Authors: Parnell Hall

NYPD Puzzle (25 page)

“How is he?” Cora said.

“He’ll live.”

“Too bad.”

Barney looked at her sharply but said nothing, turned his attention back to the wound.

Another sound of gravel from the driveway proved to be the EMS unit. Barney turned the patient over to them gratefully, but before he could make his escape, Harper arrived, followed closely by Dan Finley. The officers wanted the story, and mistakenly thought Barney was a source of information.

While Crowley was attempting to explain, Sherry arrived in her bathrobe and wanted him to start over.

Barney managed to slip away during the confusion, but Chief Harper wouldn’t let the EMS unit take the prisoner, since he was under arrest. Harper placed him in Dan Finley’s custody, relieving Crowley of the responsibility. Cora hoped that would mean Crowley could stay behind. Unfortunately, he had shot the prisoner, so he had to go down to the station to file a report. Dan Finley tagged along to handcuff him to the hospital bed.

By the time they all left, Cora was ready to collapse, but Sherry wanted to know what happened. Cora couldn’t blow her off. She had to tell her.

Leaving certain things out.

Chapter

Chief Harper hung
up the phone and turned to Crowley and Cora, who were studiously avoiding each other almost as self-consciously as Barney Nathan had avoided Cora the night before.

Harper didn’t notice. “Well, I think that wraps it up,” he said. “Tanner’s on his way back to County to serve out his sentence for violating his parole. A couple of new murder charges are just the icing on the cake. The question is whether we can make ’em stick.”

“I should think so,” Cora said. “He confessed the whole thing to me.”

“That’s hearsay.”

“I believe it’s an admission against interest. You might wanna check with Ratface.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Harper said. “You’re a suspect in the investigation.” He jerked his thumb at Crowley. “He’s the guy who shot him. You throw out what you ‘impartial witnesses’ heard, and what have we got.”

“I imagine if you ask around, you can get some corroboration,” Cora said.

“How?”

“Get some prisoner to snitch. How did Tanner pick his first victim? It’ll turn out some prisoner told him about this wealthy schmuck with a wall-safe a child could get into. Or it will turn out Tanner knew him before. Was familiar with the layout of his apartment. That one I like, because he knew he could jump out the window and land on the balcony rather than fall fourteen stories straight down. And he knew he could get by the front desk and get upstairs.”

“How?”

“How the hell should I know? There’s a back door to the basement that’s always unlocked. He noticed when he was helping the guy get something out of the storeroom. Or something like that. If you look, you’ll find it, because it has to be there, because he didn’t go by the front desk. Frankly, I like the prisoner told him about the easy mark. Because he’s going back to jail, where the prisoner who told him will be pissed he killed the easy mark. Anyway, he picked him, and lured me up there to find the body.

“He devised this scheme. He had years to do it. It was an obsession. He taught himself how to do crossword puzzles. He taught himself how to do sudoku. He hatched a diabolical plot where crossword puzzle clues would lead me on a merry chase, getting me deeper and deeper in trouble myself, starting with a murder that I not only couldn’t solve, but looked like the prime suspect. He called Becky Baldwin, said he was Charles Kessington and he wanted to hire her, and lured her up to his apartment.”

“How did he know you’d come along?”

“He’s been following my cases in the papers. He knew Becky’d been hiring me lately. He deliberately put her in a position where she wouldn’t want to come alone. Insisting on meeting her in his bachelor penthouse. He knew she’d bring me, and he knew I’d have a gun. If he could get me to fire it, it would be perfect.

“Anyway, he gets there, kills the guy, and waits for me to arrive. I do, he makes a sound in the bedroom, and I come in with gun drawn. He turns, dives out the window. He jumps up with his gun, and pretends to shoot me. Naturally, I fire. As expected, the shot goes out the window. He runs along the balcony, over the roof, and out the escape route he planned, leaving me with a corpse and a fired gun just in time for the cops to rush in and arrest me.”

“And the town clerk?”

“I told you. He broke into town hall to get my address. He killed the town clerk for being a pain in the ass about it, and because he was afraid after I got killed she might remember him coming around asking questions.”

“Why did he need your address? Couldn’t he just follow you home?”

“He did, but it was after the first murder. That was the only time he knew where I was, and the only time he could follow me through Bakerhaven without fear of being spotted. He hung around the crime scene, followed when the police ran me in. He waited outside for Becky to spring me—he knew she would—and followed us to the garage to get our car. It must have been a kick in the chops when we went to a play instead of going home. But he hung around the theater until the play was over, waited while we got our car out of yet another garage, and followed us to Bakerhaven. Both to find out where I lived, and to make me nervous. He let us spot him a couple of times, and get his license plate, the bogus one that didn’t exist in any motor vehicle records, but showed up in the sudoku.”

“I suppose.”

“Hey, you don’t like it, tough noogies. I’m the one got a gun pulled in my face and threatened with torture tactics.”

Harper turned to Crowley. “All right, I understand why he was hassling her. Why was he hassling you?”

Crowley looked embarrassed.

