by Parnell Hall
Cora sighed.
That was a relief.
But only slightly.
It bothered her that she’d looked.
Chapter
19
There were three police cars out front. In the Bakerhaven police force, that constituted a quorum.
Officer Sam Brogan was stringing up crime scene ribbon with studied indifference. The cranky officer stroked his mustache, popped his gum.
“What have we got here, Sam?”
“We’ve got a murder in the middle of the night. Some people have no consideration.”
“Don’t take it personally.”
“Oh, no? Were you happy getting the phone call?”
“Where’s Dan?”
“Upstairs with the chief. We’re still waiting on the doc.”
The flashing lights of an ambulance came up the road. That wouldn’t be the medical examiner, just an EMS team. They’d have to wait on the doctor as well.
Cora ducked under the crime scene ribbon.
“Sure, sure, just barge right in like I wasn’t here,” Sam said.
“The chief called me.”
“Just bustin’ your chops. Go on up.”
“Where is it?”
“In the bedroom.”
Cora went upstairs, looked in.
Randolph was in bed. It didn’t take a medical examiner to tell he wasn’t sleeping. He was lying diagonally with his feet on the pillow and his head at the foot of the bed. His eyes were wide open, staring. Blood drained from a wound in his temple.
Dan Finley was snapping pictures of the body from every conceivable angle. He waved hi and went on with his work.
Chief Harper came in from the bathroom. He’d just splashed water on his face, was wiping it with a towel. He grinned. “Well, you didn’t waste any time.”
“You called me.”
“I didn’t ask you to come here.”
“You thought I wouldn’t?”
“I knew you would. That’s why I didn’t ask you.”
“Huh?”
“If I asked you down here, you’d figure I had a puzzle I wanted you to solve, and you wouldn’t want to do it. If I didn’t ask you down here, you’d figure I didn’t, and you’d want to. So I didn’t and you did. You even beat the doc.”
“It’s three in the morning. I’m not sure what you just said. What have we got here?”
“Like I said on the phone. Gunshot wound to the head.”
“And you know it wasn’t self-inflicted because…?”
“No gun. Kind of a dead giveaway. Suicides rarely dispose of the gun.”
“You’re making jokes, Chief?”
“Just anticipating yours. Someone shot him. I have no idea why. Or who. Or when. The only thing I know is where. Unless you think the body was dumped here.”
Cora peered at the body. “From the amount of blood on the bed I would say you could rule that out. So you have no idea when.”
“The body’s cold. The beginning of rigor. The medical examiner can pin it down, but he’s been dead a while.”
“How’s the body get found at three in the morning?”
“Actually, it was found at two. Neighbor got up to go to the bathroom. Saw the lights were on and the car in the driveway. David Harstein. Nosy old coot. Has a reputation for butting into other people’s business. Knew Randolph wouldn’t be up at that hour. Figured something was wrong.”
“And?”
“Called the cops.”
“And?”
Harper made a face. “Sam was on duty. By the time he got through bawling David out for waking him up on a damn fool errand—”
“Sam wasn’t asleep,” Dan put in. “He was wide awake, ever vigilant.”
“Right. Anyway, Sam took a ride over, found the front door open, went in.”
“The neighbor a suspect?”
“I can’t imagine. I suppose stranger things have happened.”
“Why the hell would anyone want to kill the banker?”
“He testified against you yesterday, didn’t he.”
“Right. And then made me so angry I came over here and killed him.”
“You do get angry.”
“My gun’s in my purse. Wanna check it? I didn’t kill him, Chief.”
“I’m sure you didn’t. If I check your purse, I’ll be able to attest to that fact.”
“I could have used another gun.”
“Cora.”
“I got one gun in my purse. Mine. Fully loaded. Hasn’t been fired. Here. Take a look.”
Harper gave the gun a cursory look. He didn’t even bother to sniff the barrel.
Cora stuck it back in her purse.
There were footsteps on the stairs, and Barney Nathan came in. Even at three in the morning he wore a bow tie. Cora wondered if it was a clip-on.
“Okay. Let’s pronounce him and get him out of here.”
A EMS team had followed the doctor up the stairs and were waiting in the doorway. Largely for their benefit, the doctor made a show of feeling for a pulse. “Okay, he’s dead. Probably a good twelve hours. And if it wasn’t from that bullet wound to the head, I’d be very much surprised. All right, guys, take him away.”
As the EMS team loaded the body onto a gurney, Cora noticed one of them was a woman. She sighed, said, “Aw, hell.”
Harper said, “What?”
Cora jerked her thumb. “Girl on the gurney. Isn’t very big. As she’s loading him up, I’m wondering if she could carry the banker. Which is sexist. I’m thinking I was a lot happier before political correctness made me be so goddamned careful.”
“You really want to be politically correct, you probably shouldn’t call her a girl.”
“Oh, for chrissakes. Okay, Chief. You lured, tricked, enticed me into coming out here. For no conceivable reason that I can think of. You wanna tell me what’s up?”
“Only if you don’t get mad.”
