The Sudoku Puzzle Murders (10 page)

Read The Sudoku Puzzle Murders Online

Authors: Parnell Hall

Dennis had had too much to drink. That didn’t occur to him as he followed the taillights out of town. All he was thinking was that son of a bitch wouldn’t get away with it. Exactly what son of a bitch was not entirely clear.
Dennis was aware the world was closing in on him. People were dogging his footsteps. Brenda. His father-in-law. Obstacles thrown in his way. Keeping him from his goals. Fame. Fortune. Happiness.
Sherry.
Dennis bit his lip hard. Tears came to his eyes. It didn’t matter. He was blind drunk already. Going on instinct. Instinct that had never failed him before. Had never let him fall off the stage in the middle of a rock concert. Unless you counted the impromptu mosh pits. Still, he’d gotten back up and performed. The band members never complained. Not to his face. At least he’d functioned.
Something in the back of his brain told him that wouldn’t work here. Trees were not a mosh pit. You kept the car on the road or you
didn’t get an encore. Not that his mind processed the metaphor. Still, the underlying truth kept his tires on the road.
The taillights he was following disappeared.
What the hell was he doing?
Dennis pulled to a stop, cut the engine, cut the lights. A sober instinct in the midst of a drunken thought.
He peered through the windshield, wondered what he was looking for.
A light flickered up ahead.
Aha!
Dennis started the car and pulled out. The headlights came on automatically. Lit up a road to the right. Dennis took it. Wondered why.
Red taillights beckoned like glowing embers, drawing him to the fire.
He’d show them. What right did Sherry have to do this to him? Behaving like a little slut. He wouldn’t have put up with it when they were married. No way. Reflecting on his good name. Which she wasn’t even using. What was
that
all about? He
gave
her his name.
Dennis was lost. At least, he couldn’t see the taillights anymore. He’d been driving and driving and getting nowhere. Like a kid in a bumper car. What made him think of that? He hadn’t hit anything, had he? Of course not. He was doing fine.
Now if he could just figure out where he was.
He pulled off the road. Not to ask direction. Guys didn’t ask directions. Not to look at the map, either. So why did he pull off the road? Was the car nearby? He could have sworn he saw taillights. But where?
Didn’t matter. He’d lost them and he’d find them. He’d done it before.
How had he done it?
Kill the motor, kill the lights.
Kill, kill, kill.
He turned the engine off. The lights went out on their own. Modern cars. Take your job. Wonder they let you drive.
Now then, what the hell was he doing here?
Becky Baldwin, looking more like a drowsy cheerleader than a high-powered attorney, pushed the blond hair out of her eyes, and smiled across her desk at Hideki Takiyama.
“You want to sue your business competitor?”
Hideki’s nose twitched. Becky’s one-room law office was over the pizza parlor, and the aromas had a tendency to seep up. Today’s special was tomato and basil. “Yes.”
“For copyright infringement?”
“That is right.”
“But you don’t have a copyright.”
“No. That is
his
fault.”
“I understand your contention.” Becky took a sip from a paper cup of coffee, tried to force herself awake. She was not used to practicing law so early in the morning. Hideki had called her at home. She rolled out of bed and rushed to the office to find him waiting. “You have no legal claim to Miss Felton’s services.”
“I made the appointment. He kept it. My appointment.”
“Technically, he didn’t keep your appointment. He made one of his own.”
“I was first. You can ask Miss Felton. She will tell you.”
Becky frowned. “This is not a strong claim.”
“I do not care. I wish to make it.”
“Why?”
“To show Aoki he cannot do that.”
“I understand.” Becky smiled. “But, if you lose, you will just be showing him he can.”
“You will not do this?”
“No, I certainly will. I just want you to understand what you’re getting into. This is not an easy case. I don’t want you to blame me if we’re not successful.”
“You do not think that you can win?”
“I didn’t say that. And there are different degrees of winning. A case like this has a certain nuisance value. There’s a good chance his attorneys will pay us to make it go away.”
Hideki shook his head. “No. I do not want to go away. I want to win.”
“I understand. And I will do everything in my power to bring about that eventuality.” Becky stole a glance to see if it was too much for his English. It wasn’t. She went on. “But I can’t take a case like this on a contingency basis. Particularly when you’re unwilling to settle.”
Hideki pulled out his wallet.
“Of course.”
Cora Felton woke up with a sense of dread. Not the garden variety dread, the his-head’s-not-on-the-pillow-time-to-call-the-lawyers-again dread. This was a genuine sense something was wrong. Something was her fault.
Cora played the evening back in her head: Dennis, and Hideki, and his wife, and Aoki, and the private detective. Truly a bad situation. She hadn’t been happy about it. She’d reported it to Chief Harper. What more could she do?
Unfortunately, she knew the answer. Chief Harper saying, “You didn’t follow them?” Her reason was right on the money. It would have been farcical, one guy following another guy following another guy. Even so, she hadn’t done it. And when Chief Harper mentioned that she hadn’t done it, he’d sowed the seeds of paranoia, panic, and premonition, the three
P
s that spelled
dread.
She
should
have followed them.
She was getting old.
That thought was enough to get her out of bed and into the
bathroom splashing water on her face. She looked at her reflection in the glass, told herself nothing was wrong. Hoped it was true. With Dennis Pride wandering around drunk, anything was possible.
Cora tiptoed down the hall, poked open the door to her niece’s room. Sherry and Aaron were in bed. There was no reason to wake them. Cora closed the door quietly.
Buddy came scampering down the hall, yipping to be let out and fed, though in what order the little poodle was never sure. As usual, he spun in circles before leaping out the open door. He was back moments later, skidding into the kitchen for breakfast.
Cora was already having hers. A glass of orange juice and a cigarette. Cora wasn’t big on cooking. If Sherry wasn’t up, Cora went out. She put some kibble in a bowl, added some canned glop that smelled like tuna, marveled that a little dog could eat so much.
“That was good, huh, Buddy?”
Cora dropped her cigarette in the remains of her orange juice, and went out the door.
She drove straight to Cushman’s Bakeshop, had a skim latte with two shots of espresso, and a chocolate brioche. The world immediately looked better.
Not only was Cora not to blame, but there was nothing to be blamed for. Everything was going fine. No matter how many publishers were fighting over her bod. Actually, Cora liked the idea of dueling suitors. Bod was wishful thinking. Too bad they were just after her mind.
Cora got back in the car, hung a right and cruised past the Wicker Basket, idle in the neutral zone between breakfast and lunch, and the post office, typically busy in the mid-morning as the three cars parked outside would attest. She circled the block, came out by the pizza parlor and Becky Baldwin’s law office. She hung a right onto Main Street.
It occurred to Cora that her circuitous route had avoided the police station. Not that she didn’t want to talk to Chief Harper. But she’d told him everything last night. No need to rehash it. He was a
busy man. She was being considerate. She wasn’t afraid he’d get on her for not following the detective. She just drove that way for a change.
That was the same reason she was driving past the Tastee Freez. Just for the hell of it. She didn’t expect anyone to be there.
Someone was.
There was a car parked out front. With a New York license plate. A nondescript, dark gray Chevy sedan, maybe three or four years old.
Oh, hell.
It had been dark when Cora searched Dennis’s car. She couldn’t really see it well. It could have been this car, but she couldn’t be certain. Was the rear window new? It was harder to tell in the sunlight. All the panes seemed to shine.
Cora approached the car with caution. Someone might be sleeping in the seat. Someone who wasn’t happy to see her. The thought made her fumble for her gun. Not that she’d ever shoot Dennis; still, he wouldn’t be the first man she’d aimed at with no real intention to shoot.
All in all, Dennis sleeping it off in the front seat seemed the best of all possible worlds.
There was no one in the front seat. No one in the back. The car was empty.
The keys were in the ignition.
Well, that made it easier.
Cora opened the driver’s-side door.
The wail of the car alarm made her jump back. She commented on the sound, described car alarms in general and this one in particular, and ascribed to them actions not usually undertaken by inanimate objects. She leaned into the car, took out the keys. Jabbed the button on the zapper to kill the alarm.
Cora checked the glove compartment. There was no window glass receipt. Of course, she’d given it to Dennis. But the other receipts were also missing.
The car registration form Cora found under the driver’s instruction manual shed some light on the subject. The car was registered to Lester Mathews of New York City.
Cora sucked in her breath. Served her right. She’d written down the detective’s license number. She’d given it to Chief Harper, but she should have remembered it. If she was on top of her game, she would have.
It occurred to Cora this evened things up. The first time there was a body and no car. This time there was a car and no body.
She’d better check.
Cora walked around the back of the Tastee Freez and stopped dead.
A man lay faceup on the pavement.
Sticking out of his chest was a samurai sword.
Two pieces of paper were impaled on it.
One was a crossword puzzle.
The other was a sudoku.
ACROSS
 
