A Pour Way to Dye (Book 2 in the Soapmaking Mysteries) (12 page)

“
What?” she asked, obviously
startled. “No. Of course not.”

“
Then don’t treat me this
way. You’ve explained your decision, and while I don’t like it for
a second, I respect it and I promise I won’t pursue you
romantically. But I don’t think Harry McCallister is up for this.
I’m hoping it doesn’t come to it, but if I need an attorney, I want
to be able to count on you.” McCallister handled our corporate
stuff, but he hadn’t been inside a courtroom in donkey years. “So
what do you say?”

She sighed, then said, “You’re right. My
decision to reconcile with Wade wasn’t because of anything you did.
If you need me, at least as your attorney, I’ll do my best to
help.” There was a long pause, and I wondered if she was still
there when she added, “Ben, I handled this badly. I’m so
sorry.”

“
It’s your life,” I said,
this time unable to keep the hurt out of my voice. “I’ll call you
if Molly decides to arrest me. Good-bye.”

“
Bye,” she said softly as I
hung up.

And that was that. I’d had high hopes for my
budding relationship with Kelly, but they were ashes in my mouth
now. We’d only shared a few dates stolen from the time she spent
with her daughter, Annie, but I’d grown fond of her and would miss
having her in my life. It was time to move on.

I worked at the stack of papers on my desk,
going through order forms and invoices, trying to catch up on some
of the paperwork I’d let slide lately. All in all it was pretty
mindless stuff, but it helped to keep busy, and I didn’t exactly
have anywhere else I needed to be. By the time Cindy knocked on my
door several hours later, I’d managed to clear my desktop,
something I hadn’t been able to do in ages.

She walked in, glanced down at the pristine
surface, then said, “Wow, so there’s real wood under there after
all.”

I shrugged. “To be honest with you; I’d
forgotten that myself. What can I do for you?”

“
We’re closed,” she said as
she gestured to my window overlooking the store below. Nearly all
of the lights were off and the aisles were deserted.

“
I lost all track of
time.”

Cindy said, “So get up and let’s get out of
here. What would you like to do tonight? I’m up for anything.”

“
Don’t you have a date?” I
asked her. Cindy had a very active social life, rarely dating the
same young man two nights in a row. I didn’t believe for one second
she didn’t have plans for a Saturday night.

“
It’s nothing I can’t put
off,” she said. “I’m ready if you are.”

I shook my head. “I’m not about to let you
break some guy’s heart for my sake. I appreciate the offer, but go
out and have fun.”

“
Reggie won’t mind, I
promise. I’m here for you, Ben.”

I laughed. “Reggie will probably be up on the
roof if you cancel on him, ready to throw himself off. I mean it.
Go on.”

She frowned. “Are you sure?”

“
I’m positive. I’m going to
grab a hamburger on the way home and watch an old movie. That’s the
best thing in the world for me right now.”

“
I like hamburgers,” Cindy
said, “and if you let me pick the movie, I’ll hang out with
you.”

“
No thanks,” I said.
“Honestly, I need some time alone.”

She reluctantly agreed. “Okay, but if you
change your mind, call me on my cell phone and I’ll be right
there.”

“
Have fun,” I
said.

She nodded, then left my office. At the door,
she paused and said, “Bob’s already gone, so it’s just you. Don’t
forget the alarm.”

“
I’m leaving in ten or
fifteen minutes,” I said, “And I’ve been setting that alarm since
you were in diapers.”

After she was gone, it was remarkable how a
place that was normally so active could be so quiet. I was rarely
there after our regular business hours, and the entire building had
an eerie silence to it that caught me by surprise. It was no place
for me to be alone tonight. I locked up my office, then hesitated
in the hallway upstairs by the window that looked down on the back
parking lot.

Dusk was nearing, but Andrew Joy was out
there with a shovel, attacking the last bit of free ground on his
property. What an odd bird.

