3 Coming Unraveled Read Online Free PDF Page A

arrested him,” said Bootsie. “Other than asking to call his lawyer.”
    All eyes turned to Maddy. “Don’t look at me,” said the pudgy blonde woman. “Client-attorney confidentiality is all Mark said when I asked this morning.”
    Beau and Maddy had met their daughter and her husband for breakfast at the Cozy Diner. Having been up all night with his incarcerated client, Mark needed a pot of black coffee to stay awake.
    “He was preparing a writ of habeas corpus,” Maddy added.
    Bootsie rolled her eyes. “Judge Cramer will never grant that,” said Bootsie. “Three witnesses heard him confess.”
    “Well, it’s not exactly a full confession,” argued Lizzie. “He simply admitted he’s not Bobby Ray Purdue.”
    “But he pretended to be in order to swindle Newcomb Lamont Purdue out of half the chair factory, ” Cookie pointed out.
    “Yes,” nodded the police chief’s wife. “That’s a felony.”
    “I’m wondering what happened to that other boy,” said Liz zie, sunlight reflecting on her Lucille Ball hair.
    “Me too,” admitted Cookie.”
    “I’m wondering why he wanted that old quilt,” said Maddy.
    “Me too,” repeated Cookie.
    “Surely it’s not worth as much as half interest in the chair factory,” mused Lizzie, thinking like a banker’s wife.
    “Yes, why would he be interested in that ratty old quilt?” said Bootsie.
    Maddy looked from one to another. “Maybe the Quilters Club should find out.”
    ≈≈≈
    Freddie Madison parked his mother’s SUV in Ben Bentley’s driveway. Aggie’s face was pressed against the side window. Beyond the barn, she could see two canvas tents, the colorful circus wagon, a flatbed truck, several large cages, and two white horses grazing in the grassy field.
    “The circus!” she cried. “It’s here just like Mr. Sprinkles promised.”
    “Of course it is,” replied her uncle. “That’s why we came out here. To see the lions and tigers.”
    “One lion and one tiger,” she corrected him. “And a bear and an elephant and a baboon.”
    “Don’t forget the two horses.”
    “Them too. Seven animals in all. Not a very big circus.”
    “Your grandfather says it’s a kiddy circus. Plays at malls and shopping centers.”
    “Caruthers Corners doesn’t have a shopping center,” said Aggie. “I g uess that’s why they’re going to Burpyville.”
    “C’mon,” said her uncle. “Let’s go peek in those cages. Maybe I’ll feed you to the lion.”
    “You will not.”
    “And why not?”
    “Because my mother would be very angry if you did.”
    ≈≈≈
    Myrtle Periwinkle had locked her door and pulled down the shades in order to avoid all the reporters gathered outside. Everyone wanted to interview her about her son Harry having returned from the dead to pull off a major swindle was news.
    There were two television crews from Indianapolis, a n investigative reporter from the Indianapolis Star , another from the Burpyville Gazette , and a freelancer who claimed to be working for the National Inquirer . Myrtle’s flowerbed had been trampled beyond recovery.
    “Go away,” she shouted at the knock on her door. Damned reporters.
    “Myrtle, it’s me – Chief Jim Purdue. Can I come in for a minute?”
    “What do you want?” she continued to shout. “You arrested my son, you pig.”
    “Myrtle –”
    Before he could finish the sentence, the door swung open and he was face-to-face with Harry Periwinkles wild-eyed mother. “Hurry up, before those reporters start taking pictures,” she beckoned him inside.
    The living room was dark , all the shades pulled down. He could make out the shape of a green Naugahyde couch, an upright piano, and a La-Z-Boy chair. A TV flickered in the corner, tuned to an Indy news station.
    “Sorry to barge in,” Jim Purdue began politely. “I can understand how you must feel, getting your son back under these circumstances.”
    “ You arrested him, you storm trooper.” Myrtle Periwinkle had been a member of