Room for Murder (Book 4 in the Lighthouse Inn Mysteries) (15 page)

She looked nervous, staring down at her
notes before she made eye contact with the audience. The silence
grew on without a word from the candidate, and the crowd started
getting restless.

Ernest said again, “Tracy?”

She took a deep gulp of air, then said,
“Thank you. I’m running for mayor because I want to make a
difference. Mayor Hatch has been doing a decent job, but I feel we
need a new, strong leadership to keep the developers in check, to
assure the high standards we are used to having here, and to lead
our town into growth slowly and with careful consideration. I want
to keep Elkton Falls the way it should be: filled with heart, with
friendship, and with good neighbors.”

She looked relieved to be finished, and the
crowd dutifully applauded.

Ernest waited a moment, then said, “Now
Conner.”

Conner shot a look at Tracy, then turned his
brightest smile onto the audience. “Folks, my ex-wife has offered
you a Mayberry ideal. Well, Mayberry was on TV. This is real life.
Elkton Falls needs growth to sustain itself. New jobs, new people
moving in, this all represents more for all of us as we expand our
tax base. We shouldn’t be discouraging expansion, we should be
encouraging it. Tracy, the fifties have been over a long time. We
need someone who’s looking toward tomorrow, not living in
yesterday.”

There was a louder round of applause than
Alex had hoped for. Conner had taken Tracy’s words and wrapped them
around her throat. He was much smoother, more polished than Tracy,
with his ready smile and sharp delivery.

And it looked to Alex as if the residents of
Elkton Falls were eating it up.

At one point, Tracy looked as if she was
going to take off after Conner right there on stage, his remarks
were so inflammatory, but she kept her temper and instead jabbed
jack at him with a few shots of her own.

After the summations at the very end of the
debate, both candidates looked as if they’d gone through a
battle.

And for the life of him, Alex couldn’t
figure out who had won.

Mor stood as the candidates made their way
out the back of the auditorium to swing around and greet folks as
they left. “Well, that was something.”

“
Did any of it change your
mind at all?” Alex asked.

“
No, but I doubt anything
will. These two were preaching to their own choirs all night long.
Conner’s pushing for expansion, and Tracy wants things to stay the
way they are. It should make for an interesting election on
Tuesday.”

“
It should,” Alex
agreed.

He and Mor were still standing there
chatting when they both heard the scream behind them.

Someone at the back of the auditorium was in
trouble.

Chapter 13

Mor and Alex rushed backstage just in time
to see Tracy faint. Conner, obviously uncomfortable with his
ex-wife in his arms, said, “Somebody get a doctor.”

“
What happened?” Alex asked
as Mor left to find Doc Drake.

“
That did,” Conner said,
gesturing with his head toward the back door.

There, hanging from the rafters, was a
female mannequin dressed in something just like Tracy would wear
with a sign around its neck.

drop out or die.

At that moment, a flash went off behind
Alex, then another.

He looked toward the light and saw Max Logan
from the Elkton Falls Journal running back up the aisle, his camera
in his hand.

“
Great,” Conner said. “It’s
not exactly how I wanted to get in the papers.”

Tracy started to come around. Her eyelids
fluttered, then she looked startled to find herself in Conner’s
arms.

“
Let go of me,” she said
angrily.

Conner released her and said, “If you want
to break your tailbone, that’s fine with me.”

Alex reached out and gave Tracy a hand, and
she wobbled slightly as she stood, leaning into Alex so she
wouldn’t fall.

Evidently when the photographer saw that no
one was chasing him, he decided to come back for more shots.

Alex said, “Come on, Max, it’s not fair
taking advantage of Tracy like this.”

Logan said, “Are you kidding me? This is
Page One stuff. I’ve got a shot of the hanging body and Tracy
passed out under it.”

“
It’s a mannequin,
somebody’s idea of a dirty trick. You’ve got more class than that,”
he said.

Max said, “It’s not a question of class,
this is real news.”

Alex turned to Conner. “Aren’t you going to
try to stop him?”

Conner said halfheartedly, “What can I do
about it? Logan’s right; we can’t keep the newspaper from
publishing something just because we don’t like the subject
matter.”

