Snuffed Out - Tim Myers [27]
Cragg was just locking up his office when I walked upstairs. I normally do all I can to avoid confrontations, but he’d tried to railroad me into accepting Sanora Gaston back to River’s Edge, and I wasn’t about to let him get away with it.
Chapter 7
I don’t like what you did,” I said without preface.
“What are you referring to?” he asked in his deliberate and sonorous tone.
“You had to know how folks around here felt about Sanora. Why didn’t you warn me?”
“Warn you of what, idle gossip, rumor, and rampant speculation? She was ill-accused, Harrison, and I wasn’t about to perpetuate the myth. She belongs at River’s Edge.”
I shook my head. How in the world had I been dense enough to actually believe I could win an argument with a lawyer? “I know this is an argument I’m not going to win. I’m just glad I didn’t sign her up to a long-term lease.”
“So you’ve made your mind up already? You’re not even going to give her a chance, are you?”
I thought about it a second, then said, “I haven’t made my mind up about anything. I just wish I’d had all the information before I made my decision.”
That appeased him somewhat. “Just be fair, that’s all I ask. She deserves at least that.”
“As do we all,” I said and slipped inside before Cragg had the chance to get the last word in. Had I meant what I’d said? Was there a chance in the world I would trade Sanora’s presence at River’s Edge for Heather’s? If it came down to keeping one tenant and losing the other, was that a decision I was willing to make? I didn’t want to lose Heather, either as a tenant or a friend, but I also wasn’t about to let anyone dictate my leasing policies to me. Right or wrong; River’s Edge was mine to run.
I just hoped it didn’t come down to losing either one.
There was a knock at my door, and I knew Cragg hadn’t been satisfied in letting me end our conversation. As I opened it, I said, “I told you I’d think about it.”
Markum was there, leaning against the wall just outside my door. “That’s all a man can ask. I’ll leave you, then.”
I said, “Come on in. I thought you were Cragg.”
Markum’s lip curled in disgust. “That’s the meanest thing I ever heard you say, Harrison.”
“You know what I meant.”
The big man came in and made a stab at reining in his wild black hair with a meaty hand. “Sorry to interrupt, but I came by to see what the sheriff had to say.”
“Not much,” I admitted, retelling the conversation I’d had with Morton and the fact that Sanora had taken the wheel to the dump, without mentioning my theft.
Markum said, “So that’s that, then. We’re left without any evidence. I thought, a little too late, about that pottery wheel. When I asked Sanora if I could buy it from her this afternoon, she told me it was already gone.”
I jiggled the bag in my hand. “The wheel’s gone, but I got the cord before she could get rid of it.”
Markum slapped me on the back, nearly knocking me back. “Harrison Black, I’ll make a salvage man out of you yet. Let’s see it.”
I handed the cord over. “I got my fingerprints all over it.”
Markum took it and said, “Come down the hall with me. I want to get a better look at it.”
I followed him out of my apartment and locked the door behind me. Once we were in his office, Markum turned on a light that circled a magnifying glass. It was the size of a coffee cup saucer, and there was no doubt he could indeed get a closer look than the naked eye.
“That’s quite a rig,” I said.
“It’s useful at times, no doubt about that,” he muttered as he unwrapped the cord and studied it, inch by inch. I busied myself watching him for a time, but after a while my gaze shifted to some of the travel posters up in his office. He’d added a new one since I’d been there last, one of a steam- driven engine racing through a mountain pass, the fog lying low in the autumn hills and a blanket of patchwork colors draping it.
“So,” Markum said as he moved the light’s swivel head out of his way.
“It was an accident