NYPD Puzzle (19 page)

Authors: Parnell Hall

Cora scowled.

Of course. Sherry had installed
Crossword Compiler
so she could work on Cora’s computer on those odd times when hers wasn’t available. Using it this time of night just because Cora had to run out seemed an abuse of privilege. In any event, leaving the program open and the lights on was inconsiderate. Since Cora couldn’t use
Crossword Compiler,
it was almost a deliberate slap in the face.

Sherry would hear about this.

Cora was tempted to leave the puzzle on the screen to confront Sherry with, but she wanted to check her e-mail. And even though Sherry had shown her how to shrink the program to a tiny icon on the bottom of the screen, having it open made the computer slower. And it was slow enough already. Cora wondered if it was time to treat herself to a new one.

One without
Crossword Compiler.

Still, Cora wanted to confront Sherry with the puzzle. Not tonight, but tomorrow.

Cora sat down, moved the mouse, clicked on
FILE.
A bunch of options opened. She moved the mouse again, clicked on
PRINT.
That brought up the
PRINT PREVIEW
screen, asking if she wanted to send the job to the laser jet printer, an unnecessary question since she had no other. It also offered her the chance to make multiple copies, also not relevant to her situation. It was rare Cora wanted to print even one copy of a puzzle, let alone several.

Cora left the settings unchanged, clicked the
PRINT
icon again.

The printer whirred and spit out the puzzle.

Cora picked it up, turned it over, verified that it was indeed the puzzle and not some recipe for shortcake that had been in the printing cue ahead of her own job, which for some reason had not printed. Which would not have surprised her in the least. But, no, it was the puzzle.

Cora closed
Crossword Compiler,
checked her e-mail. All spam. She wondered if Sergeant Crowley had e-mail. Maybe at the station. She hadn’t seen a computer in his apartment. Of course, she hadn’t been looking.

She shut down the computer, switched off the light, and took the crossword puzzle to her bedroom. She’d thrown her nightgown over the back of the chair. She didn’t feel like sleeping in a nightgown. She felt like sleeping in panties and a shirt. Actually, she felt like sleeping in a
man’s
shirt, but no matter. She changed into a baggy T-shirt and got in bed.

Alone. With no television. Oh, it was the wrong time for Sherry to have left
Crossword Compiler
open.

Cora picked up the crossword from her night table and looked at it with righteous indignation.

Her face froze.

Clue 17 Across was: Message from the killer.

Chapter

Cora burst through
the door.

Sherry and Aaron were snuggled in bed watching a TV show. Startled, Sherry sprang up to a sitting position. “Cora!”

“Oh, thank God!” Cora wheezed. She was huffing and puffing and trying to catch her breath after sprinting up the stairs.

“Are you crazy?” Sherry said. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” She spotted the paper in Cora’s hand. “Is that a crossword puzzle?” she said accusingly.

Cora looked, realized she was still holding it. “Yeah,” she gasped.

“Well, if you think I’m solving it now, you’re dreaming.”

Cora waved her hands. “No, no, no.” She felt dizzy from hyperventilating and sank indecorously to the floor, her T-shirt pulled up to her waist.

“Cora!” Sherry sprang out of bed to help, noticed her attire. “You’re not dressed.”

“I’m wearing the same thing you are.”

Sherry, who was indeed wearing a T-shirt and panties, looked at her aunt in exasperation. “I’m married.”

“Nice, nice, throw it in my face,” Cora muttered.

“Are you all right?” Aaron said. He was wearing boxer shorts and a T-shirt, his usual nighttime garb, but no one seemed to care.

Cora waved it away. “I’m fine, I’m fine. I just ran up the stairs. I was scared to death.”

“Why?” Sherry said.

Cora’s eyes widened. “Oh, no!”

She sprang up and ran out the door. Sherry and Aaron were right on her heels.

With a growing sense of dread, Cora lunged down the hall, flung open the door to the baby’s room.

Jennifer was lying on her belly with her bottom in the air. She seemed fine, but Cora hurried over to the crib, peered closer. She couldn’t tell a thing. The baby lay absolutely still.

Cora reached out her finger and poked her.

“Cora!” Sherry gasped.

Jennifer stirred, contracted, stretched, lay still again.

Sherry grabbed Cora’s arm and dragged her toward the door. “What the hell are you doing?”

“The killer was in the house.”

“What?”

Back in the bedroom, Cora gave Sherry and Aaron a rundown of the situation.

“The police station was broken into?” Aaron said.

“Right, right,
that’s
the important thing,” Sherry said.

“He’s a newspaper reporter,” Cora said. “Which reminds me, the chief doesn’t want it given out.”

“What?” Aaron said.

“Never mind the police station,” Sherry said impatiently. “The killer was in the house? Where the hell was Buddy?”

“Unfortunately, he can be bought off with a couple of puppy treats.”

“Who would know that?” Aaron said.

“Good point. I don’t know the answer, but it’s certainly a good question.”

“I don’t believe this,” Sherry said. “While you were gone to the police station, the killer came in, used the computer, created a crossword puzzle?”

“I know,” Cora said. “It boggles the mind. But it happened.” She frowned. “Would he have time to do it? It’s not like I was gone that long. I mean, sitting there, with the added pressure of not knowing when I was coming home. Could it be done?”

“I don’t know. How long were you gone?”

“Under an hour. Could he do it in that time?”

“Not unless he had nerves of steel. But he didn’t have to do it that way.”

“What do you mean?”

