Exposed Negative: A Small Town Cozy Mystery (Shot & Framed Book 2)

by Nancy McGovern

  “Air-tight.” Martin helped himself to another piece of bacon and offered Caroline some. She took one and bit into it. “I like it better when it’s less crisp,” she said. “Soft bacon is life.”

  “That’s because you are sub-human.” Sharon stuck out her tongue at her sister. “The crisper the bacon, the tastier it is. It’s a natural law.”

  “Actually, I like having it somewhere in the middle,” Martin said.

  “Can we focus?” Harry Hedley frowned. “My poor garden, how are we to get these fleas off it?”

  “They’ll be gone in another day or so,” Sharon said. “Dani should just avoid them some more.”

  “I don’t know how she’s even involved,” her father said. “Darwin should have kept her name out of it.”

  “He did,” Dani sighed. “The mayor was at his house, too, and apparently he loves to gossip.”

  “Oh, that Brad, he just spread the story to attract the fleas,” her father grumbled. “I’m telling you, I’m sure of it. He wanted to take attention off his own divorce and he wanted to put Innocence on the national map.”

  “But what was Allie’s motive?” Caroline asked. “Did she kill Arthur for his money? She inherits it as an only child, right?”

  “It can’t be that,” Martin said. “She killed him because he killed Radiance. I’m sure that’s it. Arthur was probably responsible for Radiance’s overdose.”

  “He wasn’t,” Sharon said. “It’s in the news today. Everyone thinks that’s why Allie killed him but the DA in Radiance’s case has given him a clean chit. That particular case is definitely closed. Radiance overdosed, but it was her own fault.”

  “So Allie killed Arthur thinking he had murdered her mother, but she was wrong all along,” Martin shook his head and sighed. “What a pity!”

  “Well, she’ll be spending a lifetime locked up thinking about it,” Caroline said.

  Dani sighed. “I don’t know. It still has to go to court, doesn’t it? They might decide there’s not enough evidence.”

  “Not after Michael confessed to stealing the roll of film from our house,” Caroline said. “That’s what really clinched it, I think.”

  “Why did he do it?” Martin asked. “Bright young boy like him!”

  “He claims that Allie promised to give him the lead role in Othello if he stole that film for her. He thought Arthur had died of a heart attack at the time and that Allie only wanted him to recover a roll of film that was rightfully hers. He thought it was harmless,” Sharon said. “I heard that from Mrs. Ransome.”

  “He should have come forward afterwards, though!” Caroline said.

  “I guess afterwards, when he found out Arthur was poisoned, he tried calling Allie, but she told him to not contact her, and he was too scared of going to the police for fear of being arrested.”

  “Well, he’s in trouble now,” Harry Hedley said. “Which he wholly deserves, I think. Poor Dani, he really did a number on her!”

  “He’s just a kid,” Dani said. “Barely eighteen. I think he just panicked. I don’t think he was actually being malicious.”

  “So do you think he had a hand in Arthur’s murder?” Martin asked.

  “I really doubt it,” Dani said. “Linda mentioned Allie was in their house that day. She had breakfast with them.”

  “She must have poisoned the beer then,” Martin said. “Yeah, Michael was just the thief, not the murderer. Our mistake was in thinking that both were the same person.”

  Dani stared at him, open mouthed.

  “What?” Martin asked.

  “Just…” Dani swallowed hard. “I didn’t think of it that way at all. I’ve been such an idiot!”

  “An idiot?” Martin looked surprised. “You solved the case, Dani.”

  “I don’t think I did,” Dani said. “I think I’ve made a horrible mistake!”

  *****

  Chapter 21

  Truth Be Told

  “There’s our local celebrity now.” Darwin smiled and gave Dani a little high-five as she walked in to his office. “Come to sign autographs?”

  “Shut up, Darwin, you know I’m not like that.” Dani blushed. She took a seat, facing him across the wide desk.

  “Sure, sure.” Darwin pointed at his badge. “Want the badge? People are telling me I should just hand it over to you.” He gave her a good-natured grin.

