Free A Pour Way to Dye (Book 2 in the Soapmaking Mysteries) by Tim Myers

said
curtly. “I’ll be right there.”
    The man looked at me like I was unworthy to
be taking up space. I was getting a great many more hostile
reactions than I’d been expecting when I’d decided to visit
Kelly.
    He finally closed the door, and I said,
“There’s no shortage of good-looking men around here, is
there?”
    Kelly sighed. “Ben, I really do have to
go.”
    “ Sorry to keep you,” I said.
I knew she had a practice to run, and that I couldn’t expect her to
drop everything to help me. I could hope, but I couldn’t reasonably
be angry if she didn’t.
    As she ducked back into her office, I asked,
“We’re still on for tomorrow aren’t we?”
    “ I’ll be there,” she
said.
    So that idea had been a complete wash. I
tried to think of anything else I could do, but Paulus was AWOL
again, Kelly didn’t have time to help, and Andrew and his father
were both being stubborn mules. I’d thought Earnest Joy had been
the truculent one, but Andrew had been more adamant about that
fence than his father had been. So should I try to talk sense into
Earnest? The poker debt that Andrew had mentioned sounded bogus to
me, but I’d have to hear Paulus’s side of things before I
acted.
    I was pulling out of the parking space in
front of Kelly’s office when I noticed my grandfather’s car parked
in front of Myra’s Shoes. I pulled back in and shut off the engine.
It was time to talk to Paulus about what was really going on.
    He was trying on a pair of pristine white
walking shoes when I found him inside. “There you are,” I said. “We
need to talk.”
    I swear, it looked like he wanted to run
away. I just wasn’t having much luck with my people skills, even
with my family.
    “ What about?” he asked
grumpily.
    “ A poker debt. Does that
ring any bells?”
    Paulus looked at Myra a second, then said,
“Do you have these in elevens?”
    The slim older woman with bright white hair
said, “Paulus, I told you before, they’re not going to fit.”
    “ Humor an old man, would
you?”
    She shook her head as she said, “I swear
crusty old geezers like you will be the death of me someday.”
    After she ducked into the storeroom, we had
the place to ourselves. Paulus leaned toward me and said, “So you
know.”
    “ Know what, that you bet our
back parking lot in a game of poker and lost?”
    He rubbed his chin, then looked me in the
eye. “Ben, it was a long time ago. I was drinking then, pretty
heavily, I might add.”
    This was the first time I’d heard about it.
“How bad was it?”
    “ I blacked out a few times,”
he admitted. “I don’t remember the bet, or even the poker game, but
Earnest showed me the note the next day, and my signature was on
it. We were friends up until then, but that ended that. He never
said another word, and I just figured he tore the chit up and threw
it away. I never dreamed he’d actually try to collect on it. I’m
sorry.”
    Paulus looked as if he wanted to cry, and I
put an arm around his shoulder. “Listen, we’ll work this out,
okay?”
    “ I know you’re the family
fix-it man. If you can make this right, I’ll be eternally in your
debt, and I mean it.”
    I stood. “I’ll do what I can. And thanks for
coming clean with me.”
    “ What are you going to do
now?” he asked.
    “ I’m going to go see Earnest
Joy.”
    Paulus looked like he’d rather take a
beating, but he offered, “Would you like me to go with you?”
    “ No, I’d better handle this
alone.” As I left the store and drove toward Earnest Joy’s house, I
finally felt like I was doing something productive. From the hours
I’d seen posted at his store, I knew he would most likely be home.
I wasn’t going to threaten or bully the man—I knew neither approach
would work—but I was going to tell him we were fighting it all the
way.
    Earnest’s Cadillac was parked in front of his
house, so I knew he was there. The Joy family homestead was an
older place. I knew Earnest could afford a much