Framed for Murder

by Cathy Spencer

  Chapter 16

  Erna was free to have lunch with me, and we spent a pleasant quarter of an hour ambling back to my house after service the next day. At seventy-nine, Erna’s step was still sprightly. She knew everyone in town, including the more recent additions to the subdivision, and nodded or exchanged a word with everyone we passed while still managing to hold up her end of the conversation with me. Erna’s hair was snowy white, and she wore it in a tight bun. Her clothes were from an earlier era of cardigan sweaters, wool skirts, and single strand pearls, probably left over from her days as a high school teacher. I wondered if her old-maidish appearance was an intentional disguise to hide a mind as keen as a steel trap and eyes that never missed a thing. I wasn’t kidding when I had suggested to May that she and Erna should open a detective agency.

  Wendy was waiting for us when I unlocked the front door, and we stepped inside. Erna bent down until she was eye-level with my dog. “Good morning, Wendy. How are you today?” she asked.

  Wendy sat down and extended a paw to our visitor. Erna took it and gave it two solemn shakes before turning to smile up at me. “I see that Wendy still remembers the little trick I taught her when I looked after her last summer. Such an intelligent dog,” she said, straightening.

  “You made a big impression on her. She doesn’t behave nearly so well for me.”

  “Children and dogs both need discipline. Maintaining high expectations usually has a beneficial effect – it gives our charges something to live up to.” She reached down and stroked Wendy’s sleek head. “Yes, you’re a good girl,” she crooned.

  “Please come through to the kitchen,” I invited, gesturing for her to precede me. “I have some home-made potato salad and cold cuts. Can I make you some tea, or would you prefer something cold to drink?”

  “Tea would be just fine. Oh, what pretty flowers you have on the table. Did you get them from May?”

  We chatted while I put water on to boil and arranged potato salad, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and rolls on the table. Erna was fond of dill pickles and pearl onions, and I had a dish of them ready for her.

  Erna watched me move about the kitchen. “So, how did Ben do in his first year of university?” she asked.

  “Actually, better than I would have imagined,” I replied. “His grades were pretty decent, and he seemed to stay on top of things. That couldn’t have been easy with roommates, a part-time job, and an active social life to distract him.”

  “He always seemed level-headed to me, Anna. You’ve raised him well, even with having to uproot him so frequently. Not to mention the trouble you had with your ex-husband. How is he handling his father’s death, by the way?”

  I brought the tea to the table to steep. “He’s pretty angry about the whole thing, to tell you the truth. You know how disappointed Ben was with his father, and now he blames Jack for being murdered, too. It wasn’t a very respectable way to go, from Ben’s point of view, and there’s all the notoriety surrounding the case, too.”

  “I’m afraid that we don’t all die peacefully in our beds.”

  I smiled ruefully. “No, and Jack was never destined for an honourable end. Of course, it didn’t help that the RCMP sergeant questioned Ben about his whereabouts on the night that Jack was killed.”

  “Sergeant Tremaine, isn’t it?”

  “That’s right. Have you met him?”

  “As a matter of fact, he stopped by when I was reading the newspaper out on my front porch last Tuesday.”

  “Checking on my alibi with the book club, I suppose?”

  “That’s right, dear. He was very particular about the time you left the library. I told him that your car wasn’t in the parking lot when I came in, and since I came in after you did, it was evident that you did not drive your car to the library that night.”

  “Thanks, Erna, you’re a wonder. I don’t know how you remember all those details.”

  Erna grinned a Cheshire-cat kind of smile. “Of course, you could have parked your car on a side street and I wouldn’t have seen it, but I didn’t mention that to the sergeant.”

  I grinned back. “Thank you. I appreciate you keeping that to yourself.”

  “Now tell me – I understand that you’re investigating the murder on your own?”

  I stopped smiling and raised my eyebrows. “How did you hear that?”

