I decided to start a discussion group on Goodreads where books that have been nominated for 2014 literary awards could be posted to bring them to the attention of readers. The first topic under this discussion group concerns the 2014 Bony Blithe Award for Light Mystery.
The award will be announced on June 7 at the Bloody Words conference banquet at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 370 King Street West, Toronto, ON. The meet-and-greet begins at 6 p.m., with dinner at 7 p.m.
Framed for Murder, the first book in my Anna Nolan mystery series, is one of the five finalists nominated for the award. (For purchase information, click on the "Bookstore" tab on this site.) Here's a synopsis and the first two chapters.
Anna Nolan discovers her ex-husband, Jack, on a
deserted country road one night; dead, unfortunately. To divert the suspicion
of the tall, cool Brit investigating the crime, Anna delves into Jack's
personal life, only to discover that the actor had been romancing three very
different women on a nearby film set. But had Anna better be careful - one of
them could be a killer!
1
It was dark. The road was
slick from an earlier rain, and damp leaves squelched underfoot. Wendy,
my three-year-old, shepherd/labrador cross, trotted ahead of me down Wistler
Road. I would have worried about walking alone on a dark country
road almost anywhere else, but Crane was a small town and its crime rate was
practically non-existent, so I felt safe. Still, it wouldn’t do to
take a tumble on this moonless night, so I was being careful.
I heard Wendy snuffling and digging at
something up ahead in the bush. Removing the slim flashlight that I
always carried on our bedtime walks, I shone the beam in her direction, afraid
that she had found something disgusting to roll in just before bed. Nothing
like having to deal with a stinking, soaking-wet pet when all you wanted to do
was crawl under the covers.
“What did you find, girl?” I
called. The noise stopped, and I waited for her to pop out of the
trees and trot back to me, but she didn’t appear.
“Come here, Wendy,” I called. All
was still, and then I heard a piercing howl that made my hair stand on end and
my breath catch in my throat. It was a primitive, uncanny sound, and
it unnerved me on this lonely stretch of road.
“What’s gotten into you?” I
muttered. Stepping up to the trees, I peered into the dense shadows.
“Wendy?” She whined softly,
and I sidled between the trees, picking my way through last year’s
undergrowth. She was up ahead in a small clearing.
“Come on, girl,” I commanded. Instead,
Wendy lowered her head and nosed at something on the ground. I
trained my beam downward, and jumped. It was a man. He
was lying face down, dressed in jeans and a black leather jacket, his arms
lying straight beside his body. He wasn’t moving.
“Hello?” I called, “are you alright,
Mister?” There was no response. I wanted to turn and run,
but forced myself to creep closer for a better look. Taking a deep
breath, I crouched down beside him. His hair was dark and wavy with
silver flecks in it, but I couldn’t see his face. Wendy leaned
against me and nudged my neck with her wet nose. All I could hear
was my own pulse roaring in my ears. I reached out to touch the
man’s hand, and snatched my own back again. His skin was cold, too
cold. I knew that I should check to see if he was still breathing,
but the thought of turning him over repulsed me. Sick with dread, I
reached for his shoulder and rolled him over anyway.
I gasped and sprang back a few steps,
horrified when his eyes seemed to stare straight up into mine. Wendy
barked and shot past me into the trees. I took a few deep breaths
and shone the light full into his face.
“Holy shit,” I whispered. Sculpted
cheek bones, blue eyes, generous mouth. It was Jack.
I stared down at him. My
ex-husband, whom I hadn’t seen for four years, was lying dead beside this
country road in the middle of the Alberta Foothills, and I didn’t have a clue
how he had got here.
Looking past his face, I spotted a hole
in the front of his jacket, right over the chest. I pulled the
jacket open with hands that wouldn’t stop trembling. The grey shirt
beneath it had a big patch of dried blood spread across the front. I
stumbled back a step, a wave of nausea overwhelming me.
Something crackled in the undergrowth
behind me, and I whirled around. A brilliant light flashed in my
face and blinded me. I threw up an arm to shield my eyes, but the
light dropped and inched along the ground, coming to rest over Jack’s
body. I pointed my own light at the black shape advancing toward
me. Wendy crept toward him with a menacing growl, her jowls dragged
back over her teeth, but the man didn’t budge an inch.
“Anna Nolan, what the hell did you do?”
he asked.
