Innkeeping with Murder - Tim Myers [61]
The rest of Les’s words were lost on Alex. At the bottom of the page was an item for sale that he had seen all too recently. Suddenly, the mystery of the murders at Hatteras West became clear: not the motives, but definitely who was behind the reign of terror.
Alex mumbled his apologies to Les as he tore out of the store. With a deep, sinking feeling in his heart, Alex hoped he could get back to Hatteras West before the killer had a chance to strike again.
Chapter 19
The drive back to the inn was maddeningly slow for Alex. A pickup truck in front of him loaded with bales of fresh hay drove ten miles under the speed limit, hogging just enough of the road so that Alex couldn’t pass him. Alex’s thoughts weren’t for his own safety; all he could think about was how foolish he’d been to leave Elise at the inn alone. Cursing himself as a fool, Alex fought to keep his driving under control. Running off the road and wrecking wouldn’t do Elise the slightest bit of good.
Finally, after a trip that seemed to take hours instead of minutes, he made it back to the inn.
Everything looked calm on the grounds of Hatteras West, though the rain clouds still threatened to break loose at any moment.
After a harried search of the inn, Alex couldn’t find a single soul there. Could the killer be at Bear Rocks, or maybe on one of the trails? Was Elise in danger even as he searched for her? If Elise had gone with him into town, she wouldn’t be in jeopardy now. He dialed the sheriff’s phone number with a shaking hand, but Armstrong’s line was busy, and Alex couldn’t spare even a few more seconds in his search for Elise. Alex ran down the porch stairs and hurried toward the trail to Bear Rocks. As he did, he glanced up at the top observation platform of the lighthouse.
A quiver of fear ran down his spine. There, in the fading light of dusk, he could see two people facing each other in what looked like a heated confrontation on the narrow top balcony. From the dim outlines, Alex figured one of the two figures as the killer. The other looked like Elise. Alex only prayed he wouldn’t be too late.
It felt like each of the two hundred sixty eight steps tried to impede his progress as he ran to the summit of the lighthouse. By the time Alex had raced up to the watch room just below the observation deck, his heart felt as if it was going to explode in his chest. Taking only a moment to rest against the smooth plastered wall, Alex approached the smaller set of steps that led to the upper balcony of the lighthouse and listened carefully. From where he stood, he could hear the murderer ranting at Elise.
Fighting to calm his shaking nerves, Alex crept up, the ladder carefully, hoping to remain unseen. A sense of relief flooded through him as he realized the murderer was facing toward the mountains! It left Elise in a vulnerable position with her back toward the scanty iron railing that circled the very top of the tower, but it was the chance Alex needed.
The killer was prodding her closer to the edge of the railing with something that looked like a short steel spear. In the distance a bolt of lightning flashed, illuminating the sky with its forked prongs.
Elise must have seen his movements in the flash of lightning as he climbed up the last step. Before he could warn her, Elise’s face registered his presence. Alex wasn’t the only one to spot her startled expression in the next lightning flash.
The murderer spun around toward him.
“So you finally figured it out.”
Alex joined them on the upper platform, keeping a safe distance.
He said, “You were clever, but some of the events around here finally became clear. Why did you kill Reg, Mrs. Matthews?”
The old woman spat out a curse. “The old fool had been watching me from this damn tower every day on my explorations. I knew he was going to steal my claim, so I had to get rid of him. It was ridiculously easy to kill him; he was a weak old man.”
Elise spoke over the growing force of the wind. Her voice was calmer than Alex expected. “What claim? I still don’t know what you