  “Amy Bright did my hair yesterday. She was still upset by what happened at the Primos’ house, and felt that she could confide in me. I marvel at your bravery.”

  “More like foolhardiness, you mean. I just hope that the Primos never find out that I searched their house and took their gun. But now that Amy has spilled the beans, I wonder if you can help me with something?”

  “I’d be more than happy to. What can I do for you?” Erna put down her fork and gave me all of her attention.

  “I don’t know if you heard about it at the time, but Jack was seeing a woman on the film that brought us here four years ago. She was a stunt woman named Jessie Wick. Jack’s affair with Jessie was ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’ for me.”

  “Yes, I did hear something about it at the time. I’m afraid that it was common knowledge around town.”

  I shook my head. “It’s true that ‘the wife is always the last to know.’ Anyway, I wondered if you knew anything about Jessie?”

  “Oh yes, I know quite a bit about Jessie and her family,” Erna said. “They still have a ranch south of Longview. It belonged to her mother’s people. Let me organize my thoughts for a moment, and I’ll tell you what I remember.” She tapped one finger against her cheek while I waited for her to begin.

  “Jessie’s father was Randolph Wick. He grew up on a ranch somewhere in the north-western United States before joining the Marines to fight in the Korean War. He did quite well, as I remember, attaining the rank of captain. When the war was over, he left the Marines and wandered around the United States and Canada for a few years. Men often get wanderlust after a war, I’ve heard. Randolph ended up here in the Foothills, where he worked as a ranch hand for the Washburn family. Jessie’s mother, Carol, was their only daughter, and quite a bit younger than Randolph. She’s still alive, you know. She had a stroke about five years ago and is living in a nursing home now. Anyway, Randolph was a good-looking man with a certain rough charm when he was still alive. Apparently, he swept Carol right off her feet. She had a brother who wasn’t interested in the ranch – he became a lawyer in Toronto. So Carol and Randolph married and ran the ranch for her father until they inherited it following his death. They had two children, Jessie and her brother, Gregory.

  “Now, Jessie was always the apple of her father’s eye. She used to ride the range with him when she was just a wee thing not yet old enough to be in school. As she grew up, Jessie became quite a horsewoman and participated in local rodeo competitions, always winning her events. She also became a beauty queen before she finished high school. She was a pretty girl – tall, good figure, with the most striking long, blue-black hair. Oh yes, she had many admirers and got into the usual scrapes. She was a wanderer, like her father, and wanted to leave home. That’s when she got the idea of becoming an actress. When Randolph died about fifteen years ago, she headed for Toronto. I understand that she got some work in movies and television – mostly minor roles, as I remember. She wasn’t able to make a very good living in Ontario, so she came back here to the ranch. Her brother Gregory was running it, and welcomed her home. The ranch has a big family house – the kind that is designed for multi-generation use – and she stays there and helps when she can’t find film work. But she inherited a home from her father, a cabin that he built on the Elbow River in Kananaskis Country. She spends a fair amount of time there by herself. And that’s all that I can tell you about Jessie and her family.”

  I stared at Erna in amazement. “How do you know so much about the Wick family?”

  She smiled. “I’ve been part of a bird-watching club with her mother’s sister for the past tw
enty years. You hear a lot about people’s families when you’re tramping through the woods together. That, and I’ve always had a strong memory for detail.”

  “Do you happen to know where Jessie’s cabin is?”

  “You’re in luck. A group of us went bird-watching near the cabin a year ago, and Jessie’s aunt pointed it out on the way. If you have a road map, I believe that I can show you how to find it.”

  I hurried to find my map and wrote down the directions that Erna gave me. When we were finished, Erna poured herself another cup of tea and settled back into her chair. “And how are you coping with the murder investigation? I’ve been worried about you. You seemed quite nervy when I saw you at The Diner last Monday. It must have been very unpleasant to discover your ex-husband’s body.”

  I smiled wanly and shrugged. “It was a nightmare, Erna. Literally. I’ve been having bad dreams about it ever since.”

