Ring for Murder (Lighthouse Inn Finale) (4 page)

“Tony, I gave you everything, all the
stocks, the bank accounts, the insurance money, just so I could
keep the inn. What happened to all of that money?”

“It’s gone,” Tony said.

“So you started looking around for another
easy score, didn’t you? Well, it’s not going to be that simple.
This place is mine.”

“Not according to my attorney.”

Alex couldn’t believe this was happening. It
was the stuff of the worst nightmares he’d ever had in his life.
“We agreed. You took that money.”

“Listen, I don’t want to take this place
from you. Give me a hundred thousand right now, and we’ll call it
even.”

Alex couldn’t keep from laughing, despite
the tragedy of the discussion. “Tony, I could barely scrape up a
tenth of that if I cashed in everything liquid I have, including
any wedding money Elise and I may or may not get tomorrow.”

Tony frowned. “I don’t believe you. This
place has to be making money. Don’t jerk me around, Alex. This is a
one time offer, good until midnight tonight. You’ve got it, and you
know it.”

“I can show you my checkbook if it will
prove it to you. We need a new boiler, our air conditioning system
is nearly shot, and the lighthouse needs to be painted. For all
intents and purposes, I’m broke, and steadily going deeper in the
hole every day.”

“How about fifty thousand?” Tony asked. “I’m
willing to be reasonable about it.”

“How about nothing,” Alex said, his temper
getting the better of him.

“Then get ready to sell this place, dear
brother, because if you can’t pay up, I want half the cash value
for what this whole thing is worth. You can kiss your lighthouse
good bye, Alex.”

And before Alex could say another word, Tony
walked off the porch and into the night.

Alex didn’t know what to do next, but his
instincts were strong. He found himself walking toward Elise’s room
without realizing that was where he was headed. He needed to talk
about what had just happened, and there was no one in the world
he’d rather discuss it with than Elise.

Alex knocked on the door of her room.
“Elise, it’s Alex.”

He heard her voice from the other side of
the door. “What is it, Alex? It’s late.”

“Something’s wrong,” he said.

That was all it took. “Give me one minute,”
she said.

Alex slumped down on a chair in the hallway
and waited for her. He knew his brother was capable of some
atrocious things, but trying to extort money out of him after
taking so much was even beyond his low standards. Someone was
putting pressure on Tony for money, and fast; that much was
obvious. But Alex wasn’t going to roll over and just give it to
him.

Elise came out wearing blue jeans and an old
t shirt. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, she had no
makeup on at all; Alex had never seen her more beautiful.

“What’s wrong?”

“Tony. He claims there was something wrong
with the transfer Uncle Jase drew up between us when our folks
died.”

“What does that mean, exactly?”

Alex could barely force the words out of his
mouth. “He says we have to sell Hatteras West.”

“
We need some coffee,” Elise
said as she led him into the lobby.

As they walked down the hallway into the
main area, Elise said, “I don’t care what time it is. You have to
call Sandra.”

Sandra Beckett was Alex’s attorney, and
one-time girlfriend.

“It’s late,” Alex said.

“I don’t think she’ll mind. Call her, Alex.
She’ll know what to do.”

Alex nodded, willing to do whatever Elise
suggested to make this nightmare go away. He looked up Sandra’s
home number, and after seven rings, she picked up.

“Did I wake you?” Alex asked.

“Alex, is that you? Of course not. I was
going over some paperwork. What’s wrong? You’re not drunk, are
you?”

“What? No, of course not. Why would you ask
that?”

There was a pause, and then Sandra said,
“You hear stories about bridegrooms with cold feet all of the time.
They call old girlfriends when their weddings get close at
hand.”

“No worries about me. My toes have never
been toastier,” Alex said.

“Then why the call?”

“I have a serious legal problem, and I need
your advice,” he replied.

“Nobody’s dead, are they?”

Alex couldn’t believe the questions Sandra
was asking. “No, no one’s dead.”

“Hey, you can’t blame me for asking. That
lighthouse of yours seems to attract its share of dead bodies. If
it’s not that, what is it?”

“My brother claims that the document
transferring his share of the lighthouse to me isn’t valid. He’s
saying that we’ll have to sell everything.”

Sandra whistled softly. “No wonder you
called. Alex, did Jase draw up the transfer?”

Alex said, “Yes, of course he did. He was a
good attorney.”

