Innkeeping with Murder (19 page)

“Nadine, that man who was just here. Mind
telling me what he wanted?”

Nadine’s voice still had the sharp edge she’d
used to such good effect in the classroom. “Now what type of
greeting is that, young man?”

Alex stiffened his spine. “I’m sorry, Ma’am,
but we’ve been having a little trouble out at Hatteras West I think
he might be involved.”

Nadine Crowley swabbed the tissue at her eyes
again before answering. Alex broke in, “Excuse me for saying so,
but surely you couldn’t have been that fond of Finster.”

She frowned slightly, then added a smile of
apology. “You know better than to speak ill of the dead, Alex. But
confidentially, I’m not all that sorry to see him go.”

“Then why the tears?”

“Young man, feel blessed that you haven’t
been afflicted with allergies. My eyes have been like this for two
weeks. I just can’t stand all of the allergens in the air.”

That explained the grieving secretary.

“Now, would you mind telling me what Joel
Grandy was doing here?”

Nadine said primly, “Not that it’s any
business of yours, but the fellow appears to be sweet on me. He
keeps telling me I’m a dead ringer for his dearly departed spouse.
I’ll tell you, it’s not the kind of compliment a girl dreams of
getting, but then again, it’s better on average than what I’ve been
managing lately.”

Of all the people in the world Alex could
trust, Nadine Crowley had to be at the top of his list. Her
integrity was known throughout seven counties.

Alex pushed a little more. “So he wasn’t
checking on any real estate deals?”

Nadine laughed. “Why heavens no. I happened
to be eating lunch at Buck’s on his first day in town. He spotted
me and offered to treat me to a meal. I thought he was cute, so I
let him. Joel Grandy’s been over here like a love-sick puppy ever
since.”

Alex thought that might explain why Grandy
had made the offer on Hatteras West. It could have been just

his effort to stay close to Nadine. “Would
you mind telling me something else?”

Nadine’s eyes lit up. “Anything.”

“Someone’s been trying to buy the inn for
some time now, but Finster refused to tell me who the buyer was.
I’d really like to know.”

Nadine Crowley raised her index finger and
waved it in front of Alex’s face. “I’m not at all certain I have
any right to tell you.”

“Who’s going to know? The name might be
important in helping me find out who killed my guest and burned
down part of my place.”

“I was so sorry to hear about that, Alex.”
She shuffled a few papers on her desk, then said, “I suppose it
doesn’t matter now, but I still want you to swear you won’t tell
anyone I told you.”

Alex nodded solemnly. “I promise.”

Nadine went to the file cabinet and started
searching through the Files. After a few minutes, she looked at
Alex and said, “I don’t understand this. The file’s missing.”

“Are you sure? Maybe it’s somewhere else.
Misfiled, maybe?”

Nadine said, “Come now, Alex, I don’t
misplace or misfile anything. Let me look on his desk.”

She came back a full minute later. “It’s not
there, either. He must have had it with him last night.”

So the murderer had taken the evidence after
killing Finster. “And you don’t have any idea who was after
Hatteras West?”

“If I knew, dear boy, I’d tell you. But Sam
Finster played things close to the vest. He never even mentioned
that someone was making an offer for your inn, though I’d heard
plenty of rumors around town about it.”

Alex left, knowing he had just run into
another dead end.

Walking from Finster’s office to the truck,
Alex decided to detour one block and see if Mor Pendleton was in.
He had a few questions for the man. The last person in the world
Alex wanted to suspect was Mor, but too many things had been going
on lately for him not to be aware of his friend’s ties to recent
events.

Mor wasn’t in the shop, but Les was. Alex
found him sitting at his workbench with his feet propped up. Seven
years earlier, Les Williamson had been forced to retire at the age
of sixty-five from his regular job as a maintenance man. It had
galled Les that he’d been too old to work anywhere but in a
business of his own. Taking the largest chunk of his retirement
money, he opened the shop just hoping to keep busy until he died.
No one had been more surprised than Les that so many of the
townsfolk had personal possessions they would rather fix than throw
away. Business had been so good that Les had hired Mor, and as the
two men grew closer, they’d become partners in the operation.