2
I sighed with relief as I recognized
Steve Walker, one of our local RCMP officers, until the impact of his words cut
through my mind like a slap in the face.
“What? What are you talking
about? I didn’t have anything to do with this.”
Steve bent to examine the body. I
tried to slip past him, wanting to escape this horrible sight and let Steve
deal with it, but he grabbed my arm and spun me around.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he
demanded. Steve was younger than me, in his late twenties, tall and
good-looking with a slow grin and a low boiling point, but he was all cop as
his eyes delved into mine.
“Go to hell,” I said as I tried to jerk
my arm out of his grip, but he held me fast. We glared at each other
as Wendy slunk up to my side, still growling.
“Control your dog, Anna.”
“Wendy, sit,” I said, looking down at
her. She hesitated and sat. “Good girl,” I said, patting
her head automatically with my free hand before turning back to Steve. “Now
what?”
“Now, you tell me what’s going on
here.” He let me go, and I rubbed my sore arm. Steve and
I sometimes ate together at The Diner with some of the other locals, and I was
inclined to like him. Now, I calculated how best to handle him.
“There’s not much to say. I
was taking Wendy for a walk and she found him. He was dead when I
got here.”
Steve shone his flashlight back over
the body. “I don’t recognize him,” he said. “Do you?”
I hesitated, wondering how much to give
away, and Steve shot me a suspicious look.
“Yeah, I know him,” I said, letting out
a deep breath. “It’s my ex-husband, Jack Nolan.”
Steve inhaled sharply through his
teeth. “What’s he doing here, Anna?”
“Steve, I have absolutely no idea.”
“What do you mean? What’s he
doing here in Crane?”
“I mean that I haven’t seen or heard
from Jack in years. I have no idea why he’s here.”
Steve’s face was grim as he thought for
a moment. “Let’s go back to my cruiser,” he said. “I’ve got to call
for back-up.” He indicated that I should precede him, so Wendy and I
marched ahead through the trees while he trailed behind us.
The brilliant red and blue lights from
his cruiser sliced through the darkness at the side of the road. Steve
unlocked the back door, and I waited for Wendy to hop inside before climbing in
behind her. Steve shut us in and crawled into the front seat to call
for back-up. When he had finished, he turned around to stare at me
through the metal grill that separates the officers from their “guests.”
“What are you doing here anyway?” I
asked.
“We got an anonymous tip that something
suspicious was happening out on Wistler Road. I drove by and heard a
dog howling in the bush. When I pulled over, your dog burst out of
the trees, barking like crazy. By the time I recognized her, she had
turned tail and run back in. I followed her, and there you were with
the body.” He paused, glancing out the window at the enveloping
trees before turning back to me. “Look, Anna, this is going to take
a while. The forensics squad will be along in a few minutes, and
I’ll have to take them back to the crime scene. You’re going to have
to sit tight until I’m done, and then I’ll take you into the station to make a
statement.”
I stared at him, my jaw aching from the
effort of trying to stop my teeth from chattering. The impact of
Jack’s death, plus my horror at being implicated in it, were hitting me hard.
“Alright, Steve.”
He studied me. “Are you
okay, Anna? You look pretty shaky.”
“I guess it’s colder tonight than I
thought.”
“Or maybe you’re going into
shock. Wait a minute.” Popping open the trunk, he got out
of the car and fetched a blanket. “Here, wrap yourself in this,” he
said, opening the back door and handing it to me.
“Th-thanks,” I said, not trusting
myself to look at him. I didn’t want to admit how much finding
Jack’s body upset me, to him or to me. Jack and I were old history.
Steve nodded and leaned against the
side of the car until another cruiser sped up, lights flashing, and pulled in
behind us. Steve walked back to confer with his colleagues. A
few minutes later, three officers climbed out of the vehicle and began
unpacking equipment. A female officer erected orange cones and
flashing lights in the middle of the road and glanced at me on her way back to
the car. I stared straight ahead, refusing to make eye contact with
her. Another vehicle pulled in behind them, and a man got out
carrying an official-looking black bag. He joined the others, and
together they donned white forensic suits. Then Steve led them back
into the bush, their powerful flashlight beams bouncing off the tree trunks
until they disappeared.
I collapsed against the seat, shaking
all over, the memory of my ex-husband’s dead face haunting me. Wendy
leaned against me, and I hugged her tight for comfort. What was Jack
doing in Crane, anyway? Did he have an acting job nearby?
