The Pickle Vat Murders

Enjoying a Fourth of July picnic, nine-year old Pollye Franklin overhears a bitter argument involving Mr. Archer, an older man, and Rose Esther, a beautiful teenager. Rose Esther disappears after the picnic and the Sheriff concludes she’s run away from home. A year later Pollye and her friend Mary discover Rose Esther’s mummified body embedded in salt in the bottom of an abandoned pickle vat. Archer is charged with murder and Pollye, the only person who can identify him as the man arguing with Rose Esther, testifies as the prosecution’s key witness. Archer is convicted and sentenced to death.Pollye later finds Spot, Mary’s pet rabbit, in a neighbor’s yard. Determined to return the little rabbit to the safety of its cage, she gives chase until it darts into a garage and hides under a workbench. Crawling under the workbench after Spot, Pollye is startled when Mrs. Archer enters the garage and discovers her. When Pollye attempts to escape, the woman captures her and brutally knocks her unconscious. Sometime later Pollye regains consciousness, stuffed in the trunk of a moving car with her hands tied. The car stops, the trunk lid pops open, and Pollye gasps – the car is at the edge of a pickle vat brimful of salty water and half-pickled cucumbers. Mrs. Archer drags Pollye out of the trunk and … you may be too young to read what happens next!