Snuffed Out (Book 2 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (17 page)

Markum grinned at me. “Aren’t you the
fishwife, swapping tales over the clothesline.”

“
Nothing like that. I just
listened,” I said.

“
Easy, my friend, I’m
impressed. So young Heather should be added to our list. Where is
she, by the way? I’ve noticed the ever-changing signs hanging in
her front window.”

“
That’s the thing. The night
I found Aaron’s body, Heather was outside. When she found out Aaron
was dead, she threw her cat into my arms and tore off in her
car.”

“
So you’re still
cat-sitting?”

“
No, she came by long enough
to retrieve Esmeralda, then she was gone again.”

“
So Heather had the
opportunity, she certainly had motive enough, and anyone with a
steak knife could have skinned that cord.”

“
You know, I’ve been
thinking about that,” I said. “I wonder if they did an
autopsy.”

“
What are you driving
at?”

“
Well, if someone actually
killed Aaron by dumping that water on the cord, they had to be
there when it happened. Not only that, but they had to insure that
the water hit the cord and puddled up around Aaron without being
near it themselves. It sounds like they left an awful lot to
chance.”

“
So you’re saying the
accident was staged after our friend Aaron was already
dead.”

I finished off my own beer, then said, “It’s
a possibility.”

“
I wonder,” Markum said as
he stroked his chin. “What are the odds we could get the sheriff to
demand an autopsy?”

“
Too late for that. The body
was cremated the second it was released.”

Markum asked, “And who made that particular
decision?”

“
Sanora did,” I admitted.
“Cragg told me Aaron never got around to changing his executor and
heir after their split.”

“
So all the more reason to
suspect her.”

I said, “There’s somebody else I haven’t
mentioned yet.”

Markum shook his head in amazement.
“Harrison, how have you managed to find the time to run your
candleshop, with all this sleuthing you’ve been doing on the
side?”

“
There’s a lot of downtime
in retail, so I’ve had plenty of time to think.”

“
I’m not criticizing, my
friend, that was sheer admiration in my voice. So who is our fourth
suspect?”

“
Four?” I asked. “I’ve only
counted Sanora and Heather so far.”

“
Surely you’re not
discounting Aaron’s latest love, the mysterious Ms. X? We’ve
already seen Aaron’s pattern with women and it wouldn’t surprise me
in the least that our potter friend cut another one loose. Perhaps
his latest, or should I say last, paramour didn’t take the news as
graciously as Aaron had hoped.”

“
I never thought about that,
but it’s as likely as what we’ve got so far.”

“
So don’t keep me in
suspense, Harrison. Let’s hear it all.”

“
Maybe it’s because I don’t
like him.  I hate to say anything unless I’m sure.”

Markum said, “Come on, this is among
friends. You’re not broadcasting it all over the world. What’s said
behind your door stays here, as far as I’m concerned.”

“
Okay. I know I can trust
you. It’s Gary Cragg.”

“
So
there
was
something to that. I always suspected as much.”

“
What are you talking
about?”

After a long hesitation, Markum said. “I’ve
often wondered if Belle seized on the missing money as a way of
getting rid of Sanora without kicking Aaron out as well. Cragg and
Sanora were getting a little too friendly, if you ask me, and I
caught her leaving his office late one night just before Belle
threw her out. If I saw something, as rarely as I was present on
the grounds, think what you’re aunt must have seen.”

“
So why didn’t she get rid
of Cragg, too?”

“
Perhaps she was waiting for
a reason to present itself before she died. So your theory is that
Cragg thought Sanora was still interested in her ex-husband, so he
decided to eliminate his competition.”

“
It could be, if Cragg
thought it was serious.” I recounted what I’d overheard at the
library between Cragg and the strange man, and Markum took it all
in.

“
So Cragg’s still interested
to the point of jealousy. I’ll have to think about this. It’s not
as simple as I once thought.”