It was his acting career that had
brought us to the Alberta Foothills in the first place. Four years
ago, Jack had been filming a movie in the nearby village of Longview. Longview
was small and housing had been pretty limited in those days, so we had rented a
neat little cottage here in Crane. I had loved the cottage from the
minute I had seen it, a one-storey bungalow with ivy clinging to weathered wood
siding and a pretty rose garden out front. The location had seemed
ideal on the outskirts of town with lots of privacy and access to long walks in
the countryside. The shoot was meant to last for a few months, so we
had enrolled our son, Ben, in the local high school just as he was ready to
start grade ten. Then my Aunt Sharon died and left me the queenly
inheritance of $93,000. We had been getting by on Jack’s acting jobs
up until then, with me picking up whatever temporary secretarial work I could
find, so I was thrilled to have some financial security at last.
When the inheritance cheque arrived,
Jack, Ben and I had gone out to an expensive steak house to celebrate – just
the three of us, with none of the usual movie crowd around. That
meal was my last happy memory of Jack. We had laughed a lot, and
Jack and I got pretty friendly later that night after Ben had gone to
bed. When I woke up the next morning, I was feeling more optimistic
about our marriage. Maybe having the money would take some of the
pressure off our relationship. I made pancakes for my two men and
kissed them both goodbye before walking into town to do some shopping.
But while standing in line at the bank
later that morning, I overheard a movie extra telling her friend about an
affair Jack was having with one of the film’s stuntwomen. I
shouldn’t have been surprised; Jack had cheated on me religiously over the span
of our seventeen-year marriage. This time had been different,
though. I had a nest egg, thanks to my wonderful aunt, and it would
tide Ben and me over until I could find a decent job. Crane had been
as good a place as any to put down roots, so I made a beeline into the loan
manager’s office to talk about mortgages right then and there. Later,
when I got home, I called the owner of our house to see if she was interested
in selling. She was. A chunk of my inheritance money went
into a down payment, and when Jack left town at the end of the shoot, Ben and I
stayed on.
I looked up to see Steve
returning through the trees. I pushed Wendy away and sat up as he
climbed into the front seat and turned to face me.
“I’m going to have to take you to the
station now, Anna.”
“What about a lawyer?” I asked, my
stomach clenched with tension.
His face hardened as he looked at
me. “You have the right to have a lawyer present, Anna. Do
you want one?”
I looked down at my hands. “I’m
not being charged with anything, am I?”
“No, but you do have to make an
official statement about how you found your ex-husband’s body.”
“Fine, I guess I don’t need a
lawyer for that. There’s not much to say, since I’m not guilty of
anything.” He nodded and started up the cruiser. “Steve,
it looked like Jack had been shot,” I blurted.
“The coroner is with him right
now, Anna. We’ll have to wait for the report.” His eyes caught mine
in the rear-view mirror. Usually, Steve’s eyes had a twinkle in
them, but they looked plenty worried as we pulled away.
We drove to the RCMP station on the
other side of Crane. Steve couldn’t leave Wendy alone in the cruiser,
so he led us both through the station’s back door and down a concrete hallway
to a small interview room. It was furnished with a scarred wooden
table, a tissue box, and three plastic chairs. The overhead
fluorescent lights made the room look flat and dreary. I glanced
around, trying not to cringe, and chose the chair facing the door.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes, Anna,”
Steve said, shutting me in with Wendy. I stared at the back of the
door, feeling like I was wrapped in some kind of fog that prevented me from
feeling or thinking straight.
“Jack is dead. Jack is
dead. Somebody shot him. Jack is dead,” my mind chanted
over and over while Wendy sniffed around the room and finally settled at my
feet. The door opened a few minutes later, and Steve re-entered
carrying a glass of water and a plastic bowl. He set the glass down
on the table in front of me, and the bowl on the floor for Wendy.
“Here you are, girl,” he said. As
Wendy rose and began lapping up the water, my eyes began to tear. I
was just about to thank Steve for his unexpected kindness when the door opened
and Staff Sergeant Eddy Mason strolled into the room. He hesitated,
his eyebrows rising when he saw Wendy drinking from the bowl.
“You providing room service, Walker?”
he asked. Steve looked coolly back at him without saying a
word. “Evening, Ms. Nolan,” Eddie said, shifting his gaze to
me. He shut the door and took the seat opposite me. Steve
pulled a notepad from his pocket and slid into the chair at the end of the
table.
