Framed to Death (A Faith Hunter Scrap This Mystery Book 4)

by Christina Freeburn

  “I know the reason.” Dawn gazed lovingly at her mom, a sad smile playing across her lips. “He didn’t want my mom to worry about me. He adores…adored my mom and knew she was worried about us. My mom isn’t doing well, and Chad didn’t want our situation burdening her so he said that to make her feel better.”

  “That makes sense,” I said.

  Lucy’s movements grew more erratic, almost pitching herself out of the wheelchair.

  Dawn sank to her knees and wrapped her mom, wheelchair and all, in a hug. “What’s wrong, Mama? Are you too hot?”

  Lucy raised a curled hand and brought it forward and back like she was pointing at me.

  “Is Faith upsetting you because of what she’s saying about Chad?” Dawn set a look on me that could’ve frozen hell.

  Lucy shifted her shoulders, moaning and raising her arm toward me.

  I squatted down, meeting Lucy’s gaze. “Chad planned to set the store on fire?”

  Her mom moved her upper body back and forth, like a nod.

  “No. It can’t be.” Dawn cupped a hand over her mouth as tears fell down her cheeks. “Felicity said she killed him. She started the fire. Why would she lie about that?”

  Good question. “Could they have been working together?” As I asked, I realized it didn’t make much sense, but neither did Felicity confessing to a crime she didn’t commit. Felicity hated Chad. And it seemed the feeling was mutual. Had it all been an act? Charlotte had told Felicity I was planning on talking to Chad. Maybe she really came along to get me off Chad’s case. The woman had gone off the deep end pretty quickly, with Chad goading her to take the jump.

  Lucy continued making the rapid movements, adding in low moans and guttural noises.

  “You want to go back to your room?” Dawn asked.

  Lucy’s eyes brightened.

  Using the wheelchair, Dawn pushed herself to her feet, then fluffed her mom’s hair with her fingers. “I’ll give you a call later, Faith, so we can talk some more about this.”

  Lucy raised her crooked hand and tapped my cheek right under my eye.

  “She wants to show you something,” Dawn said.

  A prickling sensation rushed across the top of my head and neck. I jumped up, spinning around. No one was behind me, but I still felt like someone was watching. This was a beautiful garden, so it was unlikely we were the only ones in it.

  The sensation of someone spying on me intensified. Nancy had said the other nurses wouldn’t be thrilled with my being there. I was known around town for asking questions and involving myself in police matters. Everyone was a fan of the truth until it revealed something they didn’t want known.

  Dawn set a fast pace down the halls to her mother’s room. I wasn’t sure if she didn’t want anyone to see me going with her, or she wished to get the secret out of her mother’s room. A large bulletin board stretched across the hallway wall. Poster boards were displayed, listing classes available for the residents: fire safety, internet scams, cooking, card making.

  One of my grandmothers or I should talk with the director about doing a scrapbooking class, I thought. I bet the residents had wonderful stories to document and pass on to their children and grandchildren.

  Lucy’s room was the second to the last. Dawn unlocked the door and wheeled her mom inside. Yellow curtains with daisies framed the windows and a matching comforter was on the hospital bed. A plug-in fall fragrance made the room smell as wonderful as the garden. Bookshelves lined the walls, filled with childhood classics: Little House on the Prairie, Black Stallion, a Misty of Chincoteague collection, The Bobbsey Twins, and Nancy Drew.

  “My mother is an avid reader of children’s literature.”

  “She has great taste,” I said.

  “That she does.” Dawn smoothed a lock of hair away from her mother’s face.

  Lucy swayed forward toward the bedside table. The only object on the surface was a picture of the Carrs and Lucy.

  “What Mom wants to show you is in here.” Dawn sat on the bed and opened the drawer. She pulled out a Bible, a stack of letters, a bank book, and an envelope.

  Lucy didn’t react to anything.

  “Is there anything else in there?” I stepped close and peered inside. A few scraps of paper remained in the drawer.

  “Nothing,” Dawn said.

