Charlotte Figg Takes Over Paradise Read Online Free PDF Page B

instant she opened the door."Fergus ain't here. Didn't you find the key?"
    "Yes, but the trailer. It's not—"
    She pulled open the door a trifle more and leaned into me."Would you please leave?" she whispered. "Fergus will be home in just a few minutes and you can talk to him yourself."Her small voice broke in places, leaving me to wonder what might have been hiding inside the cracks.
    A sick feeling roiled in my stomach. It was like her outsides matched my insides. I swallowed hard. "Okay. But will you please let him know I want to speak with him?"
    The woman closed the door and I left with absolutely no confidence that she would pass my message on to her husband. I sat in the Galaxy with Lucky and waited. I ran the motor to keep warm, but it had gotten so cold I could still see my breath in the car. A two-toned brown and white pickup truck pulled into the driveway.
    "That must be him," I said. "Now, you stay here, Lucky. I better speak with him myself." I watched as a short, muscular man hopped out of the truck. He wore a Phillies baseball cap and a denim jacket. He turned and spotted me. I opened the door and called to him, "Mr. Wrinkel?"
    "Yeah." He snagged a bag from the truck bed.
    "I'm Charlotte Figg." I walked toward him. But with each step my anxiety heightened. I wished I had let Lucky out of the car. "Excuse me, but I need to speak with you."
    "Did you find the key all right? Under one of them rocks up there."
    "Yes, I did, but that isn't what I—"
    He just kept walking toward his front door.
    "Mr. Wrinkel." I raised my voice. "That trailer you sold me isn't the one in the magazine. It's not the same place."
    "Never said it was. Just said I had a double-wide for sale. The picture was just a—what would you call it now—" he adjusted his cap, "a representation."
    "But, Mr. Wrinkel, that trailer I bought is not livable."
    He cleared his throat and spat tobacco-stained goo into a pile of snow. "Well, now, sure it is, Mrs. Figg. It's what us folks in the real estate biz like to call a fixer-upper. Just needs a little work. Now, you go on up there and I'll come by in a few and get your electric turned on and the plumbing going and show you how to work the propane tanks out back."
    "Propane?"
    "For cooking."
    "But I . . . I . . . don't want the trailer." My chest tightened and I thought I might cry again. I imagined Fergus Wrinkel in an embarrassing clown suit with large feet. "I would like my money back, please."
    "Oh, well now, Mrs. Figg, I am afraid that's not possible."
    I pulled myself up to my full height. "Mr. Wrinkel, my husband was a salesman for the Fuller Brush Company, and when a customer was not one hundred percent satisfied with any product, she got her money back, no questions asked."
    He cleared his throat again and took a step closer to the front door. "Well, Mrs. Figg, that's nice and all but you didn't buy some silly hairbrush. You purchased a trailer."
    "But I want the one in the magazine."
    "The trailer in the magazine would have cost you three times as much. Now, that ain't to say what you got ain't a classic. A real classic. A 1958 Vindar, that's what it said on the deed."
    "But . . . but it has raccoons!" I took a breath. "I didn't see any mention of raccoons in the bill of sale, Mr. Wrinkel."
    As he continued toward his trailer, I noticed the curtain in the bay window open and those sad, sorrowful eyes peer out at me. This time I felt a chill wriggle down my spine. "Mr. Wrinkel, I . . . I . . . "
    "Caveat emptor, Mrs. Figg. Caveat emptor."
    The hairs on my arms stood up. But I didn't say anything. I felt so puny next to him, like I was the one in the wrong. I looked at the ground and said, "I trusted you."
    He laughed and pulled open the rickety screen door. "Like I said, I'll be down in a few to get you set up."
    The woman behind the curtain disappeared like an apparition. I climbed back into the car. "Lucky, I think this is what they call the old bait and switch." I started the car and