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

by Tim Myers

  “Thanks, but I already spoke with Ruth, and she’s coming as soon as she can get away.”

  Mrs. Jorgenson eyed me carefully. “Why, Harrison, you’ve become quite resourceful, haven’t you? Ruth will cut through this nonsense, you can rest assured on that point.”

  “So what should I know about Greg Runion?”

  “I’ve heard rumors that he has a financial backer on this project of his to turn the banks of the Gunpowder River into a nightmare of condominiums.”

  “Who is it?” I asked.

  “I’m sure you don’t know the gentleman, but perhaps I could arrange an introduction, if I handle it just so.”

  “Thanks, I’d really appreciate that,” I said. “So, are you going to tell me his name, or is it shrouded in mystery?”

  “It won’t mean anything to you, but I’ll tell you if you promise you’ll keep it to yourself.”

  “I promise,” I said, wondering who this financial backer was.

  “Grover Blake,” she said in a hushed voice.

  “I’ve met him,” I said. “In fact, I just had some of his barbecue.”

  Mrs. Jorgenson sniffed the air. “Honestly, I don’t know why you bother asking me things. You seem to know everything going on in Micah’s Ridge.”

  I tried to mollify her. Mrs. Jorgenson was one person in town I couldn’t afford to alienate. I said, “I was under the impression that Grover gave all of his money away when he moved back here.”

  She smiled at that. “Then you don’t know everything. It makes a quaint story, but that’s all it is. He’s got more assets than I do, and that’s saying something for our part of North Carolina. So what are you going to do with this information?”

  I’m going to go talk to him.”

  “Be careful, Harrison. All is not as it seems there.”

  I thanked her, then said, “Tell you what; you’ve paid for your purchase today with information. This is all on the house.”

  “Nonsense, I pay my way and you know it. Ring these up so I can get started on my next pour.”

  I did as I was told and totaled the supplies as she added more items to her pile.

  Eve poked her head out of the storeroom. “I thought I heard voices,” she said, her words fading as she saw who my customer was.

  “I’m going to walk Mrs. Jorgenson out,” I said, “Then I’ve got an errand to run.”

  “Of course,” Eve said. “Nice to see you again, ma’am.”

  “I’m sure,” Mrs. Jorgenson said in reply. She wasn’t big on mingling with anyone but the owner of the store, but I had to give Eve credit. She never gave up trying to engage the woman.

  I walked Mrs. Jorgenson out to her car. As she got in, she said, “Remember, Harrison, there are more layers to this than you might realize. Watch your step.”

  “Surely you don’t think Grover’s a threat do you?”

  She pursed her lips. “If he takes it in his mind not to like you, you’ll live to regret it I promise you that I’ve seen it happen too many times before. Remember, he might sound like a sweet old man, but Grover is as sharp it a razor.”

  I said good-bye, then jumped in the Ford truck and headed over to Graver’s barbecue stand and backyard. I had another reason to watch my step. It would be bad enough to be banished from ever coming back to Grover’s and miss that succulent barbecue, but if I got Markum blackballed, I wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to forgive me.

  And I wouldn’t even be able to find it in my heart to blame him.

  Chapter 14

  I found Grover watching over the fire in his backyard pit. There were no cars parked by the road when I pulled the truck in, so I’d have his full attention.

  “Good morning,” I said as I approached.

  “Harrison Black,” he said neutrally. “The sign’s not out, or didn’t Markum tell you what to look for?”

  “Actually he didn’t.”

  “There’s an old red shirt I hang from a tree branch when I’m serving,” he said. “Other times I like to be left alone.”

  There was no mistaking the tone in his voice, that this was one of those other times, but there was no pay I was going to wait to approach him about Runion with half of the power structure of Micah’s Ridge looking on.

  “I need to talk to you about something, Grover. Believe me, I wouldn’t bother you if it wasn’t important.”

