Framed For Murder (An Anna Nolan Mystery) (30 page)

“Wait a minute.
I don’t get it,” I said, stalling. “If you shoot Tremaine and me with the same gun that killed Jack, the police will know there was a third person involved. What happened to trying to pin this on me?”

Jessie laughed.
“That’s the beauty of it. The police were never able to find Jack’s murder weapon – I hid it at my cottage. Naughty, naughty you, snooping out there, by the way. Too bad you and Tremaine didn’t both drown in the river. The police will think that you hid the murder weapon here at the barn, and that you were coming back to get it when Tremaine followed you. I’m going to shoot you with Tremaine’s gun, and then I’m going to shoot him with Daddy’s gun. It will look like the two of you had a shoot out. There’s no record to tie the gun to me – Daddy liberated it as a war souvenir. It’s an elegant plan, isn’t it? And now, it’s time for you to die.” Jessie raised the M1911 and pointed it at me.

“Wait a minute, you idiot, that’s the wrong gun!” I shouted.

“What?” she said, turning it in her hand for a better look.

That was it, my only chance.
I dove into her legs and knocked her down. The gun flew out of her hand and discharged into the ceiling, landing in the stall behind me. I jumped on top of her and tried to hit her. She ducked away from my fist and punched me in the nose. I fell over, and she rolled on top of me. With tears blurring my vision, I tried to scratch her eyes out, but she punched me in the nose again. I lay there seeing little lights dancing in front of my eyes while she sat back on her heels and aimed Tremaine’s gun at my head.

“Anna Nolan, you are a pitiful excuse for a woman.
Did you think that you could beat me in a fist fight? You’re too weak and pathetic. Do you know what I would have done if Jack had cheated on me? I would have shot one of his balls off. No, that’s wrong, because Jack would never have cheated on me in the first place. I was all the woman he’d ever have wanted, night after night, and year after year. You, on the other hand, were the boring wife and mommy, and Jack was sick of you. We used to laugh about what a clueless wimp you were. Well, I’m finished wasting my time on you. Say goodbye to your worthless, miserable life.”

I flung up my arms just as the gun went off.
Suddenly, Jessie was gone. I looked up, and saw that Tremaine had her in a choke hold. They were struggling for the gun. I scrambled off the floor, trying to get out of the way. They swayed together until Jessie nailed him in the face with a head butt. He fell over and she toppled on top of him, knocking the wind out of him. She twisted out of his hold, still holding the gun. He wouldn’t let go of it, so she punched him in the face and grabbed his throat with her free hand. I dropped down in the dirt beside them, taking hold of her gun hand with both of my own. Tremaine let go of the gun and concentrated on breaking her hold on his throat. I spared him a quick glance. He was still woozy from the drug. I tried pounding her wrist on the floor, but it was packed earth and too soft, so I bit her. She shrieked and dropped the gun.

Jessie rolled off Tremaine, focussing her attention on me.
As she got up, I clasped my hands together like a volleyball serve and clipped her under the chin. She fell backwards and rolled into the stall. I grabbed the gun off the floor and looked up just as Jessie came at me with my baseball bat. I screamed and fired, but missed. She swung the bat at me, but I dove out of the way. Tremaine grabbed her ankle as she went past, and Jessie pitched onto the floor. The bat rolled out of her hand, and I tossed the gun into the stall behind me and snatched up the bat. She jumped to her feet and leapt at me just as I clobbered her in the ribs. She staggered, and came at me again. I swung the bat with everything I had and bashed her in the knee. She screamed and fell onto the floor, writhing in pain. I stood over her, panting. I was absolutely livid.

“I was the good mommy and worthless wife, was I, Jessie?
Well, one of the things a good mommy does is baseball practice with her kid. And do you know what? I’m pretty handy with a bat. Listen, you slept with my husband and made a fool of me in front of the whole town, but you’re not going to kill Jack and get away with it. And you’re not going to pin his death on me, you pompous, murdering bitch!”

