Framed for Murder
An Anna Nolan Mystery
Winner of the 2014 Bony Blithe Mystery Award
by Cathy Spencer
Copyright 2012 Cathy Spencer
This book is also available in print.
Other titles in the Anna Nolan series:
Town Haunts (Book 2)
Tidings of Murder and Woe (Book 3)
Discover other titles by Cathy Spencer:
The Affairs of Harriet Walters, Spinster
The Dating Do-Over
Tall Tales Twin-Pack, Mysteries
Tall Tales Twin-Pack, Science Fiction and Fantasy
Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
To Reid, for all those nights when pillow talk
was about this book.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
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Chapter 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 street 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 evening 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 facedown, dressed in jeans and a black leather jacket, his arms lying straight beside hi