Jill Elizabeth - Frame-Up

“Right.” The weak word was swallowed by the wind.

The journey back to the house passed in a blur. The next thing she knew, David was helping her out of her coat and urging her to remove her snow-cased shoes. Her toes tingled and stung, but nothing compared to the pins and needles in the pit of her stomach.

“I’ve got the game ready, Mom.”

Caroline’s cheerful announcement wrung Laurel’s heart. How could she tell her daughter what they’d discovered outside? Laurel’s gaze slid toward David, making a soundless plea for...what? Guidance? Moral support? Or was she hoping for a laugh and an assurance that their gruesome find had been a practical joke? If only!

A muscle in his jaw twitched. “You may as well tell her. The police will be involved soon enough, and there will be questions for all of us.”

“Tell me what?” Caroline’s brows drew together as she stood up. “Police? What’s going on?”

Laurel drew in a shaky breath. “Let’s have a seat on the sofa.” She stepped toward her daughter, a hand extended.

Caroline backed away. “Stop it! You’re scaring me.”

“Listen to your mom, young lady,” David said. “This is too important for you to do anything but tune in with both ears.”

The teenager gaped, gaze cutting toward their host.

“Please,” Laurel said.

Something deflated on the inside of Caroline, and she shuffled to the sofa and plopped down. Laurel perched beside her daughter.

“There is no gentle way to break this news.” If only her whisper-soft tone could perform the impossible anyway. “We—uh, Mr. Greene and I—made a shocking discovery.” Her hands fisted around the fabric of her pants legs. “Your teacher—” She stopped and cleared her throat. “Your biology teacher is dead.”

Caroline gaped. “That’s terrible! How did you find out— Ohhhh!” Her expression lightened. “You must have gotten cell service out there and someone called you. Did you tell them where we are?”

“No, honey. No one called me. I know she’s dead because I saw her with my own eyes.” Laurel brushed her fingertips against her daughter’s cheek. “Your teacher’s body was lying across our luggage.”

Caroline’s face went red and then drained stark white.

“Yes, it’s a terrible thing, sweetheart. Even if you didn’t like Ms. Eldon, you’d never wish something like this to happen to her.”

“What’s going on? How did she die?” Caroline’s eyes pleaded with her mother to provide answers that would make sense of the incomprehensible.

Laurel spread her hands. “We’re mystified. I didn’t see any marks on the body, did you?”

She looked toward David. He shook his head. At least she wasn’t so rattled she’d overlooked something obvious.

“How did she get into our car?” Caroline burst out. “I don’t understand.”

“None of us do.” David’s voice rang strong. “That’s for law enforcement to figure out. I’d better go raise them on the radio.”

“This is for real?” Caroline’s voice went shrill.

Laurel nodded. “I’m afraid so, sweetie.” If she looked half as horrified as her daughter, they were truly a miserable pair.

“Oh, Mo-o-om!”

Caroline threw herself into Laurel’s arms. If only she could absorb some of the shock for her little girl, but there was more than enough of that to go around.

Over her daughter’s shoulder, she glimpsed David’s expression as he turned away from them and left the room. Compassion? Yes, a strong dose of that. Confusion? Who could blame him? Suspicion? No, surely not!

But why not? He didn’t know them any better than they knew him, and she had been quick enough to draw conclusions about him the moment she recognized him. What irony for the shoe to suddenly find itself on the other foot! She didn’t like it, but what David Greene thought was the least of their worries. They had a reprieve until the storm abated and the authorities arrived, but then she and her daughter would find themselves the focus of a murder investigation.

She could almost feel sympathy for what David had gone through. Almost. He could well be guilty, but at least she knew her own innocence and Caroline’s—didn’t she?

Laurel gazed into the teenager’s tear-wet face. She wiped at the tears with her thumbs. Caroline might be going through a rough patch emotionally, but she’d seen no signs of potential to do this kind of harm. Deep down, her girl was still her sweet girl.

“It’ll be all right, honey.”

“You always tell me that.”

“Haven’t things always worked out?”

“They didn’t work out so well for Ms. Eldon.”

“I’m sorry for what happened to your teacher, but she’s not my main concern. You are. Always and forever.”

The ghost of a smile trembled forth. “That’s sappy, Mom, but right now, I don’t care. What are the cops going to say? They’re going to think we killed her, aren’t they.”

The last sentence was more of a statement than a question. Laurel couldn’t fault her daughter’s intelligence. “I assume we’ll be questioned, and they’ll have to investigate us, but we’re innocent. They’ll discover that soon enough.”

“Ri-i-ight! Like they exonerated Mr. Greene.”

Laurel’s jaw dropped. “You know who he is?”

Caroline rolled her eyes. “Sure. I was in grade school when all that stuff happened, but I don’t live in a bubble. We talked about the weird case last year in our Social Studies unit on criminal justice. Even watched a recorded news segment. I have to say, Mr. Greene looks a lot cuter now than he did when he was being dogged by reporters.”

“I would never have guessed you recognized him,” Laurel said. “You didn’t act nervous to meet him.”

“I’ll let you hog the Oscar for uptight performance. I just reminded myself straight off that there must be a reason why the guy wasn’t indicted.” Caroline lifted a forestalling hand. “I know. I know. Bad people get away with things all the time. But Mr. Greene seems like a good guy. You have to admit that sometimes good people get accused of bad things.”

Laurel spurted a chuckle. “I think you’ve overheard too many of my phone conversations with colleagues from work. But please remember, sweetheart, that I’m a mama bear dedicated to protecting you. I’ve also had a little more life experience, so pardon me for being skeptical about charming exteriors.”

Caroline leaned close. “You know what I think?”

“Hmm. Something about the tone of that question makes me wonder if I want to hear it.”

“I think you can handle charming without wigging out, but rich and charming pushes all your buttons. Throw in a little suspicion of violent behavior, and the guy is presumed guilty until proven innocent.”

The air stalled in Laurel’s lungs. What would Caroline know about the terrors of Laurel’s brief marriage to her father? She’d barely been three years old when he ditched them for a more compliant wife. Good riddance, as far as she was concerned. But since then, for Caroline’s sake, Laurel had been careful to keep any mention of the man brief and honest, but as kind as possible. Well, at least not overly hostile. Had Caroline been reading between the lines all these years?

The teenager clapped her hands and laughed more heartily than Laurel had heard her in months. “You should see your face, Mom. The psychologist’s daughter strikes again!”

The sound of footfalls entering the room stopped the rebuttal on Laurel’s tongue. Caroline’s head turned in unison with hers toward their host.

David regarded them soberly. “The sheriff and the coroner will be here as soon as the storm lets up.”

The smile melted from Caroline’s face, and Laurel shivered as if he had dashed her with a bucket of snow. For Melissa Eldon the worst had already happened. For her and Caroline, the worst might be about to begin.