A Pour Way to Dye (Book 2 in the Soapmaking Mysteries) (9 page)

“
Then you’re staying out
here until we can process the scene.”

Another car drove up, and a man I didn’t
recognize got out. He spoke to Molly briefly, and then walked
inside.

“
Who’s that?”

I could see in her eyes that she wasn’t sure
she wanted to tell me, but finally she admitted, “That’s the new
coroner. We can’t move the body until he gives us his approval.” A
woman outfitted with kits and cameras came up in a police van as
she spoke and went in, too.

“
I can’t believe Earnest is
dead.”

She snapped, “What makes you think it was
Earnest? I didn’t say anything about who it was, and to be honest
with you, I was kind of surprised you didn’t ask when I came back
out.”

“
Come on, Molly, it’s his
house. Who else could it be?” Then I remembered my pretty public
fight with Andrew three hours earlier. “Oh no. It’s not Andrew, is
it?”

“
Ben, I knew you all were
battling about that fence. Does this have anything to do with
that?”

I said loudly, “How would I know? You won’t
even tell me who it is.”

“
You were right the first
time. It’s Earnest Joy. And there’s a problem.”

“
Just one?” I snapped. “I
can’t imagine what it could be.”

“
You might want to save the
theatrics for someone who’s impressed,” she said. “It’s pretty
important you keep it all in check right now.”

I took a few deep breaths, then said, “I’m
sorry. So what’s the problem?”

“
I shouldn’t be telling you
this, but it’s pretty clear that Earnest was murdered. The worst
part of it is that he’s got a bar of soap from your shop clutched
in his left hand.”

That news shook me more than the murder.
“Molly, you can’t honestly believe that I had anything to do with
this. You’ve known me practically my whole life.”

She didn’t answer immediately, a fact that
shook me to the core. When Molly finally spoke, she said sadly, “I
don’t want to believe it, Ben, but I know how you can be when your
family is involved. All of you Perkinses are extremely protective
of each other.”

“
Not to the point of
murder,” I said hotly.

“
And then there’s your
temper. You can fly off the handle sometimes, and you know it. So
give me an alibi or something else I can believe. It might help
once we determine the cause of death.”

I thought about my whereabouts for the past
few hours. While it was true that I’d spent some time with people
who could verify where I’d been, I’d also driven around alone,
certainly long enough to sneak over to Earnest Joy’s house and bash
in his head.

“
I can’t account for every
minute of the last few hours,” I admitted. “Molly, even if I did
kill him, would I have been stupid enough to leave a bar of soap in
his hand? Come on, that doesn’t make sense.”

She shook her head. “I wish it were that
simple, but from the blood and the way he was positioned, it was
pretty obvious that Earnest grabbed that soap after he was
attacked. It was still in its wrapper, Ben; that’s how we knew
where it was from.”

“
Wait a second,” I said.
“His son Andrew was in our shop three hours ago. He could have
bought some then, or slipped a bar into his pocket.”

“
We’ll talk to Andrew as
soon as we can find him,” Molly said. “Do you happen to know where
he or Terri are?”

I thought about my earlier confrontation with
Andrew. “I don’t know where Terri is, but Andrew’s in Raleigh by
now. He left right after our argument.”

Molly shook her head. “Don’t tell me. You two
were fighting about that stupid fence.”

“
It’s going to kill our
business if it’s true that the Joys own that land,” I said. ‘That
makes it pretty serious.”

She stared at me a second, then asked, “Ben,
do you want me to lock you up? I don’t need much more reason now
than you’ve given me this afternoon.”

“
Do what you have to do,” I
said. “I don’t care how bad it looks. Somebody else killed
him.”

“
We’ll look into Andrew’s
alibi and his sister Terri’s too, but we’re going to be talking to
your family as well. I’ve got to tell you though, you’re the most
logical suspect, given the facts.”

It looked like I was going to jail, despite
my innocence. “Can I at least call Kelly and have her meet us at
your office?” I didn’t relish spending the night behind bars, but I
knew on one level that Molly was right. It did look bad for me.

