Framed For Murder (An Anna Nolan Mystery) (27 page)

When she answered her door around
9 AM, the expression of relief and guilt mingling in her face convinced me that I had been right to suspect her. She dragged me inside and began apologizing before I had a chance to say anything.

“I’m so sorry, Anna, I didn’t mean to get you into trouble, but I was so worried after you phoned.
I thought about what to do for awhile, and then I ended up calling Tremaine. I told him that I was afraid something bad might happen to you at Jessie’s cabin. He sounded upset, particularly when I told him that it had been about thirty minutes since you called. Did he find you?”

“Yes, Tremaine found me and a whole lot more trouble than he had expected, I dare say.” I told Amy the whole story.
She gasped when I described how Tremaine had fallen into the river and how Frieda and I had rescued him.

“Anna, you saved his life,” she said.

“Well, yes, I guess I did, but let’s not forget that I was the reason he fell into the river in the first place.”

“Still, you’re so brave.
I’m not sure I would have gone into the water after him. I can’t even swim.”

“Believe me, neither one of us did any swimming in that water.”

“So, I guess that gets you off the hook.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well for pity’s sake, you saved his life. Tremaine can’t possibly arrest you for murdering Jack now, can he?”

“I don’t think the one precludes the other, but I guess it helps.”

“I should think so. Hmm. Tell me something, Anna. What did Tremaine look like without his clothes?”

I laughed.
“Count on you to ask me that.”

She smiled back at me from where she lay curled up in the corner of her couch.
Her living room decor was as she had described it: floral chintzes in pinks and greens with lots of throw pillows. “Don’t tell me that you haven’t noticed how good-looking he is,” she prompted.

“Well, that hasn’t exactly been my major preoccupation with Tremaine, but since you mention it, he is handsome, with and without his clothes.
After all, he’s young and in good shape.”

“He’s not all that young, is he?”

“Pretty young. He’s only thirty-one.”

“Thirty-one definitely makes him a grown man, Anna.
You’re not that much older than he is.”

“Nine years.”

Amy snorted. “Don’t tell me that you’ve never looked at a younger man.”

“Looked, admired, but never seriously considered dating one.
Or anyone else, for the past few years.”

Amy wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
“I wasn’t talking about dating him, Anna. For goodness sake, look at you. You’re blushing.”

I got up from the couch and headed for the front door.
“Never mind all that nonsense. I’m going now.”

Amy trailed behind me.
“I don’t know, Anna. It sounds like you two got awfully cozy in that bed yesterday. He’s handsome, smart, charming, and he’s got that cute British accent. I wish that I could have been the one under the covers with him.” She grinned and I shook my head at her.

“You’re beyond saving, Amy.
Listen, call me if you hear anything interesting about Jessie Wick, will you?”

The smile vanished from her face.
“Anna Nolan, you don’t have any sense.”

It was my turn to grin as I saluted her.
“Bye Amy – see you at the movies.”

“Bye Anna.
And for goodness sake, stay out of trouble!”

Chapter Twenty-Four

I thought that Tremaine might drop by or call me after we had shared such a harrowing experience together, but he didn’t.
When I still hadn’t heard from him three days later, I felt a little hurt. He had seemed so grateful that I had saved his life. Didn’t that deserve flowers or something? And what about the time we had shared in bed? Didn’t he realize that our relationship had changed? Wasn’t he going to do something about it?

I kept up a grumbling interior monologue for most of the day before giving myself a swift mental kick.
How could I think such preposterous things? There was never going to be anything between Tremaine and me. Damn that Amy and her suggestions. I bet she had dalliances with younger men all the time, but she was a whole lot sexier and more enticing than I. And, judging by her fling with Jack, promiscuous.

It was time to put all this nonsense about Tremaine out of my head and start concentrating on work again.
And it was time to stop worrying about the murder investigation, too. What more could I do? Nothing, until we got the test results back from the O’Cleary barn and from Ben’s car. Besides, I hadn’t accomplished anything in my investigations. Amy was too sweet and too dumb to have done murdered Jack, Connie and Karen had a foolproof alibi, and trying to find out more about Jessie Wick had almost got Tremaine and me killed. Enough already.

I came home from work Tuesday night ready for leftovers and a long after-dinner walk with Wendy when she greeted me at the front door, clearly upset.
She whined, ran to the back of the house, and barked. I put my stuff down and followed her into the kitchen, doing a double-take when I looked out onto the deck. Someone wearing a black cowboy hat was lying on my recliner. Whoever it was had his back to me. All I could see was the hat sticking over the back of the chair. My backyard was enclosed by a six-foot tall, Wendy-proof fence, and the only way into it was through the kitchen or a padlocked gate. So how had the intruder gotten onto my deck?

Wendy clawed at the door, but I didn’t want her making things worse by attacking whoever it was out there.
I slid the door open just far enough to slip through before closing it in her face. Wendy whimpered on the other side.

“Hello?” I said, inching closer to the chair.
The cowboy hat swivelled, and a woman wearing big navy sunglasses smiled up at me.

“Well, you’re finally home, Anna.
How was the traffic leaving Calgary?

“I beg your pardon?” I said.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?”

The woman took off her cowboy hat and dropped it on the deck, freeing a cascade of blue-black hair that tumbled down her back.
She removed the sunglasses, too, in case I hadn’t recognized the trademark hair. It was Jessie Wick.

“We’ve never been formally introduced, Anna.
Jessie Wick,” she said, holding out her hand. I shook it and took a wary step backwards.

“How’d you get into my backyard, Jessie?” I asked.

