Motive: Framed

SYNOPSIS

The killer: Marion Reader, an aging woman with a bad back, whose twenty-eight year old mama's boy of a son, Owen Reader, came back to live with her to take care of her. With her telephone sales job and his online selling of military memorabilia, they are now unable to make the monthly mortgage payments on her long time house. As a side hobby, she does kitschy folk art: paintings of her cat, Mathias, inserted onto existing painted canvases. As a means to earn more money to make those mortgage payments, she attempts to sell her folk art at a local café. The victim: Julia Conrad, a girl Friday at a high end art gallery. Julia is found dead shot point blank apparently when she was out for her morning run. Homicide's initial suspect is Julia's boss, who is openly disapproving of Julia's plans to open her own art gallery, which would then be "the competition". But when they learn the gun that was used to kill Julia is pre-WWI vintage in poor condition, the fact of such a reported stolen gun by Owen Reader leads them to the Reader house. Although they learn of a connection between the Readers and Julia, they have no motive or logical reasoning to suspect either of the Readers. However, the extent to which Owen and Marion will go to protect the other may bring that motive to light.