A Flicker of Doubt (Book 4 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (12 page)

I felt a cold chill sweep through me. “What
are you suggesting, that we punish the killer ourselves?’

“
It happens more often than
you might think,” he said.

I stood up. “I don’t like the way this
conversation is heading.”

“
It’s something we need to
consider, that’s all I’m saying.”

“
I don’t have to like it,
though, do I?” I walked out of his office, barely acknowledging his
good night on my way out. Did he mean what I thought he did? Was
Markum suggesting we punish the offender ourselves? It was too much
for me to take. I went back to my apartment, added Markum’s lease
to the others I had, then I double-dead-bolted my door.

For tonight, I wanted to be alone with my
thoughts. Esme herself wouldn’t have been welcome. As I cleaned out
my pockets, I found the article I’d cut out of the newspaper. I’d
forgotten to share it with Markum, but I was in no mood to even be
in the same room with him at the moment I put it on my dresser and
did my best to forget about what I’d just heard from my best
friend.

I’d just settled down with a Charlotte
MacLeod novel I’d never read when there was a knock on my door. I
wasn’t in the mood to see anyone, and I thought about pretending I
wasn’t there.

“
Harrison? Are you
there?”

It was the sheriff. He was one person I
couldn’t afford to ignore.

I opened the door. “Come on in.”

He stepped past me, his hat in hand, and
said, “Sorry it’s so late, but I need to talk to you about a few
things.”

“
Did you find anything out
about Becka?”

“
No, as far as I’m
concerned, there’s nothing to talk about there.” He spun his
sheriff’s hat in his hands, a sure sign he was unhappy about
something. “First, the woman you asked me about who drowned in
Larkspur Lake. They found her fishing boat this morning. Evidently
she tripped and fell off. The coroner says she hit her head as she
went overboard.”

“
Or maybe somebody hit her
over the head, then tossed her over the side.”

“
Harrison, stop looking for
conspiracies and cover- ups everywhere. It was an
accident”

“
Maybe. What else did you
want to talk to me about?”

“
We need to discuss the
situation with Cyrus.”

That got my attention. “What about him? Is
he all right?”

Morton said, “Slow down. He’s fine, as far
as I can tell. He wants you to leave him alone.” The words rushed
out, and I could tell how much the sheriff hated having to say
them.

“
Wait a second, let me get
this straight. You’re here to give me a message like that? You’ve
got to be kidding.”

His glare burned right through me. “Does it
look like I’m kidding? If you bother him anymore, he told me to
tell you that he’ll press charges for trespassing and stalking and
harassment and anything else I can come up with. Harrison, the
man’s old and he’s tired. Leave him alone.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Morton, we’ve been friends since I took over this place, at least
I thought we were. Runion started sniffing around Cyrus’s land and
I went to see him. The first time I was there he wouldn’t come out
and face me. When I came back the next time, he had some kind of
bodyguard at the door. I don’t get it”

“
He doesn’t want to see you,
or anyone else. Don’t take it personally, Harrison, the guy’s
allowed to be a little eccentric, as old and as rich as he
is.”

Morton started for the door, but I stepped
in his way. “Did you see him face-to-face? I just want to know that
he’s all right”

The sheriff looked annoyed. “No, he called
me on the phone. I’m doing this for you as much as I am for .him.
He’s serious, Harrison.”

It wasn’t good enough for me, though. “So he
picks up the telephone and you hop right over here. He’s got you
trained pretty well, doesn’t he?”

I saw Morton’s jaw tighten and realized I’d
pushed the sheriff too far with my last comment. He took a few
seconds, gathered his calm, then said, “You’ve had a rough couple
of days, so I’m going to let that slide.” He headed for the door
again, and this time I stepped out of his way. Morton was just
about to leave when he turned back to me and said, “Cyrus and my
daddy used to be fishing buddies. I’ve known that man my entire
life, and you should know that I’d crawl through glass for
him.”

“
Then you should be as
concerned as I am about him,” I said.

“
Leave him alone,
Harrison.”

