A Big Life in a Small Town (Bellingwood #2) (28 page)

"I need three fifty dollar certificates."

Dana looked at her and then opened up a drawer and pulled out a book. "Okay. I can do that." She filled out three certificates and said, "Do you want an envelope for these?"

"Sure, that would be great." Dana slipped each one in an envelope and handed them to Polly, who paid for the transaction.

"Thanks a lot, Dana," she said and left again. It broke her heart to think of the amount of food they'd served on Saturday when there were people in the same community who were barely getting by.

Back at Sycamore House once more, Polly went to the basement and found three boxes, then nearly tripped up the steps when one caught on the railing. She was laughing and sputtering at herself by the time she opened the door to the main hallway.

"There you are," Jeff said. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to kill myself on the basement steps. What's up?"

"Our new guest is settled in her room. She loved it and told me she would find a great many sources of creative inspiration outside her windows." He put air quotes around the last part of the sentence. "I don't think she's been doing this very long. She mentioned something about a mid-life crisis and I don't think it was hers."

"That makes some sense," Polly laughed. "Good for her, then. Did you give her the first delivery of requested items?"

"She is good to go. She appreciated the water filter pitcher in the refrigerator and the extra bottles and said she would be glad to have what we're serving for lunch, but would like to take it to her room. She wants to embrace the room," he said with more air quotes.

Jeff took two of the boxes from Polly and said, "Where are we going with this?"

"To the kitchen," she said and began walking. "Pastor Boehm is stopping by to take a significant amount of our leftovers to a few families who need some extra help."

"Great!"

"I asked him if he knew someone who might work out as our custodian. He's bringing a young man with him at eleven for an interview," she dropped her box on the floor in front of the prep table. "Would you mind helping him get this stuff to his car while I do the interview?"

"Sure. He seems like a good guy. I didn't expect to see the preacher dancing on a Saturday night, but I guess anything can happen!"

Polly laughed. "He and his wife do seem awfully normal, don't they?"

They had fifteen minutes before Pastor Boehm arrived, so the two of them organized containers from the freezer and refrigerator into each of the boxes, then Polly tucked an envelope in where it wouldn't get dislodged, but could still be easily found.

"Thanks for taking care of this. I'm going to run in and print out an employment application. It shouldn't take too long and I'll get lunch going."

Pastor Boehm showed up promptly at eleven and Polly met them in the main office.

"Polly Giller, I'd like to introduce you to Shawn Wesley," he said.

"Thank you, Pastor. Jeff is in the kitchen with the boxes. Shawn, would you come into my office?"

Shawn Wesley had obviously cleaned up quickly. His longish brown hair was still damp. Polly could smell that he was a heavy smoker; his clothing was clean, but still reeked of it. He wore a flannel shirt open over a green t-shirt which was tucked into jeans with a belt cinched much tighter than it should have been and his feet were shod in well-worn cowboy boots. He strode in with an attitude of self-confidence, but Polly saw that it was nothing more than a facade.

He sat down and planted his feet in front of him. She wasn't sure if he was scared or surly, and chose to believe that he was simply nervous.

Polly pushed the application across her desk and set a pen on top of it. "Could you fill this out for me, please? I need to have some record of information before we begin."

He took the pen in hand and after glancing up at her to see if she was watching him, began filling out the various sections. Polly did her best to ignore him, paying attention to absolutely nothing on her computer screen. After a few uncomfortable moments, he set the pen down and pushed the paper back to her. He still hadn't said a word.

She looked over the paper. He'd held quite a few jobs, the last one at the chicken processing plant in Webster City. He'd been laid off from there last July and there was no record of work since then.

She was going to give him the job at this point, no matter what. He needed work, the pastor had asked her to interview him, and she couldn't help herself.

"Are you looking for other work?" she asked.

"There's not much around here to do and since I had to sell my car, I can't get out of town to apply for jobs," he responded.

"If you don't have a car, how would you get here?"

"I guess I would walk unless I can find a ride."