I knew Eddy by sight. We
bumped into each other from time to time at the Post Office, where we chatted
about the weather or complained about the number of advertising flyers stuffed
into our mail boxes. He was a short, rotund man with glasses perched
on the end of his nose who didn’t in the least resemble Santa Claus, despite
the similarity in their proportions.
Eddy didn’t waste any time with
pleasantries. He plunged right into questions, asking me to describe
the events leading up to the discovery of Jack’s body. Steve took
notes, keeping his face buried in his pad.
“I got home from work tonight about
5:15. Traffic was bad – there was an accident leaving the city.”
“Where is work, Ms. Nolan?”
“I work at Chinook University in
Calgary. I’m the administrative assistant for the Kinesiology
Department.”
Eddy nodded. “How long have
you worked there?”
“Four years.”
“And?”
“And I had a book club meeting at the
library at 6 p.m., so I didn’t have a lot of time to get ready. I
let Wendy out and fed her, changed my clothes, and made a sandwich. I
left the house about 5:45 and walked to the library.”
“Who else was at the meeting, Ms.
Nolan?”
“There were only three of us tonight,
Sergeant. May Weston, Erna Dombrosky, and me. One
of the other ladies was sick, and Helen McDonald is away on vacation.”
“Were Erna and May already there when
you arrived?”
I thought for a moment. “Usually
I’m last, since I’m the only one who works outside of town, but Erna came in a
couple of minutes after I did.”
“So then what happened?”
“The meeting broke up early because
there were only the three of us. Around 7:30. I left the
library and walked home.”
“Did the other two ladies leave with
you, Ms. Nolan?”
“No. Erna said something
about wanting to find a book, and May stayed to give her a lift home. I
left on my own.”
“And what happened next?”
“I walked home and read for a while.”
“Did you see anyone on the walk home,
Ms. Nolan?”
“I don’t remember seeing anyone,
Sergeant. It was raining and I was using an umbrella. My
head was down.”
Eddy nodded. He seemed
relaxed and in control of the situation, while my nerves were frazzled. “So,
you went home and read – for how long?”
“Till 9:30. Then it was time
for Wendy’s walk.” Wendy stirred at the mention of her name and
started to get up. “Lie down, girl,” I murmured.
“It would have been dark by then, Ms.
Nolan. Do you always walk your dog at night? You live
right on the edge of town, don’t you?”
“Yes, but the dark doesn’t bother
me. I know the area really well and I feel safe.”
“Go on. Was it still
raining?”
“No, it stopped sometime after I got
back from the library.”
“Where did you walk?”
“Down Wistler Road headed out of town.”
“Did anyone see you?”
“No, no one.” I went on to
explain how Wendy had found Jack’s body, finishing with an abridged history of
my marriage and divorce, including my lack of contact with my ex-husband over
the past few years.
“When was the last time you saw Jack
Nolan?” Eddy asked.
“About four years ago when we met at
the lawyer’s office to finalize the divorce details. Jack gave me
full custody of Ben and was supposed to contact me whenever he wanted to see
him.”
“So, did he?”
“No.”
“Never?
“No. Jack wasn’t around much
when Ben was growing up. He’d be away for weeks at a time on a film
shoot. Other times he’d be at home, but with theatre rehearsals and
evening performances, he wasn’t home a lot. After we separated, he
just didn’t bother to see Ben.”
“Yeah? Seems pretty odd, a
father not bothering to see his son all those years. Must have made
you pretty mad, cheating on you and being a lousy father.”
I coloured. “Who said
anything about cheating?” I glanced over at Steve, whose face was
expressionless as he stared at the table top.
Eddy balanced his chair on its back
legs. “Pretty common knowledge in a town this size, Anna. That
why your marriage broke up?”
I met his eyes and looked away,
flustered. It was bad enough to find Jack’s body; I didn’t bargain
on having to explain my marriage to the police, too. “It was more
complicated than that,” I muttered.
“You don’t say?” I didn’t
elaborate. “Alright, so your husband didn’t visit you or Ben after
the divorce. What about telephone calls or e-mails?”
I clasped my trembling hands together
to steady them, and leaned my elbows on the table. “I’ll tell you
something, Eddy. A year ago, I wrote to Jack care of his agent to
invite him to Ben’s high school graduation. Jack didn’t bother to
show up. That was the extent of my correspondence with my
ex-husband.”
