A Pour Way to Dye (Book 2 in the Soapmaking Mysteries) (3 page)

“
I’d like to, but I’m still
trying to figure it all out myself. Do you happen to know where our
grandfather is?”

Kate frowned. “What does he have to do with
this? He’s trying to stay out of sight right now because of the
feud he’s got going on with Mom.”

“
Are you actually taking
sides between them?” I asked. I thought Kate was too smart to get
trapped in that particular snare.

She raised her palms outward. “No way. I’m
just trying to keep them from killing each other until they can
both calm down and see reason.”

I started to lean against the fence, then
hesitated as I began to wonder if Earnest might have electrified
it, though I’d touched it earlier without getting shocked. Knowing
him, it was a distinct possibility that he was watching me from the
shadows of his building, waiting for me to touch it again before
turning on the power. “Earnest Joy claims this is legitimate, and
that Paulus has something to do with it. Kate, I really need to
talk to him. It’s important.”

Instead of telling me where he was, she said,
“I’ll tell you what I can do. I’ll call him as soon as I get inside
and then I’ll have him call you right back.”

I couldn’t believe somebody in my family was
trying to thwart me when all I wanted to do was fix this mess we
were in. “Just give me the number, Kate. He’ll talk to me.”

She wasn’t about to budge, though. “If he’d
wanted you to have it, he would have given it to you instead of me.
Now where should I park?”

I knew better than to try to argue this
particular sister out of the telephone number. “We’re all in
customer parking for now,” I said.

Kate frowned. “I bet Mom’s just loving that.
I’ll call him as soon as I get inside, Ben. I promise.”

I followed her progress as she drove around
the building and met her at the front door by the time she parked.
Surveying the lot, it appeared that Where There’s Soap was doing a
booming business. Unfortunately, with so many of the spots taken,
it didn’t leave a lot of room for our real clientele.

Mom was already addressing that when I walked
inside. She had the family clustered together in front of the shop
by the cash register, and from the expressions on my brothers and
sisters’ faces, they were as unhappy about that fence as I was. Or
maybe our mother’s directives were bothering them.

As I took my place among them, she said,
“There are no excuses and there will be no exceptions. Kate will
follow each of you home, then bring you back here.”

Jim said, “Why does she get to keep her car
when we all have to give ours up?”

Mom wagged a finger at him. “Because she’s
the only one besides me who’s sensible enough to drive a vehicle
most of the family can fit into. I can’t see everyone piling into
Ben’s Miata, can you?”

I spoke up, despite the heat of my mother’s
glare. “Kate can’t do it.”

There was silence among my siblings as I felt
their stares bore into me. “What did you say?” Mom asked in a
lowered voice she reserved for warpaths and national disasters.

I quickly explained, “If you want me to take
care of that fence, and I know you do, I need Kate’s help.” I
didn’t have to say another word. Mom dug into her purse and found
her keys. As she tossed them to Jim, she said, “Here’s the new
plan. James, you drive my minivan and follow your brothers and
sisters home.”

He looked smug hearing the order until she
added, “When you get back, Bob can follow you home.”

“
So how are we all going to
get out of here tonight?” Louisa asked. “Mom, this isn’t going to
be very practical.”

“
That’s why Benjamin is
going to take care of it as soon as possible. Isn’t that
right?”

I wasn’t about to make a promise I couldn’t
keep, certainly not with all of the witnesses gathered there. “I’ll
do what I can. Kate, let’s go make that call.”

As the others left—grumbling, but not loud
enough to draw our mother’s wrath—I followed Kate to our break
room, a place where we kept our personal items, ate, and generally
hung out away from our customers. It was a small room between the
boutique and the production line, and Mom kept it stocked with a
better selection of treats than most bakeries had. I thought the
Krankles’ bakery in Fiddler’s Gap might give her a run for her
money, but I wasn’t going to mention that to her.

