Death on the Diagonal - By Nero Blanc Page 0,30

garden, and the gold yellow of the neighbor’s birch tree, her attitude reflected the room’s decor rather than its colorful view: black and white, with the emphasis on black.

She examined this crossword-lover’s paradise with a baleful eye: the wood floor painted in black-and-white grids, the curtains and lamp shades with a similar theme, the captains chairs with mix-and-match canvas backs, the bookshelf crammed with foreign-language dictionaries as well as her beloved OED, and her equally revered 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. At the moment, however, word games, derivations, anagrams, and other linguistic sleights-of-pencil seemed wholly irrelevant.

Belle opened what had once been the home’s back door, watching as the breeze rustled the russet leaves of the maple tree. After a moment, the draft caught the newly arrived fax and lifted it from the machine’s incoming tray and blew it onto the floor. She picked up the paper and glanced at it. “Argh, look at this stupid thing. It’s not even symmetrical. And the dope didn’t sign it. How am I supposed to respond to something like this? I sure can’t publish it.”

She crumpled the paper into a small ball and tossed it into the wastebasket.

Across

1. Viper

4. Amazon feeder

7. Retreat

10. Mayday!

13. Ms. Hagen

14. Pond feature

16. Literary collection

17. Dangerous ___

18. Cards’ home

19. Boy

20. Beach Boys hit

22. Home to China

23. Chevy model

24. String instrument

25. Horse follower

26. Ray Charles hit

31. Type of movie

33. Sodium hydroxide symbol

34. Corn unit

37. America hit

41. Big ___

42. When doubled, antiaircraft fire

43. Creepy

44. Friends of Distinction hit

49. Grief

50. Crew member

51. Compass reading

52. Fleetwood Mac hit

58. Grow older

59. “Come and ___!”

60. Lassos

64. Mexican Mrs.

65. Comédie des ___

66. “We’ll ___ that bridge...”

67. That woman

68. Chicken general?

69. Passes over

Down

1. BMW rival

2. Amos Alonzo ___

3. Bread and butter, in Rome

4. “Casablanca” character

5. Large lemon

6. Empty, like a candy machine

7. Whirled

8. Shelled out

9. Spots

10. Mexican heat?

11. Radio station sign

12. Nobel Peace Prize winner

of 1978

15. Ray Charles hit

21. Hammer and anvil

22. King topper

27. Map line; abbr.

28. Star Wars character,

Tsavong ___

29. Bass, ball, or drag followup

30. Blacksmith at times

31. Sighs of relief

32. Actor, McClure

34. Singer, Stacey or Steve

35. French friends

36. Pee Wee or Della

38. Bettors

39. Here, to Henri

40. Computer maker

45. ___ Jima

46. Chewy candy

47. Walking sticks

48. Shaw or Winkler; abbr.

52. Cut

53. Fairy tale baddie

54. Century part

55. Mr. Preminger

SUBMISSION

56. Bends

57. Pennsylvania town

61. Hawaiian staple

62. Sixth sense; abbr.

63. Draft org.

CHAPTER

11

Rosco hadn’t set foot in Newcastle Memorial in several years, but the moment he stepped through the main entrance a flood of memories bombarded him. Back in the days when he worked homicide for NPD, his hospital visits had not been pleasant experiences. Generally, they’d involved getting statements from dying individuals—men or women who were soon to become manslaughter victims and additional city statistics. At times, the wounded person had been a young gang member, shot or stabbed by an acquaintance; in those instances, the shadow of omertà often cowed the victims into silence, making them unwilling to betray one of their own, even when faced with certain death. Then there were the hit-and-run victims, the unwitting prey of robberies gone south, or innocent bystanders who hadn’t a clue what had happened. More than once Rosco had stood at a bedside watching a life fade away without learning a single substantive fact that would aid a criminal investigation.

As he traversed the reception area and pushed the elevator button for the seventh floor, a slew of such details attacked him, and he forced himself to concentrate on the slip of paper in his hand rather than recall the ever-present past. Dr. Saul Bownes, the message read, followed by the physician’s emergency beeper number; it was the only information the hospital’s administration office had been willing to relinquish. Rosco had suggested to them—or lied, depending on whose point of view one chose—that he was investigating an insurance fraud complaint against Dawn Davis in conjunction with their institution.

The statement had sent the administrators into their own interpretation of omertà mixed with a dose of panic; a lack of transparency ensued that would have made any gangster proud. The hospital administration was permitted to release the surgeon’s name and beeper number, but that was the extent of their latitude in such cases. Details of the operation—anesthesia, length of stay, attending nurses, monetary charges, or out-patient treatment—were strictly confidential and would only be released to law enforcement personnel equipped with a proper warrant issued by a county judge. If Dr. Bownes opted to speak with Rosco, without a lawyer present, that was his business. Fortunately, the physician had been willing to talk, but only on his terms.

Rosco stepped