by Nero Blanc
“Come on, Poly—crates. What’s O’Connell’s M.O.? A guy who was into a lot of iffy stuff, who believed he had more on the ball than anyone had ever given him credit for, who’d spent his life dreaming up small-time cons—and whose substance abuse issues could easily have been escalating. Which means he was probably strapped for cash. Look at the letter he wrote. Maybe being ‘caught’ by those security cameras wasn’t an accident, and the same thing goes for his attempt to sell Tacete’s Explorer. Maybe our boy knew exactly what he was doing. Maybe he wanted us to nab him. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
“Or else someone was setting him up, and he was either too vain or too dumb to realize it,” was Rosco’s quiet answer.
“And you think it was a woman?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“AND THE COW JUMPED OVER THE …”
Across
1. Pea coat?
4. See 53-Down
7. Plead
10. Goose——
13. “The Greatest”
14. Edge
15. Altar words
16. 34-Down inspiration
17. —Pan Alley
18. Stubborn
20. Put-down
21. Quote; part 1
24. Philly Pops leader, Peter——
25. Rug
26. Helpers; abbr.
28. Collection
30. Quote; part 2
32. Mr. Yale
34. In debt
35. Fishing pole
36. Quote; part 3
41. Mr. Franklin
42. Poetic contraction
43. Word to 22-Down
44. Quote; part 4
47. Colorful fish
51. “After you,” in Italy
52. Heating no.
55. Groan
56. Quote; part 5
60. The limit
61. Refine
62. Spanish uncle
63. Do away with
64. Fib
65. Revolver
66. Mr. Cheney
67. Wallet item
68. 007
69. Tie breakers; abbr.
70. Ship’s heading
Down
1. ——leather
2. Stanley’s partner
3. Scratch
4. Waiter’s prop
5. Black——
6. Muscat native
7. Prejudice
8. Ms. Ferber
9. Exploded
10. E. U. moneyman’s concern?
11. 5 miles No. of Kenton, OH
12. USA output
19. Ms. Ryan
22. Many a dog
23. Kyrgyzstan City
27. Forlorn
29. Wapiti
30. Overwhelm
31. “——at 11”
33. “Got it”
34. See 16-Across
36. Hide of 29-Down
37. Wife of James VII
38. Imperfect; abbr.
39. Smack
40. 2nd on the agenda
41. Power rating; abbr.
45. It may be huge
46. A&E
48. Stroll
49. RCA output
50. Whosoever
52. Lei
53. “It takes 4-Across to——”
54. Raw, film-wise
57. Cut
58. “——Died with Their Boots On”
59. Urges
60. Hit sign
To download a PDF of this puzzle, please visit openroadmedia.com/nero-blanc-crosswords
CHAPTER 33
“Oh, this is so sad…. ” Belle murmured over and over again while Rosco perched in the canvas deck chair near her desk and watched her fill in a Xerox copy of Frank O’Connell’s final crossword. The afternoon sunlight made the bearded irises outside the window glow like the flowers in van Gogh’s famous painting, but neither husband or wife seemed aware of the lovely sight. “Because, from the evidence of this, as well as of his previous puzzles, Frank was obviously brighter than anyone believed. He was certainly better read.”
“He’s also the prime suspect in a homicide, my dear.”
She sighed. “I know … I know that, Rosco…. And I realize that we were hot on Frank’s trail last night, ready to accuse him of everything and anything, and full of righteous indignation—at least, I was.”
“I expect we both were. But that’s what happens when the bad guys ride into town. They get folks angry and upset.”
Belle released another pensive breath, but didn’t immediately reply. “‘And the Cow Jumped over the …,’ by Frank T. O’Connell,” she read aloud, then paused again in thought. Beside her lay a duplicate of the entire file Al Lever and Abe Jones had found in the dead man’s apartment; its contents were spread across her desktop. “It’s interesting that he used his middle initial, and also added them to each phony name on the other puzzles; and then built this crossword around a lesser-known step-quote from Mark Twain; a man who was famous for poking fun at personal pretensions.”
