Read Online 2 The Patchwork Puzzler by Marjory Sorrell Rockwell - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Marjory Sorrell Rockwell
Ads: Link
There’s a route traced with a Magic Marker. If I’m reading this correctly, we’re on the south side of Burpyville – just off Highway 31.”
“Great! Let’s go to the highway and thumb a ride home. I’m getting hungry.”
“You and your stomach.”
“Hey, are you suggesting I should go on a diet?”
“No, dear. Just that you’re not going to starve to death in the next hour.” She unlatched the ramshackle door from the inside and swung it open to let Bootsie enter the stone building.
“Hmph,” her friend said as she stepped through the threshold of the one-room structure. She glanced nervously at the ceiling to make certain there were no bats. Mice and snakes she could endure, but not fluttery things like bats and bees.
“Here’s something else I found,” said Maddy, holding up a scrap of paper. “I think it was written by Nan Beanie.”
Bootsie bent over the lined yellow paper as Maddy spread it flat on the table. The words were written in a precise script that she recognized as Nan’s.
Things to Do :
1. Call Dizzy about lunch
2. Leave drawer unlocked
3. Buy bus tickets
4. Reserve hotel room in Indy
5. Meet Kramer
“Nan’s such a list-maker,” commented Maddy.
“This is practically as good as a confession,” gushed Bootsie, ever the policeman’s wife.
“She already confessed,” Maddy reminded her. “That’s why she ran away.”
“Oh right.”
“But here is the outline of their plan. She and Henry Caruthers are taking a bus to Indianapolis to meet with someone named Kramer.”
Chapter Thirteen
Tunnel Vision
M addy began walking around the tiny room, looking in the closet and opening cabinet doors. “What are you doing?” demanded Bootsie, confused by her friend’s bizarre behavior.
“Looking for the tunnel,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Here?”
“We know the secret passage at the cemetery leads to the river. The National Registry survey shows that. That means it comes out somewhere near here.”
“At this old stone shed?”
“We found this roadmap and Nan’s note in this shed. That proves she was here. And the tracks leading from the boat belong to a man, presumably Henry Caruthers. I think he and his partner in crime met up here, planning to make their way to the bus station in Burpyville, and go from there to Indianapolis to see a guy named Kramer.”
“Okay, Miss Smarty Pants, suppose you’re right. But if I wanted to find a tunnel entrance I’d look for a trapdoor in the floor.”
“Bootsie Purdue, you’re a genius!” Maddy peeled back the dusty rug to reveal a squarish board with recessed hinges. “Here it is, right where you said it’d be.”
“Now can we go home?”
“Yes, but we have a choice of how to get there.”
“A choice?”
“We can try paddling back upstream. Or we can try to find our way out of these woods to the highway. Or we can take this tunnel back to Pleasant Glades Cemetery.”
“You mean go down in that dark hole? No way!” They had pried open the trapdoor to discover a yawning black passageway.
“Nan came through it, so it must be safe.”
“That ol’ woman is crazy as a loon. Why else would she get mixed up in criminal activities? I’m not nutty enough to go into that rat-infested tunnel.”
“What rats?”
“There are always rats in tunnels.”
“Yes, dear. But you said you’re not afraid of rats and mice. Matter of fact, I recall that you raised white rats as your high-school science project.”
“Romulus and Remus. But it turned out they were Romulus and Rita. I had more baby rats than I knew what to do with.”
“You mean your First Prize in the Science Fair was an accident?”
“I’m still not sure how to tell a boy rat from a girl rat.”
“C’mon, Indiana Jones. Into the tunnel.”
“But we don’t have a light. We’ll get lost in there.”
“It’s a tunnel, leading from Point A to
“Great! Let’s go to the highway and thumb a ride home. I’m getting hungry.”
“You and your stomach.”
“Hey, are you suggesting I should go on a diet?”
“No, dear. Just that you’re not going to starve to death in the next hour.” She unlatched the ramshackle door from the inside and swung it open to let Bootsie enter the stone building.
“Hmph,” her friend said as she stepped through the threshold of the one-room structure. She glanced nervously at the ceiling to make certain there were no bats. Mice and snakes she could endure, but not fluttery things like bats and bees.
“Here’s something else I found,” said Maddy, holding up a scrap of paper. “I think it was written by Nan Beanie.”
Bootsie bent over the lined yellow paper as Maddy spread it flat on the table. The words were written in a precise script that she recognized as Nan’s.
Things to Do :
1. Call Dizzy about lunch
2. Leave drawer unlocked
3. Buy bus tickets
4. Reserve hotel room in Indy
5. Meet Kramer
“Nan’s such a list-maker,” commented Maddy.
“This is practically as good as a confession,” gushed Bootsie, ever the policeman’s wife.
“She already confessed,” Maddy reminded her. “That’s why she ran away.”
“Oh right.”
“But here is the outline of their plan. She and Henry Caruthers are taking a bus to Indianapolis to meet with someone named Kramer.”
Chapter Thirteen
Tunnel Vision
M addy began walking around the tiny room, looking in the closet and opening cabinet doors. “What are you doing?” demanded Bootsie, confused by her friend’s bizarre behavior.
“Looking for the tunnel,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Here?”
“We know the secret passage at the cemetery leads to the river. The National Registry survey shows that. That means it comes out somewhere near here.”
“At this old stone shed?”
“We found this roadmap and Nan’s note in this shed. That proves she was here. And the tracks leading from the boat belong to a man, presumably Henry Caruthers. I think he and his partner in crime met up here, planning to make their way to the bus station in Burpyville, and go from there to Indianapolis to see a guy named Kramer.”
“Okay, Miss Smarty Pants, suppose you’re right. But if I wanted to find a tunnel entrance I’d look for a trapdoor in the floor.”
“Bootsie Purdue, you’re a genius!” Maddy peeled back the dusty rug to reveal a squarish board with recessed hinges. “Here it is, right where you said it’d be.”
“Now can we go home?”
“Yes, but we have a choice of how to get there.”
“A choice?”
“We can try paddling back upstream. Or we can try to find our way out of these woods to the highway. Or we can take this tunnel back to Pleasant Glades Cemetery.”
“You mean go down in that dark hole? No way!” They had pried open the trapdoor to discover a yawning black passageway.
“Nan came through it, so it must be safe.”
“That ol’ woman is crazy as a loon. Why else would she get mixed up in criminal activities? I’m not nutty enough to go into that rat-infested tunnel.”
“What rats?”
“There are always rats in tunnels.”
“Yes, dear. But you said you’re not afraid of rats and mice. Matter of fact, I recall that you raised white rats as your high-school science project.”
“Romulus and Remus. But it turned out they were Romulus and Rita. I had more baby rats than I knew what to do with.”
“You mean your First Prize in the Science Fair was an accident?”
“I’m still not sure how to tell a boy rat from a girl rat.”
“C’mon, Indiana Jones. Into the tunnel.”
“But we don’t have a light. We’ll get lost in there.”
“It’s a tunnel, leading from Point A to
Similar Books