The older man was reading the latest issue of
Soldiers of the World, one of his numerous magazine subscriptions.
Les had more magazines coming into the shop than the library and
the newsstand put together, and he could often be found fighting to
catch up with his issues in his free time.

“Is Mor around?”

Les looked up, the strong shop light glaring
off his bald head. “Eh? Oh, hello, Alex. No, he’s over at the
hospital with that Sturbridge woman. I’m telling you, it’s getting
to be a regular thing, him being gone. It’s tough running this
place all by myself.”

Alex gestured to the magazine and laughed. “I
can see you’re swamped.”

“Just taking a break, boy. Man, some of the
things people are fool enough to buy.”

“What do you mean?”

Les beckoned him closer, laying the magazine
down on the cleared workbench.

“Like this stuff here. This whole page is
full of gimmick merchandise. Lethal weapons that look like everyday
things. Here’s a ring that dispenses poison, and look at this
...”

The rest of Les’s words were lost on Alex. At
the bottom of the page was an item for sale that he had seen all
too recently. Suddenly, the mystery of the murders at Hatteras West
became clear: not the motives, but definitely who was behind the
reign of terror.

Alex mumbled his apologies to Les as he tore
out of the store. With a deep, sinking feeling in his heart, Alex
hoped he could get back to Hatteras West before the killer had a
chance to strike again.

Chapter 19

The drive back to the inn was maddeningly
slow for Alex. A pickup truck in front of him loaded with bales of
fresh hay drove ten miles under the speed limit, hogging just
enough of the road so that Alex couldn’t pass him. Alex’s thoughts
weren’t for his own safety; all he could think about was how
foolish he’d been to leave Elise at the inn alone. Cursing himself
as a fool, Alex fought to keep his driving under control. Running
off the road and wrecking wouldn’t do Elise the slightest bit of
good.

Finally, after a trip that seemed to take
hours instead of minutes, he made it back to the inn.

Everything looked calm on the grounds of
Hatteras West, though the rain clouds still threatened to break
loose at any moment.

After a harried search of the inn, Alex
couldn’t find a single soul there. Could the killer be at Bear
Rocks, or maybe on one of the trails? Was Elise in danger even as
he searched for her? If Elise had gone with him into town, she
wouldn’t be in jeopardy now. He dialed the sheriff’s phone number
with a shaking hand, but Armstrong’s line was busy, and Alex
couldn’t spare even a few more seconds in his search for Elise.
Alex ran down the porch stairs and hurried toward the trail to Bear
Rocks. As he did, he glanced up at the top observation platform of
the lighthouse.

A quiver of fear ran down his spine. There,
in the fading light of dusk, he could see two people facing each
other in what looked like a heated confrontation on the narrow top
balcony. From the dim outlines, Alex figured one of the two figures
as the killer. The other looked like Elise. Alex only prayed he
wouldn’t be too late.

It felt like each of the two hundred sixty
eight steps tried to impede his progress as he ran to the summit of
the lighthouse. By the time Alex had raced up to the watch room
just below the observation deck, his heart felt as if it was going
to explode in his chest. Taking only a moment to rest against the
smooth plastered wall, Alex approached the smaller set of steps
that led to the upper balcony of the lighthouse and listened
carefully. From where he stood, he could hear the murderer ranting
at Elise.

Fighting to calm his shaking nerves, Alex
crept up, the ladder carefully, hoping to remain unseen. A sense of
relief flooded through him as he realized the murderer was facing
toward the mountains! It left Elise in a vulnerable position with
her back toward the scanty iron railing that circled the very top
of the tower, but it was the chance Alex needed.

The killer was prodding her closer to the
edge of the railing with something that looked like a short steel
spear. In the distance a bolt of lightning flashed, illuminating
the sky with its forked prongs.

Elise must have seen his movements in the
flash of lightning as he climbed up the last step. Before he could
warn her, Elise’s face registered his presence. Alex wasn’t the
only one to spot her startled expression in the next lightning
flash.

The murderer spun around toward him.

“So you finally figured it out.”

Alex joined them on the upper platform,
keeping a safe distance.