  Lucy made a soft pained sound.

  “Maybe it’s written on one of these pieces of paper.” I pulled them out, placing them on the bed. A stack of business cards were in the back corner.

  When I took out the business cards, Lucy grew excited. She hummed and flailed her arms toward it. I flipped it over. Vulcan Catering. This was the third time I’d come across the card. “Was Chad planning on opening up a food business?”

  “He never mentioned it to me.”

  I handed her the card. “This is for a catering company. From the decoration on the card, I’d say barbeque.”

  Lucy moaned in frustration.

  “I love cooking and watching the food truck shows. Chad had been making some private phone calls he wouldn’t talk to me about,” Dawn said. “He must have wanted to surprise me.”

  “There’s a number on here.”

  Dawn dialed the number. “It went straight to a voicemail that repeated the number, nothing else.”

  “Maybe Chad hadn’t set it up yet.”

  Lucy slung her body toward her daughter.

  “Mama, I’m trying to understand. I am.” Dawn settled her mother back into the chair.

  I swiped my finger on my cell screen and brought up a search engine. “Let’s see if I can find anything about Vulcan Catering.”

  The first option was for Vulcan, Star Trek. The next one, Vulcan, God of fire and volcanoes. Lake’s strange behavior played in my head, mixing in with Charlie’s suspicion about the fires. There was nothing about a Vulcan Catering. Chad had told his mother-in-law he found a way to make money. And Dawn mentioned private calls. Had Chad turned to arson? Either setting it or arranging it for his store? “Is it possible Chad set Made With Love on fire?”

  Dawn tore the card I held into shreds and shoved the rest into her purse. “I know Chad wasn’t the hero I saw. But he’s also not the villain everyone else claims. He didn’t set those fires. And he didn’t kill himself.”

  Lucy fixed her intelligent gaze on me. I could read in Lucy’s eyes what her daughter refused to understand. Chad had set Made With Love on fire. He just hadn’t planned on killing himself.

  As I walked out of the facility, I called the number on the business card. Dawn needed to believe in her husband’s innocence so much, I couldn’t trust that she told me the truth. The phone rang twice before a message played with an automated voice repeating the number.

  I knew my next step—filling Ted in on everything I discovered. My heart broke for Dawn. The ugly truth was going to destroy her.

  “Go to the interview room and stay put. Don’t move until Ted gets here,” Bobbi-Annie greeted me when I walked into the police station. She readjusted her headset so the mouthpiece was closer to her mouth. “And don’t tell anyone I told you to hide out back there.”

  “What—”

  Bobbi-Annie pressed a finger to her mouth and shook her head, pointing down the hallway where the only rooms with doors were located. Most of the area in the station was an open bay, the exceptions being Chief Moore’s office, the one interview room, a holding area, and the one restroom.

  I’d argue with her, but since Bobbi-Annie wasn’t participating in the conversation, I’d be quarrelling with myself, and I already did that enough. Since Bobbi-Annie warned me not to leave, I snagged a Diet Coke from the vending machine on the way to the room. Who knew how long I’d be there, and why Ted demanded I wait for him. Okay, technically Bobbi-Annie told me to hang out in there, but I was cer
tain Ted issued the order.

  Had Dawn called the police and informed them that I was on my way to disparage her husband’s character rather than redeem it as she had asked me to do?

  I took a seat on a metal chair, placing my purse on the table, and shifted in all different directions trying to find a comfortable spot on the chair. Not working. I moved to another seat and experienced the same problem. The room wasn’t made for relaxation. The minutes dragged by. I dug my phone from my purse and opened a game. Might as well amuse myself until Ted arrived.

  As I reached the end of my lives, the door opened.

  “It’s about time.” I dropped my phone back into my bag.

  “Nice of you to stop by.” Officer Mitchell strode in.

  I straightened my spine, hoping to exude confidence even though my insides quivered. “I came to speak with Detective Roget.”

  “About the Carr case, I presume.” Mitchell leaned forward, bracing himself on the table.

