Room for Murder (Book 4 in the Lighthouse Inn Mysteries) (16 page)

Greg smiled. “Sure, blame the husband, take
the easy way out.”

Alex surveyed the mess they’d created and
said, “It’s getting too late to drive anywhere and the room’s free
for the night. Let me get this cleaned up and you’re welcome to
spend the night here, with my compliments.”

Denise said, “We’d love to, but friends are
expecting us in Charlotte tonight. We’ll stay and help clean up
before we go, though.”

Alex shook his head. “I can handle this. Why
don’t you two go ahead? And enjoy the rest of your vacation.”

“
Oh, we will,” Denise said
happily. “And we’re even going to come back next year.”

Greg said, “Thanks, Alex. I can’t tell you
how much this means to us.”

Elise showed up as Greg and Denise were
leaving.

“
What happened?” she
asked.

“
Denise lost her engagement
ring, but the panic is over. We found it.”

She followed Alex back upstairs, and they
had the room back in neat order in no time.

Elise said, “There’s never a dull moment
around here, is there? Good night.”

“
Good night,” Alex
answered, though he had hoped their late night proximity would ease
some of the discomfort between them.

No such luck.

It appeared that the damage they’d done was
irreversible.

Chapter 14

“
Well, the celebrity
arrives,” Elise said as Alex walked into the lobby the next
morning.

“
What are you talking
about?” Alex asked.

She showed him the newspaper, and he was
appalled to see that Logan, that newshound, had used two of the
shots he’d taken in the auditorium. Side by side, there were photos
of Tracy fainted dead away in Conner’s arms, and then one with the
hanged dummy leering down at them. Alex was in one corner of the
first photo, reaching a hand out to Tracy.

Blast it all! “I can’t believe he’d stoop to
this kind of journalism,” Alex said.

Elise said, “The caption’s almost as bad as
the photographs are.”

Alex looked at the bold headlines and felt
his face grow hot.

It said,
fainting candidate needs different kind of
support
in screaming black
letters.

Oh, no. Alex couldn’t believe the part the
newspaper was playing in destroying the last shred of hope for
Tracy’s campaign.

“
Listen, she was the victim
here,” Alex said.

“
Don’t you think I realize
that, Alex? Everybody who matters knows that Tracy had every right
to be frightened. Still, the picture of her passed out in Conner’s
arms isn’t going to help matters. Elkton Falls is a pretty
conservative place.”

“
What about Conner? It
could hurt him too, couldn’t it?”

Elise shook her head. “It’s pretty obvious
the paper’s backing him. The story implies that he was just caring
for his ex-wife in her time of need. It makes Tracy look like some
kind of weakling, though not in words that are obvious. No, they’ve
done a masterful job.”

Alex said, “I won’t stand for it. There’s
got to be something I can do.”

The phone rang, and Alex grabbed it.

Mir was on the other end. “Hey. Alex. That
press coverage was pretty bad, wasn’t it?”

“
You saw the paper,” Alex
said.

“
Man, everybody in Elkton
Falls saw it. I was over at Buck’s for breakfast. You wouldn’t
believe the buzzing. It sounded like somebody let a hive loose in
there.”

“
Are the reactions all
bad?” Alex asked already afraid he knew the answer.

“
Not from what I heard.
Sounds to me like folks are pretty evenly split. I don’t think the
newspaper fooled them, or swayed anybody at all. The kudzu vine had
already spread the truth about the real story about the mannequin,
and folks are pretty riled up about the newspaper painting Tracy so
badly. It actually might have helped her, to be honest with you.
Nobody likes a bully.”

Alex said, “That’s the best news I’ve heard
all day. Keep your ears open, would you?”

“
I can’t help myself,” he
said before hanging up.

Elise asked, “Who was that?”

“
Mor was reporting in from
the diner. Seems the smear might have backfired. Tracy’s still in
the running.”

Elise nodded. “I’m glad to hear it. Now I’d
better get started on Dual. And Alex,” she added, her voice
trailing off.

