Double’s Shadow: The Charleston Blood Case

Chapter 1

My husband’s mistress was dead, raped and murdered. That same afternoon, my husband and I were taken to the police station.

I honestly had no idea he was having an affair. If it hadn’t been for this case, I might have stayed in the dark forever.

To narrow down the suspect list, the Police Department took our fingerprints and asked where we’d been during the window when she died.

The victim was Natalie Carter, twenty-eight, an office worker. She died around 11:00 p.m. on July 30, 2019. Cause of death, her carotid artery was cut with a sharp weapon, she bled to death.

That meant today was the third day since Natalie died.

Only three days had passed, so the details were still fresh. I remembered that night clearly because Jason had been with me the whole time, and he’d slept like a rock. So I told them exactly that.

The Police Department questioned us separately.

Two detectives interviewed me, a man named Mark Reed, about thirty or so, the deputy lead in the Homicide Unit, and a woman named Megan Shaw, late twenties, strikingly pretty.

Maybe because I was pregnant, and I’d just found out my husband had been cheating, my eyes still red, they kept their voices soft and careful.

Shaw especially, she looked at me gently and asked, “Claire Bennett, think again. That night, are you absolutely sure Jason never left the house, even for a little while, maybe after you fell asleep?”

I froze for a second, then thought it over. “Detective Shaw, since I got pregnant I’ve been sleeping heavier than usual. I can only say that before I fell asleep and when I woke up, Jason was there.”

Shaw and Reed exchanged a quick look. I couldn’t help asking, “Detective Shaw, if she was raped, shouldn’t you be able to collect DNA from her body? If you suspect Jason, you can test him.”

That’s what I said out loud. Inside, I was thinking, if they were already sleeping together, why would he force her. There was no way the killer was Jason.

Shaw shook her head. “Whoever did this knew what they were doing. We don’t have usable evidence like that, which makes the case… difficult.”

I murmured, “Okay.”

Shaw asked how far along I was. I told her a little over four months.

She smiled, glanced at my belly a couple of times, and said I was carrying big, it might even be twins. Then she tried to comfort me, saying pregnant women get emotional easily, telling me to take things one day at a time and go home to rest.

I was genuinely touched by how kind she was. After a few polite words, I left the station.

I thought Jason would come home with me, but Reed told me Jason still had to cooperate with the investigation and couldn’t leave yet. With no choice, I went home alone.

Back at the apartment complex, I heard from a neighbor that several officers had come by earlier. They’d pulled the security footage and asked people nearby whether they’d heard our door between 9:00 p.m. on July 30 and the early hours of the next morning.

I asked what she’d told them. She said she hadn’t heard a thing, so she told the truth. Hearing that, I finally felt a little calmer.

I assumed Jason would be stuck at the station overnight. I called him and he didn’t pick up.

Then, not long after I finished dinner and lay down, he came home.

He was still cold, the same distant expression. I got up to warm him some food, but he stopped me.

I asked, “Jason, I called you earlier. Why didn’t you answer?”

He said the Police Department had taken his phone to copy his messages and call history.

The thought of him trading sweet nothings with her made my skin crawl. But I swallowed it down. She was dead, what was there left to argue about, especially with a baby on the way.

I was wrong.

Just because I wasn’t fighting didn’t mean no one else was. Half asleep, I suddenly felt a brutal tightness in my throat, like the air had been shut off. I snapped my eyes open and saw Jason, completely unhinged, both hands crushing my neck, like he meant to kill me.

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