by Tim Myers
“You’re right, you do belong with Elise. Sorry I wore you out today.” The two men had hiked around Bear Rocks, gone for a drive, and were now checking the rooms in the empty Main Keeper’s Quarters for something they could fix.
“Are you kidding? The distraction was exactly what I needed.”
“Good. Now, what can we do here at the inn? How about the light switches? Are they all in working order?” Mor asked as he hefted his toolbox on their quest for something meaningful to do.
“You don’t have to do this,” Alex said.
Mor grinned at him. “Are you kidding me? This helps me out in two ways. I didn’t know what to get you as a wedding present, so a free day of work from Les and me was Elise’s suggestion. That’s one practical woman you’ve got there.”
“What’s the second reason?”
“My wife won’t be trying to dragoon me into her wedding prep squad.” Mor patted Alex hard on the back. “It’s a win-win situation no matter how I look at it.”
“Well, if you’re sure, there’s a closet light in the Blue Ridge Suite that never has worked.”
“Let’s see to it, then,” Mor said.
Alex opened the door, and Mor walked over to the closet. He flipped the switch, and nothing happened. After a moment, he pulled off the cover plate, looked in, and said, “I can fix this in two seconds.”
“Should I turn off the power?” Alex asked.
“No, it’s okay. I’m fine.”
Mor worked for five minutes, and when he was finished, the light came right on at the flick of the switch.
“That’s great,” Alex said.
“Anything else in here need fixing?” Mor asked.
“I don’t think so.”
Mor took out his outlet tester and said, “Let’s check anyway.”
“They all work,” Alex said.
Mor plugged the tester into an outlet behind the door. “This one’s dead.”
“It can’t be. It was working last week when I vacuumed here.”
“Maybe it was tied in with the switch,” Mor said.
“Is that even possible?”
“With this old wiring, nothing would surprise me. Let’s see what we’ve got,” Mor said as he started to take the cover plate off.
“I really should turn the electricity off.” As an innkeeper, Alex was a jack of most trades, but he wasn’t all that comfortable when it came to two things: electricity, and natural gas lines.
“If I have to swap it out with another receptacle, we’ll kill it, but I’m just looking right now.”
Mor took out a large flashlight and peered into the outlet as soon as it was exposed.
“That’s odd,” he said.
“What? Did a wire slip off?”
“From what I can see, the wires aren’t even connected to this outlet at all.” He took his screwdriver and began to remove the outlet itself.
“Well, would you look at that,” he said.
The big man was blocking his view, so Alex couldn’t see anything at all. “What is it?”
“This outlet was live pretty recently, but someone’s taped off the wires and killed the outlet on purpose.”
“How can you tell?”
“The electrical tape looks brand new, and the scratches on the posts look fresh.”
Alex had to take his friend’s word on that. “Why would anyone do that?”
“Beats me.” Mor reached into the opening, and Alex was afraid his friend would get a shock despite the protected wires, but instead, he pulled out a small folded piece of paper.
“What is it?” Alex asked.
“I figure it’s your inn. You should have the honors. It’s probably a gag by a disgruntled electrician.”
“It could be,” Alex said.
As he opened the paper, Alex found a cryptic photocopy, of what, Alex was not at all sure. There were what appeared to be random numbers in several columns, but they made no sense at all to him.
He showed Mor, who examined it as well, but the big man couldn’t make out any meaning to it, either.
“I have no idea why anyone would do that,” Mor said. “I need a drink of water.”
Alex was still studying the fragment when Mor called out from the bathroom, “Alex, get in here.”
“Hang on a second,” Alex said, still trying to figure out what the piece of paper could mean.
“I don’t have a second. Then again, maybe you should stay right where you are.”
That got Alex’s attention. He started for the bathroom door, but Mor blocked the way.
“What is it?” Alex asked, a fresh sense of urgency in his voice.
