"Even so."
"Even so? I don"t believe that"s a valid legal argument. Sway many judges with the phrase even so?"
"The thing is, that only makes it worse."
"What?"
"Your position."
"I don"t have a position. I didn"t do it. I may be involved in manipulating the location of the murder weapon, but that"s hardly the same thing. And completely unrelated."
"That must be one of the most extraordinary statements between a client and her attorney. Let me be sure I understand you correctly. Your suppressing of and tampering with evidence in a murder is entirely coincidental and not to be inferred."
"Exactly. Couldn"t have said it better myself."
"I was being sarcastic."
"I noticed. So why were you so eager to get in touch with me? Just to bawl me out?"
Becky exhaled, grimaced. "We have a problem. It was a problem before you told me about Chief Harper, and it"s a bigger problem now."
"What are you talking about? You said you saw Chief Harper."
"Yeah. But he didn"t tell me what you said."
"What I said about what?"
"About denying there was a crossword puzzle."
"So? That"s not your fault. You didn"t know he asked me. You didn"t know I told him. You"re not responsible for any misleading statement you may have made while speaking in ignorance of the facts."
"Right. That would be a sin of commission. As opposed to a sin of omission."
"It"s not a sin if you didn"t know it. And why the h.e.l.l are we talking sins? This is not a religious matter, it"s a legal matter. You did not legally withhold anything by failing to mention what you didn"t know." Cora shook her head in exasperation. "It"s a sad reflection on the legal profession when you have to educate your own lawyer."
"I didn"t know he was going to ask you that specific question. It puts me in a h.e.l.l of a position."
"Why?"
Becky opened her desk drawer, took out a folded doc.u.ment, pa.s.sed it over.
Cora opened it up.
It was a crossword puzzle.
ACROSS.
1 Money owed 5 Large-scale 9 Serious accident 14 Vicinity 15 Facial tissue additive 16 "Whole ___ Shakin" Goin" On"
17 Message, part 1 19 Made waves?
20 WJM-TV anchor 21 Find breathtaking?
22 See 25-Across 23 Not many 24 Most adoring 25 With 22-Across, who to blame 28 Prepare to paint 30 Vishnu incarnation 31 Message, part 2 36 Where Farsi is spoken 37 "Reuben, Reuben" star 38 Chilled, as tea 39 Message, part 3 41 Baggage checker?
42 Metallic mixture 43 Those in litigation 44 Inverness instrument 48 A little pointer?
49 Sans injury 50 Thailand, once 52 "Yo!"
55 Get up 56 Message, part 4 58 Thin, as sound 59 Oodles 60 Vaccine type 61 Belgian violinist/composer 62 Auberjonois of "Star Trek: Deep s.p.a.ce Nine"
63 In the pink DOWN.
1 Bonkers 2 Eastern lake, ca.n.a.l, or city 3 Relax, as rules 4 Smidge 5 Colorful squawker 6 Shakespeare t.i.tle starter 7 Thick fog, in slang 8 "Get it?"
9 "Up in the Air" star George 10 Author Dahl 11 Based on ___ story 12 Petunia propper-uppers 13 Lacked, briefly 18 Improved, as wine 22 Red, to a red baiter 23 Old French coin 24 Foul-mouthed 25 Barbershop request 26 ___-kiri 27 "___ my wit"s end!"
28 Magazine about celebs 29 Reached in amount 31 Make a bust?
32 Arrange a date for 33 Subdivision unit 34 Eye drop 35 Ben & Jerry"s compet.i.tor 40 Clairol colorer 43 Water collector 44 Buxom 45 Those opposed 46 Accra"s land 47 Producing groans, maybe 48 Cut"s partner 50 Mall event 51 Pressing need 52 Also-ran of fable 53 And more, for short 54 Cheerleader"s bit 56 Jam ingredient?
57 Despondent
CHAPTER.
47.
Cora let go of the puzzle as if it were hot. The paper fluttered down, landed on Becky"s desk.
"What the h.e.l.l is that?" Cora demanded.
"It"s a crossword puzzle."
"I can see that. Why do you have it, and why are you giving it to me?"
