A Flicker of Doubt (Book 4 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (18 page)

He was, and I suddenly found myself wishing
that I’d been able to delay conveying the news a while, say a year
or two.

Markum was deep in thought studying a
geological survey map when I walked in. He had it spread out over
his desk, and he looked up as I entered. “Harrison, you should see
this. I might have found something.”

As much as I could have used the
distraction, I knew I had to tell him the bad news before I lost my
nerve. “I’ve got something I have to tell you,” I said
solemnly.

The map was quickly forgotten. “What is it?
Has something happened?”

“
I messed up, and I’m sorry.
I don’t think I was wrong to do it, but I should have talked to you
first”

Markum leaned back in his chair and ran a
hand through the tangle of his thick black hair. “Is it something
we can fix?”

“
I’m afraid not,” I
said.

“
Well, don’t just sit there;
tell me what you’ve done.”

I took a deep breath, then admitted, “I just
talked to Grover. I confronted him, if you want to know the truth,
and he banned me from his place. You, top,” I added, not able to
meet his gaze.

There was too much silence for too long, so
I forced myself to look up. Markum had his fingers intertwined,”
and he was studying them carefully. After what seemed like a
lifetime, he said, “Maybe you’d better tell me about it.”

“
I didn’t go there looking
for trouble, I swear it Mrs. Jorgenson told me Grover was backing
Runion’s bid to take over the river bank.”

“
He’s broke,” Markum
snapped. “I doubt he’s got’ two dimes to rub together.”

“
That’s the stray he likes
to tell, isn’t it? Mrs. Jorgenson told me she’s one of the few
folks in Micah’ Ridge who knows the truth. Markum, he never gave
any of his money away. Grover’s been feeding that to folks right
along with his barbecue.”

“
So
naturally you felt the need to call him on it,”
Markum said.

“
Doesn’t anybody around here
care that they’re going to destroy the land around us with
condos?”

“
And ruin your view in the
process.”

I stood up. “Listen, I understand that
you’re mad, this isn’t just about me.”

“
Harrison, if they were
doing this in Hickory or Bethlehem on the Catawba, would you be so
upset?”

I paused, then said, “I’d like to think so.
Listen, I’m sorry this happened.”

“
So am I,” he
said.

“
So is that it? Did I just
kill our friendship?”

He studied me for a few moments, then said,
“Not over barbecue, no matter how good it is. I just wish you’d
talked to me first. Maybe we could have found a way to look into it
without this happening.”

“
I’m sorry,” I
repeated.

“
Don’t worry about it. So
what do we do now?”

“
I’m going to forget about
Runion until Cyrus’s sister Ruth gets here. Until then, I’m going
to dig into Becka’s death more.”

“
And sell a candle or two
along the way, too, right?”

“
I’m always up for
that.”

I left him at his desk, sorry that I’d cost
him something so dear. It was a casualty of my nosiness that I
shouldn’t have taken a chance with. Markum had suffered from my
mistake, and I was determined to make it up to him. Maybe I’d go on
his next salvage and recovery job after all; he’d asked me enough
in the time since we’d met. If I made it back in one piece, the
grand gesture would be worth it.

He was right about one thing.

Friendship was more important than good
barbecue, though there were folks in the South who would stone me
if I said it aloud.

Downstairs to the candleshop, I decided to
drop in on Heather and try to put Pearly’s advice to work. It was
hard to believe that I held the key to her staying. l just hoped I
didn’t botch the job.

She was in the middle of selling a vast
array of crystals and amethysts to an elderly man when I walked
into The New Age, so I nodded to her, then browsed among the trays
of polished stones. There was a great variety there, and I felt
myself drawn to pick up one sample stone of each, hold it in my
hand, then move on to the next selection.

I didn’t even notice the man was gone until
Heather coughed gently. I dropped the adventurine in my hand and
let it slip back to the pile.

“
They’re lovely, aren’t
they?” she said. “Most of these stones came from Hiddenite.”
Hiddenite was a place an hour’s drive from Micah’s Ridge, and they
had unbelievable deposits of precious and semiprecious stones
there.