As Max raced out of the auditorium, Tracy
snapped, “You think this is something positive? How are your old
buddies and new girlfriends going to feel when you’re seen holding
me on the front page tomorrow?”

Conner smiled. “Go with the flow, Trace.
Remember, any press is good press.”

Tracy pointed to the dummy. “Is this your
idea of a joke, Conner?”

He frowned. “Come on, you know me better
than that, I’m going to whip your tail fair and square. You don’t
actually think I want you to drop out, do you?”

After Conner was gone, Alex asked her, “Do
you believe him?”

“
I hate to admit it, but
this isn’t Conner’s style. Now if he’d come after me with a knife
or tried to run me over with his car, maybe. He doesn’t have the
aptitude for psychological warfare.”

Alex inadvertently brushed against the
dummy, and the legs swung eerily back and forth. “I think you’d
better take this threat seriously.”

“
And give Conner the
satisfaction of a walkover election? I’d rather die
first.”

There was no doubt about the sincerity in
her voice. Alex was about to say something else when Mor rushed
back. “Doc’s delivering a baby over in Viewmont. Do you want me to
call 911?”

Tracy said, “That’s all I need to sink my
chances, a ride in the ambulance because the ‘poor little woman’
couldn’t take a prank. I’m fine. Excuse me, guys, but I’d better
head over to Shantara’s and see what we can do about this
mess.”

“
You aren’t even going to
call the sheriff?” Alex asked.

“
What’s he going to do,
follow me around between now and the election? I don’t need a
bodyguard, Alex. I’ll be fine.”

That left Alex and Mor standing in the
wings, studying the dummy.

“
Should we at least cut it
down?” Mor asked.

“
I don’t know, maybe we
should call the sheriff before we do anything.”

From the aisle, they heard a familiar voice
say, “No need, I’m already here.”

Mor looked strained as the sheriff
approached. Armstrong said, “I heard about this outside. What
happened?”

“
Somebody’s idea of a bad
joke,” Alex said, respecting Tracy’s wish not to make a big deal of
it.

“
I don’t think it’s all
that funny,” the sheriff said as he tugged on one leg, which
promptly came off in his hand. He stared at a second, then dropped
it to the floor. It was obvious Mor was choking back laughter, and
Armstrong was too sharp to miss it.

“
You think this is funny,”
he said angrily.

“
The dummy or the leg?” Mor
asked.

Armstrong said, “If I were you, I wouldn’t
be joking around about anything. I’m not done with you,
Mister.”

“
You know where I am,” Mor
said. “See you later, Alex.”

As Armstrong watched Mor go, Alex found the
rope holding up the dummy tied off to the side. He said, “Sheriff,
should I lower it to the floor?”

“
Yeah, you’all are probably
right; it’s got to be some kind of prank. I swear, kids have way
too much time on their hands these days.”

Alex untied the rope and the dummy eased to
the floor. He nudged the hand-printed sign with his toe. Blast it
all, he couldn’t just let it go. If something happened to Tracy
because he hadn’t made a fuss about this, Alex would never forgive
himself.

He said, “Sheriff, maybe you should have one
of your deputies keep an eye on Tracy, at least until Election
Day.”

Armstrong shook his head. “I wish I could,
but I’m not running the Secret Service, Alex. I don’t have the
manpower or the budget to protect either candidate.”

“
This could be serious,”
Alex pressed.

“
Tell you what, I’ll have
some of the boys keep an eye on her house when they’re out on
patrol. Does that satisfy you?”

“
I know it’s the best you
can do with what you’ve got,” Alex said. “So what do we do about
this?”

Armstrong said, “Let the stage manager deal
with it. It’s most likely his dummy anyway.”

Alex retrieved the sign. “Shouldn’t we at
least have this checked for fingerprints?”

Armstrong said, “What’s this ‘we’ business?
There’s nothing here to investigate, and you’re not a cop,
Alex.”

The innkeeper tucked the sign under one arm
and said, “Then I’m taking it with me, if you don’t mind.”

