A Flicker of Doubt (Book 4 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (10 page)

“
I know you will.” A
customer knocked on the door, and I glanced at my watch to see that
I was thirty seconds past opening. “Listen, I’ve got an eager
candle- maker dying to get in. I’ll talk to you later, but I wanted
to say thank you.”

“
You’re most welcome,” Erin
said.

I hung up and unlocked the door. Before I
could flip the sign from closed to open, the man bolted inside.

“
May I help you?’ I
asked.

“
I need mold release. I
thought I had enough, but I ran out in the middle of a
pour.”

“
You didn’t leave the heat
on your wax, did you?” I asked as I led him to the spray
releases.

“
Of course hot. What do you
think I am, an amateur? I’ll take two cans.”

I rang up the sale, put his purchases in the
bag, then handed it to him. “Thanks for coming by.”

He raced for the door. “I don’t have much
choice, do I? You’re the only game in town.”

It was customers like that that made me
sometimes wish that Belle had left me an emerald mine instead of a
candleshop. Mostly, though, I loved the people who shopped At
Wick’s End.

After he was gone, I looked though the mail
and saw a letter from Gary Cragg. He was my attorney of record for
River’s Edge. The only advantage of having him was his proximity;
it was also the biggest disadvantage of the arrangement. I put the
letter under the stack of others I had to read and left them on my
desk. I’d look through them later. At least there shouldn’t be any
bills there. They went straight to my accountant, an organized
woman named Ann Marie who handled the lion’s share of my paperwork
for me.

I was just finishing up with another
customer when Millie came in carrying a basket of something that
smelled like ambrosia. I quickly bagged the woman’s purchases and
nearly shoved her out the door.

“
What is that?” I
asked.

“
Harrison, I was wondering
if you’d mind tasting a new recipe for me.”

“
Let me grab some cold milk
and I’ll get right on it. What did you make?”

She pulled the cloth aside and I saw some
golden brown muffins. “They have orange slices in them. Try
one.”

I took a bite, then another, and then the
entire muffin was gone. “Wow. Was that nutmeg mixed in with the
cinnamon?”

“
You’re developing quite a
palette for baking, aren’t you?”

“
Hey, as long as you’re
willing to keep trying new recipes, I’ll taste them for you. This
batch is a keeper.”

“
Pooh, I’m beginning to
think you’re getting too lax. You like everything I
bake.”

I grinned. “Hey, it’s not my fault. If you
want a harsh critic, Eve should be here any minute.”

“
No thanks, I’ll stick with
your evaluation. Have you decided what you’re going to do about
Heather and Sanora?”

They were two of my tenants and also my
friends. The women had forged a truce the last I’d heard, but I
hadn’t been at River’s Edge as much as I should have been lately.
“What’s going on with them?”

“
They’re both threatening to
leave,” she said simply. I felt my heart plunge into an ice water
bath. “Wait a second. What about their leases? They’ve both
committed to River’s Edge.”

Millie frowned. “Do you mean to tell me Gary
Cragg hasn’t spoken with you yet?”

“
About what?” Despite how
good that orange slice muffin had been, it suddenly lay in my
stomach like concrete.

“
He should be the one to
tell you. I might get some of the details wrong.”

“
Come on, Millie, don’t do
this to me.”

She sighed, then said, “Oh, all right, I
suppose you have to hear about it sooner or later. According to our
lease agreements, any of us can leave River’s Edge up to six months
after Belle’s death. It’s been nearly that, and Sanora and Heather
are saying that one of them is going to have to go. I’m just afraid
you’re going to lose them both.”

I couldn’t stand the thought of my River’s
Edge family breaking up. “What about you? Are you going to bail out
on me, too?”

She frowned. “Harrison Black, you know me
better than that. Unless you double my rent, I’m staying.”

“
What about the rest of the
tenants? Come on, Millie, this is no time to be coy. I know
everybody in the complex talks to you about everything.”

