Murder Checks Inn Read online

  Alex heard someone calling his name as he got out of the BMW.

  It was Sheriff Armstrong, just across the street at the beautician’s. “Alex, got a minute? I need a word with you.”

  Alex turned to his brother. “Tony, why don’t you go ahead and get started with Sandra. I’ll catch up with you in a minute.”

  After Tony disappeared inside Sandra’s building, Alex walked over to Armstrong and asked, “Any leads on Jase yet, Sheriff?”

  To Alex’s surprise, he nodded. “Irene found something odd, and she wanted you to have a look. She’s doing Mrs. Grishaber’s perm right now. I know this isn’t the best time in the world for you, but I could use a minute if you’ve got it to spare.”

  Alex knew he needed to be with Tony in Sandra’s office, but what he wanted more than anything else was to help find Jase’s killer.

  Tony would just have to get along without him.

  “I’m right behind you.”

  Chapter 5

  Irene Wilkins was Elkton Falls’ crime scene investigator as well as the owner of To Dye For, the biggest beauty shop in town. Alex had been skeptical about her criminology abilities until she’d taken top honors in a regional competition, beating out several other, more experienced forensic professionals.

  The beauty shop was filled with the smell of chemicals as Alex and the sheriff walked in. Irene said, “I’ll be with you boys in a minute.”

  Armstrong coughed into his handkerchief as he said, “We’ll just wait outside, if it’s all the same to you.”

  Irene smiled. “You always were the sensitive type, Ducky.”

  As the two men walked back out into the fresh air, Alex said, “So what’s this clue you want me to see?”

  “I’m not sure if it’s one or not; that’s the whole point. But you know Irene, when she gets something in her head, there’s no stopping her. Why don’t we wait for her?”

  Alex asked, “Do you have any real leads, Sheriff? Any suspects at all?”

  “You know me, Alex, I suspect everybody at first. There’s the entire Trask family to start with: Ashley, Steven, and momma Cynthia. Any one of them could have done it. Then there’s this mysterious daughter nobody knew about until yesterday. To be honest with you, at the moment, I’m leaning toward her, myself.”

  Alex couldn’t imagine sweet Julie bashing Jase’s head in, not after she’d cried in his arms at the top of the lighthouse. But Alex was the first to admit that he wasn’t the most objective person when it came to judging the women around him.

  He asked, “Is there any reason in particular you think she might have done it?”

  “That letter from Jase bothers me, Alex. Where’s all this proof that she’s really his daughter? I keep asking Sandra, but she won’t show me one shred of evidence that’s convincing. Says she doesn’t want to show her hand before she has to, and I can’t make her, not at this point, anyway.”

  “Do you have a theory why Julie would want to get her hands on the will?”

  Armstrong hitched at his belt as he said, “What if there was something in there that contradicted what she’s been claiming? If she knew about it, she’d have every reason in the world to want that particular document to disappear.”

  “But she just found out she was Trask’s daughter a few weeks ago,” Alex protested.

  “So she says,” Armstrong said as the beauty shop door opened.

  Irene said, “Come on in, boys, I’ve got a few minutes fore I have to get back to work.”

  The beautician led them past the salon part of the building back to her office. Irene had the oddest assortment of paperweights on her desk he’d ever seen, from a pipe tipped with red paint to a blue-steel revolver to a thin wire garrote.

  Irene smiled broadly at Alex, though her eyes were reddened. The chemicals she worked with must play havoc with her senses. “Some collection, isn’t it? Don’t worry, none of these were used for actual murders.” She added with a flourish, “at least not that I know about.”

  Alex asked, “What’s this clue I’m supposed to look at?”

  Irene went to her filing cabinet, opened the bottom drawer and pulled out the torn edge of an envelope safely ensconced in a clear plastic baggie. The jagged tear showed just the tip of an Old English letter.

  It was either a T or a J, as far as Alex could tell.

  “What’s the significance of it, Irene?” Alex asked as he flipped over the baggie holding the scrap of paper to examine the pristine back side.

  “Well, it’s bound to mean something. I found it in the right cuff of Jase’s pants. I’m thinking it might have happened during a struggle in his office.”

