CRUELLA DEVILLE

 

CRUELLA DEVILLE

(EVERYDAY; EVERYDAY)

 

They were married for fourteen years. Robert Wood Carvel rued everyone of those years, wishing they never they never happened. He confided to his buddies secretly: “this so-called marriage is three of the happiest days of my life. Since the marriage ceremony, everyday is like every other day – torture!”

Bob’s wife’s name was Estelle Blitzstein, but he always referred to her as Cruella Deville, even though she looked nothing like Glen Close, but did resemble any one of the 101 Dalmatians.

Estelle did absolutely nothing around the house – no cleaning, no cooking, no nothing. She spent most days sitting in the sun on her favorite chaise lounge, reading the latest romance novel. The newest one was entitled: ‘Devil’s Daughter’ by Lisa Kleypas.

Bob, quite by accident, picks up the book. After leafing through it, he thinks Estelle was getting ideas from the myriads of novels she had devoured on a daily basis. In the book, the heroine, Phoebe, is a mean bully who made her dead husband’s life a misery (life imitating art?). She meets a dashing and impossibly charming stranger, named Rodney Rusdale Ravenel. She sets out to seduce the stranger who has awakened her fiery nature. Will this overwhelming passion be enough to overcome the obstacles of her boring husband?

Robert Wood suddenly realizes that murder is the only way out of his everyday torture! One day, while she sits on her chaise, he shoots her in the head! He reloads and shoots the book she is reading six times! He carefully wraps her lifeless body along with the novel, with six bullet holes, in a sheet, ties it up with cord and places it in the trunk of their car. In the wee hours of the morning he dumps the weighted body in the Detroit River. He figured that the river was so polluted another body would make no difference.

Years passed. Bob was totally happy just to be alone and rid of Estelle.

A Detroit detective, Renee Marie Ballard, started nosing around. Somethings did not add up. Where was Estelle? There was no record of a purchase of any plane ticket or anything that caused her disappearance. In her spare time, she made several inquiries. After months of digging, she decided Estelle was murdered, but she could not prove it. There was no body. Ergo, no crime!

So, Renee started the boring task of following Estelle’s husband. She confronted him with the alleged crime, but that was a dead end. Then, the unthinkable occurred: Renee and Robert fell for each other, although she knew in her bones he had committed murder! Her love blinded her!

The pair lived their lives in wedded bliss – until a dead body surfaced in the Detroit River…