A Flicker of Doubt (Book 4 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (19 page)

I thought the stranger was going to duck
into Hannalee’s for a second, but he passed it by. I followed him,
being careful not to be spotted, though it didn’t appear the man
would notice me if I were on fire. He turned down a side street,
and I hurried after him so I wouldn’t lose him.

As I turned the corner, I felt myself being
flung back against the side of the brick building. The man I’d been
following had me pinned against the wall with a broken piece of
wood he must have found nearby. The board was jammed into my chest,
making it hard to breathe and nearly impossible to move. It
appeared that I hadn’t been nearly as slick as I thought I had
following him.

He said in a low voice, “Okay, what do you
want?”

“
What are you talking
about?” I sputtered;

“
You’ve been tailing me for
three blocks. What do you think, I’m blind? I asked you a
question.”

He pressed harder on my chest, and I felt my
lungs constrict from the pressure of the wood.

“
You know what I want,” I
said. “What happened to Becka Lane?”

That got his attention, but not in a good
way. He was really applying the pressure now. “What about her? Who
are you?”

“
What did you do to
her?”

He looked at me a second, then said, “Buddy,
you’ve got the wrong guy. I never laid a hand on her.”

“
You’re lying. I saw you
coming out of her apartment I wasn’t alone, either.”

He shook his head. “I was doing a favor for
a friend. I don’t guess it’s going to do any good telling you I
didn’t touch her.”

“
No good at all,” I said.
“Who’s the friend you’re doing a favor for?”

“
That, you’ll never know.
Listen, this is going to hurt a little, but it shouldn’t kill
you.”

He eased the pressure on my chest when he
removed the board, but I didn’t like the way he was shifting it in
his grip. It looked like he had every intention of clobbering
me.

I was painfully aware that I was on my own,
but there was no reason to let him know that I looked back toward
the main road and shouted, “Come on out He’s not going to tell
me.”

He looked around to see who I was talking
to. I did the only thing I could think of to save myself. I stomped
on his foot the second he shifted his attention from me. To my
surprise, it actually worked. He dropped his weapon and crouched
down in pain. I started to run, then I realized I still hadn’t
gotten the information I was after. I picked up the wood, took the
jagged edge and shoved it into his neck. The way he knelt down, he
had no choice but to take it. A few dots of blood welled up, and he
said, ‘‘Cut that out.”

“
Tell me who you were doing
a favor for;” I said.

“
Get that wood off my neck
or I’m not telling you a thing.”

I pushed it harder against him, and he
grunted in pain. The only thing sustaining me was remembering how
it had felt hitting Becka’s body with my kayak. “If you don’t talk,
I’ll use more than the end of this board on you.”

Maybe there was something in my voice, or
maybe he didn’t owe that many favors, because he said, “Okay, I’ll
tell you. It’s not that big a deal.”

“
I’m waiting,” I
said.

“
Hank Klein had us check out
this chick’s apartment. We didn’t even know who she
was.”

“
You’re talking about the
newspaper publisher? Why should I believe you?”

“
He was dating her. We went
there to look for a letter the fool had written, but we couldn’t
find it Somebody called the cops on us.”

“
Why would you do a favor
for Klein?”

The man grunted. “We both owed him one. Now
you want to let up on that thing? My neck’s killing me.”

“
How do I know you won’t
come after me if I let you go.”

“
You’ll still have the
board, won’t you? Listen, I’ve been pretty reasonable about this up
to now, but if this doesn’t end right now, it’s going to be
personal. Do you get me?”

I took the pressure off him and said, “Go
ahead. Get up.”

He did, eyeing me as he rubbed his neck.
“Man, you’ve got a mean streak I wasn’t counting on, and I’m
usually pretty good at judging people.”

“
Like you said, it’s
different when it’s personal. Don’t try to find me, you
understand?”

He laughed. “You’ve been watching too much
television. I figure we’re square, at least for now.”

I watched him walk away, thought about
following him to see who he was going to meet, then I realized he’d
probably lose me before I got half a block.

I was still carrying the wood in my hand
when I came back onto the main street, so I dropped it against the
edge of the building and walked back to my truck. Thankfully none
of the windows were shattered, and the money was right where I’d
left it, locked safely in the glove box.

I drove to the bank, dropped off my deposit,
then decided to pay a visit to the newspaper publisher. Maybe if I
caught him off guard while he was at home, I might be able to get
something out of him.

I looked up the address in the telephone
book, found Klein’s place and drove there. After two sessions with
the doorbell of the Colonial, Wanda Klein answered. She’d accused
me of murder once, something that naturally still left a bad taste
in my mouth.

“
What do you want?’ she
snarled at me. ‘

“
I need to see your
husband.”

“
He doesn’t have time for
the likes of you,” she said. “Go home.”

From the other room, I heard the publisher’s
voice. “Wanda? Who is it? The phone’s for you.”

She was clearly torn between chastising me
more and seeing who was calling her. She made her decision,
slamming the door in my face without another word. I waited ten
seconds, then I rang the bell again. I was nothing if not
persistent

Hank Klein came out “Go away,” he said.

“
I’m not done talking to
your wife. I’m sure she’d love to know about your
girlfriend.”

He shot a glance back inside, then stepped
out on the porch and pulled the door shut behind him. “Keep your
voice down, you moron.”

“
I don’t have anything to
hide,” I said. “Don’t tell me your wife doesn’t know you were
dating Becka.”

“
Who fed you that nonsense?
We weren’t dating.”

“
That’s a lie. You were seen
out on a date with Becka right before she died. It was a public
place, Klein.”

“
The pizza joint?” he asked.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. She didn’t like an editorial I wrote,
and if you knew anything at all about the woman, Becka wasn’t shy
about sharing her opinions with the world.”

