Innkeeping with Murder (18 page)

Alex would just have to hurry through his
list of errands and get back to Hatteras West. When it came right
down to it, he didn’t trust anybody else to make sure Elise
remained safe.

The rain had tapered off to a fine mist by
the time Alex drove the three miles to the hospital, but the
overhead clouds were still filled with dark, ominous shades of
black. It looked like they were in for one whale of a storm.

Alex pulled into the hospital parking lot and
hurried inside. The hallway leading to the Intensive Care Unit was
crawling with kids and adults. Alex overheard someone mumbling
about a drive-by shooting, and realized that the victims must have
been brought in sometime last night. He looked around, but didn’t
see Sergeant Hicking anywhere. It was just as well; Alex was in no
mood to talk to the SBI agent. He tried looking into the IC unit
for Emma, but the curtains had all been fully drawn.

An older nurse stood guard at the desk, and
Alex approached her through the crowd of people. “Excuse me, I’d
like to check on the status of one of your patients. Her name is
Emma Sturbridge.”

The nurse looked at him silently, then down
at a list posted at the desk. “There’s no Sturbridge here.”

A trickle of dread danced down Alex’s spine.
“What exactly does that mean?”

The nurse, having gone back to her paperwork,
said, “She’s not here. I can say it slower for you if you’d like me
to.”

“She didn’t die, did she?”

Alex couldn’t bear the thought of another
guest dying.

From behind him, Alex heard someone calling
his name. It was Theresa DeAngelis, the nurse he’d talked to the
day before. She said, “It looks like your friend is going to be
just fine. I called the inn and spoke with a young woman there. She
assured me she’d pass the massage along to you.”

“Where’s Emma now?”

“She woke up a few hours ago complaining of a
headache and being hungry. Her doctor decided she was well enough
to move to a semiprivate room. It looks like there’s a good chance
she’s going to recover completely.”

Alex thanked her for the good news, then
hurried off toward the front desk. Emma Sturbridge was awake! He
hadn’t expected such great news today, and suddenly he’d gotten two
positive pieces of information: Emma’s improvement coupled with
Junior’s release. Now if he could just figure out who killed Reg
Wellington, maybe he would complete the run. Alex believed that Sam
Finster’s killer was the same man who’d cut Reg down, but if he
started digging into reasons the real estate man might have been
murdered he’d be busy until well into the next decade just
interviewing the suspects.

After tracking down Emma’s room number from
the front desk, Alex knocked gently on the door and heard a muffled
voice inviting him in.

Emma Sturbridge was sitting up in her bed,
looking better than Alex had even hoped. Only one slim tube
disappeared into her arm, and her face had that same ruddy
complexion Alex had seen the day he’d met her. Looking farther into
the room, Alex saw that Emma was not alone. Mor Pendleton was
standing by the corner window. He was watching Alex, but then
looked t quickly away.

Alex said to him, “I’m surprised to find you
here. Have you retired from Mor or Les’s?”

Mor shrugged and frowned at his feet. “Well,
I felt kind of responsible for Emma, since I was the one who

brought her in. I’ve been checking on her
quite a bit, just to make sure she was going to be okay.”

Emma smiled. “And now I have two men
visiting, with me still in my pajamas.” Her grin took on mighty
proportions. “I should get pushed off a rock more often.”

Alex walked to the bed. “You were pushed
then? Did you happen to see who did it?”

Emma looked perplexed. “No, and that’s the
funny part. The whole incident is still fuzzy in my mind.”

Alex looked over at Mor as she said it. It
seemed to him that the man had more than a casual interest in the
matter.

She added, “It’s odd though, there is one
thing I remember, but it’s almost too silly to mention.”

Alex pressed her, leaning
over the bed. “Whatever it
was, you can
tell me. It could be a clue as to who might have pushed
you.”

Emma smiled slightly. “Okay, I’ll tell you if
you; promise not to laugh. I could swear it felt like a tree branch
was nudging me over the rock.”

Alex said, “A tree? You mean
like a branch caught by the wind or something?” There were no trees
around: Bear Rocks. In fact, one interpretation of the name was
that the original designation had been Bare Rocks until
someone had started seeing bears in the granite
formations.