  “Presume what you want.”

  He grinned at me, a cross between full-out evil and a comeuppance was coming. “Trust me, I am. I’m sure you’re here because you just happen to have information that is necessary for Roget to solve the case. Details, I’m sure, that take you squarely off the suspect list and put someone else on it.”

  “I’m not a suspect. Felicity confessed. Or haven’t you been paying attention to what’s going on in Eden?”

  “I have been paying attention to what’s going on in this, and how you seem to be smack in the middle of all of it.”

  “It’s hard not to get involved when a police officer keeps accusing you of being involved even though there is a suspect in jail for it.”

  “A woman who’s confessing to a crime for the benefits it gives her, not because she actually did it.” Officer Mitchell sat in the other chair, stretching his muscular legs out.

  “What are you talking about?” I shoved the tremor out of my voice.

  “Felicity couldn’t have killed Chad Carr,” he said. “But I’m sure you could’ve.”

  “She said she did it,” I said. “And I wasn’t there. I was at home.”

  “Alone. Right? Or were you with Steve Davis?” He leaned forward. “How about you tell me what happened that night? Did you find out Chad Carr was a drug dealer and was planning on letting you take the fall for it? He didn’t go running to the police to tell them you weren’t dealing Janie. That’s a mighty good reason to kill him. Did you confront him Friday night? Maybe he tried making a move on you…forcing some unwanted attention your way and you had to defend yourself. You’re not the type to sit back and let someone push you around.”

  Coldness shot through my body. Officer Mitchell was interrogating me, trying to give me an “out” for the murder he was certain I committed. I wasn’t falling for that trick a second time. I was older, smarter, and had solved a few murders myself.

  “I have nothing to say to you.”

  “That’s unusual. You’ve had no problem talking about this case around town. Visiting Dawn and her mother. Talking with Charlotte Hanson and her daughter. Mrs. Barlow.”

  Calmly, even though my knees quivered, I picked up my purse and headed for the door. He couldn’t hold me here.

  “You’re not the only one playing detective in town, Hunter. Karen has strong evidence to prove her cousin is innocent,” Mitchell said.

  SIXTEEN

  The doorbell rang, sending my nerves into a frazzle worthy of a naughty child going to speak to Santa Claus. I knew I didn’t do anything wrong. Okay, not really wrong, but I still feared that on the other side of the door was an officer ready to haul my butt to jail.

  I peered through the peephole. It was an officer. I just wasn’t sure if he was here to lecture me or arrest me. I cracked the door open and peeked at Ted. “Can I help you?”

  “Let me in, Faith.” He waved a takeout bag. “Hamburgers and fries from your favorite fast food place. I know you skip meals when you’re upset. I want to know what Mitchell said to you.”

  Since he was here on a truce mission, and had food, I let Ted inside. “Mitchell thinks I’m the real murderer, even though the woman who confessed is behind bars.”

  Ted shut the door with his foot. “Kitchen or living room?”

  “Living room.” I cleared coloring books and pens from the coffee table. I collapsed onto the couch and waited for Ted to serve me.

  He handed me a wrapped burger and a medium container of fries.

  “Thanks.” I tucked my feet under me and nibbled at my food.

  “What else did he say? Bobbi-Annie said you hightailed out of the station like there was a crime you needed to solve.”

  I narrowed my eyes. His joke wasn’t funny. “He had a whole bunch of scenarios on my motive for killing Chad, and he also knows who I’ve been talking to.”

  Ted wiped his mouth with a napkin. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

  “What doesn’t? That he’s made a list of reasons why I’d want Chad dead? Or that he’s been spying on me? He’s certain Felicity’s innocent. Said that she couldn’t have done it and Karen will prove it.”

  Ted choked on his food. I whacked his back a few times to get everything unclogged from his windpipe.

  “I’ll be damned,” Ted said, once he regained the ability to speak. “It’s not Jasper.”

