Ring for Murder (Lighthouse Inn Finale) (10 page)

“I’m not some common thief,” she said.

“I’m not asking you to do anything illegal.
Just keep the innkeeper and his maid occupied while I dig around
some. I had to slip out the back window when they came over there
snooping around the last time.”

“Do you think they found anything?” Monique
asked.

“No, I doubt they even know what’s going
on.”

“So, we’re splitting the coins,” she
recounted. “And you’re going back to your employer with less than
you are supposed to have. How can I believe you’re willing to
settle for half of what you think is all rightfully yours?”

“Tony had more than coins,” Jackson
said.

“What are you talking about?”

“
He stole something else
from my employer that’s more important than gold, and I mean to get
it back.”

There was more than a hint of avarice in
Monique’s voice as she asked, “What is it? Is it valuable?”

“Not to anyone but my boss. It’s just a slip
of paper.”

Bingo. Alex and Mor had been right after
all. The paper they’d found in the room where Tony had been
murdered was tied into the case.

He just didn’t know how yet.

“I’m taking off,” Jackson said as he voice
suddenly grew louder. “Just do your part and nobody has to get
hurt.”

“No one else, you mean,” she said. “Tony’s
dead, isn’t he?”

“Sure, if you’re counting him.”

Alex grabbed Elise’s hand and pulled her
away. There was no way they could get across the grass and back to
the inn before Jackson and Monique spotted them.

“Are we going to do this right now?” Monique
asked.

Alex looked wildly around. There was only
one choice. They had to go up if they didn’t want to be caught.
Alex raced up the steps to the lighthouse, with Elise close behind
him. As he opened the door, he could hear Jackson say faintly, “Not
now. Tonight at nine, when no one else is around.”

He closed the lighthouse door softly behind
him, and then locked it.

It was a good thing he had. Ten seconds
after he dead bolted it, the handle jiggled a little. “This stupid
thing is locked,” Jackson said from the other side of the door.

“What of it?” Monique answered him.

“What kind of lighthouse stays locked all
day so the guests can’t get in?”

“You can check it out later,” Monique said.
“We don’t want to look suspicious.”

“I could break into this door with a credit
card in three seconds,” Jackson said.

“Let’s just go,” she answered. “We don’t
want to make them suspicious.”

Jackson’s laugh was cold and full of scorn.
Alex had no trouble believing that he was a cold blooded killer.
“Neither one of them has a clue. The only we’ll get caught is if we
get sloppy, or they get lucky.”

After the voices were gone, Alex hurried up
the steps to the first window. As he looked out, he saw them going
their separate ways. Jackson got into his car and drove off, while
Monique walked into the inn.

“Let’s go,” Alex said.

Elise followed, and as they were hurrying
back to the Dual Keeper’s Quarters, she said, “We can’t just walk
in the front door now. She’ll suspect we were eavesdropping.”

“We can go in the back way, though.”

They made it around the inn without being
seen, and walked out into the lobby, where they found Monique at
the desk, repeatedly ringing the bell there.

“Sorry, we were doing inventory in back,”
Alex said, trying his best to slow his breathing.

“We were counting towels,” Elise said. “As a
matter of fact, we left some extra in your room a little earlier
today.”

Monique was not at all pleased by that news.
“You were in my room?”

“It’s a part of the service we offer here,”
Alex said as smoothly as he could manage.

“I’m a very private person,” Monique said.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t go in there again during my
stay.”

“What about to clean the place, swap out the
towels, and change the sheets?” Elise asked.

“If I need anything, I’ll let you know.”

Alex nodded. “Whatever you’d like.”

“Good. Now, is there anyplace to eat in
town? No offense, but I need to get away from the inn for awhile.
Too many memories, you know?”

“We have a nice place in Elkton Falls called
Mamma Ravolini’s,” Alex said. “It’s got all kinds of charm, and
good food, too.”

“Where exactly is it?” Monique asked.

Alex offered, “Drive into town. You can’t
miss it. Tell Irma we sent you.”

“The woman’s name is really Irma Ravolini?”
Monique asked incredulously.

