A Flicker of Doubt (Book 4 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (25 page)

“
Stand over there,” he
commanded. “Don’t you have any lights up here?”

“
I never come up at night,”
I lied. I was hoping he’d missed the flashlight I kept
inside.

He did. At least that was something. Once
Runion joined me up there, he said, “So where are they? I hate
being up high.”

I started going for the storage box,
thinking I might be able to use the umbrella to knock the gun out
of his hand, but then I thought better of it. If I was going to
die, it wasn’t going to be defending myself with an umbrella.

Maybe I could use his fear of heights to my
advantage. I veered away from the storage bin and walked toward the
edge of the roof without slowing down. Thankfully there was a new
moon, giving barely enough light to see the sky with. The roof was
dark and I was having trouble seeing the edge, but I knew if we
stayed up there much longer, both of us would start to get our
night vision and my newly formed plan wouldn’t work.

“
Hey, that’s far enough,” he
said.

“
Why don’t you wait right
here and I’ll grab the papers, if you’re scared.”

Runion made a short bark of a laugh. “I’ m
not afraid of anything, candle man.”

I got as close to the edge as I could,
trying to see some discernable line where the building ended and
the air started. There, I caught a glimpse of it at the last
second. It was time to act. If I got shot, at least I would die
trying to save myself.

Runion was too close behind to stop as I
whirled, grabbed his gun arm and swung him around. Two shots went
off, and I felt one of them whisper past my cheek. I let him go,
more out of reaction than plan, and Runion’s foot missed the edge.
He fell thirty feet screaming, and the noise stopped only after he
hit the ground.

I didn’t know if he was alive or dead, and
at the moment, I didn’t care.

I hurried down the scuttle steps, thought
about freeing Jeanie, but decided to check on Runion first. Not
without reinforcements, though. I banged on Markum’s door, and to
my relief, he answered.

“
I’m on the phone,” he
snapped, until he saw my face. He said, “I’ll have to call you
back.” After he hung up, Markum said, “What happened? Were those
gunshots I heard? Are you bleeding?”

“
Come on. I need your help.
Bring your phone, too.”

I was in no mood to explain myself, and
Markum accepted it We hurried down the stairs, and I worried that
Runion would be gone, like a scene from a bad teen scream movie. He
was still there, though, the pistol he’d held on me lying ten feet
away from him. At first I thought he was dead. Then I heard him
moaning, and I knew the fall hadn’t killed him. I didn’t know
whether I was happy about that or not since he’d killed Becka and
had been prepared to kill Jeanie and me as well. Ultimately I knew
I’d be happy that I hadn’t killed him with that shove off the roof,
but for the moment the urge to pick up that pistol and use it was
nearly overwhelming. Markum waited, watching me, and as soon as the
moment passed, he said, “You made the right decision. Let the
courts chew this guy up.”

I nodded, amazed that I could have felt the
desire to kill him, even if it had passed as quickly as it had
come.

“
Do you want me to call the
cops first, or an ambulance?” Markum asked.

“
He’s not going anywhere.
Call nine-one-one and let them decide.”

I started back to the front of the building,
and Markum called out, “Where are you going? Morton’s going to want
to talk to you.”

“
He can wait,” I said.
“There’s somebody upstairs who needs me.”

“
He didn’t shoot somebody
else, did he?”

“
No, but he was going to.
I’ll be right back.”

I went upstairs and freed Jeanie. Pulling
the tape off her mouth had to hurt, but if she felt it; she didn’t
let on. “Where is he?” she said angrily.

“
He’s down on the ground. I
pushed him off the roof.”

“
I hope you killed him,”
Jeanie said.

“
Sorry to disappoint you,
but he’s still alive.”

She pushed past me, and I asked, “Where are
you going?’

“
To finish the job,” she
said.

I put a hand on her shoulder. “I understand
the impulse, but I already called the police.”

