Room for Murder - Tim Myers [48]
“I’ll gladly take whatever I can get,” she said.
Alex thought about tracking Elise down to tell her where he would be, but he finally decided he was just too embarrassed to admit that he’d be away from his duties so he could model.
He settled for a sign on the desk that said, ‘Back Soon,’ and they went outside.
“Where would you like to do this, the top of the lighthouse?” he asked.
“Not today. The light should be perfect at Bear Rocks for our session.”
“Suits me,” Alex said. Bear Rocks was a part of Winston land, an outcropping of granite worn away by erosion, leaving shoots, slides, and passageways through the rocks. Next to the lighthouse, it was his favorite place on earth. How he was to have both at his doorstep, even luckier that he owned them. It was time yet again for him to his blessings. He had his health, his family land, and friends he cared about.
Lenora broke into his thoughts. “You’re quiet today. Anything I can help you with? I’m told I’m easy to talk to.”
“No, everything’s fine,” he said as they cut through die path that connected Bear Rocks to the lighthouse and inn area. Alex owed its neatly sculpted condition to an amateur landscapes a man who had transformed the grounds of Hatteras West into a garden spot, and Alex missed the man’s deft touch with a pair of pruning shears. He knew that it wouldn’t be long before the wildness of the place began to grow back.
“You and Elise are having your own problems, aren’t you?” Lenora asked. Her question was soft, but the inflection showed she cared about his answer.
“I guess we were both expecting too much,” he admitted. Usually it was other people who opened up to Alex, but this woman had an empathy in her that startled him. After she had him posed on Mamma Bear, one of his favorite formations that formed a cradle for the warming sun, Alex found himself telling Lenora all about his history with Elise. There was none of that foolishness about keeping deadly still, and Alex found himself forgetting that he was even posing, he was so engrossed in telling her all that had transpired between him and Elise since she’d first come to Hatteras West in the back of Sheriff Armstrong’s squad car looking for work as a maid.
Finally, as Lenora put a last stroke onto the paper, she said. “Alex, it’s difficult changing a relationship once it’s established, but there’s one thing you must remember.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“It’s not impossible. You just have to be patient.”
He nodded. “That’s what Elise has been telling me, but I’m beginning to have my doubts.”
She laughed. “Doubts are for the weak of heart, Alex, and you’re certainly not that. Sometimes it’s hard for a man of action to simply wait.”
Lenora sketched some more, then said, “Your mayor certainly likes to tour Elkton Falls, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, Grady’s been everywhere lately. Why, where did you see him?”
“Just yesterday I was out at your pond sketching some waterfowl, and I saw him deep in conversation with another man. I didn’t recognize him until I saw today’s paper. I believe it was Conner Shook, and from the look of things at the pond, the two of them weren’t exactly getting along.”
Alex said, “Conner could make a teddy bear mad.”
“The mayor was not happy, I can agree with that. He seemed intimidated.”
Alex said, “I bet I know why. Grady promised to stay out of the mayoral race, but it sounds as though Conner’s putting pressure on him for an endorsement. Tracy told me he probably would once he took over the nomination.”
“That’s why I stay away from the political world,” Lenora said as she pondered adding a line, then put her charcoal down. “It is a field of endeavor founded on confrontation.”
Alex glanced at his watch and said, “We’ve been out here almost an hour! I can’t believe how quickly the time passed.”
“So you’ll pose for me again before I leave?”
Alex smiled. “I can’t believe you’d want me to, after talking your ears off like that.”
“I enjoy listening,” she said.
“Can I have a peek?” Alex asked, gesturing to the paper.
She held it