by Tim Myers
With as much dignity as I could muster, I said, “The lady has decided she doesn’t care for the flowers.”
The woman said, “Man, I’d love to get this kind of attention. Are you sure?”
Becka said, “You can have them.”
“I can’t, it’s against hospital policy.”
“Then throw them out. I don’t want them.” There was no way to misinterpret her resolve. The nurse shrugged, then said, “Okay, I’ll find something to do with them.”
I helped her carry the bouquets out of the room, telling Becka I’d be right back. As I walked to one of the nurses’ stations, the woman said, “She seemed so happy to get them before. What’s the matter, did you two have a fight?’”
I wasn’t about to correct her. “They’re not from me.”
The nurse nodded knowingly. “From another guy, huh? So you’re making her throw them out.”
“I’m not making her do anything,” I said. “And if you knew Becka Lane at all, you’d realize that.”
After we’d collected all the flowers and removed them, I said, “It looks kind of bare in here now, doesn’t it?”
Becka said, “I prefer it to having those things around me.”
I moved to a chair near her bed and asked, “So you don’t have any idea who was behind you?”
“I felt a shove between my shoulder blades, then I twisted my ankle and I fell. That’s all I know.”
She was getting hysterical. I patted her hand and said, “Listen, you’re okay now. That’s all that counts.”
“Harrison, I’m getting scared, really scared, now.”
“We can call the sheriff again,” I said. “This is a little more concrete than what we’ve had before.”
“Oh please, he’s not going to give this any credence. I don’t need that.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll talk to him myself.”
“I wish you wouldn’t. It’s not going to do any good.”
“I think you’re wrong,” I pressed. “He needs to know what happened.”
“Fine, tell him anything you want then. Harrison, I think the pain medication is kicking in. Thanks for coming by, but I really don’t feel up to talking right now.”
“I’ll come back later,” I said, “with flowers of my own next time.”
She shivered, despite the blanket pulled up around her. “Thank you for the thought, but I’d rather have balloons or some magazines. Anything but flowers. Ugh.”
“No flowers,” I promised and left her room. As I walked toward the elevator, I noticed that one of the arrangements Becka had discarded was sitting at the nurses’ station. I wasn’t sure how she’d react when she saw that. I also wasn’t all that sure I wanted to replace the offerings she’d gotten with anything else. It occurred to me that Becka was using the stalking incidents to get closer to me, and I honestly wasn’t interested in reopening that relationship with her. Even if I didn’t have my hands full with the candleshop and the entire River’s Edge complex, Becka and I had broken up for some very good reasons, and none of them had changed.
It was time to stop being her guardian and turn the job over to the police.
I bumped into Vince in the lobby, a vase of flowers in his hand. I said, “If I were you, I’d swap those out for a stuffed animal or something.”
Vince said, “Why, did you already give her flowers?”
“Me? No way, but somebody did, and she thinks they’re from the guy who was stalking her.”
Vince shook his head. “This guy just doesn’t give up, does he? What do the cops have to say about it?”
“She doesn’t want to call them. I tried to convince her they needed to know, but she won’t listen to me. Maybe you’ll have more luck than I did.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, Becka kind of has a mind of her own.”
“You don’t have to tell me that; we dated, remember? Vince, don’t let her go back to her apartment. Make her go to her sister’s place if you can. She’s got to stop being a target or something a whole lot worse may happen to her.”
“I’ll try.”
I felt better with Vince there watching over her. I just hoped he’d have more luck with her than I had.
Back at the candleshop, I found Eve waiting on a pair of customers in the sheet wax section. She nodded toward me, but I wanted to wait until our customers were gone before I brought up all that had happened. After Eve rang up the sales, she said, “How’s Becka doing?”
“She scraped her face and broke one arm. Other than that, she’s going to be fine. She had quite a scare, though. Somebody shoved her from behind, and she tumbled into the river.”
“Did they find out who pushed her?”
“That’s the thing. Nobody else was around.” I decided to keep my suspicions to myself about Becka’s renewed interest in me. I was sure Eve would have something to say, most likely a crack I didn’t need to hear.
I followed Eve to our office, and she grabbed her sweater off the hook on the door. “Well, you’ve certainly had quite a day, haven’t you?”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help you with the shop. I’ve been an absentee owner lately.”
She shrugged. “Don’t worry about it, you’ll have plenty of time to work this evening. You do remember you’re closing by yourself tonight, right?” We’d worked out a new schedule that reduced Eve’s hours until we could get back on our feet again. Naturally I’d forgotten all about it rushing around Micah’s Ridge.
“Absolutely. Have a nice evening.”
“You, too,” she said. “See you tomorrow afternoon, Harrison.”
“Good night.” After she was gone, I ran a report to see what kind of day she’d had without me. The numbers were better than I had any right to expect. Maybe folks were starting to forget that scathing article in the newspaper about me. It was amazing how much dirt they’d thrown at me based on one hysterical woman’s delusions. I guessed it all depended on who the hysterical woman was, or more importantly in this case, who she was married to.
I got a phone call as I was helping a customer with a candlemaking kit for her mother’s birthday. I hated to answer the telephone when I was with someone, because I figured if a customer took the trouble to come to the shop, they deserved preferential treatment over someone who just called.
“At Wick’s End, can you hold, please?”
“Harrison, it’s Jubal Grant at the candleshop. Call me when you get free.”
“Good enough,” I said and hung up. After the sale, I returned Jubal’s call.
“Sorry about that,” I said. “I was with a customer.”
“I applaud you for putting them first,” Jubal said. “Working retail is certainly more taxing than I thought it would be.”
“I know exactly what you mean. I think everybody should have to spend a month of their lives waiting on other people. I don’t care if they sell clothes, candles or wait tables; I bet it would improve most folks’ manners.”
“No doubt. I was calling about Pearly. That was a rather scathing hatchet job the newspaper did, wasn’t it?”
“They did everything but flat-out accuse him of shooting her,” I agreed.
“Has he been arrested?”
“No, the sheriff doesn’t have enough on him yet, but he is looking pretty hard for him.”
“You mean he’s gone?”
I took the chance to straighten the displays on the counter as we talked. “He took some long-due vacation time. Losing your cousin was quite a blow to him.”
“Of course, I understand.”
I couldn’t let him think that Pearly was a murderer. “I know how thorough a job the newspaper did hanging this on him, but I promise you, Pearly didn’t kill Gretel any more than I did.”
Jubal paused, then said, “I wish I could be as certain as you are. They left things rather badly between them.”
“I’ve got me eye on someone else,” I said rashly. I didn’t really, but I couldn’t let Jubal think Pearly coul
d have done such a cold-blooded thing. I nodded to a customer who walked in and told Jubal, “Listen, I’ve got to go”
“Whom do you suspect?” Jubal asked.
I’d been holding the phone against my cheek and shoulder as I’d been straightening things up, and before I could answer him, it slipped out of my grip. By the time I grabbed it to explain, he was already gone.
I’d have to call him back later and tell him I hadn’t just hung up on him, but at the moment I had a customer to wait on. It didn’t do either of us any good to speculate further about what was going to happen to Pearly. I was frankly glad for the distraction my customers brought me. In the end, I’d much rather focus on candlemaking than crime, no matter how worried I was about my friend.
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.”