"It was shoved under my door. I had it when I talked to Chief Harper. At the time, I had no idea he"d asked you if you"d seen such a doc.u.ment and that you"d denied it existed. That makes you technically innocent of lying to the police on that particular subject, and makes me technically innocent of compounding a felony and conspiring to conceal a crime. Because I wasn"t asked the question directly and you weren"t aware of the puzzle"s existence when you spoke to the police. We are both technically innocent. And if you think that is going to get us off the hook when it turns out you were withholding a similar crossword puzzle with regard to the other murder, we"re screwed six ways from Sunday."
"Yes and no."
"Yes and no? I"ve already granted all our technical defenses. Aside from that, how does this strike you as a yes-and-no situation?"
"The puzzle only becomes a problem if the police know about it."
"Oh, my G.o.d," Becky said. "Now we both know about the puzzle"s existence. We both know it"s been demanded by Chief Harper. And now you"re suggesting we suppress it while in full knowledge of the facts."
"Well, when you put it like that..."
"Cora." Becky shook her head ruefully. "The only way out of this mess is for me to contact Chief Harper immediately. Tell him that you"ve apprised me of the fact he"s looking for a crossword puzzle to go with the KenKen that was found at the scene of the crime. That I had previously received a crossword puzzle slipped under my door. That I had no idea what it was until I heard from you. That the minute I did I immediately contacted him and turned it over."
"Works for me," Cora said.
Becky frowned, looked at her. "What do you mean, it works for you? Then the chief has the evidence and we don"t have any idea what it is."
"Well, I a.s.sume he"ll give us a copy to play with."
"You think so? After we held out on him?"
"We didn"t hold out on him. At least, not this."
"Yeah. You know it and I know it. You think the chief is going to believe it? We"ll be lucky if he lets us see it at all."
"He"s going to want it solved."
"Yeah, but not by you. Hasn"t Harvey Beerbaum been helping him out with puzzles lately?"
"Only with things that don"t matter. Harvey can solve the puzzles just fine, but he can"t figure out what they mean."
"That"s all well and good. But I"m not giving it to Chief Harper without you solving it first."
"He"s not going to like that."
"He"s going to love it. We"re giving him the puzzle and the solution without him having to ask."
"It"s not a good idea."
"Why not?"
"You said so yourself. You held out on the chief. I held out on the chief. But we didn"t know it. We got together and realized we were doing it. So what did we do? Give him the puzzle? No, we solved it to make sure there wasn"t anything incriminating in it."
"That"s not what we"re doing."
"That"s what it will look like."
"Of course it will look like that. Because that"s exactly what we"re doing. Don"t you want to know what the puzzle says?"
"How could it possibly help?"
"I don"t know, because I don"t know what the puzzle says. But I sure as h.e.l.l intend to. So, you want me to act as your lawyer, you tell me what the d.a.m.n thing says."
Cora heaved a deep sigh. "Aw, h.e.l.l." She picked up the phone, punched in the number. "Sherry? Aaron still there?... No, I don"t want to talk to him. I"m at Becky Baldwin"s office. Get him off his duff and get him to drive you down here just as fast as he can."
CHAPTER.
48.
Becky couldn"t believe it. "You can"t do crossword puzzles?"
"Number puzzles I can do just fine. Crossword puzzles drive me nuts. When Sherry and Aaron were on their honeymoon, I had Harvey Beerbaum solve the puzzles for me."
"You"re kidding."
"I had to tell him. He wasn"t shocked. He said a lot of constructors can"t solve puzzles."
"And that"s you?"
"I can"t solve worth a d.a.m.n."
"Will you guys shut up?" Sherry said. "I"m working here."
"Oh, look at that," Cora said. "She gets to flaunt her expertise, and suddenly she"s a diva."
"You want me to solve this or not?"
"Well, I"d like to know if it"s about me."
"Why would it be about you?" Becky said.
"It wouldn"t," Cora said. She hoped it was true.
"Maybe it is about you," Sherry said. "24 Down is "Foul-mouthed." "
"Is the answer "Cora"?" Becky said.
"No, but it"s six letters starting with F. Could be "Felton." "
"If you fudge the answer to spell Felton, I am so going to get you," Cora said.
"Like I"d do that."
"I don"t know what you"d do," Cora said. "You"ve been acting so erratic lately."
"What do you mean, lately?" Becky said.
"Ask Mom and Pop."
"Mom and Pop? I knew you were building an addition, but-"