Ring for Murder (Lighthouse Inn Finale) by Tim Myers Page B

technically, I wouldn’t be your groom
yet, would I?”
    Elise didn’t respond, just headed for the
front door. “Do you want to stand here and have a debate, or should
we start snooping?”
    “I vote for snooping,” Alex said.
    “That’s the man I want to marry,” she said,
and the two of them left the Dual and headed for the Main.
     
    Alex tried the main door, and found that it
was still locked.
    “It doesn’t mean he didn’t find another way
inside,” Elise suggested.
    “There’s only one way to find out.”
    They used his key to open the main door, now
that the police tape was gone. The sheriff must have moved quickly
to search the building, and Alex wondered if perhaps the search had
been done too hastily. There was a great deal of space there, and
he believed that it was possible that he and his force had missed
something. If they had, he was sure that he and Elise would find
it. After all, no one knew the inn as well as they did.
    After a quick inventory of the rooms, Alex
said, “It’s pretty clear that he’s not here. Should we go looking
for him outside, or look around a little more carefully while we’re
here?”
    “I vote we inspect the building before
anyone else can get in,” Elise said.
    “That’s not a bad idea,” Alex answered.
    “Why, because you like agreeing with me?”
she asked with a smile.
    “It doesn’t hurt, does it? Besides, that’s
as good an idea as any.”
    “Then let’s start our treasure hunt. What
exactly are we looking for?”
    “Anything that doesn’t fit,” Alex said. “And
we should start in the room where Mor and I found Tony.” Alex hated
the thought of going back in there, but he really didn’t have any
choice. Sooner or later he’d have to face the memory of seeing his
brother in the bathtub, and the quicker he could put that image
behind him, the better.
    They pulled the mattress off the bed, looked
behind the lighthouse painting on the wall, even checked under the
bed.
    Elise frowned at Alex. “Nothing’s out of
order,” she said. “The floor needs a good waxing, doesn’t it?”
    “And the drapes need to be replaced
too.”
    She looked at him quizzically, and he
explained, “I had some time on my hands waiting for the sheriff to
take my call.”
    “What should we do?”
    “We have to keep looking, no matter how
painful it might be,” Alex said. He couldn’t believe that Tony
could be killed so easily without at least one clue being left
behind. He’d tried to put it off, but he finally forced himself to
walk into the bathroom.
    Elise touched his hand, and then took it in
hers as they went inside. Alex felt a rush from her touch, and a
new determination to push his way through this.
    He looked around the bathroom, trying to
take everything in. It was odd what the police had confiscated. Two
towels were gone, he still couldn’t find that blasted mat, the
shower curtain was missing now along with a complementary bottle of
shampoo as well, but the packet with a shower cap and razor were
still there, along with an unwrapped bar of soap in the shower, an
unopened bar of soap by the sink, and a wrapped roll of toilet
paper on the back of the toilet. Elsewhere on the sink, he did a
quick inventory of the mouthwash, hand towels, facial tissues,
still there, but all out of their regular order. The towels had
clearly been unfolded, and then folded back up, but nothing else
looked as though it had been touched. Still, nothing stood out as
he purposely kept his glance away from the tub as much as he
could.
    “There’s not a thing wrong here that I can
see that a little tidying up wouldn’t take care of,” Elise said,
though it was clear that she was much more focused on Alex than she
was exploring the room. “Come on,” she said as she tugged at his
hand. “They didn’t miss anything.” Alex let himself be led out of
the bathroom, but something stuck in his mind, something he’d seen,
but failed to recognize the significance of.
    “Hang