A Pour Way to Dye (Book 2 in the Soapmaking Mysteries) (5 page)

The address Molly gave me was in Sassafras
Ridge, but I didn’t have a clue how to find it. I’d located the inn
by driving into town and searching street signs as I went, but I
hadn’t seen a Sunbeam Lane in my travels. I was certain that was a
name I would have remembered. After driving around pointlessly for
ten minutes, I spotted a post office, parked in front, then walked
inside. They’d have to know where Sunbeam Lane was if the occupant
there ever got any mail.

There was an attractive young woman working a
crossword puzzle at the desk behind the counter. She smiled at me
as I walked in and asked, “May I help you?”

“
I’m looking for Sunbeam
Lane,” I said.

She laughed, a sound I enjoyed from the
second I heard it. “Can you believe some of our street names around
here? We’ve got Brightside Avenue, Happy Boulevard, and Rainbow
Street. The man who laid out our streets was either an eternal
optimist or barely sober. I haven’t been able to find out which,
and to be honest with you, I’m not sure I want to know.”

“
Is it far from here?” I
asked.

“
No, just drive two blocks
down Happy, make a right on Sunshine, and you’ll see Sunbeam on
your left, two streets down the road. If you get lost, I’ll be here
till five.”

“
Thanks,” I said as I headed
back to the Miata. I hoped this wasn’t a dead end. I needed to talk
to Paulus, and it just wasn’t to be sure he was all right, though I
was concerned enough about his well-being. That fence was already
killing our business, and it was up to me to find out how to get
rid of it. Unfortunately, I had to talk to my grandfather before I
could figure out where to start.

Bingo! Paulus’s car was parked in the
driveway of the house on Sunbeam Lane. I didn’t have a clue what he
was doing there, but I was starting to feel much better about him
being missing in action. The small house was in need of a coat of
paint and the front yard hadn’t been mowed in a month. I walked up
and knocked on the front door after searching in vain for a
doorbell.

An older woman dressed in a bathrobe with her
hair in rollers answered the door. “Yes?”

“
I’m looking for Paulus
Perkins,” I said.

She studied me through a single misplaced
false eyelash. “There’s nobody here by that name,” she said as she
tried to close the door in my face.

I put my foot inside, willing to take the
chance that she wouldn’t try to break it. “That’s his car in the
driveway, and I found your telephone number on the night table of
his room. I’d like to speak to him, please. There’s no use denying
you know him.”

“
I didn’t say I didn’t know
him,” she snapped. “I just said he wasn’t here. He’s not, either.”
She glanced at Paulus’s car, then looked back at me. “Did you drive
that thing back here? I thought he took it with him.”

“
I’m in my Miata,” I said as
I gestured to my car parked on the street. “If he’s not here, then
where is he?”

She looked me up and down, then said, “You’re
a persistent fellow, aren’t you?”

“
When it comes to family I
am. Now are you going to go get him, or do I have to come back with
a cop?” Hey, I didn’t say it would be a police officer in Sassafras
Ridge, though I’d probably have better luck with one here in town
than anybody in Molly’s office at the moment.

“
He’s at the diner down the
block,” she admitted reluctantly. “It’s called the Lazy
Spoon.”

I didn’t believe her, though. “Then why is
his car in your driveway?”

“
How should I know? Maybe he
felt like a walk. Who knows what that man gets into his head. Now
excuse me, but I’m not nearly ready yet, and I’m late for work as
it is.”

I hastily pulled my foot out of the door
before she could slam it. What in the world was my grandfather
doing with this woman? It seemed like every time I found an answer
to one of my questions, it just confused me more than ever. I’d
seen a diner on the drive in, but I wasn’t about to walk there.
Paulus might have all the time in the world, but I was working
under a deadline.

Sure enough, I found him having a cup of
coffee when I walked into the Lazy Spoon. It wasn’t the most
glamorous of names, but then I wasn’t planning on eating anything
there, so what did I care?

I slid onto the bench seat beside him and
said, “You’re a hard man to track down.”

