1 The Underhanded Stitch by Marjory Sorrell Rockwell Read Free Book Online

she listened to the grownup talk. “All right to talk in front of little missy?” he asked cautiously.
    “Mr. Bentley, I probably know more about this mystery than you do,” responded the girl. Not particularly fond of being referred to as “little missy.”
    “No offense. I’m just trying to be – what’s the word? – discreet.”
    “That you are, Ben,” said Maddy, leaning forward to pat his massive arm. “But let’s not stray from the point.”
    “You wanna know about the ring, right?”
    “Exactly. Last I heard, Ferdinand Jinks had stolen the ring from the Colonel as he lay in his coffin.”
    “True, as far as the legend goes,” nodded the squat man.
    “Then how did you come by it?”
    “Not me, your husband. Quite frankly, ma’am, I’m surprised you’re talking to me instead of him.”
    That stopped her. “Beau had the ring?”
    “That’s right. And he stuck it in that old metal head right ’fore we sealed it up in the tomb. Dunno why.”
    Maddy finished off her tea. “One last question, Ben. Then we’ll be on our way. How did my husband get you involved in this little escapade? I don’t recall you and him being particularly close friends.”
    “No, ma’am. I’ve only come to befriend Beauregard in the last few months, though I attended Caruthers High with both-a you’s. As I recall, you and me had algebra together.”
    “Yes, I remember. You sat behind Cookie.”
    “That was so I could admire her from afar.”
    “You really should give her a call.”
    “Aw, I’m too busy, what with the farm and on the weekends I’m a voluntary ambulance driver with Caruthers Corners Fire and Rescue. Don’t have much spare time.”
    “Be that as it may, Ben. You still haven’t answered my question about how you got mixed up in all this.”
    “Simple answer. Your husband needed some heavy lifting. And when I came into Ace Hardware to buy some wood screws he remembered I’d been weightlifting champion two years in a row back when we were in high school.”
    “I’d forgotten that. You set a state record, now that I think back.”
    “Been broken since. But I was a right brawny guy back then.”
    “Those size fourteen feet certainly prove you’re still no lightweight.”
    “Feel bad about tracking mud into the Town Hall. We’d been down to the Colonel’s tomb to pry the door open. Broke one-a the hinges doing it. It’s pretty muddy after a rainfall down in that part of the cemetery.”
    “And you don’t know how my husband got the ring?”
    “Nary a clue.”
     
     

 
    Chapter Eleven
     
     
Guilty As Charged
     
B eauregard Madison IV was not thrilled at having to face his wife that night. She had every reason to be upset with him. He’d fibbed to her, committed a crime (of sorts), and spent $12,000 of their retirement funds without consulting her. All this was totally unlike the Pooh Bear she’d been married to for nearly forty years.
    “Honey, I’m home,” he called. That line from countless TV sitcoms, Father Knows Best to Leave It to Beaver . It had been good for many laughs over the years, but Maddy wasn’t even smiling when she met him in the living room.
    “Sit down, Beau. We need to talk.”
    “Yes, dear. I know.”
    “Tilly took Aggie to the movies. A new Disney film about a princess.”
    “Look, what I did was wrong – ” he began weakly.
    “You mean stealing the statue? Or lying to me about it?”
    “I didn’t exactly lie. I just played dumb when you got caught up in playing Murder She Wrote .”
    That irked her. She looked nothing like Angela Lansbury. The woman was twenty years older than her. “I understand what you were trying to do. You wanted to honor your great-great grandfather with a bigger statue, but you knew Mayor Caruthers wouldn’t accept a second one. So you had to get rid of the first statue. You got Ben Bentley to help you haul it off in the dead of night, stashing it in the family mausoleum. Meanwhile, you had a sculptor in Chicago