  He poked a thick slab of wood under the cooker and watched the smoke a moment “Most folks don’t like to press me,” he said quietly.

  There was a distinct chill in his voice now. “I’m worried about what Greg Runion is going to do to Micah’s Ridge.”

  Graver’s gaze snapped from the fire to me. “What’s that got to do with me?”

  “I know you’re backing him,” I said softly.

  Grover tried to bring off a fake laugh, but he’d hesitated too long before deciding on his course of action. “Man, haven’t you heard? I gave all my money away when I came back home. Why else would I sell my barbecue from a place like this?”

  “Look, I’m not here to refute the legend you’ve built up for yourself, and the last thing I want to do is anything that’s going to keep me from your barbecue, but | you can’t let him do this. Do you have any idea what the river’s going to look like? He’s going to destroy it.”

  “It’s no business of mine,” Graver said abruptly.

  “I wish I could believe that,” I said.

  The fire under the cooker was now completely forgotten. “Mr. Black, I’ll ask you to leave now.”

  “You can’t let him do this,” I said.

  “I said go!” He was as furious with me as I was with him. “You’re not welcome here anymore.”

  I gave up. There was no way I was going to be able to break through his resolve. “Fine, let it happen, then. It’s on your head, not mine.”

  I was five steps away when he called out to me, “Mr. Black, hold up a second.”

  Had he changed his mind? I turned and saw that look in his eyes, the look of anger and just a little hate for me. “You can tell Markum he’s not welcome here, either.”

  I lost my temper. “That’s just plain mean, Grover. He had nothing to do with me being here. Banish me if you want to, but don’t take it out on him.”

  Grover spat on the ground, then turned his back on me and gave his full attention back to the fire.

  I had no choice. I’d come looking for answers, but n instead all I’d managed to do was to bring my friend to grief.

  How in the world was I going to tell Markum what I’d done?

  There was nothing else I could do but look for my friend and give him the bad news. What if he showed up at Grover’s as soon as that T-shirt went up? I couldn’t stand the thought of him going through a shunning with everyone looking on. I drove back to River’s Edge and went upstairs, hoping that he’d be in his office.

  He was, and I suddenly found myself wishing that I’d been able to delay conveying the news a while, say a year or two.

  Markum was deep in thought studying a geological survey map when I walked in. He had it spread out over his desk, and he looked up as I entered. “Harrison, you should see this. I might have found something.”

  As much as I could have used the distraction, I knew I had to tell him the bad news before I lost my nerve. “I’ve got something I have to tell you,” I said solemnly.

  The map was quickly forgotten. “What is it? Has something happened?”

  “I messed up, and I’m sorry. I don’t think I was wrong to do it, but I should have talked to you first”

  Markum leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through the tangle of his thick black hair. “Is it something we can fix?”

  “I’m afraid not,” I said.

  “Well, don’t just sit there; tell me what you’ve done.”

  I took a deep breath, then admitted, “I just talked to Grover. I confronted him, if you want to know the truth, and he banned me from his place. You, top,” I added, not able to meet his gaze.


  There was too much silence for too long, so I forced myself to look up. Markum had his fingers intertwined,” and he was studying them carefully. After what seemed like a lifetime, he said, “Maybe you’d better tell me about it.”

  “I didn’t go there looking for trouble, I swear it Mrs. Jorgenson told me Grover was backing Runion’s bid to take over the river bank.”

  “He’s broke,” Markum snapped. “I doubt he’s got’ two dimes to rub together.”

  “That’s the stray he likes to tell, isn’t it? Mrs. Jorgenson told me she’s one of the few folks in Micah’ Ridge who knows the truth. Markum, he never gave any of his money away. Grover’s been feeding that to folks right along with his barbecue.”

  “So naturally you felt the need to call him on it,” Markum said.

  “Doesn’t anybody around here care that they’re going to destroy the land around us with condos?”

  “And ruin your view in the process.”

