"What if he did? What"s the worst that can happen?"
"The worst that can happen is he marries you and ruins your life."
"He"s already married."
"That"s never stopped him before."
"Okay. Say I represent him for murder. What"s the second worst thing that can happen?"
"You get him off."
CHAPTER.
34.
"So," Becky said, "my client would like to make a statement."
"I can"t wait."
"My client is making a statement voluntarily and of her own free will. Purely because she wishes to aid the police in their investigation."
"She"s a saint," Harper said. "Get on with it."
"She is making it with the understanding that there will be no attempt to prosecute her or hold her liable in any way for failing to make a statement earlier. She merely wished, as is her right, to have a chance to confer with her attorney."
"Even though she"s done nothing wrong," Chief Harper said ironically.
"That goes without saying. But since you"ve said it, let"s reiterate it. My client is blameless for any initial reluctance to share the rather bizarre circ.u.mstances surrounding the finding of this gun."
"Granted. What are the circ.u.mstances?"
Cora produced the crossword puzzle and the KenKen.
Harper looked them over. "So?"
"That"s what led me to the gun."
"How in the name of heaven does that lead you to the gun?"
"My client will explain if you"ll let her. I can"t promise you"re going to like the explanation."
"I"m sure I won"t like the explanation. What is it?"
Cora explained how the crossword puzzle suggested the numbers in the KenKen be added. "Since the numbers in the solution would always add up to the same thing, we tried adding the numbers in the problem."
"The what?" Harper said.
Cora explained adding the numbers and getting 106. "Since that wasn"t particularly helpful, I looked around to see if there was any other hint in the puzzle. I found the word main. So I figured the answer was one oh six Main Street."
"The mailbox was one oh six North Street."
"One oh six North Main Street."
"It"s just North Street. How in the world did you wind up at one oh six North Street?"
"Because there wasn"t any one oh six Main Street. So I turned around and went out of town in the other direction until I hit one oh six. You say that"s one oh six North. To me it"s one oh six Main. Anyway, here"s the gun."
Harper frowned. "I don"t like it."
"I hate it like h.e.l.l. But it"s my civic duty, so here it is."
"All right. Where"d you get the puzzles?"
Cora grimaced. "Now we get into hearsay evidence, which I know you don"t want."
"Now we get into locking up the witness until she cooperates, which I know you don"t want."
"Was that a threat?" Becky said. "I certainly hope that wasn"t a threat."
"Oh, come on. My nerves are frayed. Drop the legal mumbo jumbo and tell me what happened. Where"d you get the puzzles?"
"They were given to me," Cora said. "That"s why it"s hearsay."
"It"s not hearsay who gave them to you. Who was it?"
"Melvin"s wife."
"You"re kidding!"
"See," Cora said. "You tell the truth, and all you get is skepticism and disbelief. Melvin"s wife came to me very upset. Someone had put these puzzles in an envelope and slipped them under the motel room door."
"She brought them to you?"
"Yes."
"What did your ex-husband have to say about that?"
"He didn"t know."
"Why not?"
"Now," Cora said, "this is where you"re getting into hearsay and speculation. I only know what she told me, and I can"t vouch for any of it. But according to Melvin"s wife, he was in bed pa.s.sed out. She didn"t know what to do, she panicked, and brought it to me."
"Without telling Melvin?"
"She knew he wouldn"t let her. He"s my ex-husband. He"s suing me in court. He wouldn"t let her come near me."
"But she did anyway."
"She wanted to know what the puzzles meant. After all, someone is dead."
"And through the most convoluted logic possible, this led you to a gun. Why in the world is Melvin connected to the gun?"
"I don"t believe he is."
"You don"t?"
"Of course not. It"s absolutely absurd. The man kills his own witness?"
"Yes, but we don"t know why."
"What do you mean, why? There isn"t any why. The guy"s on Melvin"s side. He testified for him on the stand."
"Suppose he was going to recant his testimony?" Harper suggested.
"About approving a check? What would that do? It would be a minor hiccup at best. All Melvin would have to do is what he"s doing now. Call other people to the stand."
"Which may not work. The way I understand it, Becky made mincemeat of the other witness."
"Even so, it"s a ridiculous idea."
Harper thought that over. "Okay. I guess I gotta talk to Melvin"s wife. Where is she?"
"At our house."
"Oh?"
"Aaron"s with her."
"Alone?"
"Sherry must be back by now. She dropped me off here."
Harper picked up the phone and dialed. "Sherry?... Chief Harper. Is Melvin"s wife there?... Okay, thanks." Harper hung up. "She went back to the motel."
He raised his head and bellowed, "Dan!"
"You have an intercom, don"t you, Chief?" Cora said.
Harper glared at her.
Dan Finley stuck his head in the door. "Yeah, Chief?"
"Go out to the- What"s the name of the motel?"
"Oakwood."
"Go out to the Oakwood Motel, pick up Mrs. Crabtree, and bring her in. I got some questions to ask her."
"Can I help you question her?" Cora said brightly.
"I don"t think so," Harper said. "Why don"t you run along."
"Killjoy. Come on, Becky. Let"s go."
"Reverse psychology?" Becky said on the way back to her office.
"I didn"t really want to be there when the bimbo comes in."
"Petty jealousy?"
"Not entirely."
"You know, you could have helped Dan Finley out by giving him the room number."
"I didn"t want to."
"Why not?"
"I don"t want to give anyone ideas."
"What do you mean?"
"It"s too close to some other numbers I could think of."
"d.a.m.ned if it isn"t."
CHAPTER.
35.
Becky shook her head. "I don"t like this."
"It"s not so bad."
"The h.e.l.l it isn"t. Sherry"s a witness. Not to mention a co-conspirator."