  Armstrong asked, “You ever seen anything like that before, Alex?” as he tapped the bag.

  “Not that I can recall. Do you even know which letter it stands for?”

  Irene blew her nose, then said, “The boys in Raleigh are running a check for me; I faxed them a photocopy. Alex, I searched that office floor on my hands and knees, but I couldn’t find a single matching piece of the envelope it came from. My best guess is the killer may have taken it with him.”

  Alex asked the sheriff, “So you’re thinking it’s a T and it stands for Trask?”

  He shook his head. “Nope, I’m leaning toward it being the tip of a J, and that would be Julie Hart. I’ve seen women use their first-initial monogram before, Alex, and she had motive enough.”

  “I just don’t see her as a killer, Sheriff. You can’t afford not to look at the Trask family, too.”

  Armstrong patted his shoulder. “Alex, you always did have a weakness for the ladies. They murder too, you know.”

  “I just don’t think she did it.”

  Armstrong said, “Now, don’t go snooping around into this, Alex. I’m on the case. I know how much you like to investigate, but you’re too close to this. Trust me, I’ll find out who killed your uncle.”

  Alex started to say something, but Irene cut him off. “Why don’t you two take this outside? I’ve got to get back to Mrs. Grishaber.” She dabbed at her eyes again, and they took the hint.

  Armstrong and Alex walked out front again. Tony was beckoning to him from the front steps of Sandra’s building across the street, but before he left, Alex said, “At least talk to the Trasks, Sheriff. They’ll be at the inn all week.”

  Armstrong shrugged. “I’ll be out tomorrow first thing in the morning. I can talk to them then. Any chance of getting one of Elise’s famous omelets?”

  “You’ll have to ask her yourself,” Alex said as he hurried across the street. He couldn’t believe the sheriff was narrowing his focus in on just Julie. That was his style: pick a suspect and go after them until he had enough evidence for an arrest, or until he decided to move on. Alex was certain the sheriff had agreed to interview the Trasks as much for the hoped-for omelet as for possible clues in the case.

  Well, Alex was just going to have to keep giving him nudges in the right direction.

  If only he knew which way that was.

  Tony met Alex on the steps outside Sandra’s office. As they walked into the waiting room together, Tony said, “She’s on a long-distance telephone call, and her secretary just stepped out,” as he gestured back to her office. “Did the sheriff have anything worthwhile to say?”

  Alex considered telling Tony about the torn envelope, but without more information, there wasn’t any real way to determine if it was even a clue. Besides, he didn’t want to put himself in the position of defending the sheriff to his brother again. “He’s working hard on the case,” Alex said.

  “Let’s hope he’s working smart, too.”

  Sandra came out a minute later and said, “Sorry about that. Shall we begin?”

  They followed Sandra into her office, and Alex glanced at her diplomas proudly displayed on the wall next to her desk. The entire room was decorated in Bob Timberlake furniture, with a beautifully crafted desk and matching chair as elegant as any found in New York City. There was a richness there, a confident ar
oma of success in the place, that matched Sandra perfectly.

  Sandra picked up a document on top of her desk, studied it a moment, then said, “This is all fairly straightforward, gentlemen, but Jase wanted the reading of his will executed as soon after his death as possible. Let me say again how sad I am about this entire business.”

  Tony said tersely, “Yes, I can understand your displeasure when the people of Elkton Falls start killing attorneys.”

  “That’s not what I meant at all, Tony. Jase was a good man, someone I was proud to call a friend of mine. In fact, we handled each other’s wills.”

  “Tony, will you let Sandra do her job?” Alex remembered how he’d ended up dating Sandra instead of Tony back in high school. She’d rebuffed his older brother’s last-minute invitation to the prom, going with Alex instead, since he had asked her first. There had been a wall between Sandra and Tony ever since.

  Alex and Sandra stopped dating after she went off to college, not picking up again until a few years before Elise first came to Elkton Falls.

  Sandra took another lengthy document from the folder on her desk as she said, “The arrangements for Jase’s funeral are easy, in that there isn’t going to be one.”