“No, it’s Irma Bean. She thought Ravolini
sounded more exotic when she first opened the place.”

Monique merely shook her head.
“Whatever.”

Alex hated the expression, but he kept that
fact to himself. If it were true that Tony had proposed to this
vapid woman, he wouldn’t have been surprised. She seemed to be his
type, a little flash, and even less substance.

“If I don’t go there, is there anywhere else
to eat?”

“You could always go to Buck’s Grill. They
serve diner food, and their meatloaf is particularly good.”

“Okay, I’m sure I can find something at one
of those places.”

She started to head upstairs, and Alex
couldn’t help asking, “I thought you were going out?”

“Not this early. I may take a nap, so don’t
disturb me.”

“No, ma’am,” he said.

After she was gone, Alex said, “She’s
checking on her gun right now.”

“If you were dealing with Jackson, wouldn’t
you want to be armed? The real question is, is she looking for her
ammunition, too? What if something happens to her because we stole
her bullets and she couldn’t defend herself?”

“Should I give them back? How is that going
to work out?”

“Let’s wait and see if she says anything
about them being missing.”

“I have a feeling if she discovers they are
missing, we’ll know about it in a minute,” Alex said. He started
straightening magazines in the lobby while Elise pretended to dust
the furniture. After ten minutes, Monique didn’t reappear, so they
decided that they were safe. It had been a rash act stealing the
bullets, and Alex knew it. Not only did it give away the fact that
they’d been snooping in her purse, but it also showed they knew she
was armed. He just hoped that he didn’t live to regret the impulse.
Even worse, if something happened to Monique, Alex wasn’t sure that
he’d ever be able to forgive himself.

Later that afternoon, Alex and Elise were
lingering in the lobby, waiting for something, anything, to happen.
They both heard Monique’s door close upstairs, and as she walked
down the steps, they both pretended to be busy.

“I’ll see you later,” Monique said as she
reached the door. “And remember, my room is off limits while I’m a
guest here.”

“Got it,” Alex said.

They waited until she was gone, and then
Alex asked, “Should we take one more peek at her room? Jackson
didn’t even have a bag, so there’s nothing to see there.”

“I think we should stay out, for now,” Elise
said.

“Why, do you think she’s coming back?”

“No,” she admitted, “but it’s not worth
taking the risk.”

“Let me just be sure that she’s gone.” Alex
walked out onto the porch, looked around the parking lot, and saw
that they were truly alone. When he got back in, Elise had poured
two glasses of iced tea for them.

“Hope you don’t mind, but I thought we could
use a cool drink.”

“Sounds great,” he said as he killed half of
it on the spot. He wasn’t at all certain how she did it, but
Elise’s brew was as close to Evans Graile’s tea as any he’d ever
tasted.

As Alex sat on the couch, something poked
him in the back. He’d forgotten all about the catalogue he’d taken
from Monique’s room, still stuffed in the back of his jeans.
Flipping through it, he studied the marked items.

“What have you got there?” Elise asked.

“It was in Monique’s trashcan. There’s a
pattern here that’s interesting.”

“What’s that?”

“All of the items that are circled can be
counterfeited,” he said, showing her not just coins, but other
monies and a painting as well.

“Do you think this was Tony’s?”

Alex flipped through the pages until he
found a small notation, written in pencil in a particular hand. It
said, “Do the rewards outweigh the risks?”

“It’s Tony’s,” Alex said. “I’d know his
handwriting anywhere.”

“What was Monique doing with it, then?”

“Beats me. After overhearing that
conversation at the lighthouse base earlier, I can’t imagine that
she has any idea that the coins we found are fake.”

“All but one,” Elise corrected. “It’s an
important distinction. If she knows they’re fake, all she’s
interested in is the one legitimate coin.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“She agreed to the split, didn’t she?” Elise
asked.

“Not so fast, though. What if she agreed
just to get her hands on the real one? If Jackson let her sort
them, she could put the real one in her half. No, we can’t count
her out yet. She could be a dupe, but she could also be a
coconspirator. Odds are, though, one of them did killed Tony.”

“I think so, too” Elise said.