“
Don’t be a bigger horse’s
rear end than you already are. I’m not locking you up until I have
more evidence than I’ve got. But do me a favor and hang around
town, would you? I’ve got a feeling I’m going to get some heat for
not taking you in right now.”

I offered my thanks, then said, “I may need
to go to Sassafras Ridge or Fiddler’s Gap, but I won’t go more than
seventy miles from here without telling you first.”

She shook her head. “You’re all heart, aren’t
you?”

Ralph Haller, Earnest’s crony from the shop,
came charging out from the house next door. “Is it true? Did you
kill him?” he asked, shouting as he hurried toward me. “You did,
didn’t you? You sick jerk, he had every right to put that fence
up.”

“
Take it easy,” I said. “I
didn’t kill anybody.”

Ralph pointed to Molly with his right index
finger. “You’ve got to arrest him. I heard him threaten Earnest
yesterday.”

“
You’re lying,” I said, a
little louder than I’d meant to.

“
Prove it,” Ralph
said.

Molly stepped between us. “Sir, if you’d like
to make a statement, why don’t you go back and wait on your porch
and I’ll talk to you in a few minutes?”

Ralph stared at me with a crazy glare in his
eyes. “You bet your hat I want this on the record.” He stared at me
a second, said, “Killer,” then walked back to his property.

Molly watched him go, then asked, “What was
that all about?”

“
He was Earnest Joy’s best
friend.”

She shook her head. “Ben, is it true what he
said?”

“
I never threatened Earnest
Joy,” I said, trying to keep my voice level. “He’s making it
up.”

“
Did he witness any
conversation at all between you and Earnest yesterday?”

I couldn’t believe this. “Molly, he was at
the jewelry store when I confronted Earnest about that blasted
fence. I may have raised my voice once or twice, but I didn’t
threaten him. I swear it.”

She paused, then asked. “Was anybody else
there?’

I shook my head. “No. it was just the three
of us.”

“
Great that’s just great.
Ben. Nicely done. The next time you get into an argument with a man
who’s about to be a murder victim, could you at least have the
courtesy to get a witness who doesn’t want to see you go to
jail?”

There wasn’t much I could say to that. “Am I
free to go then?” I asked.

“
Where can I find you if I
need you?”

I looked her straight in the eye. “Do you
really want to know?”

“
I wouldn’t have asked if I
didn’t.”

I took a deep breath, then said, “I’ll be out
looking for who really killed Earnest Joy.”

She finally blew up. “Don’t make this worse
than it already is, Ben. You’re in way over your head.”

“
Maybe I am,” I snapped,
“But at least I know I didn’t kill him. Can you say as much?” I
paused a few seconds, then added, “Yeah, that’s what I
thought.”

Before Molly could say another word, I walked
off. All the way to my car, I half expected her to call me back to
the porch so she could arrest me, but when I didn’t hear anything,
I felt a sense of relief, no matter how temporary it was. While it
was true that I was under pressure to figure out who had killed
Earnest Joy, I didn’t have a single idea where to start. Besides,
there was one other thing I needed to do before I started my own
investigation. I had to tell my family what had happened, and it
wasn’t going to be much fun adding that I was the prime
suspect.

Suddenly jail didn’t look so bad after
all.

I parked in the customer lot of the soap
shop, but before I went in, I had to call Kelly.

When her receptionist answered, I said,
“Kelly Sheer, please.”

“
Whom may I say is
calling?”

“
Tell her it’s Ben Perkins,”
I said.

There was a hint of glee in his voice as he
said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Perkins, but Ms. Sheer is unavailable.”

What an officious little twerp. “Just put her
on.”

“
I’m afraid she’s gone for
the day. You could try back Monday morning.”

“
That’s all right,” I said,
“I’ve got her cell phone number.”

After I hung up, I dialed her cell, only to
find out that it was turned off. Kelly never did that, and I
wondered if she had done it just to avoid talking to me.

Don’t be so paranoid, Ben, there’s probably a
perfectly good reason she’s out of touch.