“Why would I get mad?”
“I don’t know why you do half the things you do.”
“Chief.”
“It’s late. I didn’t want to get into everything on the phone.”
“Everything?”
“Every little detail. After all, you just woke up.”
“Chief, I’m going to strangle you in a moment. What are you holding back?”
“There was something on the bed beside the body.”
“Don’t tell me.”
“Okay.”
Cora’s face flushed. “Damn it, that’s a figure of speech. What did you find?”
Dan Finley’s evidence kit was on the floor. Chief Harper reached inside, pulled out a plastic evidence bag. There was a piece of paper in it. He held it up for Cora to see.
It was a KenKen.
Chapter
20
Cora was hopelessly conflicted. The KenKen was a good news/bad news scenario. The good news was it wasn’t a crossword puzzle she couldn’t solve, it was a number puzzle she could. The bad news was it was any puzzle at all. Because Chief Harper would want to connect it with the crime, and Cora knew damn well there wasn’t any way it would.
“So?” Harper said.
“So what?”
“Can you help me out?”
“I sure can. With some sound advice. Ignore this number puzzle and figure out who committed the crime.”
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
“Yeah, but it’s the best advice I’ve got. Come on, Chief, you want me to solve this thing? I’ll tell you what it is. It’s a 6-by-6 KenKen. Which is similar to a 4-by-4 KenKen, only bigger. It will have the numbers 1 through 6, and the mathematical functions still apply. You want me to solve it, I can, but it will take a little more time than a 4-by-4.”
“How much time?”
“Two to three weeks.”
“What!”
“That’s a slight exaggeration. I could do it right now, except it’s evidence, and you don’t want me to write on the paper. Fax me a copy when you get around to
it.”
“That won’t be until tomorrow.”
“Oh, my God! How awful! Someone might get some sleep first. Come on, Chief, when I solve this you know what you’re gonna get? Thirty-six numbers. Six of them will be 1’s, six of them will be 2’s. And this guy will still be dead, and you won’t know any more than you did before unless you get some other lead. So. Can I have the puzzle? I’ll solve it for you right now.”
“No.”
“That’s what I thought. In that case, I’m going home. Let me know if you come up with anything.”
Cora smiled and went downstairs.
Sam Brogan was standing guard or doing a great impression of a cow sleeping on its feet. Cora couldn’t tell which without snapping her fingers in his face, which seemed rude. She murmured, “Good night, Sam,” didn’t wait for a reply, ducked under the crime scene ribbon, got in her car, and drove off.
Her hands were shaking.
What had she done? She’d withheld the fact that she’d called on the banker that very afternoon. She’d had every opportunity to mention it, and she hadn’t. Why? Why didn’t she tell Chief Harper? Because Dan Finley was there? That was a convenient excuse. You wouldn’t wanna spill your guts in front of a witness. But why not? It wasn’t as if she had anything to hide. She had nothing to do with the man’s death, and nothing she had to say could possibly incriminate her. She was absolutely, one hundred percent in the clear.
Except now.
Now that she’d left the scene of the crime, she was guilty of holding out on the police. That technically made her guilty of compounding a felony and conspiring to conceal a crime.
That was ridiculous. She wasn’t concealing a crime. The crime was murder, and it wasn’t concealed at all. Everyone knew about it. Paying a social call on the banker was not a crime, and failing to mention that fact, the fact that had absolutely nothing to do with the murder, could not possibly be construed as obstruction of justice.
Could it?
Cora considered calling Becky Baldwin. She wondered how the young lawyer would feel about being rousted out of bed in the dead of night. She’d probably be okay with it if Cora were a suspect offering a retainer. But Cora wasn’t a suspect. She was an innocent bystander, whose only mistake had been marrying the wrong man some umpteen years ago, an indiscretion for which she seemed destined to never cease being punished.
As far as Cora was concerned, the death of this banker was just one in a series of nasty manipulations engineered by Melvin in order to wreck her day.
Cora pulled up the driveway. The new addition flickered in the headlights like some huge monster lying in wait. Cora switched off the lights, went up the walk.
Sherry met her at the front door.
“What are you doing up?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Where’s Aaron?”
“He could.”
“A murder, and your newspaper reporter hubby couldn’t care?”
“The Gazette’s a morning paper, and it’s already off the press. He figures there’s no point losing sleep for a story that won’t run for over twenty-four hours.”
“Good God. Was he that jaded before he got married?”
“He’s not jaded. Just tired.”
“Aren’t you tired?”
“Couldn’t sleep.”
“You nauseous?”
“No, I am not nauseated. You need to practice your grammar.”
“Not at three in the morning, I don’t. You were puking your guts out? That’s why you’re up?”
“I’m up because the guy who testified against you yesterday is dead. I wanted to be ready to go in case I had to post bail.”
“I had nothing to do with the man’s death.”
“Right. And innocent people are never accused.”
“You think Chief Harper would arrest me?”
“He has before.”
“Yeah, but he had cause. This time I haven’t done anything.”
“Then why are you nervous?”
