Snuffed Out (Book 2 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (18 page)

She took a sip from the bottle of soda, then
said, “I used to believe that myself.”

I could tell she wanted to say more, but she
stood instead and said, “Thanks for lunch. I’d better be getting
back”

“
Back alone on the water, or
back to your shop?”

She smiled at me. “Let’s just say it might
be a little bit of both.”

She was back in the canoe and on her way
when she called out, “Thanks again for lunch.”

“
My pleasure,” I said as she
paddled away.

I hadn’t heard Sanora come up behind me, and
I nearly fell in when she spoke. “Hey there. Take it easy, I’m not
that scary, am I?”

“
No, I was just lost in a
thought.”

“
I do that all the time. I’d
ask you to join me for lunch, but it looks like you’ve already
eaten. How long have you two been dating?”

It took me a second to realize she was
talking about Erin. “We’re not dating.  We never have been, to
tell the truth.”

Sanora said, “Sorry, my mistake.  You
just looked cozy, sitting there sharing your meal.  You must
have been friends a long time.”

“
We just met this week,” I
said, surprised by the truth of it. Erin and I had skipped all of
that awkwardness in our first meeting. There had been a comfort
level from the start.

She said, “Wow, you make friends fast.”

“
It’s been known to happen.
So how’s business? It’s had to have slowed down since
yesterday.”

“
Yesterday was good,” she
admitted, “But I’m not doing too badly today either. Did you get
many customers down your way from all the excitement?”

“
Not so you’d notice,” I
admitted, a little too frankly. “Don’t worry about At Wick’s End.
We’re doing fine.”

“
That’s good to hear.
Listen, there’s something I wanted to ask you about.”

“
Fire away,” I said as I
drained the last of my drink.

“
I found this in my office
last night. It had rolled under the desk. Do you have any idea
where it came from?” She held up a shiny, polished piece of quartz,
and I plucked it out of her hand. I studied the facets a moment,
then turned it over and found that there was a hole drilled in one
end of it. It looked like something Heather would sell, most likely
for a bracelet or necklace.

“
I’m not sure,” I said,
offering it back to her.

She declined. “I’ve got no use for it. Maybe
you can figure out who it belongs to.”

I tucked it in my pocket as I saw Pearly
bustling toward At Wick’s End. I considered calling out to him, but
from the look of his walk and the intent purpose in his stride, he
probably wouldn’t hear me.

Sanora asked, “I don’t mean to rush you, but
have you decided if you’re going to extend my lease or not? If you
let it lapse, I’m going to have to take out an option on my old
space.”

“
Was it expensive to give it
up?” I asked.

She misunderstood. “I’m not poor-mouthing
you, Harrison, I do pretty well at my shop, no matter where it is,
but I like River’s Edge. It’s got a lot of heart.”

“
I think so myself,” I
said.

“
So have you? Decided, I
mean?”

I shook my head. “It’s too early to say yet,
I’m sorry. I have to give things around here a chance to settle
down before I decide.”

“
You’re talking about
Heather, aren’t you? Listen, I’m truly sorry about all that. I
didn’t mean to run her off.”

“
I’m not so sure you did,” I
said. “She has a new sign up in her window now that says she’ll be
back in a couple of weeks.”

“
But I thought...never mind.
That’s good, then.”

“
What were you going to
say?” I pressed.

“
Tick told me she was gone
for good. I guess she was wrong.”

“
For that we’ll have to wait
and see. Listen, I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got to get
back to the shop.”

“
They’re worse than
toddlers, aren’t they? I shouldn’t leave mine long
either.”

I walked my way and she walked hers. Sanora
was an enigma, no doubt about that.

Pearly Gray nearly ran me down coming out as
I started to open the door to At Wick’s End.

“
Were you looking for me?” I
asked as I stepped aside.

“
No, nothing like that,” he
mumbled. “I’ll speak with you later.”

Then he was gone.

