Room for Murder (Book 4 in the Lighthouse Inn Mysteries) (13 page)

Rush cut him off again. “I understand.
Thanks.” He turned to Jones and said, “I really am very sorry.”

Alex turned to the newlywed and said, “I’d
be happy to buy you another roll of film myself.”

The man just grunted as he stomped back into
his room, slamming the door in Alex’s face.

Alex took his master key and went back to
the laundry room, relieved that nothing worse had happened.

Chapter 11

Mrs. Nesbitt came back from her walk and
found Alex in the laundry room.

“
You wanted to see me?” she
asked as she held aloft the note he’d left her.

“
Yes, Ma’am. I don’t know
how to tell you this, but somebody took my key and used it to get
into your room while you were out.”

She went white. “Why is this happening,
Alex?”

He said, “I wish I knew. Let’s go upstairs
and see if anything’s been disturbed.”

After a quick inspection, Mrs. Nesbitt said,
“Nothing’s out of place. I can’t imagine what I could have that
anyone else would be interested in.”

Alex said, “I don’t know what to say. I was
careless with my key. Tell you what. I’ll be glad to find you other
accommodations in Hickory and refund your bill if you’d like.”

Mrs. Nesbitt said, “Don’t be so
melodramatic, Alex, no harm was done here. I’m perfectly content to
stay in this room. It has a warm presence that I find somehow
comforting.”

Alex neglected to mention the fact that a
woman had started her descent into suicide in that room, and that
another previous tenant had been killed at the top of the
lighthouse. If she found comfort there, more power to her. It was
one of Alex’s favorite rooms as well, despite its troubled
history.

Mrs. Nesbitt said, “Don’t give it another
thought, Alex. I’m sure I’ll be quite safe now.”

“
If you need me any time,
call me,” Alex said, feeling more concerned about the incident than
he cared to admit.

“
Posh and tish, I’ll be
fine.”

Regardless of what she said, Alex promised
himself to make every effort to ensure the woman’s safety while she
was staying with him at Hatteras West.

Elise came back to the inn an hour later.
From the expression on her face, things had not gone well with
Emma.

Alex asked, “Was it as bad as all that?”

Elise said, “Believe me, you don’t want to
know. I’ve always thought of Emma as a rock, but this thing has
really gotten to her. And Mor still won’t talk to her.”

“
I figured as much. He can
be as stubborn as an old goat when he puts his mind to
it.”

Elise said, “Alex, you’ve got to talk to
him. Emma’s tearing herself up with remorse for what she did.”

“
I tried, remember? He
wasn’t interested in anything I had to say. The only thing that’s
going to help Mor is time. He just needs to get over the fact that
Emma thought he was capable of murder.”

Elise said, “That’s not it at all. She was
just trying to protect him.”

“
I know that and you know
that, but to Mor, it looks like a real slap in the face. If Emma
still needs you, I can manage around here.”

Elise shook her head. “After she got all
those tears out of her system, she was exhausted. I put her to bed,
and I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t sleep through the night. How
are things?”

Alex said, “We’ve got triplet boys upstairs
in Number 5, and they’ve already managed to destroy the film out of
the newlyweds’ camera. What in the world made them think it was
okay to go into another guest’s room?” Alex paused, then added,
“That’s not all.” He hated to confess the new break-in to her.
“Somebody was snooping around in Mrs. Nesbitt’s room again. They
took my key to do it.” Before she could say anything, he added,
“Don’t worry, I found it still in her door. She was out on her
walk, but I told her what happened the second she got back. Believe
it or not, she wants to stay in that room, after all that’s
happened.”

“
What’s going on,
Alex?”

“
I wish I knew,” he
said.

“
It sounds like we’re going
to have to keep watch on everyone,” Elise said.

“
We can just add that to
the joys of innkeeping,” he replied.