Eddy grunted. “One last
thing, Anna. When you found the body, was it damp or dry?”
“Dry,” I said.
He glanced at Steve, and they both
stood up. “That’s good enough for now, Anna. Steve will
get your statement typed up and be back to have you sign it. You
wait here until it’s ready.”
They left, leaving Wendy and me shut up
in the interrogation room again. I stared at my folded hands on top
of the table and thought about Jack lying there all alone on the cold
ground. Soon the tears started to come. Damn that
man. He’d given me plenty of trouble during our marriage, but now
that he was possibly murdered, and probably deservedly so, I grieved for
him. I lay my head down on top of my arms and sobbed. Wendy
crept over and nuzzled my leg before lying down at my feet.
After a while, the tears turned into
sniffles and I began to think. I loved mystery novels and had read
plenty of them, especially Agatha Christie’s. In all of the mysteries
I’d ever read, the police always suspected the person who found the body.
“Pull yourself together, Anna,” I urged
myself. “You’re in a bad situation and you’ve got to start using
your brain.” I grabbed a few tissues from the box on the table and
mopped my face. By the time Steve returned with the paperwork, I was
back in control. I noticed that he left the door open this time.
“Okay, Anna, please read your statement
and sign it,” he said. I did as he asked and handed it back to
him.
“Okay – that’s it for tonight. I’m
going to drive you home. Just make sure you stay in town for the
next few days so that you’re available for questioning in case we need
you.” Steve’s bearing was stiff and he didn’t make eye contact as he
spoke. I wondered what he had to feel uncomfortable about. Maybe
the other officers had come back from the crime scene with some information
that made him feel uncomfortable with me.
“Have you found out anything yet,
Steve?”
“Yeah – maybe – nothing good,” he
replied, squatting down to pat Wendy. She licked his hand, now that
the situation was non-threatening. He stood up as I got out of my
chair and came around the table to lean beside him.
“Look, Anna,” he said, glancing
sideways, “that stuff you said about Jack not talking to you all those years –
are you sure about that?”
“Positive. Once our divorce
was settled, Jack disappeared.”
He glared at me. “Come on,
don’t lie to me. We know that Jack called you earlier tonight.”
My stomach somersaulted and I grabbed
the edge of the table for support. “Wh-what are you talking
about? Jack didn’t call me,” I said.
“No?” he replied, his eyes boring into
mine. “The call history on his cell phone says otherwise. Did
he call you at other times, too?”
“No, he didn’t. I
swear he didn’t, Steve. What time was he supposed to have called me,
anyway?”
“At 7 p.m. Was he waiting
for you somewhere, Anna? Did he call because you were late for a
meeting with him?
“I don’t believe it. Why would
he call me?”
“You tell me,” Steve said, his
expression stony.
“No, I’m telling you the truth. Is
this some kind of trick?” I was starting to panic and my voice grew
louder. “I told you, I wasn’t even home at 7:00. I was at
the book club meeting from 6:00 to 7:30. Talk to May and Erna. They’ll
tell you that I was at the library with them.”
I was fighting hard not to cry. Wendy
began to whine, and I squatted down to pat her while trying to control
myself. I glanced out the door and saw a woman officer peering down
the hallway at us. Steve nodded, and she disappeared.
“You believe me, don’t you, Steve?” I
asked, looking up at him from the floor.
“Look, we’ll be checking with the other
book club members tomorrow. There’s no need to hold you any longer
tonight.” He took my hand and hauled me to my feet. “Come
on, Anna, it’s late. Let’s get you and your dog home.” The
anger had faded from his eyes.
I laid my hand on his arm. “Look,
I’m sorry I shouted just now. I guess I’m pretty shook up. I
just can’t believe that this is all really happening.”
“So, sleep on it, and maybe you’ll
remember something useful in the morning.”
Steve drove us home and waited while I
turned the key in my front door before backing down the driveway and pulling
away. I went inside, dead tired and numb.
~ - ~
(Anna and her friends are back for more adventures in Book Two of the Anna Nolan Mystery series, Town Haunts. For purchase information, click on the "Bookstore" tab on this website.)
If you would like to be contacted when new books are due for release, please leave your name and e-mail address with the "Contact Cathy" app to the right of this post.