“You don’t need to see this.” He shoved his cell phone into Alex’s hands. “Call Armstrong.”
Alex felt his body go numb. “Is it Elise?” He couldn’t imagine living without her, and wasn’t sure he’d even want to.
“No, it’s not her. It’s Tony.” Mor could barely get out the next few words. “I’m sorry. He’s dead.”
Alex looked at his friend to see if it was some kind of twisted joke, but one glance at Mor’s expression told him that this was no laughing matter.
“I need to see him,” Alex said.
“You shouldn’t. Trust me.”
Alex pushed his big friend aside, something that he wouldn’t have said was possible if he hadn’t just done it.
Tony was lying in the tub, face up, with a knife plunged into his chest.
It was clear there was no life left him.
“It’s not a joke, is it?” Alex asked, still not able to believe what he was seeing. “Could he be trying to pull a prank on me on Halloween?”
Mor shook his head. “The blood is real, there’s no pulse, and he’s as cold as can be. I don’t know how long he’s been dead, but it’s been awhile.”
Alex nodded, but he still had to see for himself. The bathmat was gone, so he knelt beside the body on the cold tile and studied his brother for a second from close up.
“He’s gone, Alex,” Mor said gently, as though he were informing Alex that it was raining outside. Alex ignored it, and his fingers probed for a pulse. Mor was right. Tony had been dead awhile. His skin was cold to the touch, as though the late October air had sucked out every last bit of warmth he’d had in him. It felt to Alex as though some kind of weird transference took place just then. It was almost as if Tony’s body was beginning to chill him as well. Alex pulled his hand away, and started to get up, putting his hand on the side of the tub for support.
Mor helped him up. “Are you okay?”
Alex just nodded as he suddenly realized that he was the last living Winston in his branch of the family tree.
Mor guided him gently back out of the room, and he tried to take his phone back from Alex. “I’ll call the sheriff.”
“No, I can handle it myself,” he said.
“Sheriff, this is Alex Winston,” he said once he got the sheriff on the phone. It had taken three minutes, with each passing second feeling as though it lasted a lifetime. From where he stood, Alex could see that the hardwood floor was scuffed, and he strangely thought that he and Elise should buff it out before the police came. He knew on one level that it made no sense, but he wasn’t in his best frame of mind, either. The drapes needed to be replaced as well, he thought to himself.
Sheriff Armstrong finally came on the line. “What’s going on, Alex? The wedding’s still happening, right? You didn’t cancel it, did you?”
Was the sheriff trying to make a joke? Alex suddenly realized that it was true. There was no way he and Elise could be married, at least not now.
“Not yet, but we have to. Somebody killed my brother at the inn.”
“Are you serious?” the sheriff asked.
“As I can be,” Alex admitted.
“You know the drill. Don’t touch anything. I’ll be right there.” The sheriff hesitated a moment, and then said, “Alex, I’m sorry, about your brother, and the wedding.”
“Thanks,” he sai
d. “Mor will be guarding the door when you get here. Come to the Main Keeper’s Quarters.”
“Where will you be?”
“I have to tell Elise that the wedding’s off.”
Alex found Elise in the kitchen, helping Emma with the birdseed packets folks would have been throwing at them after the ceremony. The women were laughing and smiling as Alex came in.
Elise dropped the packet she was tying with ribbon and rushed to Alex. She must have read something in his face. “What’s wrong?”
“Tony’s been murdered,” Alex said. “We have to call the wedding off.”
Elise looked as though she couldn’t believe it. “What? Tell me again, but give me details.”
Emma asked, “Where’s Mor?”
“He’s guarding the body over at the Main Keepers Quarters until the sheriff gets here.”
“Then that’s where I need to be,” Emma said.
“You shouldn’t do that,” Alex said.
Emma didn’t even slow down, though. Her place was with her husband, and there was no way anyone would be able to keep her from joining him.
Alex slumped down in a chair after Emma was gone.
