A Flicker of Doubt (Book 4 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (24 page)

“
It is quite lovely here,”
Ruth said. “I’d forgotten that.”

“
Do you miss it?” I
asked.

“
I suppose so, but really,
wherever my grandchildren are is home to me now.”

We ate our lunch, then I walked Ruth to her
car. After she was gone, I headed back to At Wick’s End, sorry that
my new friend would be leaving soon, and taking Cyrus with her.
People seemed to drift in and out of my life with an alarming
speed. I was just glad Sanora and Heather had found a way to
stay.

I walked in the door of the candleshop and
nearly stumbled over the threshold when I saw who was waiting for
me, the last person on earth I expected to find paying me a visit.
It was Grover Blake.

“
Grover, how are
you?”

He looked me in the eye and said, “I’m not
doing well, but I hope to make it better soon.”

“
Anything I can help with?”
I asked.

“
You can accept my apology
for acting like an old fool, and be my guest for barbecue
tomorrow.”

I leaned against the counter, trying not to
fall down. “Like I said before, I’m the one who’s sorry for the way
I acted. I don’t blame you a bit for banishing me. I shouldn’t have
pushed you like I did.”

Grover looked at his hands, then said,
“Let’s just say we both have a reason to be sorry for the way we’ve
been behaving and leave it at that.” With that he stuck a hand out.
“Can we shake on it?”

“
Absolutely,” I said, taking
his hand. He had a blacksmith’s grip, and I was glad I could return
it. “Is it all right if I bring Markum with me?” I
asked.

“
I’ve already invited him.
You’ve got yourself a powerful ally there, Harrison.”

“
Mrs. Jorgenson is
something, isn’t she?” I agreed.

“
I was speaking of
Ruth.”

“
You know Ruth Nash?” I’d
only mentioned my problem with Grover in passing, and somehow she’d
managed to fix the mess I’d made.

“
Ruth and I go way back.
She’s quite a woman.”

“
She is at that. Maybe we
can get her to come, too.”

Grover nodded. “I’d be honored to have her
at my table.”

After he was gone, Eve said, “You certainly
manage to collect the oddest assortment of friends, Harrison.”

“
Eve, that’s the nicest
thing you’ve ever said to me.”

She looked surprised by my response, but it
was true. Sometimes I felt as though my collection of friends was f
the best thing I had going for me.

Mrs. Jorgenson came by late in the day. I
was surprised to see her, since we had a class scheduled for the
next morning. I said, “Either you’re early or I mixed up my days.
Isn’t our class tomorrow?”

“
I’ve been meaning to talk
to you about that, Harrison. I’m here to buy more supplies for
myself, but I believe I’m ready to carry on my candlemaking alone
now.”

“
I understand,” I said,
stunned by the unexpected nature of her declaration.

“
Don’t look so hangdog,
Harrison, I’m not moving on to another craft; I’ve got candlemaking
in my blood. I just want to experiment on my own for a while.
You’ll be able to live off the order I’m about to place for
months.”

I looked straight at her and said, “Do you
want to know the truth? I’ll miss your company a lot more than I’ll
miss the income from our lessons.”

Was that a tear in the comer of her eye?
“Harrison, I’ll be around, don’t you worry about that.”

“
Then let me grab a cart and
I’ll help you.”

We filled two of them by the time she was
finished, and the total was my largest sale to date, a dozen times
more than what I’d charged Ruth earlier. For a banner day in sales,
it was one filled with sadness, too.

I knew better than to offer her any
discounts, but I did manage to slip one of my own candles into her
bags as a present What I’d said was true. I’d become a candlemaker
preparing for our lessons, and I’d miss her greatly.

I expected Eve to be despondent when I came
back from loading Mrs. Jorgenson’s supplies in her car. Instead,
she had a wistful look on her face.

“
I expected you to be
falling apart about now,” I said.

“
Harrison, we both knew this
run would end sooner or later. Frankly, I’m amazed she stuck with
candlemaking as long as she did. From what I’ve heard in the
crafting circles, her time with us was a record.”

