The Crossword Connection (22 page)

“Absolutely, Al, but the deposits I'm finding in the Peterman sample have been with this soil for some time. They're well integrated. They weren't added after the earth arrived in Newcastle, they've had time to osmose.”

“Meaning they would have also shown up in Rosco's tires, if he'd been to the Peterman's New Hampshire farm?” Belle asked, although she knew the answer.

“I'm afraid so.” Jones took her hand. “It was a good try, Belle.”

“Thanks.” Belle looked at her watch and sat on the stool beside Jones. Exhaustion played heavily on her face. “The
Crier
will be out in twenty minutes. I suppose I should get back to my office so this kook can find me.”

“He seems to be able to
find
you wherever you are,” Lever said, adding grimly, “I'll go with you.”

“He keeps saying no cops, Al.…”

“And this guy still maintains he's holding Rosco somewhere?” Jones asked.

“Right.”

“There's got to be a way to end-run him,” Jones continued. “We're not taking charge of the situation. We're letting him direct the entire show.”

“I thought I was the detective here,” Lever interjected, “but, okay, Abe, what do you have in mind? Let's have it.”

“I don't know, but rather than searching for Rosco, we should be trying to identify this kook. If we find him, we find Rosco.” Jones turned to Belle. “This crossword in the box of roses? I mean, how good was it? Are we talking professional quality, or was it strictly amateur time?”

“It was clever … well conceived. The use of language was clear and intelligent … symmetrical fifteen-by-fifteen grid. Yes, I would have published it.”

“So, there's a possibility this guy's a professional crossword constructor, then?”

“I guess … no, it's not possible,” Belle said, then questioned how she'd jumped to that conclusion so quickly.

“Why not?”

She was about to respond that crossword creators weren't generally considered psychopaths, but Jones spoke before she had a chance to reply.

“Okay, here's what I'm thinking,” he said as he stood and crossed to a doorway at the far side on the lab. “Hold on a second.” He walked through the door and returned ninety seconds later carrying a large plastic evidence bag. “Rosco told me you inked in a copy of the puzzle we found under the dead woman? It had an Elvis Presley theme, right?”

“Right,” Belle said as her brow wrinkled in confusion. “But it seemed to have no bearing on the situation.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But I'm wondering … Is there any way you could connect it to the one you received in the rose box? Or the one on your dashboard? Style, language, pet words?”

Belle thought as both Jones and Lever watched her. Finally, she shook her head. “No. I don't remember anything that seemed to connect the one in the
Sentinel
to the two hand-drawn ones. No. If anything, they were devoid of personality. Clever, yes, but not quirky.”

“This may be a long shot, Belle.” Jones set the evidence bag on his worktable. “This isn't a very pretty sight … so tell me when to stop. Sometimes, I get inured to the sight of dried blood and forget that others aren't comfortable with it.” He opened the plastic bag as he spoke. “Normally, I wouldn't have saved all of this. I would have taken samples, kept a fragment or two, and tossed the rest. Actually, it was something you mentioned, Al, that originally piqued my curiosity: the Snoopy cartoon. The
Sentinel
hasn't carried the comic for six months. I checked on that.”

“So?” Lever interjected.

“Stay with me here. I scrounged through the Dumpster in Adams Alley that morning, pulled out all the newspapers, and checked the date on each one. First off: there were no papers older than March twenty-seventh of this year, and second—” Jones pulled a bloodied section of newsprint from the evidence bag—“this entertainment section of the
Sentinel
is seven months old … and the only portion of that paper to appear in the alley.”

Lever let out a nervous laugh. “What are you saying? Snoopy did the deed?”

“Well, my original assessment was that the cartoon page might play a part … a Comics Killer kind of scenario. Serial murderers are often attracted to titles of that ilk. But our second death didn't follow the theme, so I was left with two newspapers printed seven months apart … and a seemingly dead end to possibly random crimes. Unless the date itself is at issue, a reference mark, as it were, to other unsolved crimes … However, something else just struck me.” Jones unfolded the newspaper as he spoke. “What else is printed on that page of the
Sentinel
?”

“The crossword puzzle,” Belle answered quietly.

Abe spread the paper flat. “As you can see, a number of the clues are bloodstained and difficult to determine, but I think I can scrape the paper down enough to read them. I'm guessing—and this is a real long shot—that this crossword and the one in the paper we found under the dead woman
and
the two hand-drawn crosswords were all created by the same person: our suspect. Because, if the perpetrator didn't plant these newspapers, then why were they there?”

Belle thought a moment. “You're eliminating the idea that street people often wad newsprint into pillows—”

“For the sake of argument, yes.”

Again, Belle pondered the suggestion. “But those
Sentinel
crosswords were designed by a legitimate constructor, Abe. I know the puzzle editor up in Boston. Well, I've met him, anyway, and this … I mean … I just don't see this as a plausible theory.”

“Why not?”

“You're suggesting that a contributor to a major U.S. daily is both murderer and kidnapper. I simply can't subscribe to that notion.”

“Would you mind completing the puzzle, Belle?” Lever asked softly.

She looked at her watch. She stopped short of sighing but felt her level of irritation and tension rise. “I have to get to the
Crier,
Al. I don't want to miss this guy's phone call. If I upset him further, who knows what he'll do next? I'm just really worried about Rosco.”

“I know.” Lever spoke more firmly. “This is a long shot, Belle, just like Abe said, but we need to check it out. You can do this puzzle in ten minutes, max. Abe and me? An hour, on the short side. Time isn't on anyone's side right now.”

Belle looked at Lever in mounting frustration. “I realize that, Al! Some psycho's got Rosco. Playing word games right now isn't the answer.”

“You don't know that!”

