by Tim Myers
There was some kind of ruckus going on in the kitchen, filling the air with arguments and accusations. When Monet emerged, his calm and cool exterior was gone, replaced by a blanching of his deep tan. Alex could swear the man’s mustache even seemed to curl down at the edges.
It seemed to take forever for their order to arrive. Mor said, “Anything going on new with the Carolina Rhapsody theft or the guard’s murder?”
Emma said, “Mor Pendleton, we agreed not to discuss that over dinner.”
Mor said, “You agreed, I don’t remember having much say about it. Besides, if you see any food, I’ll shut right up, and that’s a promise.”
Alex said, “Reston’s claim that the emerald was fake was backed up by an expert from Hiddenite. The sheriff is still trying to figure out how Cliff let somebody get him from the front. He wasn’t exactly the most trusting soul I ever met.”
“No doubt it was someone he knew,” Mor said.
“That’s what everybody’s been saying, but who could it have been?”
Elise said, “I think it’s good you’re leaving it up to the sheriff this time.”
Alex said, “Hey, I never ask to pry into these things.”
He was spared the need to comment on the disbelieving expressions on his companions’ faces as the waitress finally brought their food.
She said, “I’m so sorry,” as she slid their plates in front of them. Alex’s steak was burned to a crisp, accompanied by a sculpture of cold mashed potatoes and the sorriest looking vegetable medley he’d ever seen in his life. He wasn’t sure what cut of meat the steak had started off as originally, but it was entirely unrecognizable now. As he tried to chew a bite, he felt his jaw grow numb from the effort.
He whispered to Elise, “How’s your fish?”
“Overcooked and over-seasoned,” she said simply. Elise herself was a wonderful cook, and she acted as if the food was an insult. She’d taken one small bite, then pushed her plate away.
Emma and Mor’s choices weren’t much better, and the four suffered through the meal trying to make their conversation more appetizing than the food before them. More folks than the foursome were unhappy about their meals, though most of the other diners were just as busy pretending it wasn’t dreadful.
Monet came around after the check arrived, a worried look on his face. “Dear people, how was your meal?”
Alex was trying to find something good to say when Mor said, “It was barely edible.”
Emma dug him in the ribs, but Mor protested, “Hey, he asked.”
“Dear lady, your husband speaks the truth. My chef quit abruptly this evening, and I’m afraid his replacement is woefully inadequate. Please, accept my apologies.” He took their check and shredded it in front of them, then slid a card across the table to Mor. “This entitles you to a meal for the four of you at another time, with my compliments. I’ve been in touch with my employment agency in Charlotte, and they assure me I will have a top chef here by tomorrow night.”
Emma said, “Don’t worry, everyone will give you another chance.”
The owner walked away, a beaten man. Alex said to the others, “I’ll meet you all outside.”
As the rest of his party left, he approached Monet. “Listen, don’t let this get you discouraged. Things happen when you work with the public; believe me, I know.”
Monet said, “I swear to you, this venture has seemed jinxed from the very start. I should never have come to Elkton Falls.”
“Just think what you would have missed,” Alex said, trying to lighten the man’s burden. “Mor or Les’s repair shop is worth the trip alone, and we won’t even mention my lighthouse. You really should come out as soon as you get the chance. I’ll give you a guided tour myself.”
Monet managed a slight smile. “How do you Southerners manage to deal with adversity with such elegance?”
“Who knows, maybe it’s because we’ve had a lot of practice. Don’t give up,” Alex said as he gestured around the restaurant. “This is all worth fighting for.”
Monet grabbed Alex’s hand and pumped it hard. “Thank you for taking the time to speak to me. At least I feel I have one friend in Elkton Falls now.”
“Give us a chance, we’ll all grow on you sooner or later.”
Alex caught up with the rest of his group outside of the restaurant, standing in the emptying parking lot waiting for him. Before Mor could ask him about the delay, Alex said, “Anybody want to go to Irma’s? I’m still hungry.”
Elise said, “I don’t have the nerve to go over there after we deserted her tonight.”
Emma said, “Thanks anyway, but we need to get home.”
Alex asked, “And where exactly is that, these days?”
“We’re staying at the cottage,” Emma said.
“For now,” Mor added abruptly. “It’s just temporary until we can work something out.” Alex nodded, and Mor protested, “Hey, we had to have someplace to stay, didn’t we?”
“Sure thing,” Alex said as their friends walked away toward the cottage.
After they were gone, Elise said, “I wonder if he knows they’ll never leave now.”
“I’ve got a feeling he does,” Alex said. “So what do you say, should we brave Mama Ravolini’s despite everything?”
Elise shook her head. “We’ve left our guests alone too long as it is. Tell you what, why don’t we swing by the grocery store and pick up a couple of steaks? You can grill them out back while I throw a salad together. It’s got to be better than what we had in there.”
“That sounds great to me,” Alex said.
Shopping with Elise was lots of fun, and they added a half-gallon of chocolate fudge swirl ice cream to their basket for dessert.
Things were quiet enough back at the inn for them to have a nice little dinner outside on a picnic table near the back of the Dual Keeper’s Quarters; the nights were beginning to turn chilly again. As they watched the stars after their meal, Elise shivered slightly in the breeze.
