At Wick's End (Book 1 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (17 page)

Eve looked quizzically at me, but I just
shrugged. “Let’s go.”

Once we were outside, Mrs. Jorgenson said,
“I debated telling you this, but there’s something I feel you need
to know. I received a rather quizzical call about you this
afternoon.”

“
What? About
me?”

“
Whoever was on the other
end of the line refused to identify themselves, and the voice was a
whisper. I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a
woman.”

“
And you say my name was
mentioned?” What was going on here?

“
Oh yes. Apparently someone
has a grudge against you. They implied that it would be unhealthy
for me to continue with our private lessons.”

“
I don’t know what to say.”
I was nearly speechless by the revelation.

She looked sternly at me, then said, “My
dear man, you have no need to worry that an idle threat will keep
me away from your candle shop. I don’t respond to pressure, I never
have. I told them so quite emphatically.” She grinned slightly at
the thought, then added, “I did think you should know though.”

“
Thanks, I appreciate
that.”

As I watched her drive away, I tried to
figure out who in the world would try to submarine me like that.
Was there a competitor out there who begrudged my chance at Mrs.
Jorgenson? Or was it something more ominous? There couldn’t be
anything random about the call, since my name was mentioned
specifically. I considered discussing it with Eve, but since there
was nothing either one of us could do about it, I decided to keep
it to myself, at least for the moment.

Chapter 12

After I closed the candle shop, I headed
straight to the bank with our day’s deposit. That was one lesson I
had learned without danger of repeating. I got there before they
closed since this was one of the rare nights we shut the doors
before dark, and decided to take it inside myself.

A bright-eyed young lady took the bag, made
quick work of checking my amounts, then handed a slip to me. “Is
that all, sir?”

I suddenly remembered my own check, still
folded up in my wallet. “I’d like to cash this too.”

It felt good having money in my pocket again
as I put the crisp new bills in my wallet. My meager savings were
nearly depleted. I promised myself to move my checking account to
the new bank, since it would be so much more convenient doing all
my business at one place.

After I finished at the bank, I found a
grocery store along the way back to River’s Edge and decided to go
on a little shopping spree. Forty minutes later, I’d put a
noticeable dent in my take home pay, but my larder would be
well-stocked for the next few weeks.

I found Mrs. Quimby waiting impatiently for
me at my door when I got back, Esmeralda squirming in her hands.
“Harrison, did you forget about your star boarder?”

Blast and nonsense, it had slipped my mind
completely that I was still cat-sitting, even after I picked up a
toy for Esme while I was out shopping. “I’m so sorry. I got hung up
at the grocery store,” I said as I put my bags down and retrieved
my key.

Mrs. Quimby sniffed at the air and said, “I
don’t mind, but the princess is quite upset. She hates to wait for
anything.”

I didn’t doubt that. Esmeralda seemed to be
the type of cat who considered anything short of complete and utter
devotion an unacceptable outrage.

“
She’ll have to get over
it,” I said as I opened the door. “My schedule’s not quite as set
as Heather’s is.”

Esme shot through and disappeared inside
before I could even get my key back out of the lock.

“
You two have a fun evening
together,” she said quickly as she walked away.

“
Thanks. Sorry again about
the delay.”

After I put away my groceries, I went in
search of my boarder. “Esme. Come here, Esmeralda.”

I should have realized it was the height of
futility calling a cat. While a dog would most likely come running
at the sound of its name, that cat was probably holed up somewhere
laughing at me. Then I remembered one of Janie’s tricks. I pulled
out the can opener and opened one of Esmeralda’s dinner tins.

After a minute, she poked her head around
the corner to see what I was up to as I arranged the meal
tastefully in her bowl, and as she began to eat, it was obvious
that we were friends again.

