Death Waxed Over - Tim Myers [56]
I looked at the patrolmen and said, “You know, I’m not so sure this is a good idea.”
Morton said, “So you have something to hide?”
“No, but I don’t want you scaring my tenants or their customers. You’re going to have to get that warrant after all.”
Morton smiled, then reached out his hand to one of his female officers. She put a folded piece of paper in his grasp, and after Morton glanced at it, he handed it to me. It was a search warrant allowing him to look around the entire complex.
“If you had one of these, why did you bother asking my permission?”
“I had to keep you busy until the warrant got here so you couldn’t warn Pearly first.”
“He’s not here,” I insisted.
“And I say he is.” Morton turned to his staff and said, “I’ve already checked the one apartment upstairs, but there are offices up there, too. You two check them out.” He turned to the other two officers and said, “You’all start down by the pottery and I’ll start at the candleshop at this end. Remember, he’s wanted for questioning at the moment, and that’s all. No rough stuff. Now go.”
As his team dispersed, I followed him into my candleshop.
“I don’t need a chaperone,” he said.
“You do if you’re going into At Wick’s End.”
He didn’t like it, but he knew there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Eve looked startled when the sheriff walked in behind me. “Harrison, what is it?” she asked, ignoring her customer for the moment.
“He thinks Pearly’s here.”
“And you let him storm in without resistance?”
“Eve, he’s got a warrant, so there’s really nothing I can do about it.”
After the sheriff looked around, including the classroom, the storage area and our small bathroom, he said, “Okay, I’m going next door.”
I followed him to the door, and he said, “I can’t stop you from being in your candleshop, but you’re not going with me everywhere on the grounds.”
“I own this place, along with the bank. I can go wherever I please.”
Morton snorted. “And I can haul you in for obstruction of justice.”
That was about all I was willing to take. “I’d like to see you try it. I’m not a big fan of Gary Cragg, but I know you two like each other even less. I’ve got a feeling he’d love for you to try to keep me away.”
“Do what you want,” Morton snapped.
We walked into Heather’s shop, The New Age. She was reading something at the register, and she nearly dropped the book when we walked in.
“I know this isn’t a social call,” she said, “not with all those patrol cars out front. What is this, a raid? If you’re looking for contraband, all I’ve got are some rocks from Sri Lanka, but they were imported before the ban.”
Morton said, “I’m looking for Pearly Gray.”
Heather shook her head. “What’s the matter, is it too dangerous looking for real criminals? He didn’t do anything, and you know it.”
“Then why is he on the run?” Morton said as he pushed through a beaded divider between Heather’s shop and her backroom. Suddenly he said, “Why is this back door open? Was he just here?”
Heather stepped past him and closed it. “The latch isn’t working, and I can’t call Pearly to fix it, now can I?”
Morton worked the lock, tested the door, then said, “It looks okay to me.”
“What can I say? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
I turned to Heather and said, “I’ll take a look at it myself after the sheriff is gone.”
Heather nodded as Morton and I exited without another word.
Ultimately the three search parties wound up in front of Millie’s place.
“Are you satisfied now that he’s not here, Sheriff?”
Morton said, “Blast it all, I should have had a man in the alley. Don’t worry, we’ll get him.” He paused, then said, “If he does turn up here, Harrison, I expect you to call me. At once.”
“I’ll be glad to if I see him.”
After the sheriff and his staff were gone, I wondered just who had given him the tip that Pearly was at River’s Edge. If my handyman was hanging around, he knew how to hide. I’d been all over the building in the last few days, and I hadn’t seen a trace of him. I grabbed the tool belt from Pearly