‘
I’d be offended if I could
manage to be convincing. Yes, several folks have already talked to
me about the situation.”

“
So who can I count on, and
who’s going to leave?”

She said, “Cragg will stay, he’s got a
fondness for this place, despite how he acts sometimes. I’m here,
Suzanne Gladstone’s not taking her antique shop anywhere, and you
know Markum will stay. The rest are mostly in favor .of continuing
on, but I’m afraid you’re going to lose Heather or Sanora, if not
the both of them.”

“
Blast it all, I thought we
got past that”

Millie shrugged. “Sorry to bring bad news to
you. If there’s anything I can do, just let me know.”

“
You could broker peace
between them,” I said.

“
Anything but that,” she
said.

“
Coward,” I said,
smiling.

“
I won’t deny it I’d better
get back to my café. See you later, Harrison.”

“
Bye, Millie, and thanks for
the snack.”

“
You’re most
welcome.”

I tried to call Cragg, but either he wasn’t
answering his telephone or he was out I dug through the stack of
letters on my desk and found the one from him.

I ripped it open and read his brief missive.
Millie had stated it clearly enough. I was in danger of losing
every tenant I had at River’s Edge.

As soon as Eve walked in the door, I said,
“Good, you’re here. I’ve got to take care of some things.”

“
Harrison, are you meddling
in Becka’s death? Need I remind you that you have a business to
run?”

“
This is business,” I said.
“I just read Gary Cragg’s letter, and I’ve got to stop Heather and
Sanora from moving out”

After I explained the details of the leases
with her, she asked, “Well, then why are you standing here? Go
speak with them before they both do something you’ll regret”

Eve wasn’t a big fan of Sanora’s, but she
and Heather got along fine. Still, she knew as well as I did that
River’s Edge just barely hung on with full occupancy. Losing two
major tenants could be enough to drive me into foreclosure if I
couldn’t make that monthly mortgage payment

It was time to see if I could convince them
both to stay without resorting to blackmail or threats, though if I
had to, I wouldn’t hold back.

Not if it meant keeping River’s Edge.

Chapter 8

I wanted to talk to Cragg before I
approached either woman, so I hustled up the stairs hoping he’d
been screening his calls. He was the only attorney I’d ever heard
of who didn’t have a secretary/receptionist working the front
Knowing how cheap Cragg was, though, it didn’t surprise me.

He was in his office sitting behind his
desk, wading through a stack of papers.

“
I just called you,” I
said.

“
I chose to ignore it much
as you’ve been ignoring my requests for a meeting
lately.”

“
In case you hadn’t heard,
I’ve kind of been busy, finding old friends dead and things like
that.” The two of us had gotten off on the wrong foot from the
first day we’d met and our relationship had soured even further
since then. If there was one tenant bolting from River’s Edge, I
wouldn’t have shed many tears for Cragg’s departure.

His perennially dour expression softened for
a moment. “I was sorry to hear about your friend.”

“
Thanks,” I grunted, not
really caring for the man’s stab at sympathy. “About this letter,”
I said, waving it in the air.

“
I’m familiar with its
contents, since I wrote it myself. Harrison, I’m afraid your
great-aunt should never have trusted such an incompetent lawyer to
draft those leases.”

“
I’m sure she had her
reasons,” I said. There was no use discussing it with him. “The
question is what are we going to do about it now?”

“
I’m afraid there’s nothing
that can be done. You’re going to have to go to each tenant and
have every last one of them sign new lease agreements.” He slid a
stack of papers off one corner of his desk and handed them to me.
“You’ll see that I’ve already taken the liberty to sign
mine.”

I looked at the document and saw that he
hadn’t decreased his own rent, something I’d been expecting. “I see
you’ve got your current rent listed here.”

Cragg nodded “In exchange for you keeping
the rent stabilized for two years at today’s level, I will also
handle a modicum of legal duties for you, free of charge. Harrison,
it’s important that you resist the temptation to raise rents
throughout the complex, even though legally you have as much right
to demand an increase as your tenants do to refuse and leave.”

