A Flicker of Doubt - Tim Myers [54]
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 paper, 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.”
I smiled. “There are worse things I could do, aren’t there?”
“The next time, though, you might want to keep voice down when you’re offering unadvertised sales.”
“Yeah, that’s something I’ll keep in mind.’
The rest of the day was fairly quiet, though we managed to make several more sales. As dusk approached, the shop was closed, the books balanced, and I was on my way to the bank so I could get the deposit in.
As I drove through Micah’s Ridge, I saw a man coming out of a building on King Street I didn’t need a second look to know that it was one of the men Markum and I had seen coming out of Becka’s apartment the day we broke in.
Chapter 15
I pulled the truck over into a parking spot and waited for him to catch up with me on foot. It was one of the few times in my life that I wished I had a cell phone. Who would I call, though? Sheriff Morton probably wouldn’t believe me. I knew I could trust Markum, and though we’d had