A Spirited Gift

“We searched his room. At that time, I wasn’t even sure that what I’d seen in my vision was something that had happened recently. I didn’t want to say anything to Scott about it.”

“Matthew could’ve killed her and put her body in the shed. The storm might have done the rest of the work for him. It was dark when we were in the lobby. He could’ve moved her and no one would’ve known.”

We were still standing outside the inn, looking at the angry gray ocean as it tried to settle down after the storm. The generator hummed in the shed that was still standing. I thought about the strange voice I’d heard while I was trying to uncover Sandi’s body. I decided not to mention it. It was kind of crazy anyway and nothing to do with what had happened.

“It was so dark out here when I came out to turn on the generator,” Kevin said. “I never even noticed the garden shed was down.”

“I guess the ME should be able to tell what happened if they do an autopsy, right?” I asked him.

“Yes. Scott said her husband is on his way here. Do you want to tell him what you know about what happened?”

“But not about her affair with her assistant, right? Because I’m not telling Sandi’s husband that his dead wife was cheating on him—even though he probably knows already.”

“I only asked because you know them. And maybe that would motivate him to demand an autopsy. With everything that happened last night, it would be easy to overlook evidence. I’m sure the medical examiner’s office will have their hands full anyway.”

I really didn’t want to be the one to tell a grieving husband that his wife was dead, possibly murdered by her lover. I wished someone else could get that job. But Kevin was right. Gramps always said bad news was best gotten from friends instead of law enforcement.

Kevin and I went inside to take a look at the damage the storm had done to the inn. Scott’s police car was gone from the front, but Barker and David were still holding on to Matthew. The two mayors weren’t so drunk that they didn’t hurriedly hide the scotch bottles they’d emptied during the night when they saw Kevin.

“I’m surprised you’re still here,” I said to them. “Weren’t you worried about your homes and families?”

Both the older men shrugged. “Not so much,” David said. “My wife is in Florida with the grandkids this week.”

“And my wife is busy working on the divorce papers with her lawyer in Raleigh,” Barker explained with a sigh. “If the storm wrecked the house, maybe Loraine won’t want it. I hate living in hotel rooms.”

Matthew stood up. “I’m getting out of here. You have no right to hold me. I don’t know where Sandi is, but she’s not my responsibility either.”

“Kevin, this is Sandi’s assistant,” I explained. “Probably the last person to see her alive.”

“Alive?” Matthew stared at me. “What are you saying? You finally found her?”

“Yes,” Kevin answered. “EMS took her a few minutes ago. Her husband is on his way. He doesn’t know she’s dead yet. I think you should stay.”

“No way! He’s not the forgiving type. Sandi said so. And don’t try to make it sound like I had anything to do with killing Sandi.”

“Who said anyone killed her?” I asked him.

“I assumed you wouldn’t try to keep me here if you thought it was an accident.”

“We can all talk about that when Chief Michaels gets here,” I said. “Until then, I think you should stay here as a guest.”

“You can’t make me,” Matthew charged.

“Yes she can,” Nancy reminded him as she walked by. “I told you, in the absence of the police chief, the mayor can assume his authority. If she says you stay, you stay. Anyone want some iced tea?”

Matthew sat down again. He stared out of the window in the bar. He seemed to finally realize that this wasn’t something that would go away quickly.

I wondered, looking at him, if he was the kind of person who could’ve killed Sandi and tried to cover it up by putting her body in the shed. There was no way to know for sure, but he didn’t seem the type to me.

Of course my mind jumped ahead to other questions. Why didn’t he walk the extra few hundred yards to the edge of the ocean and dump her in? That was always an easy way to explain any mysterious deaths that happened this close to the water.

But there had to be other variables too—she looked awfully heavy for his meager frame to carry very far. Maybe he got as far as he could. Maybe he was scared to get that close to the ocean during the storm. I felt sure there was no way anyone could have known that shed would collapse over her.

I knew from years of listening to Gramps talk when he was sheriff that these things didn’t always make sense—until all the pieces fit together. It would probably be the same way with Sandi’s death. We wouldn’t know for sure what had happened—but we’d find out eventually.

“You think he’s okay there with the mayors?” Kevin asked me as we walked into the kitchen. “Otherwise, I can lock him up in the root cellar out back.”