Read Online Framed in Cherry Hills (Cozy Cat Caper Mystery Book 2) by Paige Sleuth - Free Book Online Page B

sure.” He aimed a finger at the building. “You’ll need to tell the guys in the office what you want done.”
    “Is it a simple procedure?” Kat asked.
    He nodded. “We just unscrew the light cover. Takes maybe a second, assuming we have the right bulb in stock.”
    Kat pretended to ponder that.
    Josh regarded her. “I can’t do it for you unless my boss gives me the go-ahead though.”
    “Oh, I understand.” Kat paused. “Josh, I wanted to talk to you about Willow Wu too.”
    His grip on the towel tightened. “What about her?”
    “She was your English teacher last year, right?” Kat figured with Hannah and Josh being the same age and attending the same school, they’d probably also shared the same English class.
    “Yeah, so?”
    “Hannah told me she was a strict grader.”
    Josh fidgeted, not saying anything.
    Kat took a deep breath. “Josh, is the grade Willow gave you the reason why you can’t play football this upcoming school year?”
    His whole body stiffened, and Kat noticed a hardness to his face that hadn’t been there a second ago.
    “Your father told me you were cut from the team because you didn’t keep your grades up,” she continued.
    Josh’s eyes darted to the man Kat had spoken to earlier. He seemed to be silently imploring his coworker to rescue him.
    Kat opted to try a different tack. “Okay, forget about the football team for a moment. I saw the pot you gave Hannah.”
    A muscle in Josh’s cheek twitched. “She told you?”
    “She didn’t want to tell me.”
    “Yeah?” He scoffed. “Then she should have kept her big mouth shut.”
    Kat decided to go for broke. “She doesn’t know you framed Willow, Josh. I put that together myself.”
    His jaw clenched. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “You put that bag of cocaine in Willow’s car, didn’t you?” Kat pressed. “When she stopped by Saturday morning to talk to your father about the 4F benefit dinner, you saw an opportunity.”
    His knuckles had turned white around the towel now, but he didn’t respond.
    “It was dark and raining, and she was busy inside the house telling your dad about how she planned to drive over to Wenatchee to interview a few other caterers,” Kat continued. “So you decided to punish her for giving you a failing grade and consequently disqualifying you from playing sports.”
    She waited to see if Josh would say anything, but he seemed to have adopted the silent defense. Still, as long as he didn’t turn around and walk away, she would keep talking.
    “You disabled her taillights, figuring she would get pulled over at some point during the drive to Wenatchee,” Kat went on. “And then you planted that bag of drugs in her car where it was sure to fall out when she went to get her registration.”
    “You can’t prove that,” he bit out.
    Kat shrugged. “I’m sure you left something behind that a good forensics team could find. Did you wear gloves when you were tampering with her taillights and handling that cocaine bag?”
    Josh blanched, leading her to believe the answer was no.
    “And even if you didn’t leave any fingerprints, I’m guessing you have more coke stored somewhere,” Kat said. “I’m sure a good analyst could compare the makeup of the batch found in Willow’s car with whatever else you currently have in your possession.”
    Josh no longer looked defiant. Now he just looked scared.
    “Josh, what you did was wrong,” Kat said. “I understand why you were angry with Willow, but sending a woman to prison for something she didn’t do isn’t right.”
    “She’s just so unreasonable!” he exploded, dragging a hand through his hair. “You have no idea how hard I worked in her class, and she still flunked me!”
    Kat took a step backward, surprised by the young man’s outburst.
    Josh’s face turned red. “It’s not like I really cared about her stupid English class, but I still needed to pass it.”
    “Because you did care about being cut