I never would have found the bakery if it
hadn’t been for Kelly Sheer. Kelly and I had been trying to date
lately—mostly unsuccessfully—due to her daughter Annie’s protests.
We were going to challenge that at the Fair on the Square the next
day, escorting Annie together to the rides, booths, and food stands
set up downtown. I was looking forward to finally getting another
chance to see Kelly when Kate’s words brought me back to
reality.

“
Stop daydreaming, Ben. We
need to call Grandpa.”

Trying not to look guilty about being caught,
I said, “I was just trying to figure this mess out.”

My sister wasn’t buying it, though. “Then why
were you smiling? I know what you were thinking about. Or should I
say who?”

I pointed to her purse. “Are you going to get
that number or do I have to search your bag myself?”

She offered it to me. “Go ahead and try it.
Watch out for the mousetrap, though. I like to keep a few surprises
handy for anybody crazy enough to stick a finger inside.”

“
No thanks,” I said as I
refused her purse. Knowing Kate, she probably really had
booby-trapped the thing.

“
Coward,” she said as she
dug into the bag. As I watched her pull out an eclectic assortment
of gadgets, makeup, and notes of all shapes and sizes, I marveled
that she could find anything in there. In less than thirty seconds
though, she held a piece of paper triumphantly in the
air.

“
I knew right where it was,”
she said.

“
I didn’t doubt you for an
instant.” I handed her my cell phone and said, “Call him,
Kate.”

“
Let’s go to your office,”
she said. “I need some privacy.”

I couldn’t believe my sister. “If you don’t
want me eavesdropping, I’ll go out on the porch.”

Kate said softly, “It’s not you I’m worried
about,” as she pointed to the door.

Though our mother was feuding with Paulus, I
knew she was dying to find out where he’d gone. That’s when I
noticed that the door was open a crack. Was that my mother’s ear
framed there? Louder than I needed to, I said, “Okay, you’re right.
Let’s go upstairs. You’ll be more comfortable in my office.”

I gave my mother time to scamper away from
the door, then opened it to find her pretending to read the morning
paper. If it had been in her hands right-side-up I would have had a
better chance of believing her ruse.

Without a word to our mother, Kate and I
walked back to the assembly line—past the idle equipment—and up the
stairs. The top floor of our building housed three offices in its
space and covered just the production area and storage in back.
Each office on the second floor featured a large window that looked
down on the sales area below, no doubt so that we could see what
was going on while we were isolated upstairs. The door to my
mother’s office was open— as it always was, since she spent most of
her time downstairs—and Grandpa’s was firmly shut. He rarely used
his office space since he’d scaled back his participation in the
business. I had the last office in line. Unfortunately, I spent way
too much of my time locked in there trying to straighten out
another mess.

I ushered Kate inside, then stepped out into
the narrow hallway so she could have some privacy. While I waited
for her to call our grandfather, I walked down to his office. I
wasn’t snooping, not really, but I couldn’t help wondering if there
might be something there that would help me figure out what was
going on. I opened the door and started to turn the light on, but
then I realized that Mom would be able to see it from the sales
floor below. That was one conversation I didn’t want to have, so I
managed with the light coming in from the window and the open door.
I knew Paulus liked to keep things neat, but it was even sparser
than it had been the last time I’d been in there. The desk was now
clear of any sign of occupancy, and even the photos he’d kept on
display were gone. I pulled one drawer partially out of his desk,
and then another. Instead of the papers I’d expected to see, there
was a lone telephone book in one of the drawers, and it was three
years out of date. His file cabinets were empty, too. It was as if
he’d left with no plans of ever coming back. Was something going on
here I didn’t know about? I was just walking out of his office when
Kate approached me.

“
Ben, I can’t believe you’re
snooping on our own grandfather.”

I frowned. “There would have to be something
in there before I could snoop. Kate, what’s going on?”

She looked puzzled by the question. “What do
you mean?”

“
That place has been cleaned
out. There’s nothing left.”

She peeked inside. “That can’t be true.”
After a second, she added, “Ben, there’s lots of things in
there.”