“
Yes?” he asked.

“
I know you want to rake
the newspaper editors and the photographer who took those pictures
over the coals, but don’t. We don’t need any more bad publicity for
the inn, do we?” Her words were softened with a smile.

“
I promise, I’ll do my best
to be good.”

“
That’s the spirit,” she
said.

Another crisis averted, he thought to
himself as he started cleaning up after the breakfast bar.

But Alex knew the day was still young, and
there was a lot more time for mischief before the sun set.

Alex was checking over the guest register,
wondering how they were going to keep the inn full now that they
were back to full capacity. Advertising was a necessary evil, since
his word-of-mouth trade wasn’t enough to keep them fully booked,
but it was a part of the job Alex really didn’t care for. It was
frustrating knowing that part of his budget for ads was wasted. If
he was being honest with himself, what really bothered him was that
he couldn’t know for sure which ads worked and which didn’t, even
using the suite number ploy on the return address. Truth be told,
most folks forgot to include his carefully disguised tracking
information when they made their reservations.

Lenora approached with a sketchbook under
one arm and asked, “Why the frown, Alex?”

“
Nothing, it’s just the
innkeeper’s scourge; paperwork,” he said, trying to ease the
tension in his face.

She nodded. “What you need is some fresh
air. How about a thirty-minute break so I can make a few quick
sketches?”

“
You’re relentless, you
know that, don’t you?”

Lenora smiled softly. “When it’s important
to me, I certainly can be.”

Alex shrugged. “Okay, but I can only give
you fifteen minutes. I mean it, that’s it.”

“
I’ll gladly take whatever
I can get,” she said.

Alex thought about tracking Elise down to
tell her where he would be, but he finally decided he was just too
embarrassed to admit that he’d be away from his duties so he could
model.

He settled for a sign on the desk that said,
‘Back Soon,’ and they went outside.

“
Where would you like to do
this, the top of the lighthouse?” he asked.

“
Not today. The light
should be perfect at Bear Rocks for our session.”

“
Suits me,” Alex said. Bear
Rocks was a part of Winston land, an outcropping of granite worn
away by erosion, leaving shoots, slides, and passageways through
the rocks. Next to the lighthouse, it was his favorite place on
earth. How he was to have both at his doorstep, even luckier that
he owned them. It was time yet again for him to his blessings. He
had his health, his family land, and friends he cared
about.

Lenora broke into his thoughts. “You’re
quiet today. Anything I can help you with? I’m told I’m easy to
talk to.”

“
No, everything’s fine,” he
said as they cut through die path that connected Bear Rocks to the
lighthouse and inn area. Alex owed its neatly sculpted condition to
an amateur landscapes a man who had transformed the grounds of
Hatteras West into a garden spot, and Alex missed the man’s deft
touch with a pair of pruning shears. He knew that it wouldn’t be
long before the wildness of the place began to grow
back.

“
You and Elise are having
your own problems, aren’t you?” Lenora asked. Her question was
soft, but the inflection showed she cared about his
answer.

“
I guess we were both
expecting too much,” he admitted. Usually it was other people who
opened up to Alex, but this woman had an empathy in her that
startled him. After she had him posed on Mamma Bear, one of his
favorite formations that formed a cradle for the warming sun, Alex
found himself telling Lenora all about his history with Elise.
There was none of that foolishness about keeping deadly still, and
Alex found himself forgetting that he was even posing, he was so
engrossed in telling her all that had transpired between him and
Elise since she’d first come to Hatteras West in the back of
Sheriff Armstrong’s squad car looking for work as a
maid.

Finally, as Lenora put a last stroke onto
the paper, she said. “Alex, it’s difficult changing a relationship
once it’s established, but there’s one thing you must
remember.”

“
What’s that?” he
asked.

“
It’s not impossible. You
just have to be patient.”

He nodded. “That’s what Elise has been
telling me, but I’m beginning to have my doubts.”