He nearly choked on his coffee when he saw
me. I was about to call the paramedics when he waved a hand in the
air. “I’m all right. You just caught me off guard. Don’t you know
any better than to sneak up on an old man like that?”

I shook my head. “If you’d let one of us know
where you were, I wouldn’t have to.”

He shook his head in clear disgust. “I
figured it was too much of a coincidence having you walk in here
like that. I can’t believe Kate ratted me out. I never would have
believed it.”

“
Don’t blame her. I
practically had to force it out of her, and she still wouldn’t have
told me anything if there hadn’t been an emergency.”

That certainly got his attention. “What
happened? Is something wrong with your mother?”

“
There’s something wrong
with all of us,” I said. “But before we get into that, I want to
know what you think you’re doing.”

He started to get up. “I won’t sit here and
listen to your scolding. I changed your diapers, or have you
forgotten that?”

Leave it to Paulus to bring that up. I
sincerely doubted he’d ever gotten within half a mile of a dirty
diaper in his life, but there was no one willing to dispute his
claim that he’d changed me and each of my siblings once and only
once. Knowing him, it was probably true. Paulus was the kind of man
to do something like that just so he could bring it up twenty or
thirty years later.

It was time to smack him right back. In a
piercing voice, I said, “You’re still a part of our family and our
business, or have you forgotten that?”

That got him. For just a second, Paulus
looked every bit of his seventy-plus years. After a few moments, he
settled back into his seat and said sadly, “If that’s true, then
why don’t I feel like I am?”

I couldn’t believe he’d have the nerve to say
that. “Remember, I argued with you not to leave when Dad died until
I ran out of breath. I needed you, Paulus, and you just dumped
Dad’s job right on me. It was just about more than I could
take.”

Was that a tear forming in his left eye?
Whatever it was, he brushed it away before it had the chance to hit
his cheek. “When James died, a part of me died with him. I couldn’t
stand being around the shop anymore.” He looked steadily at me as
he added, “Besides, it was your place to step in, not mine. You’re
the future of Where There’s Soap, Ben. I’m the past.”

That explained a lot. I’d always thought my
grandfather had downsized his role to advertising as a way to
retire without officially quitting. Instead, it appeared that he’d
mostly left our business because he’d had to get away from the
memories it held for him.

“
We’re both the present,
Grandpa,” I said. I almost always called him Paulus, and the use of
that honorific got his attention. He stared down into his coffee
for a few seconds, then said, “Maybe I was a little hasty then, but
you’re doing a fine job now.”

I hadn’t come looking for praise, no matter
how welcome it was. “So what are you doing on Sunbeam Lane? Is that
your new girlfriend?”

I wasn’t sure what reaction I’d been
expecting, but I certainly hadn’t thought what I said was all that
amusing. After he managed to get his breath back from laughing so
hard, he said, “Boy, you know me better than that. Lois and I have
been friends for donkey years, but I wouldn’t date her if she was a
piece of carbon.”

That still didn’t answer my question. “So why
did you leave the Beverly Inn three days ago and move in with
her?”

His voice rose. “Blast it all, I’m not
cohabitating with that woman, I just dropped in to say hello. I’m
staying out at the Moonbeam Motel on the highway. It’s fifty bucks
a night, but I don’t have to eat there, so that’s a bonus.”

I shook my head in amazement. “I can’t
believe you’ve been paying for two rooms and just using one.”

He frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“
You forgot to check out of
the Beverly. I put your bill on the company credit card, but Mom
says you have to pay it back. It was close to a thousand
dollars.”

That time he did jump out of his seat. As he
stood over me, he said, “Why did you pay him? I told that scoundrel
I was leaving after the second night, but he claimed I’d made the
reservation for six days, and then said I had to pay for every bit
of it. Now we’ll never get our money back.”

“
It’s not our money, it’s
yours,” I corrected him, knowing that Mom’s fiscal policy was in
concrete. “So why did you check in there in the first
place?”