  I stood up. “Listen, I understand that you’re mad, this isn’t just about me.”

  “Harrison, if they were doing this in Hickory or Bethlehem on the Catawba, would you be so upset?”

  I paused, then said, “I’d like to think so. Listen, I’m sorry this happened.”

  “So am I,” he said.

  “So is that it? Did I just kill our friendship?”

  He studied me for a few moments, then said, “Not over barbecue, no matter how good it is. I just wish you’d talked to me first. Maybe we could have found a way to look into it without this happening.”

  “I’m sorry,” I repeated.

  “Don’t worry about it. So what do we do now?”

  “I’m going to forget about Runion until Cyrus’s sister Ruth gets here. Until then, I’m going to dig into Becka’s death more.”

  “And sell a candle or two along the way, too, right?”

  “I’m always up for that.”

  I left him at his desk, sorry that I’d cost him something so dear. It was a casualty of my nosiness that I shouldn’t have taken a chance with. Markum had suffered from my mistake, and I was determined to make it up to him. Maybe I’d go on his next salvage and recovery job after all; he’d asked me enough in the time since we’d met. If I made it back in one piece, the grand gesture would be worth it.

  He was right about one thing.

  Friendship was more important than good barbecue, though there were folks in the South who would stone me if I said it aloud.

  Downstairs to the candleshop, I decided to drop in on Heather and try to put Pearly’s advice to work. It was hard to believe that I held the key to her staying. l just hoped I didn’t botch the job.

  She was in the middle of selling a vast array of crystals and amethysts to an elderly man when I walked into The New Age, so I nodded to her, then browsed among the trays of polished stones. There was a great variety there, and I felt myself drawn to pick up one sample stone of each, hold it in my hand, then move on to the next selection.

  I didn’t even notice the man was gone until Heather coughed gently. I dropped the adventurine in my hand and let it slip back to the pile.

  “They’re lovely, aren’t they?” she said. “Most of these stones came from Hiddenite.” Hiddenite was a place an hour’s drive from Micah’s Ridge, and they had unbelievable deposits of precious and semiprecious stones there.

  “I thought you just got your quartz there,” I said

  “I do, but these are locally mined, too. You’ve got the touch for stones, don’t you?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I saw the way you were bonding with them,” said.

  “I was just looking,” I insisted.

  She smiled gently. “So which stone attracted you most?”

  “I liked this one,” I admitted, pointing to a cent parallelogram I’d picked up and studied earlier, hadn’t been in a bin, but instead stood on a piece black velvet “Was this quartz polished into its at all?”

  “No, it crystallizes naturally that way.” She picked the stone up and added, “It’s Calcite, actually, and’ one of the few pieces in my shop that didn’t come the United States.” She gave it to me, and I felt stone’s weight in my hand again.

  “So what does that say about me?” I asked, trying to judge her sincerity. I didn’t put much stock in rocks, crystals, pyramids or many of the other things Heather sold in her shop.

  If she caught my jibe she didn’t acknowledge it. “You’re a man who loves order. You’d like things in the world to be more defined than they are, but you also have a skewed sense of value compared to most people, you’re not concerned with acquiring great wealth, but you would like to acquire more friends than you’ve got. Wouldn’t say you’re a risk-taker, but you are willing to go out pretty far out on a limb when someone you care about is involved.”

  I put the stone back on the velvet. “How much of that did you get from the stone, and how much from knowing me?”

  She smiled again. “Perhaps I fudged a little, but I believe it’s true that our preferences reveal more about our natures than most people realize.”

  “Heather, I really need you to stay at River’s Edge; I’d miss you too much if you were gone.”

  “Me, or Esmeralda?” Now she was the one trying to lighten the mood, but I wasn’t going to let her.

  “You,” I said earnestly. “I really want you to stay here with us.”

  “Then don’t renew Sanora’s lease,” she said.

  “I want you both here,” I said.

  “But she-—”

  I cut her off. “Don’t do this.”

