Framed For Murder (An Anna Nolan Mystery) Read Online Free PDF

day and avoid people, so I drove to a grocery store that I occasionally used at the south end of Calgary to buy my weekly supplies. While waiting in line at the check-out, I picked up the Saturday paper and saw the headline, “Actor Murdered During Local Film Shoot,” sprawled across the front page. Beside the article was a picture of Jack taken about ten years ago, probably at a film premiere, judging by the tuxedo and the winning smile he always saved for the press. Scanning the article and following the story to page two, I saw my name mentioned as his “former wife.” It said that Jack’s body had been discovered out on Wistler Road by a “passerby,” and that the investigation was ongoing. Thank heaven the police hadn’t disclosed me as the passerby to the reporters. Happily, Ben’s name was omitted from the article altogether.
    I tossed the newspaper into my cart and checked out of the store as quickly as I could before heading back to Crane. As upset as I was, I couldn’t help but notice what a beautiful day it was, warm and windy with a Chinook cloud stretched low and grey across the snow-etched mountains. I itched to get outside for a long ramble, but spent the afternoon industriously cleaning the house. Poor Wendy didn’t get a walk until after nightfall when I figured there’d be nobody out on the streets to recognize me. We had broken from our routine; I avoided the walk into the countryside now. I just didn’t have the stomach for it anymore.
    As we approached the house after our walk, I saw a strange car parked in my driveway and a man I didn’t recognize sitting on the bench on my front porch. I slowed down, reining Wendy in beside me. I sure hoped it wasn’t that newspaper reporter who had called this morning. We advanced toward the house cautiously until I could make out Steve Walker in my porch lamp. Relieved, I waved and strode up the front walk to my house.
    “Evening, Steve. I didn’t recognize you at first,” I called. He was out of uniform in a pair of jeans and a light blue shirt. Wendy wiggled up to him, and he bent down to pat her while I plopped onto the bench beside him. He lifted his head and I could see that his expression was grim. My stomach sank. “What can I do for you?” I asked warily.
    “We got the coroner’s preliminary report back today, Anna,” he said. “I thought I’d come by to tell you about it rather than asking you to come by the station. Nice night – want to talk out here?”
    “Sure,” I replied. “I appreciate you coming by the house, Steve. What did you find out?”
    “Mr. Nolan died from a single 45-calibre bullet through the heart, Anna. And he didn’t die where you found him – his body was moved, although there wasn’t enough evidence to know where he was murdered. The coroner estimates the time of death between 6 and 9 PM. I called May Weston and Erna Dombrosky, and they both swore that you were sitting with them in the library from 6:00 to 7:30.”
    I was glad to hear that. “That’s great news. Now you can count me out. I came straight home after the meeting, Steve. I wouldn’t have had time to kill Jack and move his body.” But, peering into Steve’s face, I could see that he still looked worried.
    “Maybe. You could have killed him if you had done it right after the meeting. You had an hour and a half.”
    “Less than that, Steve, unless I killed him at my house, which I didn’t. By the time I got back from the library, it was a quarter to eight. I left my car at home and walked over to the library, remember? So I would have had a little over an hour, tops. Hardly enough time to have met with Jack, killed him, and moved his body.”
    Steve sighed. “It sure would have helped if someone had come to the door while you were home and could vouch for you being there.” I shook my head and looked away. “Well, it wouldn’t hurt if you volunteered to let the forensics squad go over your house, just to rule it out as the murder