Chapter 7 - The Frame Job
The sirens screamed closer, painting the motel walls in flashes of red and blue.
Arthur rushed to the broken window.
"How did they find us?" Arthur panicked.
Maria grabbed her son's hand, her eyes wide with terror.
"Evelyn," Maria whispered.
"She told me if you ever found out the truth, she had a contingency plan."
Arthur’s phone buzzed in his pocket.
He pulled it out.
It was Evelyn.
He answered it, putting it on speaker so Maria and Clara could hear.
"Arthur, thank God!" Evelyn cried on the other end, sounding perfectly frantic.
"The police are on their way to you!"
"What did you do, Evelyn?" Arthur growled.
"I didn't do anything!" Evelyn sobbed.
"Dr. Vance went crazy, Arthur."
"He came to the house, demanding more money, and I found out he was the one hurting Clara!"
Arthur gritted his teeth. "Liar."
"Arthur, listen to me," Evelyn pleaded, her voice echoing in the small room.
"He tried to attack me."
"I ran, but he went to his clinic."
"The police just found him there."
Arthur froze. "Found him?"
"He's dead, Arthur," Evelyn whispered, her voice turning suddenly cold and triumphant.
"And they found your hunting rifle lying right next to his body."
The line went dead.
Arthur dropped his phone.
The flashing police lights illuminated the entire motel parking lot.
At least a dozen cruisers were swarming the property.
"They're framing me," Arthur realized, his voice hollow.
"They used my gun."
Police officers were already pouring out of their cars, drawing their weapons.
"Arthur Sterling!" a voice boomed over a megaphone.
"Come out with your hands up!"
Arthur looked at Clara, tears streaming down his face.
"I love you, Clara," he said.
"I will fix this."
He turned to Maria. "Take them through the back alley. Run."
Before Clara could say a word, Arthur stepped out of the broken door, his hands raised in the air.
Officers tackled him immediately, pressing his face into the wet gravel.
Maria grabbed Clara’s arm.
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"We have to go," Maria urged.
As they slipped through the bathroom window into the dark alley, Clara heard the click of handcuffs closing around her father’s wrists.