“Whoa, hold on.” Rosco craned his neck toward Belle’s desk. “I didn’t see any mention of Mark Twain when Abe showed me the file.”
Belle tilted her head and looked at her husband in innocent surprise. “That’s because the quotation wasn’t attributed in the puzzle.”
“Don’t tell me you have this Twain thing memorized, along with everything else in the world?”
“All right, I won’t.” Belle gave a brief smile.
“Very funny…. ” Rosco also smiled lightly. “No wonder you have such a hard time recalling the really important things, like recipes for meatloaf. Your brain is already stuffed with aphorisms and poems and derivations—”
“‘Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to,’” she interrupted.
“That’s what Frank wrote? He sure wasn’t blushing when I saw him. He was as blue as Paul Bunyon’s ox.”
“Thank you, Mr. Sensitive…. No. It’s a quote from Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar, which is the book Frank referenced. ‘When in doubt, tell the truth,’ is from the same work.”
“So what did O’Connell use?” Rosco asked.
Belle’s face returned to its thoughtful expression. She pointed to the crossword in her hand. “Start here at 21-Across, continue with 30, 36 and 44-Across, and conclude with 56-Across.”
“‘EVERYONE’S A MOON AND HAS A DARK SIDE WHICH HE NEVER SHOWS TO ANYBODY,’” Rosco read aloud.
“I guess that theory must have summed up Frank T. O’Connell’s life,” was Belle quiet comment. “All this time, I assumed those child-themed crosswords were intended as a threat, or else a reference to the Snyder case … when they may simply have been the product of a lonely soul wanting to connect with something he’d never had: a carefree youth.” She lined up the five puzzles. “‘Baby Steps,’ Frank’s first attempt at contacting me … Even its nursery rhyme step-quote has a sinister tone. A MAN OF WORDS AND NOT OF DEEDS IS LIKE A GARDEN FULL OF WEEDS … then ‘Sugar and Spice,’ which was probably inspired by Bonnie…. ‘As Time Goes By’; ‘Frankly, Dear.’ … I feel as though we’re witnessing an entire life unraveling within these crosswords.” She grew silent once again; at length she sighed and returned her gaze to her husband. “So, we’re supposed to meet Al at Bonnie’s apartment? I don’t know if I’m up to it, Rosco.”
He nodded and glanced at his watch. “Al said he’d give us a shout when he was on his way over there, which should be soon. He wanted to allow Bonnie time to process the information after she identified Frank’s body at the morgue.”
“Which was only a couple of hours ago…. Not much chance to ‘process’—”
“This is a criminal investigation, Belle. Al doesn’t let grass grow under his feet; he never has. Besides, Bonnie could well be as involved in this situation as her brother.”
Belle wrapped her arms around herself. “I wish I didn’t have to go with you two…. ”
“I know. I’d tell you to skip it, but
Al needs you to question her about the crossword puzzles; act as a foil, if nothing else.”
“I realize that, but it’s not bringing a smile to my lips.” Belle winced as the word “smile” escaped her lips and her mouth turned downward in dismay. “Maybe the dental practice should have been named Grimace! instead of Smile!” she complained. “Or perhaps Bite the Dust is closer to the truth.”
“Not too customer-friendly,” was Rosco’s gentle response before his cell phone rang. He answered with a hurried, “Yes, Al,” then finished with an equally businesslike, “We’re on our way. See you in fifteen.”
“To the toothsome Bonnie’s?” Belle asked with a marked lack of enthusiasm.
“You got it.”
“‘That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain,’” she recited in a flat, dejected tone.
“Pudd’nhead Wilson again?” Rosco queried.
“You’re off by about fifty-five hundred miles. It’s Hamlet. And humor wasn’t his strong point.”
“Good with a sword, but no rapier wit, huh?”
“Stop, Rosco!”
He stood and looked down at the two dozing pooches. ‘Let sleeping dogs lie.’ … Charles Dickens.”
“Very good.”
“Well, I knew it wasn’t the … Great … Dane.”
