Ring for Murder (Lighthouse Inn Finale) Read Online Free PDF Page B

for a moment.
    Elise asked, “Alex, you aren’t going to wake
him, are you?”
    “I have a feeling he’s not there,” Alex
said. He knocked on the door, once, twice, and a third time before
he took his keys out of his robe pocket.
    “Are you going inside?”
    “I need to know if he’s there,” Alex said.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
    Alex opened the door, feeling his hand shake
a little as he nearly fumbled the key. When Alex threw the door
opened, he half expected to see something tragic there.
    When he realized that nothing was amiss, not
in the room or the bathroom, he let out a breath he hadn’t even
realized that he’d been holding.
    “Nothing,” he reported back to Elise, who
had lingered in the hallway.
    “That’s good news, isn’t it?”
    “His bed hasn’t been slept in,” Alex said,
“and his suitcase is gone. It appears that my brother came to
deliver his ultimatum, and then left.”
    Elise touched his shoulder lightly. “I’m so
sorry, Alex.”
    “Don’t be,” Alex said. “I wouldn’t expect
anything less from my brother.” He glanced at the clock in the
hallway. “We need to get some rest. After all, we’ve got a big day
tomorrow.”
    “Today, actually,” Elise said with a grin.
“But honestly, I’m wide awake. How about a cup of hot
chocolate?”
    “You twisted my arm,” he said. Alex sat and
watched her make the cocoa, and the two of them moved into the
lobby and lit another fire. As they sat there, they talked about
their time together at Hatteras West, and their plans for the
future. The time flew past, and Alex realized that if they didn’t
get some sleep soon, it would be too late to get any. And they had
a big day ahead of them.
     
    At 3:00 am , they said their final good nights
as two single people, and went their separate ways. Alex had a
little trouble falling back to sleep. Though he wasn’t surprised by
his brother’s hasty exit, he was a little disappointed. If Tony had
stayed around, Alex might have had a chance to talk him out of the
lawsuit, but as things stood, there wasn’t a prayer of that
happening now.
    It put a huge damper on what should have
been a joyous occasion, but there was nothing he could do about
it.
    Elise had made her stance clear.
    No matter what happened, they were going to
get married today.
    And with that bright note, Alex finally
managed to drift off to sleep.
     
     

Chapter 5
     
     
    “You look like a wreck,” Mor told Alex the
next afternoon. Alex knew that Elise and Emma had conspired to keep
Alex’s mind off the impending nuptials, and had enlisted his best
friend to keep him occupied.
    “I told you, I didn’t get much sleep last
night.”
    “Nervous about the big day? I was so scared
I stayed up all night wondering if I was doing the right
thing.”
    “And what have you discovered since you
married Emma?”
    Mor grinned at him. “That it was the best
thing that ever happened to me. Don’t worry about it, cold feet are
expected.”
    “If anything, I can’t wait to get
married.”
    “Then why the trouble sleeping?”
    “Elise and I heard a door slam last night,
and after we investigated, we saw that Tony was gone. We couldn’t
get back to sleep, so we stayed up and drank hot chocolate in front
of the fire until late.”
    “You’re right, you do belong with Elise.
Sorry I wore you out today.” The two men had hiked around Bear
Rocks, gone for a drive, and were now checking the rooms in the
empty Main Keeper’s Quarters for something they could fix.
    “Are you kidding? The distraction was
exactly what I needed.”
    “Good. Now, what can we do here at the inn?
How about the light switches? Are they all in working order?” Mor
asked as he hefted his toolbox on their quest for something
meaningful to do.
    “You don’t have to do this,” Alex said.
    Mor grinned at him. “Are you kidding me?
This helps me out in two ways. I didn’t know what to get you as a
wedding present, so a free day of work