The KenKen Killings

by Parnell Hall

  “Let’s see whose it is,” Aaron said. “Lemme see the phone.”

  “The phone?” Becky said.

  “The keypad. With the letters and numbers. We have to match them up and figure it out. It isn’t easy, because each number could be any of three letters. In her case she knew the last three numbers were hers, then we saw if the first three fit. So, if there’s any license plate that has these last three numbers—”

  “Hell!” Cora said.

  “What is it?” Sherry said.

  “I know whose plate this is. I was driving around looking for it. It’s Melvin’s.”

  Chapter

  49

  “Okay, what do we do now?” Cora said.

  “There’s no what-do-we-do-now,” Becky said. “What we do now is turn this over to the police.”

  “We can’t give the chief another lead to Melvin. It’ll practically ice the case.”

  “Oh, come on,” Aaron said. “No one’s going to find him guilty on account of a crossword puzzle.”

  “It’s not a question of finding him guilty. It’s a question of holding him in jail. Making statements to the press. Giving interviews to Rick Reed. Can’t you see it now? PUZZLE LADY’S EX IMPLICATED IN MURDER BY PUZZLE. Hell, people will think I did it.”

  “Hey, there’s a thought,” Aaron said. “You wouldn’t be trying to get back at him for the alimony suit, would you?”

  “Of course she isn’t,” Sherry said irritably. “Think about it, Aaron. Just how likely is that?”

  “I’m not saying she did. I’m just saying it’s a tough theory to disprove. I mean, you give the police a crossword that implicates Melvin, there’s only two things they’re going to think. One, it implicates Melvin. Or two, you’re trying to implicate Melvin. Particularly when you’re the one giving it to the police.”

  “I wasn’t the one who found the damn thing,” Cora said.

  “No, your lawyer was. How much weight is that going to carry? You say, ‘No, I didn’t find it, my lawyer did.’ ”

  “Sherry, you married a real pain in the ass.”

  “He’s just telling you what the cops are going to think. And it is what the cops are going to think. Don’t lay it on him. Hell, even I have trouble with the story someone gave this to Becky.”

  “Oh, you think I made it up?”

  “No. But maybe someone gave it to you, and Becky’s covering for you. So no one will get the idea you made it up.”

  “Oh, my God,” Becky said, “no one squabbles like relatives. What is this, Dysfunctional Family Feud? And it’s a moot argument. The puzzle was given to me. I’m giving it to the cops. End of story.”

  “Yeah, but it’s not the end of the story,” Cora said. “Because then they’re going to want to know what it means.”

  “Why? It’s solved.”

  “Yeah. And you think that will satisfy Chief Harper? He’s going to want to know what the solution means.”

  “And you tell him it’s referring to a license plate. Not that big a jump from ‘car’s plate.’ ”

  “Then he’s going to want to know whose plate.”

  “And you’ll tell him you don’t know. You don’t, do you? I mean, you haven’t matched it up.”

  “Well, not entirely.”

  “Okay,” Becky said. “First off, let’s clear the room. I need to have a confidential conversation with my client. You guys gotta go. Before you do, I need to know. Are you going to talk to the police?”

  “Now, hang on,” Aaron said. “It depends what you mean by talk. I’m a reporter. I have to follow the story.”

  “That’s not what I mean, and you know it. Are you going to blab to the police about the crossword puzzle?”

  “Not unless directly asked.”

  “And you’re not going to do anything that would lead them to directly ask. You’re not gonna write this.”

  “Come on, Becky,” Sherry said. “You know he won’t write it.”

  “Unless I get it from the police. Which is something else entirely.”

  “And then you’ll be circumspect?”

  “I was born circumspect.”

  Becky turned on Cora. “All right. If you keep your mouth shut, are they going to come up with Melvin’s plate?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well, how could they? Aside from trial and error. They won’t have letters, just numbers.”

  “Yeah,” Cora said doubtfully.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “When I came up with my plate, two things happened. First of all, I knew it. Aaron came up with the idea of using the telephone keypad. He was trying to figure out what letters the numbers would stand for. I recognized the last three numbers of my plate. Then we checked the others.”