“I never saw any of those puzzles before!” Bonnie insisted for the fourth time. “You people need to start listening better. Besides, they all have different names on them; what makes you think Frankie made them up?” Her red, swollen eyes moved from Al, who’d posed the question, to Rosco and finally to Belle before letting her glance slide to her carpeted floor.
In the several minutes the threesome had been questioning Bonnie O’Connell, Belle had come to realize that the young woman was more comfortable in the company of men than with her own sex. In fact, Belle had begun to identify Bonnie’s attitude toward her as one of wholehearted mistrust. “I mean, yeah, Frankie liked to play around with word games and stuff in the newspapers, and the ones in the magazines, too, but so what? The last I heard, that wasn’t a crime.”
“So you have no idea why he constructed these particular crosswords and sent them to me?” Belle asked as she indicated the puzzles she’d spread across Bonnie’s glass-topped coffee table.
“Maybe he wanted to be famous?” was the offhand reply. “You know, see his name printed in the paper? Frankie was always hoping for a big break.”
“But, as you said, they weren’t sent to me under his own name. Your brother used four different pseudonyms, as well as a fake post office box. Do you know where he got the names, Bonnie? Are you acquainted with this Everts person, or Randy Isaacs, or Sal Anderson, or Nicky Flanagan? Because none of them are in the Newcastle phone book, and the post office box belongs to a woman who died six months ago.”
Bonnie only shook her head slowly.
“And there’s nothing in the clues or quotations or titles that rings a bell, either? Or that might prove useful in Lieutenant Lever’s investigation?” Belle continued to probe. “Because if it’s there, I sure can’t see it.”
Bonnie tossed her head and shrugged in a show of disinterest. “Nope. I already told you people. I never saw those crosswords before. Maybe you shouldn’t be wasting your time with me. Maybe you should be looking for the person who really killed Dan Tacete. Cuz it sure as hell wasn’t my Frankie.”
Belle glanced at Rosco and then at Al, who was the next to speak. “I know you’re upset, Miss O’Connell, but I don’t need any flippant remarks. You realize that it’s a crime to withhold evidence, don’t you?”
“I’m not withholding anything!” Bonnie spluttered. “I told you Frank was into a lot of things he didn’t feel like sharing. I mean, how does that saying go? About not being your brother’s keeper or something? Well, that’s me and Frankie in a nutshell! And he’s giving you this ‘dark side of the moon’ business? That about says it all, if you ask me…. I mean, c’mon, look at the letter he wrote … the one you found …” Then her shoulders suddenly sagged, and her defiant chin dropped toward her chest. Reflexively, she patted the leather couch on which she sat, rubbing her fingers against the smooth grain as if the expensive expanse could bring her relief. Instead, it produced the opposite effect. “Oh, Frankie … how am I going to afford this place now? Where’s the money going to come from?” she muttered under her breath.
Belle and Rosco and Al shared a look. “What do you mean ‘now’?” Al asked. “Has the picture changed financially in some way? Isn’t Doctor Wagner keeping you on—?”
“Jack?” Bonnie’s head jerked up, her expression now full of fury. “Jack’s a louse! A complete and utter louse. Frank told me not to trust him, but I didn’t listen. Boy, didn’t I listen!” But this confession only served to increase Bonnie’s pain, and she again resorted to stony silence.
“So it’s all over between you and Doctor Wagner? Is he … is he firing you?” Belle asked.
Bonnie stared at Belle in confusion. “Why would he do that?”
“Well, I just thought … when you said he was a—”
Rosco interrupted. “Then your brother was helping support you because your salary at Smile! wasn’t enough to cover this”—he waved his hand to indicate the room—“this lifestyle? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Oh, honey, are you ever out to lunch! Frank give me a nickel? Frank? Mr. Mooch himself! I was the one carrying him along.” Then Bonnie’s face crumpled again. “Why did he have to kill himself!? Why did he have to do a dumb thing like that? I could have kept giving him dough. I could have! I could … we could have figured things out … gotten him back on track and everything … He could have stopped using all that junk…. He …” She began to weep, wrapping her arms around herself and giving in to her enormous grief while Belle, Rosco, and Al looked at each other in growing perplexity.