After making myself a sandwich and letting
Esme finish her meal, I said, “Hey, I almost forgot. I got you
something.” I retrieved a plush mouse toy I’d picked up at the
grocery store and put it on the floor in front of her. If a cat
could sneer, this one was doing it. I tried to make the mouse dance
on the string, hoping to get some action out of her that way, but
by the way Esme was looking at me, it was clear she thought I was
insane.

I was beginning to concur with her opinion
by the time I gave up.

I cleaned up the dishes, lit Belle’s candle
and settled onto the couch to read. That’s when I noticed
Esmeralda, playing not with the mouse, but with the packing it had
come in, batting it back and forth from one paw to another.

It was all I could do to keep a groan from
escaping my lips. The cat waited until I was settled in, then
hopped up onto my lap and eased in for the evening. I suddenly
remembered my earlier plan to confront Markum.

“
Up you go,” I said as I
dislodged an indignant cat.

I added, “I’ll be back before you know I’m
gone. Why don’t you play with your new friend Mr. Packing while I’m
out?” Why was I explaining all this to a cat?

Esmeralda told me exactly what she thought
of my suggestion by turning and showing me her tail as she vanished
into the bedroom.

Maybe she’d understood me after all.

Wonder of Wonders, Markum was in his office
when I knocked on the door.

“
Harrison, it looks like
you’re keeping my hours now,” he said in his booming
voice.

I glanced at my watch and saw that it was
nearly ten o’clock. “Being a landlord is turning out to be a
full-time job. I hope you didn’t lose anything in the lockers when
they were vandalized.”

He shook his head as he led me back to his
office. “No sir, I keep everything I need locked up in here.” The
walls of the small room were covered with travel posters of exotic
beaches, snowcapped mountain ranges and lush dense forests, and I
realized that whichever way he swiveled in his chair, Markum would
have a perfect view of the great outdoors.

He noticed my wandering gaze. “What can I
say, I’m a pushover for exotic spots. Do you like to travel,
Harrison?”

“
I’ve never really been
able to afford it,” I admitted. “At least not on the scale we’re
talking about here.”

“
Well, you’re a man of
money now. This building’s got to be worth a mint, sitting on the
river like it is. Belle must have been slipping to rent a spot to
me.”

“
Why is that?” I
asked.

“
I’m not exactly what you’d
call a typical tenant, don’t you think I know that? My hours are
odd, to say the least, and I’ve got my fingers in a dozen different
pies at any one time. What I do isn’t exactly something that I
could put in a brochure, either.”

“
You’re in salvaging and
recovery, you said. That must be exciting, but what exactly does it
mean? Do you spend a lot of time diving?”

“
There are more things in
this world to be salvaged than shipwrecks, though I’ve gone after
more than a couple of those in my day.”

I glanced toward the room’s only closet and
saw a safe partially through the open door.

Markum followed my glance and nudged the
door closed with his foot. “You can’t be too careful, this day and
age.”

The ringing of the telephone interrupted
him, and he said, “Excuse me, I’ve got to take this call. I’ve been
waiting for it all day and half the night.”

He took the portable phone out of his office
into the hallway, pacing as he spoke. Markum’s voice was animated;
there was no doubt about that. I could well imagine it echoing off
the empty hallways if his door happened to be open.

While he was gone, I stood and flipped
around an open notebook on his desktop.

I don’t know what I was hoping to find; a
full confession maybe, or better yet, plans to knock off another
jewelry store.

Instead, I found numbers in no apparent
sequence scrawled on the pad, surrounded by doodles of girls in
hula attire. If Markum ever decided to give up his salvage
business, he might be able to freelance as a cartoonist.

I heard his voice grow louder and spun the
notebook back to facing the chair again. The only problem was that
in my nervousness, I’d spun it a little too hard and it was pointed
right back at me again like an accusing finger. His voice was
nearly at the door when I nudged it again, this time much gentler,
and it slowly slid back into place as I heard Markum say behind me,
“Just do it and stop bellyaching.”

