Charlotte Figg Takes Over Paradise Read Online Free PDF

That's what he said."
    "I can assure you I am not a spy."
    "Didn't think so." She gave Lucky a rub behind the ears."He's a nice doggie. Kind of a mix, a mutt. He'll certainly fit in around here. But what in the heck happened to his tail?"
    "I don't know. He came that way and we're not staying."
    "What? Now, why in the world would you go to all the trouble of buying a trailer and then not stay? You sure you're not a spy or something?" She touched her hair. "Would you look at that? This is my number two brush. I was looking all morning for it and here it is in my head."
    I fought back an urge to laugh. "For the last time, I am not a spy. I just . . . just . . . " I had to choke back tears. "I hate it. But I'm glad you found your brush."
    "Well, what were you expecting? Didn't you know what you bought?"
    I shook my head. "No, I thought I bought this." I pulled the picture of the trailer in the magazine out of my purse.
    Rose looked at the image and clicked her tongue several times. "Looks like Fergus pulled a fast one." She tapped it with her brush. "What you got there is a picture of the Frost sisters' trailer."
    "Frost sisters?"
    "They live on the other side of Paradise." She snorted air out her nose. "Now, that sounds a bit ominous, doesn't it? I just mean they have some land and live in that trailer you got in your hand."
    Rose tried to rehang the cabinet door. It fell right back off with a slam. "It's not that bad, Charlotte. You can fix it up. Make it just how you want it, you know. Some new carpet, a new ceiling, take down that awful paneling, some new paint, appliances, furniture. It just needs a little . . . okay, a lot of TLC."
    I swallowed the lump in my throat. "TLC? TLC? But it has raccoons. Raccoons!"
    Rose laughed. "Sometimes they break in through the back windows to get out of the cold. It happens all the time, especially in the vacant trailers. But I'm sure they ran away and probably won't come back now that you're here."
    All I could do was sit and stare at this woman who seemed an eccentric combination of leftover flower child and cheerleader.
    Rose brushed crumbs, or rat poison for all I knew, from the kitchen counter. "I'll help you, Charlotte. I'll help you fix it up." She pushed the brush behind her ear.
    For a moment I imagined the trailer with awnings and hanging baskets of trailing verbena and clean windows with pretty curtains, a sparkly new porch and shingled roof and little lights along the wooden path, pretty pink carpet and my furniture. Then I shook that stupidity from my brain.
    "It would take forever to get it fixed and cleaned and painted. What it needs is some well-placed dynamite and a fur trapper."I put my head in my hands. "What would Herman say?"
    "Herman?" Rose asked.
    "My dead husband. I can hear him now, shouting at me from his grave. 'Caveat emptor, Charlotte. Caveat emptor.' Let the buyer beware."
    Rose smiled and revealed crinkly wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. "But he's not here. And he can't say that to you, not anymore."
    I looked out the window at the trees, leafless and tall with their branches reaching out to the sky and to me like giant, gnarled fingers.
    "I think I need to go speak with Mr. Wrinkel and tell him I want my money back."
    Rose cleared her throat. "Fergus is a tough cookie, Charlotte."
    "But he sounded so nice on the phone."
    "Of course he did. He just sold you a piece of—"
    I looked up. "I know. Believe me, I know about salesmen. But I have to try. Come on, Lucky."
    I left Rose standing in the kitchen and backed the Galaxy onto the street, unhitched the trailer, and left it where it sat, not giving a fat patooty who it might offend.
     

     
    I parked behind the red Datsun again and attempted to muster up my courage, rehearsing what I would say. It might have been ten minutes, it could have been only five, but I finally went to the door and knocked. Once, twice, three times and then I saw that same set of sad eyes peer out at me.
    "I told you," she said the