Death Waxed Over (Book 3 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (13 page)

“
Enough about that,” Heather
said. “Let’s talk about something not related to murder. I’ve been
meaning to ask you, where’s Pearly off to? Don’t tell me he
actually broke down and took a vacation.”

“
He had to get away.
Pearly’s pretty torn up about what happened. Did you know he’d been
dating Gretel on the sly?”

Heather shook her head. “I thought that was
just a casual thing.”

“
Apparently it was more than
that. It gets worse. They broke it off the night before she
died.”

Heather said, “Poor Pearly. I can’t imagine
how bad he must be feeling.”

“
I know. I told him to take
some time off, but I was still surprised when he took me up on it.”
I noticed a familiar face as Erin Talbot walked in, and I waved to
her.

“
Do you mind if she joins
us,” I asked. I was eager to find out how her rafting trip had
gone.

“
Not at all,” Heather said,
a touch of frost in her voice.

“
That’s okay, we don’t have
to invite her.”

Heather said curtly, “Don’t be silly.
There’s plenty of room for her.”

I shrugged, beckoned her toward us, and Erin
walked over. Her face was sunburned from the trip, and her hair
looked a shade lighter than it had the last time I’d seen her.

“
Hi, guys,” Erin said as she
stood beside our table. She noticed Heather’s dress and added,
“Sorry, I don’t want to interrupt anything.”

“
Don’t worry, this isn’t a
date,” Heather said. “At least not for Harrison.”

“
Some joker stood her up,” I
explained.

Heather said, “Gee, thanks for spreading the
news, Harrison. I was afraid there might be somebody in Micah’s
Ridge who didn’t know about my disastrous love life.”

Erin said, “I won’t say a word, if that’s
what you’re worried about.”

Heather said, “Oh, I didn’t mean anything by
it. I’m just touchy, I guess.”

“
You have every reason to
be, if you ask me. Men can be so thoughtless sometimes.”

“
Believe me, you’re
preaching to the choir,” Heather said.

“
Hey, I’m still here,” I
said. “Remember?”

“
So you’re taking up for
this cretin?” Erin asked coolly.

“
Me? You’ve got to be
kidding. I’m one of the good guys, remember?”

Erin said, “That’s better.” She looked over
at the bar as two men left their stools. “It was nice seeing you
two. I need to go grab one of those spots.”

“
Nonsense, you can join us,”
Heather said.

“
Are you sure? I don’t mean
to butt in.”

“
I’m positive. Harrison, are
you going to scoot over and make room?”

“
I’m scooting,” I said as
Erin sat beside me.

April showed up with my beer, then did a
double take when she saw Erin sitting with us. “Now I know you’re
not him.”

‘
Thank goodness for that,”
Erin said. “And thank you for noticing.”

“
Not much gets past me,”
April said. “What can I get you?”

“
I’ll have one of those,”
she said, pointing to my beer, “and bring me a meatball sub when
their food gets here.”

“
I’m on it,” she
said.

“
So how was the rafting
trip?” I asked after April left.

“
It was amazing. We saw some
incredible wildlife, and the rapids were really wild after all the
rain they’ve been having. To be honest with you, we thought about
canceling the trip, but I’m glad we went ahead. One run usually
takes seven hours. We did it in less than four. You really should
go with us next time.” She turned to Heather and said, “You, too.
It’s great fun.”

Heather shivered. “No thanks. The closest I
ever want to get to a river again is having lunch on the steps in
front of River’s Edge. I nearly drowned when I turned my canoe over
last year, and the thought of going out on the water again
terrifies me.”

“
I didn’t know that,” I
said. “I love my kayak.”

She smiled. “I know. You really fly up and
down the river in front of the complex.” I looked over Heather’s
shoulder and saw Sheriff Morton come in. Heather and Erin followed
my gaze as he spotted us and headed our way.

“
Now what does he want?”
Heather asked.

