3 Coming Unraveled (10 page)

Epilogue

Some people like a happy ending. And this latest adventure of the Quilters Club has one, as it turns out.

Thanks to Mark the Shark’s persuasive argument,
Judge Horace Cramer ruled that the money found in the quilt belonged to Bobby Ray Purdue. The quilt had been left to him by his great-grandmother and there was no way to prove where all those antique bank notes came from. The First Wabash National Bank had never reopened its doors after the Great Fire of 1899, so no one spoke up in its behalf.

Bobby Ray sold the rare bank note
s at auction, many of them going to
numismatists and other private collectors for undisclosed sums. Local antiques dealer
Daniel Sokolowski upped his estimate to $200 million, but that was just an educated guess.

What is known is this: Bobby Ray bought his mother a new house
on Field Hand Road and set up a $2 million annuity to provide for her. He sold his half of E Z Seat to his brother N.L. for the grand sum of $1. And he paid for the construction of the new gazebo in the town square. After all, his reappearance had caused the mayor to spill his coffee on those fine architectural drawings.

And more: He bought Rachel McGurty’s old
boarding house on Easy Chair Lane, turning it into a home for retired circus performers. Big Bill Haney and his wife Willamina took the entire second floor. Bombay Martinez got a large room in back. There was even room for a couple of former Haney Bros. performers, now retired but eager to rejoin their comrades. Bobby Ray took the cottage out back for himself.

The big news: Ben Bentley donated that great field behind his house to the town (a referendum passed to annex the land into the city limits) to become a zoo.

Bobby Ray – the one-time Sprinkles the Clown – donated $100 million dollars to establish the Haney Bros. Zoo and Exotic Animal Refuge. The endowment would provide for the care of Happy, Sneezy, Doc, Grumpy, Dopey, Sleepy, and Bashful, as well as other animals that would join them in entertaining the children of Caruthers Corners and nearby towns. A giraffe and a hippopotamus had already been added. And Big Bill was negotiating with a traveling carnival for an old leopard that needed a good home.

On weekends, the
retired circus performers put on shows at the zoo, free to the public. Bobby Ray would smear on his greasepaint and reprise Sprinkles the Clown. And he was joined by a second clown known as Sparkplug.

Sparkplug wore a fire chief’s hat and rode around in a miniature
red fire engine, squirting seltzer water into the air. Freddie Madison liked his newfound hobby – entertaining kids. Why not? He had a new addition to his own family, 2-year-old Donna Ann Madison. He and his wife had decided to stay in Caruthers Corners. Amanda had gone back to teaching and Freddie happily played Mr. Mom. But on weekends he covered up all those facial scars with white greasepaint and became Sparkplug the Clown. He was having a ball.

Mayor Beauregar
d
Hollingswort
h
Madison IV got credit for expanding the city limits and bringing in a town zoo. Maddy was so proud of her husband.

Aggie was happy to have a new cousin, mainly because it meant her Uncle Freddie would be sticking around. Next year she would be old enough to babysit.
And she would have a second baby sister too. How cool was that?

But Bobby Ray Purdue was the real winner. Returned from the dead. Reunited with his mother. Remaining close to his foster parents and his circus friends. And rich
er than his avaricious brother N.L.

But forget about
all that money. When you saw how happy he was entertaining kids as Sprinkles the Clown, you knew he was the wealthiest man in Caruthers Corners.

= = =

Thank you for reading.

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About the Author

Marjory Sorrell Rockwell
says needlecraft arts – quilting, crocheting, knitting – are pastimes every woman can appreciate. And she particularly loves quiltmaking. “It’s like painting with cloth,” she says. But when not quilting she writes mysteries about a Midwestern sleuth not unlike herself, a middle-aged lady with an unpredictable family and loyal friends. And she’s a big fan of watermelon pie.

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