I swear, that thought never even crossed my
mind. “I just want things to stay the way they are.” I paused, then
added, “Honestly though, I’m surprised by what a good deal Belle
gave you.” I had no idea what the going rate for office space was
in the town of Micah’s Ridge, but then again, we weren’t exactly in
the hotbed of the business or legal district.

“
Let’s just say I want to
stay for more reasons than that and leave it.”

I knew it wasn’t my charming personality
that was keeping Gary Cragg at River’s Edge, but then I always
suspected he had a crush on Sanora. Could it be the lawyer had that
big a soft spot for her? His next words left no doubt in my mind.
“Our agreement is contingent on you resigning the complete roster
of first-floor tenants. Do we understand each other?”

“
Oh, yes, there’s ho doubt
about it.” So if I lost Sanora or Heather, I’d lose Cragg as well.
If I had to hire another attorney to do what he was willing to do
free of charge, it might be enough to push me from the black into
the red. “I’ll do what I can.”

“
See to it” he said,
dismissing me as he dug into his paperwork.

I went back to my apartment for a quick
lunch. After all, I was going to need some fortification before I
tackled the rest of my tenants.

After a quick bite, I changed my mind about
approaching Heather and Sanora first. With the new leases, I
decided to take the coward’s way out and approach those I thought
would resign without much grief. Maybe then if I had every tenant
signed but two, I could work something out with my remaining
holdouts. In quick order I had Millie signed up again, as well as
Suzanne and her antiques, and a handful of the others. By the time
five o’clock was approaching, I only had three more signatures to
collect Markum was a shoo-in, but the other two wouldn’t be
easy.

I decided to tackle Heather first her shop.
The New Age was right next door to mine, and I’d known her since
the day I’d moved into River’s Edge. She’d been my first friend at
the complex, and I couldn’t imagine the place without her. There
were crystals dangling over the front door when I walked in, and I
liked they way they announced each new arrival.

Heather was behind the cash register,
frowning as she stroked Esmeralda, her pat and my sometime
roommate. Esme lifted her head just as Heather did when I walked
in, and they looked at me with the exact same expression on their
faces.

“
Hey, I’m not the enemy,” I
said.

I offered Esme my hand, and she rubbed her
head against it. At least the cat and I were still on speaking
terms.

“
You know you’re not the one
I’m mad at, Harrison.” Almost as an afterthought, she added, “I
don’t know if I told you, but I’m so sorry about Becka.”

.”Thanks.” I had the lease tucked away in my
back pocket. “I heard you were threatening to leave. What’s going
on between you and Sanora?”

“
Believe me, you don’t want
to get into the middle of this. It doesn’t concern anyone but
us.”

“
Well, I don’t have much
choice, because I don’t want to lose either one of you.”

She looked surprised. “I know the grapevine
around - here is pretty fast, but this is ridiculous.”

“
Heather, ordinarily I’d
respect your wishes rod butt out, but with this lease mix-up, I’m
involved.” I pulled the agreement out of my pocket and shoved it
toward her. “Would you sign this? As a favor to me? I don’t want to
lose you.”

She looked at the lease like a mobster
eyeing a subpoena. “Did she sign one?”

“
I haven’t talked to her
yet,” I said. “I’ve known you longer, but I don’t want to take
sides here. I came to you first, though. That’s got to count for
something.”

She said, “Harrison, maybe it’s time I moved
on. This might just be a sign.”

I knew Heather believed in signs, omens and
portents, so it was nothing to scoff at. “The only thing it’s a
sign of is the incompetence of the lawyer who drew it up. I don’t
want to run River’s Edge without you.”

Heather looked touched by the declaration,
but stood her ground. “I can’t imagine going another two years with
that woman at the other end of the complex.”

“
At least tell me what this
latest scuffle is about.”

“
If you want to know, ask
her.” Heather hesitated, then added, “Harrison, what happened to
her probation? You can refuse to renew her lease if you wanted
to.”