Cora jumped in with, “Guilt by association. He was my arresting officer. He was bringing the puzzles to me. When we went to Penn Station to retrieve the clue in the lockers, Tanner was undoubtedly watching.”

“Yeah, but he said ‘friend.’ ‘Any friend of my enemy may offend.’”

Cora smiled. “I always think kindly of my arresting officers.”

Chapter

Crowley and Cora
came out of the police station and walked to his car parked down the block.

Crowley turned back. “Look, I want to say something.”

“I’m sure you do. You just can’t find the words.”

“I’m no good at this.”

“No kidding.”

“You’re not making this easy on me.”

“Any reason why I should?”

“I deserve that, I know. I’m just trying to tell you how it is.”

“How is it?”

Crowley took a breath. “Yes, I have a long-standing relationship with that girl. Occasionally we get together. For long stretches we don’t. We’ve both had other relationships. When we do, that’s fine. When they’ve run their course, well, we’re always there.”

“And this has run its course.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to. I understand. I’m yesterday’s news.”

“You’re no such thing. I don’t know what you are. You’re the most remarkable woman I’ve ever met.”

“What girl doesn’t want to hear that.”

“Oh, for God’s sake. We were fine until that son of a bitch screwed it up.
He
screwed it up. He
meant
to screw it up. He did it deliberately. That’s why he left the puzzle at my ex-wife’s house.”

Cora opened her mouth.

“Yes, I said ‘ex-wife.’ You want me to call her my wife? She hasn’t been that in fifteen years. What’s legal’s not important.”

“Sort of a strange position for a cop.”

Crowley smiled ruefully. “I knew it the minute I said it. You know what I mean. The thing is, it’s a shame to let him win.”

“Oh, you sweet-talking man. Be still my heart.”

The early-morning Bakerhaven street was bustling. Cora couldn’t remember it so crowded. Or maybe she’d never tried to have a personal conversation outside the police station before. But she’d become increasingly aware of people around her. On the sidewalk in front of Cushman’s Bake Shop, the usual crowd was hanging out, including young mothers with strollers. She was glad Sherry wasn’t among them. That would be more that she could bear.

But there were people she knew. First Selectman Iris Cooper, for instance, waved to her. Cora didn’t want to be outwardly rude, but she didn’t want to invite Iris over. Her answering wave was as discouraging as possible.

Cora turned back to Crowley. “You’re saying nothing happened?”

“What do you mean, ‘happened’?”

“You’re saying you want to go on as before.”

“Well, you gotta understand,” Crowley said. He broke off, grimaced.

“I get it,” Cora said. “You live in the city. I live in the town. The case is over. There’s no reason for us to see each other anymore. You gotta get back to work. You have other cases. Even if you don’t have other women. Which you may, but giving you the benefit of the doubt.”

“Cora…”

“That’s the situation, isn’t it? I don’t mean the other women. I mean the getting back to work. It’s like you said, our relationship has run its course. The polite thing to do is say good-bye. Maybe we’ll see each other again someday, and maybe we won’t. Forcing it now would be one of those big mistakes people make when they think they’re doing the right thing. And they’re doing it for all the wrong reasons and they resent it, so they wind up resenting each other. And on and on down the slippery slope to divorce. Only we’re lucky. We don’t need a divorce. We can simply shake hands and walk away.”

Cora wanted very much to do that, because she couldn’t keep the conversation going without breaking down, making an unseemly public display of herself.

The scene was getting more public by the minute. Dan Finley had driven up, and Chief Harper had come out the front door to meet him. They stood on the sidewalk talking.

While Cora watched, Dr. Barney Nathan came out of Cushman’s Bake Shop holding a latte and a scone.

Cora couldn’t take it. She turned back to Crowley, held out her hand. “So,” she said. “I guess this is good-bye.”

Crowley looked at her hand, but he didn’t take it. He looked back up at her.

“Aw, hell,” Crowley said.

He took her in his arms, and kissed her in front of half the town.

Also by Parnell Hall

Arsenic and Old Puzzles

$10,000 in Small, Unmarked Puzzles

The KenKen Killings

The Puzzle Lady vs. The Sudoku Lady

Dead Man’s Puzzle

The Sudoku Puzzle Murders

You Have the Right to Remain Puzzled

Stalking the Puzzle Lady

And a Puzzle to Die On

With This Puzzle, I Thee Kill

A Puzzle in a Pear Tree

Puzzled to Death

Last Puzzle & Testament

A Clue for the Puzzle Lady

About the Author

Edgar, Shamus, and Lefty finalist Parnell Hall is the author of the Puzzle Lady crossword puzzle mysteries, the Stanley Hastings private eye novels, and the Steve Winslow courtroom dramas. An actor, screenwriter, and former private investigator, Hall lives in New York City. Visit him online at
www.parnellhall.com
.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

A THOMAS DUNNE BOOK FOR MINOTAUR BOOKS.

An imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

www.thomasdunnebooks.com

www.minotaurbooks.com

Jacket design and illustration by Young Jin Kim

ISBN 9781250027160

First Edition: January 2014