  “The police may not think to use a telephone keypad.”

  “Maybe not. But when I figured it out we didn’t know we were looking for a license number. They will. ‘Find a clue. Seal my fate. Match up the car’s plate.’ ”

  “So they’ll check Melvin’s plate because he’s a suspect.”

  “It’s a little worse than that.”

  “How can it be worse than that?” Becky said.

  “When I spotted Melvin in court I had Dan Finley check around, see if he’d rented a car. Dan gave me the plate. Not only does he know the number, he knows I know the number. So, if the plate does happen to match…”

  “Does it?”

  “It sure looked like the last three numbers. If it is, it’s gonna be pretty bad.”

  Becky looked at Cora in disgust. “And that’s without the first crossword puzzle that points to your license number.”

  “Yeah. Which is too bad, because if the cops knew there was one implicating me, they’d be less apt to think I was behind it.”

  “Now you want to confess to withholding evidence to put your actions in a better light.”

  “Isn’t that what you’re doing with the puzzle you got?”

  “I am turning over that puzzle to the cops at the earliest opportunity after I realized it was important.”

  “Wouldn’t that opportunity have come and gone?” Cora said.

  “No one’s holding a stopwatch on me. I got it today. When did you get your puzzle?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “Was it today?”

  “Oh, all right,” Cora said. “Call Chief Harper. Turn over the damn puzzle. And let’s put our heads together and see if we can figure out a way out of this damn mess.”

  Chapter

  50

  Cora and Becky sat at a table in the coffee shop in the mall.

  “Why are we at Starbucks?” Becky said.

  “Don’t be silly,” Cora said. “The police want to talk to me. I’m not ready to talk yet. Besides, I need a Frappuccino.”

  Becky grimaced at the immense frozen concoction in front of Cora. “How can you drink that?”

  “With a straw. Sip your skim latte and feel virtuous. I need a treat. It can’t hurt. Hell, it might help.”

  “What is there to help? You’ve messed everything up. In your insane desire to protect the man who ruined your life. Your least favorite husband, if I remember correctly. The one you wanted to squash like a bug.”

  “Yeah, him,” Cora said. “I’m not going nuts to protect him. But he didn’t do it. Which means someone else is running around killing people. Do you really have a problem with the fact I’d like that person stopped?”

  “I have a problem with the fact you’re willing to risk fine and imprisonment to have that person stopped. Not that you don’t take shortcuts with the law. But this is a little much, even for you. Aside from the crossword you’re withholding, there’s the murder weapon you pocketed and then planted.”

  “I didn’t pocket it, I put it in my purse.”

  “It’s not funny, Cora. I would like to keep you out of jail. I would like to keep me out of jail.”

  “Believe it or not, I have no problem with that. I would just like to catch a killer
, too. Not to mention win the alimony suit.”

  “I almost forgot about that,” Becky said.

  “I wouldn’t worry about it. If we stall long enough, the killer will knock off all of Melvin’s witnesses.”

  Becky studied Cora’s face. “You’re loopier than usual. I don’t know whether Melvin blew your mind, or if you’re just scared and whistling in the dark. Consider this. How would you feel if you lost your career? If you couldn’t be the Puzzle Lady anymore?”

  Cora choked on her Frappuccino. Had Becky made the connection? Harvey Beerbaum hadn’t when she’d told him she couldn’t solve puzzles. It never occurred to him she couldn’t construct them, either. But Becky had a legal mind. She was used to asking probing questions. Uncovering secrets. Recognizing lies. If she couldn’t be the Puzzle Lady anymore? What else could it mean than being exposed as a fraud?

  Cora gagged into her napkin, tears in her eyes.

  “Are you all right?” Becky said.

  “Brain freeze. Ignore it. I’m fine.”

  “Glad to hear it. I’m not,” Becky said. “If you couldn’t be the Puzzle Lady anymore, it would destroy you. You would have no column, no career, no TV ads. But that’s not going to happen. If you can just stay out of jail, you’ll be fine.”