“
Maybe I can get to him
before they can.” I couldn’t believe sweet Jeanie was ready to
finish what I’d started with Runion. I was more afraid of her at
the moment than I had been of her boss.

I followed Jeanie downstairs. She stopped
abruptly at the door when she saw two police cruisers pull up with
their red lights flashing. She turned to me. “Don’t say anything
about what you’ve heard. If Runion manages to pull through, we’ll
claim he’s lying.”

“
I don’t fully understand
what’s going on here.”

“
There’s no time to explain
it all now,” she said. “Just go along with me on this and I’ll make
you rich.”

I grabbed her shoulder and spun her toward
me. “Make the time. What’s going on, Jeanie?”

“
I’ve got enough evidence
from Becka to hang Runion, but I don’t want to use it unless I have
to. Your old girlfriend trusted me, can you believe that? I wasn’t
sure if Becka told you anything, so I started hanging around here.
I knew Runion was getting ready to run. I finally found his account
numbers for the Bahamian bank, and I’ve been looking for a way to
get his money for years. Why do you think I stuck with him all that
time? It surely wasn’t because of his personality. Harrison, he’s
got two million dollars squirreled away somewhere. I’ve got
everything we need to claim it in my pocket It means that a half a
million is yours just for keeping your mouth shut”

“
Where’d the money come
from?” I asked.

“
Runion scammed most of it
from Cyrus and Grover. Come on, Harrison, they’re both so rich they
won’t even notice it’s gone. That’s a lot of money I’m offering you
to stay quiet about it”

“
I don’t think so,” I
said.

She studied me for a second, then said,
“You’re tougher than I thought you were. Okay, we’ll split it down
the middle, even if you are blackmailing me. I’m being more than
fair here, Harrison, considering I did all the work. I helped cheat
them both; even Runion admitted he couldn’t have done it without
me. Are you ready to go?”

“
I am now,” I
said.

We walked outside to where Runion had
fallen, and I saw the paramedics working on him. “How is he?” I
asked.

“
He’s got two broken legs
and a broken arm. He’s going to make it, but he’s going to be in a
world of hurt in the meantime.”

“
I can live with that,” I
said.

Morton said, “What happened here tonight,
Harrison?”

“
Runion thought I had
something that belonged to him, but I didn’t” I saw Jeanie watching
me closely. I added, “Markum, do you still have that torn picture
we got from Becka’s place?”

“
It’s up in my office. Why
did he want that?’

“
Becka found out Runion was
dumping barrels of chemicals on Cyrus’s land, and she was trying to
turn him in. He got wind of it, so he killed her.” I stared at
Morton. “He admitted it to me, sheriff.”

Morton shook his head as the ambulance sped
off. “Harrison, I’m sorry. What can I say? I dropped the ball on
this one. Is that all you have for me? I’ve got his weapon, and
Markum told me Runion took a couple of shots at you up on the roof.
If nothing else, we can get him for attempted murder and assault
for what he did to you and Cyrus. Harrison, you should get that
cheek looked at”

“
It barely scratched me,” I
said as I watched Jeanie’s expression. She looked absolutely
ecstatic that I hadn’t said anything about the money to the
sheriff.

Morton was just about to his cruiser when I
called out, “One more thing you should know.”

“
What’s that?”

I pointed at Jeanie. “He kidnapped her, too,
but she’s not entirely innocent here. If you search her, you’ll
find the number for a secret bank account worth two million
dollars, jammed with money that rightfully belongs to Grover and
Cyrus. She was getting ready to steal it for herself when Runion
caught her.”

“
You fool,” Jeanie said as
she launched herself at me. She never made it Markum grabbed her
shoulders and restrained her, then Morton took over from there.
“You could have been rich, you idiot,” she snarled.

“
It wouldn’t have been worth
it if I had to keep looking over my shoulder for you every second
of the rest of my life,” I said. “Thanks, but no
thanks.”

Morton shoved her in the back of the patrol
car. “What say you come downtown with me and we’ll talk about
this?”