  “What isn’t?” I was growing frustrated at becoming the “what” girl. I bet it was how Ted felt about me. Usually our conversations were Ted asking me what was going on.

  “Jasper isn’t the one leaking details of the case to Karen England. It’s Mitchell. Considering Jasper is in love with Karen, we didn’t probe too hard as we were certain it was him, and since he’s out on medical leave, the chief thought it was best to let it be a bygone.”

  “He’s going to be all right?”

  Ted nodded. “Though he’s going to be a little brokenhearted when he finds out Karen is taking up with Mitchell. Jasper could’ve been seriously hurt.”

  “Or killed.” The words trembled out of me.

  “I don’t think they would’ve killed him.”

  “I haven’t heard that the people responsible have been arrested.”

  “Unfortunately, there are a lot of tight lips in this community, and no one wants to admit which adults took part in the assault. Rutherford swears he was helping, and while the other parents acknowledge it, they won’t tell us how he was involved. Jasper was attacked from behind, so he didn’t see.”

  “Andrew Taylor was there. Rutherford blamed him for it.”

  “Rutherford meant Andrew was the one who posted on the team’s Facebook page that Karen England and an officer were having a private chat with the kids at the high school.”

  “How did Andrew know?”

  “Rutherford swears Andrew told him. Andrew swears that Rutherford texted him about it.”

  “Easy enough. Check his texts.”

  Ted rolled his eyes. “Thank you for sharing that brilliant idea. I’d never have thought about it. Andrew deleted the text. He never keeps any of them.”

  Since Ted was in a sharing mood, I decided to ask another question, hoping he’d go with the flow. “Why is Officer Mitchell certain Felicity is innocent even though the woman confessed? He has to have a reason, besides having a thing for Karen.”

  “I can’t tell you, Faith.”

  “It’s not like you’re revealing something top secret. Mitchell already hinted at it. He said it wasn’t possible that Felicity killed Chad. I don’t know why he’d say that, since she did start a fire previously.”

  The look passing across Ted’s face said it all. Chad hadn’t been killed by the fire.

  “Was Chad shot?”

  “It’s best you not know.” Ted gathered up the trash. “I don’t want you revealing
it to anyone.”

  I clutched a decorated pillow against my stomach. “You don’t trust me. You’re afraid I’m going to tell someone and then the murderer will know.”

  Ted started to reply, growing quiet when the front door began opening. He motioned for me to hide behind the corner of the couch, placing a hand near the holster at his hip.

  I shoved his hand away. “It’s my grandmothers. I called in to work annoyed, and they’re coming to make sure I’m not doing something lame-brained.”

  Instead of my grandmother walking in, it was Steve. My face flamed. Anger wormed through my entire body. I had forgotten to ask Steve for my key back, but after our talk on Saturday, he should’ve known popping in to surprise me was no longer appropriate.

  Ted gathered up the garbage, turning toward the kitchen. “I trust you. Others not so much.”

  Did he mean Steve? I looked from one man to the other. Steve gave Ted a hard stare, which he returned.

  “I’ll just throw this out at my place.” Ted changed direction. “It’ll get me out of your way quicker so you can carry on with your night.”

  “Ted, wait.” I placed a hand on his arm. He jerked away from my touch and walked out the door.

  I slammed it shut and thrust my hand out. “Give me my key. You have no right to just walk in here.”

  “I saw Roget’s car and figured the threat to arrest you was no longer just a threat.” Steve dropped the key onto my palm. “I came to help you.”

  “There’s no reason for them to arrest me.”

  “Chad Carr’s murder.”

  “Felicity did it. Remember? She’s in jail. Admitted to it.”

  “She lied,” Steve said.

  “She’s recanting her statement?”

  “She hasn’t.”

  “Then I’m safe. There’s no reason for you to barge into my home.”

  “Karen brought the police her cousin’s medical records proving Felicity couldn’t have bludgeoned Chad Carr to death. She has rheumatoid arthritis and wouldn’t have been able to lift up an object heavy enough to crush in Chad’s head.”