  Becky pointed to herself. “I won’t. I don’t have to go to jail to lose it all. I have never been so close in my life to getting disbarred. It’s a tough thing to have on your résumé. A bit of a career killer, you know what I mean?”

  Cora dabbed her mouth with her napkin, tried to hide the relief she felt at not having been found out. “Look, kid. I’m with you. No one’s getting disbarred here. All we have to do is solve this thing. Granted, you’ve been led into some questionable practices by an irresponsible client. If the police found out, that would be bad. So let’s make sure they don’t. The quickest way is to solve these crimes so they stop looking.”

  “When you put it that way, it sounds so easy.”

  “Hey, this is not rocket science. We happen to know Melvin called on Lilly Clemson last night after previously taking her to dinner. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. If a woman he dumped was the jealous type, she just might take her rival out. Does that sound like anyone you know?”

  “Yeah, you.”

  Cora shot Becky a dirty look. “And you give me grief for fooling around. I was referring to the current Mrs. Crabtree, who has been secretly spying on her husband, and was not happy he took Lilly Clemson out to dinner. And that was before hubby went to see her in the wee hours of the morning. If you want a killer all gift-wrapped with a nice little bow, she’s it.”

  “She killed Lilly Clemson?”

  “Why not?”

  “And left a crossword puzzle and a KenKen pointing to her husband?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Why would she do that?”

  “To pay him back for the grief he’s given her.”

  “Yeah,” Becky said dubiously. “But if she loves him and wants him back, why is she sending him to jail for murder?”

  “She’s not sending him to jail. She’s giving him grief. The same way he gave her grief. She’s leaving just enough evidence to implicate him in the crime, but not enough to convict him. If it did look like the cops had him, I bet she’s got some backup plan to put in effect to prove he’s innocent. One that wouldn’t blow her cover by involving her.”

  “So she planted the gun in the motel room?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “And sent the puzzles to Melvin and the bimbo?”

  “Sure. Knowing they’d bring ’em to me.”

  “How could she be sure of that?”

  “Because they couldn’t solve them themselves.”

  “That’s a bit of a stretch.”

  “A stretch? Are you kidding me? You got a whack job running around killing people and leaving puzzles. Anything she does is going to be a stretch.”

  “She also killed the banker?”

  “Sure.”

  “Why?”

  “To make trouble for the two people she hated most. Melvin and me. She kills Melvin’s witness. The one he’s taken such great pains to cultivate. She leaves the KenKen to make sure the police will bring me in. Just in case they don’t, she diabolically leaves a crossword puzzle at my house. A puzzle implicating me. How embarrassing will that be, when I solve it for the police? Or, what a horrible position I’ll be in if I withhold it from the police. Which is what she’s really hoping for. What a position of power that will put her in. I’m walking around with a bombshell she could explode at any moment.”

  “How?”

  “An anonymous tip. Or another puzzle made public that I have to solve. I don’t know. The point is, it’s the type of thing that sends me to jail and gets you disbarred.”

  “Keep your voice down.”

  “It’s a win-win for Mrs. Melvin. Particularly if it has the side effect of freaking out the bimbo, who couldn’t have had a murder rap in mind when she signed on for the Melvin experience.”

  “You’re serious?”

  “You’re damn right I’m serious. Someone killed these people. It wasn’t Melvin, but it was someone with an ax to grind, and she tops the list. She’s been here from the beginning. She followed Melvin up here, set up shop in the motel, monitored his actions. Saw him meet with the banker, take the teller out to dinner. She didn’t like it, but she didn’t want to show her hand, so she sent him a little warning by breaking into the banker’s house. She didn’t take anything, but left a KenKen. Which just happened to yield the amount of the alimony payment we were fighting over. She figured I’d solve it, see the amount, and freak out. It didn’t occur to her I’d be too dumb to notice, and wouldn’t have known at all if you hadn’t pointed it out.”

  “And why did she kill the banker?”

