Snuffed Out (Book 2 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (6 page)

“
Sorry, Manfred, I don’t
have time to talk.” Anyone else would have gotten the hint from the
tone in my voice, but Manfred ignored it, as he no doubt had his
customers’ protestations in the past.

“
Fine, fine. I’ll buy you a
cup of Millie’s excellent coffee and we can visit for a while. Have
I ever told you about the time I was nominated for salesman of the
year for my company?”

“
I’m sure you have,” I said
as I brushed past him and opened the truck door. “‘Bye,” I said as
I sped away. I’d half-expected Manfred to throw himself in my path
to keep me from driving off, but as I turned the comer, I saw that
the man was still talking!  Remarkable.  I wondered how
long it would take him to notice that his audience had
vanished.

I was learning about all kinds of odd birds
that shop owners had to deal with on a daily basis. Manfred, for
all his long-winded stories and lack of purchases, wasn’t as bad as
the shoplifters. It’s not like I sold necessities in At Wick’s End.
What drove some people to steal the wicks and wax I’d caught them
with? Eve, having logged much more practice, was a whiz at spotting
our light-fingered visitors. The week before she’d collared a
sweet, little old man who admitted to pockets stuffed with
merchandise.

I drove the thoughts of thieves and windbags
from my mind and promised myself I’d have some fun.

Only I wasn’t exactly sure what that
entailed anymore.

Almost by accident, I found myself at the
Micah’s Ridge pavilion down by the riverfront. There were jewelers
and T-shirt shops, small little restaurants tucked into nooks and
crannies, and there was a place for open-air concerts that occurred
Friday nights throughout the summer. We had two fairs a year, one
in summer and the other in autumn, and Eve and I had been
discussing a booth rental to test the waters. I parked the truck
and walked around the mostly empty grounds until I came to the
water’s edge. There was a shop there that rented canoes and kayaks
that I hadn’t seen before. I found a woman in her late twenties out
front working on an old wooden canoe.

“
Getting your rentals in
shape?” I asked as I watched her sand through layers of
paint.

She looked up and laughed as she brushed an
errant strand of black hair out of her face. “I wouldn’t dream of
putting this out for rental. This one’s going to be all mine.”

“
So you work at this shop
and restore boats, too?”

She smiled. “What can I say? I’m a woman of
limited interests.” She stuck out a hand and said, “I’m Erin
Talbot.”

“
It’s nice to meet you,
Erin. My name’s Harrison Black.”

She nodded, then ran her fingertips across
the patch she’d been sanding. As she worked, Erin asked, “Have you
ever been out on the water?”

“
I canoed at summer camp,
but that was a long time ago. Do you get many folks who want to
paddle the Gunpowder?” The river was a little too wide and fast for
my tastes.

“
It’s protected here, though
how they ever had the nerve to call this Gunpowder Lake I’ll never
know. I do most of my own serious paddling in the
mountains.”

“
What rivers have you been
on?”

“
Let’s see, I like the
Nolichucky, the French Broad, and the Nantahala the best. They’re
all drivable from here, so I can shut the place down and do it as a
day trip.” She gestured to her rentals and asked, “Why don’t you
take one out?”

“
A canoe? I don’t think so.
Unless you’d care to join me. You can even steer.”

She laughed. “As tempting an offer as that
is, I’ve got to stay with the shop. If you don’t want to canoe by
yourself, why don’t you try a kayak? I’ve got some that are lots of
fun.”

I raised an eyebrow as I said, “Fun is in
the eye of the beholder.”

“
Come on, Harrison, give it
a try.”

“
Why not?” I found myself
taking a quick lesson on dry land, and before I knew what was
happening, I was in an open kayak on the water.

“
Use the paddle like a
windmill,” Erin called out to me, and I was amazed to find myself
slicing through the water with a great deal more ease than with the
remembered canoe. “Hey, this is fun.”

“
I told you so,” she laughed
as I sped away.

