Authors: Parnell Hall
“Hypothetical happenstance,” Cora said. “I like that. That could be a Perry Mason title.
The Case of the Hypothetical Happenstance.
”
“I’m not amused. There’s a puzzle. You’re the Puzzle Lady. You want to tell me what it means?”
“I have no idea what it means.”
“I mean you want to solve it?”
“No.”
“I’m not asking you to reveal anything. I’m just asking you to solve the puzzle.”
“Which I have no intention of doing. It’s a crossword puzzle. It doesn’t look that hard. I’m sure if your detectives all put their heads together, they ought to be able to figure it out.”
“I’d like your opinion.”
Before Cora could give him her opinion, Becky jumped in. “I think we have a gray area here, Sergeant. If you would like to hire Cora Felton as a police consultant, I’m sure that could be arranged. You would first have to release her from custody and dismiss any possible charges.”
“Oh, now you’re my agent?” Cora said. “Look. I don’t want to be hired as a police consultant. I’m just not willing to concede that anything involving a crossword concerns me. But I don’t want to be unreasonable. When you get this solved, Sergeant, I’ll be happy to look it over and tell you what I think. I can tell you right now, I won’t think much.”
“That should do it,” Becky said. “So, since your own department can’t work fast enough to get the ballistics evidence that would clear her, why don’t you ring the ADA and see if he could expedite an arraignment so we can post bail and get out of here and go to the theater. After all, I’d hate to ruin a trip to New York over just one dead body.”
Sergeant Crowley said nothing. He stared at Becky for some time, considering. Cora wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but the phrase
throw the book at her
came to mind. She wondered what charges the man could think up. Obstruction of justice seemed likely. It was also less harsh than
accessory to murder.
Or simply
murder.
Crowley snatched up the phone. “Phillips. Bring me a couple of Form Triple-E.” He plunked the phone down again.
They sat in silence.
A young man in a white shirt and tie came in, handed the sergeant some forms, and went out.
Crowley handed one each to Cora and Becky.
Cora looked up from the form. “Hey. This isn’t Form Triple-E.”
“That’s a euphemism. They’re waiver forms.”
“Waiver?”
“Waiver of false arrest. Any time we have a lawyer in here screaming false arrest, the ADAs like us to have ’em sign ’em.”
“We’re not signing any waivers of false arrest,” Becky said.
Crowley nodded, as if that was exactly what he expected. “That’s too bad. You’ll have to go back to the holding cells while I schedule an arraignment. I have certain discretionary powers, but I can’t let suspects go when they’re threatening me with false arrest.”
“Let suspects go?” Cora said.
“The ADA would chew my ass. Letting you go is tantamount to admitting you shouldn’t have been picked up in the first place. At least with a lawyer involved.”
“You’re letting us go?” Cora said.
Crowley shrugged. “It’s not like you’re a flight risk. Everyone in America knows your face. I can’t imagine your attorney would be screaming for a ballistics test if she thought it would prove you’re guilty. I’d just as soon dismiss the charges, as long as it doesn’t get me in trouble. So if you’d like to voluntarily take a paraffin test, since your attorney has only hypothetically conceded you fired a gun, and if you’re willing to sign waivers saying you won’t sue me for doing so…”
Crowley shrugged again. “I’d just as soon let you go.”
Chapter
10
“So how’d you
like the play?” Cora said as they drove the Hutchinson River Parkway into the Merritt.
“Frankly,” Becky said, “it wasn’t uppermost in my mind.”
“Okay. Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?”
“It was wonderful. Under any other circumstances, I’d have had a really good time. As it was, I sat there obsessing on the last thing that damn sergeant said.”
“The fact he let us go?”
“No. The crossword puzzle.”
Cora reacted well to the comment by not driving off the road. “Must we come back to the crossword puzzle?”
“Yeah, we must,” Becky said. “It’s the most intriguing thing about the murder. I wish we had a copy.”
“Why didn’t you ask for one?”
“I was afraid to. After insisting it didn’t mean anything.”
“He knew we were lying.”
“How would he know that?”
