Death on the Diagonal - By Nero Blanc Page 0,53
you shouldn’t be too hasty when it comes to cleaning up the house,” he said facetiously.
“Hardy har har.”
“Hey, did I say I liked the squeaky-clean look? I’m the person covered in dog fur, remember?” Rosco studied the puzzles again. “Okay . . . what else can you tell me about these two word games?”
“Both employ a theme: song titles in the first, movies in the second—”
“Well, that’s hardly a big red arrow, saying, ‘Solve me! I know who dunnit!’ ”
“Come on, Rosco, BLAZING SADDLES? How obvious is that? Does someone need to hit you over the head?”
He raised an eyebrow. “As in Mr. Polk’s accident?”
“Hmmmm . . .” was Belle musing response while Rosco gave an indulgent chuckle.
“Okay, I’ll bite. But the title is ‘To Catch a Thief,’ not ‘To Catch an Arsonist.’ And here in the middle, at 38-Across, you’ve got DAWN OF THE DEAD—which could refer to the same DAWN who’s currently cozying up to Sara and has ripped Gudgeon off for a quarter mil. We also have a DEAD Ryan Collins . . . So, how do we know what crime these crosswords apply to—if they’re connected to anything other than each other?”
“Todd Collins’s wife was killed after the first crossword was transmitted, so my hunch is that the puzzles have nothing to do with her death. However, I do believe the constructor is trying to tell us that Chip started the barn fire.”
Rosco smiled. “I take it you’re drawing that rather far-fetched conclusion from BLAZING SADDLES and GOODBYE MR. CHIPS?”
Belle nodded energetically. “And there’s this,” she announced as she pointed to the first puzzle. “HORSE WITH NO NAME. When Bartholomew was here he mentioned a country pub called The Horse With No Name. It’s not far from King Wenstarin Farms. Supposedly, all the riding set hangs out there.”
“Including Chip Collins . . .” was Rosco’s slow and pensive response.
“What a smart guy.”
“And what about DAWN Davis?”
“I’m assuming the reference is a fluke. Just like MIA being the solution to 3-Down in the second puzzle, or ILSA appearing at 4-Down in the first. Besides, DAWN relates to death in this instance, rather than financial chicanery.”
Rosco nodded, but didn’t speak for a moment. “I know exactly where Bartholomew’s pub is. It might be a good time for me to have a little chat with the Chip off the old block.” He glanced up at Belle. “This is all hush-hush, but Al considers young Mr. Collins a prime suspect with regard to his stepmother’s murder. He asked me to ostensibly question Chip regarding the fire, but also do some probing of his relationship with Ryan. I think I’ll swing by The Horse With No Name tomorrow at lunchtime. If I can catch him with a few beers in his belly, it may loosen his tongue.”
“Well, I certainly don’t want to be accused of spreading rumors,” was Belle’s own facetious reply, “but Bartholomew suggested that Chip and Ryan had a little fling—which is pretty darn sleazy.”
“This is interesting,” Rosco said as he pointed to 23-Across in the Hitchcock puzzle. “One of the horses I saw when I went to interview Orlando today was named FLASHDANCE.”
This time, it was Belle who paused in thought. “Do you think the barn manager’s our mystery constructor?”
Rosco laughed. “Not unless this fax number turns out to be Newcastle Memorial Hospital, which is where he was when the first crossword appeared. He was also in a semicomatose state.”
“Hmmmm,” Belle said as she strolled over to her computer and turned it on. “I wonder who is creating these . . . and why he or she won’t come forward? Any guesses?”
“Not a one. Although, I did see both Heather and FLASHDANCE in the same barn this morning. And her behavior—the person, not the horse—seemed more than a little flighty.”
Belle was about to make a smart-aleck comment about disco queens and equestriennes when her computer screen lit up. “Do you want to do this reverse lookup thing? I’m not sure how it works.”
“Sure.” Rosco crossed over and sat behind her computer. “What’s this backgammon icon?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
He clicked on the icon.
“Leave it alone, Rosco.”
“What? This is what you do all day? Play on-line backgammon?”
“I don’t play all day. I just gets my mind off crossword puzzles for a little while. This is why I don’t let you near my computer. You start snooping around.”
“Man . . . just when you think you know someone . . . Backgammon, huh? You know we could play together—in real life,