He said, “You were clever, but some of the
events around here finally became clear. Why did you kill Reg, Mrs.
Matthews?”

The old woman spat out a curse. “The old fool
had been watching me from this damn tower every day on my
explorations. I knew he was going to steal my claim, so I had to
get rid of him. It was ridiculously easy to kill him; he was a weak
old man.”

Elise spoke over the growing force of the
wind. Her voice was calmer than Alex expected. “What claim? I still
don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t even know why you
want to kill me.”

Barb Matthews turned back to Elise, and for a
split second Alex considered jumping her and wrestling the deadly
shaft out of her hands. But he hesitated a moment too long before
acting, and the old woman pressed the blade closer to Elise’s
chest. It was an exact duplicate of the stiletto-bladed cane Alex
had just seen in Les’s catalogue.

Barb Matthews snapped, “I’m warning you,
Alex, if you try anything, she’s going to die.”

He backed up a few steps.

“That’s better,” she said. “Do you want to
tell her what’s going on, or shall I?”

Alex said, “I can give it a try; I’ve figured
most of it out. Somehow you have the impression there’s a deposit
of precious stones around here. You must have heard about my
great-grandfather.”

The Matthews woman snorted. “I heard about
him all right. Those original jewels were found right here on this
property, weren’t they?”

Alex looked at the woman in shock. “Are you
insane? Why would I sit on a fortune in gems and not do anything
about it? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

A look of doubt crossed Barb Matthews’s face,
then dissipated as quickly as it had come. “Okay, you didn’t know
the truth yourself. But there are precious stones here. I have
proof!” She reached into her pocket with one hand and pulled out a
handful of small green stones. “I found these emerald chips during
my first visit here. They’re genuine, I had them tested. And where
there are chips, there are whole gems nearby!”

Alex said, “You found these on the property!
They were salted.”

A burst of cold fury escaped the older
woman’s lips. “What are you talking about?”

“My father thought a few gem-finds on our
land would increase the tourist trade. When Mom found out about
what he’d done, she hit the roof. So Dad backed down and retrieved
all the stones he could remember planting in the landscape.
Evidently he missed quite a few.”

Barb Matthews hissed, “That’s impossible.
You’re lying.”

Elise said, “It’s true. Alex told me about it
a couple of days ago.”

In a fit of rage, the slight older woman
lunged at Elise with the palm of her free hand and shoved her over
the rail! As she fell, Alex prayed she would stay close to the
tower instead of cartwheeling over, since the lower balcony
extended out farther than the upper one. He heard a ringing thud as
Elise made contact with the platform below. It was still a ten-foot
fall, and Alex knew it was enough to seriously hurt her if she hit
at the wrong angle, but at least she had a fighting chance.

In desperation, Alex dove for Barb Matthews.
He was too far away, and she managed to keep her hold on the blade.
Alex saw the sharp point gleaming in another flash of lightning as
she raised the weapon toward his chest. The wind assaulted him with
growing fury, but Alex was so focused on the blade that was poised
to skewer him, that he barely registered the wind’s presence.

He yelled, “What are you going to do, kill
everyone who suspects you?”

Barb Matthews seemed to think about that very
thing for a moment. “There’s still a way out for me. Even if you’re
telling the truth and this property is as worthless as you think it
is, I won’t have to go to jail. No one would believe that a little
old woman like me would be capable of murder, and with you gone,
there won’t be anyone left who suspects me.”

Alex said, “Why did you drag Elise into this?
It doesn’t make any sense.”

“I lured your maid up here because I was sure
she’d found my emeralds. You know I told you people not to clean my
room, but she did it anyway. I convinced her you were up here
waiting for her. You should have seen the little fool rush up to be
with you. It was pathetic.”

Alex felt sick about having been used as
bait. “You’ll never get away with this.”

Barb Matthews laughed. “I’ve already got my
story ready. Two secret lovers in a double suicide leap off the
lighthouse tower. The press will eat it up.” She shook her head in
disgust. “I should have killed you first. I know your brother would
have sold me the property the second after he inherited it from
you. That fact is obvious enough by the way your father’s estate
was settled.” She frowned, then added, “That would have to be
better than working through that idiot Finster.”