I was about to beat the crap out of her when I felt a hand grab my ankle.
I jumped, and looked down to see Tremaine peering up at me. He was swaying on his hand and knees, one eye half-swollen shut and an angry red mark across his wind pipe. The crazy fool was grinning up at me.

“Never mind, slugger, my money was always on you,” he said.

Bursting into tears, I dropped the bat and collapsed onto the ground beside him.
He reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone. Peering at it with his good eye, he managed to dial “911” and request assistance. With Jessie writhing in the dirt just yards away, he lay down in the dirt beside me, put his head in my lap, and closed his eyes. Sniffling, I stroked his hair and waited for the sirens to come.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

This time I insisted on following Tremaine to Emergency when the ambulances took him and Jessie Wick away.
Eddy Mason drove me in the passenger seat of his cruiser with Steve smiling to himself in the back. Once we got to Emergency, I sat on a plastic chair and refused to budge until I heard that Tremaine was okay. I had a burgeoning black eye, a bloody nose, the knee was ripped out of my trousers, and I was covered in dirt. A nurse approached to ask if I needed first aid, but I waved her away.

Of course, injured police and their prisoners get priority treatment in Emergency, so it was only an hour later when Steve joined me with a hot chocolate from the coffee machine.
“Here, drink this. You look like you need it,” he said, shoving the insulated cup into my hand and sitting in the empty chair beside me.

I nodded and took a quick gulp, adding a burnt tongue to my list of injuries.
“How is he?” I asked.

“He’ll be fine, Anna.
They made him drink a lot of water to help get rid of the Temazepam, and he’s sleeping off the rest. He’ll have new bruises over his old ones, but no serious injuries.”

I let that sink in for a blessed minute before asking, “What about Jessie Wick?”

“They’ve taken her up to x-ray. It looks like she has two or three cracked ribs and a broken knee cap – courtesy of you, I understand.”

“Yup,” I replied.

“Nice work. Tremaine said it took a lot of work to bring her down, but that you were up to it.”

I snorted.
“So, now what happens?”

“So now you go home and get some sleep, and tomorrow you come into the station to make your statement.
Tremaine should be out of the hospital by tomorrow, and he’ll do the rest. Jessie Wick will be charged with kidnapping, attempted murder, and murder, and I don’t think we’ll have any trouble making them stick, especially since she was wearing your ex-husband’s ring and carrying the murder weapon.”

“Plus, she confessed to everything in front of Tremaine, the twit,” I added.

Steve rose to his feet and extended a hand to me. “Come on, Anna, time to go home.”

I took it and got up wearily with aches and pains of my own.
He drove me home and walked me up the driveway to the porch. I could hear poor Wendy whining on the other side of the door.

“Hey, Anna,” Steve said, resting his hand on my shoulder, “you did great work tonight.
You probably saved Tremaine’s life and put Jessie Wick behind bars for a goodly number of years. Congratulations on a job well done.”

“Thanks Steve,” I said, patting his hand.

A car came zipping down the street and veered into my driveway, nearly sideswiping Steve’s cruiser.
Ben jumped out of the car.

“Oops, I forgot to tell you.
I called Ben from the hospital,” Steve added. He nodded and wandered off across the lawn while Ben raced toward me.

“Mom!” he shouted, grabbing me and crushing me in his arms.
He was shaking. I patted his back and murmured, “It’s over, honey,” again and again. He took hold of my shoulders and stared into my face. “I almost lost you,” he said, the tears welling in his eyes. “Are you crazy? Don’t ever do anything like that again.”

He grabbed me again and didn’t let go.
Looking over his shoulder, I saw Betty’s light go on next door. Her front door opened and she stepped outside. Poor woman; the last time I saw her, I had been tearing out of the driveway on my way to save Tremaine. I owed her a big explanation sometime soon. I waved at her with my free arm, and she waved back and disappeared into her house.

