Read Innkeeping with Murder for Free Online

school, reliving glory
days long gone. Alex joined him in some of the classes during the
off-times for the inn, but he still had the fall leaf season ahead
of him, one of his busiest times of the year.
    Alex watched Mor take a few quick pictures,
then walked his friend to his truck.
    After Mor was gone, Alex stood in silence
staring at the tower, trying to decide whether he wanted to head up
to the top of the lighthouse and see how Irene was doing or go back
inside and get some paperwork done. He was still debating the pros
and cons when Irene, Doc Drake and Sheriff Armstrong came through
the lighthouse’s paired red doors.
    The sheriff walked over to him and said,
“Don’t
    worry about a thing, Alex, Irene says you can
have the lighthouse back as soon as the boys from the county come
to retrieve the body.”
    By then, Irene and Doc Drake joined the two
of them. Alex turned to Irene, who was, as always, fussing with her
hair. Evidently, she wasn’t used to climbing stairs, because her
pillar of curls was threatening to crash down over her eyes from
all the activity.
    She pinched his cheek. “You’re getting cuter
every day, young man. Why don’t you have a wife yet? I see you all
over town with Sandra Beckett. Anything happening there?”
    Alex shrugged, feeling his face redden
slightly. Armstrong stepped in and saved him from replying.
    “Investigator, we’re on a case. I’d
appreciate it if you wouldn’t harass a potential witness.”
    Irene rolled her eyes at her cousin,
reminding Alex of a ten-year-old instead of the sixty-year-old
woman standing before him. “Ducky, why don’t you lighten up a
little.”
    It was Armstrong’s turn to redden. The story
around town went that, as a toddler, he’d become so attached to a
yellow plastic duck that he carried it everywhere with him. The
name “Ducky” was obviously one the sheriff hoped the town would
forget. Most of them had, with the one glaring exception of
Irene.
    Alex asked, “What did you find out?”
    Irene nodded. “Okay, let’s get down to
business. The murder was pretty much what Doctor Drake thought; a
thin sharpened wire was jammed into the victim’s neck.” She paused,
then said. “With all the traffic you get climbing the steps, it was
impossible to pull a legible print off the railing. Sorry I didn’t
have any luck. About the only thing out of the ordinary I found up
there was a handful of rocks.”
    Doc Drake, who seemed to have a real fondness
for the beautician, said, “They most likely fell out of the
deceased’s pockets. We can’t expect you to find clues when there
aren’t any around, now can we? You did good work up there, Irene,
don’t let it bother you.”
    She offered the physician a bright smile and
a quick peck on the cheek. Seeing the red brand from her lipstick,
Irene took her hankie out and scrubbed the doctor’s face clean. “We
can’t have that pretty new nurse thinking things, now can we?”
    Irene turned to her cousin. “I’ll be in the
car while you men have your chat. Hurry up, Ducky. I’ve got to give
Mrs. Anderson a perm in twenty minutes. Career women these days
don’t even have time to get their hair done. It’s disgraceful, I’m
telling you. After you drop me off, you can go over to the One-Hour
Photo lab and develop the pictures I took of the crime scene.”
    Alex turned to the sheriff and said, “Any
idea when the ambulance is going to get here?” The thought of Reg’s
body on the upper balcony was beginning to make Alex nauseous.
    “I’ll radio over and see what’s keeping
them.” While Armstrong was in the squad car making his call, Drake
spoke softly to Alex. “I’ve got the feeling we’ll never find out
who did this, or why. The modern world is filled with random acts
of violence. The only thing that surprises me is that it took so
long to come to our little town here.”
    Alex shook his head. “I don’t think there was
anything random about Reg’s death, Doc, but I agree that