  “I just came up with a theory,” Dani said. “You’re the one who did all the legwork. You tracked down her grandparents, for one.”

  “They admitted the truth about Radiance immediately,” Darwin nodded. “Margaret Mushens was bowled over. She remembered the girl who always hung out with her brother but she never connected her with Juliet Francis, the girl her brother had talked of loving in his letters to her. None of us did. Till you. You took one glance at the photo and pieced it all together!”

  Dani shrugged. “I suppose it’s part of my job to study faces… that’s why I could tell.”

  “Well, we owe you one anyway,” Darwin said. “Now why are you here?”

  “I’m here to see Allie,” Dani said.

  “I’ll ask, but I’m not sure Allie will want to see you,” Darwin said. The smile was wiped off his face, replaced with caution. “Why do you want to see her?”

  Dani shrugged. “There’s just… there’s some questions I wanted to ask.”

  Darwin rose and exited his office, coming back fifteen minutes later with a few forms. Once she’d signed those, he led her down to the basement and Dani found herself face to face with Allie, only a few iron bars separating them.

  Darwin left the two alone, and Dani sat down on a little metal stool, dragging it until it was in front of the cell.

  “My lawyer told me not to talk to the cops,” Allie said. “Silence is my best defense right now. But you…I can’t not talk to you.” She let out a harsh laugh. “I can’t believe I ever trusted you.”

  “What are you talking about?” Dani exclaimed.

  “You were spying on me all the time,” Allie said. “I caught you twice, didn’t I? So what then? You got angry at what I said and told the police some lies?”

  “I told them the truth,” Dani said. “You’re Arthur’s daughter. DNA tests have proved it, haven’t they?”

  “Tests I wouldn’t have had to take if it weren’t for you.”

  “Why did you kill him?” Dani asked.

  “I didn’t.” Allie said simply. “But you won’t believe me. So what’s the point in telling you that?”

  “You didn’t,” Dani nodded. “Ok. I believe you.”

  Allie raised an eyebrow. “Is that sarcasm? I can’t tell.”

  “It’s the truth,” Dani said. “I do believe you. I think.”

  “You can go to-”

  “When did Arthur tell you he was your father?” Dani asked. “Was it on the day of the party or a few days before?”

  “He told me a week after he’d agreed to sign on to the play,” Allie said. She had tears in her eyes. “That’s a week before the party.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He told me he hadn’t known I was still alive.” Allie wiped her eyes. “I didn’t believe him. He said my mother had never told him, she knew he’d insist on marriage if she did. She preferred to cast me off to my grandparents, and live as though she had no ties.”

  “That hurt, didn’t it?”

  “It still does,” Allie said. “I’m lucky my grandparents were so good to me, but to be pushed away by your own mother? That really affected me, psychologically. My grandparents didn’t tell me anything about her, you know. Not even her name. I had to find out myself. I knew they’d lived in Innocence, so I moved down here six years ago. I guess I have her genes because I fell in love with the theater.”

  “And then, one day, you found your mother among the photos there.”

  “No. And then, one day, I found my mother in an album at Dante’s house,” Allie said. “I knew as soon as I saw her that she was my mother.”

&nb
sp; Dani’s eyes grew wide.

  “I’d told Dante all about my struggle and he told his mom. Linda immediately guessed that I was Juliet’s daughter,” Allie said. “I knew, too, when I saw her face. It was my own face staring back at me. But, then, Linda told me that Juliet had supposedly died when she was nineteen. I couldn’t believe it.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I confronted my grandparents,” Allie said. “They admitted who she was, finally. Once she became famous, she came back to them, but not for long. Only to hand me over. Juliet, or, should I say, Radiance, even met me once.”

  “What did she say?”

  “What could she say? She was a stranger,” Allie said. “She told me I should count myself lucky she’d sent money to her parents for my education. She mocked me, asked me if I was there to sponge off her some more. Then she went off to “clear her head” with a line of coke. I walked out of there bitter and angry. I was determined never to link my name with hers. As far as I was concerned, my grandparents were all the family I needed.”

  “Then what?”