  Erna patted my arm. “I’m not surprised. It must have been a very traumatic experience.”

  “Yes, and it’s raised all kinds of memories that I thought I had laid to rest. Being married to Jack was like a rollercoaster ride, you know? All ups and downs. We were so terribly happy in the beginning. It still makes me sad to think of how it all ended.” Erna tutted and shook her head.

  “I kick myself for marrying Jack in the first place, you know? Watching him around other women, it was obvious that he was never going to be faithful to me, no matter how much I loved him. I couldn’t change him.”

  Erna sighed. “My dear, I’ve heard that very same regret voiced by so many women.”

  “Oh, I know. I’m not the only person who married badly. But there’s something that’s always bothered me about those days, something that I’ve never told anyone but my mother. She’s gone now. I’ve been thinking about Jack so much over the past week. Would you mind if I talked to you about it? It’s like a cut that’s re-opened. I would feel better if I could talk to someone about it.”

  “Go ahead, dear, if you like, although we’ve all done things we’re ashamed of.” Erna shook her head and stared meditatively down at the table, and I wondered what stories she could tell.

  “Well, I was just so green and stupid at the time. You see, I was only twenty the first time Jack cheated on me. It was with an eighteen year old actress he was working with. She was a child, really, and the whole thing was so stupid. How could he have betrayed our marriage for something so worthless? It wasn’t as if he were in love with her. Anyway, I wanted to get back at him, to hurt him like he had hurt me and, of course, my pride had taken a beating. I wanted to feel desirable again, to prove to Jack that other men still wanted me, even if he didn’t.”

  “So you had an affair?” Erna asked, her sharp eyes watching me.

  “Actually, no I didn’t. Something stopped me. Don’t misunderstand me, I was no saint, and I was very tempted. There was a young actor I was working with. We had met at a scene study class, and he had always had a bit of a crush on me. He was totally different from Jack – slender, sensitive, a very sweet boy. So, on the night I found out about Jack, I went out for a drink with him and poured out all my troubles. I even went home with him because I couldn’t bear the thought of seeing Jack back at our apartment. We kissed a little, but that was as far as things went. Jack and I had made wedding vows to each other, and even if he broke his, I wasn’t about to break mine.

  Erna leaned toward me across the table. “A few kisses aren’t anything to be ashamed of after all this time, Anna.”

  “No, but that’s not what’s bothering me. I didn’t cheat on Jack, but I told him that I had. I lied to him to get even. I had adored him, would have done anything for him, but I turned into a manipulative bitch to make him suffer. I let the lie go on for an entire month, coming and going at odd hours, making him sleep on the couch, pretending that I was talking on the phone with my lover. After that, the whole thing made me feel so sick that I told him the affair was over. He was desperate to have me back. He said that he still loved me, that we had both made mistakes, but that it didn’t matter anymore. So, my lie worked. I got him back, and I thought I had won. If I had had half a brain, I would have broken it off with him then and there. But I didn’t. I still loved him too much. We made up, and I never told Jack the truth. He died thinking that I had cheated on him.”

  Erna stared at me for a moment and I blushed, wondering if my confession had made her think less of me. “Did you ever tell Ben that story?” she asked.

  “What? No, never. I would be too embarrassed to tell Ben. Besides, it was so long ago, before he was born.”

  “But don’t you see, Anna, telling him that you lied to Jack might make all the difference in the world to Ben. You said that he was still angry with his father. As a matter of fact, Ben’s been angry ever since I’ve known him. Do you remember the trouble he used to get into?

  “Yes, he used to act out around his birthdays and at Christmas each year because Jack never came to see him. Remember the Christmas that he shoplifted at May’s store? He would have had a juvenile record if she had called the police.”

  Erna nodded. “Yes, I remember. But can’t you see that Jack might have had a reason for being such a poor father?”