“I’m a stunt woman, Anna. How hard would it be for me to get over the fence?” She swung her legs off the chair and stood in one fluid movement. She was dressed all in black in form-fitting jeans and a silk shirt except for an ornate silver and turquoise belt buckle at her waist. Standing next to her, I saw that she had me by three or four inches and about twenty pounds of muscle. She advanced toward me and I backed up until I was pressed against the sliding door, Wendy whining and scratching on the other side. I took comfort in the knowledge that I could let her out if I didn’t like the way things were going.

“Your dog’s pretty excited.
I guess she doesn’t like strangers,” Jessie said, standing too close to me. “Hi, puppy,” she said, tapping on the glass with her fingernails, inducing a paroxysm of barking from Wendy.

“What can I do for you, Jessie?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
Amy was right; Jessie was a lot more intimidating than Karen and Connie. It was like the difference between a Labrador and a Rottweiler. Jessie smiled, but there was no friendliness in her eyes.

“I heard from the police that you were out snooping around my place last Saturday, Anna.
Sorry I wasn’t home. What did you want?”

I thought quickly.
I couldn’t admit that I wanted to check out the woman who had reported seeing Ben’s car at the O’Cleary ranch since I wasn’t supposed to know who the witness was, and I surely didn’t want to tell this woman that I was looking for my husband’s murderer. Instead, I took a deep breath and said, “I thought it was high time that I met the woman who broke up my marriage.”

Jessie laughed in a husky, deep voice, a laugh which men would find sexy, no doubt. “Yeah, I heard that you’ve been nosing around Jack’s women since he died.
Amy Bright, Karen Quill, and now me. Jack and I were ancient history, though, so you needn’t have bothered. And I’m not blind, by the way. I saw you on the set last Thursday night. We may have never officially met, but I recognized you. I checked you out four years ago when Jack and I were together. I always check out my competition. Were you curious about how you stacked up against me? Not doing too much for your self-esteem, now, am I?” She looked me up and down with a look that said I was no better than the dirt beneath her boots, and flicked a strand of hair off my shoulder. I pressed my lips together and stared at her, trying to hide the trembling in my left leg.

“If I were you, I’d look to my own house, Anna,” she said, lowering her head and breathing in my face.
“I’d have thought you’d have all the trouble you could handle with the police trying to find Jack’s killer. First they find you with Jack’s body, and then your boy’s car is spotted outside the O’Cleary ranch. They’re thinking that Jack was killed in that barn, have you heard? Good thing I happened to be driving home from the set that way, or no one might have seen Ben’s car there.”

“It wasn’t his car,” I said, starting to feel angry.

“Oh no?” she said, leaning her hand against the glass behind my head. “Well, why don’t we let the police decide that? I hear they went over your son’s car last weekend, and they’re just waiting on the test results before arresting him for his father’s murder. Imagine that – a son murdering his own father. Ben must be deranged or something. No doubt you helped sonny boy move Jack’s body out of the barn, too. They’ll arrest you as his accomplice, Anna. Couldn’t leave Jack’s body hidden if you wanted the insurance money, right?

“You knew about the insurance policy?” I asked in amazement.

“Yeah, Jack mentioned it four years ago when he talked about leaving you. He said that the insurance policy was about all you’d get out of the divorce, and he figured he owed you that after seventeen years of marriage. For being such a good housekeeper and all. Then he laughed and said you’d have to wait a long time to get it. I guess you got tired of waiting.”

I looked away, hurt by this information, until Jessie laid her hand on my shoulder.
“Let me give you some good advice, sugar,” she said. “Why don’t you and your son skedaddle before it’s too late? Clear out before the police get you.” She flapped her hand as if she were shooing away a fly.

“Ben and I aren’t going anywhere,” I said, stepping around her out onto the deck.
“Because we didn’t have anything to do with Jack’s murder.”

Jessie shrugged and strolled back to pick up her hat, gracefully scooping it up off the deck and planting it on her head.
“Suit yourself, Anna. Meanwhile, I’m trying to decide whether or not to lay trespassing charges against you. If Sergeant Tremaine hadn’t shown up when he did, I bet you would have broken into my place. Then you just about drowned the poor man when he tried to stop you.” Jessie shook her head. “Don’t know why you’re still walking around free, to tell the truth. You and your son are definitely a menace to society. I don’t think I’d be able to sleep at night if I weren’t so sure that the two of you were going to be arrested any day now.”

She turned and stepped off the deck, waving the tips of her fingers over her shoulder.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll let myself out. See you later, Anna.”

I watched her saunter across my back yard and disappear around the side of the house.
Straining my ears for any sound of her, I let Wendy out to make sure that Jessie was gone. Wendy bolted out of the kitchen, turned back for a second to sniff at me, and then tore around the side of the house. She returned a few seconds later and started searching the yard, nose to the ground. Jessie must have left.

I collapsed onto my recliner, wondering what I was going to do about Jessie.
My first instinct was to call Tremaine, but I was afraid he’d only say that I’d gotten what I deserved for sticking my nose into police business. Besides, Jessie hadn’t actually threatened me or done anything illegal, other than trespassing in my backyard. She’d only intimidated the hell out of me.

Actually, once I’d calmed down and my heart rate had returned to normal, I thought that maybe I might have done the same thing in Jessie’s situation.
Oh, I wouldn’t have had the nerve to confront someone the way she had confronted me, but she was letting me know in her own venomous way that I’d better stay away from her and her property. And wasn’t that just what I was going to do? Jessie’s visit was just one more inducement to mind my own business. From now on, I was going to lay low until the investigation was over and my life could get back to normal. That, and try to talk my son into not hating me, once he’d had time to cool off.

But Jack’s murder investigation kept sucking me under like a treacherous undertow.
Two nights later, I was in bed drifting off to sleep when I felt Wendy tense beside me and her head spring up off the mattress. I opened my eyes and saw that she was listening for something.