Innkeeping with Murder - Tim Myers [42]
“Push the top button in.”
Elise did as she was told, and suddenly the tiny room was filled with bright light. Alex led Elise onto the lower observation platform where they could see the beam cutting into the growing night. Its brilliance was overwhelming. They watched it for a few moments as it started to rotate, then Alex went back inside and hit the lower button, cutting off the lens’s power.
He rejoined Elise outside and explained, “Dad hooked up a motor to turn the Fresnel lens instead of the weights they used to use. I try to keep the beam pointed away from town. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Let me tell you when I get my eyesight back. Wow, I can’t believe how bright it is.”
Alex took her hand and led her inside to an old wooden bench that hugged one wall. “The beam will blind you if you’re standing in the wrong spot up there, but it’s a magical sight, especially in the fog.”
Suddenly, a shout rang out from below.
“Decent folk are trying to sleep down here. Keep that overgrown night-light off, you durn fool.”
The voice unmistakably belonged to Barb Matthews. The moment between them had passed.
Alex and Elise walked down the steps of the lighthouse and headed back for their separate rooms. Back inside the inn, Elise quickly said, “I had a lovely evening, Alex. Good night.” And then she was gone.
Chapter 13
The next morning, Alex had just gotten dressed when he heard a timid knock on his door. It was Elise.
She said, “Good, you’re awake. Listen, I just saw Junior drive off, so if we want to follow him, we need to go right now.”
Some detective he was. Alex had forgotten all about trailing Junior this morning. “Let me grab my keys and we’ll go.”
Even though they were in a hurry, Alex managed to find time to hold Elise’s door for her.
As they headed down the road, he asked, “Have you eaten anything?”
She opened her large handbag. “No, but I packed a few bananas and an apple I got yesterday at the store, and I filled a thermos with hot coffee. Want to share with me?”
“That sounds good. It would be nice if we could grab a biscuit, too, but I’m not positive Junior’s really going
rockhounding. Still, it’s a good thing you dressed for a dig.”
Elise wore a faded pair of jeans and a work shirt that had probably belonged to her father. He hoped it wasn’t her fiancé’s. Alex desperately wanted to ask her about the mystery man in her life, but he just couldn’t find the words. Had he imagined her interest in him up in the lighthouse the night before? He had to admit that Elise could have been under the beacon’s spell, too. Now, in the cold light of day, he wondered if she’d regretted their lost opportunity as much as he did.
Alex studied her a second as he drove. She had on a sturdy pair of work boots, and her lustrous hair was pulled back into a ponytail, secured by a wide band of red cloth that matched the shirt she wore.
Elise said, “You warned me what we might be doing. I debated on wearing Dad’s old shirt, but I didn’t really have anything else appropriate. I usually don’t look this ragged.”
Alex smiled. “I think you look fine.” Glorious, wonderful, stunning, he substituted, but only in his mind.
Alex himself was dressed much the same. He had grown up digging in the hills around the valley, hoping to match his great-grandfather’s find. All he’d ever managed to come up with were tiny chips of ruby and emerald, a carload of smoky quartz and even some Hiddenite, a greenish rock found only in the area they would be digging.
Elise shared a banana and then said, “Tell me what to expect. I’ve never been rockhounding before.”
“Well, a lot of it depends on where Junior goes. I’ve been to Emerald Valley before, and they’ve got their commercial operation down cold. You can dig up on the mountain, what they call the ‘mining area,’ or you can sluice a pail full of dirt they provide, for a fee of course.”
“It’s not very likely there will be anything in one of those, is it?”
Alex grinned. “Don