“It
has
to mean something. Everywhere I go, there’s a goddamned crossword puzzle. It always means something.”
“You always insist it doesn’t.”
“That’s so I won’t have to solve them. The fact it’s there is significant. And you know what’s really significant?”
“What?”
“Who knew I was coming? The guy hired
you.
He didn’t hire
me.
He didn’t
ask
you to bring me. By all rights, he didn’t
want
you to bring me. He didn’t know I was coming.”
“I’ll buy that.”
“But the killer knew I was coming? How does that make any sense?”
“It doesn’t,” Becky said. “Which is why I didn’t want to show too much interest in the crossword puzzle. And make it look as if I thought it
was
significant.”
“It
is
significant.”
“You’re going around again, Cora.”
“And then the guy lets us go. What, is he nuts? If I had to make a list of the courses of action available to the sergeant, letting us go would not have been in the top ten. Hell, I doubt if it would have made the list.”
“His reasons made sense.”
“You find that reassuring? I don’t. He’s just a dumb cop. You expect his reasons to make sense? I wouldn’t expect him to reason beyond ‘she had the gun, she’s guilty.’”
“Maybe he was acting on instructions,” Becky said.
“Who from?”
“The ADA.”
“There wasn’t an ADA present. Most of what he was acting on was what we gave him in the interview.”
“We didn’t give him anything.”
“Exactly,” Cora said. “You think an ADA lets us walk without telling a story.”
“Maybe he’s just a nice guy.”
Cora offered a brief, pungent ejaculation.
“Even if he’s not a nice guy, I’m not sure he deserved that,” Becky said.
Cora didn’t answer. She kept her eyes on the road ahead and said casually, “Becky.”
“What?”
“Don’t look around, but there’s a black sedan following us.”
Becky blinked, managed to restrain herself from looking. “How do you know it’s following us?”
“It’s been behind us since the city.”
“A lot of cars have been behind us since the city. If you drive from New York to Connecticut, this is sort of the way you go.”
“Laugh it off if you want to. I’ll be a lot happier if he doesn’t take 7 North.”
“If he’s going north, he’ll take 7 North or 8 North. Seven North is first, it’s shorter, it’s more likely, we take it. You gonna freak out if he does?”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake.” Cora switched on the right-hand blinker.
“What are you doing?”
“Stopping for gas.”
“You filled up on the way down.”
“Okay, you need to go to the bathroom.”
“No, I don’t.”
“All right,
I
need to go to the bathroom. You stay here and spot the tail.”
Cora pulled into one of the many service stations that line the Merritt Parkway. She drove by the pumps and parked in a head-in diagonal space.
“You’ll have to switch seats, though. It’s easier to watch the rearview mirror from the driver’s side.”
“Is this just a ploy to get me to drive again?” Becky said.
“God, I hope so.”
Cora got out of the car and headed back toward the station. The black sedan hadn’t followed them past the pumps, but on the far side of the station, a car was idling in the shadows. With the headlights shining at her, she couldn’t tell if it was the same vehicle.
Cora had an instant decision to make. Should she stride up to the car, bang on the window, and demand to know what the driver was doing? Or should she pretend she hadn’t spotted him and see what he did. Her instinct was to promote the confrontation—Cora always favored action over inaction—but approaching a car head-on in the dark was a risky proposition. Even cops used caution. Those who didn’t occasionally got their heads blown off. The killer had a gun. He wasn’t afraid to use it. He might not take kindly to having been spotted.
Cora reached the front door of the station. The driver’s face still wasn’t visible. Damn. In detective novels, she’d see his face in the glow of the cigarette. No one smoked anymore.
Still grumbling to herself, Cora went inside. She had a faint hope that maybe the guy’d follow her in and Becky would see him.
Becky couldn’t see a thing. She’d moved to the driver’s seat and the mirror was angled just fine, but she couldn’t see around the station. A car on the other side wouldn’t be visible unless it pulled up to the pumps.
Becky watched Cora go into the station. No one followed her in. No car pulled up to the pumps. Had any car driven past while they were arguing? No, it had not. And here she was, sitting in the parking lot like a fool, where she couldn’t see a damn thing.
