The Puzzle Lady vs. the Sudoku Lady (17 page)

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Authors: Parnell Hall

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“Nothing.”

“I don't understand.”

“No. There was a sudoku with the puzzle.” Michiko reached into her purse again, took out another folded piece of paper.

Cora unfolded it and found the sudoku.

“You made a copy of this and she solved it?”

“A copy, yes. This is the original.”

“So we have to copy this, too?”

“If you want to solve this one, I do not care if there's another.”

“Neither do I. Where's a pencil?”

Cora found a pencil, sat down, and went to work on the sudoku. “Hmm. This is tricky. Did your aunt have trouble with it?”

“She had trouble with the crossword,” Michiko said. “It is hard to deal with the English idiom.”

“Uh huh,” Cora said.

She finished the sudoku and passed it over.

“What does that tell you?”

“You need the crossword puzzle.”

Sherry came back from the office, holding the puzzle. “Here you go,” she said, folding it up and handing it to Michiko. “That's the original. I left the copy on the desk for you to solve, Cora.”

“Thanks a heap. I just did the sudoku.”

“What sudoku?”

“Take a look.”

Cora heaved herself to her feet and padded down the hall to the office.

There on the desk, just as she expected, was the completed crossword puzzle. Sherry had whizzed through it in under five minutes. Cora couldn't have done it in under five days. She picked it up and looked it over.

The theme answer was “Sit in jail for a spell. Never fear. I won't tell.”

Cora snorted. That wasn't a blackmail note. Just a taunt.

Of course, in the note Cora got, the demands were hidden in the puzzle.

She scanned the puzzle for more clues.

She found 17 Across: Horizontal row in sudoku.

The answer was “Fifth.”

29 Across: Number of numbers in numbered row.

The answer was “Three.”

28 Down: With sudoku, address of house you went in.

The answer was “Elm.”

Cora padded back down the hall. “All right, where's the damn sudoku? Ah, here we go.” She snatched it up off the coffee table. “Let's see. Fifth row, first three numbers. One, four, six. So. Anyone happen to know who lives at 146 Elm Street? It wouldn't happen to be Sheila Preston, by any chance?”

“That is the one,” Michiko said.

“You and your aunt figured that out, did you? When I asked you what the puzzle meant, and you said you couldn't remember, you were not being entirely frank with me, were you?”

“Cora,” Sherry said warningly.

“No, no.” Cora waggled her finger. “Just because she's young and pretty and Japanese doesn't mean she can get away with everything. Trust me, I know. I was young and pretty once, and I didn't. I certainly tried. Which is why I'm not being as hard on you as I should. The point is, you did all this fancy tapdancing around and made me solve a sudoku when you knew the answer all the time. And so did Minami. You guys figured it out while she was still in jail. Right? So, when she got out of jail she already knew she was being accused of going into 146 Elm. You picked her up from jail?”

“Yes.”

“And brought her straight here?”

Michiko's eyes flicked.

Cora threw up her hands. “Teenagers! They lie so often and they're so bad at it. You didn't bring her straight here. Don't tell me you did. Don't even bother to try. Where'd you go first?”

“Back to the motel.”

“And? There's an âand,' isn't there?”

“What do you mean?”

“Were you with your aunt all the time, or did she take a little side excursion?”

“Excursion?”

“Did she leave you at the motel and go out?”

“She went to the drugstore. She had been in jail. There were some things she needed.”

“How long was she gone?”

“I don't remember.”

“It doesn't matter. I can figure it out. The police will know when they let her go. I know when she got to my house. I bet there's a chunk of time left in the middle. Good thing you can't write this, Aaron. She's just given us motive and opportunity.”

Cora turned back to Michiko. “Does Becky Baldwin know this?”

“I don't know what my aunt has told her.”

“Keep it that way. Don't ask Becky. Don't ask your aunt. Don't talk to anybody else. Luckily, you brought it to us first and we're all sworn to secrecy. Which makes us all accomplices after the fact, but, hey, what's a felony or two among friends? Well, congratulations. If you were trying to motivate me to save your aunt, you've done it. I've gotta get her off before we all wind up in jail.”

Michiko said nothing, looked down at the floor.

“So,” Cora said, “anything else you're not telling us?”

“Nothing else,” Michiko said.

But she couldn't meet Cora's eyes.

Chapter 41

Cora caught up with Dennis in the bar at the Country Kitchen.

“Hey, Dennis, how you doin'? What you havin'? Here, let me buy you a drink. Barkeep, a Diet Coke and whatever poison he's drinkin'.”

Dennis, clearly disconcerted, didn't know how to respond. He forced a smile, said, “To what do I owe this honor?”

“Funny you should ask. You owe it to your keen powers of observation, your shrewd deductions, and your injudicious advances toward unfortunate adolescents.”

“Huh?”

“You blew it, baby, and you blew it good. Got yourself in a heap of trouble. Luckily, Aunt Cora's here to get you out.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Excellent tack to take. Knowing what I was talking about
would be an admission of guilt. Ignorance is a much better option. Ah, here's our drinks. Well, âBottoms up,' as they used to say in the sorority. As I recall, they weren't talking about drinking. Though they probably were. Drinking, I mean.”

“Are you drunk?”

