Free At Wick's End (Book 1 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) by Tim Myers

throwing me out.”
    “ Eve, you’ve got your job
as long as you want it,” I said. Now why did I say that? If she
turned out to be the one who had shoved Belle off that ladder,
she’d be gone as fast as I could turn her over to the police. But
until I knew without a doubt that she’d been the one, I needed
Eve’s presence at Wick’s End more than she needed me.
    “ I’m glad that’s settled,”
Eve said as she brushed at a few nonexistent crumbs on the desktop.
“Now let’s get to work and teach you how to pour candles. It’s the
next logical step in your training.”
    Unfortunately, it was not to be. We had a
steady stream of customers the rest of the afternoon, something Eve
told me was rare enough to savor. As before, I worked the register
while she helped our clientele, and by the time we put our closed
sign up, I was beat from standing on my feet all afternoon. That
was one good thing, probably the only good thing, about selling
those computers; most of the time I could do it sitting down behind
my desk.
    As I turned the lock and pulled down the
door shade, I said, “Man, I’m beat.”
    Eve said, “You can’t stop now, Harrison.
There’s more work that needs to be done before we’re ready to go
home.”
    I smiled softly. “Point me in the right
direction and I’ll get to it.”
    “ We need to restock the
shelves, total the day’s receipts, then you need to take our
deposit by the bank. I’ve done it when I’ve had to, but carrying
cash around town makes me nervous.”
    It suddenly hit me that I knew nothing about
the ins and outs of running the place myself. “I don’t even know
how much money you make. When do you get paid? Do I cut you a check
myself or should I pay you in cash out of the register?”
    Eve smiled. “Relax, Harrison, Belle had a
system in place before we opened our doors. Ann Marie Hart does our
bookkeeping. She’s the one who cuts my check, yours too if you keep
Belle’s system in place. Instead of taking money off the top, Belle
drew a salary just like I do, then she gave us both Christmas
bonuses every year.”
    “ That sounds like a good
plan,” I said.
    Eve added, “When we had good years, it
worked out quite nicely. Some of my bonuses at first were in the
form of supplies when she couldn’t afford to give me cash.”
    I nodded. “It sounds like I need to talk to
Ann Marie.”
    Eve creased her lips, and I asked, “Did I
say something wrong?”
    “ No, but I may have jumped
the gun. I’ve already set up an appointment for you with her first
thing Monday morning. Don’t worry, you’ll be finished before Mrs.
Jorgenson gets here, Ann Marie’s an early riser, and she doesn’t
dawdle or waste time if she doesn’t have to.”
    “ That works for me, but
until then, what do I do with our deposit tonight?”
    “ I’ll show you how to
balance our receipts with the register tape,” she said.
“Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, they match
perfectly.”
    “ And if they
don’t?”
    “ Then we order something
from Millie and stay here until they do.”
    Amazing as it was given the fact that I’d
run the register most of the day, we balanced out to the penny.
After a quick lesson at logging the deposit and filling out the
slip, Eve said, “Now you’re ready to deposit this at the bank.”
    “ Let me grab my truck
keys,” I said, “and I’ll take it right now.”
    “ Why don’t you take Belle’s
truck? It’s yours now too.”
    That certainly got my attention. “Are you
telling me my great-aunt had a truck?”
    Eve said, “In this business, you need one,
believe me. We do more than just the shop, Harrison. There are
street fairs, demonstrations, all sorts of times where you’ll be on
the road representing At Wick’s End. Mr. Young should have
mentioned it to you.”
    “ Where is this mystery
truck?” I asked.
    “ Behind the building parked
in Belle’s spot. I guess that’s yours too now.”
    I pocketed the keys to my old Dodge Ram, a
pickup