Snuffed Out - Tim Myers [33]
“He took it that hard?”
“Gary asked me out a dozen times, but I kept telling him we were just friends. Then he saw me with Aaron last week at The Shallows and misunderstood completely. I never got the chance to explain.”
“He is overprotective of you, isn’t he?”
Sanora said, “And there was no reason for it, either. Aaron was even seeing someone else, though he admitted he was about to break it off. My ex-husband was much better at acquiring girlfriends than he was in keeping them.” She looked around the shop, then said, “Listen, I would appreciate it if you’d call the glazier for me and tell them it’s a rush job. It’s as dark as a tomb in here. Oh, no.” She bolted for the bathroom in back and I let myself out. A tomb is exactly what the shop had been, if just for a few hours.
Instead of going back to At Wick’s End, I walked down the steps to the river. It was the perfect place to think before the stores at River’s Edge started to fill up. It was hard to wipe the image of Gary Cragg out of my mind as he’d hovered over Sanora. Her admission that he’d had a crush on her started me thinking. Could the attorney have frayed that cord himself in an effort to get rid of an obstacle in his way? If he’d seen Aaron and Sanora cozying up at a restaurant, it might have been enough to drive him into action. I wished I could say that Cragg was above murder, but I honestly didn’t know if I believed it.
I was still thinking about it when Tick jogged up. “You’re out early,” I said as she stretched beside me.
“I jog three miles every morning. You should join me sometime.”
“I like my exercise at a more leisurely pace,” I admitted.
“What happened to the window?” she asked as she looked at the pottery shop.
“We had a little vandalism last night.”
Tick shook her head. “What is this world coming to? Well, I’ve got to grab a quick shower before I open the shop. See you later.”
She started to go when I said, “Tick, I appreciate you spending time with Sanora. You might want to drop in on her before you open.”
“I’ll do just that. See you later, Harrison.”
I got up and brushed off my jeans. I still had that order to call in before we opened, and if I left it till the last minute, Eve would certainly scold me about it. Sometimes it was hard to remember that I was the one who owned At Wick’s End and she was the employee.
As I walked past Heather’s shop, there was a new sign in the window, closed till further notice. Now when had she done that? That sign hadn’t been there yesterday afternoon, I would have noticed it. Could she have done it this morning, and I’d missed seeing her? Another thought struck me, one I didn’t want to admit. Was it possible she’d posted it last night, just before hurling that brick through Sanora’s window?
No, I couldn’t believe it, not of my friend.
But the possibility refused to go away.
I needn’t have worried about Eve noticing any lapses of my responsibilities. She was in her own world as we opened the store and welcomed our customers.
Sheriff Morton came in an hour after we opened. He looked pale and there was a sheen of sweat on his brow, though it was still cool outside. “Harrison, you have a second?”
“Absolutely,” I told him. I turned to Eve and said, “I won’t be long.”
She nodded curtly, then went back to the customer she was helping.
Outside, Morton said, “She’s all full of cheer, isn’t she?”
“Actually, this is one of her good days. So what do you think about the window?”
“It looks like you and Pearly did a good job patching it, but I’d get the glass man in here if you want to keep Sanora off your back. She can be a real pain in the neck when she wants to be.”
“You know Aaron’s ex-wife?”
Morton said, “Let’s just say we went out a few times and leave it at that, can we? I got the brick from her, but it’s not going to do any good. I found a pile of them around the back of the building. You really should get that cleaned up, Harrison, you don’t want rats moving in on you.”
“I’ve got it on my list,” I admitted. “There’s no chance of fingerprints?