Eve’s cheeks were bright crimson and there
was a glistening in her eyes.

Then it hit me. She’d been having problems
with her love life, and Pearly had mentioned that some of the women
he’d been dating were ganging up on him. I’d never dreamed Eve was
one of the women he’d been talking about. From the look of things,
that particular chapter in both of their lives was written and
closed.

“
You can take your lunch
now,” I said, trying to ignore the state of agitation she was
in.

“
I brought mine with me.
I’ll just eat it in back.” There was a new firm resolve in her
voice and the sullenness was gone. If having it out with Pearly was
what it took to make my life more tranquil, then I felt sorry for
my handyman, but he’d brought it all on himself.

I just wanted a little harmony at the
candleshop, and maybe I was about to get it.

That particular theory proved to be true.
Eve was back to her old self again, never all that cordial before,
but certainly never that snappy either.

It was as close to civility as she’d managed
in a long time, and I almost felt myself blushing from her
ambivalence.

I was in such a good mood that I sent Eve
home half an hour before we were set to close, and to my amazement,
she took me up on my offer.

A man came in three minutes before closing.
He was dressed in a three-piece suit and wore a faded rose in the
buttonhole, as if he’d attended a wedding a few days before and had
forgotten to remove the spent flower.

“
May I help you with
something?” I asked.

“
No, just
browsing.”

“
I’m closing soon,” I
said.

“
Fine. I won’t be
long.”

He took his time, stopping at every display,
picking up a few things, checking prices, then putting them down
again. I felt like giving him a countdown as every thirty seconds
passed, but I resisted the temptation, as hard as it was to ignore.
Last-second shoppers always drove me crazy, and I was working on my
patience, without sterling results.

The second-hand of the clock crawled as if
through Jell-O before it finally reached closing time. “Sorry, but
we’re closing.”

“
Don’t mind me,” he
said.

Now what could that mean? Was I going to
have to throw him out physically? No one had ever failed to take
the hint before, but this man was clearly not getting it.

I had a few things to take care of, and I
could do them in plain sight, so I decided to let him browse. At
seven minutes past, I’d done everything but close out the
register.

I joined him near the back of the store near
two huge, gaudy candles that Belle must have made. They were
frankly not my Great Aunt’s best work, and I’d been meaning to move
them back into storage where I might finally quit tripping over
them. I wasn’t sure where the mold had come from for them, but
Belle hadn’t left them alone at that. The candles had been gilded
and painted and decorated until I doubted there was a technique she
hadn’t tried on them.

“
Interesting,” the man said.
“Are they for sale individually, or are they a matched
set?”

I was ready to give them away just so I
wouldn’t have to

dust them anymore, but I’d been in business
long enough to hear the avarice in the man’s voice. “Oh, I couldn’t
think of letting one go without the other.”

“
How much would they be,
then?”

That was a question I wasn’t prepared to
answer. As I wondered how much I should ask, he said, “Oh, here’s
the price right here.”

Even with all the times I’d looked at the
ugly twins, I’d missed the price tag hidden among the finery of
flowing ribbons and dripping shells.

I gulped when I saw the price and was ready
to discount them on the spot when he said, “I’ll take them.”

“
That will be fine,” I
managed to say as I took his credit card.

As I rang the sale up, he stroked one and
said, “Rather hideous, aren’t they?” Realizing his words could
offend, he quickly amended, “To me, at any rate. Beauty in the eye
of the beholder and all that, eh?”

“
They aren’t my favorites of
what we sell,” I admitted. “But I’m curious, if you don’t like
them, why are you buying them?”

He studied me a second, then said, “My
ex-wife is getting remarried in three days, and she had the nerve
to invite me to the festivities.” He took a breath, then said, “In
fact, she asked me to give her away!”

“
And you agreed?” I asked,
honestly curious.

