Turtle Wexler is able to profit from the storm by selling handmade candles at an exorbitant price.
After the storm wipes out the electricity, Turtle goes door to door to sell her handmade candles. Although the candles are crooked, she tells everyone that they are actually quite practical and romantic. Of course, Turtle is merely using a marketing ploy to get everyone to buy her candles.
She tells the other "heirs" that the stripes on each candle are unique because they tell time. For example, each stripe is supposed to burn for half-an-hour. Since there are approximately twelve stripes on each candle, Turtle concludes that each candle will burn for six hours.
She sells the candles for five dollars each. Of course, the heirs do not appreciate her avaricious ways. However, they have little choice but to purchase her candles. The reason is that they must race against time to...
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discover Sam Westing's killer in order to be eligible for the Westing fortune.
I believe that this question is asking about the beginning of chapter 8. The residents of Sunset Towers awake to find that the snow flurries from earlier have increased to a full-blown blizzard. The residents are snowed in and "imprisoned by fifteen-foot snowdrifts." To make matters worse, the building's power and telephones have been knocked out by the storm. Ever the intelligent and crafty entrepreneur, Turtle Wexler decides that she can take advantage of the situation by selling the other residents the candles that she made at summer camp. She places herself in a location where the residents will see her and her product, and she sweetens the deal with a great sales pitch.
“These handmade candles are both practical and romantic."
The residents know that they need light in order to work on their clues. Turtle Wexler knows this as well, so she doesn't sell the candles cheap.
“How much?”
“Not wishing to take advantage of this emergency, I’ve reduced the price to only five dollars each.”
Outrageous. Even more so when the electricity came on two hours after her last sale. “Sorry, no refunds,” Turtle said.