“
Suit yourself,” Armstrong
said. “Come on, Alex, I’ll walk you out.”

Alex followed him out of the auditorium,
still wondering about the seriousness of the threat against Tracy.
Maybe he could convince her to come out to the inn and stay until
after the election. At least there he could keep an eye on her.

It was worth a shot.

Back at the inn, Alex found Elise alone in
the lobby of the Main Keeper’s Quarters. “Where’s Emma?” he
asked.

“
I thought she was
listening to the debate with you.”

“
She just left. She decided
she couldn’t stand it anymore and went over to Mor’s to try to
patch things up,” Elise admitted.

“
Emma needs to give him
some space,” Alex said. “He’s not ready to talk about this
yet.”

Elise said, “He might not be ready, but
Emma’s dying inside.” She pointed to the sign under his arm.
“What’s that?”

Alex held it up by its edges for her to
read. Elise said, “Where on earth did you find it?”

“
It was hanging around a
dummy’s neck backstage of the auditorium. The mannequin was dressed
up to look like Tracy. Conner swears he didn’t do it, but I’m not
sure I believe him.”

Elise sat back on the sofa. ““What did Tracy
do when she found it?”

“
She fainted. Good old
Conner was right there to catch her, too.”

Elise frowned. “That poor woman.”

“
You don’t know the half of
it. Max Logan got a picture of Tracy fainting dead away into
Conner’s arms with the dummy hanging in the background.”

Elise said, “That’s terrible, especially
after the debate went so well for her.”

Alex stoked the fire, then said, “Do you
really think she did all that well? I hate to admit it, but I
thought Conner did some real damage, and there was her hesitation
there at the start. It was kind of rough on her.”

Elise said, “What hesitation? We didn’t hear
anything on the radio. They lost the feed right after Grady
introduced them, but it came back just as Tracy started her opening
remarks. I still think she handled herself extremely well.”

So the radio station had lost her hesitation
altogether. Alex wondered how the visual of the debate could be so
different from the audio alone, then he remembered stories of the
Kennedy-Nixon debate on television. His folks had told him that the
people who heard it on the radio thought Nixon won, while the
television viewers gave the nod to Kennedy. Maybe her stilted
beginning hadn’t crushed Tracy’s candidacy after all.

Then he remembered the photograph, and the
mannequin. When word got out what had happened, it would most
likely ruin the last of her chances, and Alex didn’t relish the
idea of Conner Shook being the mayor of Elkton Falls for the next
two years.

Alex had just gone to bed when there was a
frantic knocking on his door. As an innkeeper, he was used to being
awakened at all hours of the night. Pulling on the robe by his bed,
he was startled to see Greg and Denise, the two rockhounds who had
checked out the day before.

Denise looked frantic, to the point of
tears.

Alex asked, “What’s wrong?” fearing the
worst.

She said, “My ring. It’s gone. Did you find
it? Is it here?”

Greg added, “It’s a three-and-a-half-carat
Russian Alexandrite stone set in Mexican gold. It’s worth a small
fortune.”

Denise said, “It’s more than that. It’s my
engagement ring.”

Alex said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t see it when
I was cleaning yesterday. I don’t know how to tell you this, but we
had some other folks stay in that room last night.”

“
Oh, no.” Denise looked
shattered.

Alex said, “Let’s go upstairs and check
anyway. We might have missed it.”

“
I can’t believe it’s
gone,” Denise said.

Greg tried to comfort his wife. “It’s
probably still up there, Honey. We’ll find it.”

Alex had his doubts, but he kept them to
himself. He grabbed his master key and they went upstairs. Thirty
minutes later they’d torn the room apart, but still no ring.

Alex was about to admit it was a lost cause
when he saw something glittering on an old iron filigree hanging on
the wall that served as a curtain stay. He walked over, and to his
amazement, it was indeed the missing ring.

Denise hugged him when he presented it to
her. “You’re a genius. Where was it?”

Alex showed the couple where it had been.
Denise said, “I remember now. I took it off to take a bath, then
Greg, you called me from the other room. I put it there so I
wouldn’t forget it, if you can believe that.”