she returned her attention to the case.

***

Noah brushed past the living room to his bedroom and he closed the door behind him. He was half sick. Two people in one day. Two! Two innocent people had died.

He placed his laptop on his desk and wiped it down with a dusting rag. Quickly, he dusted the whole desk, and then returned his attention to the computer. He started covering his digital tracks to make sure no one could trace it back to him. Noah would be receiving a text from his employers soon.

Employers.

That was the polite term.

They were threatening his sister. Pictures would be sent of her each day. Each time with a new threat. They'd never stop. This seemed to be their favorite way of getting people to do their bidding. Noah felt his phone buzz, and he pulled it out. It was a text.

Your sister gets another day. -Unknown Number

Noah sighed in relief and then he got another text.

Get a good nights rest. Another one tomorrow. -Unknown Number

He had spent almost the first five hours of the first day they texted him trying to trace their number. If he could've found just one little piece of information they didn't want, he couldn't blackmailed them into leaving him alone. They were good though. He never found a way to trace their number.

Everything they sent was encrypted, and triangulated through a dozen different cell phone towers. There was no way to find the actual position of where they sent the text.

Noah heard a knock at his bedroom door, and he jumped in his seat. He exited everything on his laptop and closed it. He tried to regain his composure so he wouldn't upset his sister. Walking to the door, he heard another knock.

"Noah! Open the door," She said.

He opened the door and smiled. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed.

"Everything okay?" He asked.

"No," She said, on the verge of tears.

He walked her into the living room and sat down next to her.

"What's wrong Emily?" He asked.

"You know how I had to go by the courthouse today?" She asked, forcing him to remember what he had done hours before, "Well, one of the jurors on my jury pool, died."

She had tears falling down her face as she said it. Noah pulled her closer and gulped. Your on the Dominic Nickels case. Noah wanted to throw up. His sister was on the jury pool he was being asked to target.