Emma said, “Wipe that
expression off your face, Alex, I know there aren’t any trees up
there. But that
image is stuck in my mind.
A tree branch pushed me. Now imagine that.”

Mor coughed gently and walked to the other
side of

Emma’s bed. “I’ve got to be going, but I’ll
try to make it back sometime this evening.”

Emma turned on her brightest smile for the
fix-it man. “I’ll be counting the minutes.”

After Mor left, Emma said, “Now that fellow
is a man I could wrap my arms around. Seems to be interested in me,
if I read these visits correctly. The nurse in Intensive Care said
he had to be thrown out last night, he was hovering around the
station so much!”

That was news to Alex. Mor hadn’t seemed all
that interested in Emma when Alex had talked to him before. Alex
wondered if Mor could have been the one to push her off that rock.
It would explain him finding her so fast, and also the fact that he
was hovering so close to her hospital bed. If she did happen to
remember that Mor had been the one who’d pushed her, he could
finish the job he’d started earlier. For that matter, he could have
stabbed Reg, too. While Alex hadn’t seen him at the inn earlier,
Mor could have parked in the woods and walked up one of the trails
that covered the property. Finster wouldn’t have been any harder
for the powerful man to kill. The “why” of it just didn’t make any
sense. Alex looked up from his thoughts to see Emma staring
intently at him. “You’ve got something on that mind of yours.
Anything you want to talk about?”

Alex didn’t know how to address that
particular question. If he was right about Mor, he could warn Emma.
But if he wasn’t, it would make him look like a fool.

Instead of a direct reply, Alex asked, “Is
there a buzzer around here in case you need a nurse?”

Emma pointed to a button pinned to her sheet.
“Here on the bed. Why do you ask?”

“How fast do they come when you push it?”

Emma looked perplexed by the sudden shift in
questioning, but she explained, “I’ve only pressed it once, but the
nurse was here in a few seconds. She said it was because I was so
close to the station desk. Now what is aII this about, Alex?”

“I don’t mean to alarm you, but whoever
pushed you off that rock might come back to finish the job. If they
do, I want help close by.”

Emma laughed. “Who in the world would want me
that badly? I can’t imagine why someone would want to kill me. My
ex-husband, perhaps, but he doesn’t know I’m here. It all sounds so
silly.”

“You’re in here, aren’t you?”

His words had a sobering effect on her. “I
can’t hide forever, Alex. If it’s my time, I’m ready to go.”

Great. He’d managed to put out the sun in her
eyes; all by himself. “Just be careful, okay?”

She added with a subdued smile, “Don’t worry
so much about me, Alex. If I do go, I plan to take an honor guard
with me. Tell you what I will do, though. Whenever someone comes
into the room, no matter who it is, I’ll keep my finger on the
buzzer. Does that satisfy you?”

Alex patted her hand gently. “I wouldn’t want
anything to happen to you. Watch yourself.”

“I promise. Now why don’t you let me get some
rest? I’m suddenly quite tired.”

From the strain on her face, Alex could see
that the: words were true. After he left, he found a bench in the
corridor outside Emma’s room and sat down, debating on what to do
next. It hadn’t been the brightest thing in the world to do, giving
a sick woman more things to worry about. He should have called
Armstrong instead and persuaded him to put a deputy on the hospital
room door. But he already knew what the sheriff’s reaction would
be, and he didn’t particularly want to hear the man’s reasons.
Besides, the sheriff had apparently given up on doing any work on
the case until the full SBI team got to Elkton Falls. If anybody
was going to untangle this mess before then, it would have to be up
to Alex. He only hoped he could figure it out while there was still
time.

What did Reg’s death, Emma’s fall, the fire
and Finster’s stabbing all have in common? Taken as separate
incidents, they could have a thousand different meanings. But that
kind of criminal activity around Hatteras West in such a short
period of time couldn’t be coincidence. There had to be one thread
that tied those people and events together, but Alex couldn’t
figure out what it could be.

Chapter 18

Alex’s grumbling stomach reminded him that
he’d missed lunch. Before he could take care of his hunger, he
found a pay telephone and called the inn.

Elise answered on the second ring. Hearing
her say, “Hatteras West” brought a smile to his face.

Alex said, “I wanted to let you know that I
just saw Emma Sturbridge. She’s awake and doing fine.”

