A Flicker of Doubt (Book 4 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (23 page)

Kirk jumped down from the tractor. “You
people disgust me.” He spat on the ground in front of me, barely
missing my shoe.

“
Runion doesn’t own this
land,” I said.

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
He doped up the owner so he
could trick him into selling. That’s a crime, and if you do
anything under his orders, you’re just as guilty as he is.” I
didn’t know where I stood on legal grounds, but the morality of
what I said was real enough.

“
I don’t know anything about
that,” he said grudgingly. “All I know is that we’re being paid to
clear this land and haul off whatever we find.”

He turned to one of his men and said, “Bring
me the bolt cutters. They’re in the back of my truck.” Then he said
to us, “I’ve got a job to do, and until Mr. Runion comes and
cancels it himself, these trees are coming down. If you won’t
unlock that thing, I’ll do it for you.”

“
Mr. Kirk? I can’t find
them,” one of his men called out.

“
Blast it all to Baal, do I
have to do everything myself?” He stormed back to his truck, and I
noticed the roughnecks giving him plenty of room, though he was a
good fifty pounds lighter than most of them.

I asked Heather, “What do we do now?”

“
We resist,” she said “Once
he cuts the chain, we go limp on the ground. We have to make them
carry off.”

“
So we’re beaten,” Sanora
said.

There’s only so much we can do,” Heather
said. They dragged us away from the theater, too, but at least we
tried.”

I felt both women tighten their grips on my
hands gain as Kirk approached with a pair of huge red bolt cutters.
He was just about to shear the lock when I heard a police siren in
the background. I said, “Here comes the cavalry. I wouldn’t do that
if I were you, you’re in enough trouble as it is.”

“
I didn’t lay a finger on
you,” Kirk said.

Sheriff Morton himself drove up, and Cragg
got out of the front seat of the squad car before it even came to
complete stop. The attorney said, “Who’s in charge here?”

Kirk looked as though he wanted to deny it,
but he finally said, “I am.”

“
This order states that you
must cease and desist all operations until the sale of this land
can be properly investigated.”

The foreman didn’t even look at the
document. Kirk turned to his men and said, “Load them up, boys;
we’re going back to the shop.”

There were several groans from his people,
but they did as they were told. Kirk himself climbed up onto the
bulldozer in front of us, and I didn’t breathe again until it was
heading safely back to its mates.

“
It’s okay now, you can
unlock the padlock,” Morton said.

Heather said, “I lost the key ages ago.”

“
Then how do we get out of
this? Morton, go borrow Kirk’s bolt cutters, would you?”

“
No need,” the sheriff said.
“I’ve got a set of cutters myself. When Cragg came to get me, I
grabbed them, just in case.” He cut a single link from the chain
and we were soon free again.

“
That was closer than I
liked,” I said as I stood inside one of the track marks the dozer
had made. If it did that to the ground, I shuddered to think about
what it could have done to us. “Thanks for bailing us
out.”

Morton nodded to Cragg. “Thank your
attorney. I just helped him execute the order.”

I saw Sanora go over to Cragg and watched as
had a whispered conversation that ended with her kissing him on the
cheek. I swear I thought the attorney was going to faint from the
attention.

Heather followed Sanora’s example, and
though she and the sheriff had had more than their share of clashes
in the past, she leaned forward and kissed his cheek as well. He
stepped back and said, “I told you, I was just doing my job.”

I was feeling left out when both women
approached me and planted a kiss on each cheek at the same
time.

“
Thanks for standing up with
us,” Sanora said.

Heather added, “We knew we could count on
you.”

They wrapped their arms around me briefly,
then the three of us walked back to River’s Edge. The woods around
us were safe, at least for that day.

Eve was dying to know what had happened when
I walked back into the candleshop, but all I said was, “We stopped
them.”

She was too proud to ask for more details,
though the strain of not knowing was obvious on her face. I about
to give in and bring her up-to-date when Pearly walked in.