I left a brief message on her voice mail and
asked her to call me. Then I added lamely that I was looking
forward to tomorrow and hung up. I couldn’t delay it any longer. It
was time to tell the family about Earnest Joy.

At least it was close enough to closing time
to lock the doors before I told them. As expected, everyone was
shocked by the news of the homicide. Before I could even finish, my
brother Jim said, “You were with me all afternoon, remember?” He
added with a wink, “You can bet your life I’ll testify to it in
court, too.”

Mom looked relieved by the news. “Is that
true, Benjamin?”

Jim kept nodding, but I said, “No, ma’am, I
can’t actually account for all of my time this afternoon. I had
plenty of opportunities to sneak over there and kill him if I’d
wanted to.”

Mom slapped Jim’s hand.

As he rubbed his knuckles, he said, “Ow. What
was that for?”

“
For lying to your mother,”
she said, then she slapped him again. Though he was a grown man who
towered over her, he took it, though he protested the treatment.
“What did I do that time?”

“
You didn’t believe in your
brother’s innocence,” she said simply.

“
You’ve got it all wrong.
I’m trying to keep him out of jail. I know he didn’t do it. It’s
the rest of the world I’m worried about.”

Mom bit her lower lip, then reached up and
hugged him. “I’m sorry, Jimmy, I shouldn’t have swatted you.”

Bob said, “Don’t be too easy on him. I’m sure
he deserved it for something else.”

Kate snapped, “Would you boys grow up? This
is serious.”

“
It’s worse than you
realize,” I said. “Molly’s going to interview all of us about the
murder. She’s going to want to know about your alibis, because I’m
pretty sure she thinks she’s got the motive and the murder weapon
wrapped up.”

“
Why that’s wonderful news,”
Mom said, and I wondered if she’d had a little toddy with her
lunch.

Louisa asked her before I could. “And why is
that such good news?”

Mom looked smug as she explained. “It means
that she’s not a hundred percent convinced that Ben is the one who
killed Earnest.”

Cindy muttered, “But we’re her only other
suspects.”

I said, “It’s not just us. She’s going to
talk to Andrew and Terri, too.”

Jeff was surprisingly quiet during the
conversation. I looked at him, but he wouldn’t make eye contact
with me. A sudden feeling of despair hit me. Could my brother have
killed the man out of some sense of family? “Jeff, is there
something you want to say to me?”

“
Not me,” he said, and that
was all I could get out of him.

Mom shook her head, no doubt just as confused
as I was, then she said, “So here’s what we’ll do. We’re going to
go about our business and let the police handle this. For now, it’s
going to be business as usual at Where There’s Soap.” Mom glanced
at the clock, then said, “Right now, it’s time to go home. I won’t
pay overtime for you all to sit around trying to solve a murder.”
She tossed her keys to Louisa. “It’s your turn to take everyone
home.”

They were grumbling as they left, and I tried
to follow them out when Mom called out, “Ben, may I speak with you
a moment?”

Blast it all, I’d almost made a clean
getaway. “What’s up?”

She waited until the front door was locked
and no one was left but the two of us. Then she turned to me and
said, “So what are you going to do about this?”

“
What are you talking
about?”

Mom squinched her eyes at me. “How are you
going to solve the murder so this doesn’t touch us?”

“
What happened to letting
the police do their jobs and us doing ours?”

“
That’s nonsense,” she said.
“I said it to appease your brothers and sisters, but we both know
better. We can’t afford to wait for them to see the truth. You’ve
got to figure out what really happened to Earnest Joy.”

I took my mother’s hands in mine and said,
“Mom, I wish I knew how to manage that, honestly I do, but I’m
stumped. Molly’s going to talk to Andrew and Terri, the crime lab’s
probably still at the house, and most likely there are two or three
other cops working on it. What does that leave me?”

She smiled. “You’ve got something they
don’t.”

“
Please, enlighten me,” I
said.

She tapped my forehead. “You’ve got this. So
go home and think about it. Make a list like you always do and find
an angle that Molly might miss.”