“Oh, Alex, that’s wonderful news. Did she say
who pushed her?”

“She said it felt like a tree limb gave her a
shove.”

“But there’s no trees out there on the rocks.
Unless ...”

“Unless what? Do you have any idea what she
was talking about?”

Elise paused, then said, “No, it just doesn’t
make sense.” Elise lowered her voice and added, “I’ll see you
later, Alex. Dame Matthews is heading this way, and from the scowl
on her face, it’s not to compliment us on our fine service.”

“Good luck. I’ll see you later.”

Sally Anne was behind the counter at Buck’s,
wearing a frown instead of her usual smile.

It was just a little after two, so the
regular lunch crowd had thinned to a few stragglers. Still, Sally
Anne lowered her voice to a whisper when she spoke to Alex. “Have
you heard the news?”

Alex found himself whispering, too. “What
news?”

Sally Anne’s eyes grew large. “They found
that awful man Finster dead in his Cherokee.”

Alex lifted his voice slightly before Sally
Anne shushed him back into a whisper. “It’s all around town. The
sheriff came by the inn last night and told me. They found him in
an orchard near the inn.”

Sally Anne’s face was white. “Alex, I think
Daddy might have done it.”

Alex rocked back on his heels. “Why in the
world would you say that?”

“He came in late last night acting like
something was really bothering him. When I asked him about it, Dad
told me not to worry my pretty little head. I am worried,
though.”

Alex thought for a moment. “How could he have
known what was going on with Sam Finster? You didn’t tell him, did
you?”

Sally Anne’s lower lip quivered. “No, but
when I pressed him last night, he said I wouldn’t have to worry
about that goon coming after me anymore, so somebody must have said
something to him.”

It was possible. Everyone in town knew how
Buck felt about his little girl, even if she was twenty years
old.

Then Alex let his fertile imagination rest a
moment and thought about it as objectively as he could. “Wait a
minute, let’s think this through. If Finster had been found beaten
to death, I might believe your theory, but do you honestly think
your father is the type of guy who would stab a grown man in the
back of the neck with an ice pick?”

Sally Anne’s face regained some of its color.
“Alex, you’re right. Daddy would never do something like that.”
Sally Anne added, “I can’t tell you how much better I feel now. I’d
like to buy you lunch. Is that okay with you?”

“Sounds great. You know what I like.”

Sally Anne gave him her brightest smile.
“Thanks again, Alex. I could barely get to sleep last night,
wondering if Daddy was going to prison.”

Alex walked over to a corner booth away from
the traffic flow. In such a small town, it was hard to find any
place where he could go to be alone, but the booth offered his best
chance.

The club sandwich was excellent, but Alex’s
thoughts were not good for his appetite. His chain of reasoning
kept leading him back to Finster. If Alex could find out from
Nadine, the realtor’s secretary, who the prospective buyer was,
then the pieces might all fit together. Deep in his gut, Alex
believed that Hatteras West itself held the key to all his
questions.

After thanking Sally Anne for the meal, he
decided it was time to visit Finster’s office. He only hoped that
Nadine had come in to work today to accept condolences for her late
boss.

As he started to open the realty office door
it was suddenly jerked out of his grasp by someone trying to exit.
Alex was stunned to see that it was Joel Grandy.

“Mr. Grandy? What are you doing here?”

The older man looked the slightest bit
guilty. “Wanted to offer my condolences.”

“I wasn’t even aware that you knew
Finster.”

Grandy stared at Alex for a few moments, then
swept through the door without answering.

Nadine was behind her desk, blotting a tissue
to her eyes. Now somewhere in her early sixties, Nadine Crowley had
been Alex’s fifth-grade teacher, and in his mind she hadn’t changed
a bit. She’d taken an early retirement to be with her husband, but
during her retirement party at the school Thad had dropped dead
with a massive coronary. When Nadine had tried to get reinstated,
the school board apologized but said the papers had already been
processed and a new teacher had been hired to take her place. To
keep from going crazy, she’d gone back to work. The only job in
town that had been open was a secretarial position for Sam Finster.
It had taken Alex years to stop referring to her as Mrs. Crowley
and start calling her Nadine, as she had so often insisted.