  She frowned, then a customer walked in before I could push her for a commitment.

  “Excuse me,” she said.

  “We’re not finished.”

  “It can wait,” Heather said. Her customer was wearing a simple designer dress that must have cost her a fortune. From the way she was draped in stones, it appeared that she had an affinity for diamonds.

  I slipped out as Heather waited on her customer. Instead of going back to the candleshop, I decided to speak with Sanora first. Maybe I’d have better luck with her. Unfortunately, she was taking the day off, or so the sign in the window of The Pot Shot said. I wished I knew how she could afford to be gone so much from her store. Whatever her secret was, I doubted it was anything I could apply to At Wick’s End. I’d tried several ways to bring in new customers, but I’d had tepid response from my marketing plans. We were getting by, and that was going to have to be good enough for. Once I figured out what had really happened, maybe I could focus more on the business, but knew the truth, the candles would have to wait.

  I popped in to tell Eve I was going to be gone long than I expected and was surprised to see half a dozen customers in the shop.

  She looked relieved, almost happy to see me we made eye contact. In a loud voice, she said, proprietor just walked in. I’m sure he’ll be glad to answer your questions.”

  So much for my plans. I plastered the most smile I could manage onto my face and said, “How may I help you?”

  A middle-aged woman with blonde streaks through auburn hair said, “I’m not having any success at all with my marbling. Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong?”

  I’d studied the technique of putting different powdered dyes onto a candle, then melting it all with a hand torch, but I’d never tried it myself. “Tell me what’s happening and I’ll see if I can help.”

  “Just when I start getting some good color flow, the candles keep melting on me.”

  “Try hitting the candle with brief bursts of heat instead of a steady blast”

  “But the dyes won’t incorporate that way.”

  “Be patient and it will work fine,” I said, hoping that the author of the candlemaking book I’d read had done more research than I had.

  I must have convinced her, because she bought another selection of powdered dyes and a large pack of candles I’d made myself. As I wrapped the candles individually in white pa
per, I said, “If you have any more trouble, come back and I’d be glad to help you.” I would make it a point to practice the technique myself before she returned. After all, I enjoyed the varied ways there were to make and embellish candles.

  “Thank you so much,” she said.”

  “Who’s next?” I asked.

  A young man who couldn’t be more than fifteen approached when no one else did and said, “I’m looking for something, I don’t know, kind of cool and easy to do, too.” I led him to the sheets of wax we sold for rolling candles, one of the easiest ways there was to make candles. “These are fun,” I said.

  It’s for my girlfriend’s birthday” he admitted.

  “What’s her favorite color?”

  “She’s nuts about purple.”

  I showed him two different shades we carried, and he asked, “Which one should I get?”

  “Why not both?” I suggested. “That way she can we a taper with two shades in it.”

  “Is it tough to do?” he asked, studying the back of one of the packages.

  “No, they’re pretty easy if she follows the directions.”

  He studied the price, then said, “I guess I’ll just take one.”

  I nodded, then said, “You know what? I forgot to a sign up. We’re having a special, buy one pack and get one free.” I didn’t have the heart to turn him down.

  “Really?” He brightened. “That would be great.”

  Unfortunately, one of the women shopping overheard me. She called to two of her friends. “Did you hear that girls? We’ve found our Christmas presents for our grandkids.”

  Great I was never going to hear the end of if from Eve. We’d make enough to cover our costs, but I’d managed to lose a good chunk of profit. Maybe there was a way I could salvage something.

  “Limit one per customer,” I said loudly.

  “So we’ll each buy one,” the woman said. “There’s lot of other stuff here.”

  After everyone was gone, Eve said, “I wasn’t aware that we were having a sale.”

  “I was just helping the poor kid out,” I admitted.

  Instead of the reproach I’d been expecting, Eve smiled. “Harrison, there are more important things than the bottom line. Who knows? You may have created a new candlemaker today.”