“
I am, sir, a gentleman
above all else. It was a request I couldn’t refuse, in good
conscience, but it’s been troubling me ever since. Give her away? I
never wanted her to leave in the first place. But she was intent on
going, and there was nothing I could do about it. I honestly
thought she’d come back to me. How wrong I was.”

“
I’m sorry, this must be
really painful for you.”

He waved a hand in the air. “I’m beyond numb
with it, sir.”

I had to ask, “So where do the candles come
in?”

He smiled gently. “My wife loves the simple
line and form. She eschews all ornamentation in her life, and sir,
if ever there was something full of unnatural augmentation, this
pair is gloriously it. What a wonderful wedding present these will
make.”

I helped him carry them out to his car, a
black Buick from another era with enough real metal in it to hold
magnets. We buckled the candles into the backseat and he left,
whistling as he drove away.

The cash register report looked quite a bit
healthier after his augmentation, and there was no doubt his
purchase had made him feel better.

I tucked the deposit under my arm and locked
At Wick’s End whistling a tune myself.

There was a light on at Tick’s antiques
shop, and I glanced in to see her slumped over a chair inverted on
one of her tables. I rushed inside to see if she was all right when
she said, “Who’s there? Harrison, what a pleasant surprise.”

“
Are you all right?” I asked
breathlessly.

“
What? Of course I
am.”

“
When I saw you slumped over
the chair, I thought...”

“
I’m trying to repair the
bloody thing and sometimes there’s no clamp in the world nearly as
good as a pair of human hands. Thank goodness it’s quick-setting
glue. I’ll be with you in a minute. Feel free to look
around.”

I hadn’t spent much time in the antique
shop, but that was true of several of the businesses at River’s
Edge. There was so much time taken by my own shop, I didn’t have
many opportunities to visit with my tenants. As I let my gaze
wander through the store, it amazed me Tick could find anything
here. Desks were crowded with lamps and trinkets, while chairs were
tucked in among bureaus and pie safes. I let my fingers trail
across the stained glass of a Tiffany lamp when Tick came up beside
me and told me how much it was.

I quickly pulled my hand away.  She
said, “It’s all right to touch it, Harrison.”

“
If I broke it, I’d have to
work six months to replace it,” I said.

She laughed. “Surely not. I’d give you a
merchant’s discount if that happened, but most likely I’d be able
to fix it myself.”

“
Is that standard, you
repairing your wares? Somehow it doesn’t seem all that
kosher.”

Tick shook her head. “Spoken like a man who
deals only with new stock. If I didn’t add the bit of glue and
screw to many of these pieces, they’d break before my customers got
them home. I’m faithful to the original builder whenever I can be,
and I’m happy to point out my repairs whenever I’m asked.”

“
I didn’t mean anything by
it,” I said. “It’s just so different from what I do.”

“
That’s why there are
markets for us both. Don’t let it trouble you. I have a rather
profitable side business repairing and restoring pieces I never
sold in the first place. It’s quite fun, actually, making something
whole again. I do everything from woodworking to stained glass
work, s I rewire old lamps and restore chandeliers. Now what I
could be more fascinating than that?”

“
Yes, I can see that it
might be. Well, as long as you’re all right, I’ve got to get to the
bank.”

“
I’m afraid I’ve got hours
to go yet before I’m ready to leave,” she said.

“
Lock your door behind me,”
I said. “We don’t want to take any chances, do we?”

She patted my cheek. “You’re sweet,
Harrison, but I’ll be fine here on my own.”

I left her to her restoration, and as I
glanced back in once I was outside, she was already back at work.
It made me feel somewhat better, realizing that I wasn’t the only
one wedded to my shop.

I drove to the bank and made my deposit,
then thought about grabbing something to eat. Lately I’d been
taking more and more of my meals alone, and I wondered if I was
becoming some kind of recluse. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy being
around people, but my time off alone was becoming precious to me.
Still, At Wick’s End was running smoothly, and I could afford a
little socializing. I couldn’t remember the last date I’d been
on.