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know how to mimic blood spatters. He even faked the bounce that happens when a jumper hits.”
    “Excellent. How did the carpet fibers get on the body?”
    “He visited Charlie’s Bungee Jumping Emporium in Palatine and did a swan dive onto a pile of carpet remainders. We found carpet padding in the basement, but no remainders, and usually the installers give you all the extra pieces. A clue by omission.”
    “Very good. Question number three; where did the gunshots come from?”
    “The stereo upstairs. That was also a new purchase. The stereo faced the window, so you must have hit the PLAY button from the street, using the remote.”
    “I did. The remote is in a garbage can next to the payphone I called from, if anyone wants it back. Did you find anything else interesting?”
    I explained the suicide note, the Clue game, and the puzzle magazines.
    “How about the Swedish Fish candy?” he asked.
    “We have no idea what that means.”
    “That was Edward’s favorite clue. I’d tell you, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually. Anyway, there’s a surprise for you in John Dickson Carr’s book The Three Coffins. Don’t bother calling me back—I’m throwing away this phone as soon as I hang up. Good-bye, Lieutenant.”
    And he was gone.
    We found the Carr book without difficulty. In the pages were a folded cashier’s check, and another flash card. We played the card on Herb’s computer.
    Edward Wyatt, standing atop a large bungee platform, smiled at the camera, winked, and said, “Congratulations on figuring it out. In order to make absolutely, positively sure that there’s no doubt I’m doing this of my own free will, without assistance or coercion, I give you this proof.”
    He jumped. The camera followed him down onto a pile of beige carpet remainders. I winced when he bounced.
    “So that’s it?” Herb whined. “We spend our entire afternoon, without any food, on a plain, old suicide?”
    “I don’t think this one qualifies as plain or old. Plus, a twenty grand check for the KITLOD Fund is a nice return for our time.”
    “I think I’d rather be killed in the line of duty than forced to go through one of these again. And he didn’t tell you the reason for the Swedish Fish?”
    “No. It doesn’t seem to fit at all. Almost as if…” I began to laugh.
    “What’s funny?”
    “Don’t you get it? Wyatt planted a box of little red candy fish, knowing it would confuse us. It was meant to throw us off the trail.”
    “I still don’t get it.”
    “You need to read more mysteries, Herb.”
    “So, you’re not going to tell me?”
    “You’ll figure it out. Now let’s go grab that Chinese food.” I smiled, pleased with myself. “Preferably a place that sells herring.”

Jack Daniels thrillers
    Whiskey Sour
    Bloody Mary
    Rusty Nail
    Dirty Martini
    Fuzzy Navel
    Cherry Bomb
    Shaken
    Shot of Tequila
    Banana Hammock
    Jack Daniels Stories (collected stories)
    Serial Uncut with Blake Crouch
    Killers with Blake Crouch
    Suckers with Jeff Strand
    Planter’s Punch with Tom Schreck
    Floaters with Henry Perez
    Truck Stop
    Symbios (writing as Joe Kimball)
    Jailbait (with Ann Voss Peterson)
    Wild Night is Calling (with Ann Voss Peterson)
    Shapeshifters Anonymous
    The Screaming
    Street Music
Other works
    Afraid
    Endurance
    Trapped
    Origin
    The List
    Disturb
    65 Proof (short story omnibus)
    Crime Stories (collected stories)
    Horror Stories (collected stories)
    Dumb Jokes & Vulgar Poems
    A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing
    Visit the author at www.jakonrath.com

WITH A TWIST copyright © 2011 by JA Konrath
    WITH A TWIST is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the authors’ imaginations or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in