Ring for Murder (Lighthouse Inn Finale) Read Online Free Page A

brewer and a medley of exotic
teas. I hope you like it.”
    Alex tried not to laugh. Evans Graile wasn’t
devoted to much in the world, but he loved his teas, and he tried
to share that affection with the rest of the world whenever he
could.
    “It’s perfect,” Elise said as she smiled at
him.
    Emma led Evans away, but there was no
respite from the crowd. Next in line was Buck and his daughter,
Sally Anne, both from Buck’s Grill.
    Buck, a large man who had once been a boxer,
slapped Alex on the shoulder. “Knew you’d finally get around to
pulling the trigger,” Buck said.
    “Dad,” Sally Anne protested, “Everyone can
hear you.”
    “I’m not ashamed of what I said,” Buck said.
“Our present’s on the pile.”
    Sally Anne started to protest, but Elise
touched her hand lightly. “Thank you both so much for coming.”
    “We wouldn’t have missed it,” Sally Anne
said.
    There was a disturbance at the front door,
and Alex saw a shifty looking man having an argument with his
brother. He excused himself, and then walked over to them and said,
“Is there a problem?”
    “No problem at all,” Tony said a little too
quickly.
    “That’s a matter of interpretation,” the man
said.
    “Jackson, we’ll talk later.”
    “Sooner, I think,” the man said, but he
finally walked away.
    “What was that all about?” Alex asked.
    “Nothing you need to worry about,” Tony
answered.
    Alex was about to rejoin Elise when a woman
approached Tony and slapped him hard across the face. She said, “If
you think you’re getting away with this, you’re dead wrong.”
    Before Tony could reply, she stormed out the
door, slamming it just as a flash of lightning hit.
    “Try not to wreck this for me,” Alex said to
Tony as thunder rumbled.
    As he rejoined Elise, she asked, “What was
that all about?”
    “I’ll tell you later,” Alex replied as
Sheriff Armstrong, his sometime nemesis when it came to solving
crimes around Elkton Falls, approached. The sheriff was in a suit,
looking oddly out of place out of uniform. He nodded to Alex and
Elise, and then said, “Congrats, you two.”
    “Thanks, sheriff. Glad you could make
it.”
    He shrugged. “Everybody else in town is
here. Somebody has to keep the peace.” As he said it, he glanced
over at Alex’s brother.
    There was no way Alex was going to let
himself get dragged into that. There was only one way to respond to
that, and that was with humor. Alex grinned. “If a riot breaks out,
I’ll lend you a hand myself.”
    Armstrong shrugged without commenting, and
then walked away.
    Elise scolded Alex. “You shouldn’t have
teased him like that.”
    “If I get the chance, I’m never passing it
up,” Alex said with a big grin.
    Elise started to say something else, but
before she could, Doc Drake and his wife, and nurse, Madge,
approached. “What did you say to him, Alex?” his friend, the
doctor, asked.
    “I offered to volunteer my services for
crowd control if he needed me,” Alex explained.
    The doctor began to smile, and Madge said,
“You two are quite the pair, aren’t you?”
    Alex looked at the doctor, and they both
smiled. “We like to think so.”
    Madge laughed, but checked it slightly as
she looked at Elise. “Are you sure you know what you’re getting
yourself into?”
    “My eyes are wide open. Trust me, I have no
delusions about the man I’m marrying.”
    “Hey, I’m standing right here,” Alex
said.
    As he spoke, another flash of lightning was
quickly followed by a long rumble of thunder that filled the
air.
    Alex saw the concerned look on Elise’s face.
“Don’t worry. If it rains tomorrow, we can get married in the main
lobby.”
    “I know, but it’s not the lighthouse, is
it?”
    Madge smiled at them. “You two are the
perfect match. Alex, I don’t know how you managed to find someone
as crazy about that lighthouse as you are, but you’d better be good
to her.”
    “That’s a promise I’ll have no trouble
keeping,” Alex