Innkeeping with Murder (20 page)

Alex said, “Killing Finster with your cane
was what gave you away. I figured you were trying to cover up your
trail. And you burned down the main keeper’s quarters to force me
into selling, didn’t you? I started wondering why someone would
want to buy a less valuable piece of property, but you never were
interested in the buildings, just the ground they stood on.”

“When you wouldn’t give in, I decided to take
matters into my own hands and speed things along. You’re not as
bright as I gave you credit for.”

Alex had to stall until he could come up with
a way to disarm her. “You thought Reg was spying on you, but how
about Emma Sturbridge? Why did you push her off Bear Rocks?”

Barb Matthews spoke to Alex as if he were a
child.

“I didn’t want anyone to link her death with
the others. I still don’t know how she survived the fall. In
hindsight, I should have stabbed her, too. It’s much more
efficient.”

Alex persisted. “That still doesn’t explain
why you wanted her dead.”

“The fool woman was going to jump my claim.
Where do you think I found my emeralds?”

Alex groaned. “Somewhere near Bear Rocks.
It’s all starting to make sense.”

She smiled wickedly. “So you’ve finally got
it.” With that, she thrust her blade toward Alex’s chest, trying to
pin him to the lighthouse itself.

At that precise moment, the Fresnel lens
jumped into life above them, spearing Barb Matthews with its
powerful beam. Alex lunged for the arm that brandished the deadly
cane, but she jerked back instead of driving the blade home. His
grab for her missed, as Barb Matthews went over the railing and
dropped into the howling darkness. Several seconds later, he heard
a muffled cry as her body hit the ground two hundred feet
below.

Alex rushed down the narrow stairs and found
Elise leaning weakly against the switch that supplied power to the
lens. It was a good thing Alex had explained to her how the light
operated; there was no doubt in his mind she had kept him from
joining Reg in his lighthouse death.

Alex wrapped her in his arms, hugging her
with all his might. “Thank God you’re all right. Elise, you saved
my life.”

Elise’s voice was muffled. “Take it easy,
Alex, I’m pretty sure I broke a rib or two from that fall. We saved
each other. If you hadn’t come along when you did, she would have
either forced me over the edge or stabbed me with that cane. Oh,
Alex.”

Elise started sobbing into his shoulder. Alex
held her as delicately as he could, stroking her hair with his
hand.

Softly, he said, “Will you be all right up
here by yourself for a few minutes? I want to call an
ambulance.”

Elise’s voice was shaky as she answered. “I
can walk down the stairs if I lean on you. I don’t think I can
handle being alone up here.”

Alex wasn’t in any mood to argue. They made
it down the steps, though slowly. As the two of them stumbled back
to the inn, they walked past the crumpled body of Barb
Matthews.

She didn’t look like a killer.

When he thought about how close she’d come to
killing both of them, Alex shivered.

For once, he didn’t mind hearing the sirens
of the ambulance and the police cruiser as they raced toward
Hatteras West.

Chapter 20

Two weeks later, Alex, Elise, Mor and Emma
were at the lake, enjoying a picnic near the placid waters. Alex
had built a fire near the edge of the shore; the fresh pops and
crackles of wood burning accented shimmering reflections of the
flames on the water.

Alex broke the silence. “It’s hard to believe
you’re out of the hospital already, Emma.”

Emma Sturbridge sat against a tree watching
the fire and the water. A discreet bandage on the back of her head
offered the only sign of her recent brush with death, though the
doctors had told her to take things easy for a while.

Emma laughed. “It’ll take more than that
she-devil to keep me down. You two did me a real favor getting rid
of her, though. I’m already sleeping better at night. The
nightmares are just about gone.”

Mor grinned at her. “From the look of things,
you’ll be chasing the boys again in no time.”

Emma’s smile was steady as she replied, “In
that case, you’d better get your track shoes out, Mordecai.”

Alex laughed when he saw his old friend’s
smile vanish. Mor abruptly changed the subject. “Anybody else ready
to head up to the inn? I’d like a drink before I go home. It’s
getting kind of cool out here.”

Emma said, “I would like to get back to that
sofa. Do you two mind?”

Elise stood up. “I’m ready, too. Are you
coming, Alex?”