“Are you cold?” Alex asked.
“No, I’m fine,” she said.
Alex slipped off his jacket anyway and draped it over her shoulders.
“Now you’ll get cold,” she protested.
“Are you kidding? I love this temperature.”
She pulled the lapels of his jacket together and said, “It’s a shame about the restaurant.”
Alex nodded. “I don’t know how he’ll make it, even after he gets a decent chef in there. I’m not afraid to admit it; those prices were too rich for my blood.”
Elise said, “And most of the rest of Elkton Falls, most likely. He could be counting on the tourist trade.”
Alex laughed. “If that was his plan, he should have talked to me first. I’m still waiting for tourists to find our inn.”
“That’s why we need those new brochures telling everyone about the new room names.”
Alex laughed. “I give up. We can rename them in the morning.”
Elise said, “Why wait till then? It’s a perfect night for a fire. Let’s go.”
They moved inside and Elise returned Alex’s jacket. Instead of putting it back on, he said, “I’ve had about all of this tie I can take. I’m changing back into jeans.”
Elise laughed. “As much as I enjoyed tonight, I’m ready to get back to normal myself.”
They met again five minutes later in front of the fireplace. Alex lit the tinder when he’d arrived in the lobby a minute before her and was rewarded with the crackling as the flames caught. Elise had added a blue patterned sweater to her jeans, and her fancy hairdo was gone, replaced with the ponytail he preferred. Alex felt his heart skip yet again at the sight of her. There had to be something he could do to get closer to her, but he didn’t know what it could be for the life of him.
Elise grabbed a pad from the Scrabble table and said, “Okay, let’s come up with some names.” It was more like a party game than a job, and after an hour of laughter and fun, they’d come up with a list of more nam
es than they needed.
Alex said, “Now we just need to get someone to make the signs for us.”
Elise said, “I’ve already got that covered. Amy Lang’s going to do them for us.”
“Out of steel?” Alex asked. Amy was Elkton Falls’s resident sculptress, and her tastes normally ran to huge outdoor epic works instead of delicate indoor signs.
“No, she’s going to paint them on wood blanks she made. She’s got quite a fine hand at script.”
Alex had seen some of the prices on her sculptures. “How much is all this going to cost us?”
Elise smiled. “We’re bartering. She’s getting three rooms at the inn during one of our dead weekends. It’s a bargain.”
Alex thought about all the work that would be involved with the swap, but he did want the signs to look professional. “It sounds like you’ve got it covered then, so let’s go ahead.”
Elise leaned over and kissed his cheek, adding a quick hug before she broke away.
Alex said, “Not that I’m complaining, but what was that all about?”
“For trusting me to help run this inn, for taking me out tonight, for everything.”
Alex said, “You’re most welcome.”
He was about to lean forward to offer his own thanks in the form of another kiss when Reston Shay breathlessly broke in on them, looking for all the world like someone who had just seen his own ghost.
Chapter 6
“Reston, what’s wrong?” Alex asked.
“I thought I...no, it had to be my imagination,” he stammered out.
“What did you see?” Elise asked gently.
“Someone was outside my window just now. But it couldn’t have been him. No, I must have been dreaming.”
Alex asked, “Who did you see?”
“Cliff.” Reston expelled the name of the dead guard as he slumped down onto one of the chairs near the fireplace.
“Let’s move you into another room,” Elise said. “It can’t be healthy for you to stay there.”
“Do you think I’m crazy?” Reston snapped. “It was just a dream; it had to be.”
Alex said, “We’ve got plenty of rooms available right now. Tell you what, why don’t we put you in the other building?”
Reston stood on shaky legs as he said, “It was a mistake telling you about what I saw, or more likely what I thought I saw. I’m fine now. It just seemed so real.”
“All the more reason to move,” Elise said.
“I’m staying right where I am,” Reston said, then walked with firm resolution back to his room.
“Alex, he shouldn’t be staying there, tonight of all nights,” Elise said.
“What can I do? I can’t very well make him change rooms. He’s obviously determined to stay there.”
Elise shook her head. “I don’t understand why.”
“Reston Shay is eccentric, at least that’s what everyone says because of his money; otherwise they’d just call him crazy. He’s been known to do some of the oddest things over the years.”
“Like what?” Elise asked.
“Let’s see, there was the time he stood out in front of the bank downtown and handed out ten-dollar-bills to whoever wanted them. I heard he went through three grand before Armstrong made him stop.”
“How could the sheriff make him stop giving his money away, no matter how crazy it looked?”
Alex smiled. “It was, according to our fair sheriff, an unlawful assembly without a permit. From the reports I heard, there were a thousand people waiting around impatiently when the sheriff broke it up.”
“Why would he give his money away like that?” Elise asked.
“Reston said he was tired of paying the government all he had to in taxes, so he might as well spread it around a little on his own. I almost forgot. On his sixtieth birthday, he hired the Naked Chicken Dancers to entertain at his party. Reston threw it for himself at the park for all of Elkton Falls. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this group, but they dress up in costumes of plucked chickens and cartwheel around, dancing to their own odd music, all the while squawking their heads off.”
