Chapter 52
APRIL
I’ve done a lot of difficult things in my life, and identifying my husband’s dead body was definitely not one of them.
Hahaha.
I certainly was in a jovial mood, at least on the inside. On the outside, I continued to embrace the devastated wife whose husband had just been killed motif.
The LAPD drove me in a squad car down to Olympic Boulevard to identify the body.
The police station was only about two miles from where David had been killed, and the officers didn’t try to initiate any small talk.
They told me how sorry they were when they got into the car, and the rest of the drive was in silence.
Once they took me inside, I sat around far longer than I expected. I’m sure they had to finalize the crime scene before transporting his body to be identified.
When I was finally shown the body, it was almost ten.
“That’s him,” I said through my tears. Over the course of the night, I’d perfected crying on cue.
“I’m so sorry,” the officer said.
“Thank you.”
“I know this is an extremely tough time, Mrs. Devers, but would you be willing to be interviewed tonight. Every minute counts, and if we can get any information from you about his potential killer, that would really help.”
I turned the volume up on the tears.
“Of course I will. Anything I can do to help catch the bastard who ruined my life.”
They escorted me to an interrogation room a few floors up. The morgue was located on the bottom floor of the police station. I guess it made sense to have both the morgue and the police station at the same location. Especially for someone like me who had to identify a body and then be questioned.
I was surprisingly calm. I’d likely already know if they’d caught Eddie. Since they hadn’t, I had to assume everything had gone to plan. The perfect murder.
“Once again, thanks for agreeing to do this,” one of the detectives said, and they then officially introduced themselves. One was Detective Dallas Abbott, and his partner was Detective Arthur Wright.
Usually, it seemed like partners were the polar opposite. One was tall, one was short. One had hair, one was bald. One was white, one was black. You get the point. Maybe that was just TV and movies to make it easier to differentiate the two.
Not the case with these two. Abbott and Wright were spitting images of each other.
Forty-ish. Thinning hair on top with well-manicured facial hair.
They even both had brown eyes. Neither was too bad to look at.
Maybe I’d use that to my advantage if it became necessary, but for now, I was a grieving widow, and there would be zero flirting of any kind.
“You’re welcome.” I’d grabbed some Kleenex earlier and kept using it to dab my eyes. It helped with the performance.
“Do you know anyone who would want your husband dead?” Abbott asked.
“I don’t know anyone who would even want to hurt David. Everyone loved him.”
“I’m sure they did. But you can’t think of anybody he might have argued with lately. Even something small that you barely gave any recognition to at the time.”
“I really can’t. He was the best man I knew.”
I used the Kleenex to dab my eyes.
And the nominees for Best Actress at the 2026 Academy Awards are: Jennifer Lawrence. Meryl Streep. Viola Davis. Frances McDormand. And newcomer, April Devers.
“How was your home life?”
“Our home life couldn’t be better. We loved each other very much and were looking forward to traveling more this year.
When he’d told me about his upcoming promotion last week, we started talking about going to Europe and maybe having a nice vacation on a beach in the Caribbean. Now that will never happen.”
I’d mentioned the promotion for two reasons.
One, it would give them potential suspects to investigate.
Anyone who got passed over by David could theoretically be a suspect.
Plus, any potential suspects would keep them from spending all their time investigating me.
Second, and maybe more importantly, it would show that David had told me about his upcoming raise.
It would portray us as a happy couple looking forward to a higher pay grade.
And it would also lessen any reason to suspect me. What wife would kill their husband after he was just given a huge raise and promotion?
I started with the tears again. They gave me a few seconds to collect myself.
“I guess that’s one thing,” I said.
“What is that, Mrs. Devers?”
“He was getting a big promotion at work. He was going to be the vice president of the entire company. And at thirty-three, no less. Listen, David loved his co-workers, and I don’t think anyone there had anything to do with this.
But you’re asking me who could have hated David this much.
Maybe a co-worker who got passed over. That’s really all I can think of. ”
I saw the two detectives, Abbott and Wright, glance at each other. My little suggestion had hit home. I was no dummy. I knew that the first person they looked at when a spouse was killed was their husband or wife. This wasn’t my first rodeo. I’d seen Dateline dozens of times over the years.
But I didn’t want to go over the top and give them twenty prospective suspects. That would be suspicious on my end. I threw out the idea of a jealous co-worker, and that was enough. No need for more. Now I just had to hold firm that we were a happily married couple.
“We’ll look into his work, for sure. Listen, I hate asking this, Mrs. Devers, but do you guys have any guns in the house?”
“No, we don’t. Neither one of us liked guns. I’ve never fired one in my entire life. I don’t think David has either, unless it’s something he did when he was younger and didn’t tell me.”
I caught myself.
Stop saying things like “unless David didn’t tell me.” You are supposed to be the perfect couple who tell each other everything. Act like it!
“Any weird late-night phone calls lately? Maybe people calling and then hanging up?”
This is where an amateur might make a mistake and claim they had received all these suspicious phone calls. Try to make the cops think everyone in the world was after their husband. I knew better.
“No, everything was normal. That’s why this is so unbelievable.” I dabbed my eyes again.
“I have to ask a few more tough questions. I hope you understand.”
“I do.”
“Have either of you ever had an affair?”
“No, never.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. We were in love with each other. And I ran a coffee shop full-time, and he probably worked seventy hours a week. We didn’t have time for anything else besides each other.” I tried to smile.
It seemed to go over well with the two carbon copies. Abbott and Wright. Wright and Abbott.
“I can tell how much you cared for your husband, Mrs. Devers.”
These detectives were eating out of the palm of my hand.
“Thank you,” I said.
“We don’t want to keep you here all night. We’ll definitely have some follow-up questions in the days to come, but we can do those at your house. Speaking of which, do you want to go home tonight? We could put you up at a hotel for the night if you’d prefer.”
“What do you guys think?”
“Not to be crass, Mrs. Devers, but it appears to us as if your husband was singularly targeted. If someone were after you as well, they would have waited until David got home.”
“That’s not very comforting.”
“I’m sorry. That didn’t come out as I meant it. But don’t worry, we don’t think this has anything to do with you.”
“So you think I’m safe at home?”
“I do.”
“Okay, then I’ll go home.”
“And we’ll have someone patrolling the area tonight as well.”
“Thank you.”
“One last question for you before we go.”
I could tell this was going to be an important one. “Sure.”
“Who knew the route your husband would take to get home from work?”
“I don’t know exactly who knew, but it probably wouldn’t be too hard to figure out. He’d take the 405 and head down Wilshire to Berkeley and then Lipton. There was really only one way. Even if he took side streets instead of the 405, he’d still invariably end up at Berkeley and Lipton.”
“Okay, thank you, Mrs. Devers. One of us will give you a ride home, and then we’ll probably be back by your house tomorrow for more questions. Is that okay?”
“Of course. I understand you’re just doing your job. Thank you for being so respectful toward me.”
They both smiled in my direction.
Eating out of the palm of my hand.