“I’m so sorry, Alex,” Elise said as she stroked his hair lightly. “I know you two had your problems, but he was your brother.”
“I can’t believe this is happening. Elise, you know how much I love you, how much you mean to me, but we can’t do this, not now.”
Elise shushed him. “Of course not. After we find the killer, we’ll have our wedding ceremony, but Alex, in my heart, we’re already married. All that’s left are the formalities.”
“What about the honeymoon?” Alex asked.
Elise shook her head. “We’ll have to cancel that, too.”
“It’s already paid for. We can’t get a refund, but we can transfer it to someone else.” Alex had a sudden idea. As he stood, he asked, “Why don’t we give it to your parents? You said yourself they need a vacation more than anything in the world. Let’s send them instead.”
“Alex, we don’t have to talk about that right now.”
“Elise, there’s nothing to talk about. It’s settled. Go tell them.”
She hugged him tightly. “You continue to prove to me that I’ve found the right man to spend the rest of my life back. They are as frugal as we are. I’ll tell them the trip is nonrefundable, and they’ll have to go. Thank you, Alex, that means so much to me.”
“You should go tell them,” he said.
“I can do that later. Right now, you need me.”
“Elise, I love you with all my heart, but I need a bit of time alone to come to grips with this. I’m going to climb to the top of the lighthouse and see if I can make any sense of it. Do you mind?”
“I knew she’d be your mistress long after I became your wife,” Elise said with a smile. “Don’t worry, I love her too, and I’m not the jealous type.”
Elise walked Alex to the foot of the lighthouse, and as Alex passed by the first window, he saw her going back inside.
He doubted that many people would have understood his bond to the lighthouse, and his need to be alone atop it.
He’d found the right person, too.
“Alex, are you up there?” he heard a voice call out from below the tower. “I need to talk to you.”
Alex peered over the walkway and saw the sheriff standing far below. “You could just come up.”
“Not likely. Let’s go, this is serious.”
Alex considered a hundred things he could say in reply, but there was no use. He hurried down the steps, and found the sheriff waiting for him at the bottom.
“We need to talk.”
Alex nodded. “I guess you heard about the fight Tony and I had last night,” Alex said.
“Mor mentioned it.” Alex had brought his friend up to date on the phone about Tony’s threat to take half the lighthouse, so it didn’t surprise him.” He wasn’t trying to rat you out, Alex. He just didn’t want me to find out on my own.”
“I’ve never doubted Mor’s loyalty to me, sheriff, and I’m not about to start now. I wasn’t all that pleased with my brother, but I didn’t kill him.”
“That’s what we need to talk about,” Armstrong said. The sheriff looked at the ground for a moment, and then said, “I just spoke with your father in law.”
“He’s not going to have that title for awhile,” Alex said, and then it hit him. “He told you about last night on the porch, didn’t he?”
The sheriff nodded. “He didn’t want to at first, but his wife insisted. They aren’t bad people, Alex. They just want to be sure their daughter is marrying the right man. You can’t hold it against them.”
“I don’t,” Alex said, though in truth he wasn’t pleased by the news. What did he expect, though? If he’d been in Mr. Danton’s shoes and it was his daughter getting married, wouldn’t he speak up? Of course he would. Elise’s parents clearly loved her, and if they thought there was a single chance she was getting herself into some serious trouble, they were obligated to speak up.
“You mean that?” Armstrong asked. “I’m not sure I’d be so forgiving, myself.”
“What if it was your daughter getting married?” he asked simply.
The sheriff didn’t take long to consider the possibilities. “I’d rat you out in a second.”
“The thing is, I didn’t kill Tony.”
“But he was threatening all of this,” the sheriff said as he waved a hand around the place. Alex had often thought of the man as nothing more than a blundering fool, but in fact, Armstrong had changed since the heart attack he’d had while Alex and Elise were away working on the Outer Banks at another lighthouse inn. It was as though God had given him another chance, and he’d decided to grab it with both hands. It didn’t mean that he and Alex could ever be considered friends, but the sheriff wasn’t as quick to think Alex committed a crime as he had in the past.
