Last Puzzle & Testament (33 page)

Cora grabbed the paper.

ACROSS

• 50. ____ Ababa (Ethiopian city)
  
• 53. Idiot
  
• 54. Tax man
  
• 58. Bakery, so to speak?
  
• 62. Mail delivery org.
  
• 63. Rub out
  
• 65. Medieval instrument
  
• 66. Drugged
  

DOWN

• 37. Fraught with incident
  
• 42. Take on again
  
• 46. Out of work
  
• 47. Beveled
  
• 51. Extinguish
  
• 54. Fellow
  
• Àlow
  
55. Say cheese

• 56. Mimicked
  
• 59. College
  
• 60. Sold out
  

“
Flower shop?
” Cora said.

“That’s right.”

“How does that work?”

“Perfect,” Sherry said. “It’s a bad pun, just what we expected. A bakery is a flower shop.
Flour
shop.
F-l-o-u-r
shop. Get it?”

“So what’s the point? What does
flower shop
mean? And why did Chester Hurley go to such trouble to send us to a five-and-ten instead?”

“Obviously, to keep us away from the flower shop.”

“What flower shop?”

“I don’t know. Where’s the phone book?”

The Yellow Pages of the Bakerhaven phone directory had no listing for flower shops.

“Of course not,” Sherry told Cora. “It’s not
flower shops.
It’s
florists
.”

There were no florists either.

Sherry looked at the Yellow Pages in disbelief. “In the whole town?”

Cora Felton shrugged. “Well, it’s not that big a town.”

“Even so, they must have flowers.”

“Maybe it’s listed as something else.”

“What could it possibly be?”

“I have no idea.” Cora Felton’s eyes widened. “Oh!”

“What?”

“
People
magazine.”

“I thought that was next week.”

“It is.”

Sherry looked at her aunt in exasperation. “Aunt Cora.”

Cora Felton put up her hand. “Sherry. Sweetheart. What was I doing for
People
magazine?”

Sherry frowned. Then her eyes widened. She smiled.

“Planting flowers.”

The Cedar Grove Greenhouse was north of town in a secluded meadow about half a mile off the main drag. The proprietor, Vince, a middle-aged man with horn-rimmed glasses and dirty hands, smiled when he saw Cora Felton.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the Puzzle Lady. How did the interview go?”

“Haven’t had it yet,” Cora told him. “This is something else. Is that Chester Hurley’s truck outside?”

“You bet. He’s been here all day.” Vince waggled his hand. “Off and on. And yesterday too. Out in the greenhouse, pawing through the pots.”

“He tell you what he’s doing?” Cora asked.

“Of course not. Tight-lipped old coot. Off his rocker. I mean, here’s his niece newly dead, and he’s spending all day here.”

“Did you ask him why?”

Vince shook his head. “No use. Never get a word out of him. I did tell him he couldn’t browse all day. This isn’t a library. You want something, you buy it. You don’t come in just to look.”

“What did he say to that?”

“Took a zinnia, bought it, put it in his truck. Came back in to look some more. And what am I supposed to do then? The worst he is, is a slow shopper.”

“Where is he?” Sherry asked.

“Last I looked he was in the coleus house. That’s straight through marigolds, straight through geraniums, left through pansies and petunias. It’s the third wing on the left.”

“How big is this place?” Sherry said.

“Plenty big. And he’s pawed through most of it.”

Sherry and Cora pushed though the double doors into the greenhouse, which consisted of a series of long, narrow, glass-enclosed rooms. Each was climate-controlled, with subtle variations for the different varieties of plants. There were fewer than half a dozen customers, which made the sprawling greenhouse seem practically empty.

Sherry and Cora made their way through the brightly hued flowers following the proprietor’s directions. Chester Hurley was in the coleus house, as Vince had said. Chester was alone, which was not surprising—no customer would have wanted to go near him. Aside from his appearance, he was acting like a man obsessed. As they watched, he moved down a row of pots, snatching one up, peering at its bottom, looking at its top, poking his finger into the dirt, squinting at the spot where the pot had been, putting it back, grabbing the next. His concentration was such they were sure he had no idea they were there.

“Well, what do you think?” Sherry asked her aunt. “We gotta call Harper?”

“I suppose we have to. I don’t like it. The Chief’s not going to be thrilled.”

He wasn’t. When Chief Harper drove up to the greenhouse in response to their phone call, he looked like he was on his way to a lynching. By the time Sherry and Cora had ˀand Corafilled him in on the situation, he looked like they were the ones he intended to hang.

“Let me be sure I have this straight,” he told them. “Chester Hurley got ahold of the crossword puzzle. Stole the last set of clues. And put a whole new set in their place?”

“So it seems,” Cora Felton said.

“And the reason he did this?”

“Is obvious,” Cora said complacently. “Chester thinks the puzzle means something, the last answer is
flower shop,
this greenhouse is the only game in town, and he wants it for himself.”

“Uh huh,” Chief Harper said. It occurred to Sherry he didn’t look particularly sold on the proposition. “And what do you expect me to do about this?”

Cora Felton frowned. “Why, arrest him, of course.”