It occurred to Becky she could use a stick of gum. She didn’t have to chew it, she just had to buy it. For less than a buck, she could pop in and out of the station and get a look at the other side.
As she drew near the pumps, she could see a car parked in the shadows on the far side of the station. The motor wasn’t running, and the headlights were off. Becky couldn’t see if there was anyone in the driver’s seat.
But Becky’s attention wasn’t focused on the car. She was too distracted by the man with his coat collar pulled up and his hat down over his face who had just passed the corner of the pumps and was headed up the steps into the store.
Whoops.
Was the man from the car? Was that the same car? Was the man following Cora into the service station to make sure she didn’t slip out some side door?
Did the man know who Becky was? Had he recognized her as the other woman in the car he was following?
Becky bit her lip. If he did know who she was, stopping and turning around would be a dead giveaway. The advantage she and Cora had was that the man didn’t know they’d spotted him. If she blew it, Cora would be furious. Of course, having been arrested for murder, Cora was in a mood to be furious. She’d probably be mad at her just for getting out of the car.
Becky barely broke stride. She skipped up the steps and came in the door of the service station right on the man’s heels.
The man glanced around. So did Becky. Cora wasn’t there. The man headed in the direction of the rest rooms. If he was headed for the men’s room, Becky should snag Cora out of the ladies’ and they should drive off and leave him stranded.
He wasn’t. He stopped just before the door to the women’s room and began inspecting one of the stand-up coolers of soda.
Becky headed in the opposite direction and looked for gum. There was none. Damn it. There was no one in line at the counter; she could just buy it and go.
Becky strode up to the clerk. She worked behind a glass window, practically unnecessary these days, with everyone using credit cards and nobody paying cash.
“You got any gum?” Becky said. She felt like a fool. The woman was chewing gum.
The woman pointed down.
Becky looked. There was a box of Trident on the bottom shelf. She grabbed a pack, slid it through the window.
The woman scanned it. They scanned everything these days. It was a dollar one with tax. Becky didn’t have a penny. She slid two dollars through the window.
The woman pushed one back, said, “Close enough.”
Becky grabbed the gum and turned around.
The man with the hat over his eyes was still hanging out by the women’s room, pretending to look at soda. Becky ignored the man, went out the front door.
The car was still parked in the shadows. Becky wasn’t surprised. It occurred to her the guy would have to sprint for it when Cora came out of the women’s room. She wondered how he’d do that if she was watching. It was an intriguing thought. If the guy didn’t know he’d been spotted, he wouldn’t want to be. His dilemma would be the best of all possible worlds.
Becky stopped on the steps, unwrapped the pack of gum. No need to rush. Let’s see, these packs had drawstrings, didn’t they? Where was it? On the end. No, the other end.
Her fingernails were long enough to pry it up just fine, but too long to grip it well. How could she pull it around the pack?
Hmm. Not that big a problem. How long could she pretend to be thwarted by it? Not that the man would see her do it; he’d just come out and find her unwrapping a stick of gum. Would it occur to him,
Boy that took a long time, how klutzy is this broad?
It might if he was following her; otherwise, why would he even notice?
Becky had the top of the pack open. She wrestled a stick of gum out. Okay, no way unwrapping a stick is as tough as unwrapping a pack.
Becky heard footsteps behind her. Without looking around, she couldn’t tell if it was him or if it was someone else. She unwrapped the gum, fed it into her mouth. As she did, the man with the hat over his face came down the steps. He took no notice of her, headed back in the direction of his car.
When he reached the end of the pumps, he hung a right and walked around the back of the Mini Cooper parked there. He had a bottle of soda in his hand. He hopped into the Mini Cooper, started the engine, and took off.
Becky felt foolish as hell. She turned and walked back to Cora’s Toyota and slipped into the driver’s seat.
Moments later, the door opened and Cora slid into the passenger seat.
“Had to go to the bathroom after all,” Cora said. “So. Any luck? You see the guy?”
Becky was grateful for the question. It was one she could answer truthfully without having to embellish. “No,” she said.