Foal Play: A Mystery by Kathryn O'Sullivan Read Free Book Online Page A

storming toward her and Charlie. Bobby was no longer calm. He was enraged.
    “Burn burn burn!” Charlie squealed again with delight.
    Bill reached out to grab Bobby, but Bobby was too quick and waddled toward Charlie at full speed. Colleen stepped in front of Charlie to block him from Bobby’s attack. Charlie giggled wildly behind her. She prayed she didn’t get sandwiched between the two men before Bill had a chance to pull Bobby away.
    Colleen put her arm up to stop the approaching Bobby. As his chest pushed into her palm, Bill got a secure hold on Bobby and yanked him back.
    “I want him arrested!” Bobby yelled, pointing at Charlie and attempting to break free of Bill.
    “Bobby burn burn burn! Bobby burn burn burn!” Charlie shrieked.
    Colleen’s men noticed the ruckus and rushed forward to pull Charlie away so he couldn’t antagonize Bobby. It took several of them to accomplish the task but eventually they got him a safe distance away. After Colleen made sure Bill still had Bobby, she faced Charlie.
    “Quiet now,” she said. “You’re upsetting Bobby. You don’t really want to do that, do you?”
    “Yes,” Charlie said, grinning and bobbing his head up and down.
    “Now, Charlie, you better stop or Sheriff Dorman will have to take you down to the station. You know how much you like the station.”
    Charlie folded his arms over his broad chest and jutted out his lower lip in a defiant pout.
    “I want him arrested,” Bobby said, still trying to break free of Bill but with much less energy than before.
    “No!” Charlie said and turned his back.
    Colleen widened her eyes in disbelief. This was becoming a circus.
    “We don’t have any reason to take Charlie in,” Bill said to Bobby.
    “You heard him. He burned my house down! He killed my mother!”
    Bill used his strength to gently but firmly move Bobby away. Colleen could hear Bill trying to calm Bobby. “Come on,” he said in a low voice, “you know how Charlie can be. He says things that don’t mean anything.”
    “What’s he doing here then?” Bobby asked.
    It was a good question. Charlie didn’t live on this part of Corolla and it wouldn’t be the first time he had set something on fire. Several years ago Charlie had accidentally set dune grass on fire with matches he had found in a public garbage bin. Fortunately, a quick-thinking vacationer had doused the fire with a hose before it reached his beach house.
    “Bobby has a point,” Colleen said to Bill. “This isn’t Charlie’s neighborhood.”
    “See, Chief McCabe agrees with me,” Bobby said.
    Bill frowned at her. Uh-oh. The last thing she needed was Bill thinking she had ganged up on him.
    “I didn’t say that,” she said. “I just don’t think it’s in Charlie’s nature. I mean, look at him.”
    Charlie was now happily wearing Jimmy’s helmet, which teetered several sizes too small on the top of his large round head.
    “I’m still going to have to question him,” Bill said.
    Colleen knew Bill was right. She also knew how upset Charlie would be.
    “And you, too, Bobby.”
    “Me?” Bobby said with a gasp.
    “You can’t be serious,” Colleen said.
    Bill glared at her. Oops. Why couldn’t she keep her big mouth shut?
    “If there’s nothing further, I’ll go check on my guys,” she said and tried not to appear in a hurry as she scurried away. She was glad she had her protective gear on. Bill could have burned a hole in her back with that look.
    Colleen approached Jimmy. “Everything okay, Chief?” he asked.
    “Bill needs to question Charlie at the station,” she said in a whisper. “You up for helping me to get him to go?”
    Jimmy gave her a thumbs-up.
    “Hey, Charlie,” Colleen said. “You mind helping Jimmy and me figure out what happened with the fire?”
    “You mean like a junior firefighter?” he asked.
    “Sure, like a junior firefighter,” she said.
    “What do I have to do?”
    “Nothing much. Just tell Sheriff Dorman what you