A Pour Way to Dye (Book 2 in the Soapmaking Mysteries) (4 page)

No one was around, and I didn’t see a bell,
so I called out, “Hello? Is anyone here?”

A young woman with frazzled blonde hair came
out, her apron covered with flour. “I’m sorry, but we’re full right
now,” she said.

“
I’m not here about a room.
You just talked with my sister about one of your guests: Paulus
Perkins.”

She looked flustered by the admission. “My
husband told me I shouldn’t have said anything to her. I’m afraid
he was quite displeased. There was no need for you to rush over
here. I’m sure he’s fine. Jeff certainly believes so.”

“
My grandfather’s probably
fine, but I’d still like to see his room,” I said.

She looked startled by the request. “I’m
afraid I can’t do that. Our rooms are private.”

I wasn’t about to let that stop me. “I’m
Paulus’s grandson. Understandably, the entire family is worried
about him. If I could just have a look around, maybe I could clear
this all up.”

She nodded and was pulling a ring of keys
from her apron pocket when a tall, muscular man with a crew cut
came out to join us. “Mary, aren’t you going to finish the
biscuits?” He caught sight of me and said, “Hello. Sorry, but
you’ve caught us at a bad time. If you’d like to book a room, you
might try later today.”

“
I’m here about my
grandfather,” I said. “Paulus Perkins.”

He scowled at his wife a second, then said,
“Sorry, we can’t help you.”

Jeff tried to back me down with his glare,
but I wasn’t about to give up that easily. I repeated my request.
“I need to see his room.”

He stared at me another full ten seconds,
then said, “No way. We don’t allow that. Good-bye.” Then he
dismissed me and turned to his wife. “Mary, you need to finish
those biscuits. Our guests are going to be down soon.”

“
He has a right to be
concerned, Jeff,” she said softly. I wanted to cheer—I was so proud
of her for standing up to him—but I didn’t want her to take any of
the heat that was meant for me.

I said, “If you insist on doing this the hard
way, I can be back here with the sheriff in ten minutes. Your other
guests might not like it, though.”

Jeff forgot all about his wife and took two
steps toward me. I thought for a minute he was going to take a
swing at me, and I braced myself for it. Instead, he stopped two
inches from my nose and said, “I doubt Billy’s going to back you
up. Best friends have a way of watching out for each other.”

Great. If we had been in Harper’s Landing, I
could have had Molly over there in a heartbeat. As it was, this oaf
had called my bluff. Well, one thing I knew about poker was that if
somebody called your bluff, one viable option was to go over the
top and up the stakes even more, trying to force them to drop out
of the hand. In a voice much louder than I normally used, I said,
“That’s great. We can make it a party. The health inspector for the
county happens to be my cousin. I’m sure he’d be interested in
looking around your kitchen.” I didn’t have any such relative, but
I was hoping he would believe that I did.

A few guests started down the stairs and must
have heard my threat. It was all I could do not to smile as they
started back to their rooms. Jeff’s face reddened, and I was ready
to duck his punches any second. The man really should sign up for
some anger management classes, but I didn’t think it was the right
time to suggest them to him.

“
Leave before I throw you
out,” he snarled. Mary had ducked back into the kitchen, and I
couldn’t blame her a bit. I wasn’t about to give up,
though.

“
Give me five minutes in his
room and I won’t bother you again,” I said. “He’s checking out, and
I’m taking his luggage with me.” He smiled coldly at that, though I
didn’t know why.

I added, “If you’ve got a problem with that,
I suggest you call my attorney.” I handed him one of Kelly’s cards,
knowing she’d back me up. “Why make this any harder than it has to
be?”

I wasn’t sure if he wanted the fight or not,
but I think Kelly’s card was enough to finally convince him I was a
gnat he couldn’t afford to swat. “Fine,” he said as he stormed
upstairs. How in the world did this man run a business dealing with
the public on such an intimate level? I didn’t care how elegant the
surroundings, or even how nice his wife seemed. He was an oaf and a
bully, and I couldn’t wait to get away from him.