I locked the place up, happy to be free of it
for the night. Once I was back in my apartment, snug with a
hamburger and Twelve Angry Men in the VCR, my life felt more normal
than it had all day. For the rest of the evening I tried to forget
about Kelly, about Earnest Joy, and about the unwanted fence, and
thanks to Henry Fonda and company, I almost managed to do it.

Chapter 6

I was shaving the next morning when the phone
rang. Who in the world could be calling me so early?

“
Hello,” I said, getting
some shaving cream on the receiver by accident.

“
Ben, this is Bob. You need
to get down here right now.”

I couldn’t remember my calm and tranquil
brother ever sounding so agitated in my life. “Where are you, and
what’s going on?”

“
I’m at the shop. Andrew
Joy’s been busy. Part of our back parking lot’s been
destroyed.”

“
I’ll be right there,” I
said. I hurriedly finished shaving and got dressed. Had Earnest’s
murder driven Andrew over the edge?

He knew perfectly well we were disputing his
family’s claim on our land. Why would he escalate what was already
an acrimonious situation? By the time I got to the soap shop, I was
ready for a fight. If I had to stand in front of him with a shovel
of my own to stop him, I’d do it.

I parked in the side lot and hurried toward
the back. There were a couple of industrial-sized trucks parked on
Joy land, and it only took a second to realize they were from the
same company that had installed the fence. I wondered what he was
doing now. Had Andrew decided to electrify the installation after
all?

Instead, to my great surprise, they were
actually starting to take it down.

“
What’s going on?” I asked
the two-man crew as they worked.

“
We got orders to remove
it,” one of the workers said. “It was some kind of emergency, from
what we were told.”

“
Who did you speak to?” I
asked.

One of the men looked at the other and asked,
“Did you catch her name, Billy? She was pretty strong with her
demands. Even offered to pay us double-time if we did it this
morning. We weren’t about to pass that up, were we, Billy?” He
lowered his voice as he added, “Listen, buddy, I’m sorry if you’re
unhappy about this thing coming down, but we do what we’re
told.”

“
Her last name didn’t happen
to be Perkins, did it?” Had one of my sisters—or worse yet, my
mother—ordered the fence’s removal? What if the Joy claim was
legitimate? Did that make us criminally liable in some way? I
wished I could call Kelly, and I would if things got any
worse.

The fence man shook his head. “Like I said, I
didn’t catch her name. You might want to move out of the way,” he
told me. “We’re about ready to take it down.”

As they started removing the fencing, I
looked around for my brother. Bob’s truck was in the lot beside my
Miata, but he was nowhere to be seen. I was about to go inside
Where There’s Soap to look for him when I saw the back door open.
Bob walked down the steps, and to my surprise, Terri was right on
his heels.

I walked toward them, past where one of the
buried posts used to be. “What’s going on here?”

Bob said, “Terri’s dropping the whole thing
after what Andrew did last night.”

“
What did he do?” I asked as
my gaze caught sight of one area of our parking lot. A spot had
been dug up in the old asphalt and the dirt from the hole was
spread around it. A compact car would have fit inside it—though it
was only six inches deep—and I saw tread tracks in the dirt. He’d
actually used a bulldozer, and from the look of things, it appeared
that Andrew had planned to expand his garden on our
land.

“
Has he lost his mind?” I
asked as I walked over to the hole. “Sorry,” I added when I looked
back at Terri.

“
Believe me, I’ve been
asking myself the same thing. I was out jogging this morning and I
found him digging in the dirt with a piece of heavy equipment. We
had it out, and I told him enough was enough.”

“
And he agreed with you?” I
asked. I couldn’t imagine Andrew backing down after the squabble
we’d had.

“
He didn’t have any choice,”
Terri said. “We just found out that I’m the executor of Dad’s
estate, to my brother’s great distress. I told him if he didn’t
drop this right here and now, he wouldn’t see a dime of Joy money
until he was too old to enjoy it.” She had something in her hand
and gave it to me. “This is for you.”

I took the faded piece of paper from her and
saw my grandfather’s shaky signature on the hand-printed IOU. “Are
you sure about this?” I asked.