She laughed. “Doubts are for the weak of
heart, Alex, and you’re certainly not that. Sometimes it’s hard for
a man of action to simply wait.”

Lenora sketched some more, then said, “Your
mayor certainly likes to tour Elkton Falls, doesn’t he?”

“
Yeah, Grady’s been
everywhere lately. Why, where did you see him?”

“
Just yesterday I was out
at your pond sketching some waterfowl, and I saw him deep in
conversation with another man. I didn’t recognize him until I saw
today’s paper. I believe it was Conner Shook, and from the look of
things at the pond, the two of them weren’t exactly getting
along.”

Alex said, “Conner could make a teddy bear
mad.”

“
The mayor was not happy, I
can agree with that. He seemed intimidated.”

Alex said, “I bet I know why. Grady promised
to stay out of the mayoral race, but it sounds as though Conner’s
putting pressure on him for an endorsement. Tracy told me he
probably would once he took over the nomination.”

“
That’s why I stay away
from the political world,” Lenora said as she pondered adding a
line, then put her charcoal down. “It is a field of endeavor
founded on confrontation.”

Alex glanced at his watch and said, “We’ve
been out here almost an hour! I can’t believe how quickly the time
passed.”

“
So you’ll pose for me
again before I leave?”

Alex smiled. “I can’t believe you’d want me
to, after talking your ears off like that.”

“
I enjoy listening,” she
said.

“
Can I have a peek?” Alex
asked, gesturing to the paper.

She held it away from him. “When I’m
finished, perhaps.”

Alex laughed. “Okay, I won’t try to see it.
You know, you should really try to get Elise to pose for you. She’s
more suited to be a model than I am.”

Lenora shook her head. “Beauty is not the
goal of my work, Alex. I look for character in my subjects.”

“
Hey, she’s got plenty of
that, too,” Alex said.

Lenora shook her head gently. “You are my
model, Alex. One subject at a time is all I care to focus on.”

“
Whatever you
say.”

They walked inside together, a closeness in
their bond that hadn’t been there before. Alex was amazed by how at
ease he’d felt sharing his feelings with a perfect stranger.

Elise was waiting by the front desk, the
sign in her hands and a frown on her pursed lips.

“
Alex, where have you been?
Soon means less than an hour to me.”

Alex said, “Sorry, we got carried away out
on Bear Rocks.”

Lenora said, “Thank you again, Alex. Until
next time.”

After she was gone, Elise said, “What did
she mean by that?”

“
It’s nothing. She just
wants me to pose again. So what’s so urgent?”

Elise said, “You’ve got to do something
about Mor and Emma. She called again while you were gone. Alex,
she’s frantic about the situation. She’s afraid she’s going to lose
him if they don’t patch this up soon.”

“
What can I do?” Alex
asked. “I’ve talked to him once and it didn’t do any good at all.
Besides, you know I hate to meddle.”

“
You care about your
friends, don’t you?”

“
Elise, that’s not fair.
You know I do.”

‘
Then we’ve got to do
something, Alex.”

He said, “I can talk to him again, but I
can’t imagine it will change his mind.”

Elise said, “This calls for more than talk.
We need to take some kind of action.”

Alex thought about it a few moments, then
said, “You’re not going to stop pestering me until I do something,
are you?”

Elise smiled grimly. “I like to think of it
as being persistent.”

“
But you’re not giving up,”
he pushed.

“
No,” she said firmly. “I
believe in my heart that the two of them belong
together.”

Alex said, “It doesn’t matter what either
one of us thinks, it’s how they feel that counts.”

She started to rebut when he held up a hand.
“Let me finish. If I promise to get them in the same room to give
them a chance to talk this out, will you let me butt out if it
doesn’t work?”

She answered him with a brief hug. “I
promise. Thanks, Alex.”

After she pulled away, he said, “It’s
against my better judgment, but you’re welcome.”

He had an idea, but he still wasn’t sure it
was any of his business trying to get Emma and Mor back
together.