“Let me douse this first.” He threw a bucket
of lake water onto the flames and was rewarded with a billowing
cloud of smoke and the loud hiss of the dying fire.

Soon they were back at the inn, settled
comfortably in the lobby. Alex couldn’t sit still. After lighting
the stacked wood in the fireplace, he stood at the mantle and
watched the fire take hold.

Elise applauded the flames. “Two fires in one
night. I love it.”

Alex said, “I’d like to say it’s just to take
the chill off, but I’ve got to admit, it’s nice having a fire in
the autumn.” The inn was closed for lack of guests. Barb Matthews
was dead, Junior was in town working on the sheriff’s campaign and
Joel Grandy had persuaded Nadine to go on a trip with him to the
Florida Keys. Alex had canceled the few upcoming reservations he’d
had in order to figure out what he was going to do next.

As he stared at the fire, Alex retrieved a
brandy snifter full of unpolished stones that sat on the mantle.
Shifting the glass in his hand, he swirled the rough rocks around
gently, as if they were fine cognac. The SBI had recovered the
stones from Barb Matthews’s pockets after she’d fallen. Since their
intrinsic value appeared to be rather small and the woman had no
known living relatives, Sheriff Armstrong had decided that the gems
should stay at the lighthouse as a testament to the week’s events,
and Hicking had agreed.

Alex said, “To think this entire mess started
because of a prank my dad pulled twenty years ago.”

He lightly fingered a few of the stones in
the snifter and then returned the glass to the mantle.

Emma stretched out her hands for the glass.
“Those are the stones they recovered off that awful woman’s body?
Let me see them a minute, Alex.” She studied the rocks carefully in
the flickering light of the fireplace, then asked excitedly for the
house lights to be turned on. Alex complied, wondering if his new
friend had completely recovered from her head injury.

Emma snapped, “Mor, go get that magnifying
glass for me, would you? It’s over on the counter.” He obeyed
without a word, and Alex realized Mor was a little intimidated by
the vibrant woman.

When Emma spoke again, there was a hint of
wonder in her voice. “Alex, you said your dad salted the area with
emerald chips.”

“That’s right. It’s in Mom’s diary. I looked
the entry up after Elise and I talked about it. Thank God it was in
the attic over here and not in the main keeper’s quarters. At least
I didn’t lose everything.”

Emma pushed on. “No other stones? Just
emeralds?”

“As far as I know, that’s it. It’s turned
into some kind of family legend. What’s on your mind, Emma?”

There was a huge smile on Emma’s face. “I’ll
be. I was right after all. This area is another vein location for
some pretty nice stones.”

She held a pretty rock up to the light. “Do
you see

this? It’s tourmaline. And this one is
garnet. Hey, here’s a pretty nice sapphire.” She held a green stone
to the light. “Your father never salted this emerald, it’s worth a
fortune! Alex, unless I’ve missed my guess completely, Barb
Matthews could have been right after all. This property was the
only place she looked for stones, wasn’t it?”

“She never left the grounds. You really think
there are precious stones on my land?”

Emma’s smile was genuine. “I would have to
believe that your inn is saved. It looks like your
great-grandfather had a real knack for choosing his land.”

“Well I’ll be.” Alex laughed heartily. “Dad
would have loved it. He salted an area that already had precious
stones on it!”

“That’s what it looks like. Now all you’ve
got to do is find the veins and start digging.”

Alex shook his head. “That can wait until
you’re better. You can have the job if you want it, on one
condition. I want you to recover what you can as discreetly as
possible. After all, I don’t want to open up a mine. I like running
an inn.”

“That sounds like a fine offer. I accept,”
she said as she looked steadily at Mor.

Alex motioned gently to Elise, and they
walked out together onto the porch. They had an excellent view of
the lighthouse from where they stood.

Alex said heavily, “I guess you’ll be leaving
us now.”

“Why do you say that?”

He stammered, “I just
assumed, you know, with
Peter coming here
and all...”

Elise said softly, “I’m staying, Alex.”

“What about Peter?”

“What about him?” Elise asked pointedly.
“I’ve decided to stay, unless you don’t want me here.”

“No, that’s not it at all. You can work at
Hatteras West as long as you want.”