“
Is anything ever that way?
So what am I supposed to do in the meantime while we’re considering
the facts?”

Markum said, “Keep listening and keep thinking. At
least we shouldn’t have to worry about the murderer striking
again.”

“
Why do you say that?”

“
What reason is left, now that Aaron is
gone?”

I shook my head. “We’d have to know the
motive before we can say that.”

Markum nodded. “You’re right, of course. It
might be something besides scorn that drove the killer.” He yawned
once, then said, “I’m not sure this latest project is worth what
it’s costing me in sleep. Let’s meet again tomorrow night and
discuss it more, if you’re game.”

“
I’ve got nothing planned,”
I admitted reluctantly.

“
You sound remorseful about
it. You haven’t really dated much since you came to River’s Edge,
have you?”

“
I’ve been busy,” I
said.

“
I know how much time this
place takes, but surely, for your own well-being, there’s time to
step out now and then. I know I find time for the fairer sex, and
my schedule’s worse than yours.”

I said, “There are a couple of prospects,
but I seem to be more interested in them than they are in me.”

He stood and put a meaty paw on my shoulder.
“Patience, my friend. Where there’s life, there’s hope.”

“
And then there’s the
hopeless,” I said, trying to make a joke out of it. I wasn’t all
that comfortable sharing my horrific dating record of late with
Markum.

“
And on that note, I’ll
leave you.”

“
See you tomorrow,
then.”

‘
Tomorrow it is,” Markum
said as I let him out.

I wrapped up what was left of the pizza and
put it in the refrigerator. It would do for lunch tomorrow or a
snack tomorrow night. I couldn’t afford to throw it away, not on my
budget. At Wick’s End hadn’t turned out to be a goldmine, or even a
tin one, for that matter. I was a little better off than I’d been
before inheriting the place, but not enough to change my standard
of living much.

Still, it was good to have a place to call
my own, a worthwhile business to occupy my time, and enough friends
around me to keep life interesting.

Sometimes though, I found myself wishing it
wasn’t quite so interesting.

At a few minutes past midnight, I still
hadn’t been able to fall asleep, though I’d been trying for the
last hour or so. Tired of tossing and turning, I decided I might as
well get up, since sleep was a long time from coming. Bundling up
in sweats and a heavy coat, I climbed the ladder to my rooftop
getaway. It was a calm night for a change, a whisper of crispness
in the air and no wind coming off the river below. I had a clear
view of the water from my aerie, and to the north I could see the
outline of the mountains against the sky. The stars were out in all
their brilliance and I pulled my chair from under its canopy and
stared up at the autumn sky. That lasted a few minutes, and then I
retrieved the blanket I kept under cover, wrapped myself in its
warmth, and enjoyed the view.

I’d had no intention of falling asleep, but
as the sun rose in the morning, I awoke to a new day. There was a
crick in my neck and a cramp in one of my calves, but I couldn’t
remember getting a better night’s sleep. Once summer came to
River’s Edge, I promised myself more nights up there in the
tranquility of the night.

But that would have to wait till the cool
temperatures had come and gone. It took me a few minutes to work
the stiffness out of my body, and I promised myself an air mattress
before I attempted another campout.

After a hot shower and a bowl of oatmeal, I
was ready to tackle the world again.

Locking my apartment door, a note fluttered
to the floor at my feet.

It was from Markum.

“
Harrison. Called away on
urgent business. Watch your back.”

So if anyone was going to solve Aaron
Gaston’s murder, it appeared that it was going to be up to me.

“
Good morning,” I said to
Eve as I locked the door to At Wick’s End behind me.

“
What’s so good about it?”
she asked plaintively, I knew right off the bat what kind of day I
was in for. Whatever had gone wrong lately in my employee’s life,
she wasn’t shy about bringing it to work with her.

“
Let’s see,” I said, trying
to be positive despite her disposition. “It’s a gorgeous day out,
we both have a place to work, and we have our health.”