Then the sheriff was gone.

I took Morton’s warning seriously, but I
wasn’t going to give up on my friend. Cyrus’s behavior couldn’t be
passed off as an old man’s eccentricity. He’d been scared about
something when I’d visited him, and if Morton wasn’t willing to
look into it, I was going to have to add it to my list

I was at Millie’s the next day for breakfast
collecting my orange slice muffins, when I saw Markum sitting alone
in one corner of the café. It was the earliest I’d ever seen him
awake, and I had to make up my mind in a heartbeat how I was going
to handle being around him after what we’d talked about the night
before.

I decided he was too good a friend to lose
over what had been said. I walked straight to his table and said,
“I didn’t think your alarm clock worked this early.” I added a
smile to take the edge off my words.

He looked relieved when I said it “If you
want to know the truth, I haven’t been to bed yet”

I tapped his cup. “Here’s a tip. If you’re
trying to beat insomnia, coffee’s not going to be much help.”

He laughed as he scooted out the chair
across from him. “Sit down.”

“
I’ll be right back,” I said.

Millie was at the counter with a pair of
orange slice muffins on a plate. I said, “Hey, I thought we agreed
on three.”

She smiled. “Good morning to you, too,
Harrison.”

“
Hi, Millie. So what
happened to my third muffin?”

She pulled the plate back. “Honestly, I’m
beginning to think you should just get one.”

I grabbed it before she could slide the
treats completely out of my reach. ‘Two sound great. Any chance I
can get some cold milk to go with these?”

“
I’ve got a glass chilling
in the freezer for you. It should be icy by now”

I took the milk and saw it had a crust of
white ice across its top. “Thanks, it’s perfect”

She said, “I don’t know how you can drink it
that cold. It would shatter my teeth if I tried it”

“
This is the only way to
drink milk,” I said. I took the glass and the plate of muffins to
Markum’s table. He shuddered when he saw what I had.

“
I haven’t had a glass of
milk since I was nine,” he said. “Millie’d better do something
about that refrigerator; it’s got to be broken.”

“
She had this in the freezer
for me,” I said, not explaining my preference.

He didn’t comment, which was something I
liked about Markum. The man knew when to let something go and when
to pursue it. We chatted as we ate, and just about the only thing
we didn’t discuss was Becka Lane. It was as if the last two days
hadn’t happened at all. The orange slice muffins were even better
than I’d remembered, and when I’d finished my second, I was looking
at Millie hoping she’d have a third waiting for me. No such luck. I
was turning into a real bakery glutton being around her, so I
decided to stop at two. The fact that Millie wouldn’t let me have a
third helped me hold to my resolve.

I cleaned up the table and said, “If you’ve
got some time, we can finish what we started last night.”

He looked surprised. “I thought you had a
candleshop to run.”

I glanced at the clock over Millie’s counter
and said, I’ve got an hour before I have to be there. Do you have
the time and the energy, or would you rather do it later?”

He stood. “Now’s as good a time as any.”

As we walked upstairs to his office, I said,
“When do you think we should confront Klein?”

“
Not yet I want to cover
everything else we’ve got before I tackle him. I did talk to Runion
about your other trouble with your friend Cyrus.”

As we walked into Markum’s office, I took my
seat across from his desk and asked, “Did you have any luck with
him?” I wasn’t going to mention the source of our tension the night
before, and if I knew Markum, he wasn’t about to bring it up
either.

“
The man’s as slippery as a
snake oil salesman and has the constitution of one to boot. I got
him to admit a few things before he clammed up, though.”

I didn’t doubt Markum would be able to find
a way around Runion’s reticence. “What did he say?”

“
He’s got big plans for the
piece of land next to yours, and from the way he swaggered around
his office, it’s close to a done deal. I was trying to break the
ice with him, posing as a possible investor. I figured to discuss
his schemes a little before I brought Becka’s name into the
conversation. If there’s one thing a rooster likes to do, it’s
strut.”

“
So what happened after you
brought Becka’s name up? Could he explain why she had his phone
number in her purse?”

