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

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