3 Coming Unraveled by Marjorie Sorrell Rockwell Read Free Book Online Page A

looking into it as we speak.”
    “And –?”
    “We have an employee named Bernard Warbuckle, a lab technician. He ran the DNA test in question. Turns out, he’s gone missing.”
    “Missing?”
    “Warbuckle didn’t show up for work today. He didn’t answer his telephone when we called to check on him. The State Police says he’s not at his apartment.”
    “You called them before alerting me?” grumbled Edgar Ridenour. He was head of the malpractice committee. And this was shaping up to be a big-ticket negligence lawsuit.
    “When someone suggested Warbuckle might be guilty of switching the DNA sample, we immediately called the State Police. We didn’t want to let him escape.”
    Edgar took a deep breath, then said, “What do we know about this Warbuckle guy?”
    “According to his personnel file, he’s forty-two, graduated from Ball State, has worked here for four years. Clean record, no complaints about his work.”
    “Maybe he hasn’t actually disappeared,” Edgar said desperately. “Maybe he’s just visiting his family.”
    “ The file said he has no known relatives.”
    “F riends then …”
    “The State Police said his apartment’s been cleaned out.”
    Edgar tried again. “Maybe he’s been kidnapped …”
    “ Not very likely. The State Police says the information in his personnel file is phony. That he never attended Ball State. And his Social Security number belongs to a man who got run over by a tank during Desert Storm.”
    The retired banker couldn’t hold back his temper. “Don’t you have any good news to report?” he shouted into the phone.
    After a pause, Virgil Hoffstedder said, “I think he left without picking up his last paycheck.”
     
     

 
    Chapter Twelve
     
    Maddy and the Quilters Club agreed that they would have to risk returning Maud Purdue’s quilt the same way they got it: Aggie climbing in through the attic window.
    “I can do it,” Aggie assured her grandmother. “I got an A in gym last year.”
    “I’m sure you can. But I doubt your mother would approve.”
    “Maybe you’ll forget to tell her. After all, you’re getting old and forgetful.” The girl winked to seal the secret.
    “Thanks. I’m glad my age is helpful to this plan,” said Maddy. But her granddaughter didn’t catch the sarcasm.
    “Lucky I’m two months younger than you,” Lizzie joined the joke. “At least senility hasn’t set in with me yet.”
    “Don’t count on that,” said Bootsie. “Remember how you lost your car keys last week?”
    “That Lexus is a new car and I’m not used to that funny key. Whatever happened to the old-fashioned kind?”
    “Time marches on,” commented Cookie, ever the historian.
    Maddy began folding the smelly old quilt in preparation for their late-night incursion. She had brought a Glad trash bag to carry it in.
    “Why does the quilt make that sound?” asked Aggie, the curiosity of a tween girl.
    “What sound?” replied Lizzie.
    “Oh, you mean the crinkling sound?” said Maddy. “That’s whatever it ’s stuffed with. Sounds like paper.”
    “That’s an odd stuffing,” said Bootsie.
    “Perhaps it’s old newspapers,” offered Cookie. “That would be interesting, to find old newspapers from 1899.”
    “We’ll never know,” sighed Maddy as she continued to fold the quilt. “This unremarkable example of quiltmaking is going home tonight. Right, Aggie?”
    “You bet. And I promise to be careful climbing that oak tree.”
    “Good girl.”
    Cookie fidgeted a tad. “Maybe we could clip a few thread s and fish a scrap of newspaper out before taking it back.”
    “Cookie!” admonished her friend Bootsie. It was bad enough they had completed a burglary, but the idea of damaging the antique quilt was simply unacceptable.
    “Oh, I know. But I am the town historian. So you can’t blame me for being curious.”
    “Me too,” admitted Lizzie.
    “ Why can’t we take a peek?” Aggie weighed in.
    Maddy held up her hands to silence