  I stared at her. “What are you talking about? What reason could he have had for not seeing his own son for four years?”

  Erna took hold of my hand. “Because he might have doubted that Ben was his son.” I shook my head, and she took a firmer grip. “Think about it, Anna. You told me before that you were twenty-one when you had Ben.” I nodded. “Well, you told your husband that you had had an affair when you were twenty. Maybe he thought you were pregnant by your lover.” I covered my mouth with my free hand, stunned by her words. “I’m sorry, I know how hard it must be for you to hear this, but maybe Jack had trouble loving Ben because of the lie you put between them.”

  “Oh my Lord, Erna, how can you think that? I got pregnant with Ben after Jack and I started sleeping together again. Ben was full-term. There was no reason for Jack to doubt that Ben was his.” I pulled my hand away from hers and burst into tears.

  Erna shook her head, her eyes reflecting my pain. “But, if it was close, Anna? If there was room for doubt, might it not have poisoned his mind?”

  I thought of Jack’s unpredictable behaviour toward Ben, of how he had been a loving father one moment and so distant the next that it was as if he had locked Ben out of his heart. Had that been the behaviour of a man who doubted his son’s paternity, or of someone who had become too self-absorbed and careless in his relationships? Had my anger clouded my judgement? Just because Jack hadn’t loved me enough to be faithful, did that mean that he hadn’t loved his son enough, either?

  “Oh, Erna,” I cried, tears streaming down my face as I raised my eyes to hers. “All these years I’ve been blaming Jack for being so indifferent to Ben when it might have been all my fault!”

  She got up from her chair and came around the table to hug me. Laying my head on her thin shoulder, I sobbed while she rocked me like a child. “Hush, it’s all right, Anna,” she said, stroking my hair. “I may be wrong, and even if it is true, it’s not all your fault. If Jack wasn’t sure about his son, he should have asked you about it. A brave man would have wanted to know the truth. Here, wipe your face, now.” She pushed the paper napkins toward me and I dried my face.

  “I’ll make more tea,” she said, getting up from the table to add water to the kettle and set it on the stove to boil. I watched her blearily as she dumped out the used teabags and fetched fresh ones from the cupboard. She was so small that she had to stand on tiptoe to reach them. The water came to a boil, and she made a fresh pot. I watched as she poured us each another cup.

  “Anna, what are you thinking?” she asked, sitting back down at the table.

  I sighed. “I don’t know. I’m going to have to wrestle with this one for a while.”

  “But dear, even if there’s only a slight chance of it being true, don’t you see what
a difference it would make to Ben? Maybe he would stop hating his father and find some peace with the way things were between them at last.”

  “And start hating me instead,” I muttered.

  “He might, for a little while. But Ben is a loving child, and he knows what Jack put you through. I think that he would understand eventually, and forgive you.”

  “But, what if he doesn’t?” I asked, my throat tight. “What if this changes our relationship forever? I’m afraid to tell him.”

  She nodded. “I know. It’s very hard, but you’re a brave woman. Look at how you started your life all over again after leaving your husband. I know that you have the courage to do this, and that you want what’s best for your son.”

  I thought about Ben and the look on his face when he told me that he hated Jack. Maybe it was possible to end that pain by telling him about my lie. I groaned. “It’s true, our sins do come back to haunt us. Or call it karma, if you prefer.”

  She nodded. “Oh, I’ve seen it happen far too often not to believe it.” She glanced at her watch. “My, is that the time? My niece, Debbie, will be calling me in half an hour. She calls every Sunday at two. Such a sweet, reliable girl. Do you think that you’ll be fine if I get going?”

  I nodded and smiled. “Of course I will. It’s a shock, but I’ll deal with it somehow. Would you like a lift home?”

