Page 35 of Promise Keeper

"Thanks, but I'll do it," Ben said. "She'll be here in an hour or so." He looked over at Ellsworth sitting by the patio doors watching Liam outside. "He's waiting for his buddy to come back in."

Ben got up, went into the family room, and began to collect the cat's toys. "He's a cat person now," I explained to Monica. "That's what happens when you're an only child and your mother adopts a feline brother for you."

"I'm glad he's not alone anymore," she said, smiling.

"They shared a room the other night."

"The night I was on your couch?"

"Yeah. They had a brothers slumber party."

"Stop making fun in there," Ben said. "He's a good kitty."

Ellsworth stood on his back legs and batted at the patio door. "Looks like Liam wants in," I said, standing up to get him.

When I let the dog in, he and Ellsworth bounded up and down the hallway, chasing each other.

"Tell Irene her cat got out and you lost him," Monica said. "He'll be happier here with you guys, anyway."

"He probably would be, but I couldn't do that, not even to Irene."

"Maybe I should expand into making cat treats and selling sweaters for them," Monica said, eyeing the canvas tote Ben carried into the kitchen packed full of Ellsworth's belongings.

"The only problem with that is your store name," I said. "Dog Diggity."

"A lot of dog owners have cats, too," Ben said.

"And you've been angling to be one of those people," I said, grinning at him. "Your mother will never let you keep her cat."

"We can watch him more. He can come play and then go back home with her."

The doorbell sounded. "That must be Walter," Ben said. He sat the tote bag beside the table and strode down the hall toward the door. "Soapy," he said after tugging it open. "What a surprise."

Monica's eyebrows shot up, and I put on a big smile, despising that I felt suspicion for him and guilt for feeling suspicious. "Come sit down," I called, as they walked down the hallway toward us. "Can I get you anything? Coffee, water?"

"Nothing, thank you, Cameron," he said. He stroked his long, white beard and twisted the ends. The corners of his eyes were circled with dark shadows, and deep lines puckered between his brows.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"I need to confess something to you and Ben," he said. "Monica, you can hear it, too. Everyone will know anyway."

My pulse ratcheted up to the speed of The Road Runner after Wile E. Coyote. Was he about to tell us who the bones belonged to and how he disposed of the murdered man?

"Go ahead and sit down," Ben said, gesturing to the remaining chair at the round table. "What's this about?"

Soapy sat down and noticed he was tugging at his beard. He let go and folded his hands on the table. "I want you to know that Theresa had nothing to do with this."

He looked from one of us to the next, waiting for acknowledgement. We all nodded and he went on.

"The other night I heard some clattering around out by the dumpster. When I looked out I saw someone running away. It was just their shadow. I couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman, heck it could've been a kid for all I know. Anyway, I went out to see what was going on and found a bag of bones in my dumpster. There were some scattered in among the bag too, just loose like. I saw the skull and knew it wasn't an animal I was dealing with. Someone had dumped a human skeleton in my dumpster."

He began picking at his beard again. "I should've called you or Reins and told you what happened. I guess I was afraid I'd be implicated somehow. I've never found remains before. I didn't know what in heavens name I should do. In the end I decided to put the problem somewhere else, and I moved the bag and the bones I could see in around it to the trash can in the park."

He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry. I've caused more trouble than necessary. I promise you though, I don't know how the bones got in my dumpster, but I didn't want you spending any more time trying to figure out how they got in the park."

Ben blew out a breath. "All right. Well, you came forward and told me about it now, so what I'll do is write up everything you said and we'll go from there."

"Am I in trouble for this?" Soapy asked. He looked so heartsick over this I could cry just looking at him. I could only imagine how confused and scared he was finding those bones in his trash after seeing someone run away.

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