Arsenic and Old Puzzles Read online

  Cora turned into the driveway, drove up to the house. The lights were out in the addition. Sherry, Aaron, and the baby were asleep. The only light was the faint glow from the back hallway seeping out through the living room window.

  Cora went up the walk. Slipped quietly inside, taking care not to let the screen door bang.

  Someone was in the house!

  Cora could tell at once. She didn’t see anything, she didn’t hear anything, but she knew. She fumbled in her purse, reached for her gun. Found it, pulled it out. She stood in the doorway while her eyes became accustomed to the dark. There was no one lurking in the shadows of the living room. But was that a faint sound from down the back hall?

  Cora tiptoed through the living room, peered down the hall. The light wasn’t just coming from her bedroom. The light in the study was on. Someone was going through her things. Why, she couldn’t begin to imagine, but she meant to find out.

  Cora tiptoed down the hall, peered around the door.

  Sherry was sitting at the computer. She looked up, saw Cora holding the gun.

  “Don’t shoot. I’m unarmed.”

  “Sherry. What are you doing down here?”

  “I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t want to wake the baby.”

  “But you didn’t mind waking me.”

  “You weren’t here.”

  “You didn’t know that.”

  “Why are we arguing? You weren’t here, I was using the office.”

  “What for?”

  “Catching up on my work.”

  Cora looked, saw Sherry was constructing a crossword puzzle.

  “Hey. I don’t have Crossword Compiler.”

  “Yeah, I ordered it.”

  “You ordered a program for my computer?”

  “Cora, I helped you buy this computer. You got gigabytes up the wazoo. The program’s not a problem. You won’t even know it’s there.” Sherry frowned. “Where were you, anyway?”

  “Oh.”

  “What do you mean, oh?”

  Cora told her about the murder.

  “There was a sudoku on the body?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “And you haven’t heard the worst of it. Sam Brogan found a newspaper with a crossword puzzle.”

  “With a clue to the murder?”

  “I doubt it. It’s from 2005.”

  “Where did that come from?”

  “Somebody’s trash.”

  “Then how can it mean anything?”

  “It can’t. But the chief wanted me to solve it.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Pawned him off on Harvey Beerbaum.”

  “Poor Harvey.”

  “He loves it. It’s not like the chief’s going to wake him up to do it. It’s not important; he’ll ask him tomorrow.” Cora pursed her lips. “I’m wondering.”

  “What?”

  “Two thousand and five. The other puzzle’s pretty old. Could it be from 2005?”

  “Could be. That would be kind of creepy.”

  “The whole thing’s kind of creepy. You got a killer littering crime scenes with vintage crossword puzzles that don’t mean a damn thing.”

  “How do you know they don’t mean a damn thing?”

  “The first one didn’t. The second one should be just the same.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because no one plots a murder based on a crossword puzzle in 2005 and holds on to it all this time waiting to carry it out.”

  “What did the crossword puzzle say?”

  “I don’t know. Chief Harper’s taking it to Harvey Beerbaum to solve.”

  “Will he show it to you then?”

  “I suppose so. I could ask for it, but I don’t want to make him think it’s important.”

  “Why not? It’s all right if it isn’t.”

  “Yeah, but what if it is?”

  “You just got through telling me it can’t be. What is the date of the puzzle?”

  “Why?”

  “You remember the date?”

  “September seventeenth.”

  Sherry began typing into the computer.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Google search.”

  “What for?”

  “Newspapers with puzzle archives.”

  “You think there is one?”

  “The first puzzle was a computer printout. It had to come from somewhere.” Sherry pointed to the screen. “Here we go. The Richmond Daily has archived everything since 1998. We plug in September 17, 2005.” She pressed Enter. “Voilà.”

  Cora looked over Sherry’s shoulder. “That’s the puzzle?”

  “That’s right. Now I click on Printable Version, and there we go.”

  The printer spat out a copy of the puzzle. Sherry handed it to Cora. “Here you go.”