He unlocked the door to the Elderberry Suite
and said, “Happy? You’ve got five minutes.”

I stepped inside, then called out, “Hang on a
second. You made a mistake.”

“
What are you talking
about?” he asked as he came into the room.

“
This one’s empty,” I
said.

“
That’s what my wife told
you,” he replied, starting to leave again.

I wasn’t finished, though. “Then where’s his
luggage? That bed hasn’t been slept in, and there’s nothing of his
here.”

“
It’s pretty clear, isn’t
it? The old man is gone, but he forgot to tell anybody he was
leaving.” He tapped his wrist-watch. “You’ve got five minutes. When
you’re through, I’ll have his bill ready and we can settle up at
the front desk.”

He slammed the door behind him. I searched
the room, but if Paulus had left anything behind, I couldn’t find
it. There was a notepad by the telephone, but it was blank as far
as I could tell. I checked all of the pages anyway, but there was
nothing there. Or was there? I held the top sheet to the lamp and
studied the heavy impressions on it. My grandfather had a firm hand
when he wrote, and I knew in the past he’d torn a letter or two
signing his name with such force. Grabbing a pencil from the table,
I lightly brushed the sheet with its edge, hoping to leave a
graphite trail. There was a telephone number there, faint but
unmistakable. I dialed the number, but there was no answer. I had
hoped that when the machine picked up, I’d at least be able to tell
who I was calling, but an electronically generated voice invited me
to leave a message, which I chose not to do. I scribbled the number
down and tucked the paper in my pocket, swept through the room one
last time, then left to go downstairs.

Jeff was waiting for me there, a bill in his
hands. “We take cash, checks, or credit cards,” he said as he
pushed the invoice into my hands. I looked at the total and
couldn’t believe it. There were six nights of charges there, close
to a thousand dollars altogether. I shoved the bill back into his
chest. “I’m not paying that.”

“
Then I’ll see you in court.
Bring your fancy lawyer with you; we’ve dealt with deadbeats
before.”

I protested, “Your wife told me herself that
he hasn’t even been here the past three days.”

The big man shrugged. “He didn’t check out,
and I couldn’t rent the room until he did, so you owe me the
money.”

“
Give me a second,” I said
as I took out my cell phone and called my mother. She was the one
in charge of our finances, and if I charged something that she
didn’t approve, I knew full well she’d dock me for it and take it
out of my salary.

When I got her on the line, I said, “We’ve
got a situation I need your help with,” I said.

“
What did you find out? Can
he put that fence there?”

I’d forgotten all about the blockade. “I’m
still not sure. This is about Paulus. He’s been staying in a bed
and breakfast in Sassafras Ridge, but they haven’t seen him in
three days.”

There was a short pause, then she asked, “Do
you think something’s happened to him?”

“
That’s what I’m trying to
find out. In the meantime,” I added, lowering my voice, “they want
me to pay his bill. It’s nearly a grand for six days’
stay.”

“
So pay it,” she said
abruptly.

“
What? You can’t be serious.
The woman who runs the place admitted to me that he hasn’t even
been here for three days. This is extortion.” I couldn’t believe my
mother was folding to the pressure so easily when she fought for
every dime when it came to our bottom line.

“
Your grandfather’s a big
boy,” she said. “Pay the bill. If he has a problem with it, he can
dispute it himself. Otherwise, I’ll pull it out of his partners’
account.” She sounded almost gleeful about the prospect.

“
Are you sure this is the
best way to handle it?” The last thing I wanted was to get in the
middle of another dispute between my mother and
grandfather.

“
Think of it this way, Ben.
We’re doing him a favor. Who knows how much longer they would have
tried to soak him if you hadn’t stepped in? Just do it.”

I reluctantly agreed, then asked, “Aren’t you
the least bit worried about Paulus?” I knew the two of them had had
their share of troubles over the years, but there had to be a
glimmer of mutual respect between them. I’d seen it myself
occasionally in the past.

