The Mysterious Disappearence of Leon by Ellen Raskin Read Free Book Online

prison. Outstretched arms of the women inmates waved at the protesters through the barred fence of the recreation yard on the roof of the jail.
    “There she is! There’s Mrs. Carillon!” Tina cried, pointing to a plump arm waving a purple-flowered handkerchief.
    “Free Mrs. Carillon! Free the orphans’ mother!”

    “She’s gone!” gasped Tina. She searched for the familiar handkerchief among the waving arms, but it was no longer there.
    “Maybe they put her in solitary,” suggested an alarmed Tony.
    “Maybe she’s been eaten by a rat,” Tina shrieked. “Let me down, let me down! I want to confess!”
    “Look!” All eyes followed Tony’s pointing finger. A plump woman in a purple-flowered dress emerged from the green copper gate of the prison. “It’s Mrs. Carillon!”
    Fortunately, a policeman had halted all traffic, for Mrs. Carillon raced across the street to the traffic island without looking left or right. The twins were set down just as she arrived to clutch them in her arms.
    In the midst of the laughing and shouting Tony suddenly remembered his friends. “Mrs. Carillon, this is Joel and this is Harry. They rescued you from the ‘pesthole.’”
    Mrs. Carillon grasped their hands between hers. “How can I ever thank you?”
    “It was the least we could do,” answered Harry. “You are a martyr, Mrs. Carillon.”
    “A martyr?” she said in surprise. “I thought you had to be dead to be a martyr.”
    “You are a living martyr, Mrs. Carillon,” Joel replied.

    Traffic was moving again. Harry hailed a passing taxi and the weary threesome got in.
    “One minute,” Mrs. Carillon said to the driver. She rolled down the window and called to Harry. “Maybe you can help my cellmate, Mineola Potts. She’s such a nice lady.”
    “What’s she in for?”
    “Jaywalking.”
    No one noticed the pudgy man 24 with rimless glasses and bandaged head who hurried out of the prison after Mrs. Carillon. No one heard him shout after the taxi, for the chant, “Free Mineola Potts,” was in full swell.
    “Was she really arrested for jaywalking?” Tony asked.
    “Indeed she was, poor woman,” Mrs. Carillon replied. “She was very hungry and had nothing to eat, so she borrowed two cans of lobster meat and a tin of caviar from the supermarket. She was jaywalking when the police stopped her.”
    Tina sighed over the unhappy plight of poor, miserable Mineola Potts.

6 * A Familiar Face in a Dented Head

    You!
    Mrs. Carillon wanted to go home and jump into a hot tub, but was outvoted by the tired but hungrier twins, who insisted on describing their day’s adventure in full detail over hamburgers and ice cream sodas.
    When they finally arrived at their apartment, Mrs. Baker greeted them with the news that they had a visitor.
    “He’s been sitting there in the living room for an hour. He doesn’t say anything, just sits.”
    Tina and Tony exchanged anxious glances. The only visitor they ever had was Mr. Banks, and he didn’t count. Tina asked the question they were all thinking.
    “Does he have a red moustache and a black tie?”
    “Nope,” said Mrs. Baker.
    The short, pudgy man with rimless glasses and bandaged head rose timidly from his chair when they entered the room. “Mrs. C-C-Carillon, I. . .”
    “You!” shouted Mrs. Carillon, pointing a menacing finger at the man whose cuff button had caught in her fishnet bag. “You!”
    Mrs. Carillon’s finger made the little man so nervous he could scarcely speak. His words tripped over one another, then refused to come out at all.
    Tina felt sorry for him, whoever he might be. “Won’t you sit down?” she said graciously.
    Tony stayed close to Mrs. Carillon’s side to protect her from this unwelcome stranger, who nodded and smiled shyly at Tina but remained standing.
    Mrs. Carillon studied him carefully. He looked harmless enough. Besides, there was something about him that reminded her of someone, but she couldn’t remember who.
    “Well, what’s