by Tim Myers
Irma said, “Who let you two boys out on your own? I’m looking for Mrs. Hurley. We were supposed to meet here ten minutes ago.” Mrs. Hurley was a retired schoolteacher who taught several night classes at the community college. Mor and Alex had both taken classes from her, though Mor had had more free time in his evenings until Emma Sturbridge had come along.
“I haven’t seen her in donkey years,” Mor said. “But you’re always welcome to sit with us.”
Irma smiled. “I don’t know if my reputation could stand the strain.”
Alex said, “Seriously, is this debate important enough to get you to shut down for the night?”
“My staff’s working, so we’re open as usual, but they’ll have to do without me tonight. This election is more important than feeding people,” she said in a lowered voice. “We’ve got to get that girl elected.”
Mor said, “Irma, I never thought of you as all that political.”
“Mor Pendleton, there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
“No doubt about that,” he said. They spotted Mrs. Hurley come in through the back, and Irma said, “Excuse me, gentlemen, there she is.”
The high school auditorium filled up quickly, and soon it was time for the debate to begin. Grady Hatch took the stage first, raised his hands for silence, then began.
“Folks, I want to thank you for coming out tonight. Give yourselves a big hand.”
Most folks were happy for an excuse to do something, even if it was nothing more than clapping for themselves.
After the applause died down, Grady said, “I don’t have to introduce tonight’s combatants, I mean candidates.” There was a snicker from the crowd at his slip of the tongue.
“Most likely there’s no need to go into long, fancy bios of the Shooks, you’ve known them both all their lives. Conner, Tracy, let’s get this rascal started.”
Conner and Tracy Shook entered the stage from different sides, barely making eye contact as they walked to the identical podiums separated by the moderator’s table. Conner wore a suit that must have cost him a fortune, while Tracy chose a pants suit like the ones women politicos in Washington seemed to favor. Alex thought it was funny that Conner was standing behind a podium draped with Tracy’s colors, while she was behind his. It took them both a full second to realize their mistake, then they awkwardly changed sides like tennis players crossing the net.
Alex was afraid the mayor was going to botch the moderator’s job, and he was relieved when Ernest Faith, a newsman from one of the Charlotte television stations, took a seat behind the desk. Grady slipped off into the wings, no doubt to get away from the heat of the battle, then walked down one side of the aisle to the back of the auditorium, where it was standing room only. It was quite a turnout for Elkton Falls.
Ernest gave the audience his well-practiced smile and said, “Welcome. I’d like to start tonight’s debate by giving each candidate the opportunity to tell the audience why they should be Mayor of Elkton Falls. Both candidates have decided that in order to avoid confusion, we will be using first names only during this debate.” That got a snicker out of the audience. When it died, the newsman continued, “We flipped a coin backstage, and Tracy won. Tracy?”
She looked nervous, staring down at her notes before she made eye contact with the audience. The silence grew on without a word from the candidate, and the crowd started getting restless.
Ernest said again, “Tracy?”
She took a deep gulp of air, then said, “Thank you. I’m running for mayor because I want to make a difference. Mayor Hatch has been doing a decent job, but I feel we need a new, strong leadership to keep the developers in check, to assure the high standards we are used to having here, and to lead our town into growth slowly and with careful consideration. I want to keep Elkton Falls the way it should be: filled with heart, with friendship, and with good neighbors.”
She looked relieved to be finished, and the crowd dutifully applauded.
Ernest waited a moment, then said, “Now Conner.”
Conner shot a look at Tracy, then turned his brightest smile onto the audience. “Folks, my ex-wife has offered you a Mayberry ideal. Well, Mayberry was on TV. This is real life. Elkton Falls needs growth to sustain itself. New jobs, new people moving in, this all represents more for all of us as we expand our tax base. We shouldn’t be discouraging expansion, we should be encouraging it. Tracy, the fifties have been over a long time. We need someone who’s looking toward tomorrow, not living in yesterday.”
There was a louder round of applause than Alex had hoped for. Conner had taken Tracy’s words and wrapped them around her throat. He was much smoother, more polished than Tracy, with his ready smile and sharp delivery.
And it looked to Alex as if the residents of Elkton Falls were eating it up.
At one point, Tracy looked as if she was going to take off after Conner right there on stage, his remarks were so inflammatory, but she kept her temper and instead jabbed jack at him with a few shots of her own.
After the summations at the very end of the debate, both candidates looked as if they’d gone through a battle.
And for the life of him, Alex couldn’t figure out who had won.
Mor stood as the candidates made their way out the back of the auditorium to swing around and greet folks as they left. “Well, that was something.”
“Did any of it change your mind at all?” Alex asked.
“No, but I doubt anything will. These two were preaching to their own choirs all night long. Conner’s pushing for expansion, and Tracy wants things to stay the way they are. It should make for an interesting election on Tuesday.”