“
We’ll know in a second,” I
said, hoping that the sheriff wasn’t bringing me any more bad
news.

Morton nodded his head toward my dining
companions, then said, “Harrison, I need a word with you.”

“
Whatever you have to say,
you can tell me in front of them,” I said.

“
Okay, have it your way.
When’s the last time you saw that handyman of yours?”

“
He’s on vacation,” I
said.

Morton frowned. “That’s too bad. I really
need to talk to him.”

“
What about?” I
asked.

“
I’m sure if you use your
imagination, you can guess,” Morton said.

“
Surely you don’t think he
had anything to do with Gretel’s murder, do you?”

The sheriff shrugged. “That’s what I need to
talk to him about. I thought you’d be happy I was looking at
someone else.”

Before I could say anything, Heather
interrupted. “You should be looking for the real killer.”

‘
That’s what I’m trying to
do.” It was obvious neither one of them was fond of the other. He
turned back to me and said, “So where did he go,
Harrison?”

“
All I know is that he’s
somewhere in the mountains.”

“
Do you happen to know when
he’s coming back? If he’s coming back?” Before Heather could say
anything, he held up a hand. “Save it, Heather. Have Pearly call me
when he gets in town, Harrison. If you hear from him, tell him to
get back here as soon as humanly possible, you got
that?”

I promised, and the sheriff left. After he
was gone, Erin asked plaintively, “Would someone please tell me
what’s going on?”

I brought her up to speed on recent events
with interjections from Heather.

After we’d finished, Erin said, “And the
sheriff’s actually been treating you like a suspect? Harrison,
that’s awful.”

“
It hasn’t been pretty, but
I’m no happier about him going after Pearly now.” I hadn’t shared
any of the inside information I had about the handyman, not wanting
to add any more speculation to the mix.

Our food arrived a short time later, but the
joy of it was lost on me.

Armstrong had indeed shifted his focus, just
as I’d been hoping.

Unfortunately, it appeared that it now lay
squarely on my handyman and good friend’s broad shoulders.

Chapter 10

Come down to my office, no
matter what time you get in
. The note on
my apartment door was from Markum, and I realized he’d be expecting
the name of Gretel’s lawyer. I didn’t want to tell him I’d been too
busy working at the candleshop, but I didn’t have any choice. I
didn’t even bother going inside my own place first. I just pulled
the note off and walked down the hallway.

His door was standing wide open, something
I’d seen only twice since I’d taken over River’s Edge.

I knocked on the frame, then stuck my head
inside. “What’s up?”

He looked up from a map he was studying and
said, “I kind of miss the old Soviet Union. At least then I knew
where everything was.”

“
Is that map for business or
pleasure?” I asked.

He said, “Believe me, I wouldn’t plan a
vacation to Eastern Europe. I’ve got a lead that might be too good
to pass up, though. Want to come with me? Eve can watch the
candleshop, and Pearly can take care of River’s Edge while we’re
gone.”

“
If he’s not in jail,” I
said.

“
What’s going on?” Markum
asked as he pushed the map away.

“
Morton came by A Slice of
Heaven tonight looking for Pearly. He found out our handyman was
dating Gretel, and that they ended it rather harshly the night
before she was murdered.”

Markum said, “He can’t do anything with
that, unless he knows that Pearly was in New Conover when it
happened.”

“
Yeah, well, I’m guessing he
found out. Morton acted like Pearly was fleeing the country when I
told him he’d gone to the mountains.”

Markum said, “Can you blame him? What ties
does Pearly have to the community? This place is the only family
he’s got around here.”

I hadn’t known that about Pearly. “Are you
saying you think that he might have run away? I don’t believe
it.”

Markum snorted once, then said, “Neither do
I. But I have to give Morton some slack. It doesn’t look good.”

While Markum was still frowning, I said, “I
didn’t have a chance to talk to Jubal today, so I’m still not sure
who Gretel’s attorney was.”

