least twenty other cars—presumably belonging to the attendees of the botched mayor’s conference who’d returned at Chief Michaels’s insistence—surrounded them.
I noticed that the ruins of the crushed mermaid fountain were gone. I wondered what Kevin would choose to replace it. The mermaid fountain had been there since the Blue Whale first opened in the early 1900s. The museum had a picture on display of old Bunk Whitley standing in front by the fountain the day the inn opened.
Inside the inn, chaos reigned. I cringed at what Kevin must be going through and wasn’t sure I should ask him to drive me to Manteo after all. The unhappy, sometimes angry guests seemed to be complaining loudly from every corner of every room.
“Dae!” Barker Whiteside greeted me from the bar. “Come sit down! You look like I feel.”
I sat beside him on the bar stool. Marissa was getting drinks, finding pens and paper for guests to write on and doing whatever else was asked of her. She was clearly put out at having to do so much. “Can I get you something, Dae?” she asked.
“No, thanks. I came by to see if I could help you and Kevin get through this. I’m sorry it’s making so much extra work for you.”
She smiled though she still looked stressed. “I’m not complaining. At least I got to go home last night and check on my grandfather and the house. They were both fine. I think Grandpa slept through everything.”
“I’m glad. Just tell me what I can do to help.”
“Let me finish up here and we’ll take a look around. You’re a blessing, Dae.”
“What are you writing?” I asked Barker when Marissa turned to get Cokes for two other visitors. Everyone in the bar area seemed to be intently writing something on Blue Whale stationery.
“The police asked us to write down exactly where we were and what we were doing when Sandi was killed.” He put down his pen and took a sip of whatever he was drinking. “I can’t believe someone had the nerve to kill her while all of us were right here. What kind of cojones did that take?”
“I agree. And what can everyone say now but that they were stuffed in the lobby during the worst of the storm and didn’t really see anything?”
“Mayor?” Chief Michaels tapped me on the shoulder. “Could I have a word with you?”
We went down the hallway to the kitchen where Kevin was working with two assistants, making lunch for the group. He glanced at the chief in a questioning way and smiled at me. I made a mental note to approach the town council for money to cover this investigation. Despite what Gramps had said, there had to be a fair settlement for all this expense. It wasn’t Kevin’s fault that Sandi was killed here and the police chose to invite all the guests back again. I didn’t think he should feel responsible for what happened.
“What was going on in there just now?” Chief Michaels asked me when we reached a side corner of the large kitchen, away from the cooking area.
I thought back. “I was talking to Mayor Whiteside.”
“And what were you saying? If I hadn’t been walking by and heard you, every guest that was here would use the alibi you just gave Barker! You’re undermining the investigation. I know you want us to find who killed Mayor Foxx.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing.”
I could tell the chief was under a lot of stress. He always was when he had to work with Sheriff Tuck Riley. Sheriff Riley had taken Gramps’s place when he’d retired. While Gramps and Chief Michaels had a great working relationship, Sheriff Riley and Chief Michaels liked to play “who’s the biggest fish.”
“Mayor Dae O’Donnell!” Sheriff Riley joined us. He was a tall, stocky man with a full head of brown hair and brown eyes that narrowed when he looked at people, as though he was always trying to figure out what they were guilty of. “I was hoping to run into you while I was out this way. How are you? I hope your house made it through the storm in one piece. How’s old Horace getting along? Still taking people out on his fishing boat? You know, I don’t get enough time to fish nowadays. If I did, Horace would be the one I’d want to take me out.”
Sheriff Riley always made pleasant conversation, and his smile was friendly. It was his eyes that I didn’t trust. I’d heard too many bad things about him. He’d worked with Gramps but never as a high-ranking officer. Gramps hadn’t trusted him.
“It’s good to see you too, Sheriff,” I said, giving him my hand and my big mayor’s smile. “I’m sorry you had to come in on this.”
“I admit I was surprised to hear there was a murder out here in little Duck. Once I knew, I had to come out. Ronnie doesn’t have all the resources he needs to handle something like this by himself. We don’t want to call in the SBI for every little thing, do we? We can handle this locally just fine.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“What’s the powwow back here about? Trouble with the soup?” Sheriff Riley laughed and nodded at Kevin. “Smells good, whatever it is, Brickman. Can’t wait for lunch.”
“I was just discussing the program with the mayor,” Chief Michaels said, hitching up his pants. “I thought it would be good for her to know what’s going on.”
Sheriff Riley nodded. “Yep. That probably would be good—if she wasn’t as much of a suspect as the other mayors here. Not that I mean any disrespect by that, Dae.”
“No, of course not.”
“Maybe it would be best for her to write down where she was in the hotel at the time Mayor Foxx was killed. And what she was doing, of course.”
It was one thing for Chief Michaels to call me on the carpet for coaching suspects—it was another if I was going to be one of those suspects.
“You both realize that everyone was in the lobby at the time Sandi was killed, right?” I asked. “Everyone except Sandi and the killer. Obviously Sandi can’t tell us what happened, and I doubt the killer is going to say he or she wasn’t in the lobby with everyone else. Maybe you should ask everyone who they saw around them at the time. That might make more sense.”
Sheriff Riley laughed. “That’s a good idea. I wish I’d thought of that. Ronnie, let’s ask that when we interview each person. And since Dae brought it up, let’s ask her first. Who was around you in the lobby during the storm, Mayor?”
Chapter 25
I thought back to the storm raging around us. “Kevin was there and Nancy Boidyn, our town clerk. I saw Althea Hinson and Barbara. They were with me.”
“Maybe we could cut through the chatter and get to the heart of it,” Chief Michaels said abruptly. “Did you see Matthew Wright?”
“No. Not until later. But there were a lot of people here. I couldn’t see everyone.”
“Thank you, Mayor,” Chief Michaels said, scribbling my words into his notebook. “That’s really all we need to know.”
I was dismissed after the chief reminded me not to “help” the other suspects. I wondered if Matthew Wright had arrived yet. He was bound to realize that he was the prime suspect. I was pretty sure the rest of the questioning was just to say they’d done it.
I went over to where Kevin was laying out dough for yeast rolls. I knew he’d been listening to the whole thing. “What do you think?”
“I’d hate to be Matthew Wright.”
His hands moved quickly and efficiently through the motions of making rolls of dough the right size then covering them with melted butter. He put the trays of rolls into the oven to rise and closed the door.
“Could I talk to you for a minute?” I asked. “I know you’re busy—”
“Sure.” He gave directions to his assistants after he washed his hands. “Let’s go in the bridal suite. I don’t think anyone’s in there.”
He was right—it had to be the only empty place at the inn. He sat down in one of the old-fashioned white chairs and waited for me to start. I paced a few times, realizing that this was probably the first place Rafe had
