True to his promise, Will had put out the word to his boys that he was interested in finding a matchstick girl named Lily and any connection to a certain Chandler named Graham. The streets were eager to speak, and a flood of gossip and rumors had come in. Will reported his collected intelligence to Martin as if he were the Queen’s spy master. Someone claimed to have seen Lily boarding a ship to the colonies in the presence of a young lord. Others claimed that the Grey Man had taken her, and her body lay in the river, missing various organs. A more credible informant, a man who worked as a candle supplier for a shipping company, claimed to have seen Graham once a month ago holding hands with a young girl. He claimed she had blonde hair and looked small enough to be Graham’s daughter. Eliza confirmed that it did match Lily’s description.

  As to Graham himself, he was often called little Graham, not because of his physical size—he was large enough to make even Martin think twice about fighting him—but because, as a child, he gave off the impression of being a small person. His parents had died fairly young, and his brothers had also died, one from disease and the other in service in the colonies. He took over his parents' chandlery business himself, rising before the sun to light the furnace to melt the tallow for the day's candlemaking, and working from afternoon until late evening in the shop, mainly marketing his wares to people coming home from work. As Graham was unable to produce enough candles to meet the needs of larger industries, most of his income came from regular contracts with local shops and the day-to-day sales from his own storefront.

  Graham’s parents had been somewhat successful, and they rented a building entirely to themselves. The first floor had the workshop in the back, equipped with everything needed for candle production. The front of the building had been converted into a small storefront in which a variety of candles and home goods were sold. On the second floor were the family’s living quarters, but Graham reportedly lived there alone now. Since the death of his family, he had done his best to keep the business going. With the growing industrialization of Alderbridge, it was becoming increasingly difficult for independent shops to stay afloat, and Graham had been forced to let the few employees the shop had go.

  Will had tried to figure out who the employees were and where they had gone, but his sources were not quite as informed as he would have liked. It was a big city, and it was far too easy for someone to vanish. Lacking any other leads, Will’s boys had started staking the place out, looking for extra candles in the evening or people moving in the second-story windows, which were always kept open if not for the rain to air out the smell of melted tallow. They were also taking turns following Graham when he went out, looking for anything that could link back to Lily.

  “He buys a lot of food, enough for two,” one of his boys had reported.

  “He’s man enough for two,” came Will’s sharp reply.

  Jacques' rebuke after Gascoigne's death was still ringing in his ears, so Martin refrained from broaching the subject to the Faceless Man. Once Will had located Graham's shop, Martin took a walk in front of it, stretching out with his senses toward the building. He felt nothing, and he gradually became confident that this case was lacking in any cosmic influence. However, he had recently learned the hard way that even without cosmic involvement, there was still a risk.

  When Eliza had shared her story, Martin's first thought had immediately gone to the Grey Man, but as Will’s investigation went on, he was starting to relax this fear as well. Nothing about Graham seemed particularly out of the ordinary, and it was hard to imagine this seemingly gentle giant, busy from early morning to late evening, slipping out secretly to commit murder. The connection with Lily seemed scarce at best, but he decided it was worth pursuing, at least to honor the time and effort Will and his boys had put in. Even though he was confident there was nothing cosmic or beyond his ability to handle, Martin still took precautions. Before he visited the shop himself, he asked Will to acquire a spare jacket and hat. He didn’t pry as to where Will acquired them, but he had a few guesses.

  One evening after work, Martin stopped by Graham’s shop. He had rubbed some dirt in his face to make himself seem scruffier, and his borrowed jacket and hat lent him the appearance of a man down on his luck. A bell mounted above the door rang as he entered, and a large man behind the counter looked up from the account book he was staring at to give him a brief nod. His hand was rubbing his forehead as if the numbers in his book were causing him undue stress. Behind him, he could see a door frame closed off with a heavy curtain. Although it was evening and the furnace had long been turned off, the smell of melted tallow still wafted out through the curtain. The desk in front of the man had numerous ledgers and books neatly stacked, and a bag of sweets lay on top of one of them. The man made the books look tiny, and Martin had to imagine him ducking down and squeezing through that doorway sideways numerous infuriating times throughout the day. From the description he had received, Martin was sure this was Graham, and the size of him made the “little” moniker seem particularly inappropriate.

