The Crossword Murder (23 page)

“I don't have to answer your questions, Polycrates. You have no authority. You've got your water. Leave the glass with the gardener. I've got work to do.”

“Busy man.”

Roth gritted his teeth. “It may interest you to know that there are more pressing matters in this world of ours than your trying to dig up dirt on decent people. It so happens the Senator's itinerary has been changed. He arrives late this afternoon at Dulles. I'm flying to Washington to meet him. Forgive me for not putting international affairs of State on the back burner to deal with your petty innuendoes.”

He began to step back inside but Rosco stopped him.

“Let me give you a bit of advice, there,
Bulldog
: one, I won't back off until I get to the bottom of Thompson's death. And two, Al Lever and I were partners at one time. I know him like a brother. And if you think he can be bought, or persuaded to cover anything up, you've got another think coming. In the end, I'll put my money on a bloodhound like Al long before I'd put it on a bulldog.” Rosco gave Roth a patronizing wink. “Give my best to Senator Crane.”

Roth tried to slam the door in his face but he was too late. Rosco had already spun on his heel and headed toward his Jeep. On the way he polished off his water and tossed the ice cubes onto the grass. He then circled the hedge and approached the tennis court. The gardener wasn't in sight. Rosco set the glass on a wrought-iron bench and glanced toward the swimming pool. The gardener was standing in the shade of the pool house and motioning to him. Rosco grabbed the glass and trotted over.

“Mrs. Briephs asked me to give this to you.” The man bent down and picked up a small red file box and handed it to Rosco.

“Thank you. Is she really gone, or does Roth have her tied up in the house somewhere?” Rosco opened the box as he talked. It contained Thompson's bank records.

“Roth is a forceful man. He talked her into leaving for the day.” The gardener tapped the file box, and a huge smile spread across his face. “But I guess the missus outfoxed the fox, didn't she?”

“Looks that way.”

“Oh, she wanted me to give you this, too.”

He handed Rosco a business-size envelope. Sara Briephs' name and address had been scrawled across it in a shaky, almost illegible hand. Inside was one of the two missing crossword puzzles.

“Thanks,” Rosco said again. “You've been a big help. When do you expect Mrs. Briephs to return? I'd like to talk to her.”

“Probably not until dinner. She's waiting until Mr. Roth leaves for Washington.”

Rosco skipped out to his Jeep and tore out of the driveway. He had Belle's phone number punched into his car phone before he'd left Sara's gate.

“Guess what I've got?” he said the moment she picked up.

PUZZLE #4

Across

1.
Fence part

5.
Agreement

9.
Texas player

14.
“Hang 'Em ___,” Eastwood film

15.
Land measure

16.
Hindu gateway

17.
To the sheltered side

18.
Night light

19.
Startle

20.
“Art is a jealous ___,” Emerson

22.
Figure of speech

23.
Remove

24.
Split, prefix

26.
Self-satisfied

28.
___ is me

29.
Invites

33.
“___ of Glory,” Kubrick film

35.
Above, poetically

36.
Falsehood

37.
“Truth will come to ___ be hid long,” Shak.: var.

41.
Here in Paris

42.
Bean of India

43.
“___ There,” Sellers film

44.
Prefix meaning 8-Down

46.
Clue

47.
NASDAQ figs.

48.
Pine for China?

50.
Second-century date

51.
Locale of 55-Down

53.
Cheat catcher?

58.
Seething

59.
Pound or Stone

60.
Slanted type? abbr.

61.
More logical

62.
Pub offerings

63.
Not for

64.
Dread

65.
“___ in Peace”

66.
Cartoonist Thomas

Down

1.
Fake

2.
Caron film

3.
“Rock of ___”

4.
“Nothing but ___”

5.
Like some windows

6.
___ & eights: Dead man's hand

7.
You're doing it!

8.
Sawbuck

9.
Video giant

10.
Anastasio ___

11.
“Death ___,” Levin play

12.
Bring down

13.
___ -armed bandit

21.
“The ___ Stuff,” Harris film

22.
Johnny Yuma: abbr.

25.
Boys & girls together

26.
Flavor

27.
Wizardry

30.
Jargon

31.
Worth a___ransom

32.
Prepared

34.
Lubricious

37.
Top

38.
Leon ___

39.
Point again?

40.
Powell now?

45.
Gravures

49.
Ready

50.
Sea ___

51.
Shah's land

52.
Space quaff

54.
Iron and copper

55.
Sicilian spouter

56.
Turner and Cole

57.
Opening

58.
Dead doornail

59.
Corn unit

To download a PDF of this puzzle, please visit
openroadmedia.com/nero-blanc-crosswords

CHAPTER 30

T
HE CONVERSATION AT
Belle's end of the phone was a jangle of interruptions and misinterpretation. “I didn't tell you about my peculiar phone calls because I didn't feel they were important,” she said, then added, “So, what did Sara give you?”

But Rosco was too het up about Belle's late-night harassments to reply to the question.

“I did not
say
I'd call you.” Belle spoke levelly into the mouthpiece. “You asked me to, but I didn't respond … So, was Sara able to provide information about Thompson's bank statements or not?” Interrupted again, Belle's words became a staccato succession of: “He did?”; “But why is he going to Washington now?”; “She what?” and “How did she get them to you?” following which came a buoyant: “In twenty minutes? Of course, I'll be here!”

Belle almost threw the receiver into the cradle. All residual anxiety from the previous night's phone calls vanished. She paced restlessly between her office and kitchen speculating on what new clues the puzzle might contain, and with each pass of the refrigerator, yanked open the door and stared dismally into its vacant interior. I could run down to the store and get some eggs, she thought, then canceled the idea with a quick shake of her head.

