Murder Checks Inn - Tim Myers [14]
“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 aroma 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