Free The Puzzler's Mansion by Eric Berlin Page A

was deciding who should really be the winner of this puzzle. Then he said to Amanda, “You’ll see what you’ve won in just a few minutes.” Turning to Winston, he said, “I’m sorry, Winston. You didn’t say the right answer. I applaud you for finding the right path, however. Well done.” He stood up and announced to the group, “Please finish eating, and let’s gather in the reading room. Good morning, all of you!” He left the room, followed by Norma.
    â€œSorry,” Penrose said to Winston. “That was very nice solving. Too bad you got led astray.”
    â€œThat’s all right, I guess.” He was still a little stunned. This must be how a football quarterback feels when a perfectly thrown pass is intercepted by the other team. “If all the answers this weekend are different composers, I am toast.”
    â€œMe too,” said Jake.
    â€œNonsense,” said Penrose. “We’ll work together, and I’ll fill in any gaps in your knowledge. I was trying to do that a minute ago. LikeAmanda, I thought the answer might be ELGAR, but I was trying to whisper it to you so you could claim it for yourself.”
    â€œOh, rats,” said Winston. “You were?” Belatedly, he remembered Penrose’s hand on his shoulder. He’d been trying to tell him something. Winston sighed. “Next time I’ll listen.”
    Mal ventured into the dining room, looking much more awake. He had showered and dressed. “Hey,” he said to everybody, “did I miss breakfast?”

“I CAN’T BELIEVE I missed the first puzzle,” Mal said. “Why didn’t someone get me?”
    â€œI assumed you were coming right back,” said Jake. “And then we got into the puzzle and just . . .”
    â€œForgot,” Winston said.
    â€œThat’s great,” said Mal sourly. “At least they didn’t clear away the food after the puzzle was solved. So what was it?”
    â€œWhat was what?” Winston said.
    Mal was exasperated. “What was the
puzzle
? What did I miss?”
    â€œOh.” They explained it to him, and Winston showed him his notepad. “See? The answer was ELGAR.”
    â€œElgar?” Mal blinked. “What’s that? Some kind of foreign food?”
    â€œHe’s a composer,” said Jake, shrugging to show this was new information for him, too.
    Mal considered this. “Okay. I’m not upset anymore. I never would have come up with that. Elgar? Really? What planet was he from?”
    They were in the reading room, their sheets and blankets foldedand packed away for the day. Winston had showered and dressed, and the whole time Amanda’s last-second steal of the breakfast puzzle was like a splinter in his brain. The letters had been right there on his notepad—if he’d simply read them out loud, without even knowing what he was saying, he would have won the prize. But no, he had to go scrambling letters that didn’t need to be scrambled. He kept reliving the moment and getting annoyed all over again.
    It must have shown on his face, because when Penrose came into the reading room, he patted Winston compassionately on the shoulder. Kimberly Schmidt, too, smiled and complimented him for solving the puzzle. “So you didn’t recognize the answer,” she said, shrugging. “I know who Elgar is, but I never would have come up with it, because I had no idea how to solve that thing.”
    The others filed into the reading room and found seats. The brats were acting surprisingly unbratty, pushing toy cars around the floor and making
vroom
noises. Their mother, Betty, took the opportunity to have a few minutes of quiet conversation with Larry Rossdale.
    Winston glanced at Amanda and thought she looked pretty smug sitting there next to her mom. At least she looked happy to be here for a change. She was, after all, going to win some kind of prize.