Death on the Diagonal - By Nero Blanc Page 0,82
Certainly not any of the Collins clan.”
“Kelly, we know is up to no good,” Belle said.
“Right, so if she’s part of a ring, who are the others?”
“Orlando?” Al suggested.
“No. He’s been working for Collins for six years,” Rosco said. “He only married Kelly a short while ago. That’s not to say he didn’t kill Jack, but I’d guess he knew nothing about his wife’s con of Gudgeon, or her previous history—if she is a con person.”
“There’s Michael Palamountain,” Belle offered, “but again, he’s been at King Wenstarin Farms forever; and he’s hardly in need of cash. Which would clear him of being involved in any scam, although not the murder of Curry . . . or Ryan, for that matter.” She grumbled aloud and then said, “What about Angel, Al? Do you know anything about her?”
“She’s lived in Newcastle all her life. She’s not off my list of murder suspects yet, but I’m willing to bet she’s never been to Palm Beach or Louisville. She doesn’t inhabit that kind of universe. At least, she didn’t until she hooked up with Chip.” He reached for another cigarette, but was greeted by a chorus of groans, so he removed his hand.
“Which means that whoever created the puzzles was trying to frame Angel as the woman who conned Gudgeon,” Belle said. “But the Angel/Chip smokescreen is in Jack’s ‘Measure for Measure’ grid as well as our mystery constructor’s ‘To Catch a Thief ’ grid.” She shook her head. “Arrgh, I’m going through severe mental meltdown here!”
Rosco stood and began to pace Al’s office. “Meltdown . . . Meltdown . . . I think maybe you’ve hit on something, my love. Try this on for size, Al: What we have here might be the meltdown of a confidence team. Who are the members of the group? Who could have been in Palm Beach three years ago? Three people, the way I see it.”
“Obviously, one is Kelly,” Al said.
“And Jack Curry,” Belle said excitedly. “We know he was in Louisville, so why couldn’t he have been part of the Florida show circuit, too? It’s a close-knit community—isn’t that what we’ve been told? Maybe Jack even selected Kelly’s marks in the first place, rather than simply discovering that she was up to no good. But who’s the third person?”
A knowing chuckle escaped Abe lips. “Ryan. Of course. It makes perfect sense. She’s new enough on the Wenstarin Farms scene. And if that’s the case, then quite possibly she was the woman Stuart Stewart—”
He was interrupted as Nick Simpson stuck his head back in the door and said, “I just got off the horn with a detective down in Palm Beach. It turns out Jack Curry worked for Stuart Stewart. As a trainer, that time. But the woman on the con was larger than Kelly. I hate to say it, but the description sounded a lot like Ryan Collins.”
“Tell us something we didn’t know,” Lever said with a smile.
Rosco continued with his speculation. “So . . . Jack Curry picks the marks, and then either Kelly or Ryan move in.” He started pacing again. “But they reach Newcastle and begin to suffer serious confidence team meltdown. Ryan discovers she has a good thing going with Todd and wants out. Then she shafts them both by becoming Mrs. Collins—and therefore the big, bad boss-lady. Jack hooks up with his ex-wife and realizes he’s also staring a gift horse in the mouth. All of which leaves Kelly out in the cold, saddled with the lowly barn manager.”
“So she decides to branch out on her own,” Abe Jones said, advancing the theory. “She hooks up with Gudgeon . . . Then Curry recognizes that she’s about to ruin everything he has going and opts to blow the whistle on her in the form of some ultra-sneaky crosswords. Kelly gets wise and whacks him.”
“Lovely,” Lever grumbled. “I can buy all that, but who killed Ryan?”
“And we’re back to—who made the first two puzzles?” Belle asked. “That’s who Kelly should have killed!”
Rosco replied, “Well, if we take into consideration that the crosswords were intended to frame Chip and Angel and that Jack and Kelly had been partners, why couldn’t they have made them together? Maybe the first two grids are in Kelly’s handwriting, and Jack slipped in references to her name without her being aware of it. If Belle never caught on, why would she?” He looked at Jones. “Do we have any samples of Kelly Polk’s handwriting?”
“I’ll get someone on that.