“Come on honey, let’s go inside,” I said.
“Poor Wendy’s going nuts.” We went into the house and I told Ben everything. An hour later, after a lot of yelling and cursing and crying, I was stretched out on the couch, half comatose, with Ben and Wendy lying on the floor beside me.

“I’m still mad at you, you know,” Ben mumbled.
I sighed and opened my eyes to look at him. He looked all wrung out, but then so was I.

“I know, honey, and you’re right.
I should have called the police about Tremaine and warned them that Jessie Wick was listening in on the radio, but I wasn’t thinking straight. All I knew was that I had just twenty-five minutes to get to him before he was dead.” I stretched out my hand and Ben took it. We rested our entwined fingers on top of Wendy’s fur. Wendy opened her eyes and licked my arm.

“But I promise you, my detecting days are over.
We caught the murderer, so now we’re both off the hook. I’m going to call Grandma Carlene and give her an edited version of what happened to Jack. Try to give that poor woman some peace over her son’s death.”

“I can’t believe how much of this you pieced together on your own, Mom.
I guess I wasn’t much help to you, especially with being so angry over the past few days.”

“And I’m still sorry about lying to your father and not telling you about it, honey.
In hindsight, I made a terrible mistake, and maybe you paid for it. We’ll never know what was going on inside your father’s head while you were growing up. If only I had talked to Jack about what he was feeling instead of arguing with him all those years.

Ben squeezed my hand.
“It wasn’t only you, Mom. I could have talked to Dad instead of being angry all the time. I could have given him a chance.”

“Hey,” I said, “your father could have done some talking, too, right?
You know what? Parents make mistakes, even when we have the best of intentions. Maybe one day you’ll have kids of your own, and you’ll wonder what the hell they’re thinking about. Just remember your mistakes and try talking to your kids. As long as we love each other, that’s the best we can do.”

Ben rolled his eyes and said, “Yes, Mom,” in his best, put-upon voice.
I wrenched my hand away and swatted at him. He grabbed my hand back and kissed it. “I love you, Mom.”

I squeezed his hand.
“I love you too, honey.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I caught a glimpse of Tremaine over the next couple of days as I visited and revisited the station.
The swelling had gone down on his eye, but the bruising still made him look pretty disreputable. One time we passed each other in the hallway, and he nodded and walked by me without even saying a word. I wasn’t sure how to interpret his behaviour. What does it mean when a guy’s lying with his head in your lap one minute, and not talking to you the next? I couldn’t figure him out, and despaired of ever doing so.

Saturday morning I awoke feeling at peace with myself.
I had called Carlene the night before, and the two of us had had a long talk about Jack’s death and shared some tears over it. I left out the stuff about Jack having affairs with the women on the set, of course, and made it sound as if Jessie Wick was a jealous business partner gone crazy. Carlene felt better, Ben and I were on good terms again, and it was over. Finis. If I never saw Tremaine again, well, that was just the way it was going to be. God speed and good luck to him. Meanwhile, it was spring, and I had all but missed it with the threat of the murder investigation hanging over my head.

I decided to spread happiness and good cheer amongst my fellow man and have breakfast at The Diner.
I put on a floral summer skirt, a pretty pale blue blouse, and kitten-heeled sandals, gave Wendy a kiss on the top of her furry head, and headed over.

When I arrived at the restaurant, I was surprised to discover a celebration in full swing.
Frank was leaning on the counter with his arm wrapped around Judy, talking and laughing with Jeff, Betty, and Erna. They were sitting on stools at the counter and, wonder of wonders, Mr. Andrews was sitting right there beside them. I had never seen him sitting on a stool before, and there wasn’t even a newspaper in sight. Something really important had to be going on. I slid onto the last stool beside him and waited.

Frank noticed me first.
“Hi, Anna, how’s it going?” he asked. Five smiling faces turned toward me.

“Good, Frank.
What’s happening?”

“Steve, here, just told me the news about Henry Fellows, and I was passing it along to everyone.”
Frank pointed over my shoulder and I turned to see Steve eating his supper at one of the tables. He raised his coffee cup in salute.