Frame-Up. Jill Elizabeth Nelson

seen the body of a murder victim before—exactly three years ago to this day. At least no one could claim he’d killed this woman.

      The same couldn’t be said of his guests.

      TWO

      How could this be? Laurel blinked and shook her head, but the corpse draped across her luggage didn’t disappear. And Laurel knew the woman. Did she ever!

      How did the body of Melissa Eldon—Caroline’s detested biology teacher—wind up in her car trunk? Laurel’s pulse roared in her ears. How did the woman die? No noticeable injuries sprang to Laurel’s attention.

      And where did Ms. Eldon meet her end? Absurd to believe she crawled into the trunk of her own free will and expired. No restraints tethered the splayed body so she must have been dead before someone dumped her remains in the trunk—after Laurel stowed their bags last evening and before she and Caroline left town. The thuds and thumps from the trunk when they had nearly run off the road took on horrific significance. Nausea churned her stomach.

      Think, Laurel. Think logically.

      Other than herself, only Caroline would have had access to the car keys and the trunk remote control. She kept a spare set on top of the refrigerator in the kitchen. No! Laurel would never believe her daughter was responsible.

      But what if the law didn’t see it that way? Blackness edged her vision, and she swayed.

      A firm hand caught her elbow. Gasping, she gazed up into eyes as gray and piercing as driven rain. Laurel went still. If only this man were someone she knew and trusted. Strong arms around her might never be more welcome. She pulled away and stiffened her spine.

      “Do you know who this is?” he asked.

      Laurel didn’t answer. Her voice had lost the ability to respond. David tugged off one of his gloves, leaned into the open trunk and touched the woman’s throat with a pair of fingers.

      By an act of will, Laurel unlocked her lips. “Any pulse?” She already knew the answer, but she had to ask.

      “Not a flicker.” David straightened with a grimace. “You’re out of luck on your suitcases. We’d better not disturb anything until the authorities get here.”

      “This is so awful! That poor woman!”

      “We may as well sort out our thoughts inside where it’s warm.” His hand pressed gently against her shoulder. With the other hand he slammed the trunk closed on the grizzly vision. “We’ll have to fire up that CB radio immediately.”

      “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