“It should,” Alex agreed.
He and Mor were still standing there chatting when they both heard the scream behind them.
Someone at the back of the auditorium was in trouble.
Chapter 13
Mor and Alex rushed backstage just in time to see Tracy faint. Conner, obviously uncomfortable with his ex-wife in his arms, said, “Somebody get a doctor.”
“What happened?” Alex asked as Mor left to find Doc Drake.
“That did,” Conner said, gesturing with his head toward the back door.
There, hanging from the rafters, was a female mannequin dressed in something just like Tracy would wear with a sign around its neck.
drop out or die.
At that moment, a flash went off behind Alex, then another.
He looked toward the light and saw Max Logan from the Elkton Falls Journal running back up the aisle, his camera in his hand.
“Great,” Conner said. “It’s not exactly how I wanted to get in the papers.”
Tracy started to come around. Her eyelids fluttered, then she looked startled to find herself in Conner’s arms.
“Let go of me,” she said angrily.
Conner released her and said, “If you want to break your tailbone, that’s fine with me.”
Alex reached out and gave Tracy a hand, and she wobbled slightly as she stood, leaning into Alex so she wouldn’t fall.
Evidently when the photographer saw that no one was chasing him, he decided to come back for more shots.
Alex said, “Come on, Max, it’s not fair taking advantage of Tracy like this.”
Logan said, “Are you kidding me? This is Page One stuff. I’ve got a shot of the hanging body and Tracy passed out under it.”
“It’s a mannequin, somebody’s idea of a dirty trick. You’ve got more class than that,” he said.
Max said, “It’s not a question of class, this is real news.”
Alex turned to Conner. “Aren’t you going to try to stop him?”
Conner said halfheartedly, “What can I do about it? Logan’s right; we can’t keep the newspaper from publishing something just because we don’t like the subject matter.”
As Max raced out of the auditorium, Tracy snapped, “You think this is something positive? How are your old buddies and new girlfriends going to feel when you’re seen hold
ing me on the front page tomorrow?”
Conner smiled. “Go with the flow, Trace. Remember, any press is good press.”
Tracy pointed to the dummy. “Is this your idea of a joke, Conner?”
He frowned. “Come on, you know me better than that, I’m going to whip your tail fair and square. You don’t actually think I want you to drop out, do you?”
After Conner was gone, Alex asked her, “Do you believe him?”
“I hate to admit it, but this isn’t Conner’s style. Now if he’d come after me with a knife or tried to run me over with his car, maybe. He doesn’t have the aptitude for psychological warfare.”
Alex inadvertently brushed against the dummy, and the legs swung eerily back and forth. “I think you’d better take this threat seriously.”
“And give Conner the satisfaction of a walkover election? I’d rather die first.”
There was no doubt about the sincerity in her voice. Alex was about to say something else when Mor rushed back. “Doc’s delivering a baby over in Viewmont. Do you want me to call 911?”
Tracy said, “That’s all I need to sink my chances, a ride in the ambulance because the ‘poor little woman’ couldn’t take a prank. I’m fine. Excuse me, guys, but I’d better head over to Shantara’s and see what we can do about this mess.”
“You aren’t even going to call the sheriff?” Alex asked.
“What’s he going to do, follow me around between now and the election? I don’t need a bodyguard, Alex. I’ll be fine.”
That left Alex and Mor standing in the wings, studying the dummy.
“Should we at least cut it down?” Mor asked.
“I don’t know, maybe we should call the sheriff before we do anything.”
From the aisle, they heard a familiar voice say, “No need, I’m already here.”
Mor looked strained as the sheriff approached. Armstrong said, “I heard about this outside. What happened?”
“Somebody’s idea of a bad joke,” Alex said, respecting Tracy’s wish not to make a big deal of it.
“I don’t think it’s all that funny,” the sheriff said as he tugged on one leg, which promptly came off in his hand. He stared at a second, then dropped it to the floor. It was obvious Mor was choking back laughter, and Armstrong was too sharp to miss it.
“You think this is funny,” he said angrily.
“The dummy or the leg?” Mor asked.
Armstrong said, “If I were you, I wouldn’t be joking around about anything. I’m not done with you, Mister.”
“You know where I am,” Mor said. “See you later, Alex.”
As Armstrong watched Mor go, Alex found the rope holding up the dummy tied off to the side. He said, “Sheriff, should I lower it to the floor?”
“Yeah, you’all are probably right; it’s got to be some kind of prank. I swear, kids have way too much time on their hands these days.”
Alex untied the rope and the dummy eased to the floor. He nudged the hand-printed sign with his toe. Blast it all, he couldn’t just let it go. If something happened to Tracy because he hadn’t made a fuss about this, Alex would never forgive himself.
