Death Waxed Over (Book 3 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (21 page)

I sold several blocks of wax, some dyes and
scents and a pair of nice beginning candlemaking kits as the
evening progressed. It was ten minutes until closing time, and I
was happy to be back in my element surrounded by all those candles
and supplies.

Then the chime over the door announced
another visitor.

It wasn’t another customer, though. Markum
walked in and said abruptly, “Close up early, Harrison. There’s
something you need to see.”

“
What is it? You have no
idea how cranky Eve gets when I lock the doors before I’m supposed
to.”

Markum looked around. “Is she here?”

“
No, she left at
five.”

He shrugged. “So she’ll never know.”

“
Believe me, she’ll know. I
don’t know how, but I’d swear she has a spy around here to keep
tabs on me when she’s gone.”

“
Harrison, do you own this
place or does she?”

I smiled. “Technically, most of it belongs
to the bank. From the way I figure it, I own the bay window up
front and part of one aisle.”

“
This is important,” he
said.

“
Okay, I
believe you.” I flipped the sign from
open
to
closed
and deadbolted the door.
“Where are we going?” I asked. “Do I need my truck
keys?”

Instead of answering, he pointed to
Heather’s shop. I looked in and saw that the lights were still on,
and caught a quick glimpse of Heather as she moved around in the
back of her store sweeping the floor.

“
So? You brought me out here
to see Heather working?”

He shook his head, then tapped the door
gently to draw my attention to the print, but not loud enough to
alert Heather that we were outside. “Look at the hours,” Markum
said.

I studied the listing, then said, “Okay, so
she’s staying open past her regular business hours. I do that
myself now and then.”

Markum stepped up and opened the door.
“Let’s go in and see, shall we?”

When Heather saw us, she said, “Hey, what
are you two doing here this late? Do we have a community watch
program I didn’t know about?”

Markum ignored the jibe. “You’re not
supposed to be open tonight. In fact, you were here late last night
too.”

Heather stopped sweeping. “Are you keeping
tabs on me now, Markum?”

“
It’s just curious
behavior,” he said.

Heather started sweeping again at a faster
pace. “If you must know, business is down. I figure the more hours
I can keep the shop open, the better chance I have of making my
rent and start bringing in some profits.”

Markum said softly, “It’s a nice story.” In
a louder voice, he said, “Come on out, Pearly, I know you’re back
there.”

Heather said, “Have you lost your mind?”

As she said it, there was the sound of a box
falling in the backroom. Markum said, “And I suppose that’s just
your resident ghost.”

“
Esmeralda’s probably
chasing her shadow back there again.”

I spotted the cat curled up on a shelf near
me. As I reached down, she jumped up in my arms. “It’s a good trick
if she’s doing it. Heather, what’s going on here? Is Pearly hiding
in your shop?”

She said, “Now don’t you start,
Harrison.”

At that moment, Pearly Gray walked out of
the backroom and joined us. “Thanks for trying, Heather, but they
had to find out sooner or later.”

It was hard to tell who she was angrier
with, Markum and me for exposing her, or Pearly for revealing
himself. She huffed once, then put the broom down. “At least I can
stop sweeping as a pretense for being here. I’ve just about worn a
hole in the floor.”

“
When did you get back,
Pearly?” I asked.

Markum stepped up and added, “More
importantly, why are you hiding in here like you’re guilty of
something?”

Pearly snapped, “You’ve seen the paper. They
did a rather thorough character assassination, wouldn’t you say? I
was surprised there was no implication that I’d finally stopped
beating my wife.”

Heather said, “You’re not married anymore,
Pearly.”

“
It’s a figure of speech, my
dear.” He turned back to us and said, “I got wind of the article
before it was published, so I decided to come back to River’s Edge,
where I could keep my eye on what was happening without being under
the scrutiny of the police.”

“
There’s something you two
should know,” I said. “I would have kept your secret.”

“
So would I,” Markum
said.