Much to Alex’s relief, the night passed
without further incident. Bright and early the next morning, after
tearing through the breakfast line like a herd of wild dogs, the
Rushes checked out and were on their way to their next stop. It
took Alex and Elise both to clean the room after they were gone. It
never ceased to amaze him just how much of a mess some folks could
make in one night. Some of his fellow innkeepers had long ago
instituted a “no children” rule, but Alex couldn’t bring himself to
do it. There were too many well-behaved kids out there who loved
lighthouses as much as he always had. If it meant suffering through
a few stays like the one they’d had the night before, it was worth
it.

At least that’s what he kept telling himself
as he scraped modeling clay off the honey-toned hardwood floor.

Things were quiet around the inn over the
next few days. Alex and Elise managed to slip back into some of
their old routines, but there was no doubt something subtle had
changed between them. Where there’d been light banter between them
before, there was now a forced formality that Alex had tried in
vain to ease. He seriously considered turning the lighthouse beacon
on again, just to see one of Elise’s smiles.

The phone rang while Alex was dusting the
front desk, and he answered before it had a chance to finish its
first ring.

“
The Hatteras West Inn,” he
answered automatically.

“
Alex, this is Doc Drake.
Has the sheriff called you yet?”

Alex prepared himself for the worse. “No,
what’s happened now?”

“
Relax, this is about the
Sturbridge case. The medical examiner in Raleigh finally figured
out what happened to Emma’s ex-husband, but it took him some time.
You’ll never guess what killed Sturbridge.”

Alex said, “I don’t have a clue.”

“
A blow to the chest, plain
and simple. Evidently Sturbridge was a ticking time bomb waiting to
go off. The medical examiner said it was amazing the man lived as
long as he did, given the weakened condition of his heart. One
shove put him over the edge.”

Alex asked, “Would it have had to be hard
enough to leave a bruise?”

Drake sighed. “Not necessarily, but in this
case it left a small one. I missed it, Alex. Sturbridge had a
tattoo of a mermaid on his chest, and the tail obscured the bruise.
I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“
So what
happened?”

“
The way it plays out,
Sturbridge must have received a blow to the chest, hard enough to
stop his heart in its weakened condition, and that was that. It’s a
pretty clear case of heart failure.”

“
It almost sounds like he
died of natural causes,” Alex said.

“
Don’t kid yourself. I’m
not saying it was intentional, but whoever killed him might as well
have put a gun to the man’s head. It’s still murder, no matter how
you look at it. Alex, do me a favor, would you?”

“
Anything,” Alex
said.

“
Have the decency to act
surprised when Armstrong tells you all this later.”

Alex quickly agreed. “I promise. And Doc?
Thanks for calling me.”

“
I thought you’d like to
know.” After Alex hung up, he couldn’t keep his mind off the way
Toby Sturbridge had died. When he’d assumed it had been some exotic
poison or even just natural causes, Alex had been certain Mor had
nothing to do with it.

But a blow to the chest was something else
entirely. He hated the idea, but Alex could easily see Mor giving
Sturbridge a punch to the chest to make his point. As Drake had
said, it wouldn’t even have had to be that hard, given the man’s
condition. But it was still murder.

And it was looking more and more possible
that his best friend in the world might have done it after all.

The next day Alex got an early morning
telephone call is he was putting out the breakfast bar.

As soon as he heard Sally Anne’s voice, Alex
asked her o hold on and said, “Elise, can you spare me for a
minute?”

“
I can handle this, Alex,”
she said. Once he was away from Elise and their guests, he asked
Sally Anne, “So what’s up? I figured you’d be jammed with your
breakfast crowd.” He could hear the noises of the full diner in the
background.

“
I just had to call and
give you an update,” she said. Conner Shook just left. He’s got
some kind of bomb he’s topping on Tracy tonight at the debate. I
don’t know what it is, but he was pretty smug about it when he was
talking to Dad.”

“
Did you call Tracy and
tell her? I don’t know if she’s still home, but if she’s not there,
you could try her at Shantara’s.”

“
Both lines were busy,”
Sally Anne said.

“
They’re probably talking
to each other. Why don’t you try them and I’ll see if I can get
through later myself. Anything else?” Alex asked.

