Framed For Murder (An Anna Nolan Mystery) by Cathy Spencer Read Free Book Online Page A

had just tramped through a muddy parking lot. I felt inferior in a navy and white-striped cotton sweater over navy slacks with sensible black flats. Her blond hair was swept up into a neat French twist, while I held back my shoulder-length brunette hair with gold barrettes.
    “Thank you,” she said, taking the report. “I hope that you’re feeling better. Did you have a nice weekend?” As she studied me, I wondered if she had seen Saturday’s newspaper report of Jack’s death. Silly me – of course she had. Magdalena always kept up with the news.
    “I’m much better, thank you,” I answered, ignoring the question about my weekend and not volunteering any information about the murder. If she wanted to know about Jack, she was going to have to come right out and ask me.
    “Good. The meeting should run about two hours. Please ask Bryan to drop by my office at 11:10.”
    “Certainly, Magdalena.”
    “Thank you.” She nodded, turned on her heel, and strode away. I exhaled and relaxed. Magdalena and I had worked together for two years now, but I would certainly not classify our working relationship as “close.” She knew about Ben – I had introduced him to her at the start of the fall term – but I’d never discussed my marriage with her. It might be a foolhardy wish, but I hoped to avoid that topic now, especially since Jack had been murdered. I suspected that my boss would blame me for allowing my life to become messy. Magdalena liked to run a tidy ship, and she wanted all of her crew members to be ship-shape.
    I managed to avoid her in a day heavy with meetings and sped off home as soon as the work day was over, thrilled that I hadn’t been forced to discuss Jack’s death with anyone but Alice. When I got home, Wendy greeted me with her usual ecstatic tail-thumping and rear end-wiggling routine, and I let her out into the back yard. Kicking off my shoes and heading toward the bedroom to change out of my work clothes, I heard the doorbell ring. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was 5:05. Who would be calling on me at this time of day?
    The man standing at my front door was a complete stranger. I considered myself of average female height at 5’5”, but I had to crane my head upwards to see his face. He must have been 6’4”, and lean. He wore a tailored black suit, grey shirt, and a silver and blue-striped silk tie. He was young – maybe thirty – and clean-shaven with close-cropped, blond hair.
    “Anna Nolan?” he asked, and I nodded. I wondered who he could be. He was too expensively dressed to be a door-to-door evangelist.
    He held some ID up before my eyes. “Mrs. Nolan, I’m Sergeant Charles Tremaine of the RCMP. I’ve been asked to lead the investigation into your ex-husband’s death. There are a few questions I’d like to ask. May I come in?”
    I stared at the picture on his ID and raised my gaze to his face. His cool grey eyes looked back at me. “Where’s Steve Walker?” I asked. “I thought that he was the officer conducting the investigation?”
    “Constable Walker has been assigned to another case. I work with a national criminal unit that investigates homicides throughout western Canada.” He paused and waited for me to respond. In the ensuing silence, I realized that Wendy was barking at the deck door. She must have heard the doorbell ring and got excited. She didn’t like it when people came into the house while she was stranded outside.
    “Yes, of course, come in. Please take a seat in the living room. I just have to let my dog back in.”
    Sergeant Tremaine followed me into the house and stayed in the living room while I opened the kitchen slider for Wendy. She went bounding past me headed straight for the living room. Not wanting the officer in charge of my ex-husband’s murder investigation to be molested by my dog, I rushed into the living room, just in time to see her sniffing Tremaine’s outstretched hand. He squatted down to scratch behind her ear, and she