Written in Blood by Diane Fanning Read Free Book Online Page B

Chapel Hill attorney, was called onto the case. Rudolf placed a call to private investigator Ron Guerette, who asked that the scene be secured until his arrival on Friday. This information was relayed to Michael, but he did not share it with Candace. She had no knowledge that this was what he meant when he told her he would take care of the remnants of his wife in the stairwell.
    Before she could insist to him that she could do the cleanup, two men dressed for work came into the home. At first glance, they looked like painters. Candace thought, “Good. A few coats of paint will cover it all up.”
    Until this moment, she had planned to have people back at the house for refreshments. What happened next made that impossible.
    The workmen drilled holes into the doorframe and screwed a piece of plywood over the opening to the staircase. Candace was aghast. She ran to Bill. “Don’t do this. Don’t do this. Please, don’t do this.”
    But her desperate pleas were ignored. No one commiserated with her. No one explained why. It was as
if her sister was being entombed in a dark and lonely place and Candace was the only one who cared. Sickened, she left her sister’s home and fled to the comfort of the Washington Duke.

8
    The viewing for Kathleen was scheduled from 5 until 8 P.M. at the Howerton—Bryan Funeral Home on the evening of December 12. Fred Atwater was there, standing in the background, ready to help Caitlin in any way he could.
    Kathleen lay in her coffin wearing a black dress and pearls—an elegant woman even in death. On her pillow was a simple gold cross on a chain. Clayton, at Candace’s request, had purchased it at a jewelry store for his stepmother.
    Next to Kathleen was a visitors’ book waiting for entries. Earlier that day, Candace asked Michael to write a note on the front page. He inscribed: “The next book will be about love—requited love—and will be about you, of course. Love, Mike.”
    Standing on an easel, a collage of photographs of Kathleen—with Mike, with the five children and posing alone—greeted those who came to pay their last respects.
    Mike was supposed to meet Candace at the viewing at 4:30 that afternoon. Steve and Cynthia were picking up Kathleen’s mother, Veronica, along with the friend who traveled with her, at the airport. Mike had told Candace
he would be at the funeral home to greet his mother-in-law.
    Candace felt lost when people started to arrive. They were Kathleen and Michael’s friends and she did not know them at all. Michael had promised her that he would be there.
    But Michael Peterson apparently did not plan to attend his wife’s viewing. He was at home in his underwear at 6 P.M. when seven members of the Durham Police Department arrived on his doorstep.
    After discussions with the medical examiner and the district attorney, Investigator Art Holland reached the conclusion that there was more evidence in the house that needed to be seized. Bill Peterson answered his knock. Holland read the warrant to him.
    Officers went upstairs to round up any people on the second floor. Michael Peterson was in his bedroom. “Do you mind?” he asked. “I am getting dressed to go see my dead wife in a coffin.” Martha Ratliff was retrieved from another room and escorted downstairs. She left the house and went to the funeral home.
    When the viewing was over, Candace clipped locks of Kathleen’s hair and placed them in envelopes to preserve them for family members. She removed her pearls to give to Caitlin. She put the gold cross and a rose in her sister’s cold hands. The lid of the casket was lowered.
    By telephone, attorney Kerry Sutton advised her client, Michael Peterson, to remain in any room they were searching if he could. She attempted to enter the house herself, but was rebuffed by the police.

    The search was completed at 8 P.M. Among the items seized were three computers, blood swabs