“
I’ll miss her more than her
money,” I said.

“
I know you will, but there
will be other students and t other classes. In the meantime, you
should celebrate. . You made enough today off two sales to shut the
candleshop down for a month and still have money left
over.”

“
You can take some time off
if you’d like, but I can’t think of anyplace else in the world I’d
rather be than right here.”

She laughed. “What a difference your time
here has made. I had my doubts the first day you walked into
River’s Edge, I’m not afraid to admit it”

‘
That made two of us. I’ve
got it in my blood now, though, there’s no getting rid of
me.”

The rest of the day was happily uneventful,
and though I still worried about what had happened with Becka,
there wasn’t much else I could do about it I sent. Eve home early,
knocked off five minutes before closing myself, then headed out to
the truck to make my deposit for the night

I was nearly to my truck when someone
stepped out of the shadows.

I’d found Greg Runion after all.

Or more accurately, he’d found me, and from
the pistol in his hand, it was pretty obvious he wasn’t all that
happy to see me.

Chapter 20

“
What are you doing here?” I
asked him.

“
You know what I want. Give
me the papers Becka stole from my office and I’ll be in my way.
Don’t worry, I won’t kill you if you do what I say.”

“
What are you talking about,
Runion? I don’t have any papers.”

He glanced back at his SUV and said, “Jeanie
couldn’t have been lying about that, too. She told me Becka stole
the forged contracts for Cyrus’s land and gave them to you for
safekeeping, along with a packet of incriminating photographs. You
had to butt in where you had no business, didn’t you? Why did you
do it, Harrison? I almost had it all in my hands, and you blew it
for me.”

“
Listen, you’ve got to
believe me. I don’t know what you’re talking about Jeanie isn’t
telling you the truth.”

“
Now I’m not sure who to
believe,” he said. “It looks like you’re going to have to die
anyway, just like that nosy ex-girlfriend of yours.”

“
So you killed
her?”

“
Becka didn’t want to take
the pills, but I forced her to do it. I told her she’d have a
better chance beating the overdose than a bullet.”

“
But why kill her at all?
What did she do to you? Is this whole tiling about Cyrus and his
land?”

Runion snorted. “You really don’t know
anything, do you? Becka caught me doing something far more criminal
than a fraudulent land deal. Before I could rectify a certain
situation, she threatened to turn me in. I didn’t have any
choice.”

“
The
barrels,” I said softly. “You were dumping something illegally and
she caught you at it.” The pieces
all began to fall into place. “You stashed them on Cyrus’s
land, didn’t you? They’re somewhere near here. That’s why you had
to go after him, so you could get control of his land.”

“
Amazing, you got it on the
first try. Too bad it’s not going to do you any good. As soon as I
take care of you, I’m going to finish Jeanie off, too.” Runion
glanced back at his SUV, and I didn’t doubt she was back there. He
continued, “She deserves it if anybody does; she’s nearly as guilty
as I am in all this. Maybe a lover’s suicide pact between you two
will work for the police. They bought Becka’s death without much
problem.” He smiled, but there wasn’t the slightest bit of warmth
as he added, “I’m really going to enjoy killing Jeanie. I can’t
believe how many times she’s lied to me in the last hour. You know,
my life would have been so much easier if everyone had cooperated
with me to begin with.”

His finger tightened on the trigger, so I
said, “You’re right, I was lying. I’ve got the packet I just didn’t
know what was in it. I’ll get you what you came for, but you have
to let Jeanie go if I do.”

“
So she can run to the
police and lie to them, too? I don’t think so.”

“
Runion, I’m offering you a
head start. If you kill us both, the police will find what you’re
looking for before you will.”

“
I didn’t think you had the
papers,” he said.

“
Hey, a man’s entitled to
bluff, isn’t he?” I was hoping he’d buy it, since it was something
Runion would have done himself. If I fed him enough of a premise of
trickery and double-crossing, it might just save my life, and
Jeanie’s, too.