"How far away do you live?"

"We live up on Beech, west of the cemetery."

Polly did some quick calculations. That was a little more than a half mile away. It could be done, but she wasn't terribly confident.

"Tell me about your family," she said.

"We only have the one kid. She's in sixth grade."

"I'm willing to give you a try here, Shawn, if you want to do the job. It's not full-time yet because we don't have enough going on, but that will probably change in a few months and we'd pay you extra if you work the events that happen here."

"Okay. I'll try it."

"We have people coming in this afternoon to clean up the auditorium. If you'd like to start, I'm serving lunch at noon and you could begin at one o'clock with them. I'd show you around later on and tell you what my expectations are. Then, let's plan on four hours every day."

He fidgeted in his chair, then said. "I wasn't planning on working today. I got things going on."

"Nothing you can't change?" she asked.

"I suppose I could if you make me."

"I'm not going to make you do anything, Shawn. I'm only trying to get you started."

"What hours would you expect me here the rest of the week?"

Polly took a breath through her nose, then slowly released it. "Why don't you plan to start at ten every morning and work until two thirty. We generally have something to eat on site and you could take a half hour break at noon to eat with us."

"I wasn't planning on getting a job this week and have something going on tomorrow, too. So, I'll show up on Wednesday?"

"Great. Come find me at ten on Wednesday and I'll show you around."

"Is there anything else?" he asked, standing up to leave her office.

"No, I guess that's all for now," she said.

He walked out into the office and around the corner, heading for the front doors. She saw him pull a smart phone out and make a call. As soon as he cleared the front door, he walked past her office window lighting a cigarette. What had she gotten into?

It hit her that she had promised lunch to the men out on the roof, so she dashed back to the kitchen, quickly warmed up the meat, potatoes, and baked beans, and filled the buffet warmer. Whew, she'd pulled that off just in time.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Polly breathed as she counted off the numbers in her head. She had heard nothing from Shawn and his application was already on her desk. She'd waited long enough; she dialed his number. When she got his voice mail, she said, "Shawn, this is Polly Giller from Sycamore House. I expected you to be here this morning at ten o'clock and it is now ten forty-five. Please call me as soon as you receive this message and let me know what is going on."

It didn't take long for her anger to rise. She glanced up when she heard the front door open. That certainly wasn't Shawn Wesley. Then, she realized she was looking at Elise's LL Cool J double. She jumped out of her chair and ran out to greet him. Elise was right; he could pass for the actor any day.

"Good morning! Are you Elise's cousin?"

His voice was much deeper than she expected, "I sure am. Don Dobler is my name." He handed her a note of introduction signed by Elise.

"Let me show you to her room and then I can help you pack up her things, if you'd like."

"Don’t worry. I have my boys in the truck and they're here to work. We'll get it all cleaned up and be out of your hair in no time."

She took him up to the room Elise had occupied and opened the door. He perused the room and said, "I got it."

Polly left him at the front door and from her office saw him walk back in with two men at least as big as he was. They were carrying boxes and followed him up the steps. In half an hour, he stopped in and said, "Would you mind coming back upstairs and checking the room?"

She followed him and saw that things were back to normal. He'd stripped the bed and left sheets and towels in a pile outside the room. "Can I take these somewhere for you?" Polly smiled. No one had slept in the bed since she’d re-made it last week.

"No," she said. "I've got this." The room had been completely emptied and looked a little forlorn.

"Since she left so early, I owe Elise a refund. If I write a check to her, can you make sure it gets to her?" Polly asked.

"No, Miss Giller. Elise doesn't expect anything back from you. If you ever get to Paris with her, take her out for a nice dinner." He winked at Polly.

She was a little surprised at the allusion to her last conversation with Elise, but figured she should just be quiet. "I'll do that. Thanks for doing such a nice job in here. I wish I could hire you!"

He smiled and picked up the laundry. "I bet your washing machine is downstairs, isn't it."

"No, I've got it."