“What?”
“You’re irritable. Jumpy.”
“It’s three in the morning.”
“Even so. I know you. What did you do now?”
Cora took a breath. “I held out on the cops.”
“What?”
Cora told Sherry about calling on the banker.
“Go back. Go back and tell him what you just told me.”
“It’s too late. I already withheld it.”
“You didn’t withhold it. You just didn’t mention it. In the heat of the moment. With so many things on your mind.”
“Yeah. And if you believe that one…”
“You don’t want my advice? So call Becky Baldwin.”
“I don’t think she’d be happy to hear from me.”
“So what?”
“I’ll call her tomorrow.” Cora flopped down on the couch. “Really, now. Why are you up? And don’t give me that about bail.”
“I thought you might need me.”
“Oh?”
“There wasn’t a crossword puzzle with the body?”
“No. There was a KenKen.”
“Really. Did you solve it?”
“I can’t solve it till they give me a copy.”
“Why didn’t they?”
“Kind of a low priority. Just a bunch of numbers.”
“You think it means anything?”
“No.”
“Then why was it there?”
Cora grimaced. “See, that’s the whole problem. That’s what I always get stuck with. ‘You’re the Puzzle Lady, here’s a puzzle, somebody must have left it for you.’ What rubbish.”
“Why is that rubbish?”
“It’s ridiculous.”
“It happens.”
“It happened once. Now every time there’s a murder that’s what they expect.”
“It happened more than once.”
“Bite your tongue. It’s never happened with a KenKen. A KenKen is a number puzzle. It can’t possibly mean a thing.”
“It happened with a sudoku.”
“And the sudoku had a crossword puzzle attached to point me in the right direction.”
“Actually…”
“Actually?” Cora looked at her niece suspiciously. “Did you just say actually?”
“When you were zooming out of here I noticed the flag on the mailbox was up.”
“In the dark?”
“In the headlights.”
“So Aaron was mailing a letter.”
“Aaron wasn’t mailing a letter.”
“You woke him up and asked him?”
“Aaron doesn’t mail letters. Not from here. Anything he sends goes out from the paper.”
“That’s a hell of a marriage. Aren’t you afraid he’s writing his mistress?”
“Aaron doesn’t have a mistress. You can’t judge all marriages by your own disasters.”
“Disasters?”
“Would you consider Melvin a crowning achievement?”
“Point taken. What about the mailbox?”
“I found this.” Sherry whipped out an envelope. Written on the front were the words PUZZLE LADY. “Guess what was in it?”
“You opened my letter?”
“It’s a fine line. On the one hand, you’re the Puzzle Lady. On the other hand, I do the work. And I open all the checks and bills.”
“Yeah, yeah, fine. What’s in it?”
Sherry passed it over.
Cora took the envelope, pulled out the paper.
It was a crossword puzzle.
ACROSS
1 Where Pago Pago is
6 Island north of New Zealand
10 “Little Women” character
14 Vote into office
15 Knot-tying vows
16 K-12, in education
17 Big artery
18 Message, part 1
20 With 47-Across, where to look
22 Come before
23 Juror, in theory
26 Message, part 2
30 Predicaments
34 Expert
35 Insecticide brand
36 Family name in baseball
37 Novocaine-treated
39 Accumulate
42 Use a teething ring
43 Sheltered, at sea
44 Barbershop spinner
46 Auction call
47 See 20-Across
48 Message, part 3
51 “___ Can Cook” (PBS show)
52 Story starter
53 Outdoors, to a diner
58 Become dotty
62 Message, part 4
64 Austerity
65 Tied, as a score
66 Conclusion lead-in
67 Baseball manager Joe
68 Benefit of clergy, e.g.
69 Kind of terrier
70 Flips out
DOWN
1 Wet septet
2 ___ vera
3 Certain Ford, for short
4 Squid relatives
5 Finished
6 Little white lie
7 Light bulb, in cartoons
8 Group seeker
9 Does not attend
10 Bit of sweat
11 Exile site of 1814
12 One of those things?
13 Make yourself scarce
19 Go fetch
21 Bing Crosby’s record label
24 Hotel unit
26 Tired and trite
27 Eyes
28 Mocha setting
29 Not fitting
30 Boxer’s punch
31 Accused’s excuse
32 Design idea
33 Blue shoe material?
38 Buzzer
40 Area near TriBeCa
41 Broken arm holder
45 Keeps company (with)
48 Converts to bills?
49 Pop open, as champagne
50 Military unit
51 ‘’Fine with me!”
53 Say it’s so
54 Clothier Strauss
55 Sweat it out
56 Chicago Cubs star Sandberg
57 Bacchanal
59 Taj Mahal town
60 Trail mix
61 Mars, to the Greeks
63 Time keeper, at times
Chapter
21
Cora cocked her head and laid into her niece with elaborate sarcasm. “So. Staying up to go my bail. That was the first lie. The second lie, closer to the truth, was staying up in case there was a crossword puzzle. Gee, what were the odds of that? When you had it right in your hand.”