“On what charge?”

“Are you kidding?” Cora said. “We’ve had three murders connected to the Hurley estate. Well, two murders and an assault. All tied into this will contest. And here’s Chester Hurley, tearing the greenhouse apart, proving conclusively he’s totally obsessed with either winning the game or finding out what it means. Clearly, he would stop at nothing to do so. He’s even gone so far as to rig the game. And who was the last person assaulted? A crossword-puzzle constructor! A man who was desperately trying to tell me, the judge, that there was something wrong with the puzzle. I rest my case.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not sold,” Chief Harper said. “How could Harvey Beerbaum know there’s something wrong with the puzzle?”

“Clearly he’s seen it.”

“Say he has. Who showed it to him? Chester?”

“Well, wouldn’t that fit?” Cora argued. “Someone rewrote the last quarter of the puzzle. Suppose it was Harvey what’s-his-face—Beerbaum? Suppose Chester was in league with Beerbaum all along? Harvey was solving the puzzle for him, and Harvey rewrote the clues.”

“In return for which Chester hits him over the head?”

“For getting cold feet,” Cora said. “Beerbaum gets cold feet, starts to chicken out. He tries to tell me, but I won’t listen. So, before he can tell anyone else, Chester makes sure he doesn’t.”

“I’m not saying it couldn’t happen,” Chief Harper said. “I’m just saying there’s no proof that it did.”

“So you’re not going to look into it?”

“Did I say that? Of course I’m going to look into it. I suppose I have to talk to Chester.”

“Have to talk to him? You meˀo him? Yan you’re not going to bust him?”

“Not at the present time. I can bring him in for questioning.”

“Yes, but—”

Sherry Carter groaned. “Time out! You’re starting to give me a headache. Chief Harper, stop equivocating. There’s clearly something you’re
not
telling us. Why don’t you think Chester is guilty, and why are you so reluctant to arrest him?”

Chief Harper nodded to Cora Felton. “Smart girl, your niece. Gets right to it every time.”

“Gets right to what?” Cora demanded. “What’s the point here? How come you don’t think old Chester bashed the crossword-puzzle guy?”

Chief Harper sighed.

“Because I just arrested Daniel Hurley for it.”

Chester Hurley, ignoring the barrage of shouted questions, stomped out of the police station, pushed his way through the crowd of reporters, heirs, and onlookers, hopped in his truck, backed up, gunned the motor, and peeled out, leaving rubber just like a rebellious teenager.

The news crews filmed his exit gleefully. They hadn’t a clue what it meant, but it was great footage. And they could get comments on it from the other heirs, who were already speculating on the arrest of Daniel Hurley, which was widely rumored, but as yet unconfirmed, as the police had still not issued a statement.

In the station, Chief Harper, who had just released Chester Hurley, let Cora Felton and Sherry Carter into his inner office.

“Well,” Cora demanded, “what did he say? I assume it was pretty good, since you let him go.”

“I all but had to.” Chief Harper was glum. “I can’t have two suspects arrested for the same crime.”

“You really arrested Daniel Hurley?” Sherry said.

Chief Harper jerked his thumb. “He’s in the back room. His lawyer’s over at the courthouse trying to get Judge Hobbs to release him now.”

“What did you arrest him for?” Sherry asked.

Chief Harper hesitated.

That was more than Cora could take. “Never mind that,” she said. “You can figure out how much you want to tell us later. Right now I want to know what Chester Hurley
said.
Did he mess with the puzzle?”

“So he says. According to him he’s always been a whiz at puzzles. Ever since he was a kid. Ripped right through them. Only one in his family who did. Didn’t know Emma had the knack. Was absolutely flabbergasted to find out΀ what she’d done. But once he had his piece of the puzzle, he solved it like that. He drove Annabel Hurley to the courthouse, where they found the next set of clues. He took one copy, left the rest for the others. He solved that, drove Annabel to the post office, where she fetched the next set of clues. Solved that, drove her to the laundromat. Solved that, then went to the greenhouse.”

Chief Harper leaned back in his desk chair, spread his arms. “Where, as you know, he found nothing. Which was very frustrating to him. He was determined to solve the puzzle. Not because he wanted the inheritance. But because he wanted to know what Emma was up to. That was very important to him. He said the wording of her will made him think there was something behind her game. That it was really important in some way. Not so much who won, but in reaching the right solution.”

Chief Harper drummed his fingers on the desk. “I must say that makes no sense to me. I’m not saying I don’t believe Chester—I do—I’m just not sure what he’s getting at. Anyway, if the solution of the puzzle was at the greenhouse, he didn’t want anyone else to find it first. So, when he couldn’t find it, he rewrote the puzzle to throw the heirs off the track. He took the puzzle as far as it went, three-quarters finished, then wrote a different solution. How he did it is beyond me, but he says it was easy. He just needed another store besides a flower shop. He chose a five-and-ten because it had ten letters. Filled it in, filled in the rest of the words, and made up a set of clues. He typed them up, Xeroxed them, and had Annabel Hurley swap them for the real set of clues hidden in the laundromat. He says if we check, we’ll find out Annabel was in there twice that day.”