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  The shop itself was fairly neatly laid out, with lines of candles of various sizes and smells arranged on the countertops. Boxes of matches, bars of soap, and other household goods were also for sale, priced with just barely legible white tags. Martin imagined Graham had written them himself. In fact, Graham seemed to take on the entirety of the shop management himself. As a result, the shop was neat enough, but motes of dust in the corners and the messy price tags gave the shop a slightly amateur air. Martin began to walk around appraising the wares, stopping in front of a selection of more expensive beeswax candles.

  Martin stared at the candles in silence for a moment before Graham’s voice called out.

  “Something I can help you find, sir?”

  Martin looked over at Graham. He had closed the ledger, but had not yet risen from his seat. His hand still rubbed back and forth on his forehead.

  “I’m looking for a present for my wife. I forgot an anniversary the other day, and I need to get back in her good graces if you know what I mean.”

  Graham didn’t say anything but rose and walked to a shelf on the other side of the store from Martin. He moved a few things around and then pulled a couple of different candles from the back.

  “You’ll want these then. Flower-scented candles. I dropped some lavender petals in the tallow. Gives them the faint purple color and a smell that’s much better than most tallow candles.”

  “I think that’s exactly what I’m looking for. Are you a married man yourself?”

  Graham shook his head.

  “A sweetheart then?”

  Graham’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Martin.

  “Just wondering. You knew right away what to recommend. I was hoping I wasn’t the only fool trying to win back his wife with candles.”

  “Get one a week.”

  “Ah, in that case, I feel relieved. Thank you. How much will that come out to?”

  “Five halfpennies a piece, or you can get a lot of three for twelve halfpennies.”

  Martin pretended to think it over for a moment as he absentmindedly patted the pocket where the few coins he had brought were. Five halfpennies was not an exorbitant price, but twelve seemed like far more than his character would be willing to take out, no matter how angry his wife was. The money was really Martin’s money anyway, and although Boudica wasn’t overly critical about his spending now that his drinking had been curtailed, a set of new scented candles appearing without reason would certainly get her started down that path again. After his deliberation, Martin said, “Well, it’s not the maddest she’s been at me, and I did get her some yarn for her sewing the other day… Just the one for now, my good man.”

  “Right this way.” Graham walked back to where he was sitting before to collect Martin’s coins and wrap the candle in some wax paper. Martin was worried he had offended Graham with his earlier question, but he received a “good luck, sir,” when he received the wrapped candle.

  “Thanks. To you as well.” With a nod of appreciation, Martin moved to leave the shop. “Oh, just one more thing. I’ve been asking everyone I speak to these days. It’s my niece, you see, she’s gone missing. If there’s any chance you’ve seen her.”

  “I haven’t.” Came the curt reply.

  “I—I haven’t told you anything about her yet. How can you…?”

  “I don’t get out much. I hope you find her.”

  Graham’s eyes had narrowed again, and Martin could see that his hands had started to close into almost fists.

  “Well… if you see a girl about this tall, blonde hair, who goes by Lily, please let me know.”

  Martin kept his eyes on Graham’s, looking for any reaction on his face to Lily’s name. Graham either didn’t know or had a mean poker face, as his eyes twitched only slightly at the sound of Lily’s name. He recovered quickly and resumed his previous disinterested tone.

  “Sure. And who did you say you were?”

  “Hanks. Ebineezer Hanks.” Martin had previously concocted this name with Will and Eliza. If Graham ended up asking around about him, he would soon find out.

  “Hmm. Well, I hope she turns up,” the chandler said, sitting back down and ignoring his customer. Martin took one last look around the shop and pushed open the door, the bell ringing happily as he left.