  Across

  1 Flat topper

  4 Letter starter

  8 Saturday-night hire, perhaps

  14 Work of Sappho

  15 1-Across material

  16 Capital that replaced Istanbul

  17 Start of a message

  19 Like a ski run

  20 Lizards popular as pets

  21 First baseman in a comic routine

  22 Run-throughs

  23 More of the message

  29 Davis of film

  31 Send, so to speak

  32 Lavender, for one

  35 Set the pace

  37 Old PC screens

  38 Ill temper

  39 Humble in position

  41 Does a bakery job

  42 Keister

  43 “-ite” compound, often

  44 Tribal leader

  46 Lint-collecting body part

  48 Forest clearing

  50 Still more of the message

  52 Sunlit areas

  57 Trinity member

  58 Putting out

  60 With freedom of tempo

  64 End of the message

  65 Did penance

  66 To__ (just right)

  67 Suffix with Brooklyn

  68 Upper crust

  69 Does fairway work

  70 Patch up

  Down

  1 Namely

  2 Almanac tidbit

  3 Beanery handouts

  4 Name in frozen dinners

  5 Caucuses state

  6 Insults, playfully

  7 Like Reynard

  8 “Peter and the Wolf” bird

  9 Head over heels

  10 Clay-Liston result, briefly

  11 Dance like Hines

  12 Poetic preposition

  13 Half a diam.

  18 Body art, slangily

  21 Big hunk of cheese

  24 Gusher

  25 Heston title role

  26 Marx Brothers’ specialty

  27 Out-and-out

  28 Capone adversary

  30 D-Day invasion town

  32 Tuscany city

  33 Chain sound

  34 Like King novels

  36 Did some batiking

  38 Beeb watcher

  40 Transplant need, maybe

  45 Pet store array

  47 Parade day

  49 A lot like

  51 Abounding in trees

  53 Payback time for Wimpy: Abbr.

  54 Goes up

  55 Lavatory sign

  56 Veep who resigned

  59 Hobo fare

  60 Sleazy periodical

  61 Beehive State Indian

  62 __ mot

  63 Aardvark’s tidbit

  64 “How Dry __”

  Cora took a look. “So, you wanna solve it?”

  “Not really, but you’re not going to let me alone until I do. Even though it means absolutely nothing.”

  “We don’t know it means absolutely nothing.”

  “Yes, we do. We figured it out by deductive reasoning.”

  “Would you just solve the damn thing.”

  There were footsteps
in the hall, and Aaron came in, carrying Jennifer on his shoulder. He looked half asleep. “What are you girls doing?”

  “Sherry was doing a Google search, and now we’re going to do a crossword puzzle. What’s new with you?”

  “The baby woke up. She wants to nurse, and I’m not equipped.”

  “Sorry, Cora. Duty calls.” Sherry took Jennifer from Aaron.

  “Where you going?” Cora said.

  “Nurse her and put her back to bed.”

  “What about the puzzle?”

  “Harvey Beerbaum’s going to do it.”

  Sherry and Jennifer went out the door.

  “What’s that all about?” Aaron said.

  Cora filled Aaron in on the murder.

  “Hmm. Town drunk. Not worth getting out an extra. Unless it turns out to be poison.”

  “You won’t know in time to do you any good. Dan Finley will leak it to Rick Reed. By the time you get out an extra, it will be all over the tube.”

  “I could write it now,” Aaron said.

  “What?”

  “Assume it’s poison, and write it now. We could have it on the street before Rick even aimed a microphone.”

  “Could you really do that?”

  Aaron made a face. “Nah. It’s not like we have newsboys screaming on street corners. The Gazette gets delivered. It’s only sold in half a dozen stores. Half of those are convenience stores that are really out of town. And none of the stores on Main Street even have a rack outside.”

  “Whoa, back up!” Cora said. “It’s the mother who’s supposed to have postpartum depression. You’re not competing with television. You’re a successful young journalist. People read your stories, not because you’re the first on the scene, but because you put an intelligent spin on what Rick Reed has already mangled.” She put up her hand. “That being said, if I can get you a scoop, I will. In the meantime, it’s five in the morning. So, unless you’d like to take a whack at this crossword puzzle…”

  “I’ll leave that to Sherry.”

  “Then I’m going to bed.”

  Chapter

  16

  Cora woke up at a quarter to ten. She knew it was a quarter to ten because the digital clock said so, and there was no arguing with cold, hard numbers. A clock face you could misread, particularly if the minute hand and the hour weren’t that different in length, but the numbers didn’t lie. Unless some of the lines were burned out, like in that digital watch Cora used to have that made the four look frighteningly like half a swastika. But the clock on her dresser was in depressingly good repair.

  Cora got up, padded in the direction of the bathroom. Stopped short at the sight of a piece of paper shoved under her bedroom door. She picked it up. It was the solved puzzle.

  Cora sat on the bed, read the puzzle over.

  After careful examination, she was delighted to be able to report that it didn’t mean a damn thing.

  Cora got dressed and drove into town. She seldom made breakfast for herself. Not when Mrs. Cushman’s Bake Shop provided such tempting treats. This morning, Cora had an apricot scone and a latte. Mrs. Cushman made the latte. The scone, like all her baked goods, she trucked in from the Silver Moon Bakery in Manhattan.

  Chief Harper came in behind her, ordered a large black coffee and a blueberry muffin.

  “Just getting up, Chief?” Cora said.

  “Are you kidding? It’s my second time today.”

  “Your second blueberry muffin?”

  “Let’s not count calories. It’s unfriendly to count calories.”

  “Any progress on the case?”

  Harper glanced around the bakery. It was still crowded, even at ten in the morning. “Let’s not talk here.”

  Cora followed the chief down the street to the police station, which was only a tempting half block from the bakery, increasing the allure. Cora wondered which came first. Had the cops seen the bakery and decided to open the station? Or had Mrs. Cushman figured it couldn’t hurt to open a bakery near the cops?

  The Bakerhaven Police Station, like most other houses in town, was a white frame building with black shutters. Harper went up the front steps, held the door for Cora.

