If You Only Knew by M. William Phelps

years after the divorce, about eleven years ago, they remarried.
    The detectives asked about a will. Did Don have a will?
    â€œYes,” she answered. She looked at the men quizzically: What are they implying? What is going on here? Should I call a lawyer?
    There was nothing suspicious about the will Don had left behind. Don made his wife the sole beneficiary of the entire estate—eleven years prior.
    The visit was mainly to let the widow know that the cops were becoming curious and she might have to answer some questions down the road. The TPD had been looking into this death and they kept coming to one conclusion: Don Rogers was murdered. The more they looked at the evidence they had currently, Billie Jean Rogers looked guiltier than ever of having done something to her husband.
    Needless to say, as Zimmerman and Tullock left the house that day and Mrs. Rogers closed the door behind them, both parties believed the same thing: it was not the last time they would sit and chat about the death of Don Rogers.

CHAPTER 17
    DONALD ROGERS’S BODY HAD left the examiner’s office back on that Monday morning, August 14, 2000, two days after his death, and was whisked over to A.J. Desmond & Sons for the wake. But then after the wake, Billie Jean ordered her husband’s remains to be cremated. After all, on that Saturday, August 12, the day after Don’s death, the OCME ruled Don’s death accidental. A death certificate had been issued. Billie Jean had every right to do what she wanted with her husband’s body. And now Don Rogers’s ashes were in a box. There would be no chance to cut him open and have a second look.
    As they grew more suspicious of Billie Jean, the detectives realized the problems they had, however, didn’t stop there—because that death certificate would now have to be officially amended. Dr. Ortiz-Reyes would have to write up a report or “inspection” addendum and file it with the certificate. This, of course, was not unheard of in the field; yet, it wasn’t something medical examiners did every day.
    On that inspection sheet that Dr. Ortiz-Reyes and his boss, Dr. Dragovic, had signed and dated August 12, Ortiz-Reyes now included the “manner of death” as homicide. He also added another very interesting—albeit new—factor in Don’s death. As for the “cause of death,” Ortiz-Reyes was now claiming it to be “asphyxia by smothering.”
    If that was true, Don Rogers had, indeed, been the victim of a murder.
    On the surface, this new accusation might have seemed to come out of nowhere. All of a sudden, a guy who had seemingly died of a heart attack, based on an overdose of alcohol, was now the victim of smothering? Moreover, in his report, Ortiz-Reyes indicated that Don’s conjunctivae (mucous membrane lines inside the eyelids) were “unremarkable.” His sclera (the white part of his eyes) “anicteric” (not yellowed). Nowhere did the doctor report any rupture or breaking of the blood vessels in Don’s eyes, which is a fairly common factor when someone is smothered and choked, struggling for air.
    This could mean two things: Don was not smothered; or he was smothered, but he was already in a coma or dead at the time from all that alcohol.
    Furthermore, Ortiz-Reyes wrote in his addendum: The body shows no signs of bruises, fractures, lacerations or deformities.. . .
    And then this: The back is without note. Meaning, there were no injuries and nothing suspicious found on Don’s entire back.
    That information was part of the initial report Ortiz-Reyes had written from his notes on his cursory examination on the Saturday morning Don’s body had come in. On the addendum, after learning of the alcohol intoxication, the doctor now had several issues. There was no date or time on this sheet of the report, thus one was left to suppose it was written on that Saturday (but it had not been). Right at the top, in