I was tempted to go all the way up to
River’s Edge, but I was afraid my muscles would be too sore if I
pushed it that hard on my first time out, so I drove myself
upstream, then drifted lazily back to Erin’s shop. What a sense of
freedom being out on the water gave me. I could look down and see
fish darting below me one second, then see a wedge of sandbar the
next. Where I’d fought with a canoe paddle as a kid, drowning my
companion as I switched sides, I took to the kayak instantly. What
great fun to glide across the water.

Erin was waiting for me when I slid silently
up to her dock. The effect was spoiled somewhat when I failed to
stop in time and scraped the side of the kayak on the pier.

“
Sorry about that,” I said
sheepishly as I climbed out.

“
These things are designed
to take a beating,” she said. “Have fun?”

“
That was excellent,” I
said. “I will absolutely be back!”

Erin nodded as she settled up my account.
“I’ll be here. Unless it’s a day I head to the mountains.”

I walked out of the rental shop, surprised
by the stiffness in my shoulders and the tightness on my face. Next
time I’d have to use sunscreen before I went out on the water. The
only thing I knew for sure was that there would definitely be a
next time. Erin intrigued me, and I had to admit that it would be
more than the kayak rental that would bring me back to her shop.
She was a woman I wanted to get to know better.

It was still too early to head back to
River’s Edge, so I decided to stop in at A Slice of Heaven, a pizza
place Heather had introduced me to, and grab a bite to eat.

I started for a spot near the jukebox, then
saw Heather sitting in the corner by herself. I approached and
asked softy, “Care for some company?”

She looked up, startled by the sound of my
voice. “Oh. Hi, Harrison.”

“
Listen, I didn’t mean to
interrupt, but I’ll be over there if you want somebody to talk
to.”

I started for the place I’d intended to sit
all along when she called out, “That’s okay, you can stay.”

It wasn’t the warmest invitation I’d ever
gotten in my life, but I sat with her anyway.

I glanced at the menu and said, “What did
you order? I’m not sure what I feel like today.”

“
I don’t have much of an
appetite,” she admitted as she twisted her glass on the
table.

“
Well, I feel like pizza,
and I can’t eat one by myself. You don’t have to have any, you can
take a piece and sneer at it if you want.” She wasn’t interested in
my banter or my smile, but I wasn’t going to give up that easily. I
saw the owner, April May, wearing an apron that said, “Pizza, the
world’s most perfect food.” Her flaming red hair was pulled back
into a braid, and though business was starting to pick up, she
trotted right over to our table.

“
Hey, Harrison,” she offered
as she watched Heather carefully. It was clear she was worried
about her friend.

“
April, may we have a
pizza?”

“
Gee, I haven’t heard that
one before,” she said with a slight groan. “What can I get for
you?”

“
We’ll take a garb—a Heaven
Scent pizza, please. Better make it a medium, Heather said she
isn’t hungry.”

April said, “You know what? I feel like
making a large. Hope you don’t mind. What you don’t eat you can
take home for breakfast. Refill, Heather?”

She glanced up at the restaurateur, then
back at her soda. “Sure, why not?”

“
How about you? What are you
drinking?” April asked me.

“
I’ll have what she’s
having.”

“
Two Dr Peppers and a large
Heaven Scent. Back in a shake.”

“
You can stop it now,”
Heather said as soon as April was out of sight.

“
Stop what?”

‘
Trying to cheer me up. I’m
in no mood for it.”

I said, “Listen, I’m sorry about what
happened to Aaron.” The last thing Heather wanted to hear were my
suspicions about Aaron’s demise.

“
It wasn’t an accident,”
Heather said, her gaze on her glass and not on me.

I remembered what Markum had told me and
wondered what had brought Heather to the same conclusion. “Why do
you say that?”

“
Aaron never threw his work
on an electric wheel,” she said. “Somebody should tell the
sheriff.”

“
He already knows,” I said,
“And he doesn’t believe it was foul play for a second. According to
Morton, Aaron was experimenting. That’s why he never noticed the
frayed cord, he wasn’t used to working on that wheel.”

