Free Last Puzzle & Testament by Parnell Hall Page B

to grab her and unobtrusively pull her back.
    Fortunately, Arthur Kincaid had everyone’s attention. “This may be a crime scene. But at this point the breaking and entering would seem somewhat moot.”
    “That’s not what I mean,” Chief Harper said. “The man is dead.”
    “Yes, but he didn’t die here.”
    “Come on, come on,” Phyllis Hurley Applegate said impatiently. “Open up. Let us in.”
    “Let who in?” Philip Hurley said. He pushed in front of his sister. “Don’t let yourself be rushed, Mr. Kincaid. We’re all going in, but we can certainly take our time.”
    “I’m not so sure we’re all going in,” Chief Harper said. There were immediate cries of protest.
    Marcus Gelman pushed forward. A balding, chubby man in a three-piece suit, he clearly would have been more at ease in his air-conditioned bank. He tugged a handkerchief out of his pocket, wiped the perspiration off his brow.
    “Hold on now,” he said. “I would like to make my position clear. I am here to carry out the instructions of the late Emma Hurley, wh sma sao was one of my bank’s largest investors. If you intend to stop me from doing so, Chief Harper, then you better do so legally and officially, so as to relieve me of my responsibility. Aside from that, I am charged with following the instructions of Arthur Kincaid. And if he tells me to open the door, that is what I am going to do.”
    This declaration was met with rumblings of approval from the heirs.
    “All right, all right,” Chief Harper said. “Let’s calm down. I didn’t bring you out here just to bar the door. I may not like this, but I didn’t say I wouldn’t go along. The only question is, Who’s going in? Mr. Kincaid, as the solicitor, who do you want in there?”
    “It’s who Emma Hurley wants in there,” Kincaid pointed out mildly. “That’s all of the heirs with the exception of Kevin Holbrook and Mildred Sims, who have been given specific bequests and are not playing the game. But all the rest. And of course Miss Cora Felton, who is judging the event.”
    Cora Felton was standing next to the front porch with an owlish expression on her face. It was an expression Sherry knew well, Cora’s I-am-sober expression, an expression, that to Sherry, indicated anything but. Sherry was standing with her arm unobtrusively around Cora’s waist, keeping her from listing in any direction.
    “And I will be accompanying my aunt,” Sherry said.
    “Why?” Phyllis Applegate demanded. “There’s nothing in the will about you .”
    “I’m her assistant. I help edit her puzzles. If she’s going to be the judge, she needs me to keep score.”
    “That’s not fair,” Phyllis objected shrilly. “We’re not bound by your judgment.”
    Philip Hurley laughed. “Good move, Sis. Real bright. Pick a fight with the judge.”
    Arthur Kincaid put up his hands. “Please, let’s not bicker. We’re all here, we’re all going in. Including all interested parties. Aaron Grant is not an heir, but he’s covering this for the paper. And Becky Baldwin is my associate, and the attorney for the deceased Mr. Beasley. Aaron and Becky technically have no right to be here, but I would rather let them in than exclude them and have them ask why. Is that clear to everyone? Then let’s go.”
    Marcus Gelman took a key from his pocket. He unlocked the front door. The Hurleys and Applegates nearly shoved him over in their haste to enter.
    Chief Harper frowned. “All right now. We will have none of that. No crowding, no pushing. Arthur and I are going to go on ahead. You will all follow behind, giving us room. If you don’t, we will stop. If you want to see this through, then behave.”
    In spite of this admonition, the Applegates and the Hurleys almost trampled themselves on their way up the front stairs. The rest of the entourage followed at a slightly more decorous pace.
    Sherry and Cora brought u sorahtlp the rear, Sherry guiding her aunt with one hand on her shoulder and the