  Dan Finley was at his desk. He looked bleary-eyed. Cora wondered how early Chief Harper had called him in.

  “Anything happen?” Harper said.

  “In the five minutes you were gone? Not a thing.”

  “Great.”

  Harper led Cora into his office, closed the door. He sat down, put his coffee and muffin on the desk.

  Cora flopped into a chair, sipped her latte. “What’s up, Chief? You identify the corpse?”

  “Ned Crumley.”

  “Glad you can joke about it.”

  “Well, what else can I do? I got two men killed for no apparent reason under the most bizarre circumstances. Unless the Guilford sisters poisoned them, I don’t see how it was done. If they did, I have to congratulate them for committing the most stupid and obvious murder in the history of law enforcement. Sit the man down and feed him poison, call the cops when he dies. It’s hardly the perfect crime.”

  “On the other hand, Chief, they’ve got you convinced they didn’t do it.”

  Harper opened his mouth, closed it again. “Damned if they haven’t. Could they be that diabolically clever?”

  Cora put up her hands. “Whoa. I was kidding. Don’t go off the deep end.”

  “See, even you ridicule the suggestion. We have an absolutely senseless crime that doesn’t adhere to any pattern. We have an unidentified corpse who materialized in town without using any mode of transportation. We have a serial killer unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. This is an absolutely unique sort of crime.”

  “Yes, and no.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it. Driving home last night I had the funniest feeling. Granted, it was four thirty in the morning and I hadn’t had any sleep. Still, I couldn’t help feeling there was something very familiar about it.”

  “What?”

  “I have no idea. It’s like nothing else I’ve ever encountered. I wish my brain was working right. It’s been tough ever since I turned—”

  Cora broke off. Her face flushed.

  “Turned what?” Harper said.

  “Turned into my driveway and went home,” Cora improvised. “I felt like something was wrong, but I was too tired to figure it out.”

  Harper let it go, as if that was what Cora had meant to say. He knew damn well she was talking about her last birthday. He wondered which one it was.

  “You get the report back from the lab?” Cora said.

  “No. Now I’m waiting on two of ’em. We should get the results on the first murder soon, but they’re taking their own sweet time. Luckily, nobody gives a damn.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Well, it isn’t a very sensational murder, is it? An old man and an old drunk poisoned for no reason. Rick Reed hasn’t even bitten. You can bet Dan Finley’s tipped him off, but he doesn’t think it’s worth the bother. And that, I have to admit, is the saving grace. No one’s pushing me to solve this crime. Not that they won’t, but right now expectations are low.”

  “You invited me over here to tell me nothing?” Cora said.

  “I invited you over here to eat your scone. So I won’t have to admit in public I got nothing. Well, I got one thing.”

  Harper took a paper off his desk, passed it over. “Here’s the puzzle. Harvey solved it.”

  “Seen it, Chief. It doesn’t mean a thing.”

  “Huh? You went over to Harvey’s?”

  “No, Sherry copied the puzzle off the Internet.”

  “How the hell did she do that?”

  “I had the date from the paper. She plugged it in, found a puzzle archive. She’s clever that way. I studied the solution to the puzzle, and it is my pleasure to tell you it doesn’t mean a damn thing.”

  “You don’t think so?”
r />   “I certainly don’t.”

  “I suppose you’re right. Of course, if it had said cyanide…”

  “Yes, that certainly would have made a difference,” Cora said sarcastically. “Or if it had named the killer. A neat trick, to have known who did it way back in 2005.”

  “Yeah. I was hoping there’d be some tie-in with the sudoku. But Harvey couldn’t find one.”

  “Harvey solved the sudoku?”

  “Not as fast as you could, but he solved it.”

  Harper handed her a copy.

  “Well, that’s fine work, Chief. Harvey may not have been as fast, but I guarantee you he got the same numbers I would have.”

  “Does it suggest anything to you?”

  “Nothing you could print in a family newspaper.”

  “Ha, ha,” Harper said. “Well, hang on to it. And the crossword, too. Maybe something will dawn on you later.”

  “That’s fine, Chief, but I guarantee you it won’t.”

  Cora folded the papers, and stuck them into her floppy, drawstring purse.

  Chapter

  17

  Cora left the police station, went down the side street to Becky Baldwin’s. She found the young attorney hunched over her desk.

  “What you doin’?”

  “Believe it or not, I’m paying my bills. They don’t tell you in law school. That’s over half of what the job consists of, and no one pays you to do it.”

  “You up to date on the second murder?”

  “I know there was one.”

  “At the Guilford house.”

  “So they say.”

  “Who’s they?”

  “Confidential sources.”

  “Give me a break.”

  “Dan Finley. Who also tipped off Rick Reed. Who couldn’t care less.”

  “Oh?”

  “Said there wasn’t anything sexy about it.”

  “In other words, you don’t have a client yet.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Well, you’re sexy. If you had a client, Rick Reed could interview you.”

  “Ha, ha.”

  “I wasn’t kidding. Without you, there’s no story. All they’ve got is Police Have No Leads. Throw in a defendant, they got an angle.”