  Erna rose from her chair and gathered up her things. “No thank you, Anna, it’s such a nice afternoon for a walk. Why don’t you relax and put your feet up? I bet you’re all worn out.” Wendy got up from the kitchen entrance and padded over to us. “Such a good girl,” Erna said, stroking her head. She bent to look into Wendy’s eyes. “Now, you take good care of your mistress.” Wendy wagged her tail. “Good girl,” Erna said, kissing her on the head. Turning back to me, she added, “If you need to talk, don’t hesitate to call. I’ll be in this evening after I’ve had dinner with May.”

  I got up and walked Erna to the door. “Thank you, Erna. You’ve been so kind, listening to my story and letting me cry on your shoulder.”

  She paused at the front door. “No, it’s been my pleasure, dear. I’m glad that you had someone to talk to, now that your mother is gone. I’m proud of you, you know. Of everything you’ve accomplished, and of the woman you’ve become. I’m sure that your mother would have been proud of you, too.”

  I bent to kiss her cheek. It was warm and smelled sweetly of powder. “I just hope that I have the courage to do the right thing.

  “I know you’ll do what’s best,” she said, patting my cheek. She let herself out, and I sank down into a chair in the living room. The tears began to trickle down my face again, and I rolled into a ball and fell asleep.

  Three hours later, after I had slept for a couple of hours and had some time to think, I took the phone out onto the deck and called Amy.

  “Hi Amy, it’s Anna. How are you?”

  “I’m fine, Anna.”

  “Good, glad to hear it. The reason I’m calling is because I need your help. I’d like to have a look at Jessie Wick. Would you be able to smuggle me onto the set one day when she’s filming?”

  I heard a sharp intake of breath. “Why do you want to see Jessie?”

  “Because she and Jack had an affair four years ago, and because she might have been seeing him again recently. She might have wanted to get even with him for something he did to her years ago. I don’t know for sure, but I can’t let this murder go. I’ve got to find out who killed Jack.”

  There was dead silence on the line. “Are you still there, Amy?” I asked.

  “Yes. I don’t know, Anna. I’m thinking that it was a mistake to get involved with this in the first place. I’m sorry, but I’m afraid to do anything more.”

  “I understand that, Amy, really I do, and I don’t blame you for one minute.”

  “Yesterday at the Primos was really scary.”

  “Oh, I know. I was terrified myself. And I’m just about finished with all of this. I’m sure that Sergeant Tremaine will discover that I didn’t kill Jack without my help. The thing is, I’m afraid that he might not find the real murderer, and if he doesn’t, people will always suspect that I did it. That would be an awful thing to have hanging over my head. I might even have to move out of town, and I’d hate to have to do that. I really like it here. So, for my sake and for Ben’s, I’m hoping that you’ll help me.”

  I was playing on her sympathy and I didn’t like it, but I needed Amy’s help to get onto the film set. After the talk I’d had with Erna, I thought that the best way to help my son would be to solve the murder so that we could put this all behind us. If Ben could forget about his father, maybe there was no need to tell him about my lie.

  “I wouldn’t want you to have to move away. It wouldn’t be fair.”

  “No, it wouldn’t. So if I could just have a look at Jessie – see what she’s like and what kind of person she is – then I could form some sort of opinion about her. If you could do me this one last favour, I would really appreciate it.”

  “Well, I am scheduled back on set Thursday evening, and I think that Jessie is called then, too. I can double-check with the assistant director, if you like.”

  “That would be great. Listen, as long as you’re talking to the assistant director, can you ask if Jessie was working on the night that Jack was killed?”

  I heard a sigh. “Oh, Anna.”

  “Please?”

  “I guess I can do that, too, but this will have to be the last time.

  “Amy, you’re wonderful! I promise that this will be the last favour I ask.”

  “Okay, I’ll call you back when I have some information.”

  I hung up the phone feeling terribly guilty. Poor Amy, I was dragging her in deeper than she wanted to go. But I really intended this to be the last time I would use her, and I didn’t think that visiting the set would put her in any danger. Hopefully, Thursday night’s visit would be a revelation.