“
I thought you just got your
quartz there,” I said

“
I do, but these are locally
mined, too. You’ve got the touch for stones, don’t you?”

“
What do you mean?” I
asked.

“
I saw the way you were
bonding with them,” said.

“
I was just looking,” I
insisted.

She smiled gently. “So which stone attracted
you most?”

“
I liked this one,” I
admitted, pointing to a cent parallelogram I’d picked up and
studied earlier, hadn’t been in a bin, but instead stood on a piece
black velvet “Was this quartz polished into its at all?”

“
No, it crystallizes
naturally that way.” She picked the stone up and added, “It’s
Calcite, actually, and’ one of the few pieces in my shop that
didn’t come the United States.” She gave it to me, and I felt
stone’s weight in my hand again.

“
So what does that say about
me?” I asked, trying to judge her sincerity. I didn’t put much
stock in rocks, crystals, pyramids or many of the other things
Heather sold in her shop.

If she caught my jibe she didn’t acknowledge
it. “You’re a man who loves order. You’d like things in the world
to be more defined than they are, but you also have a skewed sense
of value compared to most people, you’re not concerned with
acquiring great wealth, but you would like to acquire more friends
than you’ve got. Wouldn’t say you’re a risk-taker, but you are
willing to go out pretty far out on a limb when someone you care
about is involved.”

I put the stone back on the velvet. “How
much of that did you get from the stone, and how much from knowing
me?”

She smiled again. “Perhaps I fudged a
little, but I believe it’s true that our preferences reveal more
about our natures than most people realize.”

“
Heather, I really need you
to stay at River’s Edge; I’d miss you too much if you were
gone.”

“
Me, or Esmeralda?” Now she
was the one trying to lighten the mood, but I wasn’t going to let
her.

“
You,” I said earnestly. “I
really want you to stay here with us.”

“
Then don’t renew Sanora’s
lease,” she said.

“
I want you both here,” I
said.

“
But she-—”

I cut her off. “Don’t do this.”

She frowned, then a customer walked in
before I could push her for a commitment.

“
Excuse me,” she
said.

“
We’re not
finished.”

“
It can wait,” Heather said.
Her customer was wearing a simple designer dress that must have
cost her a fortune. From the way she was draped in stones, it
appeared that she had an affinity for diamonds.

I slipped out as Heather waited on her
customer. Instead of going back to the candleshop, I decided to
speak with Sanora first. Maybe I’d have better luck with her.
Unfortunately, she was taking the day off, or so the sign in the
window of The Pot Shot said. I wished I knew how she could afford
to be gone so much from her store. Whatever her secret was, I
doubted it was anything I could apply to At Wick’s End. I’d tried
several ways to bring in new customers, but I’d had tepid response
from my marketing plans. We were getting by, and that was going to
have to be good enough for. Once I figured out what had really
happened, maybe I could focus more on the business, but knew the
truth, the candles would have to wait.

I popped in to tell Eve I was going to be
gone long than I expected and was surprised to see half a dozen
customers in the shop.

She looked relieved, almost happy to see me
we made eye contact. In a loud voice, she said, proprietor just
walked in. I’m sure he’ll be glad to answer your questions.”

So much for my plans. I plastered the most
smile I could manage onto my face and said, “How may I help
you?”

A middle-aged woman with blonde streaks
through auburn hair said, “I’m not having any success at all with
my marbling. Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong?”

I’d studied the technique of putting
different powdered dyes onto a candle, then melting it all with a
hand torch, but I’d never tried it myself. “Tell me what’s
happening and I’ll see if I can help.”

“
Just when I start getting
some good color flow, the candles keep melting on me.”

“
Try hitting the candle with
brief bursts of heat instead of a steady blast”

“
But the dyes won’t
incorporate that way.”

“
Be patient and it will work
fine,” I said, hoping that the author of the candlemaking book I’d
read had done more research than I had.

