Bambi blew the hair out of her eyes in a gesture men undoubtedly found cute and declared, "You don"t like me."
"Now, there"s a remarkable insight."
"Of course you don"t," Bambi said complacently. "I"m with Melvin now. I understand. You still like him. But you can"t have him. So you don"t like me."
"Well, you"re half-right," Cora said.
Bambi crinkled her nose. "Huh?"
"Why are you here?"
Bambi pulled a piece of paper out of her purse. "I have a puzzle."
Cora could not have been more surprised had Bambi whipped out a pistol and begun spraying the room. "You have a puzzle?"
"Hey, just because I"m pretty doesn"t mean I"m not smart. I can do sudoku."
"I"ll alert the media," Cora said.
"Are you mocking me? You don"t like me because I"m young and pretty, but that"s no reason to mock me."
"No, I"m sure there are others," Cora said. "What"s this about a puzzle?"
"It"s a number puzzle. But it"s not a sudoku."
Bambi gave the puzzle to Cora.
"Oh, it"s a KenKen. That"s why you can"t do it."
"I can do a KenKen. You think I can"t add and subtract?"
"I"m sure you can multiply. So why are you here?"
"I didn"t want to wake Melvin up. Melvin"s sleeping."
"Ah," Cora said. "Sleeping. At this time of day that"s a euphemism for pa.s.sed out."
"Anyway, I could do it just fine if I hadn"t been having a drink." Bambi c.o.c.ked her head, tried to keep it from tipping too far to one side. "I"ve been having a drink."
"Hadn"t noticed," Cora said.
"So I brought it to you."
"Hold on. You probably don"t realize it, but you"re not making any sense. Why are you bringing me a puzzle at all?"
"Because I want to know what it means."
"It doesn"t mean anything. It"s a KenKen. It"s a bunch of numbers."
"And I want to know what the numbers mean."
"Why in the world would the numbers mean anything?"
"I don"t know."
"Oh, for goodness" sakes," Sherry said impatiently. "You mind if I jump in here? I haven"t been married to Melvin, so I can still think straight. Bambi, where did you get the KenKen? Why do you think it"s important?"
"Great," Cora said. "You ask her two questions. We"ll be here all night while she sorts that out. Bambi, where did you get the KenKen?"
"Under the door."
"Someone slipped it under the door of your room at the motel?"
"That"s right."
"Just like this? Or was it in something?"
"It was in an envelope."
"Was the envelope addressed to you?"
"No."
"Who was it addressed to?"
"n.o.body."
"It didn"t say anything on the envelope?"
"No."
"Then what makes you think it means something?"
"Because it had this with it."
Bambi reached in her purse and pulled out a crossword puzzle.
ACROSS.
1 Never let go of 5 Masked man 10 Oodles 14 History chapters 15 Disney"s middle name 16 Neck of the woods 17 Online convenience 18 Message, part 1 20 Brain size?
21 Turns tail 22 Ohio city 23 In-tray item 25 Intruded, with "in"
26 Message, part 2 31 Sounds from Santa 32 Wooden shoe 33 Water ____ 37 "The Plague" setting 38 Casting need 39 Not fooled by 40 Aardvark snacks 41 CIA agent, in slang 43 RBIs, for instance 44 Message, part 3 46 Keanu Reeves thriller, with "The"
50 Like a Visa balance 51 Language characteristic 52 Out of sorts?
55 Novelist Tan 58 Message, part 4 60 Ophthalmologist"s concern 61 Ship that sailed in quest of the Golden Fleece 62 Holmes or Couric 63 Rope fiber 64 Pro in futures?
65 Edit 66 Haagen-Dazs alternative DOWN.
1 Brown seaweed 2 A Great Lake 3 Jipij.a.pa topper 4 "For shame!"
5 Extremists 6 Like ye shoppe 7 Sally into s.p.a.ce?
8 Charlie Brown cry 9 ___Kosh B"Gosh 10 Las Vegas gambler 11 Long-armed ape 12 Prove false 13 Dieter"s lunch 19 Midterm, e.g.
21 Some radios 24 Collar types 25 On the other hand 26 Stop order 27 Traffic blast 28 Zeppo and Gummo"s brother 29 Online publication 30 Part of "Funiculi, Funicula" song refrain 33 Lawgiver, in Hebrew 34 Preceded in time 35 ___-Ta.s.s (Russian news agency) 36 Memo 41 Boston Red ___ 42 Having round protuberances 44 Arm or leg 45 ___-night doubleheader 46 King with a golden touch 47 Be gaga over 48 Bit of color 49 Chopper"s chopper 52 Man on first?
53 Guitar relative 54 Words with an ante 56 "Well, I declare!"
57 Cowboy affirmatives 59 Barely manage, with "out"
60 My fair lady?
CHAPTER.
30.
Bambi was tipsy enough that, it wasn"t hard to perform the sleight of hand that made it look as though Cora and not Sherry had solved the crossword. While Cora kept Bambi occupied with the KenKen, Sherry knocked off the puzzle in the next room. Cora hardly had to vamp at all, though at one point she was so slow at making a calculation, Bambi tried to grab the pencil.
When Sherry came back, Cora whipped into the office, picked up the crossword puzzle, and read it over.
The theme entry was, "Add them all. What"s the sum? Look in there. Don"t be dumb."
Wonderful.
What was she supposed to make of that?
Was there anything else in the puzzle that might give a hint?
No, there wasn"t.
No reference to any particular line of the KenKen or any relevance it might have.
Great.
Cora plodded back into the living with the bad news.
"So what does it mean?" Bambi said.
"Not a d.a.m.n thing," Cora said, and handed her the puzzle.
Bambi wasn"t as slow as she looked, because she found the theme entry. " "Add them all. What"s the sum? Look in there. Don"t be dumb." Wow! It is a clue!"
"Well, it"s not a very helpful one," Cora said. " "Add them all" is meaningless."
"Why? It"s a number puzzle."
Bambi s.n.a.t.c.hed up the KenKen.
"Yeah. It"s a 6-by-6 KenKen," Cora said. "Every line will have the numbers 1 through 6. That"s what, ten, fifteen, twenty-one per row. Times six is a hundred twenty-six. Every single KenKen will be exactly the same."
"That"s pretty stupid," Bambi said.
Cora looked at Sherry. "Notice my restraint."
"It only adds up to that because you solved it," Bambi said. "It wouldn"t add up to that if you didn"t solve it."
"No. It would add up to zero. Because a KenKen"s not like a sudoku. A sudoku starts with some of the numbers filled in. A KenKen doesn"t start with any numbers."
"Yes, it does."
"No, it doesn"t."
"It does so. It"s full of little numbers."
"What? Oh, those aren"t the numbers in the squares. Those are the numbers telling what the numbers in the squares should add up to."
"So?"
"So what?"
"Add "em up."
"Why?"
"You got a better idea?"
"I"ve got no idea at all. Of course, n.o.body gave me this puzzle."
"I did."
"You brought it to me. No one sent it to me. It was not intended for me. It was intended for you and he whose name one dare not speak."
"You talk funny."
"Right back at you, kid. The point is if this has any meaning for you, you can"t expect me to know what it is."
"Except you were married to Melvin," Sherry said cheerfully. "You have a single point of reference."
"Thank you," Cora said dryly. "That"s a big help. Anyway, if I add this up, I get ... ninety-three. What does the number ninety-three mean?"