“
I understand I’ve missed
the excitement,” he said.

“
If you call almost getting
run over by a bulldozer while being chained to a tree, yes, I’m
sorry you missed it, too. You could have taken my
place.”

Pearly laughed. “Come now, Harrison. Our
country has a long history of civil disobedience. You’ve just added
a paragraph to history.”

“
If it’s all the same to
you, I’m perfectly happy being a candlemaker. It’s what I was meant
to do.”

Pearly slapped my shoulder. “One never knows
what one can do until called upon in the face of an emergency. I’m
proud of you for standing your ground, Harrison.”

I was uncomfortable with the praise.
“Heather and Sanora should be the ones you congratulate. I never
would have done it without them.”

“
An amazing thing, that,”
Pearly said. “The two of them are huddled at a table in Millie’s
caf6, regaling each other with their past deeds of activism. It
appears the women have a common bond undiscovered until
today.”

Then at least something good has come of
this mess,” I said.

“
Perhaps few them, but I’m
not so sure about you. As I was leaving, I heard them plotting an
attack to protest the overdevelopment of Micah’s Ridge, and unless
I’m mistaken, you’ll be playing a key role in the
movement.”

I laughed “I’m glad they’re getting along,
but they’re going to have to save the town without me. My
protesting days are over.”

Eve, who’d dusted the same shelf three times
during my talk with Pearly, finally spoke up. “That’s the only
firing I wanted to hear.”

“
Don’t give me a reason to
change my mind,” I said, and surprisingly, Eve went back to her
dusting.

“
Well, I won’t keep you,”
Pearly said. “I just wanted to share in the joy of your
achievement.”

“
I didn’t do all that much,”
I repeated.

“
Don’t disparage what you’ve
done, my friend. It was a brave act.”

“
If you say so. To tell the
truth, I was scared to death when that bulldozer got
close.”

“
Don’t you know that’s the
true definition of bravery? It’s courage in the face of fear,
Harrison.”

It was good to know I could do something
like that if I had to, but I never wanted to be in a position where
I felt the need to chain myself to anything ever again.

Chapter 19

Ruth Nash came by the candleshop ten minutes
before closing time. I hugged her, and despite a bout of initial
reluctance, she ended up returning it.

“
What was that for?” she
asked.

“
You saved the day,” I said.
“They were ready to cut the chain holding us to the tree, and I
wasn’t sure what was going to happen after that”

“
Harrison, I still can’t
believe you committed such an overt act of civil
disobedience.”

To tell you the truth, it kind of surprised
me, too. How’s Cyrus doing?”

Ruth smiled bravely. “He’s much better now.
The last of the drugs are fading from his system. I pity Greg
Runion; I’ve never seen my brother so angry. If he were in any
condition to get up, I’m afraid he’d go after the man himself.”

“
Have they had any luck
finding Runion yet?”

“
No, but the sheriff assures
me it’s just a matter of time. Just in case, though, I’m bringing
in some friends of my father who know how to handle such things.
They are quite skilled at finding people on the run from the
law.”

“
Your dad knew bounty
hunters?” I asked.

“
He had quite an eclectic
collection of friends,” she admitted. “I’ve found it helpful to
call upon them from time to time in the past.”

I wouldn’t wish myself in Runion’s shoes for
a million dollars, but he deserved whatever he got, and if Ruth’s
friends could bring him back to stand trial for what he did, so be
it.

“
I’m just glad Cyrus is
better,” I said.

“
And we have you to thank
for that.”

“
Anybody else would have
done the same thing.”

Ruth replied, “But you’re the only one who
did. Harrison, we’ve been discussing the matter, and Cyrus and I
would like to do something to repay you for what you’ve done.”

“
Ruth, I appreciate the
gesture, but I told you, I had no ulterior motives here, and I
don’t expect a reward for it”

“
Nevertheless, we’ve decided
to deed the land beside River’s Edge to the town of Micah’s Ridge,
so that it will be held in perpetuity by the community. Tomorrow’
morning, a surveying team and a landscape architect will design new
footpaths through the land so everyone can enjoy it. I hope you’re
pleased.”

