And a Puzzle to Die On (10 page)

Cora opened her e-mail server. Six messages came in.

“Hmm. Salami. Salami. Salami.” Cora hit
DELETE
.

“Spam,” Sherry corrected, gently. “Who’s Rocky?” she asked, looking over Cora’s shoulder.

“None of your damn business. You gonna let me read my mail or not?” Cora clicked down. “What the hell is this?”

“What?” Sherry looked. “Oh, my God! Manny Nosowsky!”

“You know him?”

“I feel like I know him. He posts all the time on Cruciverb-L.”

“You mean he’s a crossword person?”

“You gotta learn to say that less like you swallowed a bucket of nails.”

“Oh, hell,” Cora said, opening the e-mail. “Here it is. ‘Cheers from Manny.’ And there’s an attachment.”

“Click on it.”

“Do I have to?”

“Only if you wanna know what it is.”

Cora clicked on the attachment. It opened a puzzle in Crossword Compiler.

“Oh, look at that,” Sherry said.

“What?”

“It’s a seventeen by seventeen.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake. You mean it’s bigger?”

“It certainly is.”

“Aw, hell.”

“What do you care? It’s not like
you
were gonna solve it.”

“No, but I gotta read the damn thing. Harvey will probably grill me on what it says.”

“Boy, talk about lazy.”

“Lazy, hell. How’d you like people to make a fuss about your birthday?”

The sound of tires in the driveway announced the
arrival of Aaron Grant. Sherry and Cora met the young reporter at the front door.

“Hi, girls,” Aaron said. “What’s up?”

“Girls?” Cora said. “My, my, how tactful.”

“Tactful in your case,” Sherry said. “In my case, it’s politically incorrect.”

“Yeah, talking’s a minefield these days.” Aaron headed for the kitchen. “You got anything to drink?”

Cora shot a look at Sherry. “Funny you should ask.”

“Lemonade or iced tea?” Sherry said.

“Iced tea would hit the spot.” Aaron jerked the refrigerator open, took out the pitcher of iced tea, poured himself a glass. He sat down at the table, took a sip. “Ah, that’s good. Hear you got a murder, Cora.”

“Oh, you hear that, do you?” Cora picked up the pitcher. “Guess I’m reduced to iced tea too.”

Aaron shot Sherry an inquiring glance. She pretended not to notice. “Yeah,” he said. “I hear you’re doing some work for Becky Baldwin.”

“You’re not writing it up, are you?”

“Good lord, no. I don’t even know what it’s all about.”

“If I tell you, are you going to write it up?”

“Not if you don’t want me to.”

“Remember the Darryl Daigue murder case?”

“That what you’re working on?”

“Remember it?”

“I’m not that old. I know about it, of course.”

“How’d you like to get back in my good graces?”

“I didn’t know I was in your bad ones.”

“You’re not. How’d you like to win a few points for Sherry?”

Aaron raised his eyebrows inquiringly.

“I dumped her booze,” Sherry translated.

A PUZZLING SITUATION
by Manny Nosowsky

ACROSS

DOWN

“I thought you weren’t drinking, Cora.”

“Oh, now
you’re
starting with me?”

“Not at all. What was it you wanted?”

“I was wondering if the
Gazette
had any papers in the morgue with articles on the Darryl Daigue case.”

“Probably would, if they hadn’t converted to microfilm. It’s on file in the library. Jimmy Potter will dig it out for you if you want.”

“What do you know of the case?”

Aaron shrugged. “No more than anybody else. He raped and killed a girl, was found guilty, went up for life.”

Cora grimaced, shook her head. “See, now that’s the thing.”

“What?”

“He didn’t rape her. He was charged with raping her, but the charge was dropped when the medical examination showed she wasn’t raped.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes, it is. You see my problem? You just know what everybody knows.” Cora shook her head. “And everybody knows
wrong
.”

Dr. Jenkins was younger than Cora had expected, with straw-colored hair that had a habit of slipping down into his sky-blue eyes. Rather inconvenient in examining patients, but damned effective in arousing the passions of the opposite sex. Cora had to keep reminding herself that the good doctor was married, on the one hand, and considerably her junior, on the other. Though the latter would not necessarily have deterred her, if she felt inclined.

Nor the former, for that matter.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Doctor,” Cora purred, disingenuously. “If I could just have a few moments of your time.”

“Sergeant Walpole said you had some questions about Mr. Gleason.”

“You performed the autopsy?”

“I examined the body, yes.”

“I was interested in your medical report.”

“Really? I don’t recall anything special about it.”

“That’s what interested me. There
wasn’t
anything
special about it. That would help me determine what caused the accident.”

“Clearly a case of drunk driving.”

“That seems the only explanation. But the man wasn’t particularly drunk.”

“He was legally drunk, as I recall.”

“Yes, which makes things nice and tidy. Still, one wonders why the man would drive into a large tree.”

“I assure you, I don’t know.”

“But that’s your job, isn’t it? As medical examiner? To determine the cause of death? Isn’t that what you look for in your autopsy?”

“I assure you we have the cause of death. There was never any question of any other.”

“You ruled out other causes in your autopsy?”

Dr. Jenkins frowned. “What would you like me to rule out? The man died of multiple contusions and lacerations. His lungs were punctured. His skull was mashed in. The cause of death was traumatic injuries.”

“How can you tell?”

He stared at her. “How could I tell? Good God, how could I
not
? I assure you, Miss Felton, not that I’d wish it upon you, but
you
could have looked at the man and told what killed him.”

“I’m not sure I could, and I’m not sure you could, either.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“What you’ve described for me, Doctor, are injuries
sufficient
to have caused death. Whether or not they
did
is another matter. Did you learn anything from your autopsy—anything at all—that would prove these injuries were not sustained postmortem?”

Dr. Jenkins scowled. “Sergeant Walpole said you might be trouble.”

“Did he, now? I fail to see the trouble in telling what you know.”

“I have no trouble telling what I know. You just don’t seem to want to hear it.”

“I’m still waiting to hear it. I asked you if your autopsy proved the injuries weren’t sustained after death.”

“My examination did not show anything one way or another. But there’s no reason why it should.”