"I'll carry these down and you can get it from there, deal?"

Polly nodded and followed him down the steps. When they reached the main floor, he pressed the sheets into her arms and said, "She's in a good place and is going to be fine. Don't worry about her. You might hear from her someday; she thought you were pretty special."

"Thanks Don. I appreciate it."

He left and Polly went back to drop the linens in the washing machine. She was surprised to see Sylvie pulled up to the prep table with her laptop. "What are you doing here today?"

"I don't have class today, so I thought I would hang out and get some work done. And I had a craving for pizza. The machine is mixing dough and that's what we're having for lunch. I noticed it was one of the approved meals for your guest upstairs and I figured guys always love the stuff."

"I had a craving for pizza, too!” Polly said. “But, my frozen pizza will be nothing like yours, I’m sure.”

"I got a weird phone call from my friend Amy last night," Sylvie said as she followed Polly into the storage and laundry room.

"What do you mean?"

"Because her brother is such an ass, her mom's mail is being forwarded out to her in California. She got a bill from a farm up by Stanhope for feed. She asked if I would go check it out. Do you want to take a ride with me after lunch?"

"Sure. Some guy was supposed to show up at ten this morning to start a job as a custodian but apparently, he had something going on today."

"Who was that?"

"Shawn Wesley. Pastor Boehm gave me his name. In fact, he brought the guy over for the interview. Do you know him?"

"Not very well. What are you going to do?"

"I've left a message for him to call me. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt today. Who knows what might have happened, but if I don't hear from him ... well, crap. I don't want to deal with this."

"I know. Sometimes being an employer sucks."

Everyone seemed to enjoy lunch and since Polly still hadn't heard from her errant employee, she and Sylvie left for Stanhope. Sylvie had programmed the address into a handheld GPS and Polly watched it as she drove into town and then turned back west and out into the country. The directions led them to a farm and when Sylvie pulled in, Polly rolled her eyes.

"Front or back door?" she asked.

Sylvie laughed. "We'll try the front door. That back stoop looks a little iffy."

Before they got to the door, though, a man came out of a barn. "Can I help you?" he asked.

Sylvie put her hand out and said, "Hi, I'm Sylvie Donovan, a friend of Amy Hiller. She is Dean and Madeline Black's daughter. She got a bill from you yesterday and since she lives in California, asked if I could drive out here and find out what it was all about? She said it was for feed."

"I take care of her dad's horses,” he said gruffly, “and I can't afford to feed them on my own. When he died, his wife didn’t want to sell them, so she asked me to keep them and I agreed as long as she paid for me to feed them."

"Horses?" Sylvie looked at Polly in confusion. "Amy and Laurence don't know their parents owned horses, I can guarantee that."

She said to the man, "Can we see them?"

"They're out back here. They might not look so good, you know, winter and all."

They followed him to a gate and then behind a barn. Four black draft horses were standing there and Polly could tell immediately that these animals were in trouble. She could see their ribs and though she didn't know much about horses, she recognized that their eyes were dull and their coats weren't much better.

Sylvie stopped before she stepped in a pile of manure and said, "How long have they been like this?"

"I don't know. But, if I don't get money soon, I'm going to have to get rid of them. I can't afford to keep them."

Polly pulled Sylvie back and said, "I need to make a call."

Sylvie said, "I will get hold of Amy and deal with this immediately. Thanks for speaking with us."

The two hurried back to the car and as soon as she had pulled her door shut, Polly dialed. "Mark?"

"Hi, Polly. What’s up?"

"
Mark, I need your help. We just found out what Madeline Black wanted people to take care of. Her husband owned horses and a guy outside of Stanhope was taking care of them ... badly. Mark, these horses are in trouble. Can you get up here?"

"Calm down, Polly. Are you sure?"

"They're living in filth. Their coats aren't very pretty. They're draft horses and are way too skinny. I can see their ribs! There are patches of hair missing on one of the horse’s shoulders and another was limping when he walked."