“Your brother was dealing drugs as well as using them, wasn’t he?” Al asked after a brief pause.
Bonnie nodded and sniffled. “I guess … maybe … yeah, probably … Look, Frankie did what he did. And he didn’t like me asking a bunch of questions. So I didn’t. End of story…. Anyway, he told me he was into something big. It was gonna turn his life around.” Her chest heaved convulsively, and she started to cry afresh.
“I assume he meant the kidnapping.” Al’s voice was level and professional.
“Look, mister, everything you’ve got on him is circumstantial—”
“Did you help him set up the Tacete situation?” Al continued in the same measured tone.
“No!” Bonnie exploded.
“But you knew he was involved?”
“No! I already told you! Frank didn’t like me knowing what he was up to. Besides, you don’t know for certain he was part of that deal.”
“Yes we do, Bonnie. When we found him, his apartment was full of incriminating evidence,” Lever told her.
“Evidence can be planted. I know how these drug cops operate. You’re all the same,” was Bonnie’s ferocious reply.
“I hope you’re not suggesting items were planted by the Newcastle police?” Al responded. His lips were now tight. “That’s not going to get you very far with me.”
“I’m just saying it happens, is all,” Bonnie grumbled, but her voice had grown muffled and cowed.
“But you did connect your brother to the crime as soon as you learned that Doctor Tacete had died.” It was Belle who made this next statement. “You went looking for Frank back on Tuesday after you left work early, didn’t you? And you were concerned about Rob Rossi’s whereabouts, too.”
Bonnie’s unhappy eyes had turned into bitter slits. “What is it with you, sister? You think you can read my brain or something? Well, you can’t. I don’t give a fig about what Rob does or where he goes or anything!”
“That’s not what you told Carlos Quintero.”
Confusion swept across Bonnie’s face. She studied Belle for a moment, then said, “Ah, right … you’re the one who was looking for the wa
itress job at the Black Sheep. I thought I’d seen you somewhere before…. ”
“So where is Rob Rossi?”
“I don’t know!” Bonnie all but shouted.
“So, if your brother didn’t nab Doctor Tacete,” Rosco interrupted in a surprisingly harsh voice. “How did Frank get possession of his Ford Explorer?”
Again, Bonnie’s body appeared to collapse into itself. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
“And who was supposed to pose as Karen Tacete when he went to sell it, if it wasn’t you? The police will be checking that car for fingerprints, Bonnie. You’re not going to be able to lie about this forever. Or is Karen in on this, too? Were you all working together? Are your fingerprints on the Explorer?”
She covered her ears with her hands in an effort to block out Rosco’s words. “Stop. Stop! Look, Frankie would never have hurt Dan. I know he wouldn’t!”
“Well, surprise, surprise,” was Al’s pointed reply. “He did a hell of a lot more than hurt him.”
“He wouldn’t!” Bonnie snapped back at him. “Okay, so my brother was no saint. And maybe he did a bunch of bad things … and was high a lot of the time, and couldn’t keep a job … and maybe he liked playing around with these dumb paper puzzles…. But he’s dead now, okay? And that’s all I’m saying. I need to talk to a lawyer. There’s nothing you can pin on him. Or me.”
“Well, that’s where you’re wrong, Bonnie,” Al told her. “Because from where I’m sitting, you look like an accessory to murder. And I’ve got a strong hunch that you and Frank and possibly Karen—”
“But I loved Dan!” Bonnie blurted out. “Why would I want to kill him?”
Neither Al nor Rosco nor Belle made a move. They didn’t even exchange a glance; instead, they kept their astonished eyes glued to Bonnie’s face.
“So there!” she fumed with another mutinous toss of her head. “And I don’t care who you tell. I loved Dan. I loved everything about him. He found me this apartment and gave me money to get all this nice stuff …”
“Wait a minute,” Lever finally muttered. “You mean you and Tacete were … and not Jack Wagner …?”
“What’s that creep Jack got to do with the price of eggs?” Bonnie spat out.
Rosco sat back on the couch. When he spoke, his words were slow and thoughtful. “Was your brother aware of your relationship with Dan?”