He said, “Sheriff, maybe you should have one of your deputies keep an eye on Tracy, at least until Election Day.”
Armstrong shook his head. “I wish I could, but I’m not running the Secret Service, Alex. I don’t have the manpower or the budget to protect either candidate.”
“This could be serious,” Alex pressed.
“Tell you what, I’ll have some of the boys keep an eye on her house when they’re out on patrol. Does that satisfy you?”
“I know it’s the best you can do with what you’ve got,” Alex said. “So what do we do about this?”
Armstrong said, “Let the stage manager deal with it. It’s most likely his dummy anyway.”
Alex retrieved the sign. “Shouldn’t we at least have this checked for fingerprints?”
Armstrong said, “What’s this ‘we’ business? There’s nothing here to investigate, and you’re not a cop, Alex.”
The innkeeper tucked the sign under one arm and said, “Then I’m taking it with me, if you don’t mind.”
“Suit yourself,” Armstrong said. “Come on, Alex, I’ll walk you out.”
Alex followed him out of the auditorium, still wondering about the seriousness of the threat against Tracy. Maybe he could convince her to come out to the inn and stay until after the election. At least there he could keep an eye on her.
It was worth a shot.
Back at the inn, Alex found Elise alone in the lobby of the Main Keeper’s Quarters. “Where’s Emma?” he asked.
“I thought she was listening to the debate with you.”
“She just left. She decided she couldn’t stand it anymore and went over to Mor’s to try to patch things up,” Elise admitted.
“Emma needs to give him some space,” Alex said. “He’s not ready to talk about this yet.”
Elise said, “He might not be ready, but Emma’s dying inside.” She pointed to the sign under his arm. “What’s that?”
Alex held it up by its edges for her to read. Elise said, “Where on earth did you find it?”
“It was hanging around a dummy’s neck backstage of the auditorium. The mannequin was dressed up to look like Tracy. Conner swears he didn’t do it, but I’m not sure I believe him.”
Elise sat back on the sofa. ““What did Tracy do when she found it?”
“She fainted. Good old Conner was right there to catch her, too.”
Elise frowned. “That poor woman.”
“You don’t know the half of it. Max Logan got a picture of Tracy fainting dead away into Conner’s arms with the dummy hanging in the background.”
Elise said, “That’s terrible, especially after the debate went so well for her.”
Alex stoked the fire, then said, “Do you really think she did all that well? I hate to admit it, but I thought Conner did some real damage, and there was her hesitation there at the start. It was kind of rough on her.”
Elise said, “What hesitation? We didn’t hear anything on the radio. They lost the feed right after Grady introduced them, but it came back just as Tracy started her opening remarks. I still think she handled herself extremely well.”
So the radio station had lost her hesitation altogether. Alex wondered how the visual of the debate could be so different from the audio alone, then he remembered stories of the Kennedy-Nixon debate on television. His folks had told him that the people who heard it on the radio thought Nixon won, while the television viewers gave the nod to Kennedy. Maybe her stilted beginning hadn’t crushed Tracy’s candidacy after all.
Then he remembered the photograph, and the mannequin. When word got out what had happened, it would most likely ruin the last of her chances, and Alex didn’t relish the idea of Conner Shook being the mayor of Elkton Falls for the next two years.
Alex had just gone to bed when there was a frantic knocking on his door. As an innkeeper, he was used to being awakened at all hours of the night. Pulling on the robe by his bed, he was startled to see Greg and Denise, the two rockhounds who had checked out the day before.
Denise looked frantic, to the point of tears.
Alex asked, “What’s wrong?” fearing the worst.
She said, “My ring. It’s gone. Did you find it? Is it here?”
Greg added, “It’s a three-and-a-half-carat Russian Alexandrite stone set in Mexican gold. It’s worth a small fortune.”
Denise said, “It’s more than that. It’s my engagement ring.”
Alex said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t see it when I was cleaning yesterday. I don’t know how to tell you this, but we had some other folks stay in that room last night.”
“Oh, no.” Denise looked shattered.
Alex said, “Let’s go upstairs and check anyway. We might have missed it.”
“I can’t believe it’s gone,” Denise said.
Greg tried to comfort his wife. “I
t’s probably still up there, Honey. We’ll find it.”
Alex had his doubts, but he kept them to himself. He grabbed his master key and they went upstairs. Thirty minutes later they’d torn the room apart, but still no ring.
Alex was about to admit it was a lost cause when he saw something glittering on an old iron filigree hanging on the wall that served as a curtain stay. He walked over, and to his amazement, it was indeed the missing ring.
Denise hugged him when he presented it to her. “You’re a genius. Where was it?”
Alex showed the couple where it had been. Denise said, “I remember now. I took it off to take a bath, then Greg, you called me from the other room. I put it there so I wouldn’t forget it, if you can believe that.”
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.
