Murder Checks Inn - Tim Myers [7]
Tony said, “You don’t have to identify yourself to me, Alex, I’d know that voice anywhere. So tell me, are you finally going to sell that white elephant you got saddled with?” Tony had opted for money instead of a half share of Hatteras West after their parents died, and he’d been urging Alex to get rid of the lighthouse in the mountains ever since.
“You know I’m not about to sell Hatteras West. It’s home.”
Tony said, “So why are you calling me in the middle of the day? I know it’s not just to catch up on old times.” That was Tony, always straight to the point. The two brothers had never gotten along all that well as children, much to their parents’ chagrin. Growing older hadn’t improved things between them, either. They were two strangers bound only by the common blood that ran through them.
“It’s about Uncle Jase. He’s dead.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Then Tony said softly, “So his heart finally gave out on him.”
Alex took a deep breath, then said, “I wish it were that simple. Somebody killed him, Tony.”
“Jase? Why?”
“The sheriff thinks it had something to do with a will Jase was supposed to execute today. There was only one copy, and now it’s missing.”
Tony asked, “Did he catch the killer?”
“Sheriff Armstrong is working on it.”
“That’s hardly reassuring. He’s not exactly the South’s greatest lawman, is he?”
Alex said, ‘Tony, he’s a much better sheriff than you remember. Armstrong can handle this.”
“Don’t tell me you’re not going to snoop around yourself. I know you too well. Get a room ready for me, Alex, I’m coming back to Elkton Falls.”
Alex knew his brother would want to come back home, but it wasn’t something he’d been looking forward to.
“I’ll wait to handle the arrangements until you get here,” Alex said.
“I’m on my way.”
It would be odd for Alex to see his brother again, but he knew he’d manage to get through it somehow, for Jase’s sake if nothing else. His mother and father had never understood the break between their sons, or the reasons for it. Instead, they’d remembered the old days through the log of wishful thinking, believing all had been happy and harmonious in the Winston household.
Alex knew better.
Elise walked up to him at the reservation desk and said, “Alex, is there anything I can do?”
“We’d better get room ten ready. My brother’s going to stay with us.”
She said, “It will be good for you to have your family here.”
Alex shook his head. “I’m not so sure, Elise. We talk on the phone once or twice a year, but he hasn’t set foot on the grounds of Hatteras West in six years.”
“What happened between you?”
“Nothing; that’s the whole point. We’ve always been strangers. Once our folks were gone, there was no need for us to even pretend to keep in touch. Elise, he may be my brother biologically, but Mor Pendleton is more of a brother to me than Tony ever has been.”
Mor wouldn’t be happy to see Tony back in Elkton Falls either. The two had been rivals in high school.
“I’ll go freshen up the room,” Elise said.
Alex wanted to reach out to her, to hold her in his arms, to share some of his grief with her. But he couldn’t burden her with his feelings for her, even now. At least not as long as she was still engaged to Peter Asheford. The man had looks, money, and Elise’s heart.
But Alex was jealous only of the last part.
There was one place in the world Alex could go to lift his spirits: the top of the lighthouse. He only hoped no one was up there now; he needed to be alone.
As Alex ascended the steps that led to the top, his hand kept trailing against the cool, whitewashed stone of the tower. Hatteras West was the one constant in his life, always there, always watching over him. It was a part of him in more ways than he could ever express, and it gave him a very real comfort being within its shelter.