“
That is complete and utter
nonsense,” Heather said. “You didn’t know Aaron all that well, but
I can tell you, he was a fanatic when it came to keeping the
equipment in his shop in good working order. I’d like to see that
cord myself. How badly was it frayed?”

I admitted, “It was pretty bad. But who
would want to kill him?”

“
Do you mean besides me?”
she asked sullenly.

“
Come on, you can’t believe
anyone would think you were a suspect.”

Heather started to say something, then
stopped when April came up with our drinks. She noticed the
truncated conversation, and for a change April dropped off the
sodas and scampered away without comment.

“
You were getting ready to
say something,” I nudged her.

“
It’s not important. Listen,
thanks for trying, but I can’t do this.”

Before I could stop her, Heather was
gone.

I thought about going after her, but when
she was finally ready to talk, Heather knew where to find me.

A few minutes later April slid the large
pizza in front of me. She said, “Please tell me Heather went to the
little girls’ room.”

“
She walked out on me,” I
said.

“
And you didn’t stop her?”
The cutting tone of her voice raked into me.

“
It wasn’t up to me. I did
what I could.”

April studied me a second, then said, “I
know it’s not your fault. That girl’s taking this hard.”

“
She knows we’ll both listen
when she’s ready to talk,” I said. “There’s not much else we can
do.”

“
That’s the truth. Well,
enjoy.”

I looked at the pizza, wondering how in the
world I was going to make even a dent in it when Erin walked
up.

She smiled broadly. “Harrison, are you
stalking me?”

“
I was just going to ask you
the same thing. I was here first, remember? Care to join
me?”

“
I don’t want to intrude.
I’ll just sit with you until your guest comes back.”

I said, “Then you’re in for a wait. She just
walked out on me.”

Erin asked, “What in the world did you say
to her?”

“
I offered to listen,” I
said as I took a piece of pizza. “Help yourself.”

She took what should have been Heather’s
plate and served herself a slice. “Thanks, I’m starving.”

April came over with another soda and
grabbed Heather’s glass. “I see you’ve made a new friend,” she said
to me.

We both nodded, then I said, “I started
kayaking today. April, this is Erin Talbot.”

April looked at Erin and said, “You let him
get started on the Gunpowder? You should have had him try the
French Broad first. Now that’s a kayak ride.”

“
So you two know each
other,” I said as I took another bite.

“
We’re in Micah’s Ridge,
Harrison, not Charlotte. It’s tough not knowing everyone around
town.”

To my surprise, Erin and I managed to polish
off the pizza without any help. When April slipped the bill beside
my plate, Erin said, “Let’s split that.”

“
Are you kidding? This is
the first date I’ve been on in six months. Don’t spoil it for
me.”

Erin smiled, took a ten-dollar bill from her
purse and slid it across the table. “Sorry to burst your bubble,
but this wasn’t one either.”

“
So where would you like to
go on our first official date then?”

Erin laughed. “Thanks for asking and all,
but no thanks.”

“
Well, you can’t blame a guy
for trying,” I said.

She got up, then said, “I’ll see you later,
Harrison.”

“
My next day off,” I
promised.

“
So you are stalking me,”
she said.

“
No, but I’ve got a thing
for your kayak.”

“
Let’s make sure it just
stays at that.”

I said, “I can take the hint, Erin. You’ve
already turned me down. If you change your mind and decide you want
to go out with me, you’re going to have to do the asking
yourself.”

“
Don’t sit waiting by the
phone,” she said.

“
What is life without hope?”
I said, adding a gentle grin.

“
Good-bye, Harrison.” She
smiled for just a second before she turned to go.

“‘
Bye, Erin.”

I wasn’t sure who had been more surprised by
my date invitation, Erin or me. There was something about her, some
spark that I liked, that had made me ask, though I hadn’t been
actively dating since my last breakup. Heather and I had started
off with the potential for more, but we were sliding into
friendship instead. At least we had been before Aaron Gaston’s
death. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure where we were headed in the long
run, since it had been my pattern to date women who had started off
as strictly friends.