Alex chewed his lower lip. “Maybe we should
turn this over to the sheriff right now. After all, we’ve narrowed
it down quite a bit.”

“Is that what you truly want to do?” Elise
asked.

“What I want to do is find Tony’s killer, so
he can get some justice, and we can get married.”

“Then I vote that we stick to the plan, at
least for now,” Elise said.

They both heard a car drive up. “I wonder if
Jackson is back from his drive.”

“Maybe Monique just came back to check on
us. I have a hunch she doesn’t trust us.”

Alex grinned at that. “Imagine that.”

Then, to their surprise, it was neither one
of their suspects.

Mor and Emma were back, and what was more,
they were each carrying a suitcase.

Chapter 9

What’s with the luggage?” Alex asked as they
opened the door.

“I was a little peckish, so I thought I’d
pack a snack,” Mor said with a big grin.

Emma slapped him playfully. “Can you give a
straight answer to a question for once in your life, Mordecai?”

“Yes,” he said solemnly without adding any
inflection to it at all.

After a moment’s pause, he added, “See? That
was no fun at all.”

Emma looked at Elise and asked, “Do boys
ever become men?”

“I don’t know, but I kind of like these two
just the way they are.”

Emma just shook her head. “Sometimes you are
as bad as they are.”

Alex said, “I’d love to stand around and
chat about my shortcomings, but we have things to do. What’s going
on with the bags?”

“We’re checking in,” Mor said. “Emma here
thought it might be better if we were on the scene, in case you
needed us.”

“You’re checking in?” Elise asked.

“If it’s okay with you.”

“The more the merrier,” Alex said.

Mor nodded. “Were you able to discover
anything while we were gone?”

“Quite a bit, actually, but before we get
into that, how did the coins turn out?”

“You tell me,” Mor said as he reached into
his jacket pocket and pulled out a felt bag. He handed it to Alex,
who opened it and spilled the coins into his hand. From close up
they most likely wouldn’t fool anyone, but at first glance, they
looked real enough. Not as good as Tony’s counterfeits, but they
couldn’t use them. If this didn’t work, Alex wanted to be able to
present them to Sheriff Armstrong without having touched them since
he and Mor had found the coins.

“These are nice,” Alex said. “I can’t even
spot the real one.”

“That’s because it’s here,” Mor said, and
held up the one true coin in their possession.

Once he saw it, the validity of the other
coins was clearly debunked. “Don’t worry,” Mor said after seeing
Alex’s face. “They won’t have this one to compare these with, and
if we do this right, they won’t have time to look too closely.”

“Do you have any ideas?” Alex asked. He’d
come up with, and discarded, several plans during the day, but he
hadn’t been completely satisfied with any of them.

“Not really.” Mor took the coins from Alex
and returned them to the pouch he’d brought them in.

“I hope you didn’t make them in vain,” Alex
said.

“Are you kidding? I had a blast doing it.”
He handed the tied bag to Alex. “Besides, you’ll come up with
something.”

“I’m glad you have faith in me,” Alex said,
“because I’m not sure I’ll be able to think of anything at
all.”

“We have believe in you,” Elise said, and
Emma nodded as well.

“Then I don’t have much choice, do I?”
Alex’s stomach rumbled. “Is anyone else hungry?”

“I could go for a bite,” Mor said
broadly.

Emma patted his stomach. “Why am I not
surprised to hear you say that?”

“Hey, I have a high metabolism,” Mor
protested.

“It goes along nicely with your cholesterol
level,” she said.

Elise said, “I could make something here so
we can keep an eye on things.”

“I’ll help,” Emma said.

“What should we do in the meantime?” Alex
asked.

“Figure out how to trap the killer,” Elise
said as she kissed him lightly.

“Is that all?”

She patted him on the chest. “You can do
it.”

“Thanks. I just hope your faith isn’t
misplaced.”

The last word triggered something in his
mind, and Elise saw that he’d come up with something. “What is
it?”

“I’m not sure yet. Mor, let’s go over to the
Main Keepers Quarters.”

“I’m with you,” he said.

“You two be careful,” Emma said.

“What possible trouble could we get into?”
Mor asked.