"Okay, Polly. Tell me where you are. I'm not that far from Stanhope right now. I can be there in fifteen minutes."

"Why don't we meet you at that new community center and drive you out here."

"I'm on my way."

"Did you hear that?" she asked Sylvie.

"Sometimes you know just the right person to call," Sylvie said.

"Well, speaking of the right person. I noticed the two of you dancing together several times the other night."

"He is gorgeous, isn't he? And what a dancer! But we were only dancing. The last thing I need in my life right now is a man. Good heavens, I'm finally figuring out my life. I don't need a guy messing that up."

Polly laughed. "They certainly can do that. But, he is hot."

Sylvie fanned herself. "So hot."

They pulled into a parking space and waited. Mark pulled up beside them in his truck and got out. "You two are much prettier than those stupid sheep. If you'll guide me out to this place, you don't need to worry any more. I'll take care of it from here."

He got back in his truck and followed Sylvie as she retraced her steps. They stopped in front of the driveway and Polly pointed. Mark waved them on and they went back to Sycamore House.

On the way, she called Lydia. “You aren’t going to believe it, but Sylvie and I have solved your mystery!”

“What mystery?” Lydia started, then said, “You mean the note?”

“It’s horses, Lydia! Four horses. Madeline had been paying a farmer to feed and care for these horses that Dean had bought.”

Polly told her about Amy’s request of Sylvie and the terrible shape the horses had been in.

“Mark is there now. I don’t know what is going to happen next, though,” Polly said.

“Polly, thank you!” Lydia said. “You kept my promise for me!”

“I just wanted you to know. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Thank you! I love you!”

“Love you too, Lydia.”

Polly hung up as they drove into her lot and parked.

Jeff met Polly at the front door. "Your custodian showed up ten minutes ago. He's in the conference room."

"Great," she spat. "Just great."

She stalked in through the outer office, tossing her jacket on the desk and opened the door to the conference room. Shawn Wesley was sitting with his back to the door, but spun around when he heard the door open.

"Miss Giller," he said.

"Yes, Mr. Wesley," and she stood there, waiting for him to say something.

"I, uh. I didn't make it into work this morning."

"No you didn't. So, tell me. Do you want this job or not?"

"I want the job, but I had something going on this morning."

"You seem to have a lot going on. It occurs to me that for a man who has been out of work for six months, you don't seem to be in a hurry to establish a good relationship with a new employer."

"I had a good reason."

"Mr. Wesley, you didn't bother to call me and you didn't bother to return my call. You show up four hours late and you expect me to believe you had a good reason?"

"Well, I did."

"Because Pastor Boehm asked me to interview you, I will give you one last chance. If you aren't here on time tomorrow morning, I'm finished. Figure it out, Mr. Wesley."

She turned around and left the room, walked into her office and closed the door, then watched as he left the building, slouched into his coat. She was burning with fury and decided she needed to calm down before she saw anyone else.

Her phone rang and she saw that it was Mark, "Hey Mark, was I right?"

"You were absolutely right and I have a huge favor to ask of you. How's that barn coming along?"

"They're about three fourths done with the roof, why? Oh!" she said. "You want to bring those poor horses here, don't you?"

"Maybe. You're close to my office and you have plenty of space. We could get an electric fence up in a day. What do you think?"

"Mark, could these be my horses?"

"Well, there are some logistics we’d have to figure out and their rehabilitation is going to be a lot of work. Are you sure you're up for that?"

"Well, if I could get a stinkin' custodian, I'd be up for it."

"A what?"

"Never mind. Just a little problem I need manage here. You know I've never had horses before, do you think I can do this?"

"From what I've seen, Polly, you can do about anything you set your mind to. If you want four beautiful animals, they're going to be a lot of work, but that doesn't scare you, does it?"

"No, it really doesn't. You aren't going to dump them on me and leave, are you?"

He laughed out loud. "No, I will be around a lot. These are beautiful animals and I think you all will be very happy together."