  Before Tony could protest, Sandra went on. “Jase has gone into great detail about the farewell he wanted. His final request was that you both scatter his ashes from the top of the lighthouse one hour past sunset as the beacon rotates one minute for every year of his life.” Sandra tapped another document as she added, “Somehow Jase got the town council to approve it. I still don’t know how he managed it; he must have called in every marker he had.”

  Alex found it incredible that his uncle had managed the variance even then. Alex had been fined three times over the past two years for turning the beacon on over and above the once-a-year Lighthouse Lighting ceremony that had turned into a festive event for folks from seven counties.

  Sandra went on. “The scattering of the ashes is to happen only after the executor, that’s me, spends quite a considerable amount of cash on a farewell party, including balloons, party hats, and streamers, as well as an extravagant buffet and a dance band. Jase wanted to go out in style, and he’s going to get exactly what he wanted. Is Monday night good for you two?”

  “Monday night’s fine,” Alex said, and Tony reluctantly agreed. The Hatteras West Inn was going to host the oddest funeral Alex had ever heard of, but it was just like Jase to go out with his own sense of humor at the forefront.

  As Tony gestured to the open document, he said, “What about the rest of it? Are you going to finish reading the will now?”

  Alex said, “Come on, Tony, there’s no rush. Why don’t we wait until after the funeral? We can’t really call it that, can we, and I refuse to call it a party. Maybe send-off is the best term for it.”

  Sandra said, “I’m sorry, Alex, but Jase wanted the entire will read as soon as possible, and seeing that you two are the main parties mentioned with specific bequests, we might as well go forward.”

  She picked up the document again and began to read aloud. “To my nephew Tony, who always valued money above nearly everything else, I leave three-quarters of the bonds and stocks in my estate.”

  “Just how much money are we talking about here?” Tony asked.

  Alex said, “Tony, is that really an appropriate question right now?”

  Alex’s brother didn’t look the least bit fazed by the comment. “So money matters to me. Jase knew it; I’ve never hidden it from anybody. After I’ve made my fortune, you’ll still be stuck running a broken-down old inn.” He tapped Sandra’s desk with his fingers. “So, how much do I get?”

  Sandra frowned as she looked through a stack of papers still in the folder. Finally she said, “As close as I can figure it, you’ll be getting around one hundred thousand dollars.”

  Tony’s smile was substantial. “Good old Uncle Jase. He understood me after all.”

  Alex had been surprised by the revelation that Tony would receive the lion’s share of the inheritance. He’d always thought he and his uncle had shared a special bond. Alex was more hurt that it hadn’t been an even split than upset over the fact that his inn could have really used the healthy influx of cash. Hatteras West would find a way to get by, no matter what. It had to; it was his life.

  Sandra continued. “To my nephew Alex, I leave my most prized possessions, including my collection of books as well as the entirety of my remaining real property. I’m sorry it’s not more, but remember this always, Alex; our bond always went beyond money.”

  Tony slapped Alex on the shoulder. “Sorry about that, Alex. Well, at least you get twenty-five grand out of the deal.”

  Sandra frowned gently, then said, “I’m sorry Alex, but that’s not the case. Jase willed the remainder of his money to the Elkton Falls Preservation Society. You know how much he loved this old town.”

  Tony stood and said, “Jase was something, wasn’t he? Alex, are you ready to go back to the inn? We can deal with the other stuff later.”

  “Why don’t you head back without me, Tony? I’ll catch a ride and be out later.”

  Tony slapped him on the shoulder. “Come on, don’t be a sore loser about this. I’m sorry you got screwed, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

  Sandra piped up, “Tony, why don’t you do as Alex suggests and go on. I’ll give him a ride out to the inn myself.”

  Tony shrugged his shoulders. “Suit yourself. See you there, Alex.”

  And then he was gone. Alex wouldn’t have been surprised to see him skipping as he left the office.

  Sandra said, “Oh, Alex, I’m so sorry. I tried to talk Jase out of this division of property, but he was adamant about setting things up this way.”