“
Sorry,” he said as he took
his position back behind the desk again. “I’ve got a sub that’s
getting cold feet.”

“
A sub?”

“
Subcontractor. I can’t do
everything, not and do a thorough job of it, so I hire a little
extra help when I need it. That particular fellow found he doesn’t
have what it takes a little too late after promising me he
did.”

“
So what’s going to happen
to him?”

Markum smiled, reading the seriousness in my
voice. “If he doesn’t play ball, I’ll deal with him in my own way.
So Harrison, is this a social visit, or did you have something on
your mind?”

“
It’s about Belle,” I said.
“I understand the two of you had a fight a few weeks
ago.”

“
Who’s been feeding you
that crock of nonsense?”

I said, “I’d rather not say, but it did
concern me.” I wasn’t about to admit that Millie had told me about
it.

Markum leaned back in his chair, his head
nearly touching the back wall. “Harrison, I’m an animated fellow. I
like to bellow, it’s a part of my nature. The only thing I can
figure is someone overheard your great-aunt and me having a lively
discussion, and they mistook it for an argument. She was a fine
lady, one the world will miss. I know I certainly will. We never
had anything close to what I’d call an argument during the short
time we knew each other.”

“
Can I ask you something?”
I said.

“
You can ask, but I won’t
promise you an answer, especially if it concerns my business.
There’s something you need to understand, and pass on to your
little informant.

My business is just that, my business. Tell
that tattletale of yours if they have a problem with me, they need
to face me directly. Now what was your question?”

I took a deep breath, then said, “I was
wondering if you could tell me where you were and what you were
doing the night Belle died.”

Markum said steadily, “What are you up
to?”

“
Tell me or don’t, it’s
your business. If you liked her as much as you said you did, why
wouldn’t you then?”

“
Easy, I didn’t mean to
offend you. It just sounds like you’re looking for alibis. I
happened to be out of town when it happened, working the Outer
Banks studying something that didn’t pan out. Harrison, as much as
I’d love to hang around here and chat, I’m having second thoughts
about that sub of mine. Maybe I’d better pay him a visit in person.
I can be quite persuasive when I need to be.”

“
I’ll bet,” I said as I
followed him out of his office. I noticed he had three shiny new
locks on his door as he secured each one in turn.

He smiled. “Like I said, you can’t be too
careful these days. I had these installed right after you had your
locks changed. See you around, Harrison.”

“
I’ll be here,” I
said.

“
And where else could you
possibly go, with this new mistress of yours?” Before I could say
anything, his arm swept around me. “I imagine River’s Edge is quite
a demanding lady.”

The second I got back to the apartment, it
was obvious Esmeralda hadn’t been pleased with my departure.
Somehow she’d managed to unroll every paper towel from the
dispenser in the kitchen. There was a trail of it throughout the
apartment. Not only that, but she’d discovered the toilet paper
holder as well. She had saved that for the bedroom. I found the cat
perched on my pillow, partially wrapped in the paper herself. There
was a stern look on her face, as if she were daring me to say a
word.

I wanted to laugh, but Janie had taught me
early on that cats didn’t have much of a sense of humor, especially
about themselves, so I cleaned up the mess and figured we were even
for my deserting her. By the time I had the kitchen cleaned up,
she’d managed to extricate herself from her swathing.

As I collected the fallen rolls, my mind
kept drifting back to my conversation with the salvage man. Markum
was someone so different from what I was used to, it was difficult
to gauge the man and his reactions. It was almost as if he was
shielded by his nature, giving a shining smile to the world while
calculating the odds and angles just beneath it.

After some order was restored to the
apartment, I said loudly, “Okay, you made your point. You don’t
like being left alone. I’m going to read in the other room now, and
you’re welcome to join me.” Blast it all if that cat didn’t hop up
from the bed and follow me into the living room.

A part of me was going to be happy when
Heather returned, but another part realized that Esmeralda was
growing on me, that I might actually miss her when she was
gone.