He had a point; she never ducked
confrontation, but I wasn’t ready to give in that easily. “Maybe
that’s true, but I’ve got another witness, one of your own
associates.”

“
What, somebody at the paper
told you I was dating Becka Lane? That’s a load of crap, I’ve never
cheated on my wife in my life. I don’t dare take the
chance.”

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
Not that it’s any of your
business, but the newspaper belongs to her father. I’m the editor
by her capricious whim. Newspapering is the only thing I know. Do
you think I’m foolish enough to risk losing it? Who is this
associate you’re talking about? I’m firing whoever it was first
thing in the morning.”

“
I don’t know his name, but
he said you asked him to break into Becka’s apartment right after
she was murdered.”

He shook his head. “Harrison, I don’t know
why you should believe me, but he lied to you.”

Could he be telling me the truth? I
considered myself a pretty good judge of character. If Klein was
lying to me, he was doing it pretty convincingly.

“
So what are you going to
do,” he said, “ruin my marriage and my career based on what some
thug told you?”

“
No, I don’t work that way,”
I said. “But let me warn you, if you had anything to do with
Becka’s death, I’ll make sure you’re punished for it”

Klein rubbed his chin. “Morton told me it
was a suicide. What makes you think he was wrong?”

“
Becka hated pills,” I said.
“She didn’t exactly keep it a secret, either.”

“
So let me get this
straight. You think I was her boyfriend, and that I killed her to
cover up our affair. Harrison, think about it. If we were dating,
wouldn’t I know she hated pills? I would have come up with some
other way of getting rid of her if I’d known that If she didn’t
kill herself, you need to think about who wanted her dead and
didn’t know her that well Whoever her boyfriend was, I’d think he’d
be off the hook.”

The front door swung open abruptly, and
Wanda snapped, “What are you still doing here? Hank, come inside
this instant”

I thought about saying something about my
suspicions, but Klein was right. Unless I had more proof, I
couldn’t just break up the man’s marriage. Besides, he’d raised
enough doubt in my mind to make me reconsider my stance. Was he
telling the truth, or was he just so used to lying convincingly
that I couldn’t tell the difference?

“
Good night,” I said, but
there was no other response than a repeat of the door slamming in
my face.

So who had been lying to me? I wondered as I
drove back to River’s Edge. Had a thug I was pressuring lied, or
had the newspaper editor? On the face of it, Klein was respected in
the community, but he wouldn’t be the first man in power who lied
to save his station in life. One thing Klein had been right about:
I needed more proof before I brought the walls of his life tumbling
down on him.

When I got back to River’s Edge, it was
dark. I saw a figure sitting at one of the tables in front of
Millie’s caf6 as I approached, and I started wishing I’d kept the
board I’d used when I realized it was Markum. As the security
lights came on, I zipped my jacket and said, “What are you doing
out here? It’s starting to get cold.”

“
I’m trying to get used to
the temperature for my next job” he said.

“
Where are you going,
Siberia?” I asked as I sat beside him.

“
It’s close, but I’m not
giving out any more information than that. So, what have you been
up to tonight? Stumble over any more clues?”

“
I’m not sure.” After I
brought him up-to-date on both of my confrontations, he said,
“Harrison, if you’re not careful, you’re going to get shot one of
these days.”

“
I know I shouldn’t have
followed him down that dark side street hut I needed to know what
he was doing at Becka’s.”

“
Yeah, that was dangerous,
too, but I was talking about confronting Wanda Klein. I’ve heard
stories around town about that woman that would curl your toes.
Hey, I almost forgot about the run-in you had with her
before.”

“
Don’t remind me. I’ve been
trying to come up with the answer since I left Klein’s house, but I
haven’t had any luck. So what do you think? Which man was lying to
me tonight?”

“
Who had the most to lose?”
he asked softly.

“
That depends. If the thug
thought I might actually club him, he could have. Then again,
there’s a strong reason to believe that Klein had a good reason to
lie.”

“
Maybe both of them were,
then,” he said.

“
What do you mean? Somebody
besides Klein paid those goons to break into Becka’s house, but he
really was having an affair with her after all?”

“
It makes sense, if somebody
was trying to get the dirt on the editor. I know he’s got a ton of
enemies in this town, and it wouldn’t surprise me if his own wife
paid someone to go after him.”

“
Great, now I’m more
confused than ever,” I said.

We sat there in silence a few more minutes,
each of us mulling over what I’d discovered, when suddenly there
was a voice from the shadows behind us.

Pearly Gray stepped toward us and said, “If
I’d known we were having a meeting tonight, I would have worn my
warmest coat”

“
You’re welcome to join us
anyway,” I said as I pushed one of the chairs toward him with my
foot

“
Are you certain I’m not
interrupting anything?” he asked.

Markum was quick with his reply. “No, we’re
just trying to solve the world’s problems.”

Pearly sat with us. “Wonderful, I just
happen to have a solution to most of the planet’s woes. The first
step would be to emulate the advice of the Bard of Avon.”

I grinned. “So what’s the second thing we do
after we shoot all the lawyers?”

He smiled at me. “Very good, Harrison. Let’s
see, what should we do after that indeed? After the celebrations
are over, at any rate.”

Markum said, “We can go after the
politicians next, unless anybody has any objections.”

When no one spoke, I filled the void.
“Motion carried, passed by acclimation. Anybody want to get rid of
another group with our third edict?”

Pearly said, “We’ve turned rather
bloodthirsty, haven’t we? I should think we’ve eliminated enough of
the undesirables to begin shaping our new world.”

“
Come on, I’m just getting
warmed up,” Markum said. “We can do better than that. There are a
lot more groups on my list”

Pearly thought about it a moment then said,
“While I’m a peaceable man by nature, perhaps I spoke
prematurely.”