“Drunk with power. Drunk with knowledge. But alcohol? Haven't had a drop. Don't miss it as much as I used to. Even in a bar. So, you want me to tell you where you went wrong?”

“If you're going to lecture me, I don't want the drink.”

“It's not a lecture. It's shrewd advice. The type your lawyer'd give you, if she wasn't representing everybody else. But don't tell her I said so. If Becky thought I was costing her business, there'd be hell to pay.”

“Any time you'd like to get to the point.”

“Boy, a bourbon doesn't buy you as much as it used to. I expected at least a little civility.”

“I think I'm gonna go.”

“Making you nervous? That's not surprising, considering the fix you're in.”

Dennis got up from his stool and started for the door.

“I know about the blackmail note.”

Dennis stopped in his tracks. He didn't turn, but he didn't leave either. He just stood there.

Cora walked up behind him. “Where you made your big mistake was running a bluff on the kid. It worked, sure, it was bound to work. And you know
she's
not going to the cops. But you didn't count on her coming to me. And while she may not be old enough and wise enough to make the connection, I had no problem.

“The connection, of course, is where did you get the idea? You're not bright enough to have come up with it yourself, so
something must have put it in your head. Now what might that be? Only one thing I can think of. You got one, too. Wanna tell me about it?”

He turned around. “Now, look here.”

“Yes?”

His eyes shifted.

“That's funny. You're outraged, but you can't think of anything to say that doesn't get you in deeper. Never fear, Cora's here. Let me walk you through this. Come over here where no one can eavesdrop and unburden yourself.”

Cora steered Dennis over to a corner booth and sat him against the wall. “Good. See, no one can sneak up behind you. Keep your voice low, try not to fly into an indignant fury, and you'll do just fine. Now, tell me about the blackmail note.”

“What makes you think there's a blackmail note?”

“What makes me think the sun rose? I see it in the sky. I don't wonder how it got there. I'm just glad it did.”

“You're loopier than ever.”

“Well, who wouldn't be? I got a Japanese counterpart on a bizarre book tour, doing a Jack Abbott bit.”

“Who?”

“That's before your time? Good lord, where did the years go? Never mind. We're talking about you. You teased the little girl about her aunt getting a blackmail note. You're not smart enough to have thought of it yourself, which means you must have got one, which means you were there.”

Dennis opened his mouth to speak.

“Not at Thelma Wilson's. At Sheila Preston's. Before the body was found. At least, before the body was reported. Thelma Wilson saw you go in.”

“That's a lie!”

Cora made a face. “Oh. Bad line reading. That's not convincing at all. I know Thelma Wilson saw you go in. She told me so herself.”

His eyes flicked.

Cora waved his reaction away. “Not in so many words. But she told me about your visit. After Minami was arrested. You went and interviewed her. I wondered why. Mrs. Wilson had already identified Minami. The police had taken Minami off to jail; there wasn't much more to learn. What did you want to know? I asked Thelma Wilson about it, and guess what? She couldn't come up with an answer. At least, not a good one. There seemed to be no purpose for your visit. But I knew there was. What could it possibly be? There was only one thing I could think of. You were at Sheila's house that day, and you wanted to know if Thelma Wilson had seen you go in.”

Dennis said nothing and took a slug of his drink.

“So, what did the note say?”

“What note?”

“Dennis, Dennis, if you don't tell me about the note, then I gotta go to Chief Harper, and I don't wanna go to Chief Harper 'cause he'll just be mad that I know more than he does. Then he'll drag you in and interrogate you without me, in an attempt to know more than I do. Then Becky Baldwin will get involved, and she won't let you answer his questions. But she'll have a bunch of her own. Think about it. Who would you rather tell your story to? Me, Chief Harper, Becky Baldwin? Or your wife?”

His face fell.

Cora smiled. “Ooo. Surprise left jab stuns opponent, leaves him open to uppercut. Didn't see that coming, did you?”

“Are you having fun?”

“No, I'm really not. Come on, what did the note say?”

He glared at her for a moment. “It said, âI know what you did.'”

“Is that all?”

“That's the gist of it.”

“It didn't ask for money?”

“No. Why?”

“Why? Blackmail notes usually ask for money.”

“This one didn't.”

“What else did it say?”

“Nothing.”

“Where is it?”

“It's gone.”

“Oh?”

“I don't have it anymore.”

“Why not?”

“I just don't.”

“You just don't because you lost it? Because you turned it over to the police? Because you left it at the scene of the crime? Any time I hit one you likeâ”

“I destroyed it.”

“Why?”

“I didn't want to get in trouble.”

“That might have worked if you hadn't made a pass at the little girl.”

“I didn't make a pass at her.”

“You know what I mean. What else did the note say?”

“Nothing.”

“It didn't ask you to come to see her?”

“No, why would it? I'd already been to see her.”

“Yeah, but you hadn't admitted anything. You hadn't told and
she hadn't asked. You were being accused. That changes things. I would think she'd want to see you.”

“Well, you're wrong.”

“And you conveniently destroyed the note so we can't prove any different.”

“That's not why!”

“Nonetheless, that's the result.”

“I can't help that. It's the truth. It's the whole truth. I told you everything I know. I kept my end of the bargain. Now, you going to the cops?”

Cora patted him on the cheek. “Absolutely not.”