Dead Man's Puzzle Read Online Free Page B

isn’t it? The guy’s being passed over because he has no relatives and no cash.”
    “That’s not true.”
    “Then you’ll look at the body?”
    “No.”
    “You’ll let me look at the body?”
    “No.”
    “That’s rather petty, Barney.”
    “I don’t care. The fact is, there’s no reason under the sun for me to look at the body.”
    “Suppose I gave you one.”
    “What?”
    “He left a crossword puzzle.”
    “Indicating he’d been killed?”
    “No.”
    “Indicating foul play?”
    “No.”
    “Indicating he had money hidden somewhere we didn’t know about?”
    “No. Nothing like that.”
    “Indicating what?”
    “I have no idea.”
    “Of course not. But since puzzles are your specialty, you’d like to assume it has some importance, and pass that on to me. So, unless you’d like to show me that puzzle and point out the reasons it shows an autopsy is indicated . . .”
    “Come on, Barney. Do me a favor.”
    “Why in the world should I do you a favor?”
    “Well, for one thing, I’m here talking to you instead of talking to Rick Reed.”
    The doctor’s eyes widened at the mention of the Channel Eight news reporter. “Are you threatening me? If I don’t give you what you want, you’ll take it on TV?”
    “Certainly not, Barney.” Cora smiled. “But thanks for the suggestion.”

Chapter 7
    Cora Felton was on the computer playing FreeCell, instant-messaging with a man she’d met in a chat room, and bidding on a mink stole on eBay when Buddy raced into the office, barking furiously. Cora couldn’t hear the toy poodle because she was listening to music on iTunes, but she caught sight of him, sprang from her chair, and nearly strangled herself with her headset. She ripped it off and leapt to close the computer screen. She wasn’t sure which embarrassed her more, the man or the mink. It would be just her luck to buy it and have some animal rights activist splash her with red paint.
    But it wasn’t an unannounced visitor. Just an insistently ringing phone. Cora scooped it up.
    It was Chief Harper. “So you are there. How come you don’t answer? I’ve been ringing and ringing.”
    “I didn’t hear it. I was listening to music.”
    “So loud you couldn’t hear the phone?”
    “Pink Floyd, Chief. You gotta play it loud. So, what’s up?”
    “You went to Barney Nathan. Browbeat him into doing an autopsy.”
    “Oh.”
    “Which wouldn’t be so bad if you hadn’t implied I sanctioned your actions.”
    “I don’t think I did that.”
    “Did you tell Barney if he didn’t do it, you’d ask me to ask him?”
    “Oh, that.”
    “Did you threaten him with TV exposure?”
    “So, Barney ratted me out. I didn’t think he would.”
    “He didn’t rat you out.”
    “No?”
    “I asked probing questions. He had no recourse but to reply.”
    “ ‘No recourse’ sounds very official, police-mattery, Chief. You really mean to say that?”
    “There’s a lot of ways to get Barney to do an autopsy. Threatening him with the media and pretending I asked for it shouldn’t make the short list.”
    “I’m a bad girl. You can tell Barney you bawled me out.”
    “No, I can’t.”
    “Why not?”
    “Barney found a whacking dose of arsenic inside the corpse.”
    “Oops.”
    “That is a wonderful assessment of the situation.”
    “Well, what do you want me to say? We were looking for foul play. We found foul play. What’s wrong with that?”
    “ You were looking for foul play. I wasn’t.”
    “So what, Chief? You think I’m going to go running around saying you overlooked it?”
    “No. Can you speak for Barney Nathan?”
    “Sure. He’s not going to go running around telling people he overlooked it. What’s he doing with the news?”
    “I told him to sit on it.”
    “Good move. You can release a statement how he autopsied the body on your suggestion.”
    “And why did I ask for the autopsy?”
    “The crossword puzzle made you suspicious.”
    “Which leads me right back to