I said honestly, “I couldn’t be happier if
you’d given the land to me outright.”

“
We considered it, but Cyrus
warned me of your stubborn streak of pride.”

It’s my family’s curse,” I admitted.

She paused, then asked, “Harrison, isn’t
there anything we can do to show our appreciation?”

“
You could find out why my
ex-girlfriend died,” I said. “But if that’s too much to ask, I’d
settle for getting my ban from Graver’s barbecue
lifted.”

“
Pardon me?” she
asked.

“
I was just joking,” I said.
“You’ve done enough. Having that woodland beside me undeveloped is
all the thanks I need. Will you be heading back to West Virginia
soon?”

“
As much as my grandchildren
miss me, I’ll be staying on a few more days until Cyrus is ready to
travel. He’s coining back with me for a visit to take the
opportunity to recuperate.”

“
Just don’t keep him there
permanently, that’s all I ask.”

Ruth smiled gently. “I imagine time with my
grandchildren will bring him back to Micah’s Ridge soon
enough.”

After I closed the candleshop, I headed
upstairs for a shower and bed. It was amazing how much the earlier
rush of adrenaline had taken out of me. I went to sleep, and for
the first time since Becka’s death, I slept without dreaming. It
was a precious gift to be unencumbered by the night terrors I’d
been experiencing too often lately.

Ruth returned late the next morning just as
I was selling several more packs of sheet wax to the man who’d been
in the candleshop buying supplies for his mother. The man raved,
“Harrison, you were right. My mother absolutely loves making
candles this way! The cookie-cutter shapes are a huge hit with her,
and now she’s got my kids making than, too. I don’t know how we’re
ever going to burn all those candles.”

After he was gone, Ruth said, “I never
realized there were candlemaking kits suitable for children. Could
you show me something?”

I led her to the section of shelves where
our gel candle kits were stocked. After she read the back of one of
the kits, she said, “No, that’s too messy. What about the selection
that gentleman chose for his mother?”

We moved to the aisle where the sheet-wax
kits; were kept, and I showed her the vast array of cookie-cutters
we stocked, along with the various colors of honeycombed wax
sheets. After giving her a quick lesson, Ruth said, “How
delightful. I’ll take one of everything.”

I had to look at her to see if she was
kidding or not. “That’s a great deal of supplies,” I said. “I hope
you aren’t doing it as a favor to me.”

“
Harrison, I’m doing it as a
favor to my grandchildren. They love to do anything crafty. Let me
jot down the address for you. It will save me a great deal of
trouble if you ship the packages there for me.”

I looked at Eve, who’d been watching us, and
said, “One of each color sheet wax kit and one of each cookie
cutter.”

“
No, that won’t do at all,”
Ruth said.

“
Is it too much?” I asked.
“We can scale the order back.”

“
Actually, it’s too little.
Each of my three grandchildren needs a complete set of everything.
I’m afraid I’ve spoiled them in that way.” She studied me a moment,
then added, “And no price breaks for me, young man. I expect to pay
full retail”

“
Actually, I was thinking
about charging you extra,” I said.

She started to reply when she saw my grin.
“Harrison, you mustn’t tease me like that. I came out to see if the
surveyors have made any progress. In the meantime, allow me to take
you to lunch.”

That sounds great Eve, we’ll be back
soon.”

“
So where should we go?”
Ruth asked. “My driver can take us anywhere.”

“
No need, we can walk from
here. I’m kind of partial to Millie’s place.”

Ruth studied the sign. “The Crocked Pot, eh?
Well, I’m game if you are.”

“
You’re going to love it,” I
said as we walked inside. After studying the menu, we ordered, then
took a table by the windows up front. We could see the Gunpowder
River from our vantage point