At Wick's End - Tim Myers [72]
To finish off your rolled projects, you can dip the bottoms in a pan of melted wax, sealing the candle and giving it a more stable base, but it’s not really necessary.
The most important thing to remember when making candles is to have fun!
Here’s a glimpse of SNUFFED OUT, second in the Candlemaking mysteries by Tim Myers
SNUFFED OUT
by Tim Myers
Chapter 1
I was hunting for the short circuit that knocked out the power to River’s Edge when I stumbled across Aaron Gaston’s body. I hadn’t known the potter all that well, exchanging a few greetings and a shared cup of coffee or two since I’d taken over the complex of small businesses from my Great-Aunt Belle. My candleshop, At Wick’s End, was on the other side of the converted warehouse/factory from The Pot Shot, Aaron’s name for his pottery studio. Still, I had no trouble identifying him in the weak beam of my flashlight as he lay sprawled on the floor in the middle of his studio. As the new owner of the building, I should have been more involved in my tenants’ lives and businesses, but running the candleshop was nearly more than I could handle. I’d let Pearly Gray, my well-educated and erudite handyman, serve as my liaison to most of the folks who worked at River’s Edge.
Now it appeared that I’d lost my last chance to get to know Aaron.
With a shaky hand, I reached for the telephone and called Sheriff Morton. He was the final authority for the law in Micah’s Ridge, at least as far as I was concerned.
“Morton here,” he answered after the desk sergeant rang me through.
“I’ve got a problem,” I said after identifying myself.
“Write a letter to Ask Ernestine,” he said, “I’ve got my hands full right now.”
I wasn’t in the mood for his brusque manner. “Sheriff, one of my tenants is dead. I’m standing here in the dark with his body, and my flashlight’s starting to flicker out.”
That got his attention. “Sorry, Harrison, I’ve got three deputies out sick at the same time. There’s a really nasty bug ripping through my department. Are you sure he’s dead?”
I reluctantly trained the dimming beam over the body again. While dusk was just approaching outside, the shop was in near total darkness. There was still light enough from my flashlight to see the pallor of his face, though. Aaron was surrounded by a pool of darkness that I initially mistook for blood, but after a closer look, I could see that it was nothing more than spilled water. My imagination was definitely running on overtime.
“There’s not much doubt about that,” I said.
“Don’t touch anything,” Morton said, then added with a hint of chagrin in his voice, “You’re using his phone, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I grabbed his telephone. I had to call you, didn’t I?”
After a sigh, Morton said, “Let me amend that, then. Don’t touch anything else. And Harrison?”
“Yes?”
“I know it’s not all that pleasant, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t leave the body until I got there.”
After hanging up the phone, I stayed with Aaron about two seconds before I decided that staying with the body could mean a lot of different things. If I waited for Morton outside by the shop’s front door, blocking the way of anyone else trying to get in, that should satisfy him.
It was going to have to, since my light was just about gone, and there was no way I was going to stand around in the dark with a dead body.
I used the master key Pearly had given me when we’d started checking on our tenants and locked the door behind me. I hadn’t wanted to keep up with all those keys in the first place; there were over a dozen places of business at River’s Edge, so I’d let Pearly watch after them for me. It was all I could do to keep up with the keys to my apartment upstairs, both trucks, and of course, the ones for At Wick’s End. Sometimes, particularly moments like the one I was experiencing, I’d wished my Great-Aunt Belle had left me a minor league baseball team, a yogurt stand, even a bowling alley; anything