On her tenth trek between rooms, she heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps on her porch. She raced to the front door and threw it open, only to find the postman stuffing the daily deliveries into her mailbox.

“Thanks, Victor,” she said, then retreated into the house and impatiently leafed through the mail. It contained two catalogues, a copy of
Art on the Move
, the water bill, and a thick letter-sized envelope adorned with four colorful Egyptian postage stamps. It was from Garet.

Back in the kitchen, Belle dropped the mail on the counter. She was tempted to leave Garet's letter there, too, but instead sighed, grabbed a knife from the top drawer and slit open the envelope. The letter read:

Dear Annabella,

Egypt continues to enthrall. The country, or more accurately, these ancient burial
arenas
, if you will, seem to have bewitched my soul. In the evenings, the air becomes redolent with the majestic personae of long-removed royalty. They transport me to a place so far sequestered from the turbulent world we inhabit that I find it difficult to communicate with the mere mortals who labor within this workaday globe.

My news is both stimulating and bittersweet. As the months have passed, I've searched the Egyptian sands for words that will communicate the perplexities with which I live my daily life—the passions and confusions that color my veins—

She sighed aloud; Garet's ponderous prose suddenly seemed stilted and stifling, and she stared at the ensuing pages as if daring any meaningful message to leap out, but the doorbell interrupted her effort. Belle tossed the letter on the counter and darted for the door. When she flung it open, she found Rosco standing before her.

“What took you so long?” she said.

He looked at his watch. “Twenty minutes, that's all.”

She glanced at her own wristwatch. “You're right … Well, it seemed longer … Where's the puzzle?”

“In this file case.” He held up the red box. “May I come in?”

“Oh, sure, sorry. Let's go to my office; we can work in there.”

“I'm not going to say it again, but I wish you'd called me last night.”

“Don't say it again.”

“You could've woken me up. I wouldn't have minded.”

“I thought you weren't mentioning the subject again.”

“I'm not.”

“It certainly sounded that way.”

Rosco shook his head slowly. “Okay, not another word, I swear.”

In Belle's office, he sat in his usual spot, the black-and-white director's chair. Belle settled in behind her desk.

“You don't happen to have have any food in the house, do you?” He patted his stomach for effect. “I skipped breakfast and I'm starved.”

Belle glanced up at the ceiling. “I would have had eggs, but they're gone … ditto the meat loaf … Would you like some licorice?”

“I was thinking of something a trifle more nutritious.” Rosco handed her the envelope containing Briephs' fourth crossword puzzle. “Here,” he said, “you can figure that thing out while I concentrate on the bank records … On second thought, where's that licorice?”

“In the jar on the bookshelf. Behind you.” She studied the envelope. “Well, at least this proves it was mailed through the post office. That lets Bartholomew Kerr off the hook, doesn't it?”

“Not necessarily.”

“Why not?”

“How do you know he didn't mail it himself?”

“Hmm, I see your point.” She pulled the puzzle from the envelope and unfolded it. After glancing through the clues, she said, “This is great, Rosco! Look at this; 37-Across. It's a quotation from Shakespeare that I don't know.”

He looked up from Briephs' bank records. “Don't you have one of those books that lists every famous quote?”

“You mean a
Bartlett'
s?”

“Right. I mean you, of all people, should have one.”

“Of course I own one.”

“So, look it up.”

“Are you crazy!? Are you out of your mind?” Belle stared, astonished that he could suggest such a heinous act.

“No. I'm not crazy. Look it up. It'll save time.”

“Are you absolutely bonkers? I can't look it up.”

“Why not?”

“That's cheating … I mean, I could in a dire situation … but I shouldn't have to … I'll work on the Down column until I learn the answer.” Belle concentrated on the puzzle, muttering to herself as she worked. “4-Down:
Nothing
but
_____ … Darn, that's tough … 7-Down … another long one … 21-Down … Oh, who doesn't know that! … 22-Down:
Johnny Yuma: abbr
.… What could that possibly refer to … Yuma, Arizona? Yuman language …?”

“Johnny Yuma was
The Rebel
… Sixties T.V. My mom loved it.”

Rosco smiled at his own brilliance and returned to Briephs' financial statements. After a few minutes he set aside the bank statement and began paging through a money-market folder. He studied it slowly. He knew what he was looking for, and there was more than ample evidence—it didn't take a math whiz to find it. Over the past year there had been a number of unusually high cash withdrawals. Far too high for a man who also seemed accustomed to paying for nearly everything with an American Express card. Rosco picked one of Belle's red pens from a coffee mug and began to mark the withdrawals he deemed suspicious. When he'd finished, he raised his eyes and watched Belle fill in the final few answers on the puzzle. The effort made her face glow. After she'd inked in the last letter, she slammed her red Bic pen onto her desk and shouted, “Hah! Done!”

“And what's the Shakespeare quote?”

“‘
Truth will come to
LIGHT; MURDER CAN'T
be hid long,'
from
The Merchant of Venice
.” She smiled. “… And yes, I double-checked with the Bard … It should be
cannot
instead of CAN'T; that's why Briephs placed the
Var
. in here.” She pointed at the clue for 37-Across. “And the reason I didn't recognize it.”

“Are you saying you have all of Shakespeare at your fingertips?”

Belle flushed scarlet. “Not all … far from
all …
but when your parents are spouting lines from his plays and sonnets, and you're a child of five or six or seven, well, let's just say, I'm not as adept at quoting Dr. Seuss … It's Shakespeare's take on Cervantes'
Murder will out
, by the way.” Again, she looked supremely embarrassed.