Room for Murder - Tim Myers [71]
“He’s not worth it,” Elise said as she bolted the doors.
Alex knew she was right. Let Grady Hatch take his chances with Zelda.
Sooner or later, the police would catch up with him.
There was no doubt in Alex’s mind about that.
Chapter 21
“What brings you to Hatteras West?” Alex asked as Elkton Falls’ brand-new mayor arrived at the inn a few days later.
“Just checking up on my constituents,” Tracy said. “I still can’t believe they haven’t found Grady yet.”
Alex finished sweeping the porch steps and said, “Hey, he’s only been gone forty-eight hours. How far could he get on foot?”
The remnants of Grady’s motor home still remained under one of the trees Alex had lost in the storm. He would have loved to see the mayor’s face when he realized that his getaway car wasn’t going anywhere.
“The man’s craftier than any of us gave him credit for,” Tracy said. “I don’t trust him.”
“Speaking of trust, what’s your ex-husband have to say about all this?”
Tracy smiled. “Oh, he’s denied any connection with the mayor, and the sheriff says we don’t have enough solid evidence to arrest him, no matter how hard I push it. I do have some good news on that front, though. It seems Conner has decided to relocate. Elkton Falls is suddenly too small for him.”
“Where’s he going?” Alex asked.
“Out West is all I heard. They’re welcome to him. He’ll never admit it, but I know now that mannequin was his work.”
Alex said, “I still can’t believe Grady wiped out the bridge fund and tried to run away with all that money we raised. I thought he really believed in the restoration. I’m going to head over there later and see if anything happened to the bridge during the storm. Have you heard anything about our electricity?”
“Duke Power said we’ll have most of our service back in a day or two. What are you doing about your guests?”
“Nobody showed up,” Alex admitted. “Being directly in the path of a hurricane doesn’t exactly inspire folks to vacation here.” He added, “Don’t worry about us, though, we’ll manage to squeak by somehow.”
“You always do, don’t you?”
Elise came outside and said, “Hey, Ms. Mayor.”
Tracy laughed. “That’s going to take some getting used to, hearing that.”
“I think you’ll manage,” Alex said.
“Oh yes,” Tracy admitted. “Well, I just wanted to touch base with you’all. Alex, if you need anything out here, just let me know. I owe you one.”
Alex grinned. “I’ll remind you of that when I ask you to push the Town Council about letting me light my lens more than once a year.”
Tracy nodded. “You’ve got yourself a deal. Let me dig out of all this hurricane mess and we’ll talk about it then.”
“Sounds good to me.”
After Tracy was gone, Elise said, “I just heard from Emma.”
They’d been trying to track the newlyweds down since the storm, without any success.
“Did they make it all right?” Alex asked.
“So far they’ve spent their honeymoon at Charlotte-Douglas Airport. There’s nothing to worry about, though, they should be leaving for their cruise today.”
“Hasn’t the ship already left port?” Alex asked.
“Yes, but they’re meeting it at the first stop. Emma was understandably relieved to hear that Grady confessed to killing Toby in front of witnesses.”
Alex said, “Do you think she still thought Mor might have had something to do with it?”
Elise shrugged. “Well, she married him, didn’t she?”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“Does it really matter, Alex? They’re together. Ultimately, that’s all that counts.”
Alex leaned his broom against the wall and said, “We need to have another talk, Elise. I’m not happy with the way we left things.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Elise said.
“You might not think so, but I surely do.”
Sheriff Armstrong drove up Point Road in his cruiser, and Elise said, “Not now, Alex. Not with the sheriff coming.”
“He can wait.”
Elise shook her head, touched Alex’s cheek lightly, then said, “So can this discussion.”
Armstrong got out of his cruiser and said, “The storm wasn’t too bad out here, was it?