Innkeeping with Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

it
casual, no real strings between them, which suited Alex just
fine.
    Alex added, “To be honest with you, I need a
maid a lot more than I need a new girlfriend. I’ve got my guests,
to consider, you know.”
    Mor nodded his head a little too vigorously.
“Yeah, right. I always knew you were a fine one to look out after
your guests. Now how about looking after me for a minute? I’d still
like that beer.”
    Alex led his friend back to his own modest
quarters and retrieved a cold beer from the dormitory-sized
refrigerator. Alex had taken for himself the inn’s only room
without a fireplace. Since taking the space over it had become his
own little nook where he could temporarily get away from the
constant demands of running the inn. There was a sampler quilt
hanging on the wall at the head of his bed that his mother had
made. She had loved to tell the story of how Alex had come to her
on a Halloween night in the middle of a rare hurricane appearance
in Elkton Falls. It was their special bond, surviving the storm
together, and Alex missed his mother terribly. He and his father
had been close, but their relationship had been nothing like the
one he’d had with his mother. Alex wondered briefly if his father
was haunting the place, making sure his son stayed on his toes.
    It would have been just like him.
    Alex took an extra beer out of the
refrigerator for himself and the two men headed for one of the
Backgammon boards set up in one corner of the lobby. It was an odd
time to be playing a game, but he couldn’t face dealing with Reg’s
death. Worst of all, Alex didn’t want to see them carry the body
down the steel steps.
    Mor set his hulking frame in one of the
chairs and took a white game piece off the board. “Pick a hand.
Better yet, you can play white, and I’ll still beat you like a
drum.”
    Alex suddenly shook his head. “To tell you
the truth, I don’t much feel like playing. I forgot. You haven’t
heard what happened, have you?”
    Mor dropped the white piece back on the game
board. “What’s going on?”
    Alex brought his friend up-to-date on what
had happened at the inn. When he got to the part about finding
Reg’s body, Alex had to pause to steel himself enough to deliver
the words. It was finally sinking in. Reg was really gone.
    “So that’s what Sheriff Strong-arms was in
such an uproar about. I heard him ripping around town right before
I headed out your way. That man is a menace in his patrol car.
Wonder how many wrecks he’s caused himself?”
    Alex shrugged, suddenly too disheartened to
rise to the bait.
    Mor got up from his seat and said, “Tell you
what. Why don’t we take a raincheck on that game of backgammon?
I’ve got some errands to run in town, and I don’t want to be late
for class.”
    Alex nodded as he got up from his seat. “What
are you studying this time?”
    Mor said, “I’m taking photography this
semester, and my homework’s due tonight. I brought my camera so I
could snap some photos on the way back to town. I want to get a few
shots of the lighthouse and the inn before I leave.”
    “Be my guest.”
    Mor and Alex had enrolled in an adult
education class together a few years back, figuring it would be an
excellent place to meet single women and perhaps learn something
while they were at it. After a great deal of debate, they had
settled on a Chinese cooking class. The first night of class, the
only woman in the room had been Mrs. Hurley, the high school’s home
economics teacher for the last fifty years. There were seventeen
men enrolled, and not a single woman. Many of the men dropped out
the first night, having failed to find any eligible women, but Alex
and Mor figured that since they were already there and they’d paid
their tuition fees, it couldn’t hurt to learn something new. Mor
was still taking classes every quarter, finding that he enjoyed
learning new things more than sitting around during the evening
drinking beer with his old buddies from high