“
Gentlemen, it was not my
intent to exclude either one of you. Heather happened to catch me
in my workroom the night I got back. I’m afraid I was rather
careless there. I forgot to lock the door behind me.”

“
I had to borrow a
screwdriver to fix my back door,” Heather said. “I knew in a
heartbeat that Pearly couldn’t stay in his shop; that’s the first
place Morton would look for him. I gave him a key to my place, and
I’ve been smuggling food to him since then.”

That explained the double orders Heather had
been making with Millie. I doubted it would have escaped the cafe
owner’s attention, but Millie was an expert at keeping her
suspicions to herself if the situation merited it.

“
So have you had any luck in
your investigation?” I asked Pearly.

“
Alas, no. If I could move
around without fear of imprisonment, perhaps I’d be able to uncover
something, but it’s difficult investigating when I’m under
suspicion myself.”

“
Tell me about it,” I
said.

Markum looked at me, and I shrugged. He took
it as my approval and said, “Harrison and I are looking into
Gretel’s murder ourselves.” I suddenly realized I hadn’t shared my
discovery of the tube of greasepaint with Markum yet.

A ray of hope shined behind Pearly’s eyes.
“Gentlemen. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that. Have you
had any success yet?”

I tried to sound reassuring as I said,
“We’ve got some leads we’re tracking down, but it’s taking longer
than I’d like.”

Pearly said, “I’ll hide as long as I have
to.”

The night outside was suddenly interrupted
by flashing red-and-blue lights. Pearly said in a voice full of
sadness, “They’ve found me.”

I snapped, “Go into the storeroom. Don’t
leave unless you hear me coughing. That means they’re getting
closer.”

“
Why not just flee out the
back?” Pearly asked.

“
They’ll be watching the
rear entrance,” Markum said. “Harrison’s right. Don’t take off
until you have to.”

He disappeared in back and was gone twenty
seconds before a uniformed police woman came in. At least we were
having some luck. Nobody would be as tenacious as the sheriff in
his search for Pearly.

Heather asked the cop, “Can I help you?”

“
I’m looking for your
handyman, Pearly Gray,” the woman said.

I glanced at her nameplate and saw her name
was Kelner. “Officer Kelner, I’ve already told your boss, I don’t
know where Pearly is.” Technically it was the truth. Sure, he was
somewhere lurking in the backroom, but I didn’t know his exact
location.

She looked around, then said, ‘There were
four of you in here when I drove up.”

I held Esme up. “There are four of us here
now.”

She shook her head. “That’s not what I mean,
and you know it.” She started for the backroom, and I was just
about to cough to warn Pearly when Kelner’s radio on her belt went
off. “Toni, where are you?”

“
I’m at the hippie shop at
River’s Edge,” she answered.

“
It’s called The New Age,”
Heather said stiffly, but it was lost on the cop.

“
Well, get over to Mulberry
and Main. Some lunatic just drove into Ridgway Flowers.”

“
I’m on my way,” she said,
forgetting all about her suspicions.

After I was certain she was gone, I called
out, “Pearly, you can come out now. She just left.”

Silence.

“
Come on, it’s all
right.”

The three of us walked into the backroom.
The first thing I saw was the exit door, standing wide open. It
looked like Pearly had decided to run after all.

Chapter 16

We waited around Heather’s shop for an hour,
hoping that Pearly would come back, but we finally realized it was
a lost cause.

Markum said, “I’ve got some calls to make,
but if he shows up again, call me, Heather.”

She said, “Do you honestly think he’s coming
back after that? He probably thinks we called the police
ourselves.”

“
Come on, you know he
doesn’t think that at all. Pearly knows he can trust us. Markum’s
right, though. There’s no sense in us hanging around
here.”

“
You two go on, then. I’m
staying.”

Markum said, “Suit yourself. Harrison, I’ll
be upstairs in my office for another twenty minutes, then I’m going
to my place. If you need me, call me there, okay?”

“
I’ll do it.
Thanks.”

After Markum was gone, I said, “Are you sure
it’s a good idea to just hang around here?”

“
I’ve got nowhere else I
need to be,” Heather said.