“He could have constructed it in advance, on another computer. All he had to do was come in here with a memory stick, plug it into your computer, download the puzzle into
Crossword Compiler,
and call it up on the screen.”

“Damn.”

“What do you mean, ‘damn’?”

“If it could be that easily done, it probably was.”

“As opposed to what?” Sherry said. “It’s
there.
I didn’t put it there and you sure as hell didn’t put it there, so
someone
put it there, no matter
how
hard it was.”

Cora put up her hands. “I know, I know, that was a stupid thing to say. It’s just the more plausible this is, the more it freaks me out. So, someone came in here just to put a crossword puzzle on the computer.” Her eyes widened. “Do you suppose he broke into the police station to get me out of here so he could do it?”

“That’s convoluted as all hell.”

“What’s your point?” Cora sighed. “Well, I guess we better call Chief Harper.”

“I called Chief Harper,” Aaron said.

“You did?”

“Damn right I did. Just as soon as you said the killer was in the house. He’ll be right over.”

“Oh, my God!” Cora said.

“What’s wrong?”

“Sherry, you’ve gotta solve the crossword puzzle before he gets here. Otherwise, he’ll want me to do it.”

“Give it here,” Sherry said. She snatched up a pencil and a magazine to write on, sat on the bed to work on the puzzle. She was still working when headlights came up the driveway.

“Hurry up!” Cora said.

“Thanks for the advice,” Sherry muttered. “And … there!” She handed it to Cora. “Here. Better take a look so you’re at least familiar with it.”

Cora snatched it up and read the killer’s message.

I act while

You snooze

I’m a winner

So you lose.

Chapter

“What do you
think it means?” Harper said.

“I have no idea what it means,” Cora said. “Except the killer is taunting me. Which is not a new revelation.”

They were all gathered in the living room in Cora’s end of the house so as not to disturb Jennifer. Aaron had the baby monitor in his pocket. He had pulled on his trousers. Sherry was in her robe. Cora had slipped into her Wicked Witch of the West costume, the favorite old tattered frock she wore around the house.

“Yeah, but now he’s getting more specific. Saying you can’t win. Like this was a game.”

“It’s always been a game,” Cora said. “That’s the problem. We started out treating it seriously. Why is the town hall broken into? It amuses him. Why is the police station broken into? It amuses him.”

“What’s this about the police station being broken into?” Aaron said.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake!”

“Hey, if the police station was broken into, you want me handling it in a serious article, or you want Rick Reed treating it as a joke?”

Harper took a breath. “The police station was broken into. We believe it has something to do with the break-in at town hall and the murder of the town clerk.”

“What leads you to believe that?”

“As if she hasn’t already told you.”

“All I said was that’s where I was while the killer was here planting the puzzle.”

“You also speculated on whether the break-in at the police station was just to lure you out of the house,” Aaron said.

“Is that what you think?” Harper said to Cora.

“It’s possible, but I don’t think so. I think he broke into the police station because he wanted to break into the police station.”

“What makes you think that?” Aaron said.

“Hang on a minute here.” Harper waggled a finger at Aaron. “You are not conducting an interview in my presence as if I gave it my tacit approval. Any views Cora expresses are entirely her own, and I don’t want to be quoted on them.”

“Unless they turn out to be right,” Cora muttered.

Harper gave her a look.

“I would say this,” Cora said. “And this is my opinion not the chief’s and he may totally not agree with me. The killer may not have robbed the police station to get me out of my house, but he knew that would be the result. Because he came here and planted the crossword puzzle. And he wouldn’t have had that in mind unless he thought it was a likely consequence of his action.”

Aaron nodded. “That sounds good. You want to second that, Chief?”

“Keep me out of it.”

“You’re the chief of police.”

“You wanna question me as the chief of police, fine. Don’t ask me to be her cheerleader.”

“That wasn’t my intention.”

Headlights flickered up the driveway.

“Someone’s coming,” Sherry said.

“Probably just Dan Finley,” Aaron said.

Harper shook his head. “It better not be. I told him to hold down the station.”

“Then who is it?” Sherry said. Her voice sounded strained.

Cora snatched up her purse from the coffee table and pulled out her gun.

“Cora!” Harper said.

“If it’s Dan, I won’t shoot him.” Cora flung open the door.

A car pulled up and Sergeant Crowley got out.

“Son of a bitch!” Cora said. “What are you doing here?”

Crowley came striding up the path. “Are you kidding me? The killer was in your house.” He pushed by Cora in the door. “Well, well, the gang’s all here. You must be the niece. And you must be that reporter she married.”

“I’m Sherry Carter. This is Aaron Grant.”

“And this is my arresting officer,” Cora said. She turned on Chief Harper accusingly. “What the hell is he doing here?”

“I called him. The killer broke into your house and I’m not going to call him?”

“You also tell him he broke into the police station?”

“What?” Crowley said.

“Let’s not get sidetracked. The killer broke into the police station, possibly as a ruse to get her out of the house to plant the crossword puzzle on her computer.”

Crowley turned to Cora. “What crossword puzzle?”

“Another slap in the face, telling me I’m too stupid to solve the crime.”

“That’s nothing new.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“Where’s the puzzle?”

Cora scooped it up from the coffee table. “Here.”

“You handled it?”

“It’s a computer printout. The killer never touched it.”

“But he printed it out?”

“
I
printed it out. On a blank piece of paper,” Cora said impatiently.

If Crowley was impressed, he didn’t show it. He looked at it, looked back at Cora. “
You
printed this out?”

“That’s right.”