Markum frowned. “He clammed up in a
heartbeat, and it was all he could do to keep from throwing me out
of his office. Harrison, I’ve been wondering if we’re wrong about
Klein being Becka’s secret boyfriend, despite what we first
thought.”

“
What do you
mean?”

Markum said, “We were both pretty convinced
that it was Klein’s voice on the tape, but I’m not so sure anymore.
I found myself wondering if Runion’s voice could have been a match
as well as Klein’s, and I’m sorry to say I couldn’t rule out either
one of them.”

“
You had your other source,
too.”

“
One that turned out to be
less reliable than I first thought.” He shook his head. “Don’t
forget, Becka did have Runion’s telephone number in her purse.
That’s got to mean something.”

“
She wouldn’t have to write
her boyfriend’s number down to remember it, would she?”

Markum frowned, stood, then stared at a
poster of Bali. “If the relationship was new enough, maybe she did.
I’m afraid we can’t rule him out”

“
So she was either sleeping
with a muckraking married newspaper publisher or a sleazy
developer. It doesn’t speak well of Becka’s taste in men, does
it?’

“
You can’t judge her,
Harrison, she’s beyond that. Remember, she broke up with whoever it
was she’d been seeing. The question is, why? If it was Klein, did
she dump him because he was married? If Runion was the man, maybe
she stumbled across something he was doing, something she couldn’t
live with.”

“
So, instead of getting
clearer, we’ve managed to muddy the water more.”

He frowned and ran his hands through his
unruly black hair. “I admit it’s more complicated than I first
thought. Don’t worry, though, we’re not finished yet.” He stifled a
yawn, then said, “Excuse me.”

“
Listen, why don’t you see
if you can catch a nap? I’ve got to open the candleshop in ten
minutes, and we can’t do anything at the moment”

He nodded. “I think I will. If you need me,
call. Don’t worry about waking me up.”

“
Do you want to use my couch
for your nap? I don’t mind.” I paused, then added, “I’d offer you
my bed, but I don’t have any clean sheets on hand.”

He slapped my shoulder with a meaty hand.
“Thanks for the offer, but I’m going to head home. Remember, call
me if anything occurs to you. I can’t help but think we’re missing
something.”

Markum locked his office behind us and. we
parted company outside.

I saw Heather leaving her shop, an odd thing
to be happening ten minutes before opening, but she met my greeting
with a sharp wave of her hand and scampered past me as she hurried
to The Crocked Pot I hoped Pearly had better luck than I had
resolving the conflict my tenants were putting us all through. I
didn’t want to face too many more days in the midst of Heather’s
and ‘ Sanora’s feud. If I didn’t desperately want them both at
River’s Edge, I was tempted to let them battle it out with v the
loser leaving the complex forever. After Heather was gone, I walked
to At Wick’s End and started to put my f key in the lock.

That’s when I realized that it was already
open. .

Someone had gotten to my candleshop before
me, but I knew Eve wasn’t scheduled to come in until noon.

That left a dozen possible reasons why At
Wick’s End was open, and none of them were good.

Chapter 10

“
Who’s there?” I called out
as I walked into At Ml Wick’s End. I probably should have called
Morton before going inside, but blast it all, that candleshop
belonged to me.

“
I’ve got a gun,” I said,
for some insanely irrational reason.

“
Then I certainly hope the
safety’s on,” a cultured voice called out from back. I felt my
heart settle back down as Pearly stepped out of the
shadows.

“
What are you doing here in
the dark?” I asked as I flipped on the main bank of lights. Nothing
happened.

“
You asked me to replace the
light switch in back, remember? I was forced to cut the breaker for
the entire store because whoever installed the fuse box left some
,’ sketchy notes that are impossible to decipher.”

“
That’s fine. Sony about the
threat”

He laughed. “You were quite convincing,
actually. I found myself fighting the urge to come out with my
hands up.” He tossed a switch in his hand and said, “I’ve replaced
the culprit, so as soon as I can reengage the fuse box, you’ll have
power again, and a working switch as well.”