The gun lowered somewhat, and his finger
eased. “So where are they?”

“
Not just yet. She goes free
first.”

“
Why do you keep trying to
save Jeanie? She’s far from innocent here.”

“
I don’t believe
you.”

“
Harrison, there’s no way
I’m going to let her go.”

“
Okay,” I said, thinking
fast “Then bring her upstairs with us. Once you see what I’ve got,
we’ll make the trade.”

He thought he had me, I could see it by the
way his pupils dilated. I was going to have to do something; when
we got to my apartment, but at least I’d bought some time.

“
Yeah, I guess that will
work. Let me get her.” He jabbed the gun in my direction. “If you
run, she’s dead.”

“
I’m not going anywhere,” I
said, and I meant it. There was no way I wanted Jeanie’s blood on
my hands.

She was gagged and her hands were tied when
he pulled her out of the SUV.

“
Untie her,
Runion.”

“
No way, and I’m not taking
the tape off her mouth, either. She can walk fine just the way she
is.” He told Jeanie, “Don’t get any bright ideas. Harrison and I
had a long talk while you were in the car. He knows you’re just as
guilty as I am.”

As the three of us started for the front of
the building, I said, “So you were the one who sent the goons to
Becka’s apartment after she died.”

“
Yeah, I knew she had a
picture there, or some kind of evidence, but they didn’t find
it.”

“
That’s because I got there
first.”

That caught his attention. “Good, I can get
it when we’re upstairs, too.”

“
Sorry, Markum’s keeping it
in a safe place.”

“
I knew you two were in on
this together,” he snapped. “I’ll deal with him later.”

“
There’s going to be a rash
of suicides not even Morton’s going to buy,” I said as he pushed
Jeanie forward.

“
Don’t worry. Markum’s going
to have an accident, and a bloody one at that.”

Oh, great. Now I’d gotten my best friend
into the same jam I was in. I kept hoping for inspiration as we
climbed the stairs, but none came. Maybe Markum had I seen what had
happened and was waiting on us on the second-floor landing. The
hallway was empty. It looked like our time had finally run out.
Once we were all inside, Runion seemed to relax.

“
So where’s the
stuff?”

I had a sudden thought and decided there was
nothing to lose by going for it. “The papers are in a storage bin
on the roof.”

“
Come on, Harrison, you’ve
got to be kidding.”

“
It’s the safest place I
know. The only access is through my bedroom closet.”

“
Then lead the
way.”

“
I’ll grab your papers and
come back down,” I said as I showed him the scuttle.

“
I don’t think so. For all I
know you have a telephone up there. I’m coming with
you.”

“
Come on, what am I going to
do? Jeanie can’t climb up, not with her hands tied.”

I was hoping that if he untied her, we might
have a better chance against him than we did at the moment. I
didn’t know if she was as guilty as Runion claimed, but Jeanie was
the only one I had on my side who might be able to help me out of
this jam.

Runion considered it a few seconds, then
said, “No, I can’t watch both of you when you’re up there.” Runion
grabbed Jeanie as she shot me a look of disbelief. “It’s okay,” I
told her.

“
Yeah, keep telling yourself
that,” Runion said. “Just stand right there, and don’t try anything
stupid.” He led her to the bathroom, shoved her roughly inside,
then I watched helplessly as he duct-taped her to the towel bar.
Too bad the builder had imbedded it in concrete. The bathroom was
industrial, and I doubted she’d ever be able to pull herself free.
To be on the safe side, Runion took a chair and jammed it under the
doorknob once he locked her in, yanking on it to see if it would
hold.

I was going to have get out of this without
Jeanie’s help.

Runion nudged me with the gun and said,
“Let’s go, I don’t have all night”

I started climbing the scuttle steps,
unbolted the hatch, then threw it open. I figured I’d have five
seconds before Runion could join me up there, but as I scrambled
for something, some kind of weapon to use against him, he popped
his head up, the revolver pointed right at my gut.