“
Of course I am,” she said.
“After all, we need to know exactly what Earnest Joy is talking
about. So you’ll find your grandfather and get him to tell you. Now
I’ve got to go. We’ve got a delivery truck, and no way to unload
it.”

I hung up and saw that Jeff had been
eavesdropping on my conversation.

“
I’ll pay you for three
days,” I said, not willing to give him the satisfaction of winning
without a fight.

“
You’ll pay for the entire
stay, or I’ll see you in court. Believe me, you won’t
win.”

Well, at least I’d be able to tell Paulus I’d
tried. I could barely stomach it as I handed him my business credit
card and said, “I want a signed receipt for payment in full.”

“
Of course,” he said as he
ran it through his system. I signed the slip, had him sign the more
formal bill he’d thrust at me before, then walked away. The
encounter had left me with a bad taste in my mouth, but at least I
had one lead to follow up on.

Chapter 3

It took me ten minutes, but I finally got
Molly Wilkes on the phone. She was my onetime girlfriend and
sometimes date, as well as being the best cop on the Harper’s
Landing police force. Things had been a little dicey between us
since I’d started going out with Kelly, but I was hoping our
friendship could transcend the momentary riff between us.

“
Hey, Molly. It’s
Ben.”

“
What do you want?” she
asked curtly. Okay, maybe this wasn’t going to be as easy as I’d
hoped.

“
I need a favor,” I
admitted.

She sighed into the receiver, then said,
“Ben, I’m not sure I should help you, even if I can.”

“
Hey, it’s nothing, really.
I just need to find an address for a telephone number.”

She snapped, “It’s something, believe me.
Ben, I can’t just drop everything I’m doing whenever you get into
trouble. Go to the library and find a reverse directory. It’s not
that hard.”

“
If I can find it at the
library anyway, why won’t you help me?”

Her sigh was one I was all too familiar with.
“Because you’re asking me to do something during my shift that
can’t possibly be part of my job description. I have to answer for
my time, you know.”

“
Don’t you even want to know
what this is about?” I asked. I had some serious fence-mending to
do with Molly, more than I’d realized, but I couldn’t imagine that
she’d just turn her back on me.

“
Fine, go ahead and tell me.
What is it about?” she asked in a tired voice.

“
My grandfather’s missing,
and this number is the only lead I’ve got.”

That certainly got her attention. Molly and
my grandfather were friends, something I’d never really fully
understood. He’d called me a fool on more than one occasion for not
marrying her, and threatened to ask her himself if I was too
stubborn to do it.

Molly said, “I’m listening. Tell me what
happened.”

After I brought her up to date, she asked,
“Why didn’t you call me about the fence? I thought I’d be first
person on your list. Well, second, anyway.”

It was pretty obvious she meant Kelly was
probably first. “I haven’t told anyone outside the family,” I said.
“I’ve been trying to find Paulus first, because he might have an
idea about what’s going on.”

She hesitated, then said, “This may take a
few minutes. Are you on your cell phone?”

“
Yeah, but I thought you
just had to punch a few numbers into your computer. I don’t mind
holding.”

She let out a snort. “Benjamin Perkins,
believe it or not,

I’ve got more important things to do than
drop everything to take care of you.”

“
Sorry,” I said, but she’d
already hung up on me. I sat out in front of the B&B in my
Miata waiting for her to call back. After three minutes, I saw the
front door open and Jeff came outside. He had a baseball bat in his
hand, and I decided I could just as easily wait somewhere else. As
I drove away, I offered a smile and a wave, but he didn’t return
either.

I parked in front of an abandoned movie
theatre and waited there. The view was a lot less inspired, but it
felt friendlier staring at the tattered posters in the displays out
front than an angry innkeeper.

Molly finally called back ten minutes later.
“Take this down,” she said, then read me the address.

“
Thanks,” I said, hoping to
get it in before she could hang up on me.

To my surprise, she actually stayed on the
line long enough to say, “I’m doing this for Paulus. Let me know
what you find out.”

“
I’ll do that,” I said as we
were disconnected.