Room for Murder - Tim Myers [49]
Alex laughed. “Okay, I won’t try to see it. You know, you should really try to get Elise to pose for you. She’s more suited to be a model than I am.”
Lenora shook her head. “Beauty is not the goal of my work, Alex. I look for character in my subjects.”
“Hey, she’s got plenty of that, too,” Alex said.
Lenora shook her head gently. “You are my model, Alex. One subject at a time is all I care to focus on.”
“Whatever you say.”
They walked inside together, a closeness in their bond that hadn’t been there before. Alex was amazed by how at ease he’d felt sharing his feelings with a perfect stranger.
Elise was waiting by the front desk, the sign in her hands and a frown on her pursed lips.
“Alex, where have you been? Soon means less than an hour to me.”
Alex said, “Sorry, we got carried away out on Bear Rocks.”
Lenora said, “Thank you again, Alex. Until next time.”
After she was gone, Elise said, “What did she mean by that?”
“It’s nothing. She just wants me to pose again. So what’s so urgent?”
Elise said, “You’ve got to do something about Mor and Emma. She called again while you were gone. Alex, she’s frantic about the situation. She’s afraid she’s going to lose him if they don’t patch this up soon.”
“What can I do?” Alex asked. “I’ve talked to him once and it didn’t do any good at all. Besides, you know I hate to meddle.”
“You care about your friends, don’t you?”
“Elise, that’s not fair. You know I do.”
‘Then we’ve got to do something, Alex.”
He said, “I can talk to him again, but I can’t imagine it will change his mind.”
Elise said, “This calls for more than talk. We need to take some kind of action.”
Alex thought about it a few moments, then said, “You’re not going to stop pestering me until I do something, are you?”
Elise smiled grimly. “I like to think of it as being persistent.”
“But you’re not giving up,” he pushed.
“No,” she said firmly. “I believe in my heart that the two of them belong together.”
Alex said, “It doesn’t matter what either one of us thinks, it’s how they feel that counts.”
She started to rebut when he held up a hand. “Let me finish. If I promise to get them in the same room to give them a chance to talk this out, will you let me butt out if it doesn’t work?”
She answered him with a brief hug. “I promise. Thanks, Alex.”
After she pulled away, he said, “It’s against my better judgment, but you’re welcome.”
He had an idea, but he still wasn’t sure it was any of his business trying to get Emma and Mor back together.
At least if it didn’t work, he’d be done with his “counselor” duties.
Alex knew it didn’t take a genius to figure out how to get Mor out to Hatteras West. There was always something going wrong that needed the handyman’s attention, though Alex prided himself on his own ability to fix a great many of the problems that popped up. Emma was an eager participant in the scheme, so she wouldn’t have to be tricked into coming to the inn.
No. the real problem was bringing the two of them together without rousing Mor’s suspicions that this was nothing more than a ploy to get them back together. And as much Alex liked Emma, he didn’t want to jeopardize his friendship with Mor. Losing him would be, in a very real sense, like losing a brother.
It had to be something big enough to get Mor’s immediate attention, and yet not be too expensive to repair. After all, they were back on a tight budget at the Hatteras West Inn since the money from the emerald sale was finally gone.
With a sigh, Alex looked at his brand-new boiler, picked up a wrench to give it a rap, then realized he couldn’t bring himself to do it. The lure was going to have to be something else.
Alex looked around the utility room, trying to spot a piece of nonessential equipment he could sabotage to get his friend out to the site in a hurry.
The fuse box would be the perfect diversion. Alex studied the penciled chart beside the box, found the fuse for the outside lights, then screwed the ancient round fuse out of the socket and substituted it with a blown fuse from the trash