  “I moved back to Innocence and began to really enjoy my life here,” Allie said. “I erased all the photos of Juliet that I could find. That way, nobody would link me with her.”

  “But why?”

  “You won’t get it,” Allie said. “My mother disowned me, you see, and I wanted to do something that disowned her. It was stupid and I was the only person who’d know but I felt happy on the inside. It was a choice I was making. Juliet Francis turned her back on a life in Innocence and chased money and fame in NYC. She got both but never found happiness. Me, I found happiness, broke and alone in Innocence I was still happy because I wasn’t corrupt like her. I had my theater, I had my friends and I had an art I could dedicate myself to for the rest of my life. That’s what happiness is made of. My entire life was a gigantic reversal of hers and I loved it. I truly did.”

  “And Arthur? Where does he fit in?”

  “He knocked the breath out of me,” Allie said. “Here he was, a man who wanted to be my father, yet he was a stranger to me. I was still processing it all when, just as suddenly, he was dead.” She took a deep breath. “I knew that he had a roll of film somewhere in his room. Arthur had told me he’d show it to me, to prove he really was my father. I asked Michael to steal the film.”

  “Why?”

  “I wanted to see if he’d really told the truth, or if he was just some crazy guy who was trying to share a space in my mother’s spotlight,” Allie said. “Remember, at this point, I thought he’d died of a heart attack. I had no idea he was poisoned. I had no idea that Michael would hurt you, either! I promise you, I felt really bad about that.”

  “When you found out that Arthur was poisoned, you had that conversation with Michael that I eavesdropped in on,” Dani said. “You told him not to bother you.”

  “He was going mad, poor guy. He was terrified, and so was I.” Allie sighed. “I made mistakes, no doubt about it. I shouldn’t have tried to hide it all so hard. I should have come clean as soon as I found out about the poisoning.”

  “But you didn’t.”

  “But I didn’t,” Allie said.

  “Allie, when did Arthur tell you that he was your father?” Dani asked.

  “He told me a week before he died,” Allie sighed. “We were in the basement. It was long after everyone else had left. He just came right up and said it, ‘I think I may be your father.’” Allie buried her head in her hands. “I didn’t handle it well. I pushed him away. I told him I’d need proof, and that’s when he told me about the roll of film. He said that we could always do a DNA test, too, if I wanted.”

  “Was there anybody else in the theater when you talked to him?” Dani asked.

  Allie shook her head. “Coco and Dante had both just left. We were alone.”

  “Ok,” Dani nodded. “So tell me this, when you knew Arthur had been poisoned, why didn’t you come forward with the details? Why didn’t you tell Darwin he was your father?”

  “I stayed silent because I was scared,” Allie said. “I know it was a cowardly thing to do but that doesn’t mean I murdered Arthur.”

  “To the jury, it might,” Dani said.

  “I know,” Allie said. “It’s not plausible, is it? It sounds like I murdered him, but I didn’t. I’m just… I’m caught up in a horrible web.”

  “If you didn’t kill Arthur, who did?”

  “I don’t know,” Allie said. “I wish I did and now you’re my only hope. Please believe me. Please figure out who really did it, because otherwise...”

  Allie’s words trailed off as Darwin walked down the stairs.

  “Visiting time’s over,” he said. “Sorry.”

  “Please,” Allie said again. Her eyes said the rest.

  *****

  Chapter 22

  Caught At Last

  Dante looked surprised when he opened the door.

  “Dani.” He took a step back. “I wasn’t expecting you. Did you want something?”

  “Oh, I’m just here to see Basil,” Dani smiled. “That cat has won me over.”

  Dante laughed. “Sure. Can I get you some coffee, too?”

  “No, thanks,” Dani said. “Is your mom at home?”

  “She just went grocery shopping,” Dante said. “Poor mom is quite shocked. She was rather fond of Allie, you know.”

  “So were you,” Dani said.

  “So was I.” Dante nodded. “I still can’t believe she hid so much from us.”

  “Hid from you? Allie said she’d told you about Juliet being her mother. Linda spotted it early on, didn’t she?”

