Room for Murder (Book 4 in the Lighthouse Inn Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF Page A

know.”
    She smiled slightly, more in her eyes than
her lips. Lenora said, “There will come a time when I do just that,
but it is not here yet.”
    Now what in the world did that mean? “Just
let me know,” Alex said as he jogged back down the steps.
    He didn’t want Drake to get out of there
without giving him a clue as to what exactly had killed Toby
Sturbridge.

    An ambulance had pulled up behind the
doctor’s car as Alex trotted down the steps, and Drake was already
in the process of examining the body slumped behind Mor’s steering
wheel when he caught up with him.
    Doc Drake was a wiry little man with more
energy than four normal folks. There was a look of intense focus on
his face as he concentrated on the body.
    Alex asked over the doctor’s shoulder, “Any
luck yet?”
    Drake shook his head, still partially inside
the truck examining the body. Irene stood nearby, filming the
examination for her own records.
    She said, “Step back, Alex. You’re blocking
my shot. What the eye might miss, Irene would have on tape.
    After his preliminary examination, Drake
muttered, “I can tell you this, there’s nothing all that obvious
that just jumps out at me.”
    He started shaking his head as he kept
looking, checking the eyes, the rigidity of the body, and a dozen
other things Alex couldn’t begin to interpret.
    Finally, Drake said to the two attendants
waiting nearby, “Okay, let’s take him out of the cab.”
    As they gently eased the body out of the
truck, Irene zoomed in for a closer look. It wasn’t work for the
fainthearted, that was certain.
    After Sturbridge was on the stretcher, Drake
gave the body a more thorough examination. Finally, he raised his
head and made eye contact with Alex. “If you want my professional
opinion, I don’t have a clue. There are no obvious signs of trauma,
at least nothing I can find out here. Alex, it could have been a
dozen things, including natural causes. I need to get him to the
hospital and take a closer look.”
    Irene had vanished, and Alex saw her zooming
in on something under Mor’s front seat. He looked and spotted a
dozen red roses pushed under the seat.
    Irene said, “I wonder if these were from
Mor, or from old Toby over there.”
    Alex said, “I don’t have any idea. Is there
a card with them?” He started to bend down to get a better look
when he heard tires crunching on the gravel drive nearby.
    Sheriff Armstrong was back, and for a man of
his bulk, he joined them with astonishing speed.
    “ What’s going on?” he
asked, fighting to catch his breath.
    “ We just found something,”
Alex said.
    Armstrong said, “Alex, why don’t you leave
this to the professionals? I’ll come find you when we’re done and
bring you up to speed.” He forgot about Alex instantly and turned
back to Irene. “Now show me what you’ve got.”
    Alex stepped back a few paces, but he wasn’t
about to leave. After all, whatever had happened to Emma’s
ex-husband had happened at Hatteras West on Winston land, and he
had a right to know what was going on.
    Alex glanced over and saw the body being
quickly loaded into the ambulance as Doc Drake headed for his
car.
    Alex caught him before he could drive away.
“Are you still stumped?”
    Drake admitted, “They’re not all as obvious
as a knife wound in the back of the neck, Alex. This one’s going to
take a little time.”
    Alex asked softly, “Doc, give me a call when
you find anything, will you?”
    Drake said, “Did you know the man, Alex?
What’s your interest in this case?”
    “ He’s Emma Sturbridge’s
ex-husband, and she and Mor are most likely going to be the
sheriff’s main suspects. Besides, this happened on my land. I feel
responsible for it.”
    Drake thought about it for a few moments,
then said, “I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not making any
promises.” As Drake got into his car, he added, “You know how the
sheriff gets when you snoop, Alex.”
    Armstrong tried to catch the