At Wick's End - Tim Myers [48]
“It’s not necessary,” she said, a little more forcefully than was required. “I’m nearly finished, and I’m sure your list will just duplicate parts of mine. I can handle this myself.”
“I insist. I’ve got to learn how to run my own candle shop.”
She started to cloud up, and I quickly added, “If I’m ever going to be able to operate this place without calling you every two minutes, I need to learn how to do everything myself.”
I walked back to the storage room before she could stop me and found a dozen boxes on the floor, all moved off the top shelves.
“It looks like a hurricane went through here.”
Eve said, “That’s another reason I came in early. Items are always falling behind the boxes. We find them later, after we’ve ordered duplicates we don’t need. Belle and I started pulling the top inventories once a month to make sure we weren’t missing anything.”
I shook my head. “There’s got to be a better way to do inventory than that.”
“I’m just an employee,” she said with a slight nod. “It’s your store.”
“I’ll look into it,” I said, making the hundredth mental note since I’d taken over the shop. “In the meantime, let me give you a hand getting this back into some kind of order.”
We had things straightened out again soon enough, with everything back in its rightful place. There were three packs of wicks, one expensive rubber mold, a few scraps of paper and a handful of votive candle forms lodged behind the boxes.
“This won’t take long to place, it’s hardly big enough for you to bother with,” Eve said as she studied the list.
“I’d still like to do it myself, if you don’t mind. The quicker I learn, the better off I’ll be.”
She handed me the list and said, “You’re welcome to it.”
“Hey, I could use a walk-through first,” I said, sorry I’d offended her yet again. “I don’t even know who to call.”
“I’m sure you’ll have no problem at all, there’s a list of our vendors by the telephone. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have other work to do before we open.”
As Eve started straightening the shelves out front, I stared after her. Most likely Belle had let her place the orders herself, but if I was going to get a handle on running the business, I had to know how to do everything in the store. I probably should have handled it more diplomatically, but I couldn’t do anything about that at the moment. When things settled down, I’d try to make things right with Eve.
I dialed the number of our supplier and was waiting for someone to pick up when there was a knock at the office door. Good, it appeared that Eve had reconsidered and had decided to give me a hand.
Pearly stuck his head in and said, “We need to talk, Harrison.”
“I’m kind of busy right now, Pearly.”
“I can see that, but it would still be in your best interests to make that call later.”
I hung up the phone and asked, “What’s up?”
“Harrison, you don’t know me all that well, but I’m not one to overreact to situations. Still, there’s something going on here that requires your attention.” He paused a moment, then added, “I’m beginning to suspect this new tenant Markum is up to something.”
“What makes you think that?” I asked, suddenly forgetting all about the supply order.
“Last night I was upstairs adding a new dead-bolt lock to Cragg’s office when I saw the oddest thing. Markum didn’t notice me, I was on the inside of Cragg’s office with the door cracked. He walked up the stairs with a bag slung over one shoulder, and from the strain on his face, I’ll wager there was a heavy load in that duffel.”
“He’s into salvage, Pearly. It could have been anything.”
“I might concur if that were all. However, I needed a different tool from my truck for the installation, and as I walked by his office, I heard him on the telephone.” Pearly colored slightly. “Now I wasn’t eavesdropping, but he’d neglected to close his door, and the man’s voice does have a way of carrying.”
“What did you hear?” I asked, in spite of the invasion of privacy If Markum had anything to do with Belle’s death, I wanted to know about it. Courtesies, even legalities,