“I suppose the sheriff broke that one up, too.”
Alex laughed. “He couldn’t. City Hall had issued the permit for one public birthday party plus entertainment, so there wasn’t a thing in the world he could do about it. I think Reston just sees the world from a different angle than the rest of us.”
“But none of that explains him staying in that room. It’s downright creepy.”
Alex said, “I couldn’t agree more. Tell you what, first thing tomorrow I’ll see if I can get him to switch. Now where were we?” Alex asked as he moved closer to her.
Elise yawned, then said, “I was just off to bed. Thanks for tonight, Alex. I’ll say this, it’s never dull when you’re around.”
Alex had been hoping for at least a good-night kiss, but he took solace in the fact that this date hadn’t ended in complete and utter disaster like their last one had. Maybe there was hope things would improve, if he just kept trying. One thing was certain; Alex wasn’t about to give up on Elise.
The next morning, Alex was sampling a cranberry muffin from the Muffin Lady when Elise joined him.
She said, “Sorry I’m late. I didn’t mean to sleep in.”
“You’re entitled to, every now and then,” Alex said.
Elise surveyed the continental breakfast bar and said, “How’s the muffin race going?”
“Sally Anne’s not going to like it, but there’s no doubt we’ve got a new supplier. Patrick Thornton took two, with my permission, so he wouldn’t have to stop for lunch. They’re a meal in themselves, aren’t they?”
“I was a little worried about their size, but our guests seem to like them. Where is our surveyor off to today?”
“He told me he’d be sticking close to the inn. He says there are some spots on Bear Rocks he needs to check out, and more in the orchards between here and Amy’s.” Though Alex’s property was separated from the sculptor’s by an orchard of trees one of Alex’s ancestors had planted, she was still his closest neighbor at Hatteras West, at least as the crow flew. It took longer to drive there than it did to walk, given that he had to go over three sides of a square to get to her by road.
“Have you seen Reston this morning?” Elise asked. “I wonder if the poor man got any sleep at all last night.”
“You can call Reston Shay a great many things, but poor shouldn’t be on the list.”
Elise lowered her voice. “How did he acquire his money, do you know?”
“All of Elkton Falls does. His family bought my family’s land four generations ago in Hiddenite and mined it until there was nothing left.”
“Oh, Alex, I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about. If my great-grandfather hadn’t made that first strike, then sold his land and traveled to the Outer Banks, he never would have met my great- grandmother and I wouldn’t be here. Neither would the lighthouse, for that matter.” Alex had told Elise early upon her arrival how the lighthouse had ended up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a monument to his ancestor’s love and devotion for his wife. It was the ultimate of grand acts, one Alex was proud to be heir to.
She said, “You’ve got a point there. I think I’ll check on him anyway, just in case.”
Alex said, “I’d let him sleep in, if I were you. Don’t worry, Elise, I’m sure he’s fine.”
She bit her lower lip as she looked down the hallway toward Reston’s room, but Alex was glad that she gave up the idea of waking the man. There was enough to cope with at Hatteras West without worrying about a cranky Reston Shay.
Alex was halfway through with his rooms when Elise popped in.
He asked, “Hey, what’s up?”
“Would you like a hand with your workload?” she asked.
“I must be slowing down. I knew you were quick, but that’s got to be some kind of record.”
Elise snagged a dusting
rag from Alex’s cart and said, “You have twice as many occupied rooms as I do, and some of mine aren’t even up yet. Reston Shay doesn’t answer my knock,” she added pointedly.
“With the night he had, he’ll probably sleep in until noon.”
Together, they tackled the room he’d been working on, knocking it out in record time. Alex loved working alongside Elise. The two of them had an almost psychic connection, splitting tasks without conferring, and working with mechanical precision.
“So let’s talk about it,” Elise said as they moved to another room.
“What, our big date?” Alex asked with a grin. “I knew it, you can’t wait to go out with me again, can you?”
“The Winston charm notwithstanding, I was talking about the murder and the theft.”
Alex pretended to sigh. “And here I thought this was going to be about me.”
“Oh be serious,” she said as she flipped a towel at him.
“Okay, I guess I could give it a try, but I’m not making any promises.” His good mood was definitely showing.
“Suspects, Alex,” Elise said as she started on the bathroom. It was a game they’d played often enough in the past, discussing the possibilities of the crimes that came their way.
He thought about it, then said, “Well, I’d say we have to start off with anyone desperate enough to kill for money. That stone was a rarity.”
Elise shook her head. “That’s what doesn’t make sense. Why steal something you can’t sell? I imagine the Carolina Rhapsody is recognizable to anyone in the trade.”
“With collectors, you never know what might drive them. I don’t have a single suspect to name based on avarice,” Alex admitted. Did he really want to play this game with Elise, when what he wanted was to pursue a personal relationship with her? “We’re just going to have to leave this one up to the sheriff.”
“I don’t believe you actually feel that way for one second.”
Alex realized she wasn’t going to let go. After working side by side with her, he knew Elise’s stubborn streak was wider than his own.