Room for Murder - Tim Myers [53]
“I’ll be glad to take it to them,” he said as he took the sheet and put it on the pile of junk that rested between the two passenger spots on the bench seat.
Just his luck, Alex got stuck behind a tractor going ten miles an hour on his way back to the inn. The farm equipment wasn’t strictly street legal, but nobody ever complained. Small-town farmers around Elkton Falls were in enough trouble as it was without being hassled by the law or its citizenry. Alex did his best to buy his produce from them whenever he could. He recognized Hank Wilkins, one of Irene’s nephews, driving the tractor in front of him. The criminologist/cosmetologist had more family than Adam around Elkton Falls, and she made no secret of the fact that Hank was one of her favorites.
Alex waved to the beefy man, who was lost in his own thoughts as he chugged slowly up the road.
He wasn’t prying, and spying had never been his intent, but Alex found his gaze wandering to the fax the Joneses had received, more out of boredom and curiosity than anything else.
A breeze blew into the truck, and the folded paper blew open. Alex only got a quick glance at the printing inside, but it was enough.
He nearly wrecked when he saw the letterhead printed across the top.
It was from The Tattle Tale, the tabloid he’d seen marked up in their “honeymoon” suite, and from the look of things, it could only mean one thing: trouble.
The rest of the drive back, he kept fighting himself whether to read the entire fax or not. After all, it was private, just like someone’s mail, and he’d never peeked at any of his guests’ mail since he’d become an innkeeper.
But was it, really? A fax was more open, more public. So why would they be getting a letter from a sensational tabloid magazine?
He was still mulling over what to do by the time he got to the inn.
Elise heard him drive up and met him at the back door near their storeroom. She smiled gently. “That didn’t take long. Usually you stretch your trips into town a lot longer than that.”
He said, “I didn’t want to leave you stranded too long without backup. Elise, I need some advice.”
Certainly she was a pretty woman, but there was a lot more to Elise than looks. Alex respected her opinion and her judgment, had in fact deferred to her on more than a few occasions.
“I’ll do what I can.”
Alex tapped the paper in his hand. “This came for the Joneses, our newlyweds. It’s a fax from Shantara’s store.”
“What about it?” she asked, looking at the paper as she spoke.
How could he phrase this without making himself look bad? Taking a deep breath, Alex said, “As I was driving back to the inn, the page flew open, and purely by accident, I saw the letterhead. It’s something I’m having a hard time figuring.”
“You didn’t read it, did you, Alex?”
“Come on, give me some credit.”
She looked at him intently, waiting for him to go on.
He said, “Hey, I’m not saying I wasn’t tempted to scan it, but I didn’t. The only problem is, there might be trouble. The letterhead said—”
Elise held up a hand. “Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know. Alex, our guests have a right to their privacy. I shouldn’t have to lecture you about that, not after we both lost our master keys.”
“This is completely different,” Alex said.
“How do you see that?”
“Elise, if they wanted it to be that private, they wouldn’t have sent it as a fax.” The couple had grumbled about the lack of private phone plug-ins for their computers after they’d checked in. but that was a service Alex didn’t offer. Rewiring the inn, with its ancient walls of lath and plaster, just wasn’t in his budget, nor would he do it even if he owned his own emerald mine. He liked running an old-fashioned inn. In his mind, Hatteras West was a place to get away from all that
Alex added, “I’m sure Shantara didn’t think twice about it, but something in here could adversely affect the inn.”
Elise thought about it a moment, then held out her hand. “I suppose there’s only one way to know for sure. Let me see it.”
Chapter 16
Alex held the paper away from her. “I don’t want you to compromise