“
I’m not talking about
furniture or file cabinets,” I said. “Unless you count an old phone
book, the place has been absolutely gutted.”

She didn’t believe me, or maybe she just
didn’t want to. After Kate had systematically opened and closed
every drawer and cabinet, her frown deepened. “I don’t understand
this.”

“
There’s one sure way to
find out. Call Paulus back and ask him what’s going on,” I
said.

Kate looked uncomfortable. “I’d love to,
believe me, but there’s a problem with that.”

“
What’s wrong? Is he too
busy on one of his larks to help us out here?” Sometimes it felt
like our grandfather was reverting to his childhood, denying any
responsibility for anything and just focusing on having a good
time.

Kate scrunched her lips together and ran a
hand through her chestnut hair before she finally answered. “The
place he was staying doesn’t know what happened to him. They
haven’t seen him in three days.”

“
You’ve got to be kidding
me,” I said. “They actually told you he was missing?”

Kate admitted reluctantly, “No, but the woman
I spoke to commented that his bed hadn’t been slept in, and she was
getting worried about him.”

Maybe it was more serious than one of his
larks after all. “Kate, this has gone on long enough. Tell me where
he is. I need to make sure he’s all right.”

She looked torn as she asked, “Ben, what if
it’s nothing? He’ll be furious with me for giving him away, and you
know how that man can hold a grudge.”

I took my sister’s shoulders in my hands.
“Listen to me, Kate. He could be in serious trouble. It’s time to
stop this hide-and-seek game. Now tell me where he is.”

Kate battled with it—I could tell by the
expressions shifting on her face—until finally she said, “He’s in
Sassafras Ridge.”

That was less than half an hour from Harper’s
Landing. Why would he stay somewhere that close when he had a
perfectly nice house just thirty miles away? “What’s he up to,
Kate?”

“
I swear, that’s all I
know,” she said. The poor girl looked like she was ready to burst
into tears at any second. I put my arm around her. “Kate, it’s
going to be all right.”

“
Do you honestly think so?
What if something’s happened to him? Ben, I’m worried.”

I could have told her the truth, that I was
every bit as concerned as she was, but that wouldn’t solve
anything.

“
Let’s not borrow trouble
until we find out exactly what’s going on. I’ll just drive over
there and see what’s happening. What’s the name of the place where
he’s staying?”

“
The Beverly Inn on
Crestmont,” she admitted. “Ben, you’ve got to find him.”

“
I’ll do my best. In the
meantime, I wouldn’t say anything about this to anybody else in the
family.” She knew as well as I did that I’d meant our
mother.

“
I won’t, but hurry, would
you?”

If anything had happened to Paulus, chances
are it had already occurred, but I didn’t say that. “I’m on my
way.”

As I raced out the door, Mom tried to stop
me. “Benjamin, where are you going?”

I wasn’t about to share my suspicions with
her. “I’m doing what you asked me to do, trying to clear this mess
up,” I said as I hurried out. Glancing at her as I left, I could
see the concern on her face as well. She knew something was wrong,
but she also knew better than to push me for more of an answer than
I could give her.

I got into my Miata and drove as quickly as I
dared toward Sassafras Ridge. It was time to see what had happened
to Paulus, and at the moment, that was even more important than the
fence cutting off our lifeline.

When I got to the Beverly Inn—a place I’d
never heard of before in my life—I began to wonder even more about
my grandfather’s state of mind. I’d been expecting a cheap dive
given Paulus’s penurious nature, but instead, I found a grand home
converted into a bed and breakfast. The magnificent old Victorian
had been freshly painted, with lavender gingerbread trim glowing
against a purple field. A pristine white sign was positioned near
the cobblestone walk that led past a lush lawn to the wide front
porch. I might even stay there myself someday, if I ever won the
lottery. One night’s visit was probably as expensive as a month of
rent for my apartment.

There was a Shaker-style desk in the front
parlor, with a Queen Anne table beside it. The welcoming space was
decorated with an eclectic selection of antiques that somehow all
seemed to fit.