Ghost Sudoku

Table of Contents

 

 

 

“Almost reads like an Agatha Christie . . . [A] very entertaining series . . . You do not need to be a fan of sudoku to enjoy the mystery, but if you are, you’ll enjoy solving the puzzles and tips scattered throughout the story.”

“A wonderful addition to Ms. Morgan’s Sudoku Mystery series! The narrative hits the ground running incorporating sudoku strategy with a treasure hunt and a tantalizing whodunit! I look forward to more!”

 

“A fun read.”

“Kaye Morgan has written a cleverly constructed mystery that reflects the finely crafted sudoku puzzles that are included for fans to enjoy.”

“Whether you are interested in sudoku or not, this mystery is fun and challenging.”

—
MyShelf.com

 

“The start of a great new amateur-sleuth series . . . Kaye Morgan is a talented storyteller who will go far in the mystery genre.”

“The characters are likable . . . Sudoku plays an integral role, and puzzles are presented in various places for the reader to solve.”

“Puzzles and codes surround a vast pattern of murder . . . Sudoku lovers (like myself) will be delighted to see on the cover that this is the first of a series.”

 

DEATH BY SUDOKU
MURDER BY NUMBERS
SINISTER SUDOKU
KILLER SUDOKU
GHOST SUDOKU

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

 

GHOST SUDOKU

 

A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with Tekno Books.

 

PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Prime Crime mass-market edition / January 2010

Copyright © 2010 by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

 

eISBN : 978-1-101-17131-8

 

BERKLEY
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PRIME CRIME Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. BERKLEY
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PRIME CRIME and the PRIME CRIME logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

 

 

 

To the nieces, Maureen and Kathleen, Jacqueline and Caroline, who occasionally read some of this stuff. And of course many thanks to Michelle Vega of The Berkley Publishing Group, who, like it or not, has to edit it all.

 

 

 

“I’ve had good flights and bad ones on small planes,” Liza Kelly said. “Looking at a view like this, I can see why you do it.”

Seen from about 8,000 feet up in the air, the Pacific Ocean off Oregon looked like a huge, burnished, silver-blue shield.

“Yeah, well, the weather is pretty decent,” Wish Dudek told her. “You might not say that if we were going through some turbulence.”

“Been there, don’t want to do that ever again,” Liza replied. “It’s like riding a roller coaster—only without the rails.”

Wish chuckled, a sound that had become familiar to Liza over the past twenty-five years of TV watching. He’d hosted the game show
D-Kodas
long before Liza got into high school, much less started with the Markson Agency. Nowadays, Dudek was a client of the publicity agency where Liza was a partner, though this flight was the longest amount of time Liza had ever spent with him. For most of the trip they’d talked about Liza’s other career as a syndicated columnist and creator of sudoku puzzles.

Wish had shown that he understood the rules of sudoku—fitting the numbers 1 through 9 into the rows and columns of a nine-by-nine grid based on twenty or so clues scattered around the matrix. What interested him were the possibilities of inserting information into the 81-space sudoku array. “Have you ever seen a sudoku puzzle that hid a message?”

“I’ve found various sets of numbers hidden in sudoku,” she said. “But working with only the numbers one through nine—and having them only appear about twenty times per puzzle as clues—it’s kind of tough to encode any extensive communication.”

“And some of those puzzle makers had pretty intense reasons to pass a message along,” Wish went on.

Liza sighed. Now her pilot had definitely pushed the conversation into what she grudgingly considered her third career. “Yeah, I’ve stumbled across some murders, and because I had a connection—and there were puzzles involved—I tried to do something.”

“Like solving them,” Wish said.

“It’s not like cracking a sudoku,” Liza warned, “or any of the puzzles on your show. Life is a lot messier, not to mention irrational.”

“It’s done well for you.” Wish didn’t look up from his instruments. “Between that and your column, you’re almost a celebrity.”

Liza rolled her eyes. “My partner had a lot to do with that.”

Wish laughed. “When it comes to publicity, who in their right mind would go against Michelle Markson?”

“And as far as celebrity goes, can you guess how I spent the last two weeks?” Liza asked.

“Enjoying a vacation, judging from that tan.”

“Going incognito.” Liza gave a sour laugh. “Earlier this spring, I tried to mix some R and R with a sudoku tournament at a resort.”

“I think I heard about that,” Wish said. “People started turning up dead.”

Liza nodded. “So this time instead of going as Liza Kelly, I went as Mrs. Michael Langley, using a credit account Michael and I hadn’t closed when we started divorce proceedings.”

“Heard about that, too.” Wish glanced over. “So is it final yet?”

Liza shook her head, unwilling—or maybe unable—to answer. How could she explain three men in her life—including an almost-ex-husband?

Instead, she took a shot at changing the subject. “Anyway, I got two weeks of sun, surf, and spa treatments. No sudoku, no cell phone—”

“No celebrity,” Wish finished for her with a lopsided smile. “Not that I can tell you much about that. When we’re shooting, I’m doing five to six shows a day, locked in the studio.” He tapped his cheek. “They spray this tan on me.”

The sense of humor that always kept popping up on the screen raised its head, transforming his conventionally handsome face with an impish grin. “Guess I can’t complain, though. I had an Irish mother who named me Aloysius and a Polish father who made me swear I’d never abandon the proud Dudek name. With all that, it’s a miracle I made it anywhere in show business.”

That got a laugh from Liza. “Hey, you did well enough to buy your own airplane.”

“Just a two-seater—barely a puddle jumper.”

Liza cast an apprehensive glance at the ocean far below.

“But it gives me the freedom to move around and make some use of my nationally syndicated name.” Wish flashed that grin again. “I’m not just flying up here to give you a lift, you know.”

“That’s right,” Liza said. “Michelle mentioned you were going to a political dinner.”

“Up in Seattle.” Wish’s irrepressible grin grew wider. “I’m afraid my political views may not fit in with most Hollywood types. But I try to make myself useful when I’m asked. Put my famous, funny-looking face front and center for a good cause.”

He shot Liza a speculative look. “Have you ever considered politics? I’m guessing your hometown is probably the same size as Wasilla—”

“Oh, please,” Liza replied quickly, to cut that idea off. “As if I don’t have enough going on in my life right now, you’d have me leap into an election campaign.”

She smiled. “I guess the best thing I can do is to quote Michelle: ‘From the time I started doing PR, I got a bellyful of deceit and megalomania from my first clients in the entertainment business. So I drew the line at politicians.’ ”

Wish laughed so hard, Liza had a moment’s panic at whether he was going to plunge them into the ocean so far below. “I’ve got to steal that,” he finally said when he had himself under control. “Maybe I can work it into tonight’s after-dinner speech.”

“Well, in this case, I don’t think Michelle would be interested in attribution,” Liza told him. “Especially since this isn’t a show biz crowd.”

Still chuckling, Wish banked the plane, and Liza sucked in her breath as the seacoast came into view. All of a sudden, she was home. The view spread before them was the same as the map of Killamook County from her fourth-grade classroom, except that now she got to see that map transformed into the real world.

There was the indentation of Maiden’s Bay, as if some titanic being had poked into the coastline and then curved its finger. At the mouth of the inlet, a peninsula jutted into the water, sheltering a harbor. That was the township of Maiden’s Bay, Liza’s childhood hometown. Farther along, beyond the curve of the bay, she could make out the town of Killamook, the county seat. And in between the two, on the northern shore of the bay, was Killamook Airport. That was a rather grand name for a runway attended only during daylight hours.