“
Let’s see, I heard that
Luanne Trist is pregnant, Don Rainer made a big donation to your
Bridge Committee, oh, and Emma and Mor are on the skids, but you
probably already knew that. The biggest thing is that Oxford
Hitchcock had a fight with his lady friend in Lenoir right before
he died. The sheriff’s going over there this afternoon to talk to
her.”

For a small town, a lot seemed to be
happening around Elkton Falls. “Thanks for keeping me up to speed,
Sally Anne.”

She paused, then said, “There’s something
I’m forgetting. Oh yeah, Irma Bean’s all up in arms about a new
restaurant coming to town. She was trying to get Dad upset, but
he’s not all that worried. He says they won’t be competition for
us, but Irma’s frantic.” In the background, Alex heard Buck yell,
“Sally Anne.”

“
I’ve got to go. I’ll call
later, Alex,” she said as she hung up.

Alex thought about what Sally Anne had said
as he helped Elise clean up after their guests were through with
their meals.

“
No bad news, I hope,”
Elise said.

Alex emptied the trash. “I’m not sure what
to make of it. It turns out Oxford had a fight with his female
companion not long before he was murdered. The sheriff’s going to
talk with her this afternoon.”

“
And you’d love to go with
him, wouldn’t you? It’s okay with me if you can talk him into
it.”

Alex said, “I appreciate the offer, but I
know Armstrong. He’s not going to want me horning in on any of his
investigations any more than I already am. No, I’ll stay here and
clean the inn with you.”

They split up, as was becoming their custom,
and tackled most of the rooms before lunch. Alex was speaking with
a travel agent from England about a tour stopping at the inn when
Jan and Corki approached the desk, their bags in their hands. The
phone call quickly wrapped up, and Alex said, “I forgot you ladies
were leaving us today.”

Corki said, “We’re off to another inn.”

Jan added with a twinkle in her eye, “And
another souvenir. I’m not entirely certain the Grove Park really
qualifies as an inn, despite its name. What am I saying? Who cares?
I’m getting a massage tonight.”

Alex knew the Grove Park Inn in Asheville
was a truly elegant place, and he shuddered when he thought about
the comparisons the ladies would be making that night. “I’m sure
you’ll have a wonderful time.”

“
Your lighthouse will be
tough to beat,” Corki said. “It was especially nice of you to turn
the light on just for us.”

Alex grinned. “I just wish I could do it
every night. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

After the ladies were on their way, Alex
figured it would be the perfect time to clean their room, even
though there were no new guests scheduled until the next day. He
found Elise finishing up Mrs. Nesbitt’s room.

“
Why don’t we knock this
one out together,” he said as he opened the door to Jan and Corki’s
room. Elise nodded and started on the bathroom while Alex
dust-mopped the honeyed hardwood floor under the bed.

There was something under his mop; he could
hear it skitter across the floor as he drew it to him.

There, along with a wrapper for a candy bar
and a torn postcard of the inn, Alex found one of the A’s from his
Scrabble game. Either the ladies had lost one of their own tiles
there, or Hatteras West had been victimized by another letter
thief. If it was from his game, at least there would be one A left
for those daring enough to play with a modified pool of letters. He
trotted downstairs, and sure enough, the rest of the A’s were gone.
When he got back to the room, Elise said, “Where did you run off
to?”

“
I found a tile from our
Scrabble game under the bed. Our game now has just one
A.”

Elise said, “I guess you’ll have to get Mor
to make you more. Jan and Corki probably think it’s hilarious after
the story about the original letter theft. I found this while you
were gone.” Inside an envelope with his name on it, Alex read the
note from Corki explaining the theft, along with a ten-dollar bill
to replace the game.

Alex said, “It’s amazing what some people
will take from the inn as a souvenir. You never can tell, can you?”
Alex added, “I probably should give Mor a call to see how he’s
doing. He’s got to get over this and speak to Emma again. I know
it’s tearing them both apart.”

He looked at Elise and could see that she
wanted to say something, but she was holding back. Alex said,
“Listen, I know it’s probably not any of my business, but they’re
my friends and I hate to see this all fall apart.”