I must have convinced her, because she
bought another selection of powdered dyes and a large pack of
candles I’d made myself. As I wrapped the candles individually in
white paper, I said, “If you have any more trouble, come back and
I’d be glad to help you.” I would make it a point to practice the
technique myself before she returned. After all, I enjoyed the
varied ways there were to make and embellish candles.

“
Thank you so much,” she
said.”

“
Who’s next?” I
asked.

A young man who couldn’t be more than
fifteen approached when no one else did and said, “I’m looking for
something, I don’t know, kind of cool and easy to do, too.” I led
him to the sheets of wax we sold for rolling candles, one of the
easiest ways there was to make candles. “These are fun,” I
said.

It’s for my girlfriend’s birthday” he
admitted.

“
What’s her favorite
color?”

“
She’s nuts about
purple.”

I showed him two different shades we
carried, and he asked, “Which one should I get?”

“
Why not both?” I suggested.
“That way she can we a taper with two shades in it.”

“
Is it tough to do?” he
asked, studying the back of one of the packages.

“
No, they’re pretty easy if
she follows the directions.”

He studied the price, then said, “I guess
I’ll just take one.”

I nodded, then said, “You know what? I
forgot to a sign up. We’re having a special, buy one pack and get
one free.” I didn’t have the heart to turn him down.

“
Really?” He brightened.
“That would be great.”

Unfortunately, one of the women shopping
overheard me. She called to two of her friends. “Did you hear that
girls? We’ve found our Christmas presents for our grandkids.”

Great I was never going to hear the end of
if from Eve. We’d make enough to cover our costs, but I’d managed
to lose a good chunk of profit. Maybe there was a way I could
salvage something.

“
Limit one per customer,” I
said loudly.

“
So we’ll each buy one,” the
woman said. “There’s lot of other stuff here.”

After everyone was gone, Eve said, “I wasn’t
aware that we were having a sale.”

“
I was just helping the poor
kid out,” I admitted.

Instead of the reproach I’d been expecting,
Eve smiled. “Harrison, there are more important things than the
bottom line. Who knows? You may have created a new candlemaker
today.”

I smiled. “There are worse things I could
do, aren’t there?”

“
The next time, though, you
might want to keep voice down when you’re offering unadvertised
sales.”

“
Yeah, that’s something I’ll
keep in mind.’

The rest of the day was fairly quiet, though
we managed to make several more sales. As dusk approached, the shop
was closed, the books balanced, and I was on my way to the bank so
I could get the deposit in.

As I drove through Micah’s Ridge, I saw a
man coming out of a building on King Street I didn’t need a second
look to know that it was one of the men Markum and I had seen
coming out of Becka’s apartment the day we broke in.

Chapter 15

I pulled the truck over into a parking spot
and waited for him to catch up with me on foot. It was one of the
few times in my life that I wished I had a cell phone. Who would I
call, though? Sheriff Morton probably wouldn’t believe me. I knew I
could trust Markum, and though we’d had some disagreements lately,
I still wanted him at my back. It would have felt good having
anybody in the cab of the truck with me at the moment, including my
feline friend Esmeralda.

I slumped down in the driver’s seat as the
man approached and found myself praying he wouldn’t look my way. He
didn’t pay the Ford the slightest attention as he walked past. The
man was intent on something, unaware of the world around him.

I waited until he was a block past me, then
I slipped out of my truck and started following him on foot. I’
locked the deposit up in the glove box, so at least wouldn’t be a
repeat of what had happened to me before. I couldn’t bear the
thought of losing another deposit because of my own carelessness.
There were several groups of strollers out walking the streets of
Micah’s Ridge, though all the stores but Hannalee’s Icy Treats were
closed. Hannalee made the ice creams she sold herself, using the
highest butterfat she could from a dairy herd just out of town. It
was good enough so that folks came from Hickory, Lenoir, Elkton
Falls, Harper’s Landing, Bethlehem and Boone for a taste of one of
her special blends.