Murder at five finger light Read Online Free

whatever help we can get. I’ll expect to hear from you.”
    With a click in the receiver Laurie was gone.
    Jessie stood for a long moment staring at the receiver, then dropped it back into its cradle and headed out to help Billy in the dog yard, wondering briefly what Laurie had wanted to talk over with Alex. There had been something about her tone that raised mental flags of concern and now she wished she had questioned her about it.
    But her mind soon turned to making the trip herself. Would it work out? She hoped so. It was at least worth checking on flights and Alex’s reaction to this unexpected opportunity. When she and Billy finished the chores she would get online and see if she could find the connecting flights Laurie had mentioned.
    Slipping on a warm fleece vest over her long-sleeved shirt, she headed for the dog yard, glad to be back in fall clothing again, even if this year they wouldn’t be the insulating kind she wore in the deep of winter on the back of a sled behind a dog team.

CHAPTER THREE

     
     
     
     
    “I KNEW THE COAST GUARD WAS GOING TO TURN THE lighthouses over to private groups for renovation and received a flood of applications and proposals. So Laurie and Jim got lucky,” Alex said that evening, when Jessie told him about the invitation to visit Five Finger Lighthouse. “Doesn’t surprise me a bit that the two of them would take on something so dramatic, and a work party is a great idea—should be a lot of fun. I think you should go.”
    “She asked us both,” Jessie reminded him.
    He frowned and shook his head. “Sure would like to, but Del’s already scheduled that meeting for Monday and Tuesday next week and the guys are practically on their way from B.C. Since I’m our only representative this time, I’ve got to be there. But you don’t. So—go.”
    “But what about our visit with Del and Clair? You’ve already told them we’d both come.”
    “Do what Laurie suggested. Come to Dawson with me on Thursday, visit for a couple of days, then catch that Air North flight out of Dawson on Sunday afternoon. I can take care of business and start home from Dawson on Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. I’ll be back to pick you up when you fly in to Anchorage on the weekend.”
    “So I can have my cake and eat it too—so to speak.”
    “I guess you could look at it that way. Just keep in mind that I’m not baking cakes till your birthday and that’s a month away. Even then, my baking usually turns out more interesting than epicurean, if you recall.”
    “I seem to remember a lopsided tendency,” Jessie agreed with a grin. “Okay. I’ll check on the flights and call her back. But I wish you could come with me.”
    “Me too, but maybe we could go down together next spring. It sounds like restoring a lighthouse will be a long-term project. Take the camera this time and bring back lots of pictures?”
    Jessie agreed and headed off to check online for possible flights, forgetting to mention that Laurie had wanted to speak to Alex. She would remember later—too much later, unfortunately.
     
    The following Sunday, after two enjoyable days of visiting in Dawson, Jessie flew Air North to Whitehorse, as Laurie had suggested, then on to Juneau. After staying overnight with a friend, she was at the airport a little early to catch the afternoon Alaska Airlines flight to Petersburg, less than an hour away in the maze of islands that define the waterways of Southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage.
    Checking in and relinquishing her duffel bag, she headed for the departure gates upstairs, where she found a long slow parade of passengers inching their way toward security. Making a detour into the nearby gift shop, she took a few minutes to browse the magazines, hoping the line would shorten. As she thumbed through the latest Mushing magazine a harried woman with an awkward carry-on bag and two children in tow shouldered past her, headed for the cash register, holding a paperback in one