“That’s a point, but I spoke with Sandra Beckett last night, and she promised me she’d have my back, that Tony didn’t have a leg to stand on.”
“It’s kind of crazy how you two have stayed friends, even after you dumped her for Elise.”
“There was a little difference of opinion in the timing of it all,” Alex said. “But I trust Sandra, and so does Elise.”
The sheriff nodded. “Okay, we know why you might have wanted to see your brother dead. Have any other suspects I can look at?”
Alex nodded. At least he wasn’t being led off to jail, at least not yet. “You should speak with two people who were at the rehearsal dinner last night. Remember the woman who slapped Tony?”
“I’ve got a man looking for her right now,” Armstrong admitted.
“Then, how about the guy in the sharp suit he was talking to just before that happened? I got the impression he wasn’t exactly an upright citizen.”
“Would you brother get involved with someone like that?” the sheriff asked.
“If he thought he could make a quick buck, I don’t doubt it for a second.” Alex felt somehow disloyal speaking that way about his last living kin, but what choice did he have?
“Any chance you caught his name?”
“I think my brother said it was Jackson.”
“First or last name?”
Alex shook his head. “That’s all I got. Sorry I can’t help you.”
Armstrong nodded. “I’ll take a look myself. Is there anything else you want to add?”
Alex remembered the torn paper in his pocket. “Mor and I found this behind a dead receptacle in the room where Tony was killed.” He handed it the sheriff, who took it and then studied it for a few moments.
Armstrong shook his head. “There’s no reason to think this was related to his murder,” he said as he handed it back to Alex.
“Not even from where it was found?”
“It sounds like it was hidden pretty carefully by someone. Alex, that doesn’t jibe with the knife someone used on your brother. It was a murder of
opportunity, and maybe even passion. This is just a dead end, trust me.”
Alex was about to argue with the sheriff when Elise came hurrying up to them. “Alex, we need to talk.”
The sheriff smiled slightly, but he was careful not to let Elise see it. “That’s never good coming from a woman, is it?” he asked softly.
Alex was in no mood for the sheriff’s humor. “Are we finished here?”
“For now. I’m sorry, but I’ve taken over the Main Keepers’ Quarters. It shouldn’t be more for than a day or two.”
“Take your time. We don’t have any guests scheduled for four days,” Alex admitted.
“Why’s that?”
“We were going to be on our honeymoon,” Alex said simply.
The sheriff looked embarrassed about his lapse. “Sorry. That’s right. I’ll be in touch.”
He tipped his hat to Elise, who had stood a little back so they could finish their conversation.
Elise hurried to Alex and said, “I don’t know what to say. My father had no right--.”
Alex cut her off, “To try to protect his daughter? He had every right. Elise, I don’t blame him for telling the sheriff what he saw.”
“You’re kidding, right? I’m furious with him myself.”
“If your dad hadn’t told the sheriff about what happened, I was going to do it myself. We both know from experience that there can’t be any secrets when it comes to a murder investigation.”
“He still shouldn’t have just volunteered it like that,” Elise said.
“If you were my daughter, I would have done the exact same thing.”
“I’m still making him apologize,” Elise said.
“I’d really rather you didn’t,” Alex said.
“Too late,” Elise said as her father walked toward them. He started to speak, but Alex beat him to it. “Sir, I appreciate you telling the sheriff what you saw last night. If you hadn’t, I would have done it myself. For what it’s worth, I didn’t kill my brother, but you were well within your rights to say what you did to the sheriff.”
Mr. Danton looked taken aback by Alex’s statement. “Elise seems to feel otherwise.”
“You did what you thought was right by her, even though it couldn’t have been easy for you,” Alex said. “I respect that.”