He couldn’t believe it!

Was there a chance Elise was staying at
Hatteras West to be close to him? He fought the urge to tell her
he’d broken up with Sandra. On the heels of her decision to stay,
it might look as if he was pressing her.

No, Alex would bide his time and wait for the
right moment to come along.

Though its beacon was dark, the light of a
full moon gave the lighthouse lens a soft, gentle glow above them.
As a fleeting cloud passed over the moon, the lighthouse seemed to
wink at him, offering its approval.

And now a peek at Reservations for Murder,
book 2 in the Lighthouse Inn mysteries by Tim Myers.

Reservations for Murder

By Tim Myers

Chapter 1

“Alex, we need to talk.”

Alex Winston looked up from the pile of bills
he’d been wading through to find The Hatteras West Inn’s
housekeeper, Elise Danton, standing by his desk. He’d seen that
determined look in her eyes before. “Can it wait, Elise? I really
need to go through these bills this morning.” Though they’d
uncovered a handful of gems a few months earlier on the property,
there hadn’t been enough from the sale to do everything Alex wanted
to with Hatteras West. Emma Sturbridge, his resident gem expert,
hadn’t yet been able to locate the vein where they’d originated,
and Alex was beginning to wonder if she ever would.

Most of the money from the sale of the
emeralds had gone into the reconstruction of the Main Keeper’s
Quarters, a building that had burned to the ground earlier. Alex’s
inn was a near replica of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and its
outer buildings, with one major exception. Instead of being close
to the ocean, his lighthouse was deep in the foothills of the North
Carolina mountains.

And Alex was determined to return the place
to all its former glory.

“Alex,” Elise said, “you know you can do
those later. I’ve already taken care of the urgent ones. We’ve got
an inn full of people, and the fair starts in two hours.” She
frowned slightly. “That’s what I need to talk to you about.”

Alex said firmly, “Elise, I know you’re not
happy, but I’m not going back on my word. I made a promise to
Shantara Robinson that she could tie her Golden Days Fair in with
the Lighthouse Lighting, and I won’t disappoint her. I’m sorry.”
The Lighthouse Lighting was the annual county-approved testing of
the tower’s beacon. People gathered from seven counties to see it,
and it had always been one of the high points of Alex’s tenure as
the innkeeper at The Hatteras West Inn.

“Alex, we agreed that in order to stay in
business, we need to start attracting a wealthier clientele. The
fair defeats that entirely.”

“But Shantara was desperate when Lucius Crane
reneged on his offer to use his farm for the fair. There was no
place else she could hold it on such short notice.”

Elise paced around the room. “I know how much
friendship means to you, Alex, but you’ve got to think of your inn
first. I shouldn’t have to remind you how close you came to losing
Hatteras West before.”

Alex shook his head. “Believe me, I know that
better than anyone. Don’t worry. The fair will tie in perfectly
with our lighting ceremony. I wouldn’t be surprised if we attract
more guests because of it.” He added softly, “Elise, everything’s
going to be fine.”

At that moment, there was a scream just
outside Alex’s office.

Alex and Elise bolted out the front door
together to find Marilynn Baxter, one of the exhibiting potters,
pale and quivering on the front porch.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asked, searching for
some reason, any reason for the woman to have screamed so
fiercely.

“I saw a snake,” she said shakily, her finger
pointing to the small copse of trees that stood between the inn and
Bear Rocks, a granite formation close to the inn that sported the
oddest shapes and forms in twelve counties.

“It’s all right now,” Elise said, scanning
the ground near them. “Whatever it was is long gone.”

Craig Monroe, the other half of the
husband-and-wife pottery team participating in the fair, came
rushing up to them. “What happened, Marilynn? I heard you scream!
Are you all right?”

Suddenly conscious of all of the attention,
Marilynn said curtly, “I saw a snake, Craig, a big one.”

“It was probably just a garter snake,” Alex
said, trying to ease some of the tension.

“It doesn’t matter what kind it was,”
Marilynn snapped. “I hate all snakes! They are absolutely vile
creatures!”

Craig put an arm around his wife. “You’re
okay now. Let’s go finish setting up, Marilynn. There aren’t any
snakes around our exhibit.”