“
Think about it. If you’re
still here when that cop comes back, she’s going to want to look
around. Why don’t we get out of here, turn out the lights and give
Pearly a chance to come back without being seen?”

After a moment’s thought, Heather said,
“You’re right. I don’t know why I’m so worried about him. He’s old
enough to be my father. He can take care of himself.”

“
It’s okay,” I said, “You
worry because you’re a good friend.”

I walked Heather out as she locked up her
shop. Then she turned to me and said, “Would you like to grab some
dinner? We could go over to A Slice of Heaven.”

“
Thanks, but I’ve got to run
my reports, make out my deposit, restock shelves and get an order
ready for tomorrow. I’m going to be here for a while.”

“
Okay, but I’ll give you a
rain check,” she said.

“
And I’ll cash it once
things slow down around here,” I said.

I walked back to the candleshop, wishing I’d
brought a jacket with me. Even though I was wearing one of my
favorite flannel shirts, the wind was biting enough to make me wish
I had more on. There wouldn’t be any rooftop soirees tonight.

The total on my report was healthy enough to
make me believe that the worst of our slump was over. Steadily our
business had been picking up until we were nearly at the levels
we’d been at before Gretel had died. I had half-expected another
slow period when Pearly had been named as a suspect. After all, the
paper had gone out of its way to tie him to River’s Edge in their
story. Though some of my other tenants might have seen some
fluctuations because of it, it hadn’t affected me, at least not
yet.

I did my chores, locked the shop and
considered leaving the deposit for the next day. But if I did that,
I knew I’d have to tell Eve I’d skipped a day at the bank, and
frankly, it wasn’t worth it. Besides, though it was chilly out, it
was a beautiful night for the short drive into town. I was sleepier
than I’d realized, though, and the warm air from the heater was
lulling me into a rest I couldn’t afford to take yet. I shut the
blower off and rolled both windows down, letting the cold air wash
over me as I drove. There was no danger of me falling asleep after
that.

By the time I got back to my apartment, I
was ready for a quick sandwich and then bed. It was hard enough
standing up working all day at the candleshop, but running around
grilling people without letting them know why was even more of a
strain. I was ready for some sleep, and hopefully I’d be rested up
enough the next day to keep tracking down the person who had shot
Gretel Barnett.

A ghastly crying clown was chasing me in my
sleep when I jolted suddenly awake.

An explosion still echoed outside as I
jumped out of bed. It sounded as if a car had blown up in the
parking lot. I reached for the aluminum baseball bat I kept by the
door for emergencies, but it wasn’t there. Then I remembered I’d
loaned it to Suzanne for a church league game. Not wanting to go
outside without some kind of protection, I grabbed the hammer on
the end table by the door, and was glad I’d forgotten to return it
to its proper place. I raced out of my apartment and flipped on the
light to the stairs. Nothing happened. There was something wrong
with the switch or the fixture; Pearly had just replaced the bulb
two weeks ago. Barely pausing, I hit the first step, then I felt my
feet go out from under me as I missed the second one.

The claw on the other end of the hammer
saved me. Without thinking, I threw my hands out to stop my fall,
and luckily, the clawed end dug into the drywall, acting as an
anchor. Pearly would have a sizable hole to patch and I’d have a
sore tailbone for a while, but that beat tumbling down the long
flight of stairs. I crawled back up to the landing, managed to pull
myself to a standing position, then limped back to my apartment for
a flashlight. I found it, then studied the step where I’d
tripped.

A handful of children’s marbles were
scattered on the second step, as well as a few below it. It was no
wonder I’d fallen.

Carefully holding the rail, I brushed the
marbles aside and went outside to see what had happened. One of the
trashcans I kept on the walkway was in the middle of the parking
lot, far enough away from the automatic lights to keep from
tripping the switch. The can was smoking, and from the heavy smell
of gunpowder in the air, I knew someone had lit an M-80
firecracker. They were supposed to be illegal in North Carolina,
but there were places across the border in South Carolina they
could be had, for a price.