He looked sheepish as he admitted, “I
misunderstood the price. It turned out forty-five dollars was for
lunch, not the whole room. I found out on the third morning of my
stay, packed my bags and left. The wife seemed nice enough, but
that man’s a menace.”

“
And he claimed you made a
reservation for six nights,” I said.

“
You saw the place didn’t
you? I couldn’t pass up that kind of deal, so I booked it for six
days the second I saw that room.”

I shrugged. “So dispute the bill. I put it on
a credit card. I wouldn’t advise going back there without an armed
guard. When I left, he was coming out on the porch with a baseball
bat. Now will you stop blustering and sit down? I still don’t know
what you’re doing in Sassafras Ridge.”

Paulus looked around us, saw that no one was
listening, then said, “There’s a business opportunity I’m looking
into, but if it’s just the same to you, I won’t say anything else
about it just yet.”

“
You’ve already got a job,”
I reminded him.

“
Maybe I’m in the market for
something different,” he said. “No offense, but lately that family
of yours has been a little oppressive.”

It was my turn to laugh. “Just a little
oppressive? You’re kidding, right? Besides, they’re your family,
too.”

“
You know what I mean.
Sometimes I just have to get away, and I thought something else
here might hold my interest.”

At least I finally knew what he’d been up to,
though I’d noted how careful he’d been to skirt the real issue of
what he was doing in town.

“
I’ve got something for you,
if you’re bored,” I said. “Earnest Joy put a fence up last night
across our back parking lot. When I asked him about it, he told me
to talk to you.”

Paulus wasn’t the least bit surprised by my
news, something that deeply disturbed me. Instead of the rant I’d
expected, he said softly, “So it’s come to that, has it?”

“
You mean that land really
does belong to him?”

“
It’s complicated,” Paulus
said. He slid a single under his plate, then grabbed the bill.
“Come on, we need to get back to Harper’s Landing.”

“
That’s what I’ve been
saying all along,” I said.

As he headed for the register up front, he
added, “We’re going to need some help dealing with this. Have you
called Kelly Sheer yet?”

“
No, I wanted to talk to you
first,” I admitted.

My grandfather snorted in disgust. “What are
waiting for, Ben? As soon as you drop me off at my car, give her a
call. You can’t waste another second. I’m afraid we’re going to
need her services on this one.”

I was afraid of that too, given Paulus’s
serious demeanor.

“
Kelly, we’ve got a
problem,” I said as soon as I dropped Paulus off at his car. I knew
I probably should have called Kate and Mom first about Paulus, but
I didn’t want to delay getting Kelly involved for another
second.

“
Are you cancelling our
meeting at the Fair on the Square?” she asked. Was that hope in her
voice, or was it just my imagination? “It’s okay if you have to.
I’ll understand.”

“
No, I wouldn’t miss that
for the world. I’m talking about the soap shop. I’m afraid we need
your legal expertise again.”

“
What is it?” she
asked.

I explained the fencing problem to her, and
after I was finished, she said, “Let me get one of my assistants to
research the title at the courthouse. I’ll let you know by five.
Listen Ben, I’ve got to go.”

She hung up before I could even say good-bye.
Something was definitely up with Kelly. I had to wonder if her
daughter Annie was giving her a hard time about our date the next
day. She was just eleven and hopelessly in love with the idea that
her parents would someday get back together, and I didn’t fit into
her plans at all.

I dialed the shop’s number, hoping that Mom
wouldn’t answer. No such luck.

“
I found him,” I
said.

“
Where was he, shacked up
with some trollop?” she asked. Man, was I ever glad I hadn’t called
in after meeting Lois and jumping to the wrong
conclusion.

“
No, he’s looking into some
business opportunities.”

“
Soap business?” my mother
asked coolly.

“
No, actually it’s none of
our business at all,” I answered.

She took that in, and I could tell she wanted
to dispute my response, but finally she said, “I’m assuming he’s
all right, so that’s what’s important. Did he shed any light on
Earnest Joy’s claim?”