Free Failure to Appear by J. A. Jance

direction, and I didn't want to wind up in it. Actually, Fraymore already had himself one convenient scapegoat—Derek Chambers, the unfortunate driver of the Duster, who was still waiting and agonizing somewhere in the hospital.
    From a few things he said, I suspected Fraymore was somewhat confused, that he had inadvertently mixed up exactly who had been driving what. He was off on a wild tangent, thinking the woman had been driving the Duster and Derek Chambers the Cutlass. And while Fraymore blundered around in total ignorance, Derek and his worried parents were isolated in a hospital room down the hallway with a uniformed cop standing guard outside the door.
    I wish I could say those kinds of mistakes never happen. I can't. I've made a few of them myself. In the heat of a new investigation, when a cop is working under incredible pressure, one piece of a puzzle unaccountably gets shifted to the wrong side of the board. With any kind of luck, the detective realizes where he went wrong and corrects his mistake, straightening out both his mind and his paper before any harm is done.
    As an impartial observer of events in Ashland, I found it easy to see what was happening. I wondered how long it would take for Gordon Fraymore to wise up. It sure as hell wasn't my job to point out the error of his ways. Cop or not, Fraymore struck me as a heavy-handed jerk. The longer the mix-up was allowed to continue, the more harm it would do to Derek Chambers and the more embarrassing it would be for Detective Fraymore. In fact, if it hadn't been for what Fraymore's stupidity was doing to Derek and his anguished parents, I could have cared less.
    "Let me ask you this," Fraymore was saying. "Did you have any idea Martin Shore was going to be in Ashland this weekend?"
    "None whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I didn't know I would be until just yesterday morning."
    Fraymore frowned. "I thought you said your daughter was getting married, that you came here for a wedding."
    "I didn't know about the wedding until yesterday, either," I snapped. Gordon Fraymore could go ahead and draw his own conclusions on that score. "I may have been late getting my invitation," I added, "but the wedding is scheduled for two-thirty Monday afternoon, if you want to check it out."
    "Oh, I'll do that," Gordon Fraymore assured me. "Most definitely. I'll be checking everything. Twice if necessary. Tell me again what you were doing just prior to your being found at the crime scene?"
    I took a deep breath and told him again. "I left the donor party in the Bowmer. I told Alex I wanted to get some air."
    "I take it Alex is Alexis Downey, the lady waiting for you out in the lobby?"
    I nodded.
    "She your wife?"
    "We're just good friends," I answered.
    "I see. Where exactly did you go when you went out to get some air?"
    "Out into that little brick courtyard between the theaters and the ticket office. I was standing near the telephone booths looking up at the stars when I first heard the crash. As soon as I heard it, I knew what it was. I ran down the stairs between the buildings to see if I could help."
    "Commendable," Gordon Fraymore said. "Did you see anybody else on the stairs or in the courtyard?"
    "No."
    "Hear anything?"
    "Other than the crash and breaking glass? No."
    "I understand you work Homicide in Seattle?"
    I didn't remember telling him that. "That's right."
    "You're sure there isn't a chance that Martin Shore screwed up one of your cases and you decided to get even?"
    "There's no chance." It was time for a little cop-to-cop courtesy. "Look, I'm tired. My arm hurts. Can't we finish this tomorrow?"
    "Where are you staying?"
    "One of the B and B's. Oak something."
    "Oak Hill?"
    "Probably. Sounds like it, but I don't remember for sure."
    "Both you and Miss Downey are staying there?"
    "Ms. Downey," I corrected. If I couldn't get away with calling Alexis "Miss," then neither could Gordon Fraymore. "That's right. We're both staying there."
    "Why not with your daughter?"