“Hey, I loved that man like a father, but we
both know how torn up he was about your parents’ accident. He
wasn’t on his game, and he knew it. Jase ran things past me for two
months after they died, but I never saw that transfer.”

Alex felt the wind go out of his lungs.
Could Tony be telling the truth?

His thoughts were interrupted when Sandra
added, “If you have the document, I’ll be glad to take a look at
it. I can be there in fifteen minutes.”

“It’s in my safety deposit box at the bank,”
Alex admitted. “I won’t be able to get it out for two days.”

Sandra said, “That’s convenient, isn’t
it?”

“If you ask me, it’s exactly the
opposite.”

“Stay with me. Did Tony offer some kind of
cash settlement, something that had to be done immediately?”

Alex bit his lip. “He said he’d take a
hundred grand, but it had to be before the wedding. As a matter of
fact, when I turned him down, he cut that in half, not that I have
a prayer of paying either amount.”

Sandra paused for a moment, and then said,
“Take my advice. Don’t give him a dime, Alex.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“I think he’s bluffing, but even if he’s
not, I’ll represent you in this. We can show that Tony took your
share of the inheritance, and you signed that document in good
faith. I think we have a case, even if Jase did drop the ball. Try
not to worry about it, okay?”

“I don’t see how, but thanks, Sandra.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow at the wedding,” she
said, and then hung up.

Elise had been listening to his side of the
conversation, and Alex had held the phone off from his ear far
enough for her to pick up most of what Sandra had said.

“That’s a relief, isn’t it?” Elise said.

“I guess,” Alex admitted. “Don’t think this
is going to go away, though. I know my brother. He’ll try his best
to break us with a lawsuit. This is going to cost me a
fortune.”

“You’re wrong, there,” Elise said
softly.

Alex asked, “What, you think Sandra is going
to do this for free?”

“No, but we’ll pay for it together. I have
some money I’ve been saving that I wanted to surprise you with. I
was going to buy us a new boiler, but this is more important.”

“Elise, I can’t take your money,” Alex said,
almost reflexively.

“Listen, and listen good, Alex Winston. As
of tomorrow night, there is no more ‘mine’ and ‘yours’. It’s all
ours, the good and the bad. Do you understand me?”

“I do,” he said.

She laughed. “Good. Keep repeating that, and
when the preacher asks you tomorrow, remember your line.”

He kissed her, and after a few moments,
Elise said, “Thanks for the good night kiss.”

“Thank you for being here,” Alex said.

Sandra and Elise didn’t seem nearly as
worried about the situation as Alex was, but then they hadn’t grown
up at Hatteras West. He wasn’t at all surprised that his brother
had tried to cheat him.

And that by itself was a sad thing
indeed.

Alex woke up just past
one
am
, and it took
him a second to realize that the sound of the front door of the inn
slamming hadn’t been a part of some kind of dream. He was so
attuned to the sounds of the inn, the whispers and moans of the
building, that he could tell whenever something was not as it
should be. Throwing on a robe, he walked out into the lobby,
turning lights on along the way.

Nothing looked out of place as he searched
the space, but as Alex walked to the door, he felt his heart
drop.

It hadn’t been a dream. It was unlocked.

Had he forgotten to lock it last night,
given all that had happened? Alex thought his routines were so
ingrained that he could have done them in his sleep, but
apparently, the news Tony had dropped on him the night before had
thrown him off his game.

There was another option, though. What if
someone staying upstairs had left abruptly in the middle of the
night? His thoughts immediately went to Tony.

“Alex, what is it?”

“Sorry if that woke you,” he told Elise.

“Then that wasn’t you slamming the door a
minute ago?” she asked.

“No, I heard it, too, so I decided to come
out and investigate.” He looked back up the stairs. “Should we wake
everyone up and do a head count?”

Elise shook her head. “We could check the
hallway, but I don’t want to wake my folks up unless there’s a good
reason.”

“Agreed,” Alex said.

He started up the steps to their guest
rooms, glad that the Main Keeper’s Quarters was empty. At least
anything that happened would be contained in this building. Having
two separate structures that housed their guests was a pain at
times, but he hadn’t laid out the inn, his ancestors had, so he had
to live with it.

Everything looked normal upstairs. At least
that was something.

“Maybe it just was the wind,” Elise
said.

“Blowing through the lobby outside? Someone
slammed that door, Elise.”

He lingered at his brother’s door,
hesitating 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.