Member-only story
Framed — A Murder in the Night (Part 2)
Stranded in a storm, trapped by secrets — will the truth survive the blizzard?
Read the first chapter here — The Uninvited Guests
The realization settled over the room like a thick fog.
Gloria Stohl was dead.
Her ring finger was bare.
And someone in the house had done it.
Christian and I stepped into the study. The study had not yet shaken its air of death. The scent of burned paper still covered the room, likely remnants of documents tossed into the fire before her death, mingling with the last embers cracking in the fireplace.
Gloria sat motionless at her desk, her head slumped forward, her body unnaturally still.
Christian knelt beside her, studying the way her body had slumped. “No visible wounds,” he announced.
No sign of violence. No blood. Just the eerie stillness of death.
“Dr. Whitman”, he said smoothly, rising to his feet, “If you would, please.”
Dr. Albert Whitman adjusted his spectacles and stepped forward, his fingers pressing lightly against Gloria’s neck. He exhaled through his nose. “Cold,” he murmured. “Rigor is beginning to set in.”