  Alex sat there staring at his hands, and then a slow smile spread across his face.

  Sandra said, “What in the world do you have to smile about?”

  Alex chuckled softly. “It just hit me. You read the will yourself, Sandra. Jase gave Tony the money because that’s all he ever cared about. You know how Jase felt about his books! They were his pride and joy. No, I’m satisfied with the will.”

  Sandra looked at him a long ten seconds, then said, “Alex, you’re truly something, you know that?”

  Alex laughed softly, “Thanks, Sandra, I appreciate that. You don’t have to give me a ride out to Hatteras West, I know how busy you must be. I’ll find a way to get back out there.”

  She shuffled a few papers on her desk, then said, “Nonsense, I’d love to take you home. In fact,” she said as she stood, “I’m ready to go, if you are.”

  Alex said, “That’s just it. I’d like to spend a little time at Jase’s first, by myself. To be honest with you, it might help me say good-bye in my own way. I’m not sure I’m all that comfortable with the party he’s planned, so I need to do it my way first.”

  Sandra sat back down in her chair. “I understand completely. Let’s do this. I’ll give you an hour over there, and then I’ll come by to pick you up, and we’ll eat at Mamma Ravolini’s before we head back to the inn. My treat. What do you say?”

  “I say it sounds great, but I have an inn full of people at the moment. I don’t feel right about just leaving them alone.”

  Sandra said, “So let Elise take care of them. You deserve a break, Alex. Can you even remember the last time you took a day off, let alone a vacation?”

  Alex found himself agreeing, as Sandra handed him a set of keys. “These are to the house. I’m afraid you’ll have to have everything out in five days. The lease is up, and I couldn’t get the landlord to extend it for you. He’s got a hot prospect who’s buying it from him.”

  “That’ll be fine. I’m not going to move anything today. I just want to look around a little.”

  “See you in an hour then,” Sandra said as Alex headed out.

  He stopped at Sandra’s secretary’s desk and asked to borrow the telephone.

  Elise answered on the second ring.

  “H
atteras West Lighthouse and Inn,” she said. He never tired of hearing her say it.

  “Hi, it’s me. Can you handle things there for a while? I’ve got some things in town I need to take care of.”

  “How did it go with Sandra?”

  Alex took a deep breath, then said, “Tony got the money, but I got Jase’s books.”

  Elise said, “Oh Alex, I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m not,” he said. “Things couldn’t have gone any better.”

  On the way over to Jase’s cottage, Alex realized that his uncle had indeed given him the perfect gift. Long after Tony had spent every dime of his inheritance, and Alex knew that wouldn’t take long, given his brother’s propensity to burn up cash, Alex would have Jase’s presence still with him, in the form of the books they both so loved.

  It was worth more to him than ten times what Tony had gotten, and Alex wondered if Tony would ever realize just how much he’d lost today.

  Probably not, and that was the saddest part of all.

  Chapter 6

  The first thing Alex did when he got to Jase’s rental house was to open the windows and let some fresh air in. Jase liked to keep things closed up, but Alex needed the warm breezes and sunshine. Located just two blocks from Sandra’s office, the house was a quaint little cottage that had seen better days, tucked among businesses and houses alike in a mishmash that was much of Elkton Falls. The town had been nearly built by the time the elders got around to thinking about zoning. It made a happy mix, as far as Alex was concerned.

  With just four small rooms, the cottage had most likely been perfect for the widower Jase. The elder Winston had rented it furnished with simple but serviceable furniture, and the only real way to tell that Jase had lived there at all was the explosion of books everywhere. Alex had only spent a handful of hours there since his uncle had moved back to Elkton Falls. Jase had loved the lighthouse so much, he was always eager to come out to Hatteras West.

  Surveying the sheer volume of books around him, Alex realized it was going to be an arduous task to pack up all of Jase’s books and personal items, but he’d worry about that after the send-off. For the moment, he just wanted to be near his uncle’s things. Alex moved into the tiny bedroom to find the room curiously nearly devoid of books. The place was neat, the bed was made, and there was no mess in sight. It was almost as if Jase had known he wouldn’t be coming back.