Read A Pour Way to Dye (Book 2 in the Soapmaking Mysteries) for Free Online

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.
    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,