1 “___ Caesar’s ghost!”
6 Strikebreaker
10 “Please,” dog style?
14 Exasperated cry
15 Choir voice
16 “Shakespeare in Love” prop
17 Blank look
18 Part I of message
20 Game show host
22 FedEx notation
23 News office
26 Évian, e.g.
27 Big lug
28 Bribery
31 Olympic skater Cohen
36 Part II of message
38 Christmas toymakers
39 Cold-cuts section
40 Gets high
42 They can be choppy
43 Elem. school subject
45 Part III of message
47 Busybody
48 Lady’s garment
49 Hué holiday
50 Swear words?
52 Detroit team
54 Low-altitude clouds
58 __ B. Anthony
60 End of message
62 Dreadlocks wearer
66 All-star game side
67 Baby kangaroo
68 __ Park (Colorado)
69 “What a shame!”
70 Added conditions
71 Words of recognition
 
DOWN
 
1 Beetle juice?
2 Stoolie
3 Eon section
4 Come to terms
5 Christmas pageant trio
6 On one’s rocker?
7 You’re looking at one
8 Bank robot
9 Appear out of the blue
10 Castoff from an ice shelf
11 Church area
12 Hold your horses?
13 Clark of the Daily Planet
19 Wipe out
21 Half Miss Muffet’s fare
23 Celebration at the ballpark
24 “Yoo-hoo!”
25 Land, as a fish
26 Jelly for heating
29 Historic dress designer for Mrs. Reagan
30 Knack
32 “And let me add”
33 Graceful and slim
34 Thrower
35 Good points
37 Catcher’s glove
41 Chips off the old flock?
44 Western Hispaniola
46 Vail, for one
51 Presley’s “___ Ever?”
53 Grind the teeth
54 One foot forward
55 Siamese, now
56 You may take it lying down
57 Dilettantish
58 Haul for huskies
59 180° turns, slangily
61 Family head
63 Farm home
64 Ball peg
65 Equus asinus

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