  “First warning didn’t take. After court, while you were romancing the lawyer, I bet you Melvin tried to take the teller to lunch. At least dropped by the bank to go over her testimony one more time. Bad move. Mrs. Melvin is pissed. So she strikes. She doesn’t want to kill the teller, who hasn’t testified yet. She wants Melvin to win the alimony suit. Keep the money in the family. She kills the banker, and leaves a puzzle pointing to me. What she hadn’t planned on was I’ve got an ace attorney smart enough to get the banker’s testimony thrown out of court. If she’d known that she wouldn’t have done it, but she didn’t, so she did.”

  “My head’s hurting.”

  “Have some Frappuccino.”

  “No thanks. So, she didn’t count on the banker’s testimony being thrown out?”

  “Of course not. Never occurred to her. Hell, never occurred to the judge, until you brought it up.”

  Becky thought that over. “Okay, say she did it. How do we interest the police? With Melvin in jail, they’re not going to be very receptive to any theory about anyone else. So how do we drag her into this?”

  “Well, we still have a court hearing, don’t we?”

  “Yeah. So?”

  “Call her as a witness.”

  Chapter

  51

  “Do you trust me, Melvin?”

  “What kind of question is that?”

  “It’s the kind of question a woman asks when a man is in jail and she’s not.”

  Melvin exhaled, gripped the bars of his cell. “Fine. You got the upper hand. Too bad you had to get me arrested to do it.”

  “I didn’t get you arrested.”

  “No, you just gave the police a number puzzle that happens to have my license plate.”

  “I didn’t give it to the police. It was found at the scene of the crime.”

  “Lennie said you gave it to the police.”

  “Who?”

  “My lawyer.”

  “That was a crossword puzzle. And I didn’t give it to the police, my lawyer did.”

  “Your lawyer’s trying to frame me? And she seemed like such a nice girl. Hell, I’d fire Lennie if I thought she’d take the cas
e.”

  “She can’t take the case. She’s representing me.”

  “In the alimony hearing. Which is kind of on hold until I get out.”

  “That’s what I want to talk to you about.”

  “Getting out?”

  “No, the alimony hearing.”

  “Oh, come on, Cora. That’s conniving, even for you. What’s the deal, I drop my suit and you get me out?”

  “I hadn’t thought of it, but that’s a great idea.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Yes, I am. Did it ever occur to you I want to help you out of the goodness of my heart?”

  “For old times’ sake?”

  Cora grimaced. “Oh, you had to spoil it. Bringing up old times.”

  “It’s not like there weren’t any good ones. Remember the boat ride?”

  “What boat ride?”

  “The gondola.”

  “That was a rowboat.”

  “So you do remember. You brought a picnic lunch. We spread out a blanket on the shore. That was a nice day. You were happy then.”

  “I was,” Cora admitted. “You know why it was so good?”

  “Why?”

  “You were married to someone else.”

  Melvin sighed. “You had to spoil it.”

  “I’m not here to reminisce. I’ve got a proposal for you.”

  “A proposal?”

  “Wrong choice of words. I’d say proposition, but that would be worse.”

  “Not necessarily.”

  Cora felt that hot rush she used to get way back when. Damn. Melvin still had it. “I need you to focus.”

  He grinned. “Remember when I had that camera and—”

  “Shut up, or I’ll get your attorney back in here.”

  “Not that. I’ll be good.”

  “Okay, here’s the deal. The alimony hearing is scheduled to resume tomorrow. I have it on good authority Judge Hobbs is prepared to grant you a continuance on the grounds it would be prejudicial to proceed while you’re incarcerated.”

  “No kidding. So?”

  “I want you to reject the offer.”

  “What?”

  “Decline the continuance. Tell him you don’t need an adjournment, you’re quite prepared to proceed.”

  “I’m not prepared to proceed. Numbnuts out there is so freaked by the murder charge, he’s ready to let the case drop. Two of my witnesses are dead. Thanks to your pretty little lawyer, the testimony left in the record isn’t nearly enough to prove the case.”