She didn’t answer, unless her scowl could be
counted as one. I wasn’t going to let her bring me down, though.
“Listen, if you’d like to take a personal day, that’s fine by
me.”

I thought for a second she was going to take
me up on my offer, but finally she just shook her head. “No, I’ll
work.”

“
All right then, let’s
work.”

I assigned her the stock inventory, and even
let her place the order while I waited on our first customers. I’d
come a long way since my Great-Aunt Belle had left me At Wick’s
End, and I could handle just about every customer who came into the
shop, but I still needed Eve’s help with some of them, especially
in the areas of candlemaking I hadn’t mastered yet. As Mrs.
Jorgenson’s lessons proceeded along, so did my own. I wasn’t sure
what would happen once we’d explored all we could in the current
art of candlemaking, but I’d burn that taper when I came to it. We
had enough techniques to explore to last us dozens of additional
lessons.

By lunchtime, I’d managed to stay out of
Eve’s way, but it had been an extra strain for me.

I said, “I’m going to take the first lunch,
if you don’t mind.”

She said, “That’s fine with me. I’ve got
nowhere else I need to be.”

It was obvious the morning of work hadn’t
done anything to improve her attitude. What I needed was some fresh
air and some solitude.

I jogged up the steps to my apartment and
threw a sandwich together, then grabbed a soda to go with it. I was
tempted to have my little picnic up on the roof, but decided to go
down to the steps of River’s Edge and watch the Gunpowder flow past
me.

As I unwrapped my sandwich, I wished Heather
hadn’t fled River’s Edge, for so many reasons, not the least of
which were the nice lunch breaks we’d shared in the past.

Chapter 13

A voice from the river called out, “Do you
happen to have enough to share?”

It was Erin, in a sleek green canoe,
paddling toward the steps where I sat. The water lapped three steps
below, and I often wondered just how low the stairway
descended.

I said, “I’ve got plenty, if you don’t mind
bologna and cheese.”

“
Are you kidding? I was
raised on the stuff.”

I put my sandwich down and helped her steady
her canoe as she climbed out. “How are you going to keep it from
drifting off?”

She smiled. “You don’t know your own
property all that well, Harrison. There are rings mounted right in
the concrete of the steps.”

She tied her boat up and joined me. As I
handed her half my sandwich, I said, “We’ll have to share the
soda.”

“
I don’t mind if you don’t.
It’s quite a paddle up here from my place.”

“
Who’s watching your shop?”
I asked.

“
I’ve got a dozen signs, one
for just about every occasion.”

“
Aren’t you afraid you’ll
miss some business?”  I asked.  I felt guilty closing the
candleshop at night, let alone shutting it down in the middle of
the day.

She shook her head.  “A long time ago,
I had to decide who was going to run my life, my shop, or me. 
I might not make as much money as I would if I were more dedicated,
but there’s no doubt in my mind I wouldn’t sleep as well,
either.”

“
Sounds like you’ve got a
handle on it. So what brings you to River’s Edge?  Did you
come by for another kit?”

She shook her head. “No. I believe I’ll
leave the candlemaking to the experts.”

“
So why are you here? Not
that I’m not happy for the company.”

She looked at the water as she spoke, taking
her time before she answered. “I didn’t plan to come this far, but
sometimes, when I’m out on the water, I get lost in my own little
world. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?”

“
No, I understand it. That’s
one of the joys of it, as far as I can tell.”

She took a bite of her sandwich, then said,
“You’re a loner at heart, aren’t you?”

“
I like people well enough,”
I protested.

“
Hey, I’m not accusing you
of anything evil, I’m just asking a question. It’s okay, I’d rather
be out on the water alone than just about anywhere else in the
world.”

I finished my sandwich before she did, but
then I’d spent less time talking than she had. “I’m happy enough by
myself, but if there’s someone I’m comfortable with, that’s nice,
too.”