The Murder Of Rosetta Shaw

Chapter 5

Jessica hurriedly walked to Claudia's  house as Rudolfo followed. The old man opened the door again and took her to the garden where there was a big crowd surrounding something.

"Please, move aside. Move aside, everyone." Claudia's butler called out and made way for Jessica.

When Jessica made her way to the centre of all the commotion, she saw what she was afraid to see. On the grass beside the pool lay a pale Rosetta Shaw with  big open eyes staring into nothingness and dried blood all over her torso. She was shot. The dry blood meant that she was shot quiet some time ago.

By her dead body sat Noah Shaw sobbing hopelessly, "Why her? What did she do to anyone that she had to face such a death?"

"Please calm down, Signore, I completely understand what you're going through." Jessica tried to comfort him.

"Why are the paparazzi here? Tell them to leave, please." Jessica said looking at the butler.

The butler immediately did as he was told. The police arrived soon after and marked the area as crime scene.

"Jessica Bianchi, I am Sheriff Judith Blake. Nice to meet you." A woman with black curly hair tied into a bun approached Jessica.

Jessica extended her hand and asked, "Sheriff, please let me know when the autopsy is done."

"I sure will."

Jessica saw Christopher, Xiang and a very shocked Claudia standing at one corner of the garden.

Jessica walked up to them. Xiang was crying profusely while Christopher was trying to comfort her while he himself had worry written all over his face. Claudia on the other hand looked as though the ground had moved below her feet. She seemed to not understand anything that was going around.

"Claudia, are you alright?" Jessica gently asked her.

"What do you mean??! Now, you're gonna think that I murdered her and put me behind bars! I swear I didn't do anything." Claudia yelled and broke into tears.

"Claudia, let's go inside. I want to talk to you."

"Hell no, you think that I murdered my best friend!" Claudia continued to yell.

"Calm down, Claudia. I'm not blaming you. Just come inside. I want to talk to you. "Jessica put an arm around Claudia to comfort her and walked her inside.

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"Claudia, just tell me how did you find her and when?" Jessica interrogated.

"We three left Hawn's together sometime after you left. And- and then we decided to come here and we also called Jonathan and Elizabeth but they still haven't arrived. When we came here, I casually looked out of my window and saw someone's legs poking out from the bushes. We went down to the garden and Chris and I pulled out the corpse to see it was Rosetta's. I was beyond shocked. " Claudia replied between sobs.

"Hmm..." Jessica replied, deep in thoughts, "So you're other two friend's must be arriving any time soon... are they aware of the news?"

"I don't think so, unless Christopher informed them already."

Just then, the door swung open and a blonde haired boy walked in with a short, skinny girl by his side.

"Hey Clauds, wassup girl- where is everyone?" The boy asked looking for Christopher and Xiang.

"You two must be Jonathan and Elizabeth? You can go to the garden and have a look for yourself to see what's up." Jessica told Jonathan, a bit annoyed herself.

"Claudia, what's this woman sayin'?" Jonathan said looking at Claudia.

"Just go to the garden, guys. " Claudia instructed and the two followed.

"So, Claudia, what exactly was your relationship with Rosetta?" Jessica asked, getting back to Claudia.

"Rose, you kidding me right? You already know that she was my best friend. " Claudia replied giving a sarcastic laughter.

"Yes, I do but I just wanted to know if there were any issues between you guys....."

"I knew it. You're blaming me for the murder. I can't believe it! OMG!" Claudia shrieked.

"Miss Grey, there has been a dead body found in your residential premises. It is obvious that you are a suspect. You stop yelling at me right now." This time Jessica was back to her stern self.

Claudia now kept silent.

"What about the others- Xiang and Christopher. What sort of relationship did they share with Miss Shaw?"

"Christopher was Rosetta's boyfriend. They dated for the past two years and you could say he was pretty much committed. On the other hand, Xiang was her other best friend. We three have been best friends since we were infants, literally but Rose and I had a lot fights which best friends usually do and Xiang didn't really have fights with her or for that matter, anyone. She is a very calm person. But Jessica, let me tell you one thing, I was her best friend and I would never have done such a thing to her. Never in my whole life."

"Thank you Claudia, this concludes my interrogatory session with you." Jessica smiled crisply and walked outside.