  “Oh…er…yes.” Dante sighed. “Well, we wanted to keep her secret. We aren’t the gossiping sort. We didn’t know that Arthur was her father.”

  “Oh, but you did,” Dani smiled. “You overheard them talk, didn’t you?”

  Dante frowned. “I’m not sure I like your tone, Dani.”

  “Speaking of fathers...” Dani said. “How’s yours, Dante? Visited him lately?”

  “Not in a while, no,” Dante said. “He’s better now.”

  “I went to see him today,” Dani said. “He isn’t much better. In fact, they think it’s terminal.”

  Dante shrugged. “I told you before, I never had much love for him.”

  “No. You didn’t. Which is why I was so surprised that you stayed the night with him, not just once, but a few days in a row.”

  Dante shrugged. “You do what you have to do.”

  “Yes,” Dani said. “In this case, you did what you had to do. You killed Arthur.”

  Dante burst out laughing. They were seated in the living room and Dani had a brief flashback to the night she’d spent with Linda sitting where he was now seated. He filled out the armchair, his long legs stretching ahead of him.

  “Rubbish,” he said. “Are you seriously accusing me of that?! Because the cops sure aren’t.”

  “Darwin has good instincts,” Dani said. “All along, he suspected you. You’re the one who deliberately publicized your case of fancy beer. You’re the one who force-fed it to Arthur. You had to be the one to murder him. But… there was no motive. That kept us hung up.”

  “Go on.” Dante’s face had a look of cool amusement. “These lies are amusing.”

  “See, for the longest time, I thought that the thief and the murderer were one and the same,” Dani said. “A big mistake on my part. I made assumptions that could have been disastrous. Because of my assumptions, because of your air-tight alibi and because of the seeming lack of motive, I figured you weren’t the killer. All along, though, it was obvious that it was you.”

  “You’re clearly delusional.” Dante laughed again, and steepled his fingers under his chin. “But go on.”

  “When I saw you with Allie in the basement that day, I saw that you were in love with her,” Dani said. “Even then, despite what you’d done, you were trying your hardest to make her love you back. You’re an only child, aren’t you,
Dante? Rather spoilt by your mother and unloved by your father. A dangerous combination. When you want a toy you can’t get, you throw a tantrum. When you fell in love with a girl who didn’t want you, you wanted to ruin her life.”

  “Nonsense,” Dante laughed, but there was an evil spark in his eyes that told the truth. “You’re speaking out of your hat, Dani.”

  “And yet, you’re letting me continue,” Dani said. “It amuses you, because you think that the trap is set and Allie is going to be convicted. Is that right?”

  “I have nothing but sadness for Allie’s troubles,” Dante said. “But she murdered Arthur and she deserves whatever punishment the judge and jury decide.”

  “I admire that you’re standing your ground,” Dani said. “But you can drop the act around me.”

  “It’s not an act.” Dante’s smile was growing ever broader. “Talk all you want, Dani. I’m not going to…” He bit off his last word.

  “Not going to confess?” Dani smiled at him. Her insides were a mess of anger and fear, but on the outside, she spoke as though they were discussing some minor detail about the play.

  Dante shrugged and winked.

  “Well, let’s continue with my story, shall we,” Dani said. “I think you were enraged when Allie repeatedly rejected you. You were even more angry when she began to grow close to Oliver. I saw the way you looked at them that day. You were jealous. The green eyed monster had awakened in you.”

  For once, Dante had nothing to say.

  “How long did you plan to bring her down, Dante? You were looking for an opportunity, weren’t you?”

  Dante stayed silent, then stood up, “You’re wasting your time. I’ve heard enough. Please leave.”

  “You overheard Arthur tell Allie he was her father,” Dani said. “That’s when it clicked. You’d murder Arthur and frame Allie.”

  “Leave,” Dante’s voice was harsher.

  “You almost succeeded, too,” Dani said. “Except for one small detail.”

  “What’s that?” Dante asked, then checked himself, “I mean it, stop these ridiculous lies and leave.”

  “You didn’t stay over at the hospital out of affection for your father,” Dani said. “You stayed over because you wanted to steal the drug with which you killed Arthur.”