“
I’m positive,” she said. “I
want the chance to make this right again between us. It doesn’t
matter what happened in the past. All that counts now is how we go
on from here.”

The fence installers—actually, the
uninstallers would be more appropriate—removed the last post, and
all that was left to show what had happened was a series of holes
in our lot. Granted one was big enough to park the Miata in, but it
was our land again, undisputed.

“
Why did he start digging
there?” I asked, curious about his choice. The spot where he’d dug
was a good seven feet from the edge of the asphalt, and it looked
like a random place to start to me.

“
Who knows what he was
thinking,” Terri said. “I’d make him come over and apologize in
person, but I’m afraid that’s where he’d draw the line. My apology
will have to be enough.”

I offered her my hand. “That’s good enough
for me. As for me, I’m sorry about the way I’ve been acting,
too.”

A pair of big trucks came rumbling up the
road, and I was surprised when they pulled into the back lot. They
were from Hitch Paving and Asphalt, and as soon as they stopped,
six men hopped out of the cabs.

Terri said, “I almost forgot. I’m having the
back lot paved at my expense for all your trouble. I hope that’s
all right.”

Bob smiled. “Are you kidding? That’s great.
Isn’t it, Ben?”

“
It’s awfully generous,” I
said. “You didn’t have to do that. Having them work on Sunday must
be costing you a fortune.”

“
It’s not costing me a
dime,” she said, smiling. “It’s taken care of.”

Bob slapped my shoulder. “Don’t ask
questions, Ben, just say thank you.”

“
Thank you,” I
said.

“
You’re most welcome. Now if
you two will excuse me, I’m not finished with my brother just yet.”
She gestured to his rambling garden and added, “I’m getting tired
of dodging gopher holes, so I’ve called a landscaper to come in and
plow this mess under and turn it back into a lawn.”

I grinned. “Can I be with you when you tell
Andrew about it?” The man’s head would absolutely explode when he
found out his horticultural days were over.

“
I don’t think so,” she
said. Terri started back toward the jewelry shop when she hesitated
and turned back to me. “Are we okay now, Ben?”

“
This should take care of
it,” I said. “Thanks again.”

“
It never should have gotten
this far,” she said.

After she was gone, Bob smacked my arm. “Can
you believe this? You’re going to look like a hero to everybody in
our family.”

“
What are you talking
about?” I asked as I watched the men fill in the holes prior to
paving the lot.

“
Terri told me inside that
the only reason she did this was because of you. Do you mind
explaining what you said to her?”

“
I can’t imagine,” I said.
“I honestly don’t have a clue what she’s talking about.”

He slapped my arm again. “Now’s not the time
to be modest, Ben. You need to call Mom and tell her right now.
She’ll be thrilled.”

“
You can call her if you’d
like,” I said. “I want to watch this.”

“
Okay,” he said, “But I’m
giving you all the credit.”

After Bob went back into the shop, I watched
as the crew began to pave the lot. Terri had acted quickly enough
once she’d learned she had the power to give orders. I was sure
Andrew had put up more of a fight than she’d admitted, but at least
we had our lot back. I looked at the IOU in my hand, thought about
shredding it, then decided to give Paulus the honor of destroying
himself. There was no doubt in my mind that it was authentic; it
was his signature, no matter how shaky the lettering was. Was he
drunk when he’d signed it? No doubt he had been, given his vague
recollection of the event. But that didn’t matter now. My
grandfather had stopped drinking right after the incident, and if
it had saved his life, it had been worth it even if the Joys had
taken the whole building.

By the time I left the shop that evening,
shining black asphalt covered the back parking lot, and the
customer lot, too. I’d tried to protest that it was too much, but
the foreman had informed me that he had the materials on his truck,
and it would be too big a headache to find a place to dump them.
All we needed was a fresh set of lines, and we’d be set with both
our parking lots. The parking lots were in stark contrast with what
they’d been that morning. Terri had made more than a good faith
effort, and I was going to make sure every Perkins knew about it,
and accepted the gesture for what it was: a chance to make things
right between us again.