untitled, pt. 5

Tessa spent her evening with the case file spread out in front of her on the table of her hotel room. She still had not found an apartment to live in, so she was living out of her suitcase for the time being. She sat, staring at all the papers in front of her. Photos, newspaper clippings, copies of death certificates. She could not believe that one person could cause so many lives to end. This person had to be stopped before another life was torn apart. Tessa decided to start with the first victim. She looked at the name. Clara Sievers. She typed the name into her internet search engine, and two websites were listed. They were newspaper sites. Clara had been mentioned twice in the paper; once for the birth of her child, a second time for her murder, the same clipping Tessa had in front of her on the table. It said she was survived by her husband, Mike. Tessa reached for her phone and looked at the card Clives had given her earlier. She dialed the number and got a machine. “Hi, Agent Clives, it’s Tessa. I was looking over the case file you gave me, and I was wondering if you had ever contacted a Mr. Mike Sievers about his late wife. If you could let me know, I want your permission before-“ Suddenly the phone was picked up. “Tessa,” said Clives, “we've talked with him before, and he seemed very uncomfortable. We don't want to trouble him any further.” “But, sir, I think he might be able to help me. I want to find out all I can about these people to see what they had in common. The only thing I can see so far is that they're all women, but the murderer could be any number of people if we stick to that.” “Tessa, I said no. You might be able to talk to a different family member, but Mr. Sievers was not a very open man. He probably wouldn't even talk to you at all.” Tessa sighed. “Thank you, sir. Goodnight.” “Goodnight, Tessa, and good luck.”

I have a prayer request for all my readers: a very good friend of my aunt has been undergoing chemo therapy, and she is about to go through the worst of it. So, she could use a lot of prayer right now.