“
I didn’t do anything,” she
screamed.

“
Not from a lack of trying,”
the sheriff said.

After they were gone, Markum said, “You’ve
had a busy night, haven’t you? It’s not every man who could turn
down a million dollars like that.”

“
You would have, though,
wouldn’t you?”

Markum thought about it a moment then said,
“Let’s just say I’m glad I wasn’t the one she offered it to.”

Chapter 21

Ruth Nash came by the candleshop the next
day. “I understand you had some excitement out here last
night.”

Too much for me,” I said, touching the
bandage on my cheek. I didn’t want to think about what might have
happened if that bullet had hit me a few inches over. As it was,
I’d endured a tetanus shot at the hospital, but it hadn’t required
stitches. “Have they told you what Runion was doing on your
brother’s land?”

“
I’ve been on the telephone
with the Environmental Protection Agency all morning. I finally
found someone with enough authority to look into it and they now
reluctantly admit they received Becka’s information and were
getting ready to act on it.”

“
Do you believe them?” I
asked her.

“
I do, since my favorite
congressman happens to be on the Ways and Means committee. They’ll
have a team here by nightfall, and clean-up should begin by
morning.”

“
Harrison, you’ll have your
park before you know it, I promise you that. It’s the least I can
do, given all you’ve done for us.”

Ruth startled me by offering a hug. I
stepped into her arms, held her for a full minute and then she
released me. She said, “If you’re ever in West Virginia, I hope you
visit us. It’s beautiful country up there, too, you know.”

“
If I can ever take a few
days off, I might just take you up on that.”

“
You’re always welcome in my
home, Harrison. Cyrus is waiting out in the limousine. He’d like a
moment of your time, if you can spare it.”

“
You know it,” I said, and I
followed her outside. Cyrus looked good sitting in the back of the
car, though he had a blanket wrapped around his waist. I gave him
my hand, and he did his best to give a firm shake in
return.

“
I don’t know what to say,”
Cyrus said.

“
Just say you’re coming back
someday,” I said. “That’s all I need.”

“
Thank you,” he said
simply.

“
You’re welcome,” I
replied.

We locked gazes, then he said, “Ruth, are
you quite ready? If we’re driving, let’s do it now.”

John shut Cyrus’s door and walked around the
car to open Ruth’s. She said, “He’s getting fussy, so that’s how I
know he’s finally on the mend.”

“
What did the doctors
say?”

She scowled. “The drugs he was given are out
of his system, but it’s going to take some time for him to recover
fully. By the way, the sheriff stopped by the house this morning.
They found the charlatan who drugged him. It sounds as though he’s
going to jail for a very long time. Sheriff Morton also asked me to
tell you that Runion and Jeanie are turning on each other.
Evidently she played a more active role in this than anyone
realized, so we have you to thank for her incarceration as well. I
was gratified to hear that you turned her bribe down, but Cyrus
said he would have been shocked if you’d done otherwise.” She
leaned forward, kissed my uninjured cheek gently, then got into the
car.

I waved good-bye, but instead of going back
to the candleshop, I decided it was high time I went back out onto
the water by myself. It felt good the second my kayak hit the
Gunpowder, and as I coasted by what would soon be a park, I saw a
team of men in white suits working to remove the last of the
barrels Runion had dumped there.

Becka would be pleased, I knew, but there
was one more thing I could do to honor her memory. Since she didn’t
have any living relatives, there was no one to give the thousand
dollars to that Markum and I had found in her apartment.

I decided to buy the nicest bench I could
find, place it along the path, and have a plaque installed that
would say:

“
There is not enough
darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small
candle.”

—
Robert Alden

I knew in my heart that Becka would have
appreciated that.

Dorothea Hurley’s Orange Slice Muffins

This is another recipe from my late
mother-in-law, a blessed woman who believed that no meal was
complete without a slice of pie or a baked treat, and that included
breakfast.