Belle spun angrily on Al. “The crossword you found under the dead woman at the bus depot followed an Elvis Presley theme. It had
nothing
to do with crime, murder, foul play—”

Lever was also losing his temper. “Rosco is one of my closest friends, Belle, in case you'd forgotten. And I'm all ears if you have other leads you want to pursue.”

Belle grabbed her purse. Lever's hand beat a rapid and nervous tattoo on Jones's worktable while Abe watched the two and wondered whether he should step in or wait for them to cool off.

It was Belle who spoke next. “If you still feel this is important, Al, we'll do it
after
I reconnect with this crazy.”

Lever nodded but didn't answer while Abe began busying himself with the newspaper he'd removed from the evidence bag, lightly scratching its surface with a broad knife. “Sixty-five-Across:
J
.
M. Barrie's little lady.
Any ideas, Al?”

Belle stared at the two men in disbelief. “It's Tinker Bell.”

BELLA, BELLA, BELLA

Across

1.  Gang next door

6.  Finishes

10.  Don

14.  An Astaire

15.  Help a felon

16.  Fad

17.  Outlaw lady

19.  Famous cookie

20.  ——gland

21.  Fog

23.  “You——There”

25.  Marine snake

27.  Watched

31.  Michelin, e.g.

34.  Mimes

36.  Wind dir.

37.  Plath novel

39.  Totals

40.  Glass container

41.  Chit

42.  Hippy high

43.  Secure by lines

45.  Magnani film

49.  Wildebeest

50.  Blue Eyed——

51.  Messenger

52.  Subject to death

54.  Roadside asst.

56.  National output, abbr.

57.  Multitude

59.  Former Met Rusty

62.  ——Rooney

65.  J. M. Barrie's little lady

69.  Bears or Lions

70.  Perry battle site

71.  Beginning of a logical argument?

72.  Rim

73.  Divide

74.  Gardner and others

Down

1.  Catch

2.  Lemon add-on

3.  Deneuve film

4.  Like Lolly Llama?

5.  Appear

6.  Shower

7.  Atty. org.

8.  Microorganism

9.  One after the prize

10.  Penned

11.  Jug part

12.  Ripen

13.  Classic car

18.  Break

22.  Bro's sib

23.  ——Carney

24.  Cheer

26.  San Diego resort area

28.  Fifth Dimension Blues?

29.  Stop

30.  ——Moines

32.  Building support

33.  Air, comb. form

35.  ——Bunyan

38.  In——of

39.  Part of 7-Down

42.  Baton Rouge camp.

43.  Studio formed in 1924

44.  Yoko——

45.  Beef up

46.  Fuming

47.  Sign on a door

48.  Sculptor Jean

50.  ——Paulo

53.  Seasoning

55.  Questioned

58.  31-Across, e.g.

60.  Funny man Johnson

61.  mensch, superman

62.  Consumed

63.  ——Beatty

64.  ——Hammarskjold

66.  Anais——

67.  Robert Edward——

68.  ——Alamitos

To download a PDF of this puzzle, please visit
openroadmedia.com/nero-blanc-crosswords

CHAPTER 28

Abe Jones once again used the flat side of the knife to slide the dried and powdery blood he'd scraped from the seven-month-old old
Boston Sentinel
off his examining table and into a fresh evidence bag. Belle tossed her red Bic pen back into her purse. Racing to complete the crossword, combined with a lack of sleep and too much black coffee, had weakened her knees. She dropped onto the stool next to Al Lever's and allowed her head to sag onto her shoulders.

“Well, it sure as hell wasn't designed as a message to me, was it?” Lever said as he studied the newspaper. “What do we have here? BELL STARR, BELLE DE JOUR at 3-Down, THE BELL JAR, 45-Across BELLISSIMA, WEDDING BELL at 28-Down, and TINKER BELL … We'd better call that editor you mentioned at the
Sentinel,
Belle. Whether this crossword is connected to the murders or not, I want to know who's fixated on you.”

Belle stood and walked to Abe Jones's desk. She reached for the telephone as she plunked herself down in his office chair. “Do I need to dial nine to get an outside line?”

“Yes.”

Belle allowed
Boston Information
to connect her directly to the
Sentinel,
feeling she no longer had enough energy to write down the number.

“Yes,” she said to the
Sentinel
operator, “Could you connect me to Arthur Simon? … It's Belle Graham calling … Thank you.” While waiting for Simon's line to ring, she looked at Lever. “Al, could you bring me that newspaper, please? Or call out the date.”

Lever ferried the paper to Belle and rejoined Jones at the examining table. “This is tough on her,” he said sotto voce.

“It's tough on us all,” Abe responded quietly. “You try to be hardheaded in these situations, keep the macho guard up—especially for Belle's sake—but Rosco's close to all of us. It's not going to be a pretty picture if we don't locate him.… And I mean soon.”

“Don't remind me.”

“Are you planning to contact Boston PD?”

“I don't know yet.” Lever rubbed the back of his neck. “I'll wait and see what she discovers.… But, to be honest, with all these soil samples you lifted, I don't think our answer's in Boston. If anything, I'll be calling in the State Police. And, as much as I hate to say it, we're looking at a kidnapping here, and possibly the crossing of state lines, so that means the feds.”

“Marvelous—”

“Sorry, did I interrupt something?” Belle asked as she replaced the phone in its cradle.

“Shop talk.… What did you find out?”

“Arthur Simon's the puzzle editor at the
Sentinel.
That's who I just spoke with.…” Belle took a deep breath as she placed the newspaper back on the examining table. “Your suspicions were correct, Abe, this puzzle and last Saturday's were constructed by the same contributor; a man by the name of Zachary Taylor … just like the president. That name also appeared in one of the hand-drawn puzzles.”