Markum smiled. “The man’s name is Cyrus
Blain. He’s got an office in Hickory, but he spends most of his
time around here.”

“
Now how did you find that
out?”

“
You’re not the only one
with resources in town. I went to see him this afternoon. It was
quite illuminating.”

“
He told you something about
the will?”

Markum put his feet up on his desk. “It
wasn’t exactly a free exchange of information, but I managed to
pick up a thing or two. The man runs a satellite operation here in
town. His office looks like two broom closets stuck together. He
doesn’t even have a secretary, and his files are in the waiting
area. The old buzzard kept me waiting twenty minutes, and by the
time he showed me into his office, I’d found what I was looking
for. Take a peek at these.”

He took his feet off the desk, retrieved a
folder from the bottom drawer and slid it across the desk to me.
Inside, there were half a dozen black-and-white photographs, each
showing a different page of a legal document.

“
You had the guts to stand
there and take pictures? Why didn’t you just ask him if you could
use the copier?”

Markum grinned. “I would have, but it’s in
the office he’s in, and I thought that might be pushing it.”

“
But taking pictures of the
will wasn’t?” I asked, marveling at the clarity of the
shots.

Markum smiled, then pulled a pen from his
pocket. “This comes in handy sometimes when I need to document what
I’m doing.” He handed me the pen and I saw that it hadn’t been
designed to write at all. Instead, it appeared to be a tiny camera.
Markum explained, “I got it off the Internet. I wasn’t sure it
would be worthwhile having, but I’ve been surprised. Never mind the
gadget; look at the papers.”

I studied the photographed documents for a
few minutes, then said, “It’s what Jubal told me. Gretel’s brother
Hans gets everything. There are a few minor bequests, but nothing
that amounts to much.”

‘
Think again. Did you see
that Pearly was mentioned?”

“
Yeah, that surprised me. It
took me a second to remember that Pearly’s given name is Parsons. I
wonder if he’s related to the people Parsons Landing is named
after?”

“
Let’s not worry about his
genealogy right now. What do you think about him being mentioned in
the will?”

“
You know, they hadn’t been
dating all that long. I can’t imagine her leaving him anything.
It’s not much, though. How much could a pair of antique ceremonial
masks be worth, anyway?”

“
Don’t kid yourself. I did a
little research while I was waiting for you to show up. Look at
this.” He hit a few keys on his laptop, then pivoted the screen
around so I could see it. There was a pair of dark wooden masks on
display, with a paragraph on their importance. “So? I still don’t
see a price.”

“
First look at who the masks
belong to.”

I scanned down and saw that Gretel Barnett
was the registered owner. “How’d you find this?”

“
I did a little research,
Harrison. This is an auction house I’ve used in the past. It’s a
place where provenance is not all that important, if you know what
I mean. Scan a little more.”

I scrolled down and saw the opening bid on
the masks. “Forty grand? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Markum attached a cable from his computer to
a printer tucked under his desk, made a copy, then handed the
listing to me. As I studied it, he said, “It appears Pearly and
Gretel were a lot closer than we figured. I can’t imagine her
making that kind of bequest on a whim.”

“
And with their breakup,
there’s no doubt Gretel was going to change this will pretty
quickly. It certainly looks bad for Pearly.”

I picked up the will again and asked, “Was
she nuts? She leaves something worth this much to Pearly, but then
there’s her cousin Jubal—a man she likes enough to have him help
run her shop—and he’s not even mentioned. I don’t get it.”

“
I imagine that might be why
Morton’s so eager to speak with Pearly. I wouldn’t mind having a
word or two with him myself.”

I tapped another page of the document and
asked, “Why am I surprised she had this much money and property? I
was under the impression she put everything she owned into her
candleshop.”

Markum said, “It’s not all that unusual for
folks with lots of money to hide its existence. If she’d been
determined to follow through on her threat of burying you, she
could have given candles away for the next forty years and never
felt the pinch.”